What Bones Are These?

What bones lie here?  What bones lay beneath my feet?  Hundreds of years old.  Silent, old, watching.  It's nearing midnight, there's an almost full moon and clouds are racing across a dark sky.  I'm standing in the middle of a dark Scottish graveyard caught staring at the amazing Scottish sky, the shapes of century old buildings on the High Street and silhouettes of ancient tombstones thinking, whose bones are these?   There is a postman who died trying to deliver mail into Moffat during a blizzard in 1831.  There are the corpses of children born between 1725-1740.  Miserable old lives?  Happy old lives?  Old, old bones.

Maureen and Hunter left about 11:30 p.m. last night.  We had a wonderful time catching up.  Even Maureen hadn't seen Hunter in a while and the conversation was lively as I said.  When Gordon and I rounded the corner into the kitchen for clean up duty we both let out a sigh.  It seemed as though every dish, glass and pot and pan we owned had been used.  But we dug in and cleaned the kitchen up before heading off to bed.  By 12:30 we were lights out.

Ring, ring.  Who's calling so early?  The phone's on my side of the bed but I refused to answer it so Gordon hauled himself out of bed and came round to find out who would have the nerve to ring us so early.  Maureen.  And it's almost 11!   What?

The weather sucked today.  Cold and very overcast.  So much for our lively walk.  While Gordon took his shower it began to rain.....sideways!  So I decided it's a good day for laundry and baking.  I purchased a lot of apples so I made a French Apple Tart.... so easy and delicious and I did a couple loads of laundry, painted my nails and took a shower before heading to Maureen's for lunch/dinner with apple tart in hand.  

When we arrived Maureen had a neighbor visiting, Jill ,who lives up in the Beef Tub 700 feet above sea level!  She was delightful and we visiting for probably and hour and a half before she put her "sheep shoes" on and heavy coat and headed back up the Tub!

Maureen's home is lovely and cozy and we tucked in to an appetizer of homemade pate and chutney and a delicious pheasant stew 

with steamed veggies of broccoli and brussel sprouts and scalloped potatoes.  Apple tart and a cheese course followed and several bottles of great red and white wines beginning with bubbly!  Maureen's daughter Stacy stopped in to pick up Max and stayed for a nice visit too.  Maxy was the happy recipient of a blob of home made pate off my finger when Maureen wasn't looking but I couldn't coax him away from Maureen's side.

I love Maureen's home.  I told you last year that she suffered a fire some years ago when her husband died and the entire home was gutted and rebuilt.  Here are some pictures of her rebuilt home:

The dining room.

Lovely view up to the Old Edinburgh Road from the dining room window.

The dining room fireplace.

A cozy living room for pre-dinner cocktails.

The conservatory.

We stayed and watched the Ryder Cup until we felt we had worn out our welcome then headed home.  It was such a wonderful evening we decided to slip our boots on and go for a walk.

Our little cottage with the moon above.

With the moon shining bright we headed off on a mini High Street adventure through the old Kirkyard and across the High Street entering the old cemetery standing among century old grave sites wondering...Whose bones are these?