29th December

That's Luca safely snuggled up in bed.
I think he will have gone out like a light.
And his granny won't be far behind him.
He didn't have a sleep this afternoon so there was no 'down' time for Granny either.

We walked into the village in the late morning to pick up my prescription from the doctor's surgery and do a little bit of food shopping and Luca sang the whole way there and back ...

'Jingle Bells' was undoubtably the winner of 'most frequently sung' song on the way to and from the village, but one that occurred on a more than regular basis and must certainly have taken the second spot was:

Piggy on the railway
Shouldn't be there
Along comes the engine (this is accompanied by bent arms moving vigourously in a circlular motion imitating the wheels of a train) - enthusiastically carried out by Luca!
Piggy take care!
"Hey," shouts the driver,
"Get off the track!"
Piggy ran away
and never came back!

Hotly followed by that oldie but goldie - 'Baa Baa Black Sheep'!



Nice photo, huh?
It was taken the last time Luca stayed over but I've only just put it onto my hard drive so I thought I'd pop it in.
I thought I'd call it - 'Grandad get off luca's sofa... you've got your own!'

Hello Kelly!

This is the snapshot Ian took while we were on Skype with Kelly on the morning of her last day up north .

It's 7.30 am in Adelaide just now. I've just checked my Kelly clock!
And 1.00 pm in Grants Pass. I got that time off my Lucy clock!

I guess you'll already be up and out, Kelly. Are you at a class before work on a Wednesday morning? And Lucy, lunchtime? Working today?

Ian has just tracked me down. He thought I was still in with Luca! It's taken me an hour to write this little entry... I must be more tired than I thought!
Time to head to the kitchen, I think, and clear up the mess from teatime and then go to bed.

That's the turkey finished - apart from the stock I made with the bones, today. It'll make a bit pot of soup later.
We had turkey stir fried with black pudding and mushrooms, tonight - yes, I know - unusual. What's wrong with being a bit adventurous. Ian said he liked it!!

...
I'm not going to rise to the base accusation of my older son that I gave his child chocolate for breakfast...

I share my chocolate with nobody!!

27th December

It's been a while... what can I say, I've been so busy!!
For the life of me, I can't think doing what? But there you are... the time has gone!

Would you like to see some of my photos from St Andrews and Crail?
Seems such a long time since we were there!

Best to skip over getting lost in the fog with Ross - really don't want to feel the stress again. So I'll start by showing you the photos I took of our hotel room.

Tarrah...

This is you facing into the room.

Check out the wall facing you -

it divides the room into bedroom on the left,

and sitting room on the right.

The bathroom is to your left as you come in, followed by the wardrobe area with tea/coffee making facilities and a wee fridge...

and here is Ian demontrating using the kettle!!

Followed by Ian, ready to go to Crail on Saturday morning.

It was just as well that I decided to take this photo before we left because I discovered that I'd left my handbag in the room when we had checked out... imagine if we had been half way up the road when I'd realised that I didn't have it!!

That's why Ian is smiling so broadly... on my initial request for a photo, he had grumped rather a lot... but once he discovered I had forgotten to lift my bag when we'd left the room and now remembered, he was so happy!!
Weren't you, angel!

This was my first visit to Crail... and I liked it!
Check for yourself:

This is where we parked the car, close to the harbour.

And here's Ian getting his gloves on in preparation for our little coastal walk - Anne suggested it and it was very nice.

I can't understand where the colour all went in this photo!! But I've included it because I thought it was quite atmospheric.
What do you think?





And I just loved this house...


Having left the coastal path we headed up the road that led you back to the main street.
By this time the sun was sinking and the light was golden.
It had that unreal, magical quality that you only get now and again.

You should have been able to see it in this photo of Ian striding out up the road,

and in this photo of this field which was breathtakingly beautiful bathed in golden light but sorry folks... it didn't come out in the photos - so you'll just have to take my word for it! Try using your imagination!

We completed our circuit by walking along the main road...









and ended up back at the harbour.
Say, "Good bye," Ian!

Friday 11th December

Today is the first day of the West church postal service and as yet, I've still to write a Christmas card!

Mind you, I think I'm going to have to buy some more cards - I bought cards from the Red Cross shop the other day but I gave them to Ian!

In hind sight, I should have bought more than I did!

So, I've decided.
I'll head into the village this morning and get more.

I think I'll give the Sue Ryder shop my custom today - Anne's mum says they have some nice ones!

Usually, I get my cards from TradeCraft but this year, the girl put in charge of ordering them, for the Third World shop, forgot :( so dead end there!

What do you think of my new picture?
Charity shop special... cost me £12! I got it from the Red Cross shop.
It's of Aberdeen harbour in 1991, when the tall ships vsiited during 'The Tall Ship's Race'



I think it's lovely!

Thursday 10th December

A short entry just now as I'm taking Anne into the hospital this morning so I need to get showered and dressed soon.

I thought I'd share these photos with you before I went.
I took them yesterday when I noticed there were little green shoots peaking out from the compost (to be honest I thought the bulbs were dead and gone since I had ignored them since last spring).

However, next years daffodils are on the way!
Take a look...



The weather forecast is for snow by the middle of next week but this morning, I took the bin out wearing my dressing gown!
It's December, for goodness sake.
I should have felt the need to hurry back indoors at the very least... but instead I stood there in my jammies quite happily admiring the morning sky!

Tuesday 8th December

It's seven o'clock in the morning... and it's still night time outside.

We had Pete (remember the wedding in Rome that Ross went to) staying with us for a couple of nights.

He was back in Scotland to sort out his finances - he's buying a small private school in Tuscany for adults who want to learn English so being here, he took the opportunity to meet up with his old school buddies.

We got to see the photos of Leo, his wee baby who is just a wee doll and Pete says next time he comes he'll try and bring his wife and baby too - so that'll be lovely.

I said they could stay with us - we've got plenty room.

Thought - I should hang onto that pram we bought for Luca.

Talking of whom - Gary skyped us last night!

There they were, the pair of them, not exactly as clear as day but once I turned the speakers back on (!!??) as loud and distinct as you could want!

The image was more akin to a cubist impression of life - a little bit of work needed there.

Here's a better picture of Luca taken a couple of weeks ago

Luca was delighted - at first - to talk to us but eventually the novelty wore off and there were other more pressing and interesting things for a two year old to do so he was keen to take off.

But not for Granny and Granda to go - ooh no,
"Granny not go!"
"Granda not go!"

I said to Ian later, I think he thought we were the television and that we should simply be there whenever he wanted to watch us.

Changing the subject completely, I manged to swim 26 lengths yesterday - not bad for an old fogie, even if I do say so, myself!
Not all in a oner, I hasten to add.
But I only stopped every so often to get my breath back.

Jill (her children are Howard and Janean King - not sure if any of you were ages with them) managed to do 24, but she was making up for having had a buttery at a friends house in the morning.
Actually, not just a buttery but a warm buttery dripping with melted butter. Ooh no - horror of horrors - don't listen little arteries!!

Anne's making good progress, I popped in to see her on Sunday on my way back from coffee with the girls. Her colour was much better and she had straightened her hair!

For those of you who don't know her, Anne has curly hair which like mine becomes a fuzzy wuzzy entity with a mind of it's own if not battled into submission on a daily basis.
Well you can imagine how she looked after a week of not caring - so it was a relief to see it calmed and submissive again!!

And how much better we all feel when our hair has been brushed and combed.

I used to love when I was ill as a wee girl.
I don't remember ever feeling ill - you know actually having any symptoms, I just remember feeling very tired all the time.
Well my Granny Bananghan always seemed to be around at these times and I remember she would say to me (very sympathetically), "Sit up a wee bit, hen, and I'll brush your hair, you'll feel all the better for it."
And you know what?
She was right!

Monday 7th December

Here we are again!
I seem to have huge gaps between entries just now and I don't understand why... I told Ian that it was because I had nothing to say, but on reflection that isn't true.

My current theory is that I only think of writing when I'm reading my emails and there have been a lot of distractions in that department at the moment.

Ancestry, for example, has been sending me emails alerting me to things they have found for me.
The most recent was this morning when they found Daniel Owens in the poor house in 1891.
Susannah, his wife, must have died somewhere between 1881 and 1891 because he was listed as a widower.
What a shame - ending your days in the poor house.

I must let Mary know because she is still convinced we come from money on that side of the family.
It all stems from old Uncle Frankie Banaghan (my grandfather's wee brother)...
He always told the story of going on a trip down to Liverpool with his mother as a wee boy to visit the family and how he remenbers going into this huge house with a great winding staircase!
Oh yes?

Here's the 1891 census for Daniel! No sign of money here!


Great Granny Charlotte Banaghan was brought up by her Granda and Granny Owens.

Interestingly, I can't find Great Granny Charlotte Banaghan in 1891.
She disappears in 1881 ... at that point she was living with her big brother Job Sutton (you know, the lad who ended up in jail Census 1901 - another piece of the jugsaw, courtesy of Ancesrtry) ...




and resurfaces (getting married) in 1893 ...


During the missing years she had married a lad called Evans and had had a little daughter Charlotte mark 2!
The family said her first husband was a sailor just like her father and both died at sea... but we all know they tell lies, don't we!!

Wednesday 25th November

It's past eight o'clock!

... and what does Wee Willie Winkie want to know?

It's been a long day:
It started off dark.
Then it rained and rained and the wind blew a gale.
Now it's dark again.
I'm ready to curl up in bed again and dream of bright sunny days.

... I'm coming wee Kelly - make room in the bed.

Aunt Mary has just sent me a text to let me know that the Cart has burst it's banks and Seedhill is flooded (for those of you who don't know, Seedhill is an area of Paisley - Aunt Mary and Uncle Brian lived there for many years).

She says she's fed up being soaking wet!

I was going to say, "Aren't we all!"

But that would be to diminish what the west coasters have been going through.
They've had it much worse than us.



On a lighter note, the beautiful picture below arrived last week with Luca.
A picture to grace the fridge of his Granny and Granda.
His mummy helped with the glueing and the sparkles - lovely job, Carole!



What do we think?
Do we see an artistic bent?


When I opened my emails this morning, there was one from Ancestry.com!
They wanted to draw my attention to a certain Job Sutton - brother of Granny Lottie's grandmother on her father's side.

Oh great, I thought another piece of the jigsaw!
And so it was...
... but not what I expected!

In the census of 1901, they had found him in jail...
... the Walton Prison in Liverpool!

I wonder what he had done?

I checked out the prison on the internet - no clues there.
In 1901, it served as a prison for both men and women and for any crime committed in the area - including murder.
It even had it's own gallows till the middle of the 20th century!

This is the Walton Prison where poor old Job Sutton spent some time.

18th November

Your postcard arrived today Kelly. Thank you!
The beach looks lovely.

We also have sunshine today, by the way, by the way!!
Do you know what this girl wrote on her postcard?

'.... missing you
all in soggy old blighty'

The cheek of it!! :)

Do the words rub and nose come into anyone else's mind at this time?

Talking of soggy old places - I never did show you my photo, which a very nice man in Nardini's, took for me...


Check out the pianist in the background ... how chic is that!

Nardini's is as great as I remembered it, from my childhood. The same art deco interior with wall murals and golden basket tables and chairs.

And the same huge icecream sundaes, yum.

We restrained ourselves since we had, afterall, just eaten fish and chips with bread and butter and a pot of tea, but the people at the next table chose to share... a 'Clyde Coast Extravaganza'!

http://www.nardinis.co.uk/userfiles//ICECREAMmenu.pdf
Above is the wesite for Nardini's which has a list of all their ice cream sundaes.
The particular one that I've mentioned costs £12.95!!

There is a U tube video of Nardini's made just after it reopened, last year. I'm smiling away to myself having just watched it... what can I say?
The makers should be shot!

Just type Nardini's into the search engine and you'll find it!!

11th November

Not quite tomorrow, I know but it's the best I could do!

I don't know how the time has past so quickly but here we are... it's Wednesday.

Yesterday was - walking to the new Raemoir Garden Centre with Anne and meeting Johanne up there for a mosey around and a coffee.

What do I think?

Well it's a lot bigger ...

While we were there we bumped into Sadie Wilson.
She has a little chalet beside her house which she rents out and she told us that the family that have just left blocked her septic tank and she had to get someone to come and fix it...

Listen to this:
According to Sadie, the man who fixed it said it was because the mother washed every stitch of clothing and every towel used by every member of the family every day with biological washing powder.
The biological soap powder had killed off all the bacteria in the tank!

"Did you know," said Sadie, "that they didn't have to dig up my septic tank and replace the dead sheep?"

Yes, you read that correctly. That's what she said!!

"Oh, I can see you aren't country folk," laughed Sadie! "Didn't you know that's how septic tanks used to work..."

Aaaagh!

The photo below has nothing to do with the story I've just written but I do like pictures when I'm reading! Don't you?
This is a 'television stare'!
Induced by Peppa Pig!

Friday 6th November

Just for you, Gary!
I do appreciate your writing - it makes me laugh - so here is my unworthy enrty just to let you know, I care! :)

To catch up, I'd better 'let you know' how my visit to the Tor na Coille went.
Well, the meal was very enjoyable, the food tasted good and the choices were varied and not quite your run of the mill - an example? Well Johanne for a starter had 'Cullin Skink risotto'!

We all agreed that it was good enough to go back and the service was friendly and helpful.
My only criticism would be the coffee. Think wet cereal packets.

I have to go now, will return tomorrow!

Thursday 22nd October

It's getting dark now and it's still raining... I've just checked.

It's rained all day, all last night and all day yesterday.
I think it rained on Tuesday night too but I amn't quite sure.

The wee girl on the television weather forecast said that it would rain tomorrow too but the good news is it won't rain all the time.

I swear Ross is doing a rain dance down in his room!
You see, he agreed to help me empty the rubbish out of the garage and help me take it to the tip... when the rain stops!!

Talking of Ross, his advert went into the Piper today.
'Banchory Techies' will fix your computer for you!

A lady did call and he is going to see her tonight. That's the good news.

The not so good news - with the weather trying to drown us all - is the fact that she lives in Logie Coldstone - that's about 20 miles from here - I checked on AA routes!

I've suggested he brushes his hair before he goes but I got the impression, all he heard was, "Blah, blah, blah, blah."

We woke this morning to the radio telling us that there were weather warnings out for the North East (the west coast is dry, by the way) and that 'this road' and 'that road' were closed or only passable with care.

Ian, never daunted, made it to Fraserburgh... I got a text to let me know.

Changing the subject, it's sausages for tea tonight with mashed potatoes and cabbage... last night I tried a new recipe sweet and sour root vegetables with couscous...

I don't think I'll bother to make it again - it didn't live up to its promise, bit boring really - hence the oldy but goldy tonight!

Now tomorrow night, Johanne, Anne and I are going to eat at the Tor na Coille.
I'll let you know how it goes!

Monday 5th

D'you know that 1949, just like this year, had an Indian summer?
How do I know?

It was Aunt Mary's 60th birthday on Saturday and in the course of our wee, birthday, phonecall chat - she told me that Grannie Lottie had told her!

October 3rd, the year Mary was born, was hot and sunny!

Mary said, "Mum told me the sun kept right on shining till the end of October and then one morning when she threw back the bedroom curtains she discovered it was raining. A big sadness welled up inside her as she watched the rain run down the panes of glass and she began to cry!"

Poor Grannie Lottie - I think she had a wee touch of the 'baby blues'!

This Photo of Grannie Lottie and Granda Bill was taken the year before the window episode.

... I don't think our Indian Summer is going to last as long. It's only the beginning of October and the other day, I felt the change here ... a definite nip in the air!

... and today, I threw back the bedroom curtains and ... no it wasn't raining!! There was frost on the tops of the cars and Ian (caught unprepared) was busy using a CD case to scrape his windscreen!


The apples are still hanging onto their little tree in the garden.


They've developed wee rosy cheeks, though, since I took this photo last week!!
D'you think this mornings frost gave them a little nip?
Should I bring them in?
I tasted one the other day and although it wasn't as sweet as I would have liked, it was edible... which makes a change from previous years - the apples off my tree have always tasted like dry cabbages!

While I was looking for a photo of Mum to go with Mary's trip down Memory Lane, I came across this photo of Luca taken straight after his laser treatment. You wouldn't believe it if you saw him now!
By the way, that's not crusted spots that you can see on his top lip, it's apple puree!

Salt Lake City...2 months after

We parked our car in the Visitor's Centre. That's it behind Ian.
Very impressive, don't you think - as Tourist Information Centres go - I am thinking just now of Banchory's wee poky hole!

But the reason I included it was to get you to look past it - to the mountains in the background. (Sorry about the quality of the photo - I'm no expert - I haven't yet worked out why some of my photos come out really well and others, well... don't)
That is my memory of Salt Lake City.
Reminded me a bit of the road north past Stirling... very flat but with the mountains rising steeply all around in the distance.

I think the light is different in the two places, too.
Utah is very bright - white light.
Scotland's light is more yellow. We are talking of course about when the sun shines - that was assumed - come on - we all know it rains a lot!

Here's Ian sitting in Temple Square.
It was really beautiful...
very colourful, full of flowers and fountains and very grand architecture!
Anyway, we reckoned Walt Disney had been here before he built Disney World in Florida because there are definitely similarities!

We ate lunch at 'Squatters Brewery'.
Nice lunch and good beer.
Most people sit inside in the air conditioning but Ian says we have to make the most of the heat because it's in limited supply at home.
It was fine - we sat under the misters (and my hair went fuzzy).


Now these photos you are coming up to were taken in the State Capital building (we did the tour).
Make them bigger and look closely.

In the photo immediately below, look at the picture straight ahead in the mural.
What do you see?
Uhuh. People with farming tools, fields and seagulls.
It's the story of the seagulls!!
Remember... they saved the settlers from starvation by eating the swarms of locust that would have eaten their crops.

Now look at the dome below... what do you see?
Exactly! Seagulls.
I rest my case - the story in my primary 4 reading book was true!

However, we never found a statue of a seagull and I asked the guide if she knew of one, but she didn't.
:) She, however, went home happy, I think, knowing that a story from her past was known by a wee wuman from a country thousands of miles away!

A good day!

Some photos of Park City

This is where we were based when we went to Utah. Park City.

I loved it!
It was miner's who built the old town and I think that was at the time of the gold rush.
Now of course it's main industry is tourism - winter sports in particular.
But the summer visitors are well looked after for, too and there is no shortage of things to do in the summer either... like eating!! (one of my favourite occupations)
In the week we were there, we didn't manage to eat at all the restaurants we would have liked to try!

So saying, their was plenty to do if you were of a more active frame of mind...
Ian, however, was stuck with me - not the most active person in the world, so we didn't really get up to much.

We took a trip on the free bus up to Silver Lake Village one day, and before we had a beer at one of the lodges, we took a walk along some of the forest tracks at the bottom of the ski slopes and very pleasant it was too!




But even in this haven of beauty and tranquility there lurked... nature in the raw.
Remember Lake Utah in Utah?
"Hurry up and take the photo!!" Ian shouted as the flies attacked!

:) We were fine till he got off the path to check out the view from a little mound, nearby.

The Uinta Mountain trip

It was a lovely drive!
And when you finally come down the other side you are in Wyoming.
I didn't realise till we got up into the hills that it was bear country!!



Nor did I actually see any bears but I did see signs telling me they were there but read the bottom line on the poster - that's laying it on the line for you!!

Anyway, very pretty, it was.

And here are some shots which I was sure would prove it when I took them but now that I look at them, they really don't do the area justice!




The photo below was taken at Mirror Lake which nestled in a little valley high up in the hills.
I remember the loos in the carpark at the side of the lake very well... they were dry (shock - horror!!)
A toilet sitting atop a great deep hole!
Scary stuff for a townie like me... imagine what could have happened - no don't - it doesn't bear thinking about!

That's the toilet block behind Ian.
I guess flushing toilets was asking a bit much up in the wilds!

This is what you call a 'double take' photo. :)


The first town we hit was called Evanston...


and lo and behold... there was a beer festival on!
What a pip! (I just love this phrase!!)
Luca will recognise the phrase and so might his mummy and daddy and possibly his Grandma Liz? Does anyone else?

I photographed the booklet that listed all the beers that were on offer,



then I photographed Ian drinking them...


and lastly, I photographed Ian in the brewery where we ate lunch.



Ian had me photograph the brewing tanks which are to his right on the level below but you don't want to see them.