How's The Weather?

Hello Friends!

There is a common saying in New England that if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes. From what I've experienced over here, that's how it is in St. Andrews! I know a lot of you must be wondering about the weather in Scotland and how Pat and I are enjoying it. Is it like England? Does it rain all the time? Is it cold? I've wanted to write a weather post for a while now, but I also wanted to experience the weather so I could actually inform everyone. Because St. Andrews is right near the water, the air and clouds tend to get pulled around very quickly, resulting in more erratic weather.

Lovely September day in St. Andrews, but still cold enough to put on a jacket.

The first day we arrived in Edinburgh at the beginning of September, we walked out of the airport into the chilly, drizzly, windy air of Scotland and a piece of debris flew right into my eye. Welcome to Scotland, eh? According to our driver (bringing us north to St. Andrews), apparently the weather was acting up and it had actually been delightful the previous week. She wasn't wrong, because the following weeks were very nice, hardly any rain of clouds. I had come with the preconceived notion that it would be overcast and rainy almost every day, but it was a great beginning to our time here.

September 25th, still beautiful! See my post about Sunday by The Scores!

But this was short lived. It got colder as the year went on, and got to the point where it was overcast most days, which can get a bit depressing. By the end of October, we were bundling up and fighting off the cold. The worst part though, for me at least, had to be the biting wind. While the air was generally average in temperature for November and December, the wind brought ice into my bones that just would not let up. But because the air wasn't too cold, it would sometimes rain and just go straight through you; the kind of cold that doesn't leave you, even when you've been indoors for a while after. This is where a piping hot cup of tea comes in handy.

One of the first "snowstorms" here. This was about as bad as it got.

Winter here isn't very snowy, but like I said, it is windy and cold. After vising New England for Christmas and New Years, I was able to really pinpoint a difference between the two regions. New England was covered in snow, cold, and very very dry. This dryness isn't around in Scotland. It's actually quite moist (which may be why the cold sinks into you) and yet there isn't much snow. When Pat and I arrived back to St. Andrews, it snowed a few days on an off, but nothing ever accumulates; by the next day, it's all gone. There was one day in particular that made me think of that "wait five minutes" saying: it was a nice sunny morning, not a cloud in the sky, but at one point the whole room went dark. I thought Pat had closed the shades, but I turned and it was a white-out blizzard! A little while later the sun was back out.

This is what it looks like now: generally overcast, chilly, mildly damp.

It's getting towards the end of February now, and the weather is starting to get a bit more mild. It hasn't snowed in a couple weeks and unless this is like New England and we get a random April or May snowstorm, I think we're probably not going to get much of anything else for the year. This past week we've had a few days where the temperature got up to about 50F, but mostly it hovers around 40-45F. I'm just waiting for more consistent days of warmer weather in the 50s and even 60s and more sun! As the year goes on, the sun is setting later and later in the day, which is great because I'm not really a fan of the 3:30pm sunsets. I have a feeling Summer will be here in no time!

Cheers!

Back in the USA

Hello friends!

It's been over a month since I posted here, and while I don't have any new Scottish adventures for you, I can give a little detail into what I've been up to since my last post.

The end of my first semester was an all out race to the finish - sprinting in some places and crawling painfully slow in others. I had four papers due in the last five weeks of school, each one longer and harder than the next. If I'm completely honest, I didn't manage my time well. A couple years out of school and I forgot how to play the game! The beginning of the semester was easy as pie, which probably should have been an indication of what was to come. I worked on multiple papers at once, switching between writing one and editing another. Patrick was a wonderful editor, helping me to see the larger picture when I tended to focus on the small details. I haven't yet gotten around to picking up two of the papers from the reception desk in the Art History building, but I did well on the first two of those last four.

Breakfast time in Spencer!

Christmas at the Letourneux's

Once I finished for the semester, Patrick and I flew home for two and a half weeks thanks to his wonderful parents, who bought us plane tickets. I'm so grateful for the time we got to have back home. Not only was it was such a fun time, getting to see all our friends and families, but it was a much needed rest. Another year of Soup Night and Christmas parties, an uneventful and snowy Pie Party, a couple game nights and shopping trips. We spent the weekend and New Years at 18b. Its strange how I can be away for months and walk into that place and it just feels like home. It felt like I was there for a long time but before I knew it I was packing up my bags again, ready to fly back (with a cold too, which made flying terrible!).

Working on some new Rabbit Troop Forever music

I'm back again in St. Andrews. I thought it would feel strange coming back here after becoming quite comfortable in Massachusetts, but I walked in the door and everything felt exactly the same. It's been a slow readjustment though, getting over a sickness and dealing with jet lag. Plus I've been dragging my feet, not really anxious to begin my winter intercession school work. Classes start up at the end of January and I'm hoping there are more adventures I can share with you all as the weather gets warmer.

Cheers!

The Yellow Books of Vincent van Gogh

Hello friends!

As the fall semester comes to an end, I realize that I have not published any new blog posts in a while. If any of you are in school or have children in school, you know how stressful the ends of semesters can be. I have a little more than three weeks left and three more papers due, so the stress is starting to pile on. I can hardly enjoy Christmas season with all the work I need to focus on! And for those of you who know me well, I'm all about the Christmas cheer.

Gauguin's Chair, 1888

I figured that while I'm working on these papers, maybe I'll take a few moments to talk about one of my papers. I'm here for school, right? Yet all of my posts have been about me going on adventures around Scotland. Not that I'm complaining - I'm so fortunate to be here and to have had the time to explore. However, with it being crunch time, I'm full steam ahead with the research and paper writing, so here is the one I am currently working on.

Vincent van Gogh! Thoroughly researched, maybe to the point where it would be absurd to try and write any original material on the painter. I've fought with myself for years, telling myself that he wasn't one of my favorite painters because that is sooo cliché and obvious. But once I gave up being a pretentious artsy fartsy historian, I realized that it's ok to like, even love, van Gogh. He has so many wonderful paintings, drawings, and sketches that the only cliché part about liking van Gogh is being a superficial fan (meaning, "I love Starry Night and those sunflower ones but can't name any other work he's done"). He's an avid reader and writer, and one glance at any of his hundreds of letters that he wrote will come up with references to hundreds of authors and books.

This is where my paper comes in. The class is called "Text and Image in France from Diderot to Dada", so I had to choose a topic of my choice within the parameters of the class. So I quite daringly chose to focus on van Gogh. I say "daringly" because as I found out from my tutor ("tutor" is fancy UK talk for "professor"), van Gogh is thoroughly researched and I would need to find an angle to make my research unique. After two failed attempts at a topic, I developed one that not only interests me but works for my tutor as well.

Still Life with Bible and Zola's 'Joie de Vivre', 1885

My paper is going to be focusing on van Gogh's use of books in his art. I had never noticed before how many paintings and drawings he has with books in them - I counted about 18 - so I'm only choosing a couple to work on. Most of the books have titles written on them, allowing me to figure out what the books are, who their authors are, and what they mean to van Gogh and to the painting. I'll be reading his letters and books by other authors to build up my research and bibliography. (The theme of books/letters/art goes along with the class which is about text and image)

Oleanders and Zola's 'Joie de Vivre", 1888

So yeah. Instead of writing my paper, I'm here writing about my paper... Classic. If anyone is interested in reading van Gogh's letters, they are all compiled online, the result of fifteen years of research! And you can search by keywords, correspondent, place, period, letters with sketches, or advance search for his writings about specific works of art. It's really a remarkable accomplishment of the Van Gogh Museum and Huygens ING. Now... Back to work!

Cheers!

Kirkcaldy

On top of the Old Kirk bell tower overlooking Kirkcaldy. The church here is St. Brycedale Church.

One of my favorite things about studying art is the opportunities I get to visit new places. I can see images of paintings and sculptures in books or online, but this is no comparison to seeing art in person. There is a type of magic when standing before a work of art; all your senses are involved. I've been to many art museums in the States, and now in Scotland I'm getting the opportunity to branch out to new museums and historic sites.

Morris & Co. stained glass in St. Brycedale Church, designed by Edward Burne-Jones, circa 1890s. This shows Moses and the burning bush.

One of the classes I'm taking this semester is a course about the Victorian era English designer, William Morris. Morris opened a design firm, Morris & Co., in 1861 which included producing for sale wallpaper, textiles, chintzes, furniture, and stained glass (among other things). I chose to focus my seminar paper (second of three papers for the class) on Morris stained glass. Morris (and many other glaziers of the time) looked to Medieval stained glass for style and material inspiration. My paper will focus on the revival of stained glass in the Victorian period and how Morris & Co. played a significant role in the revival. There was a need for a revival because before the 1850s-1860s, stained glass was not very good quality and lacked originality. Morris & Co. brought it back!

Another Morris & Co. window in the Old Kirk, designed by Burne-Jones. The left is Moses and the Egyptians being consumed by the Red Sea and on the right is a scene of Joseph, Mary, and infant Jesus with an angel. Also circa 1890s.

Today, the William Morris class took a trip to Kirkcaldy, a town a little more than an hour southwest of St. Andrews. There we visited the St. Brycedale Church and the Old Kirk to see three sets of Morris & Co. windows. They were designed by Edward Burne-Jones, the principle stained glass artist of the company as well as good friend of Morris. Burne-Jones was primarily known as being a painter, but his talents overlapped into many different mediums.
 

The William Morris class inside the cafe at St. Brycedale Church. On the right is the instructor and behind her are the windows

One of the distinguishing features of Morris & Co. windows is the colors. As opposed to typical jewel-like primary colors, Morris often used earthy greens and browns, deep reds, and rich blues. Another feature seen in many Morris & Co. windows is the background foliage which are typical of Morris' patternwork.

Inside the Old Kirk. The two windows in the picture are both Morris & Co. windows.

After having breakfast in the little cafe in the St. Brycedale Church, in which there was one of the Burne-Jones windows, we headed over to the Old Kirk to see another set. After seeing these, we headed back into St. Brycedale and looked at the final set of windows in another part of the church.  However before this, while still at the Old Kirk, we had the most interesting and unplanned part of the trip: we were able to climb the bell tower.

The first set of stairs leading up to the bell tower in the Old Kirk. This was the only part with a railing.

 Now I don't know how I end up in the strangest places of old buildings in Scotland (mines, anyone?) but it's definitely worth the minor anxiety of potentially getting trapped or falling off of something high. In the bell tower of the Old Kirk, we were allowed to ring the bell, Quasimodo style, by pulling on the rope attached to it - which I didn't actually get a chance to do but some of the other girls did. Then after this we climbed a narrow set of winding stairs, no railing to hold on to, we emerged out into the open air on a small balcony that went around the whole tower. Inside, we could touch the bell. There was a little mallet and a note saying that the bell played different notes if hit in different parts - so I hit away!

The bell inside of the Old Kirk, Kirkcaldy.

So the moral of this story: Study art history, move to a foreign land, climb scary bell towers, and hit bells with tiny mallets. Worked for me :)

Cheers!

(For more pictures from Kirkcaldy, visit my flickr page!)

Chewy & Anne

(Let me start this post by saying that there are a lot of fun links throughout the text. Unlike other posts, I'm putting links to specific pictures that need to be seen in relation to the story, but maybe don't physically fit within the text. So click away, friends!)

St. Andrews

It can be so easy to get caught up in the picturesque town of St. Andrews or to bury myself in my schoolwork, letting weeks pass like days. But every once in a while I'm reminded of how much I miss home. Being five hours ahead can make communication with family and friends difficult - I have to wait until about 1:00pm until anyone I know is even awake, and then when I'm ready for bed, everyone is home from work and ready to start chatting. I'm lucky I have someone to keep me company day after day, but I know we both miss our Moms, Dads, siblings, and best friends.

Anne and Chewy visiting in St. Andrews, enjoying the ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral.

So it was a real treat for Patrick and I to have our good friends Chewy and Anne come up to St. Andrews for a visit. They visited the UK for their honeymoon (d'aww) and had been in London for five days before traveling up by train to Scotland for an additional four days, finally returning to London to finish up their trip. While this was not their first trip to London or Scotland, this was their first time visiting St. Andrews. Patrick and I pulled out all the stops for them. We started at the North Point Diner, where "Will and Kate met for their first cup of coffee". Decent food, nothing special, good for a quick bite. Afterwards, we visited the ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral, as Chewy has a deep love for ruins. If you're interested in reading more about St. Andrews Cathedral, you can find it here when Patrick and I first arrived in St. Andrews.

The ruins of St. Andrews Castle, overlooking the ocean.

After visiting the pier and seeing the ocean for the first time that day, we headed over to St. Andrews Castle. This was the first time any of us had been into it, because you have to pay to go in. We passed through a cheesy history of the castle - or at least that's what I think it was, I couldn't get past the hilarious plastic mannequins dressed up like castle-dwellers past - and entered the grounds of the castle. The castle was built c.1200 by Roger de Beaumont and stayed in use until 1689, after which parts of the castle were used to repair the pier and the castle fell to ruin. Regardless of its diminished state, the castle is still impressive. My favorite part, and hopefully the favorite of my three taller companions, was climbing down into the mine. the shaft leading downward was only a few feet tall, so we all had to crouch down. It was wet, there were no stairs although there was a hand rail, and I wasn't even sure if it was somewhere we should go. Regardless, we all braved the tunnel and made it to the end, a number of stairs leading up to a closed off wall. It may not sound impressive, but the sheer madness of deciding to go down there - "at your own risk" as the sign told us later - and doing the most physical trekking of the day made it worth while.

The Mines - this is climbing back up to ground level.

We refueled at Pizza Express, entertained by a handful of uniquely funny children sitting near us, and then visited the Old Course and the West Sands (which, again, if you're interested in reading about them, you can find it here in a previous post) before showing Chewy and Anne our "base" and then sending them back on their bus to Edinburgh.

Scott Monument in Edinburgh

The following day, Patrick and I made our way to Edinburgh to visit them. I'm never disappointed by Edinburgh. Granted, this is only the second time I've been, but it's such a special city, so full life and yet so rich with history. There are such wonderful contradictions everywhere you go. For example, we first walked into the old town and had lunch at The Hub Cafe & Restaurant, which is in a building that looks just like an old cathedral. The building was constructed between 1842 and 1845 as the Victoria Hall to house the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, however was never consecrated as a church. Great food, I had a vegetable pie in a truffle creme sauce, the boys had pies (sorry, I can't recall what kind! They looked almost like chicken pot pies), and Anne had a delicious looking burger.

Edinburgh Castle

We spent the majority of our day at Edinburgh Castle, a place I had been dying to see since arriving in Scotland. It sits at the beginning of the Royal Mile, or High Street, atop the remnants of a now extinct volcano. I thought we were going to enter one building, just one big castle with old rooms of stone, however the castle was more like a little village. Most of our time spent there was out of doors in courtyards, running up to the ledges to see the vast view of Edinburgh. It is simply breathtaking how magnificent the view is.

Looking out over the spectacular view of Edinburgh.

We climbed the hills leading up to the top of the castle, stopping along the way to check out exhibits and buildings we were allowed to go into (the castle has always been in use, and there are parts that are off limits to the public, such as soldier's quarters). At 1:00pm every day, except Sundays, the castle fires off the "One O'Clock Gun", an enormous gun that was used to keep time for ships but is also used for special occasions. It is also used to mark friendships because guns fired in friendship cannot be quickly fired in anger. This is not the only one in the world; there are many still in use (there's one in Vancouver).

Edinburgh Castle

The oldest building in the castle is St. Margaret's Chapel, which was built by King David I (1124-53). Margaret died here in 1093 and was later sainted in 1251. The opening lines of a small book we purchased for £1 sum up the chapel perfectly: "It's a very small chapel - it doesn't hold more than about twenty people, and it's very old, and it's very lovely". Margaret became Queen of Scotland through her marriage to King Malcolm III (successor to Macbeth, King of Scots). She was a very loved queen, and she loved her subjects equally.

One of the many views out from Edinburgh Castle. The tall spire is The Hub.

We also got to see the Honors of the Kingdom: the royal scepter, crown, sword, jewels, and the Stone of Destiny, also known as the Coronation stone, as it is used during the coronation of the monarch (it sits under the Coronation Chair at Westminster Abbey)

Walking over N. Bridge from the Old Town to the New.

After visiting the castle, Patrick and Chewy went off to a whisky tour and Anne and I visited the Elephant House for some tea, hot chocolate, and a shared shortbread cookie. We collected the guys after the whisky tour and headed to dinner at Abbotsford Restaurant, where we were serenaded by classic 90s and early 2000 R&B (think "Thong Song", "I'll Make Love To You", and "The Boy Is Mine"), and the boys got his first taste of Haggis. They said it tasted a bit like meatloaf, and it wasn't cooked or served in a stomach. After a stroll around the New Town, we had to say our farewells (which were very funny as we sat on the bus waving wildly at Chewy and Anne, who waved back with even more enthusiasm).

Haggis, Tatties, and Neeps!

It was definitely a memorable weekend and Patrick and I are so thankful to have such great friends. We look forward to our next trip to Edinburgh and hope that Chewy and Anne enjoyed the remainder of their honeymoon (which we noticed from facebook pictures was filled with tasty food!).

Cheers!

(For many many more pictures from our weekend, check out my flickr page!)

Edinburgh & Kellie Castle

Edinburgh

Aren't you all lucky - you get a cultural two'fer today! This weekend was chock-a-bock full of culture and adventure for me and my art history friends. I saw old stained glass and Yoda flying, I ate at the birthplace of Harry Potter, I met the TARDIS and roamed through a castle. All in just two days. Not bad, I'd say. So that means two things for you all, dear readers: first that there are a LOT of pictures to sift through on my flickr page, but I'll post the best ones here; Second, that you have a lot of reading ahead. Stick with it for some culture straight to your brains.

National Museum of Scotland entrance, ground level

On Saturday I visited Edinburgh with one of my professors' undergraduate classes. Three of us post-grads went with the bus: Kate, Jane, and myself. June and Christie, two other postgrads, met us there. The trip there is about an hour and a half by car or bus. It took us a little bit longer to get there because the motorway was unavailable for drivers so it funneled them all into the road we were on.

Inside the National Museum of Scotland

Eventually we got to the Scottish National Museum and went into an exhibit about Catherine the Great. I'm ashamed to say that I don't know much about her, but I'm not very interested in her to start with. After the exhibit, I still didn't know much about her because I didn't pay much attention - again, not very interested.
After that we walked around (Kate, Jane, June, and Christie) looking at Exhibits. We were supposed to see things that related to our class about William Morris, so we spent some time looking at Arts and Crafts such as pottery, tapestries, glass, but I didn't feel like there was much relevant to William Morris. The building was very interesting: the galleries all extended off of this wide open space, sort of in the shape of a race track, oval, and one would walk around the edges and could look down the middle to the ground floor.

The Elephant House - The birthplace of Harry Potter! (Death place of my lunchtime hunger pangs)

We were all getting a bit hungry by this time, so we went to lunch at a cafe called The Elephant House, which we were happy to find out is the Birthplace of Harry Potter. The cafe was also filled with elephants. Not real ones, because that would be absurd, but there were chairs shaped like elephants and figurines and books and paintings everywhere. I got a tasty panini - mozzarella, pesto, and olive.

Above: Kate and June. Below: Jane and Me

After that we walked to St. Giles Cathedral, which dates from the 14th century and was extensively restored in the 19th century. It's a beautiful cathedral that has been undergoing renovations. There is an enormous organ - believe me, I checked out the pipes on that organ - also amazing and varied stained glass, chapels for prayer, and a number of lovely statues. Outside the cathedral, the beautiful crown steeple is one of the prominent features of the city skyline.

St. Giles Cathedral, west facade

I am doing a seminar paper on Morris & Co. stained glass, and inside the castle was one stained glass window by the artist Edward Burne-Jones, who worked for the company and was very close friends with Morris.  The Cathedral is along High Street, which is very touristy. I think if you take the road west, it leads to Edinburgh Castle, which I really wanted to see but there was no time. Along the road, we also saw a lot of street performers and shops selling jewelry and bags. One performer was dressed up as Yoda and was hovering off the ground! There has to be a trick behind it, but I can't for the life of me figure it out! We also saw a blue police call box, aka the TARDIS, and had a stranger take our picture in front of it. They said to us "You want me to take your picture in front of the police box?" Obviously they haven't seen Doctor Who.

Looking into St. Giles Cathedral

With only about an hour left in our trip, we went to Dovecot studios, which is a weaving studio in a building that used to house a swimming pool. The weavings were beautiful but in the same vein as the Catherine the Great exhibit, I wasn't really interested. William Morris did a lot of weaving, so it was relevant to the class, but it was just too removed to be very relevant. After walking quickly through the exhibit, Kate and I went to the coffee shop attached. I got the cutest latte, and I know, coffee does not usually end up being "cute", but they did a little leaf design on top and it was wrapped in a cozy little knitted sleeve. Now that's adorable. After this we headed back to St. Andrews and we saw a really amazing rainbow on the way home. Probably the best one I've ever seen, which was a nice end to a lovely day.

Kellie Castle

Today I went to Kellie Castle where photography is not allowed, so of course, I hope you enjoy the photos I took! Granted, its only prohibited inside the castle, and I only knew that after I had snapped a few shots. So I didn't do anything wrong, right? The Castle is located just outside Arncroach. It wasn't as grand as I expected - it was more of a large stone house. But the grounds were lovely - gardens in the back of the castle and vast fields out front. It was all very nice and serene.

Dining Room of Kellie Castle. You can see the Chinese soapstone across the room above the fireplace. The other fireplace with the Delft tiles is to the right of this photo.

The castle dates back to the 14th century (wikipedia says 1150 but I'm not sure if they're correct). It was built in three different sections - two towers were added later on at two separate times. The castle was owned by a few different people over time, the names of which escape me. We were brought through the castle by a guide who started us out in the drawing room where we were able to see lovely Delft tiles on one fireplace, soapstone chinese figurines on the other fireplace mantle. The room had original ceilings from the 16th-17th century.

Old Staircases in the castle

We visited the Dining Room, which had sixty-four paintings on wooden panels painted by Flemish painters in the seventeenth century. They were darkened by time and they didn't really tell a story as you went around the room, mostly just for visual aesthetics. There was also a really lovely chandelier in the room, all metals and made by a local blacksmith. It used to have candles in it but they took the chandelier, flipped it upside down, and fitted it with light bulbs where the candles used to go. In between each "candle" was a cutout of a star. One entire wall in the room had a Flemish tapestry from 1580 depicting Europa and the Bull.

A view of the castle looking out one of the windows on the top floor of the Castle.

In the Library, the original ceilings were still there, made in 1617 for the King. They were beautiful too, intricately sculpted plaster in shapes of cherub faces and floral designs. There was also a small display with lace bobbins and a piece of tapestry from the Renaissance that were found under the floorboards above the room.

Entrance to the gardens behind the castle

However my favorite room was a room of paintings by John Henry Lorimer, who had tenancy in the castle from 1916 when his mother died to 1936. He had studied in France during the time of the Impressionists, but didn't quite like their works. He enjoyed trying to copy the styles of many different painters. The guide told us that his works were often shown at the Salon and that the Louvre owns four of his paintings.
After visiting the inside of the castle, we walked the outter grounds. Behind the castle were some very nice gardens with paths intersecting throughout. We spent about a half hour back there, just walking around, taking photos of the plant life and enjoying autumn in Scotland.

A view of the castle from the gardens

I hope you all enjoyed this and it wasn't too long - you lucked out though, it's mostly pictures! I've been finding Scotland to be such an enchanting place just saturated with culture and I hope you've all been enjoying reading about it!

Moth in the gardens

Cheers!

(For more pictures from my trip to Edinburgh or Kellie Castle, including puppies, the TARDIS, and Yoda, visit my flickr page!)

Curiosity

Curiosity: the best place in St. Andrews to sell your old useless stuff and buy new useless stuff.

St. Andrews can be a very "touristy" place, especially on weekends. People come with their families and dogs from local towns and walk South Street and Market Street, two of the three busiest roads (the third being North Street, however this is mostly university buildings). The three roads all meet at the end, at the St. Andrews Cathedral ruins. Along the way, there are a number of stores to visit. There are a lot of sandwich shops and coffee shops, places to pop in for a quick meal to "take away" and eat as you shop. There are a number of clothing stores and bookstores as well. However my favorite so far is a shop called "Curiosity". Curious? Yeah, me too.

This store is seriously like an enormous eye-spy book

Curiosity begs for you to come in and look. Even from the sidewalk, it's just so... Curious. Everything about it. The sign claims "Unusual items purchased for cash" in bright yellows and reds. There are tables set up outside with vintage comics for sale and old guitars, but there is still the typical spinner rack with St. Andrews postcards - a staple of the town's shops. The front window is a cornucopia of random items - an old scuba diver's helmet, taxidermied animals, old black and white photographs. However depending on what day you show up, you might see something completely different than the last time you went. Every time I go into Curiosity, it's curiously different... The shop is constantly buying and selling new things, rearranging the landscape of the shop.

I wonder if she bought one of those tacky ties?

Curiosity is like a feast for your eyes. There is a wall lined with clocks, filing cabinets covered with an assortment of magnets and filled with the same vintage comic books. This shop is knick-knack heaven: Buddhas, elephants, toy cars, pipes, incense holders, ceramic cats, fake plastic vegetables, teacups, thimbles, and teddy bears (to list a small taste of what lies in the little wooden cubicles).

This guy was the original owner. Waste not...

Curiosity is a cramped little store: too small to begin with and then filled to the brim with what can only be described as outstandingly useless crap. Crap that I'd buy in a heartbeat. It's kind of like a huge yard sale where everyone of St. Andrews tries and sells their old things. Or like a physical eBay. And the genius behind this shop is that, because it is always changing, it is never dull and the customers will always come back. (Additionally: I can't believe I made it through this entire post without saying something about cats...)

Did you know that when a clock is hungry, it goes back four seconds?

Cheers!