M Mitchell Deli

We ran into the Mitchell Deli quite by mistake on our wander around St Andrews. We couldn't miss a photo opportunity like this - what with M Mitchell standing in front of 'his' shop.

We wandered into the deli and were amazed with the range and obvious quality of the foods available. It runs as a coffee shop, deli and restaurant. The smells coming from the kitchen and the line up were testament to how popular it was.

All of the deli items were sourced locally and from the looks of it , from cottage industries and small farm holdings. Many of the items were organic and all were beautifully packaged.  Even the beers were traditional, natural hand crafted styles. 

Super yum cakes and festive treats lined the counters.. Such a shame we had just eaten!

St Andrews

Welcome to St Andrews!

What a beautiful day to be out in Scotland as well. Azure skys and chilly breezes.  

We wandered about the town and the kids allowed themselves to be dragged into the museum and for me to do my arty shots int he graveyard and ruins of the cathedral.

Some interesting points about St Andrews I hand't known till I got here.  Its has the worlds third oldest universities. Far out. I knew it had a good name and was well established and all..

There has been a Cathedral there since the 8th century. It supposed to be the resting place for St Andrew. Its claimed that a monk brought a number of bones supposed to be the saints's arm, kneecap, three fingers and a tooth and they are believed to have been brought to the town by St Regulus. The medieval times were a pretty gross time with all those bones and bits of saints being touted about. 

The one thing that most people know of St Andrews is that it is the home of golf. Its the most frequent venue for The Open Championship, which is the oldest of golf's four major championships. 

People  travel to St Andrews  to see and play in several courses ranked amongst the best in the world. I can say it sure beats the rough old course in Stanthorpe and Warwick!

I have a number of photos from today - mostly the cathedral.

This is the ruins of the castle which was erected around 1200 as the residence, prison and fortress of the bishops of the diocese. It had a few major rebuilds as the town gained popularity and power, but as soon as the reformation happened and the Cathedral was ruined, the castle came down as well.

I am pretty obsessed with ivy... and there are plenty of old homes covered in it..  

David Livingston Museum

We visited the David Livingston Museum today. I remember coming here when Age and I did a motorbike trek round Scotland years ago, but I don't remember being as touched or affected as I was today.

Most people know Livingston as a daring explorer who 'disappeared' into Africa during the romantic Victorian age or exploration and archeology.

I hadn't quite grasped what a visionary he was, that he was also a linguist, writer journalist, missionary, botanist AND abolishist. The things he set in place changed he face of slavery and in journalism. What an incredible man.

The museum is housed in Shuttle Row along the river Clyde in south Scotland. Its a tenement which the Livingstones shared with 23 other families ( incredible!  most modern families would complain that the entire place was too squishy just for them)

Its packed with items relating to his explorations in Africa with maps, journals, letters and navigational equipment, as well as dioramas of significant events in his travels.

It gave us a much broader and better understanding of him and his life. I had assumed he was one of he moneyed explorers, who was some lower peer or some such. Instead I was humbled to find he was the son of a cotton mill worker, who started off in the cotton mills, read and studied while he worked in horrible conditions, applied and got into bible college ( the only education institution available for 'his' type) and became a doctor, missionary and writer - all wrapped up in one. He had a keen interest in biology and set about collecting samples of plants, as well as making notes on the tribes and people he met.

Out the front of the museum is a statue depicting the time he was a attacked by a lion. I'm sure he epitomised the 'proper' English gentlemen with the "just a flesh wound' comment.

Suffice to say, I was deeply moved by his humanitarian views surrounding slavery and his commitment to collecting information and sharing it with an ignorant world