Studying in Glasgow

Moved

2008-01-28T22:55:00.000Z

I'm now blogging at: the Country Parson

Home

2006-06-09T13:06:00.000Z

I'm back in Glencoe Alabama now. Michael came a visited the last week and helped me get my stuff back home. (He said the real reason he came was to get on the blog.) Here's some pictures. We visited the regular sites, he went to Stirling and got a tour of some smaller villages south of Glasgow.

Leftovers

2006-05-27T16:30:00.000Z

I thought I would post some pictures that I've taken over the past few months. These were taken with my Palm so the quality isn't as good, they're just things that struck me when I was out without our camera.
These are:
a Picture of Edinburgh taken from Arthur's Seat
some pigeons on a frozen pond
and an old pub in Belfast

2006-05-24T08:28:00.000Z

Been awfully quiet without Robin and Keelyn around. Fortunately I've had some more visitors to keep me company and I've been busy making arrangements to move back to the states and work on the American side of my research.
Michael Chesnut arrived just as Robin and Keelyn left, he stayed a few days before going on a whirlwind tour of Britain. Barry and Philip arrived yesterday. I was taking them around the campus and after a small shower we saw the most amazing double rainbow. It covered Kelvingrove park from one end to the other. The pictures turned out okay, but don't really show how vivid it was.
Before leaving Robin sent me out to take some pictures of the University and neighbourhood so here's a couple from the Uni. Cloisters and Wellington Church.

Ready for departure

2006-05-14T13:43:00.000Z

Robin and Keelyn will be flying home tommorrow. They're packed and are ready to go. We've had our last trip to the park (we saw pipers practicing) and Keelyn's Sunday school class gave her a going away gift -- a copy of Grey Friar's Bobby.
Here's some picks of us around the neighbourhood. And one of Keelyn's favourite toys.

Heat Wave

2006-05-10T19:28:00.000Z

We've had a nice week. It's in the low 70s today and beautiful. Sam and Patti are with us, they've visited the highlands and kept Keelyn today while Robin and I had a day out. Here's a picture of them in front of a mattress store. (They have a mattress store in Florence.) We went to the Burrell collection and out to dinner.

Weekend In

2006-05-06T08:28:00.000Z

I've turned my doctoral upgrade paper in and have a big load off of me. Sam and Patti are here visiting us, they're on a tour of the highlands for the weekend. We had a quiet night in and played cards last night.

Things that interest me

2006-04-30T15:23:00.000Z

Things that interest me
Here's a link to John's blog. He's posted some pictures of his trip.

John

2006-04-25T20:16:00.000Z

John's here. They've been out seeing Glasgow. Went to Pollock country park today where they had twin highland calves.

Bishops' Visitation

2006-04-23T11:47:00.000Z

We've had company. Luther, Cissy, Michele and Lauren have been here this past week. Had a nice time. Keelyn's very excited. We went to Church and she got to wear her new dress and shoes since she was sick Easter. Here's her with her basket and some pics of their visit. John just got in so we'll have more pick's of his visit next week.

Belfast

2006-04-12T11:56:00.000Z

Since I'm researching Presbyterianism throughout the British Isles I made a trip over to Belfast to meet some folks at Queen's University Belfast and Union Theological College. I also got to rummage in the Rare book room of the Theological College Library and visit the Presbyterian Historical Socitey. Had a good trip. Here's some pics from Belfast and of Keelyn from last week.

Culzean & Alloway

2006-04-02T12:54:00.000Z

We went with the University Family Outing group to Ayrshire this Saturday. Visited Culzean castle and country park then the birthplace of Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet. If you don't know Burns, you at least know his song we sing every New Years, Auld Lang Syne

Dublin

2006-03-22T20:55:00.000Z

Alisha, Dale and Britney are visiting. They've been on the go. We all went to Dublin yesterday, got back too tired to post our pics and we went to Edinburgh today. They visited the sites in Edinburgh while I visited the National Archives and Libraries.
Having a fun time and enjoying the company; here's some pics.

Monster Hunting

2006-03-18T21:17:00.000Z

Since watching Scooby Doo & the Loch Ness Monster, Keelyn's one place she's wanted to visit has been Loch Ness. So today we took the train to Inverness and took a bus tour & boat ride on the loch to Castle Urquart. The train ride itself was beautiful: snow covered mountains, blue skies, huge deer. We had a full day and are ready for our guests to be here in the morning.

SNOW

2006-03-12T09:11:00.000Z

Since we've had such a busy past few weekends we decided to stay in and have a nice quiet weekend. I took Keelyn to feed the ducks at Kelvingrove Park friday and we stayed around the flat saturday. Keelyn said, "We're just hanging out aren't we Daddy."
Sunday morning we woke to this. Robin said it was covered at 5 this morning when she woke up and it is still coming down steadily a little after 9. We took Keelyn to play in the park. We're now watching the cars pile up on the hill outside our window and drinking hot chocolate. We'll be going to Wellington to receive the Lord's Supper in a little while.

St. Andrew's

2006-03-04T21:11:00.000Z

We visited St. Andrew's with the University International Student Family outing group. Really neat deal they have throught the Univ. Int'l Student office. They charter a bus and plan an outing for a very inexpensive fee. Keelyn gets to run around with her friends and we get to go on a trip with hardly any planning or thinking...just show up for the bus.
We visited the Cathedral and Castle, both in ruins. We also went to the aquarium.
It snowed yesterday so Keelyn got to play in the snow and build her first (wee) snowman.

Rugby

2006-03-01T21:51:00.000Z

Forgot to mention that part of the fun of our trip was that we got to watch TV since we were in the hotel. Keelyn saw some cartoons. And we got to watch Scotland beat England in the Six Nations Rugby!

Salisbury

2006-02-27T22:24:00.000Z

Well we've had a busy weekend. Saturday morning we went to Salisbury in southern England. We got to see stonhenge. It was very windy, so we made a quick lap around the stones and headed back to town. The Cathedral is beautiful. Sunday we went to Bemerton for a service in a small church where George Herbert served. George Herbert was a poet and also wrote a book "The Country Parson." That book has been very special to me so I wanted us to go. The service was very nice, Keelyn got to be the acolyte and lit the candles.
I was talking to someone after the service who mentioned he owned the house next to the church that George Herbert had lived in. He invited us to see it. We got to walk on the grounds and tour the old rectory. He was very gracious and we had a great time, turns out he is an award winning author -- Vikram Seth.
Monday we visited a museum with tons of interesting things, too much to take in after everything else.
When we got back to Glasgow we had a few minutes before the bus left, and the driver invited Keelyn to get behind the wheel and "drive" for a while...one of the highlights for her.

More info:
George Herbert
Vikram Seth
Salisbury Cathedral

Pics from our trip

2006-02-27T22:08:00.000Z

Busy Busy Busy

2006-02-19T13:10:00.000Z

We've had quite a busy week. Tuesday Robin and Keelyn Went to the Pollock Country Park and the Burrell Collection. They saw Highland Cows, Clydesdale Horses and Police Dogs being trained.
Friday I went to Perth for a Church History Conference. It was an overnight event held at St. Mary's Redemptorist Monastary and I gave a paper saturday. I met some of the other Church History folks from around Scotland and had a good time.
I preached today at Wellington Church. It was good to be back in the pulpit. We should have nice calm Sabbath's rest and be ready to start a new week.

Cotton Mather

2006-02-12T09:48:00.000Z

We've had a pretty low-key week. Thursday I took Keelyn to feed the ducks, we took a couple of pictures with my Palm computer. Friday I went to Edinburgh to look at some old church records and some 18th Century letters. Among the letters were several from the Puritan leader Cotton Mather to a Glasgow Minister Robert Wodrow written around 1715-1720s. Robin and Keelyn went to the International Club were they had a Valentine's Day event. We're about to get ready for Church. Next week Keelyn has a break from School and Robin and She will visit some places in town. I'm preaching next Sunday so I'm excited about that.

Stirling

2006-02-04T19:30:00.000Z

We took a day trip to Stirling, about a twenty minute train ride to the North and East of Glasgow. We fell in love with it. It's a smaller city with a rich history. William Wallace and Robert the Bruce fought the English here. Wallace had a spectacular victory by allowing half the English forces to cross the River Forth then attacking before the rest could be deployed.
King James VI was crowned at the Church of the Holy Rude, and John Knox preached there. It was incredibly foggy and we could barely see fifty feet in front of us. We were nearly in the castle before we saw it. Here are some pictures, including one of Keelyn in the Queen's throne in the castle's great hall and one in front of a mermaid.

Foggy Day in Stirling

2006-02-04T18:39:00.000Z

Some picture of Stirling, the Castle and the Auld Bridge.

Burns Supper

2006-01-29T09:46:00.000Z

We went to the Burns celebration at Wellngton Saturday night. Had a wonderful time. There was a dramatic addressing of the Haggis, and I got to have a proper meal of the great chieftan of the pudding race. (It was Haggis pie and we had Irn Bru instead of Whisky.) Robin even sample the vegetarian option.
Keelyn enjoyed the real thing as seen in the picture, she says she didn't like the potatoes so just ate the haggis.
A few Burns songs were sung and of course traditional Scottish dancing. We ducked out before Keelyn got too tired and fussy.
Yesterday afternoon I took Keelyn to the park. We fed the ducks and pigeons and saw a man practicing riding a unicycle and juggling. That's something you don't see everyday. I really wish I had the camera then.

Keelyn Beat me to the Haggis

2006-01-25T12:06:00.000Z

Today is Robert Burns Day. So Keelyn's nursery school had a Burn's dinner for snack. They had Haggis, Neeps and Tatties. (Turnips and Mashed Potatoes.) All washed down with Irn Bru. She told us Robert Burns was there and recited a poem about chips.
BTW/ she liked the Haggis.
I'm so proud!

Funny Joke

2006-01-25T11:42:00.000Z

Sight Seeing

2006-01-22T18:35:00.000Z

Mom and Joe visited us this past week. They kept Keelyn Friday night while we celebrated our 6th year wedding anniversary. During the week we took them to many sights in Glasgow. Yesterday we took them to Edinburgh, their flight left from there this morning. This morning we visited St. Silas Episcopal Church. They have contemporary worship services with a band and over head projectors. Not what we expect from Episcopalians. Very friendly group and we felt very welcome. But we're definitely Presbyterians. The pics include us at Edinburgh castle and 'princess', Keelyn's new Scottish teddy bear.

Let Glasgow Flourish

2006-01-17T20:14:00.000Z

Mom and Joe flew in Sunday, I've spent the past couple of weekends getting ahead on my research so we could spend some time with them this week. We had lunch at the Crypt where Robin is volunteering. We visited the Hunterian museum yesterday and the University. Dinner was a Dimaggio's. Nana and Papa Joe got to see Keelyn's school.
Today we toured the city and went to Buchanon street galleries. Keelyn got to build a bear at the bear factory, she's been christened Princess.

Happy New Year!

2006-01-01T18:19:00.000Z

We have had a nice relaxing week. Boxing Day (26 Dec) we took Keelyn to her first movie at a cinema -- 'The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.' She was completely mesmerized, sat through the 2 1/2 hours and insisted on staying well into the closing credits. The picture is her in front of the Grosvenor Cinema.
Thursday was Wellington's Christmas Party. We had fun dancing, eating and playing games. I had fish pie and mince pie. It snowed and Keelyn go to have a snowball fight with some of her friends at the Kirk.
Since the weather was cold and wet we took Keelyn to St. Enoch shopping centre to play at the 'Jelly Club.' Robin did some shopping while I read. We got to witness Hogmaney celebrations: kids shot fireworks and our upstairs neighbors partied past 7 this morning. We had a nice service at church this morning and spent a lazy day indoors.
The University library is closed until Wednsday so I have a mandatory break until then!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2005-12-25T12:35:00.000Z

We're having a wonderful Christmas, missing everyone though. We went to the service of Lessons and Carols at the Episcopal Cathedral last night and came back and exchanged gifts. I went back for a midnight communion service. Keelyn woke us up at 6 this morning, having discovered that Santa could find us even in Scotland. She was very excited, as the picture shows. We went to a lovely service this morning at Wellington and are waiting for Christmas Dinner to cook. Hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas.

Nativity

2005-12-18T19:36:00.000Z

Robin and Keelyn finally made it back from the States.
This morning they had a Children's program at Church and Keelyn was a 'wee' angel.

Birthday, Thanksgiving, St. Andrew and Advent

2005-11-26T19:38:00.000Z

We've had a busy week. Barry and Lisa visited. My birthday was monday. We celebrated Thanksgiving Thursday (Robin made really good stuffing.) Friday it snowed and we visited Edinburgh. I did research at the National Library of Scotland while Robin and Keelyn did some Christmas Shopping and rode a Ferris Wheel. We went to the Church's St. Andrew's Day Ceilidh when we got back Friday night. We stayed in today (Saturday) to rest up and get ready for Robin and Keelyn to fly home for a couple of weeks.

The Lantern Festival

2005-11-20T19:57:00.000Z

Couldn't fit these in the last post:

Loch Lomond and St. Martin's Lantern Festival

2005-11-20T19:38:00.000Z

It has been a busy weekend. Friday night we did origami at at the International Club at Wellington Church. We mentioned Thanksgiving and asked if we could get Sweet Potatoes, Sunday Morning Fumi brought us a bag of Sweet Potatoes! We're ready for Thanksgiving.
Saturday we went with the University International Student's group to Helensburgh's Gogglebox play area then to Loch Lomond National Park. Fun...but long day. Sunday I had an eye appointment so we went to St. Enoch Centre after church. Keelyn visited Santa Claus in Debenham's Department Store. There was an open aire German Christmas Market so we did some Christmas shopping and ate sausage before returning home.
Keelyn and Robin went over to the University Chapel for a St. Martin's Day Lantern Festival. St. Martin's was the 11th.

The Weekend

2005-11-14T11:33:00.000Z

We stayed in this past weekend. Good day to hang around the house. I've bought a copy of the Lion the Witch and the Wadrobe to read to Keelyn, who is enjoying it very much. Since I didn't get good pics of the fireworks, I'm posting some from the Glasgow West End website taken by Jim Byrne. He's got some real nice pictures of our neighbourhood. Sunday was Remeberance Sunday and we were invited to Lunch with Heather, she also invited Mark and Stacey (Keelyn's Sunday School teacher.) They're both from Canada, he's working on a Ph.D. in Theology. It was a lovely meal. (I'm learning to use the term "lovely." Keelyn's picked up "wee".)
After lunch, Keelyn played at Botanic Gardens, there's a pic of her at the gardens. We also saw one of the "wee" cars that Keelyn thinks are funny.
Barry and Lisa are coming tomorrow so we're excited about that. And I made cornbread last night that was pretty good, we ate half and saved the rest to make stuffing for thanksgiving.

Ancient Church Discovered

2005-11-07T12:39:00.000Z

Pretty exciting discovery. Wouldn't you know some of the earliest archaelogical evidence would be a memorial inscription: "The inscription, which specifies that Aketous donated a table to the church, indicates the house of worship predated the Byzantine era, when Christians began using altars in place of tables in their rituals, Tepper said."
Seems fitting, most everything in a church has a plague, "Given in memory of so and so by her grandchildren."

Guy Fawkes Night

2005-11-05T15:52:00.000Z

Well we've had a good week. Last Friday we learned Scottish Country Dancing at the International Club. We stayed around the flat Saturday since we had gone to Edinburgh Thursday.
We had communion Sunday at Wellington Church and Monday was Halloween so Keelyn went to Nursery School dressed as an Alabama Cheerleader...don't think anyone realized what she was dressed as but she was cute. We sure missed the fall festivities at Allsboro.
People have been shooting fireworks constantly the past several days, today is Guy Fawkes night (400th Anniversary of the Gundpowdwer plot actually.) We're planning on going to the city fireworks display this evening.
We went to the Museum of Modern Art this morning and took some pics, including the one of Keelyn with the Piper.

Edinburgh

2005-10-27T21:33:00.000Z

We made a trip over to Edinburgh today, Keelyn's first time on a train. Our English friends from Corinth, MS are visiting and caught a train up. Keelyn and Esther had a wonderful time. The weather was beautiful, apparantly a record high today. We walked the royal mile and had tea at Clarinda's. Good to see some friendly faces from home. Too bad we didn't have a backgammon set with us.

Keelyn Starts School

2005-10-27T21:24:00.000Z

Well Keelyn finally began attending the Willowbank Nursery School. She's very excited and happy to have new friends to play with.

"Lost Liberty Hotel"

2005-10-18T22:05:00.000Z

Heard about this on Dave Ramsey,pretty funny.

St. Mungo's

2005-10-08T16:20:00.000Z

We visited St. Mungo's cathedral and museum of religious life and art today. Keelyn got to have her first ride on a double decker bus today...something she has been wanting to do since we got here.

We made it!

2005-10-04T01:37:00.000Z

Well we finally made it. Keelyn enjoyed the flight, when we went through the little bit of turbulence we met, she wanted to ride the bumps again.
We haven't had hot water or heat until today (I could go on a long rant about Scottish Gas). No phone yet, but a hot shower sure makes us more optomistic about things. We're getting into our routine and learning our way around.
Here's some pics of Keelyn passing time in the Philadelphia airport, our flat and the view from our living room.

Bishop's Barbecue

2005-09-27T11:05:00.000Z

Figured while I posting Barn Party pics I should put in a plug for the world's best barbecue.
Given good review here,
and listed as one of the 100 dishes to eat before you die scroll down to Cherokee.
L.O. always jokes that he's lived at three different addresses, but he's never moved. He started with a Post Office in Bishop, then Allsboro and now Cherokee. He claims to be on a campaign to get the Cherokee Office closed and consolidated with Tuscumbia so he get a fourth address.

Barn Party Pics

2005-09-27T10:55:00.000Z

Here's the pics, courtesy of Ailene Williams.

Barn Party!

2005-09-25T03:40:00.000Z

Well we've had our last Sunday, said our goodbyes, have moved out of the manse and enjoyed the annual Barn Party at Maud. I took some pics to post later. This is the sixth year the Devaney's have hosted a community barn party with music, games, lots of good food and skits of "Thirdun and Laverne." One of the many things I'll miss about Allsboro, and a fitting way to part.

Free California

2005-09-01T03:51:00.000Z

Found this site for the California Liberation Front. Sounds like a pretty good idea to me. I bet they would their best fund raising in Alabama and Mississippi.

Fr. John Whiteford's News, Comments, & Reflections: Bono is no Bonehead

2005-08-29T01:47:00.000Z

Found this via Touchstone's blogsite.

General Assembly

2005-06-29T19:27:00.000Z

We are at GA in Franklin, Tn and Keelyn is having a blast. It's nice to see so many people I hadn't seen in a while. We saw the booths and the bookstore. I'm glad to see The Lives and Times of Finis Ewing has been reprinted. We went to the Seminary Luncheon and got to sit with Rev. Michael Clark, my former seminary roomate. The Seminary honored Dr. Knick for thirty some odd years of service. Barry introduced me to a minister from Japan presbytery who is serving a mission church in Brazil of Japanese immigrants, but they are also reaching some native Brazilians as well. Here's a pic of Barry and Randy explaining the moves at MTS in the past year.

A couple more

2005-06-26T03:12:00.000Z

Some of my favorites. From near Moulton, AL comes the church with Pepsicola sponsorship. From Cullman -- explosives for our savior. There should be some sort of caption contest for these.

2005-06-26T02:53:00.000Z

Surprisingly Irish! This is a restaurant in Red Bay, AL. (They have great steaks actually.)

Amusing Signs

2005-06-26T02:41:00.000Z

I get quite amused at some of the signs I see driving around here in the South, especially for churches. Here are some I saw when I was lucky enough to have a camera with me. This one's an Alabama Bed and Breakfast in case you can't make out the words.

2005-06-23T21:18:00.000Z

Graduation May 15th, One more to go.

First Attempt

2005-06-23T20:10:00.000Z

We've received our entry clearance for the UK this week and are about three months away from moving. I'm a presbyterian minister who will be moving from Allsboro, Alabama to Glasgow, Scotland to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Glasgow.
I figure this will be a nice way to record our trip and let our friends and family keep in touch while we are away. So grab an Irn Bru and enjoy.