Update on my 32 things list

7/03/2009 01:03:00 PM Edit This 2 Comments »
posted by Debi

So, we are at the halfway mark of my 32nd year of life. So I thought it's high time for me to check in with my 32 things list. I am happy to say that I can check a few things off...

4. Cook more meals at home
David and I have been eating more meals at home. Now that we both work in Falkland in the same office (different organisations), we even come home for lunch together. It's great.

6. Submit an abstract for the Family Violence Prevention Fund (even if I don't go to present it myself)
Check. I submitted an abstract with my former colleagues at the Alliance and it was accepted. I won't be able to attend but it is great to know that the information will get out there. I also had three abstracts accepted at APHA, one abstract at the SVRI conference in Johannesburg and hopefully I will have one accepted at a Nairobi conference on urban health (that one I might actually attend!)

7. Attend the Brisbane, Australia conference this summer on community-centred economies.
Check! I just got back from this conference! It was amazing. Here is a picture of me with our international Board of Directors...

8. Go snorkeling in Australia!!
Unfortunately, I missed my chance to go snorkeling. It was winter in Australia and not much snorkeling happening BUT I did make it to the beach and that was fantastic!!

14. Learn more about trees, plants and herbs and maybe even try my hand at gardening
hehehehe...I think I have this one covered. I have learned so much about gardening in the last two months (see my blog post 'I heart gardening')

17. Update our blog more
Hey, two blog updates in a day....I'm on my way....

18. Attend my best friend's wedding celebration
What an amazing event! My best friend, Manju, got married in Brooklyn at an amazing space. It was so great celebrating such a happy moment with her!

20. Climb the Lomond Hill in Falkland, Fife
I first climbed the hill in April when our friends Mandi and Daniel came to visit (our first visitors!). Check out the view from the top....



24. Move to a bigger apartment
Done! Instead of moving into a bigger apartment, we moved into a three bedroom house! Much better than our studio flat!

25. Acquire two more consulting clients
So far in 2009, I have acquired three more consulting clients: Columbia University, Carnegie UK Trust and Community Development Alliance Scotland!

29. Learn how to drive a manual car
I still don't feel 100% comfortable driving a manual car but I now know 'how' to....which is great since we got a free car back in April from one of my colleagues. We affectionately named the car 'bugsy'. But bugsy is a stickshift and thus, I had to learn how to drive a manual much sooner than planned!

So far, so good!

I heart gardening

5/31/2009 02:19:00 PM Edit This 1 Comment »
posted by Debi
So, in case you haven't heard...I am quite taken with gardening! I love everything about it. I love watching things grow. I love how complex but also how very simple it is. I love that I can grow things to eat and also grow things just to look at and enjoy.

Shortly after moving into our new house, I decided to take up gardening. This is the first time I have had any green space to call my own. And, well, I went a little wild! You know me, I never do things half-way. Some call it obsession, I call it passion! I started reading everything I could get my hands on about gardening. I joined gardening websites. I even started volunteering with a local community group called 'Falkland in Bloom' that is responsible for the beautiful flower baskets and tubs in Falkland. I discovered a whole world of gardening!

We moved in to our house in March and there was this weird architectural platform in our backyard:

It's hard to tell from the picture but this triangle is almost shoulder height on me and tapers off to about knee height at the far right side. I thought hmmm...this is such an unused piece of space (the New Yorker in me). So, we decided that we would turn this into a vegetable plot.

Well, if you know Scotland, you know that we don't have extremely warm weather. So, despite it being April, it was still too cold to plant anything outside. So, I began growing things from seed in the house. These are some basil plants...

Poor David, every (and I mean EVERY) windowsill in the house was covered with plants...


I really enjoyed growing the plants from seed. For me, this was the first time I had done any gardening in my life. I really liked growing tomato plants (the stems smell like tomatoes).

So, in May, we decided to convert that unused triangle into our vegetable plot. First, we had to remove ALL the rocks. David was the man for that! He happily removed a very thick layer of rocks.

Then we realised that we had really heavy clay soil there. So, I had to dig in both compost and sand to help improve the drainage. I decided that I wanted to do organic gardening and to rotate my crops every year. So, I made five different 'plots'. This is how it looked before we put in any plants (the only thing we had planted early on was onions, shallots and green onions)...



This is a picture of all our outdoor flowers and you can see the potatoes starting in the big green tubs.




Now that it is July, everything is now officially outside and our garden is just starting to take off! Check out our vegetable plot now....
In the upper left hand corner is our curly kale, red chard, broccoli, radishes and sorrel. In the middle top are tomato plants and beetroot (and some marigold flowers). In the upper right hand plots are runner beans, peas, fennel and some nasturtium flowers and the most upper right hand plot (the smallest plot) are some artichokes. Then in the lower left plot are strawberries, one courgette and some struggling okra. Then in the lower right hand plot are our thriving onions, green onions, shallots, lettuce, leeks and spinach. Phew! Not bad for a beginner! So far, David and I have had green onions and radishes from our veg plot and are looking forward to have some red chard, onions, curly kale, lettuce, and shallots in the coming weeks. The end of July should see our first batch of potatoes and maybe some tomatoes?

Oh, and we also created a pumpkin patch at the back of the garden....I'll do a separate blog posting on that and our lovely window boxes.

But for now...I leave you with this happy quote:

"There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling." ~Mirabel Osler

New Town, New Home!

4/08/2009 02:06:00 PM Edit This 2 Comments »

The Royal Burgh of Falkland
(History of the town here)
Posted by David:

Just a quickie here, as we're both up to our eyeballs in projects and work! Exams are coming soon, so I apologize for not getting these posted sooner. Here's the latest:

We've fully moved out of our wee flat at David Russell Apartments (see our earlier post in September), and are now full-time residents of Falkland!

Were both really happy about the move - first off, we've been in love with the town of Falkland since Debi first came here for a job interview. Since she's been commuting the past few months, I've come to see the place and have been drawn in like a moth. It's a wonderful little medieval town nestled between farmland and Lomond Hill, and is a lively little community.

As you probably know from our earlier posts, there's an organic farm (the Pillars of Hercules),

and a Royal Palace.

Now there's GrantFry Cottage as well!

Lomond Hill (a small mountain) is right behind our house - there's a trail at the top of our street that leads to the summit. A long way up...

and a long way down as well.




We went up this past weekend but had a lot to do (and were quite winded) so we stopped halfway and got back to our projects, but we'll probably climb the hill with Mandi and Daniel this weekend, if they're game!

We've started decorating (Debi's rubbing her hands together with an impish grin on her face),
Before...
After!
and have just finished painting the Guest Bedroom. We've got some great plans for the place, and will try to keep the photos current.

The Kitchen is a little 70's... but we'll work with it.

We've been inspired by Kristen and Frank to do something fun with our space in back of the house.

We have it a bit easier than they did, as we don't have to break up the concrete or anything like that, thankfully. Our plans will be very simple, since we're not buying this place (besides, it's a much smaller space), but as we hope to rent it for a few years, it's worth putting some work into.

Debi's already sprouting seeds and reading up on gardening techniques with her usual zeal. It's great to see her so inspired.

It's a long bus ride to St. Andrews, but it gives me some time to wake up, and it's a really pleasant trip. Besides, there's plenty of reading for me to do. Debi now has a very short walk to her office. I'll be working upstairs from her this summer. Beats the subway commute by miles!
Debi's office is here in the Stables!

We've met a few of our neighbors (no pun intended)...

And they seem like good folk.

Debi's taking driving lessons and is improving rapidly - it's a lot to get used to, manual shifting, roundabouts, driving on the other side of the road... She's a real trooper. Bugsy, our wee Micra, has been very patient.

That's it for now - more soon!

London!

4/06/2009 07:54:00 AM Edit This 1 Comment »
Posted by David

London:

Home of the World's Greatest Secret Agent...

Debi had a business meeting in town, so I decided to tag along, since I've never been. It was a short trip but we had a great time. The hosts of the meeting were NEF; check them out here.

The G-20 Summit was in full swing, with the accompanying madness, so we had that to consider when choosing tourist activites. Undaunted, we were able to see quite a bit.

Our first night, we tried to go to an opera, but weren't able to get tickets on short notice. Instead, we walked 'round the Covent Garden district, and found a play to see:
The Woman in Black, a good old fashioned Ghost Tale.

Before the theatre, we found a wonderfully eccentric restaurant, called Sarastro. It was amazing inside - a set designer's dream (or nightmare, depending on who you talk to). It was just perfect for us, and gave us great ideas of what to do on our next place...


I found out that the day of the conference was the first day of the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, so I sped off to catch it.







I then toured around Kensington and Chelsea while Debi was at the meeting in Vauxhall. We met there and strolled along the Queen's Walk, taking in the Thames and the sights beyond.






We walked to the Theatre District, and ambled about until it was time to meet our friends Kathy and Richard for dinner. We went to a great little Indian place and filled-up on delicious veg fare. Kathy and Richard then took us to a hidden gem (we easily would've walked past the small entranceway on our own), Somerset House Trust - it was breathtaking.
We then took a nice long stroll on the opposite side of the Thames, past the Needle, the Sphynx, and the Eye, before taking in Big Ben and heading back to the hotel.





The next day, we headed to Portabello Road (The Diagon Alley of my childhood), to look for some things for our new place. I'd not really expected it to be like the place in Bedknobs & Broomsticks, but the 5-year-old in me kept looking for the dark alley with old wagons and ancient shops.

A few of the shops we visited were quite ecclectic, though, and we found many things we fancied (but only one we could take with us). We had a lovely lunch in a neat ol' pub, then headed to King's Cross for our long trip back home!



Slainte Mhath!

Coming next: The new home!
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