Thursday, October 21, 2010

Irvine, Glasgow and Surrounding Areas

We arrived in Irvine after our drive down the west coast.  In Irvine we stayed with the Wildes, one of Richard’s favorite families he met in Scotland.  Jack and June Wilde have 7 children (only 5 living at home) and a very loving household.  We didn’t originally plan it this way but we ended up staying with them for 5 nights.  We stayed longer partly because we both got colds and aches and needed the time to recuperate.  June was great and basically became our mum while we were there.  We had a lot of fun with the Wildes, especially Jack Jr.



We went to church in Irvine and Richard was happy to see the ward had grown since he had left.  Jack Wilde Sr. is in the bishopric of the Irvine Ward and from the pulpit he announced that Richard would be speaking.  We thought he was joking at first but he said he was serious.  Richard spoke for about 10 minutes.  After church we celebrated Jack Sr.'s birthday with the family and June made a delicious Scottish dinner for us including cream of cauliflower soup, steak pie (for everyone but Marijke) and a veggie pot pie for Marijke, roasted potatoes, trifle and diluting juice with sparkling water.  It was delicious and fun to have a traditional Scottish dinner.

Using Irvine as our HQ we were able to see Glasgow (just a little), Kilsyth (Marijke’s ancestors), Dunsyre and Carmichael (Richard’s ancestors).

Richard's Flat

On Monday the Wildes invited the Favliolis (sp?), a family from Slovakia, over foFamily Home Evening.  They are also known as the Raviolis by a member of the ward or the Pavlovas by the Wildes.  The Favliolis had interesting stories to tell about life in Slovakia.  They brought a traditional Slovakian cake with a sort of sponge and hazelnut cream filling/frosting.  We also played a game with flour and a doughnut (see below).  The family home evening was great.
Kylsyth, home town of Archibald Gardner, Marijke's great-grandfather.  The high street was charming and the buildings date back to when he lived there, but the rest of the town was really disappointing and junkie.
House Archibald Gardner was born in--read and see more here.

Carmichael and Dunsyre were the towns of Richie's ancestors.  June Wilde was so sweet and packed us a delicious lunch to go.  Also, that lovely, fairytale mushroom was huge—like the size of a grapefruit!  Spencer and Emily: Carmichael/Dunsyre is the home of Emma Sommerville.

Glasgow University and the Kelvin Grove Art Museum in Glasgow


Some of our favourite people in Irvine: The  Adiars (Hannah, Hayley and Kathleen), Jack and June Wilde, Jack Jr. and Immanuel.

The doughnut game: Fill a bowl with flour then turn it out on a platter.   Balance a mini doughnut on top.  Take turns cutting a piece of the flour away.  Whoever makes the doughnut fall has to get it out of the flour with their mouth—no hands!

*Don't forget you can click on the photos to view them larger, click a second time to see them even larger*

5 comments:

Lori Smith said...

Did you actually find Archibald's house?

Marijke said...

No, we had no way of knowing which one it was. Uncle Paul said the postman knew, I think? but the post wasn't even open to try asking.

Alison said...

Great pictures guys. Looks like you're having a blast. Sorry you got sick but I'm glad there was somebody there to take care of you. That doughnut game is funny. Wouldn't you 'try' to lose so you could be the one to eat the doughnut? ;-)

Unknown said...

How do you put your pictures in collages like this. I love how much space it saves. BTW - I am loving that I can live vicarously through the two of you on all of your travels.

Marijke said...

Haha, Alison you might, but after it falls in the flour, it sticks to the frosting and not so yummy. We were glad to have some one to take care of us too! :)

Merika, we use google's Picassa. It's free to download on PCs, not sure if they have a version for Macs. I just use Richard's PC when I'm making them, I should look into that though. It is awesome for saving space/download time.