JULY 30 SILVERKNOWES, LEITH WALK, DEAN VILLAGE, THE CITY

Last week, we rode the bus to Silverknowes and walked on the beach trail. We stopped along the way to make a rock cow. I think this is one of our best. Note the added palm tree.

It is a little smaller scale, but not miniature.

Pictures were posted from zone conference, here are a few. 

The south of Scotland part of the zone met together.

Senior missionaries.

I always admire this walkway when we go by.

And this blue door.

Here is a piece of blue sky and clouds between the trees near our home.

Dean Village

Us at Dean Village

Circus Lane. It's a scenic cobblestone street in the city.

This morning, we walked on another stretch of Leith Walk. It's always very pretty!

This is a cool picture, because the sky and clouds are reflected in the water.

More of Circus Lane

We found another naked man statue. Someone made them and placed them in various spots in the river.

Stella made this Hawaiin Honeycreeper and entered it in a contest. It incorporates recycled materials. 

This is the "art wall" in their house. All three of Jesse and Sarita's kids have work displayed on this colorful wall.

Here is another artistic grandchild sharing her art with residents of a care facility. They loved having her and Lucas visit them.

We had a caterpillar cake tasting acrtivity for FHE. Grocery stores all have their own version of these cute, but not very tasty, cakes.

It was agreed that the cakes weren't very great, but everyone had fun and then we played games.

 

ROUNDERS, DRIVING TEST, AND THE CITY

We got a nice message from Andrew this morning. He recently moved back home to Romania, where he had a job and his own flat lined up for him. Before leaving, Charles got him connected with the missionaries in his city, and he wrote to let us know he had joined in with their YA group. We feel really good about having a part in this, and hope that at some point, he will gain a testimony of the gospel and want to actually join the church. If not, it's OK too. He knows that at church he is loved and cared about.

For FHE Monday, we had taco soup, and then walked over to Harrison Park and played Rounders. 

Rounders is very similar to baseball, but you use a wiffle ball and a plastic bat, and you can run on any kind of hit, even a foul ball.

We rode the bus to visit Marah Friday. The clouds were especially beautiful that day, so I took some pictures.

This is the best photo I got. We were on our way down to Leith and the clouds were perfect.

I found this photo of a highland cow on Facebook. I really like it, so I saved it. Maybe we can make a print out of it when we go home and hang it on the wall.

Kelsey sent me a picture of this cow she made out of sculpy clay. It's adorable! I love it.

Charles took his driving test for the third time Thursday. We went to Pennington again, which was probably a mistake. Unfortuneatly, he didn't pass! We are really getting down to the wire now, because we're not supposed to drive with our U.S. license for more than a year. He thinks he has figured out what the problem is, and it comes down to looking in all the mirrors very overtly, so the examiner can see, very often when making any kind of a lane change. The roundabouts are especially tricky to do this on. This is what the testing center looks like inside. Very stark.

This is the outside of the testing center. It's just like a house with a parking lot, set in a residental area. It's way different than the DMV at home.

We went to the Royal Mile to buy some gifts to take home with us. It is very crowded in the summer. It will be worse in August, when all the festivals begin. 

Just a sample of what it looks like on the Royal Mile.

 

More July

The pictures are in kind of random order, but places we've been this week. 

This is the River Teith, in the village of Dumblane. There is a path next to it, and the view is beautiful.

Doune Castle. We have a pass that got us into this for free, so made the hour drive to check it out. It looked a lot like other castes we've seen, but still amazing.

Dumblane Village. A lot of places have pretty hanging flowers on the walls or outside the windows.

These were some hideous looking dresses I saw in a window display there.

The Meadows. We walk by here once a week on our morning outing.

Grayfriar's Bobby's grave. This is the dog who stayed by his master's grave until he died! There is also a statue.

Victoria Street

Barb, Charles, Jason, Sister King at church in Galashiels

This is from the top of a bus. They get very close behind the bus in front of them.

A blue guy climbing the wall. I'm not sure what the significance is of this.

Meggetland, which is the place where we live.