fall has fallen upon us!

OG has moved

so, i have been incredibly delinquent in my blog posting... 2009, the year of change for me, and i've posted none of it. Well, not much of it anyway...

Well, I have moved. I am now living and working in central Tennessee... outside of Nashville for a retailer.

I can't believe how much my life has changed since I started this blog - or how much has changed since I last blogged.

The OG lives in a smaller town outside of Nashville, enjoying the comforts of small town life with a bigger city next door. Gas is cheaper, rent is cheaper, the utilities are certainly cheaper - but that's about it. But I love it.

More to come later. But thought I'd post up that Optimist Girl is now posting from somewhere new!

6 months ago

6 months ago I lost my job to workforce reduction and I 'knew' at the time it would all work out. That I would find a new job, that I would be ok.
Well, here I am ... spending the 2nd to last night in the apartment I have called home for a year and a half. The OG cave will no longer be located in San Francisco... it will now be found in Nashville, and I'm hoping it won't be quite to cave-like but instead full of beautiful sunshine. :) I didn't realize how much I missed having the sun in my windows and having a view that was more than my concrete patio.

I have already spent a week in Nashville and I love it so far. Now admittedly I am working long hours, but I don't care, I love it. It is so green and lush and has rolling hills and lots of trees and it is just so green!

I am very sad to be leaving San Francisco, but here I am exactly 11 years later finding myself moving eastward... I have been yearning to start my life in a new city and this is the perfect chance and I'm thrilled...

more to come...

Scotland: Edinburgh (con't)

As I think that there is a limit to the length of posts so I have to divide everything up.

Here we go... Edinburgh continued...

The Heart of Lothian



This is the back of the church the Queen & family attend when in Edinburgh at Hollyrood Palace (picts to follow)















As the Queen was in residence at Hollyrood, there were few spots to take pictures and all I could get a clear shot of was the fountain in front of the residence. (FYI: traffic was also a mess)











On the local flavor side of things... this pig was in the window of a butchers shop named Oink. This was at the beginning of the day. When I passed the window later... the pig was practically gone.

Scotland: Edinburgh

I was able to make it over to Edinburgh twice during my visit and I had a great time. I really enjoyed the city and was able to do a little bit of everything. I did the tourist thing for sure. I purchased a jump on and off bus tour pass and would highly recommend to anyone going to do the same. I purchased the pass for 4 of the big tour companies as each had a slightly different route which was great to ensure I maximized by tourist time there.

Below are pictures from in and around Edinburgh...

Edinburgh Castle












Sir Walter Scott Monument (265+ steps to the top)




















Looking up the Royal Mile (a name not found on a tourist map of Edinburgh until the 1920s) You can see St Giles Church on the left hand side

Scotland: in random order

So... I'm working on the photos and I realize that the blog is going to be in a bit out of order. And as I'm having tech issues I'm going to be breaking the posts of pictures up...

Random weekend pictures (continued)...
Madderty









More random locations...

Scotland: the first weekend

So I originally was going to be incredibly dedicated and blog every night about what adventures I had during that day... well, as you can guess, that hasn't happened. I was not as dedicated about blogging as I expected. I did however download and label my pictures most nights.
So below are the pictures from the first weekend of driving about. The pictures below may not have happened in the order that they are shown. So please ignore my geography inaccuracies and possibly any mislabeling.

No trip to Scotland is complete without a visit to a distillery... here I am at the Grouse - which used to be Glen Turret which is the oldest distillery in Scotland.









while Mum and I were at the distillery there was a wedding party with the men dressed in kilts...















Many fabulous views...
Here is Loch Earn

















Ok... now here are some random pictures from the rest of the day...