Just before I go

It's a beautiful sunny day here, Kelly, but frosty.
My car is still sparkling!

Friday morning

I am supposed to be having a shower just now after which I will be cleaning the bathrooms and hoovering the house but I've put it off ...just for a few moments.

I hate showers, much prefer a bath but I need to wash my hair and it's easier to just do it in the shower.

When I was younger, before showers were the norm in folk's houses, I washed my hair in the kitchen sink with a basin and a mug. It was always better if you could get someone to rinse your hair for you, it saved the water running up your arms which wasn't very comfortable!

Listen, think that's prehistoric, when I was small, we lived in a house with no bathroom and the bath was tin and was sat in front of the fire.
Aye, folk don't know how good they've got it these days :)

I found an image of our tin bath on the net. They still make them!
...I wonder who uses them.

www.mower-magic.co.uk/acatalog/Galvanised_Tin


I remember the bath was filled using a bucket, which was filled with hot water from the geyser (this is what we called the gas water heater on the wall above the sink) in the scullery. The scullery being the only source of water in the house!

Starting to get light

Lucy, I never realised I had such an artistic and talented child! Your reindeers were phenominal! Did you think up that idea all by yourself?

Eight o'clock on Tuesday morning and I've already sent a long newsy email to a friend in Aberdeen. I taught beside Sheila for years. She was the learning support teacher in St. Joseph's. Now she teaches part time in Ashley Road School but she'll be sixty in January and she can hardly wait!

Sheila's from Elgin originally but came to Aberdeen to work in her early twenties and has never gone back. Don't think she has any family left over there now.

I got caught up in other things and didn't tell you about my trip to Inverurie last Thursday for a birthday celebration lunch with Carole and Luca, and Liz.

As you are all now aware Carole was not well last week and on Thursday she was still a poor, pathetic wee thing in her jammies who needed to sleep so Liz and I took Luca to the Garden Centre for lunch.

A trip worth taking. I would recommend it. True, it's self-service (something Granny Lottie hated - she was of her time!) and I agree it's not always the easiest way of getting lunch, especially if you have a potential 'run amock' escapee with you however it was worth it for the banquet that greeted your eyes on the display counter.

We were very good and just had soup, but what soup! It was gorgeous - parsnip and sweet potato - I went home and immediately attempted to imitate it. Delicious soup, served with huge chunks of bread - white, wholemeal or sun dried tomato.

There was a choice of soups, three main courses - a beef dish, a chicken dish and a vegetarian. The chicken was curry and it looked and smelled yummy. I was tempted.

Now the main courses were tempting but the desserts ( double s , Ian - are you proud of me?) they looked heavenly. My eye was drawn to the pecan meringues - they were gigantic and gooey and I'm salivating just thinking about them.

There was a complete counter diplay of different desserts. Paradise for the sweet toothed!

Having Luca does keep you moving. He reminds me, at the moment, of Ian.
"OK, we're finished eating/drinking. Why are we still sitting here? It's time to get on and do something else."

That was fine. We took a wee walk round the garden centre - Luca was enthralled by the Christmas decorations especially the arches covered in blue lights and you'll never guess what they had...
"Horses!"
Yes!
Little blue fluffy pull along toy horses!
You'd never credit it would you...but there they were, horses.
It made the day!

I overstayed my welcome as usual, spending a really enjoyable afternoon with Liz and I met my first South African, Thomas! Liz's husband.

My photos are a bit of a disaster. I tried to do it casually - you know like the newspaper reporters do - just clicking away.
I think there must be a knack to it that I haven't quite mastered yet.

Sorry Liz, the photos are appalling.



The photos are blurry and the second one does not do Liz justice. In real life she is a much better looking woman.

And I swithered whether to put this photo on the blog or not but, in the end I decided to put it on so that you, Lucy, have at least an idea what Liz looks like.
Sorry Liz!

Almost lunchtime

You know how I had to waken sleepy head yesterday morning. Well here he is 10 minutes after he got in last night!

He's still out for the count.
I'll give him till lunchtime and then I'll start to annoy him!

I should be going out to the butchers and the dry cleaners this morning. What can I say... I've put it off! I didn't even get dressed till 20 minutes ago and it's now 12:15.

It looks beautiful outside but it's not the kind of weather you want to experience first hand. Better through the window.

So what have you done since you got up this morning, Josephine?

Well I got up. And not late either...it was before nine!

Apart from that, I've had three or four cups of coffee and sat in the kitchen reading 'The Grave Tatoo' by Val McDermid (author of 'Wire in the Blood' from the TV).

I'm on page 473 now and there are 543 pages in the book. I only mention this because I've taken forever to read this far.

It's not what I expected having watched Wire in the Blood but on reflection TV dramas always move at a much faster pace, cutting out half the story so I shouldn't have been surprised at the slower pace of the book.

And I took some photos of the snowy picture we saw when we drew back the curtains this morning.

It's a beautiful sunny day!
I've given you a photo of the embankment as well as the view from the front of the house because I love the silver birch trees!
Don't you agree they look beautiful in the snow!


They look ten times better in real life! Click the photos to make them larger...you get a much better effect.

Movies hot off the press!

I'm just back home having now cleared my car of snow twice; once at home before I set out and again when I came out of the supermarket!

I think Sommerfield are taking Gordon very seriously! The shop is full of 'three for the price of two', 'buy one get one free' and 20% off the recommended price.
"Spend, spend, spend!" says Gordon and Sommerfield, like all the High Street stores, is making it easy for us to do just that.

The utility room is now stacked full of loo rolls, kitchen towels, fruit corners, 'Highland and Island' cheese and much much more.

Talking of bonanzas, on the way home from Carole's yesterday (I'll fill you in on my visit later) I heard on the radio that there was a police alert out, warning folk not to go into Aberdeen especially round about Denburn as the roads were jammed with cars trying to get to the Christmas sales!!

No shortage of potential retail customers in Aberdeen, then.

Anyway, I dropped by Ross's work on the way to the supermarket . Would you like to share the experience?

OK...


This is the view from the front door. Very pretty?




Ross was not keen to be filmed. I suggested he think of you, Lucy. It would let you see what his work looks like.

"She'll see it when she comes over," was his reply.

I'm not his favourite person just now, although I think I've made some recompence by bringing him his swipe card, because seeing that he was having trouble getting up this morning, I went down and flicked on his overhead light. I didn't hang around afterwards! But I heard him shouting, "Put that light off," as I tore up the stairs!




The other voice you hear on the film is just the radio in the car. Do you think my overvoice is improving? No? Oh well never mind.

Morning

Well, the weather forecast got it right. It is snowing!
Have a look...



I am tempted to delete this rather naff piece of filming with commentarybut I keep thinking how long it took me to upload it - over two hours - so I'm going to leave it for the moment.

Would I improve with practise or would I be better just to scrap the whole idea?

Heading out to the supermarket and Ross's work. He left his ID at home so I'll pop it in to him. It's his swipe card to get into his office as well as his ID.

Morning

Just read your blog, Gary.
The photo of Luca was taken in May 07!
Here are some other photos from May 07...












I found photos of Cornwall in May but that must be a mistake. When were they taken? Could it have been April?

Evening

Gary, you took 24 photos with my camera when you popped in tonight and here are the best ones.
I've saved all of the photos you took on my hard drive so you can see them but honestly they are very blurry. It's not your fault, the camera's not working too well these days!



"orse!" said Luca handing the book to me.
"Do you want to come up?"
He nods his head and holds out his arms.
We go through this little ritual a lot just now.
It is just the beginning...there are about half a dozen books in the play box and we usually get through at least half of them.
You should hear him say sausages when he finds the page about the fat sausages in the pan...really cute. That page is in the book with all the rhymes in it.

Row Row Row the boat
Gently down the stream
merrily merrily merrily merrily
Life is but a dream.

Luca learned this one ages ago at daycare but they taught him another verse too...

Row row row the boat
Gently down the stream
If you see a crocodile
Don't forget to scream
Aargh (you scream at this point)

He doesn't oblige with the scream too often now but he was hilarious when he learned it at first!



Once we go into the kitchen,he hits the tins cupboard.
Today, for the first time, rather than take them out and stack them high, he rolled them across the floor.
Packets of dried pasta slide quite well too, you know! Great fun.





Ross came home from work while Gary and Luca were still here and he sat beside Luca and I on the couch.
This was a big deal!! For Luca that is, not Ross.

Relations between them are difinitely warming. Wouldn't you agree, Gary?

After a wee browse on the internet

I found this information on the internet and the explanations seem familiar.

'A silver coin symbolises wealth, a penny is for a pauper. A key represents a change of home or career. A ring means you are going to get married and a thimble or button means you aren't.'

Evening

Tried to phone you tonight, Kelly. Returning the call from you that I missed yesterday but you are out. Read my email.

What Scottish tradition springs to mind when you are asked for one?

This is the question Cade would like an answer to.

He has a talk to do at school on his family heritage and since his is so diverse, he has opted to focus on the Scottish side. So?

I have already mentioned Christmas dinner and kilts.
I took the liberty of using your good self as a model for the kilt, Craig. And very handsome you look too!! :)

I thought of Guy Fawkes Night, but Ian said that is a British Tradition, not a Scottish one...although the king at the time was only King James I of Britain (I think he invented the name Great Britain!?). He was the VI of Scotland.

Anyway, Ian said guising ... how do you spell this word? Is it from the root word disguise? I don't know!

But kids here don't go out guising anymore ... do they? What do they do? Have we not copied Trick or Treat?
You said they go out begging in Cornwall, Kelly, didn't you but here...I don't really know for sure!

Nobody has been around our street since you all grew up until this year, when Ian, much to his embarrassment, shut the door on somebody! He thinks!

On Halloween, the doorbell rang and Ian and I looked at one another.
"You left the lights on, didn't you." I said.
Ian knew that he had.
"Well you can answer the door," I finished.
With an anxious look, Ian searched his pockets for change and disappeared down the stairs.
He appeared back a couple of minutes later saying that there was no-one there.

After settling back down to watch TV for a couple of minutes he said, "I think I might have closed the door on somebody - I think someone said, 'Boo' just as the door closed!"
Oh dear!

After Ross gave up going out, we had no kids in the street for a few years so I stopped organising for Halloween and after a while, I just opted out - I put the lights out at the front of the house - I am so ashamed!!




We had Christmas pudding for dessert tonight! It was Sommerfield and it was very good!
Why did we have it?
Ian asked that same question.
Well, the shops are filling up with Christmas goodies now and I had noticed the puddings - all wrapped in golden paper and looking very festive on a shelf at the supermarket and I thought, "We never really do justice to Christmas pudding on the day because we are so full. So why not enjoy it just now!" So we did!

You know, in Storie Street (where I was brought up), we ate clootie dumpling and not Christmas pudding because, I guess our taste leant more towards the sweet rather than the bitter, but I must admit, I began to quite enjoy Christmas pudding when I got to about fifty. I guess it's an acquired taste.

We used to eat dumpling on birthdays and I followed my mum's tradition and put buttons and money in the mixture. My mother used to put silver threepenny bits in it but they didn't exist when you were all small so I put in 5p pieces wrapped in greaseproof paper.

The tradition was a bit diluted by the time it got to me because I remember vaguely there being more than buttons and pennies being in the dumpling and the trinkets you found when you ate the dumpling had some significance.

I wonder if I could find out on the internet?

Lunchtime

Hi Cade... It's me again!

Christmas food is different if you come from Scotland.
We eat turkey at Christmas with stuffing and little sausages wrapped in bacon and roast potatoes and lots of brussel sprouts!

And we have Christmas pudding and brandy sauce or trifle for dessert.
This is what Christmas pudding looks like.
Most wee boys and girls don't like it because it is bitter - they usually eat the trifle!


Oh and I almost forgot, when we sit down at the table there are Christmas crackers to be pulled!

You pick up your cracker and holding it at one end ask someone else at the table to take hold of the other end. Then you both pull.

The cracker will break into two with a big bang!


Inside the cracker is a party hat, a joke and a wee toy.

I sent some over to you for Christmas.

Morning

Hi Cade!
Mom told me about your talk at school.
I am still thinking but here's a couple of photos of Craig in traditional dress.
When men and boys in Scotland are going to a wedding or a special party, they often wear the kilt.


Can you see Craig?

Teatime

It's 20 past 5 and I'm starving!

I've been on the computer for a while now trying to keep my mind off food...I've now past the 'extra stone' mark in my weight since I stopped work! And that's with me trying to increase the amount of exercise I do.

I'll keep typing...

I've managed to order Luca's Christmas present from Argos which is good but I've killed off one of Ian's credit cards in the process by entering what I thought was the correct password, but obviously wasn't!

When the window appeared asking for the information, I phoned Ian. I had known the password but I had forgotten it. So he was actually on the other end of the phone when 'The Big Red Words' appeared on the screen saying, "NO".

My ' Have a free flight to Newquay' credit card came to the rescue!

Here's a preview of Luca's Christmas present.




I got my hair cut and coloured today. My hairdresser has found the love of her life while on holiday. She's not long back and I did know where she was going but I can't remember.

Anyway, he must have been special because she now knows what it's like to make love on the beach! Yes, you did read it here first!!

I'm sure I amn't letting any cats out of bags because my hairdresser is a very chatty person.

He's gorgeous and forty and separated from his wife four months ago. She, his wife, told him to go because they weren't getting on. So he has taken a year's contract of work wherever it is that my haidresser went on holiday.

It took her ages to cut my hair because she kept stopping to tell me a bit more about him and their time together. Her enthusiasm made my visit quite jolly!

Hope she doesn't get hurt.

I couldn't help notice the note of disappointment in Ian's voice when I told him that tonight's tea was a repeat of last night's. We're having carrot and sweet potato soup with boiled ham and crusty bread followed by dumpling (one day old now, I grant you).

Ian has just come in. It's five past six. My thanks to you all for keeping me out of the bread bin!

Morning

I have just finished negotiating my way around the Orvis website - successfully on the second attempt!
Christmas present is now winging it's way to you, Craig. Hope you like it...I saw it and I immediately thought of you! :)

Evening

Ian's home ...hurray!
His car was in the drive when I got back from the shops just after three o'clock.

Quarter to six

Tea is in the oven so I thought I'd quickly post a couple of photos.

They're of the tip!
I thought you might like to see it, Lucy. Just so's you know what it looks like when I talk about it.



On my way back from the tip, I popped into the post office to get an application form for a new passport and Derek and his wee girl were ahead of me in the queue!

She is a really cute wee thing with a blond bob and no 'off button'.
Chattered incessantly, and touched everything...Derek had his hands full.
I felt very honoured when she very generously gave me her bit of paper and an airmail sticker but then she took them back again.

Derek was asking after you all and I discovered that he is going to be a daddy again in January! Isn't that nice!

Do you realise that a renewed passport will cost me £72 and they are really tightening up on the photos according to the girl in the post office.

"Take off your glasses!" she said, so I did!
"When you are getting your photo taken," she continued after the briefest of pauses. What an idiot I felt!
"They'll knock the photo back if there is any reflection on the glasses!" she said.
Then added, "...and I'd put a kirby in that fringe too, if I was you!"

Fair enough.
I left covering my blushes.

two forty five

It's a gorgeous day today.
The sun is shining and the wind is almost gale force. You know when you have to brace yourself against it. Great fun!

I have that warm glow that goes with fresh air and exercise! Why?

I've spent the last couple of hours clearing the back garden of leaves. Evidence...here you are!

I'm off to the tip now... with these.

Bedtime

Busy Day today!

I thought cooking 64 sausages couldn't take too long so I got up at 8.30. I reckoned an hour would do it. That way, I could be along at the church centre just after 10.30... giving me plenty of time to help the others set up for 11.00.

If you are grilling the sausages it can't be done!

Sausages take between 10 and 15 mins to cook. OK, since these were 'chipolatas' - thin sausages - 10 mins. That's two and a half mins per side.
Since my grill holds 16 sausages that means 4 lots of sausages x4 turns of the sausage x 2.5 mins. for each side (turn) = 40 mins.

Can you see where I went wrong? I didn't leave any time for turning the sausages or taking them off the grill.

It took me an hour and fifteen minutes!

So at quarter to 11, I set off for the centre.
There are no parking places at that time of day outside the church.
It is Remembrance Sunday and the road in front of the Cenotaph gets blocked off.
I've no alternative but to take the sausages to the centre on foot.

Wrapping them in a bath towel and stuffing them in my Liz Claibourne floral bag, I set off as fast as I could, on foot.

I arrived with very little time to spare and my glasses all steamed up from the effort. Sod's Law, mass was late coming out because a lot of folk were late getting to the church because the road was blocked because it was ...

Never mind.

R and I are now stuffed full of left overs from the brunch. We had them for tea.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix was on tonight on Sky Premier. Why do I insist on watching the films when they aren't a patch on the books. I don't know.

One glass of wine left in the bottle. Should I have it as a night cap or not?

Bedtime

R and I had a fish supper for tea tonight with a fresh crusty finger rolls each. We agreed that it was a really good fish supper and discussed the merits of eating it with bread and butter to improve the overall experience.

I recounted my memory of fish suppers during my childhood telling him how when someone was sent out to the chippie, whoever was left had the job of making a pot of tea and buttering slices of bread to accompany the fish and chips. Happy days!

Anyway R said he can remember this tradition from times we went down to Paisley, to Gran's! That surprised me. He reckons we had fish suppers every time we went to visit. Can that be right?

It's really windy tonight. I like nights like this when you are all cosy and warm inside and it's wild outside.

Heading to bed early. I have to get up early tomorrow to cook a load of sausages for the Church brunch in aid of Ikelenge. It's the church's African school's project and I promised Sri I would lend a hand. She's the organiser.

Lunchtime

Good one Gary!
As we left to go for a walk, he said,"Have you got your camera?"
He has obviously been reading my bog!

He and Luca have now headed for home to catch the beginning of a football match on his new 'Sky Sport', so I've downloaded the photos and here they are...





I took a couple of videos at first because the camera didn't want to take photos, and they are really good, but the bog keeps telling me they are either corrupted or saved on the wrong format (which they aren't) so to see them you'll need to come here and look at them on my hard drive!

Having looked at the photos, you would think the wee fella was not a happy bunny during his walk. He was!

We told him all about the leaves falling on the ground. You know,
"Where are the leaves?" while we looked at the branches of the trees.
"All gone!" palms turned up and arms outstretched.
"Oh there they are...on the ground!"

A while later, I picked up a huge sycamore leave and carried it with me, as you do.

Luca held his hand out to me indicating that he wanted the leaf so I gave it to him. He immediately threw it on the ground.
Where should the leaves be?
"On the ground!"

While browsing

Just playing around. Aren't they all so cute!

Late afternoon

Well what do you know...she was right! I saved £20 by splitting the parcel into two. One parcel was £14 something and the other was £11 something.

What is the magic weight? 2kg!

I walked up to Sommerfield this afternoon to get something for the tea.

It's a nice walk if you go through King George V park, past Hanover Court and up through the cemetry.

I should have taken my camera with me...but I forgot as usual.

That's R home. WE are having Sharwoods Chicken Korma for tea tonight...it was going cheap. This will be a first, we've never had it before. I'll let you know what I think.

Just after lunch time

The parcel for America has become four parcels for America!

Yesterday, I separated the goodies into two packages because one was far too big! According to the internet it could cost me up to £100 to send it airmail, depending on which carrier I used.

So I split it into two. The christmas crackers and chocolate novelty decorations for the Christmas tree went yesterday.

The parcel was weighed and measured and cost me £12.00 to send.

Last night, I separated parcel 2 into 2 parcels because I was anxious about the size.

Today, I took parcels 2+3 to the Post Office. Size wasn't an issue this time but weight was.
Useful information...

If your parcel is over 2kg - this is bad!

The package with the selection boxes was less than 2kg and cost me £12. It has now gone but the other was over 2kg and to send it would have cost £46! I was too late for overland - the deadline was sometime in the middle of October.

The girl behind the counter worked out that it would be much cheaper to send two smaller packages rather than the one larger one.

She reckoned that I could save at least £10!!

So I took the package home.

I'm about to head out to the Post Office for the third time taking with me parcels 3+4. I will let you know how I got on when I get back.

G, you should have told me all this before I started. I don't know...what did I have you kids for!!

quarter to four

G! I no nothing about blog technology but my photos are .jpg.
Liked the photo, by the way - I've saved it onto my hard drive.

Thursday morning

I am sitting here with a coffee feeling quite stunned. Why?

The sound of the telephone ringing woke me from my sleep this morning. I had been dead to the world up to that point.

I saw the daylight through the crack in the bedroom curtains and glanced over at the clock... 9.22!

"Oh no! We've slept in and R's work is phoning to see where he is!"

I leapt from the bed (not good at my age) and raced to the computer to catch the call.

"This is a message ..." the voice on the other end of the receiver told me.

It wasn't the work!

Still panicking, I raced through to the front of the house to check the cars on the drive.

R's space was empty!

I was alone in the house.

I shall now go and finish my coffee in a soft seat and try to get over the shock.

Wednesday evening

I am all 'X-Filed' out for the moment.

Have you all seen the one where Molder and Scully find the filing cabinets with files on everyone since the 1950s? 'They' were taking tissue samples from the entire population of America under the guise of small pox vaccinations. What for? I hope to find out in the next episode.

Anyway, I have been on the Ikea website looking at wardrobes.
Did you know, Ikea customise the interior of their wardrobes? You can organise them any way you like and I had been thinking...this is the point where I should be hearing Ian's voice say, "Oh no, not thinking!"...but he can't because I'm writing this down not saying it and besides Ian is in Florida so... I was thinking that we need something at the door to hide the clutter of shoes.

Ian started this, you know. He was the one who said that we should keep all our shoes at the door. Do you have any idea how many pairs of shoes three people can generate? Don't look at me! I am not the only person with several pairs of shoes!

Now, I noticed that Ikea produce shoe shelves - they are fitted at an angle - so what do you think of a wardrobe completely filled with shoe shelves?

Check out the shelves in the bottom of this wardrobe - fill the wardrobe with these. What do you think?
This example of a wardrobe is obviously too large but you can get them in a variety of widths. And the doors can be made of frosted glass like the one in the illustration.



















OK enough said, I'll go and change the furniture in the living room around again.

Wednesday lunchtime

So GS, you say in one breath that no-one is monitoring our blogs and in the other that aliens have been doing so since 1968. You are sending out mixed messages here!

By the way, where did you find that grotesque photo I saw on your blog the other day. It was really horrible. You must go into some weird sites or did you type, 'horrible noses' into Google images?

Johanne and Anne came round for coffee and a chat this morning and I made pancakes (dropped scones). I mention the pancakes simply because it must be at least 15 years since I made them and I was slightly apprehensive.

And quite rightly too... although they did get better as the batch progressed!

We ate them with Maura's home made raspberry jam which is really delicious...yummy on pancakes.

'R who shall be indentified no further' came home at lunch time to play football with Dan on the computer. They had some too. I've frozen half a dozen of them to stop R and I eating them all tonight.

Note the name codes. I'm taking no chances, GS.

Tuesday evening

I am really too tired to do this entry but I'll make a stab at it. Why are you so tired? It's only 9 oclock? ...

It was the bath. I love getting into a really hot bath but the downside, apart from coming out looking like a lobster is that all your energy has been sapped away by the heat... it takes you all your strength to get out of the bath! And all you are fit for is a wee lie down.

This is where I feel I must thank the person who invented terry towelling bathrobes....what a wonderful invention. Pop it on, lie down. What could be simpler :)

What have I done today?

Not a lot. I went into town this morning... a little reconnoitre before the big Christmas shop has to start. Do you all know how much I do not like shopping?

Anyway, I forgot to have breakfast and by 11.45 I was moving in slow motion. Hometime.

Silent Witness was watched over lunch and in the afternoon I went walking. Another beautiful sunny day. We are doing very well just now. Beautiful golden light!

RS and I are almost finished all the food I got in for the week end and I at least must have put on another half stone due to the richness of it all. I think we will definitely need to cut back or it will need to be a new wardrobe of clothes for me!!

I'm off to watch Stargate part 2. SG1 went back in time and accidently changed the future, but all was not lost as they ( the team now in the past) sent a message to the folk in the present - which was their future (changed), telling them what had happened, and they (the folk in the new future which should really be referred to as the present) are going to try and get back in time to fix the future/present. Have we all got it?

RS is raiding tonight...
Here's a photo of what he is looking at.


I have referred to RS as such for security reasons. RS says that you never know who is building up a dossier on you and I agree with him!!

Monday afternoon

Leaving in a few minutes to go walking with Sri. It's another lovely sunny day here in Banchory but freezing cold. Good day for walking.

Mary sent me a text on Saturday night to say that she had had a really good time at the Good Food Exhibition in Glasgow. Julie and she had gone for the day and as her birthday treat Julie had got them tickets to be part of the audience at a James Martin Cooking session... great fun and lots of yummy free samples, she said.

He is a celebrity chef on the BBC in case you don't know, Lucy.

For those of you who have followed the saga of the pumpkin soup, we did have it on Saturday night when everyone was round...I'm wishing now I had taken a photo of it.

It was a masterpiece. James Martin would not have been embarrassed to claim it as his own, garnished as it was with cinnamon croutons and ... a sprig of mint! :) :)

Monday lunchtime 3rd November

Hello Cade!

Thanks for telling me the answers to my questions.

Make sure Mom takes the camera with her to the play so that she can put some photos of you on the blog.

Looks like you had lots of fun at Halloween. I liked the green hair! Now let me guess who you were dressed up as...
You were supposed to be the joker?
And Braeden was supposed to be batman?
Am I right?

Granda Ian is flying to Florida just now. Lucky him! He will be nice and warm when he gets there. It's freezing cold here in Scotland!

I found this picture of you and Braeden and Mom and I in my photo file. It was taken when we were all in Florida. Happy days!


Love Granny Jo