My husband has always loved Scotland, where he was born and spent the first twelve years of his life.

He and his dad took a hike around Ben Ledi, the first hike they had done together when he was a little boy. When they first walked the trail decades ago, these trees had just been planted and were knee-high:

Although it’s a little grainy, I was so glad they were able to mark this occasion by taking this photo at the top:

That evening he humored me by taking me to this church we kept passing en route to the cottage, so I could get some photos:

Like the trees, the gravestones dramatically showed the passage of time. On some stones the elements had completely erased the engraving, which once marked the day someone who had been loved and cherished was born and the day they died:

The next day we took a day trip to Dollar. We parked our cars on the beautiful street bisected by a babbling burn, right next to the house where my husband first lived:

We walked to Mill Green and the kids played in the icy cold stream where my husband and his brother used to play as children:

We trekked up Dollar Glen to Castle Campbell, once known as Castle Gloom:

By the time we got there, the kids were exhausted:

They revived with a game of roly poly:

…which was fabulous, until Someone-Who-Shall-Remain-Unnamed rolled right into a pile of dog poop.

We continued our tour by stopping to see the church where my husband had been baptized as an infant:

And then it was back to the cottage, and to an early birthday celebration for both my husband and daughter:

We can only capture these fleeting moments of our “one wild and precious life” imperfectly in photos, in stone, in our memories…but by God we try.