These weeks fly by when I am away every weekend. One more to go, and then a bit of rest perhaps!! Last weekend, though, was amazing. I have decided that Scotland is my Disney World- the best place on earth. It was freezing and windy (located on the same latitude lines as Moscow!) but unbelievably beautiful. I spent most of the weekend in Edinburgh with H. It's great to be frugal, because we picked the biggest and best of the tourist attractions and then just spent the rest of the time walking. and walking. and walking. I saw so much of "the other side of Edinburgh" that I could almost...just almost...pretend like it was my city. We walked the several miles out to Leith (Edinburgh's port) and we walked up Arthur's Seat (the hill that overlooks the city) and then I walked down to the Meadows and the University of Edinburgh area and through the Grassmarket. Everything was just perfect (well, ok, a few degrees warmer would have been okay). It was nice to spend Easter weekend away, and still get to focus on Easter. I went to a very cool Good Friday service at St. John's in the Prinices Street Gardens (and was really impressed with their church. They have a fair trade shop, a Peace and Justice Centre, socially relevant Easter murals each year) and then on Sunday H and I went to a service in the church on the Royal Mile, St. Giles, where the Church of Scotland broke from the Church of England for refusing to let the King (or anyone other than God) be the head of their Church. We sang all of the great Easter hymns. Then on Monday I wandered around Stirling. I was worried that maybe I had created this romanticized memory and that, in reality, it would just be another little town. But no, nine years later it was still breathtakingly beautiful. The view from the castle is unreal- fields of green and sheep, snow capped mountains, the William Wallace monument on the horizon, hills and mountains for miles, and clouds of snow moving across the landscape. I'm working on getting the photos up, check the links on the left.

This week is the women's retreat with church. I'm glad for the chance to get to know people better, but I'm sad to be so far away from home on a weekend that so many people from my past will be gathering.

F and I are finishing up our first girls' group this coming Tuesday. After that we'll jump right into another that's meant to be more issues based, action, group work-ish.

I suppose that's life- not much going on in Belfast when I've spent so much time away,