Tag Archives: family

40 years ago today…

June 7, 2015 Melanie 9 Comments

I married my husband, best friend and soul mate. And unlike many couples, we’re still together. What a ride it’s been!

Two children – a girl and a boy and three grandsons, a step-granddaughter and a step-grandson.

Lots of ups and downs as I’m sure most couples go through but we’ve stuck it out and have made it to another landmark event.

In June 2000, to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, we renewed our vows in the Mount Zion Church, Quarriers Village, Scotland with family on that side of the pond – some we’d met previously, others it was the first time. This picturesque village was formerly The Orphan Homes of Scotland where my father and four of his nine siblings were raised.

We’ve been to Scotland before this trip and again since then but this trip is extra special… and why not?

A recent health problem has made us realize that we need to do the things on our bucket list while we’re still fit and able to do them…

In 2013, I hosted the Scotland launch for my debut novel in the Rannes Hall, Kennethmont – the parish where my father was born and baptised.

In 2014, we toured Paris in the spring, Niagara Falls and Quebec in the autumn.

This year in celebration of our 40th? Oh there are some things in the pipeline but you’ll have to keep visiting this space to find out where we’re off to and when.

Christmas, Family, Holidays, nutcracker

Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2013 Melanie 1 Comment

I’m well behind in my Christmas preparations, shopping, cooking, decorating. The only thing I believe I managed to get done on time was my cards written and mailed to the folks on this side of the pond as well as the other. And since the opposite side has an earlier mailing deadline, fingers crossed everyone received theirs in time for tomorrow.

During the ice storm this past weekend, I finally got around to putting my tree up and decorating it. I started Saturday and finished on Sunday.

I love the fur-trimmed, red outfit my angel wears. It reminds me of the gowns in the movie White Christmas. And no Christmas would be complete without my nutcrackers putting in an appearance.

This isn’t all of them either. I have two 42″ ones that I didn’t get out this year. And I believe there’s another 12″ one tucked away somewhere, too. You’d almost get the impression I like nutcrackers. I even think I have enough nutcracker ornaments that I could do my tree in nothing but them. As it is there are some of them that didn’t make it to the tree. I have other ones that need to go up – the pairs of hockey skates, figure skates, the photo frame ornaments, Santa ornaments, train, rocking horse, gingerbread men… the only one that doesn’t go on the tree is the one that used to be on my grandmother’s every year that she gave to me when I was a little girl. I used to put it on the tree (usually up high where a wagging tail wouldn’t knock it off) but after getting more old-fashioned looking ornaments, I decided I liked the look better than with the glass baubles.

I can’t believe that today is Christmas Eve. It certainly doesn’t feel like it. We’re going to have a white Christmas this year, albeit with a crust of ice on top of the snow. Most of our trees have half an inch of ice on them and two of my evergreens are bent way over.

The deciduous trees look beautiful coated in ice when they’re backlit by the sun. And at minus double-digit temperatures, they’ll stay that way for quite some time. At least the winds haven’t picked up – like predicted – so we shouldn’t have to worry about limbs coming down.

The poor evergreens, on the other hand, while they still look beautiful, they’ve lost their fullness – their branches weighted down under a layer of snow and ice. And in some cases, the entire tree is bent over from the weight like my juniper that stands at the back corner of our garage.

Wherever you are this holiday season, I wish you warmth and safety. If you’re without power as many people in parts of Ontario and the US are from this storm, I hope you get it restored quickly.

All the best to you and your families for the remainder of 2013 and for the years to come.

From all of us here at The House of King,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Family, roots, Scotland

My Scottish Roots…

April 29, 2013 Melanie 1 Comment

Since the subtitle of my blog is My Scottish Roots and Writing I decided it was about time I included something about my heritage. And today is a good day to do it.

dad — Robert A Robertson July 30, 1913 – April 29, 1969

My father came to Canada in 1930 – one of the 7,000 children sent out by The Orphan Homes of Scotland founded by Scottish philanthropist William Quarrier, who grew up in extreme poverty and later in life when he had the means to help the less fortunate, he did.

I’ve written an article on Quarrier which was published by The Scottish Banner in December 2001. Funny enough, I didn’t even know the article had been accepted until I opened my paper and there it was. But I digress… back to the business at hand – my Scottish roots.

My father was one of ten children born to John Robertson and Margaret MacDonald in Aberdeenshire, Scotland between 1903 and 1915 (five of which were sent to The Orphan Homes of Scotland).

Grandpa Robertson had been married before and had fathered ten children with his first wife, too. The youngest from this previous marriage was six when he married my grandmother (wife #2)

One thing that I didn’t realize immediately but my grandparents shared the same birthday, not that they could have afforded to buy each other gifts.