It’s been a wet, cold week here in Newcastle. Usually May is full of sun and nearly as warm as it gets here. Hopefully this May is no prediction of the summer weather! The lawn is growing like crazy and needed to be cut about 3 days after the last cut. It will get done [...]

This Guinn family is finally feeling pretty settled back into life here in Newcastle, County Down. There was quite a bit more settling to do than we anticipated, but 5 months in the States was apparently long enough to warrant another round of culture shock upon our return. But we’ve made it through that season, [...]

Probably lots of you have heard from us in some other capacity about the recent news. But for any of you that haven’t, we wanted to let you know we’re temporarily coming home. We’ve had trouble getting our visa renewal sorted and because we have a baby due in 5 1/2 weeks, we’re probably going [...]

Mark ran into town this evening and as soon as he came through the door he asked where the camera was. Apparently, there had been the biggest, most vibrant double rainbow in the sky. But this was all that was left by the time he got his hands on the camera. Not as grand as [...]

I’ve been really into making (and eating) applesauce lately. It’s one of my favorite summer-time foods and you just can’t get the good stuff here. So I make it. And the last time I made it, I also got to read a letter from my Grandma Druber. What a perfect afternoon. I’ve also been spending [...]

Well, the cookout on the 4th was a smashing success. At least, we had a good time. I think the 28 other people there would say the same thing. The weather was gorgeous, if a bit windy. We ended up eating left-overs for about 5 days after because of the abundance of food. And here [...]

Hi. This is Laura Swartzendruber, Ange’s mom. We’ve been back home 2 weeks since visiting Ange & Mark and I wanted to catch you up a bit on their doings.  An amazing event was attending Ange’s ultrasound and seeing Baby Beaker at 19 weeks! What a miracle!  Have you seen an ultrasound?  The technician points [...]

We were driving home Saturday night from a friend’s house. It was very late and we were surprised by the beautiful, though somewhat blinding, snowfall. Giant flakes, actually sticking to the ground. We gawked at the beauty and let it sink in on the 30 minute drive home. Snow rarely falls in Newcastle, even when [...]

Our beautiful mountains are covered with the most lovely dusting of snow today.  I took a picture from my favorite spot by the house, but it’s so covered in cloud that you can’t see the mountain at all! Oh, well. It’s still pretty, don’t you think? And while we’re on pretty mountains, here’s one not [...]

It’s been a happy, normal day here.  Have done some deep cleaning around the house, some cooking and meal planning, and not much else.  I did manage to get out and take some pictures, though.  It’s so easy to forget what a beautiful place we get to live in, so it’s fun to pay attention [...]