Wee Peerie Things I Notice

I'm not saying one way of doing things or the other is better or worse but I notice things are a wee bit different over on this side of the pond. First of all, oatcakes. They are quite marvelous. I notice they are served with just about every meal. Crunchy, textured, and not much flavor to write home about. But they work. Odd. Trees, there aren't any! Screens. None of these either. There are no screens on any windows anywhere! Hats are nice. Tea, the tea is delicious. Coffee....ugh! The coffee is awful and they serve the coffee with skim milk. Not sure what that is about as I assume dairy resources are abundant. What do they do with the cream? Cars. Cars are smaller, roads are narrower, and the steering wheel is opposite from ours. What side of the pond decided to switch the steering wheel and why? Slow pace. It's a noticeably slower pace here than the states. And I don't even live in a fast paced section of the country! And don't rush anyone. It just won't work. At first I thought I was being ignored but with some patient observation I realized it's about pace. Slow but steady. Kinda nice really, something to learn from here. Clotheslines. Clotheslines are everywhere! They are wonderful to see. So many colors flapping in the breeze. That brings me to something rather obvious. Green. Simple green aka ecologically responsible choices are subtle but obvious. Smaller cars, wind turbines all about, clotheslines, cloth towels in the wash rooms as well as a hamper, outlets that you need to turn on in order to get power, fairtrade coffee advertised proudly, biking, walking. I wish we Americans were so environmentally conscious. Stone, it's everywhere! Many buildings are stone, stone fences, stone streets. Gardens, there are hardly any vegetable gardens on the islands! I see flowers but no veggies. Locals say it's because of the winds and salt air. The few I see are protected by fairly high stone walls. Seems there must be a way to garden. Condoms, condoms are available in all public restrooms. Just like tampons are available in machines (this isn't Texas! sorry, just had to get that in there :) so are condoms. Our money is worth only 2/3rds of what pounds are worth. So I have even less than I saved and planned for. Old, it's old here and there are many artifacts and reminders of that. You can see it and feel it everywhere.