Well, at the time of writing on Monday, April 22, St. Philip’s Financial Administrator Juli Garland is in that part of Scotland known as Scottish Borders on vacation with a group of 31 other ladies from her online knitting group, who hail from all across the United States, including the Carolinas, Florida, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

On Sunday, the group boarded a double-decker bus for a Red Bus Bistro Tea And Fizz tour around Edinburgh. Juli and her friends enjoyed tea and Prosecco and all the usual teatime fare, such as finger sandwiches and scones. On Monday, they made their way to Dumfries, driving mostly on very narrow country roads. Along the way, they stopped in Hawick and another town called Galashiels, which is home to a wonderful tapestry museum that highlights the history of Scotland. A hush came over the group when they passed through Lockerbie, the site of the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988.

On Wednesday, the group will go to Sanquhar to learn a particular type of knitting before returning to Dumfries to see some exhibits about Scotland’s national bard Robert Burns (of Auld Lang Syne fame). Thursday they will visit a farm to see Heilan’ Coos (Highland Cattle) and sheep––it’s calving and lambing time! Other adventures on the docket are Loch Lomond, a cotton spinning mill village, Oban Distillery, the Isle of Mull, Isle of Iona (where they’ll learn more wool and fiber history and see Iona Abbey, which was founded by St. Columba and is purportedly Scotland’s first Christian settlement), and Ardalanish Weavers. When the tour ends on April 30, Juli will go on by herself to Dunoon, where she lived as a child and once competed in a Highland Game (the Highland Fling) and where her childhood friend still lives. She’ll also try for a garden tour if the weather is favorable, and she’ll visit the studio of a stained glass artist/restorer she met on her visit last year. Juli will be back in the church office on Tuesday, May 1

Who You Gonna Call (in the Finance Department)?

If you’re accustomed to calling the church office with questions about your weekly offering or your quarterly giving statements and speaking with Juli Garland, please note that until she returns from vacation, your finance calls will be directed to Assistant Financial Administrator Denise Pickford (and will sometimes go to Denise even after Juli returns). Many of you already know that on April 1, Denise, who had served in the music department since 2017, officially joined the St. Philip’s finance department––how blessed we are to have her!