Tag: Scotland
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France 🇫🇷 or Scotland 🏴, which would it be?
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? My maternal grandparents were Scottish immigrants, born and raised in Glasgow, who came to America for better jobs and religious freedom. My grandfather fought (and was gassed) in WWI, and never fully recovered his health after that experience. They were born Catholics living…
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Book Review: Through an Open Window by Pamela Terry
First, thank you to NetGalley and Pamela Terry, through her publisher Penguin Random House, for the ARC of this new novel, to be published on August 19, 2025. This is Pamela Terry’s third novel, and I feel that her work becomes stronger and stronger with each new book. She is a true Southerner, and her…
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My Two Special Saints
On an unseasonably warm March day this year, I attended the 5:00 Vigil Mass at my parish, which was also Confirmation with Bishop Evelio Menjivar of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. The large church was packed, with folding chairs lining the entire interior perimeter of the church and chairs outside the doors of the…
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Book Review: Looking for You by Alexander McCall Smith
Before there was Match.com, eHarmony.com, or Tinder.com, there were individuals or agencies that “made introductions,” much like the matchmakers of the old days, like Yenta in the famous Fiddler on the Roof. The underlying theme of Fiddler is one of the key words of the musical: tradition. In Alexander McCall Smith’s series A Perfect Passion…
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Language Learned, Passport Packed
Sunday, March 17, 2019: This morning, the Second Sunday in Lent, Fr. Gabriel, our parochial vicar, began his homily at 10:30 Mass with, “How is your Lent going?” For the first time in a very long time, I felt as though I was fully prepared to say, “Good!” For a few weeks before Ash Wednesday,…
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The Adventures of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
It’s halfway through the second quarter of the school year and I’ve finally reached my favorite part of 8th grade literature, the beginning of an extended unit on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. First we read his short story, “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”, which serves as a warm-up to third quarter when we take…
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Links to Faith and Family
Every morning, I instinctively reach up to feel for the rose gold chain and cross around my neck. I never take it off. It is more than just a sign of my faith; those gold links are a connection to my mother’s family in Scotland. In 1997 my mother’s first cousin, Anna Liddell, came from…
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Buttered Toast
Buttered toast. Buttered toast and a cup of steaming café au lait. Buttered toast and a cup of English Breakfast tea, with a paper-thin slice of lemon floating delicately on top. Buttered toast and a cup of homemade chicken noodle soup. Heck, buttered toast all by itself. Two ingredients. Simplicity in itself. Comforting. Delicious. For…
Michelle Blanchard Ardillo 