Which years do you remember to finish?

It was quite a year.

We did some traveling. Of course, we wrote about most places we were this year thanks to this blog. We also shared our blog via internet searches like blogsherpa.

We wrote about places we'd visited because we want to treat each one as memorable to us.

There are those places we'll remember.

Then, there are those we find it easiest to talk about. Most of these are popular conversation pieces because they made big impressions or are easy to discuss with people: Shibuya, London, Aix-en-Provence, El Prado, Italy, Monaco, China.

Tonight at the dinner table we talked about all kinds of bugs we saw and ate in Thailand. Later on, I recounted how I enjoyed a BBQ Sparrow in China (one of China's milder gastronomic pursuits). Pretty funny, as it turned out my father-in-law knew this dish from living in Italy.



We want to share more but cannot. Memories are fleeting. So, we move on, remembering everything we can. And, we reinforce our memories with our storytelling. People ask us what we liked most, where our favorite locale was, what was most frightening or unnerving.

I wish people asked us what means most to us when we travel around this world. That answer is easy - the kindness and welcoming spirit of strangers - the joy and friendship and camaraderie which we made momentarily or longer with people we met along our way.

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Sweet Home, Happy New Year

It is so easy for me to enjoy the peace and calm of Winter here in rural Sweet Home, Oregon.

It is the childhood home of my wife, the Ogilby's Humble Hollow. It is a quiet hollow surrounded by a beautiful mix of fir forest and carefully tended north-western farming. An idyllic landscape many would covet far fewer would actually have the patience for. It is this patience, a loved land and its the caring stewardship what makes the Ogilby hollow so invigorating.

As this year winds down Humble Hollow reminds me of other landscapes, each with their own mantle and spirit.

Brittany's father Clem has a brother-in-law in Maine who also lives surrounded by a landscape he loves. He love of the earth as a geologist making his location all the sweeter. He takes sea-kayaking and winter cross-country as adventure through Earth's millinea of milleneum invested in the landscape of his forest and coast. We took long walks with Uncle Boo-boo on fire roads set into the surrounding forests to make them accessible and halt forest fires.

Humble Hollow also reminds me of the Bapu Kuti's ashram in India's burnt interior. On the Ghandian ashram, the development of harmless activity as a community is the simple goal. Their work challenges us all to think of our personal and communal relationship to self-sufficiency and service. Bapu's life and work reminds me of justice, how our love for our family during the holidays makes us stronger to do justice to our fellows throughout the years.

Bapu's ashram reminds me of my own family history in Ahmednagar. Our families walked and rode horses to a place wshich is still in service today. None of us are perfect (for long) and so it goes with the history of the American Missions my family endeavored in.

Amednagar reminds me of Selma, Indiana. All Shroyers I am closely related to walked from Pennsylvania to Selma 180 years ago. They learned the benefits of self-sufficiency that first Winter as they arrived with little time to construct permanent shelter. They all wintered over together in the buggy. The next Spring they settled in.

Selma, Indiana reminds me of the costs, opportunities, and consequences of rural self-sufficiency. Rural self-sufficiency reminds me of why I am such a huge proponent of ZERI. Aren't we all searching for ways to use labor, nature, and science to insure the health and welfare of our planet for coming generations?

ZERI has been studying the "best solutions for social and economic development, using available resources designing a competitive model that provides water, food, health, energy and jobs for all." Is ZERI something you can orient your community towards and support. I have a New Year's resolution. I am going to champion ZERI and its benefits much in 2011.

ZERI reminds me of the end of December 2010. We were in Tokyo. What a year!

....

ZERI leaves us with this lovely poem on their homepage:

If I can see a little further than the green economy today

it is because I can stand on the shoulders of so many giants.

The poem reminds me of why I love to visit Sweet Home, Oregon. Sweet Home reminds me of family. Oregon is family to me. I love to be around rural stewardship. Oregon has done a fine job of taking its roles of rural stewardship pretty seriously.

Stewardship reminds me of the family and holidays: It reminds me of what people tell me I will appreciate about the holidays each year (even as much as they know I will fuss).

Blessings and Prosperity to you all in the New Year 2011 and the Year of the Rabbit.

Footnote: The chart at the top of the page is for all who love mushrooms, bread, and beer!

Happy New Year to all where ever your Sweet Home may be,

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World cities become more dense, crowded

India's cities are straining under the weight of mass migration. Across the world, as crowding and poor standards cause building collapse and other lapse of reason societies tremble. What is happening. Mass poor are moving to cities which have neither governmental nor physical infrastructure to accommodate them.

We are planning our return to India in 2013 for the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Maharathi Missions. Our Earth strains more today than it did 160 years ago when generations of my Grandparents spent lifetimes in India challenging assumptions about how our planet was going to involve the masses in its evolution and structural construct. Records of the history of early mission are kept in the Amistad Research Center in New Orleans.

Today marked the passing of Frank Bessac. I did not know much about Frank before I read about him today. But, in reading about his life, I loved his company...

I crashed the dessert course of a dinner on at my wife's godmother's house Christmas Eve. It was worth it for many reasons. One of which is I met our hostesses mother Bisi. Her father was a diplomat in China during the same time my Grandfather (who was raised by the American Missionaries in India). "My father did not think much of most of the missionary work in China," Bisi told us, "but he thought the Medical colleges were an admirable lot." The exchange of ideas, education, friendship, respect and service engenders trust.

What can we do to trust and build trust with emerging populations in cities and rural areas?

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At last....

At 8:30am, it's 41 degrees in our screened porch, and I sit with hot water bottle on my lap, baby blue angora hat atop my head, and a steaming cup of jasmine tea close at hand. It's a good life, really it is.

Have you heard about our Porch? My husband built it. It's amazing and a perfect nest after a year of travel.

When we first returned to New Orleans, I had ambitious plans to weatherize our little home, but a multitude of rental property projects, family gatherings, and general busyness quickly allowed my porch project to fall by the wayside. But we have a lofted bed that is walled on three sides, the fourth side I have insulated with an old sleeping bag. With a space heater and partially-working electric blanket, it is a cozy space for two. However, after a 34 degree night, we are eagerly awaiting our Christmas present from the folks - thanks (in advance) for the down comforter, Mom and Dad! 

So, for now, we enjoy our last few weeks in New Orleans. It has been a joy to have our friend Elisa visiting us from Ireland. The circle of couchsurfing is incredible, especially when you are able to host a traveler who once hosted you. Elisa's visit has prompted us to enjoy some of the special and unique aspects of our fair city, and to take a pause from the head down, blinders on, utterly focused, seemingly never-ending task list of repairs and roofs and projects. Poboy picnics in City Park, candy-making, early morning beers at the Mother-In-Law Lounge garage sale, and bonfires in the yard with neighbors and friends were just the diversions we needed. Can we continue the circle by another visit to Dublin someday soon?

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon and evening alternating between my current holiday card project, and stoking the ongoing bonfire (we are trying to burn through a few 'trash' trees in the yard). Apparently, my card project was just the push I needed to get my creative thoughts a-flowin'. I awoke to blog concepts piling up with great speed, henna designs, and quilt-making patterns all racing through my mind. Like I said, I'm a morning person. I'm not allowed to have coffee - I don't need any additional energy in the mornings.

The countdown to an Oregon Christmas is on....t-minus 15 days 'till our departure. 

And so we gear up to hit the road again, didn't we tell you that the journey wasn't ending?

Hope that you all are enjoying the holiday season and staying warm, wherever you are.

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Coming soon: How much waste is necessary after your FEMA managed disaster?

This is just a tantalizer...

Look for our article coming soon: How to lower waste after your disaster.


We have been astounded by the number of lots across south Mississippi which are filled with decaying 'FEMA' mobile homes for sale. Remember how these travel trailers were rushed to the Gulf Coast only to sit in lots of up to 40,000 trailers unused for months after the disaster? Remember how the first 18month life from purchase by our government through maintenance contract meant that average unit costs of $120-180k more than doubled the cost of complete renovation estimates per New Orleans' native 'double' family home?

But, in the USA when we have a disaster our government does not allow that recovery produce permanent solutions such as restoring existing housing - only temporary patches allowed.



Years after these trailers were determined unsafe to live in (due in part to being constructed with high concentrations of formaldehyde) they are being offered as reused, cheap, housing. They now fill plastic lots with signs asking potential customers to 'make offer.'

How the US wasted resources and other opportunities to use the disaster of Katrina continues to astound us almost 6 years since our disaster. But, how are our lessons being applied? How have we used the opportunities for teaching, learning, and being more humane in the disasters which have occurred since the Gulf Coast and Katrina? How has Haiti, by example, benefited from histories of New Orleans and Gulf Coast (non)recovery and/or (lack of) human restoration? Has the US/FEMA, Red Cross, or NGO community changed significantly how it expenses limited resources since Katrina's gross misuse of funds and misrepresentation of aid or assistance?

We are investigating. We are going to visit the FEMA parks and share our images. Did you have a FEMA trailer? Can we share your story? When you share it can help defend others. Your story matters; What we do now in sharing the truth defends the next disaster community.

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Much to be thankful for don't you agree? Happy Thanksgiving Ya'll!

Since you are reading our blog - Thanks!!

On the side of our blog their is a tab called cluster maps. It is a really neat tool for seeing how we really are connected by less than 'six degrees of separation.'

If you have not visited our blog world map lately, would you check it out? We love knowing that we are reaching people around the world. Thanks to you for spreading the worldwide word.

Our world just gets smaller.

Also, if you are interested in reading about how other travelers are seeing their world check out the Lonely Planet's blogosphere at blogsherpa.com. They are publishing lots of cool travel related blogs - including ours. So, with that, this is a Thanksgiving blog.

We want to send out thanks to all of you who read, subscribe to, and share our blog. Thank you!! Special thank you shout outs to our friends who just recently started checking out our blog overseas in:

Antigua and Barbuda, Lebanon, Iran, Haiti, Djibouti, Azerbaijan, Brunei Darussalam, Maldives, Benin, Trinidad and Tobago, Bangladesh, Uganda , Oman, Jamaica, Jordan, Zambia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Jersey, Timor-Leste, Chile, Estonia, Latvia, Angola... thanks for reading our blog!

We all have much to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving Ya'll!

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With AT&T techno difficulties are anytime

Travel difficulties are likely to consume much time around things that you wish they wouldn't. This is a given. When our computer fried in Bombay and again in Ethiopia, Egypt, and France we we much distracted. You are not likely to be able to easily navigate companies and offers, much of the time you will not be traveling long enough or in a place for enough time to use your minutes, need full time web access, or commit to needed minimum contracts. The world of consumer contracts is frightening. In fact, I wonder (and am looking for feedback) if most foreigners find it difficult or easier to accept services here in my own country - USofA.

When we accepted the lucky gift of a phone from a sister-in-law we did not know the pitfalls of technologies here. We had tried to reuse a couple of different rummage sale phones, one the screen did not work, on the second, it came with really awesome ringtones and preprogrammed Hank Williams Jr (bonus). At least they didn't come with viruses! Then we got this awesome 'smartphone' gift. The problem was - a couple days later - AT&T decided to send a message alerting me to my new data usage plan which they automatically subscribed me to. After much hours the next couple days between mom and (evil) AT&T corporation it turns out our 'smartphone' cannot be used without their expensive data package...

Even as my sister-in-law used this phone for the last two years with no data plan, AT&T decided in its infinite wisdom to not allow future non-contract users to use this same feature. Smart huh?

So, thanks to great family and friends (and a USofAbundance of richness and excess) we have an extra 'smartphone' we can't use. And the old outdated flip serves me just fine. Avoid AT&T.

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How to act local + global at your market fruit, vegetable, bakery, or seafood stand

Growing up, I lived in a corner of the end of the nineteenth century where mule drawn carts came into town from surrounding rural areas carrying every sort of seasonal product, - fresh veggies and fruits, seafood and fish, steaks, caned and wicker furniture.

Farmers and craftsmen prowled the streets using their deep voices - or, a bull horn if they had one. We kids would flock to the sides of their old truck and convince our parents that 'oh, we do love peas;' and so on, just to keep buying. Buying from these salespeople was always an adventure - you would aim for lagniappe (the little something for nothing that comes at the end of prolonged negotiation) there would be sampling, and the men would generally make your experience fun, telling stories and connecting you to where they had come from.

How do we build a world in which small farmers are brought back into cities, where markets are as small as we can make them, where overlaps in self interest just make sense? I know. I have seen this world emerging from the desest cities to the most hard to reach rural third world.

Buy local. Being local in an internationalized world. How to be rural and support rural initiatives from cities to country

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Traveling Abroad the Fence

I.

This blog is titled "Traveling Abroad the Fence" which means you can travel anywhere!

[If you haven't read this blog for a while, you may begin to notice that certain themes appear and we deal with them for a while - say over a couple weeks or a month. Themes that are not always clear or straight forward themes; but, like some of us, are good for thinking about problems or opportunities; they develop in us over a long time.]

Being from Gulf Of Mexico/Mississippi River Bottom culture - we stew everything a long time.

This week, as the season got frosty for us (lows 49' F - 10' C) we started using our big Crock Pot as an ambient heater. The idea of greens in a pot is quintessential southern Autumnal food life; sweet potatoes, green and cabbages - all these point to changes of season on our food calendar.

We cooked Beans, eggplant dips, and sweet potatoes literally for days: Leaving a simmering pot of cinnamon potatoes cooking is so much nicer than just burning gas or electric!

Turn your crockpot into a RockPot of good tastes this winter and reduce your heat bill!

We decided long ago that when we got back to the USA after a ten month round-the world adventure we would adopt a mantra of traveling in your own backyard. The truth for us was that even as we have passed through and visited the furthest foreign lands; we did not want everyone to set their expectations that high. We do not expect everyone to have the possibility to travel as we have. We want to share our experiences and help others gain some lessons if they are interested. Food and lifestyle are very natural places to start. Living in Louisiana we can be engrossed in our native cooking styles. However, for the most part, our ideas of food all come from somewhere and were imports like all of us living here.

In addition to fine local sweet potatoes, we have been eating rice. We have not given up pasta, tortillas, or bread - though we are eating much less; but, the world eats lots of rice. We like rice. If you eat rice, you eat what most of the world eats (including south LA.) It is easy to make; and leftovers keep well. So, we bought the 25 lb. bag and are happy. We are also eating most of our meals (not po-boys) with chopsticks. For me, chopsticks slow down eating helping to savor food.

Here are some fun crockpot recipes to get your winter home-cooking season started.

[Save your rice. You can make delicious rich rice pudding with cardamon like we have done with cardamon we brought back from the Himalayas; or, even more authentic, make some Creole Calas - foods sold sweet on the street and one of the ways during New Orleans' 'code noir' law these famous calas helped many slaves who bought their freedom.]


II.

What is travel after all? Traveling is experiencing something new, in a way you have not known it, from a point of view you have not yet discovered it. By this definition, we can very easily travel by choosing to do things we have not done before; and, by being intentional to enjoy their newness and appreciate what we are learning in the process.

So, I have tried this concept on. I have visited some places that had been right in front of me. And,
I have scheduled or begun the planning to visit other new and obvious

And when I write about these markets as I already have, I get great feedback and new ideas like these great green market and collective farming ideas from my dear mother-in-law in Oregon.

Shopping is a very easy way to make a sustainable idea a reality. When we support local markets, we realize our connectedness to what we are buying. It degenericizes life!

This blog reminds me that the internet is such a fascinating way to visit places (virtually), to make long-distance 'pen pals,' and to learn about foreign places. We have many friends who would love to connect with you. If one of the countries we have visited or written about particularly speaks to you, please write us - we can put you in touch with one of our friends who would likely love to learn about you.

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China to New Orleans: mental health treatment issues that thwart democracy

One thing I have trouble doing is separating what I know about people and what I feel about them. I can understand whole peoples and how societies behave without being able to separate what I feel I understand from what I do not.

So, I read about different peoples. I keep up on news.

I read about China a lot. I do not know the makings, the inner workings, or the decision making process of how things get done in China. I would never propose I do. But, I am interested.

I do know that what I read about Chinese treatment of marginalized populations, of the mass poor, the least educated, of handicapped and mentally ill; it sounds deplorable. I am no expert on jails nor mental illness: Yet there must be some kernel of truth to these awful reports.

So, this blog is a conglomeration of articles I have compiled. It is a strange confluence of events.

Ultimately, what I have been discovering also is that where I live, New Orleans, and other U.S. cities have similar treatment of marginalized populations (especially mentally ill) as in China.
We have similar models of therapy. Therapy through incarceration means 'cleaning our streets' of today's mentally ill. These are the emerging trends of mental health diagnosis and treatment in our western world and in the east. (Are these trends offshoots of the privatization of prisons?) Hopefully, these are outlier trends which are justly in need of being challenged here in the USA. But, only the fact that these trends of incarceration as therapy exist is putrid evil to me.

Similarities with political repression and mental illness designations between China and New Orleans are scary!

We live surrounded by an epidemic of diagnosis and an utter dearth of treatment. And, we pass this tragedy off to our incarcerating powers when our lack of resource and will allows these our poorest and least confident amongst us to fall out from society.

How far are we really from diagnosing difference and political independence as 'evils?'

I see the same deplorable actions by local governments in my own community back home in the USA. In New Orleans, we already incarcerate insanity into jails. The mentally ill have a cell and very limited resources. Families are not encouraged to be committed and involved in finding a long-term cure for ill family members. Medications are inefficient and restricted due to costs.

A link to Nola.com about controversy around rebuilding OPP Jail was not a very helpful one in explaining the debate. 'Katrina Time' and OPP seem synonymous with Jail Expense Abuse.

This one is better:

The Incarceration Capital of the US
A struggle over the size of New Orleans’ jail could define the city’s future
By Jordan Flaherty
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jordan-flaherty/the-incarceration-capital_b_781150.html

But, as I started out saying, I have no first hand news. I have not been inside these places. And, I want to find less partialized news. I want more open access and exchange between peoples. Allowing reporters access is essential.


Democracy really does mean an opening up of channels of belief and communication between all peoples. It cannot work in isolation. If it is true that China routinely locks up politically assertive petitioning citizens to reduce participation, this is not helpful. It hurts world democratic health.

It was with great pain that I got through this interesting NYTimes series which you may have already seen on mental health treatment issues in China. The area featured in the article on the border of Vietnam is relatively near Changsha (about 12-18 hours by bus - China is very big!). This is where my grandmother was born and grew up. Her father a doctor; I have to ask myself - in conditions of sanity and treatment of the insane; how much has really changed?

I remember my grandmother's opinion about health care. All people deserved access, attention, dignity, therapy. Good Health care should be a national priority in the USA and in China.

Is it not still the case today that the way we treat the weakest, the most hopeless, the destitute, the least among us, is a perfect reflection of our society in terms of our general mental health?

A new NOLA.com article come out just after this blog was published seeking public participation in the shaping of this decision. Does the Sheriff really want informed participation and approval?

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DIY Backpacker Spa

By special request, here is blog devoted exclusively to a DIY Backpacker Spa.

Trekking the world in flip-flops with a unwieldy backpack that seems perpetually affixed to your body, a backpacking gal deserves a spa night as often as she can get one. Even though some international destinations have beauty treats for the budget-minded girls, these 'fine establishments' don't always give you that pleasant, anticipatory feeling....more like a sensation that makes you duck your head and rush by with great haste, ignoring the sing-song voices trying to lure you into certain discomfort and unease.

So, when you need a break from the dusty trail, try some of these easy, inexpensive, and easy-to-find spa ideas!

SUGAR SCRUB: take a tablespoon of sugar (unrefined works best) and place it in a dampened palm. Mix one drop of shampoo or liquid soap and a few drops of water and apply in circular motions to rough skin. Good for hands, feet, elbows, etc. Wonderful solution for peeling beach skin, overgrown cuticles, itchy feet, and general exfoliation purposes. Make sure you rinse well to avoid sticky skin. Licking off the sugar is a possibility but not recommended (remember the soap....).

JOJOBA OIL: A little bit of jojoba goes a looooong way. Add a few drops to the palm of your hand, rub hands together to warm, then apply to face, hands, legs, arms, anywhere! Jojoba is the closest thing to the composition of natural skin oil, so it's great for every part of your body. Also great for dry scalps and chapped lips. Great option for a hot oil treatment for hair: microwave a small amount and then apply to hair (especially to the ends). Let sit for 30 minutes, shampoo/condition as usual.

UMBRELLA SPA: Yearning for a sauna? You need look no further than the bathtub in your (hopefully more quaint than questionable) hostel room. Run the bath hot, hot, hot, then climb in. Open an umbrella above your head (the possibility of bad luck is SO worth the risk) and let the steam collect under it, enveloping your mind and head in soft, thick warmth. Settle back, smile, and ignore the other backpackers banging on the door.

TEA TREE OIL: A natural antiseptic, tea tree oil is a potent oil from Australia. A drop mixed with water makes a great face toner, killing bacteria and germs and backpacking grime build-up. Add a few drops to a small tub for soaking tired feet. In a hot bath, tea tree oil will help congestion and cough, invigorating your senses!

TEA BATH: No matter where you are, herbs and spices are sure to be found. Shop around for some local treats to add to bathtime! Favorites of mine were Jasmine Tea Bath in China, Dried Rose Bud Bath in Morocco, Mint Tea Bath in Egypt, Rosemary Bath in Italy, and Lavender Bath in France. Be a tea bag and soak for a while!

AVOCADO: Not just for guacamole anymore! As a certain friend might vividly remember, avocado is filled with nourishing oils and is just the ticket to soothing dry, parched skin (especially sunburns). Slather it on, let it sit, rinse. Try not to use soap, as it will strip away the lovely oils that have soaked into your skin. Serve nachos or burritos for dinner in a dimly-lit room and hope that your friends don't notice your funny smell or greenish tinge.

On the road or nestled at home, have a backpacker spa night!

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Hollygrove Fresh Farm and Market helps Downtown's Neighborhoods Eat Healthy

It was just the final thing that renewed Wednesday as my community day. Riding home from another great bicycle (picnic) adventure through the French Quarters we stopped to visit friends outside of St Anna's church on Esplanade Avenue about three blocks outside of the French Quarter. They were buying beans to bring to a dinner party.

Of course there is always more to it. We talked biofuel growth between the Gulf Coast and South America. We talked Colombia. They may one day take us up on 'hotel-sitting' for us on the beach for a while. We would be honored and delighted to have more great representation and ambassadorship of New Orleans and The United States of America abroad.

Our friends were picking up their Weekly Produce Box from Hollygrove Market Esplanade Avenue - three blocks from French Quarter for visitors who want to still eat healthy great foods while traveling on a budget or with dietary restrictions (which New Orleans eating out does make somewhat more difficult and/or expensive than should be necessary these days).

Thanks St Anna's for remaining a beacon of human resoration now more than 5 years Post-k. We love the idea of one day having a weekly box delivered full of the Hollygrove Market's produce. But, that might mean changing the visit to St Anna's and we would not want to miss all the great comraderie which we get in public outdoor neighborhood (bikeable) locations.

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Inspiration and Small, Tight Circles

My husband has inspired me, as he oftentimes does. Today, he has inspired me with his blogging, and I am encouraged follow his example. The end of our constant motion does not mean that the journey has also ended.

But I miss covering ground. I miss walking long miles and tumbling into bed, feet and legs aching from hard use. These days I seem to be turning in small, tight circles, and it makes me feel a bit dizzy. My feet have nothing to say, it's my hands now that shriek and moan.

It has been so simple to slip back into the routines and seemingly-mundane activities of life in New Orleans. And yet, we are changed. Small, but substantial, alterations in our behaviors and patterns and conversations are constant reminders of new perspectives and experiences.

Memories from Honey Service Year bubble up with regularity, helping us to remember the significant and importance of fleeting, chance encounters with people and places that can unexpectedly change your life.


We are never without hummus; I make it from scratch, with dried chickpeas purchased at Mona's store.

We eat vegetables. A lot. And we are patronizing local markets and community gardens. I am also growing greens (root remnants of those purchased on a trip to the 5AM Vietnamese Market in New Orleans East, just as the sun began to rise over the soggy morning mist) and basil (from seeds collected in Cincinnati) and Kentucky oregano (a small transplant is courageously growing from an old tin can).

We have created a communal house in New Orleans, based upon concepts of respect and contentiousness and friendship. With more members of the household, we collectively use fewer resources and maximize the potential of shared space.

The emphasis that we placed on lowered consumption and materialism while on our journey has become part of our lifestyle; we recycle water, bicycle more often than not, and bring our own grocery bags everywhere we go. We try to buy only what we need, and resist (I have to work especially hard at this) urges of impulse and instant gratification spending. We try to live with intention, rather than being pushed and pulled and suckered into consumerist behaviors.

Chopsticks are used almost as frequently as forks, and we eat lettuce in our soup.


We have begun to serve as couchsurfing hosts; with each guest that stays with us, I recall the generosity and kindness of those who hosted us during our journey. Faith in humanity and trust in the human spirit is a feeling that can slip away if it is not nourished and encouraged; media and news sources are diligent in combating these positive feelings.

And yet, it all feels so distant. The memories slip further and further away, buried beneath tubes of caulk and glazier points and big rectangles of sheetrock and the last dregs of enamel paint in the can. We speak, as we learned to do on our journey, of the present, of the now, of right here. We dream of the future and craft our plans

With the fullness of the present and the future, there seems to be little time reserved for the past. And yet, it has a sweet and gentle way of slipping tendrils of poignant remembrance, patient contributions, and astute relevance into the evolution of our lives.

Onward we go, as the small, tight circles grow slowly larger.

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The New Orleans Transformation

We are part of a lot of projects in New Orleans. And we are huge supporters of many more.

This city still has something big to give the world.

We love couchsurfing.org and we are supporters of all sorts of arts and social activities. We want to do more than be fb updaters - we love to encounter people in person - real facetime is important.

We are idea people. We have business and arts and philanthropy ideas. Sometimes when we talk we need to just write down half and start two as businesses. The rest would be history.

Maybe that is what we will do.

In the meantime, we are counting buckets. Backets of water, backets of rain, backets of rooftar, backets of mr clean, and buckets of money (little small ones) with holes in 'em.

Today we laughed. 'It will be at least another five years,' I told Brittany's Aunt after dinner, 'before we go on another one-year round the world adventure.' we all giggled. 'Maybe.' B says.

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10,000 blog views by December 14 or by year's end (whichever one happens first)

Ok, we are about to get back to this thing.

We have been missing the blog. We talk about it. But somehow we are TOO BUSY and too whupped to ever have the energy at the end of the night to ever have what it takes to give back.

So this is about to change. One Goal to make this change is new: "10,000 blog views by December 14" or maybe New Year's. As our Year of the Honey Service Year comes to a close we want to remember, recant, reenlist, and reinvigorate the goals, activities, partners, and people we came to know, love, work with, or call friends.We are back in the USA. Very busy - working; yet, determined to stay true to principles from our trip and principles grown up in this blog.

What better way to do that than these short 'shout out' blogs.

So here goes. We are in New Orleans heading back to Colombia New Year's Eve. A lot has happened. This week was VOODOO EXPERIENCE in our neighborhood. Nathan's childhood music mentor Mr Payton passed away, it finally rained.

Spread the love. Help us make "10,000 blog views by December 14 or year's end" a reality.

Share our blog with those you know, love, are firends with who can benefit from its story.

Soemtimes it is an odd struggle finding home again...

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Bike ride to City Park, TaiChi at NOMA and the Sculpture Gardens, Abby Barnwell Gardeners

What do all these events gave in common: Bike ride to Voodoo, TaiChi at Museum, Free Sculpture Gardens, and the Abby Barnwell Gardeners???

They all are part of a wonderful free afternoon in one of America's greatest living cities - N'awlins ya'll!! Not a day passes without New Orleans Jazz playing, colors and flowers and weather, without good human interaction and dignity in our fellows. There are limitless options, too many, and we put ourselves against the ropes trying to achieve only the least of them: preservation of a few old structures, sacred properties and profane indignities of their management (by us humans).

One afternoon in a few short hours time we went for a bike ride out our own front yard. Within a mile of our home, we were riding around City Park. We had fun checking out great music, fun scene, and vibrant nightlife that goes with VOODOO Festival which has come to symbolize Halloween in New Orleans and Autumn's full arrival. Weather, like this year, is usually outstanding.

We were returning to the park for the third time this week. This is becoming a relaxing ritual; a good way to just pick up and stop after blowing full board all day. Earlier in the week we came to the NOMA Museum of Art to check out some wonderful permanent and temporary exhibitions and we found ourselves walking out the side gates (a recent treat for us not previously available to the public), directly into the Casino.

The Casino was always where you got popcorns, hotdogs, and other sundries as a kid - it has been given a total makeover. Our favorite part of the Casino was to walk to far side near a bridge to 'Boy Scout Island' where there is an old Sundial [in need of repairs on its hours]. Only recently has this sundial become surrounded by lovely gardens maintained by the Abby Barnwell Gardeners. This is another cherished site for us. It is so peaceful. Serene. The backdrop is a delight in urban husbandry - children playing, museums, kids trains, bayou, islands.

Every Wednesday throughout the year you can rent a bicycle or use your own and have a wealth of activities in downtown New Orleans' neighborhoods. The city is flat. Cars drive slow.

In the Fall, Wednesday's at the Square afford locals and visitors some of the best musical treats the world have ever accounted for. Period. Right across from Gallier Hall. Under the Oaks. Lagniappe - New Orleans' Style - a 'little something for nothing.'

Another recent afternoon we started out, riding our bikes hoping to see a 'second line.' We heard hors blazing through the afternoon clear skies. Instead, we arrived at JV practice of St Aug's Marching 100. Fearless small men below five feet vie for the attention of a small battalion of ensemble supporters and instructors. It is October, six months to prepare more.

Criss-crossing through the neighborhood, Halloween. Practically every stoop has its family. It is nice to remember how positive it can be still being in an African-American city. Families relish opportunities to meet and greet in streets.

Maybe you need an afternoon bike ride or walk? Where can you find peace? Where do old things become new. I suggest if you are in New Orleans you take a ride like ours, enjoying a rest under New Orleans Live Oak trees, enjoy a visit Free Wednesday's at New Orleans Museum of Art. Tai Chi at the Museum also happens Wednesdays (at 6PM $5 donation). The Besthoff (K&B) Sculpture Garden is always free (but sadly closes too early, except on Wednesdays, for most of us).

After you have wandered around the park see if you can find the old sundial behind the Casino building. The Abby Barnwell Gardeners can sometimes be found taking care of the flowers there. It is a nice story. Ask them. If they are not there, no one will mind if you pull a few stray grasses or weeds that may have popped up. Walk gently, baby flowers are growing!

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Half a week after the Round the World Trip

We understand space ship reentry. We feel we just went through that this week as we are home just half a week after the Round the World Trip.

Honey Service Year year-end count down 50 days left.

We are home. How will our Honey Service end in the USA?


2.

New Orleans




Poplarville is calling....

3.

If anyone thinks we are slacking here or that we could have been more directed abroad this year, you would be right. But, there is a different impetus at home. Things soar. You know where things are and where they should be.

Our car (truck) was that sort of a story.

But... we are home. Indeed, it feels good to be home. We are carrying forward so many lessons learned meeting new cultures and absorbing good ideas; while, at home, applying ourselves very much at the here and now of what we do that impacts our world.

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Blog Reentry - Lessons from Abroad Practiced at Home

At this point in our returning, there is no doubt that we already incorporate new behaviors - now in our reentry - learned abroad.

We have new characteristics which we gained abroad last year. These are parts of ourselves reinforced or conditioned to draw out our urgency to do work on our own home continents - Las Americas.

We are still drawn to the connections which our experiences strike chords of in conversation.

This unfortunately already dims as the foreign gets blended with the shocks and learning curves in our own culture.

It is good to be home.

Some of what we were introduced to in our travels has new manifestations at home. For example, couchsurfing and blogsherpa. Both of these, a website and a blog, opened doors for us as we made acquaintance and broadened networks.

Our own websites for our honey service year @ shutterfly and blogspot dot com have worked for sharing photos and composition across the globe. There is facebook. There are others we will join; and, we aim to do more with utilizing the abstract engagement of social networks and other shared interests.

So, what next? How do we continue to draw out lessons taken from abroad to practice at home?

We are searching for the themes taken from outside our normative parameters of society which we can account for and be intentional about continuing. Whether this means new projects, shared ideas, or a slow filtration from our blogging into cyberspace, we are being met with impossible limits. It is in these new limits which we aim to plunge into.

Our story is a collaborative effort at writing about what pleases us, how we are learning, and what works.

Stay tuned.

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Vignettes on Returning II.

On family farms in Maine. We encounter the best of what we feel we have brought home. There are collaborative energies, commitments towards betterment for our world. It is not a paradox to us at all that American ideals count on heritage passed from our family, our country, our past.

In Oxford, conservation programs have encouraged habitat for spawning trout and migrating birds, forests are conserved with accessible shared roads and trails, homes are made efficient through local government incentives. Over and over again, we hear stories of neighborhood bartering, of exchanges of services, natural bounty, knowledge and good will.

In Bowdoinham, plans are afoot to encourage pasturing of cattle and sheep. On the river in Eliot, years of monitoring may once again provide viable recreational clamming and shell fishing opportunities not known for generations.

Our country and our world are tuned to the impacts of people. We will continue to write this blog in order to provoke ongoing commitment on how travel can enhance local efforts and manifest larger global change.

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Vignettes on Returning I.

From a small garden planted in late Tokyo Autumn to edits on a new friend’s photography book in Scotland, we have embedded memories from travel filled with positive interactions of service, exchange, collaboration. What we can offer from our travels are the vignettes of shared wisdom, mutual interest, cross pollinated efforts gained along the way.

What we do not record in our blog here, gets picked up by us organically in conversations and virtual updates. A tale to ramble out of us in springy passion whenever we reencounter family and friends.

Returning home causes a turn inwards. We celebrate and find new excitement in our country reflecting on its past, more hopeful than ever for its useful and meaningful future.

Here in New England our own family histories and current family engagements allow for soft reentry coming back from United Kingdom and Ireland. Climate, habitat, society and aesthetics all closely mirror where we recently visited - from Derbyshire to Hume, from Kennington to Dublin’s Four Courts.

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Vignettes on Returning V.

As we head back this month across our beloved country, meeting family and non-family history along the way, the methods these farming communities utilize of embracing simple, elegant, accessible technologies and marketing techniques to broaden their sustainability and their efforts, we reflect on many such projects we have encountered and written about across the globe.

You purchase products from around the world all the time, you may also be trying ot unite your fair-trade efforts with a localvore’s penchant for eating like we are today - right out of the garden.

Here in Oxford, Maine - Brittany lets horses into their new pasture. She collects late lettuces for lunch.

I am inside, trying to adjust to a late Summer New England clamminess; marveling, reminiscing and enjoying the mingle of personal and networked relations this year had borne. I enjoy the motto of the coffee grown with love by the Brothers and Sisters in Reconciliation,

“Paso a Paso, a la reconciliation.”

Our country and our world are tuned to the impacts of peoples organized, motivated, and interconnected. We make lasting impacts when we bring out the best in each other; we can further sustain our cooperation when we lean our mutual support to stewardship of natural and cultural resources. Our hope is that this is a valuable perspective which we have brought home which we will continue to write about and foster through this blog. We hope we provoke ongoing commitments to how local efforts manifest larger global change.

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Vignettes on Returning III

What we enjoy in travel lives at home in networks which bring our disparate connections closer.

As we return to mainstream purchasing norms, we want to emulate and support the kinds of projects, at home and abroad, that build positive connections. Thus far, since we have been home and purchasing, we have bought what we were going to immediately consume; bought small gifts for friends; or, purchased reusable/recyclable items at thrift stores.

Wherever possible, we would prefer to buy locally, or when necessary, from projects like Café Congo.

Our connectivity which we realize is a mere six-degrees or less of a connection to every person we met along our trip abroad is heightened as we meet and solidify relations which are changed since we left almost a year ago. There are new characters and welcome additions. As we celebrate one year of our commitment to each other, our relationships to friends and family broadens. I have met Aunt Liddy and Uncle Dykestra on my wife’s side. We both made lots of new relations attending cousin-in-law Isaac’s birthday celebration. Finding new connections through family which drew us back to Colombia, Italy, and Iowa meant a lot to us.

Sometimes these connections are born without any immediate knowledge of who these new peers and friends will be - solely based on our attitude of acceptance of our connectedness alone. Our degrees of separation grow fewer.

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Vignettes on Returning IV

This morning at breakfast, we drank coffee imported from Nicaragua. We want to promote fair-trade and community self-sufficiency through relations between the USA and abroad. A friend of a cousin’s of Brittany offers her own branding and message to us through her coffee. She has a virtual coffee import business - ‘Café Congo’ working with a group in Nicaragua named Brothers and Sisters in Reconciliation.

Café Congo uses first-hand knowledge of producer/consumer behavior to promote global initiatives locally. Profits raised by Café Congo’s grassroots efforts develop into ongoing projects for local villages in Nicaragua. These sustainable eco-friendly projects convert manures to natural gases, build grey water systems, install compost toilets, and distribute water filtration systems to shade grown organic crops.

These grassroots projects contribute to growth of organic farming, restoration of biodiversity, fight poverty, restore the cultural and environmental region, and prevent global warming. Through the purchase of her coffee, “you are reconciling [the farmers] goals with your own; your world with theirs.”

The use of coffee trade as a tool for building cultural, social, and economic resiliency is one which we seek to promote and teach. It is but one example of many.

The farmers of Hermanos y Hermanas para la reconciliation - or Brothers and Sisters for the Reconciliation is a new example we like. They are a very small rural cooperative associated with the larger Compas de Nicaragua (www.compas1.org). These rural farmers are working to broaden local goals and unite them with larger communities. They seek, “to reconcile polarized political ideologies, a turbulent history, and Nicaragua’s environment, health, and national quality of life.”

Organizations like Café Congo often come about locally just as relationships. Sometimes Britt and I use this type of micro-enterprise initiative by buying larger than needed organic coffee, in Minca, Colombia near our hotels in Santa Marta and Taganga. We support local organic growers union by purchasing extra coffee from them directly instead of through second party distributors. We then transport coffee to the USA.

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Ireland

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Untitled (Eliot, Me) 9-8-10

Two common things
Restlessness and abandon
This morning
Cape Ann
Rocks of Ice
Coated in living salt
Almost to Lydia
Where she lives
Pine and Whipple
Soft Sea lines
Dimpled and Silted
Banks in Collapse
Here built on softened
Peats not afraid of
Erosion
More of decay
And transmission
Of Earth to Sea
On Generational problems
Coated in living rock
Loathing of itself, I
In the Sun
Exposed
Warmed worm drops
Broken loss
Of ancestral lands
Here
Tied to crystal
Cold Waters,
Of this stream
Eyes Reflection
To this river
Where Kennedy’s mother
Goes
From Wilmington
Weaves grave knots
From Roots of Bishops’
Pulpits
Scattered amidst
Shrunken crossyards
Brought in
From Inshore
And planted
In fallen crosses
Along silver
Blue and emerald
Green bluffs cliffs
Whose Lifting slowly
And amping towards
Tossed trees
Towards
The land
Lovemaking
Between sea and river

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I choose you
To be no other than yourself,
Loving what I know of you,
And trusting who you will become.
I will respect and honor you
Always and in all ways.
I take you to be my husband,
To have and to hold,
In tears and in laughter,
In sickness and in health,
To love and to cherish,
From this day forward,
In this world and the next.

Happy Anniversary N. I am so lucky to have a partner and friend and lover in you. No matter how far we travel, no matter how strange the lands, I am never homesick if I am with you. Home is with you.

xoxo

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Beverly Reminds of Seafarers

Beverly reminds me of Seafarers.
The Town rolls along on Hills.
New England Coast
Has a hard handhold on me.

Its small inlets,
Tiny Harbors which Present
Themselves against Frishermen's
Lodges, Anchoring and bringing Long
Long Taught lines ashore.

Beverly reminds me on
Seafarers returned Wet on Winter
Storms, Storms tossed on clapboards

With salt snow, spitting winds
Winters ghosts of Hawks
Owls of black ice night

Nice Lanie Beverly's Daughter
keeps Summer fruit
Autumn's gourds and orchards.

Vines that grow up beside
Flag poles and Halloween.

Wind is always here
Haunting sounds that
Rub against old doorways

Playing Riddles on our
Own Tides and Sentiments
Now three Generations.

Eliot guards the garden
Rugged rocky coast path
North. Eliot knows rivers

The way to fjord this Coast
With pebbly soft Grey
and Blue beaches
Guards the cold.

Beneath perfect round
Pebbles Death's rattle
Smiling mosses
Lit green in last wave
Retreats partnered in Sunlight

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Back in the USA

We are back. We are here. We are probably not so far from you, or at least we no longer have an ocean between us. If there is an ocean between us now, you have seen us more recently than have many others.

Our dialog is non-stop, the stories are endless, yet the words we use to describe our journey are inadequate. Insufficient. Paltry without the smells and the tastes and the pulsing sense of the experience. 

I want to say, "Listen, I'll tell you this story about India. But first you need to develop a queasy 'travelers stomach' and sear your tongue with scalding chai and be coated with dirt from walking in the streets and spend a few moments of your morning exchanging pleasantries with the cow draped in jasmine flowers that contentedly awaits affection from her stolid stance in the middle of the street."

But we try to articulate our adventures, knowing that our words could never fully express our experiences. Yet still we try, it's a human condition. We try to define and label to better our communications and connections. We are social creatures, it's an 'evolved species' thing.

People ask us how the transition back to the United States is going. Others, especially those who have completed extensive travel themselves, ask whether we are experiencing 'culture shock.' The truth is that for now, our journey has not ended. We are still on the move, still in motion, still experiencing and exchanging and learning. There are pockets (albeit slightly smaller) of the Bronx or of Beverly that are unfamiliar, just as there were pockets of strangeness in Behai or Nis or El Jadida. No matter where you are, new sights and experiences exist, travel just amplifies your receptivity and awareness. With an accommodating mindset, a walk through the town that you have lived in for an entire lifetime can be just as enthralling as an African safari.

The biggest difference now is that we are surrounded by familiar faces. Family and friends are near and just as anxious to see us as we are them. Although the beauty of a New England autumn is quickly approaching, the geography cannot captivate me in the way that the voice and smile of a loved one can. If ever I was homesick on our journey, it was for people, never for things (I am lying, I once was in tears thinking of the joys of a 'western toilet').

There really is 'no place like home' when home means family.

Hope to see you soon.

xoxo

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Falcons at Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square is a destination point for many tourists in London: big fountain, National Gallery Museum, big lion statues, plenty of people to see and be seen by.  Undoubtedly, hundreds of Facebook profile photos are taken there each day. I am resistant to taking photos of an object or image that is centered in the viewfinder of so many other cameras, I refuse to stand in line to take the identical shot. That's me.

But it meant that Nathan was carrying the camera as we sauntered up to Trafalgar Square one morning. It was early, still a bit chilly, and the square was logy and lethargic. Bypassing the square itself (and the set of stairs), N took the gently inclining outer edge, while I beelined towards the fountain....I thought that I saw something peculiar....

Sure enough, I was right. Have you ever seen the falcons of Trafalgar Square?

Have you ever noticed how few pigeons flock to Trafalgar Square?

Trafalgar Square was once a square like so many around the world: tourists held fistfulls of birdseed, and squealed with nervousness as they were ungulfed in a flock of hungry and well-trained birds. In fact, in 1996, the Trafalgar flock was calculated to be somewhere around 35,000 birds. ewww.

But a few years later, pigeons were banned from the park. Wait, I mean, feeding the pigeons became a banned activity. But the pigeons dispersed rather quickly without their daily snacks. The absence of pigeons in Trafalgar Square allowed for the space to be used in new ways that had previously been impossible: for movies, commercials, and events.  

However, banning the feeding of pigeons is not always enough. Enter the Falcon. A falconer with his trained falcon makes a daily circut through the park, giving a clear message to the stragglers to push on. With leather ties dangling from legs in mid-flight, the falcon swoops around Admiral Nelson, harranging the lazy pigeons, then returns to the heavily protected arm of the falconer.

They are a sweet pair, rather innocuous and humble. In a city that hosts a perpetual and pervasive tourism culture, I was suprised to see the falconer in a simple t-shirt. 

Not my photo: Stephensamuel at en.wikipedia

 No bobby, no flags, no postcards for sale in hand. Just a normal guy with his beautiful falcon, patrolling Trafalgar Square.

If you want to see the Falcon of Trafalgar Square, best arrive early, before the crowds.

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New York, New York, New York

It was a strange touchdown in New York's JFK. The shocks squeezed lower. The wheels seemed to push against the earth with an unnaturally heavy load. Our travels came screeching into the same runway from which we had lifted off to Tokyo nine month's earlier.

We are so enjoying the NYC welcome. While it feels like another stop on a long adventure, we are happy to be in familiar places and spending long, languishing warm days with family.

This morning, the two of us walked the Highline Park While there, we remembered our best suits as travelers: we feel our presence and community spirit brings us into harmony with what locals love about the places they live. We do not live in Chelsea, New York - yet we know it, feel it, understand it in the space of hours and days.

Yet, even as we relish the slow pace of long family visits, tomorrow we are back on the road. Labor Day for us means early rise to share over breakfast our newest fun travel recipe rice pudding with Indian spices.



While we are not feeling thrilled about donning our packs again and walking across the width of New York at dawn, this will be business as usual, breakfast with a lovely Aunt and Uncle, public transit and bus through four states to Boston and Salem, Mass; more visits with old friends, and round off the evening with genuine local cuisine 'steamer clams,' fresh coastal corn-on-the-cob, beers, loads of fun and laughter.

Our journey departing Beverly, Mass on Tuesday morning repeats our favorite late-Summer circuit. New York to Maine, back through the Cape and Islands (hello M.V.!!) to East Canaan, and back again. This year will also wrap up with Fall colors in Vermont. From here we will visit grandmothers and old friends. Tomorrow's journey takes us up our family pathways through Boston, onto the Atlantic Coast of New England.

At the end of the month we will celebrate Yale-in-China centennial back here in New York. After that our journey will head South, overland from Northern Vermont, through Ithaca, NY, to Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio, to visit my parents in Berea, Kentucky, before finally making it home to New Orleans.

Around the world and a half? People ask us sometimes when our journey will end. It is a reasonable enought question. The truth is, we both look forward to settling on some piece of land and staying long enough to plant and raise crops, to grow trees, and to garden.

For now, this is not in the cards for us. After only a couple months on our beloved Gulf Coast, it will be back on the road again when we will begin traveling again back to South America, to Taganga, Colombia and our hotels El Miramar, Santa Marta and Oso Perezoso Hotel in Taganga. From Taganga, we may find our way circling through Amazon voyages or up the Rio Orinoco with our friends from Posada Don Carlos to distant villages cut off from modern devices. We do not pretend to know where all we are going.

Will we see you on the Colombia beaches next Winter? Or will our paths cross some other way? Who knows where our fates will lead us to exactly?

Keep up with us. We hope to continue to not only feed you our stories and experieces; we want to share our advice, our research, our ambitions and dedication through this blog.

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Back to France

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I Love Libraries

I love libraries, I really do. I love the soft papery smell and the dense organization and the anticipation of discovering a new favorite book. I love the decadent combination of quiet, solitary engrossment within a literary community.  

Libraries have always been part of my life. As a child, I was a voracious (and rather incorrigible) reader. I spent long hours at the Sweet Home Public Library, not just reading or borrowing books, but also participating in kid-focused activities hosted by the library, especially in the summer. I developed a strong friendship with the head librarian; she didn't even bat an eye when I asked if she wanted to see my newly-aquired handstand skills (I was an *active* reader). There was a great encouragement of literacy from both my parents and my community, and a request to be taken to the library was almost never turned down.

During my years at Miss Porter's School, when the old library on Main Street was still in use, I sought the quiet solitude of its aged nooks and crannies as a respite from the all-pervasive company that was part of boarding school life. I grew to know the floor of the Lewis and Clark library quite well, studying until my eyes fluttered and then curling up under a desk (oh, and there was a reasonable extensive collection of books at the college library as well).

We have discovered some incredible new libraries during the course of our world journey. Some new favorites include the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, and the Trinity College Library in Dublin. Edinburgh has a series of fantastic libraries, including a Map Library. On our final day in Edinburgh we stopped by, hoping to find some original maps done by my cartographer ancestor, John Ogilby.

And I found them! The first was a brilliant "pocket atlas" that charted roads in and out of London using a new and unique strip map technique. I was stunned to realize that the excentric archivist was actually going to let these untrained and potentially grubby paws touch an old and original book, regardless of whether I was a direct descendent. But he did, even though I refused his proposed trade (old map for a dance in the middle of a library, sans music? It begs the question: from where do you glean your knowledge of American women, do you only watch Dancing with the Stars?).

And so I leafed through an incredibly old pocket atlas that contained original prints from copper plates by John Ogilby. And these maps were beautiful and exceptional and rather remarkable. The 'strip maps,' presented within a scroll design, consist of vertical panels that illustrate a road mile by mile. Intricately detailed images embedded in the map (rivers, mountains, mills, churchs, etc) give landmarks that direct the traveler along the correct course. A small compass is also included to indicate the cardinal direction of travel.

These maps were originally published in John Ogilby's "Britannia," in 1675, as the Kings Royal Cosmographer. While at the Edinburgh Map Library, I got my hands on an original printing of Britannia; the content was estentially the same, but with larger maps and accompanying text. I was able to get a fascimile of one of the maps, and will be able to order the rest via mail.

I don't want to say that I was disinterested in my family history before this journey to Scotland, but the connections I encountered have deepened my geneological interest. The Ogilbys are pretty cool.

Certain elements of Scottish culture and traditions resonated with me and recalled pieces of my family and my childhood. When we were children, my grandmother frequently gifted kilts to my sister and me (please note that these were the properly pleated and sufficiently scratchy versions). The song about "Loch Lomond" unburied itself from my memory and has since refused to depart; does everyone know this song?

Turns out that my Scottish blood is thicker than I realized.

Images of fantastic libraries (and many other themes) from around the world can be found at Curious Expeditions.

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