Friday18th March

Snow falling on Saturday while I sat cosy in the bedroom finishing Jo Nesbo's The Devil's Star

 Well it was a lovely sunny day till about half an hour ago and it hasn't quite clouded over yet so there's still hope. . . the wee woman in the dry cleaners was full of joy this morning and it was just because the sun was shining in the window. Please let this be the start of spring this time and not another of Old Mother Nature's cruel jokes!!

I know that compared to the folk in Japan, we've absolutely nothing to complain about. God help them.

But we are tiny  little creatures in the great scheme of things and I guess we all live miniscule little lives so the awful weather we've been having has made 'us wee folk' up in the far north east corner of Scotland all feel quite down.

We've had a lot of rain. This plastic basket was empty two day's ago

On Tuesday, Anne and I set out for our marathon walk - to us that's a walk to the Woodend Barn and back which in total is about six miles, I think.
 Anyway dressed for the cold, wet we set off.
 Why did we do it? Whose crazy idea was it to keep going and not stop after about a mile and take our coffee break in the Raemoir garden centre?

I'll tell you who!
It was that Anne Mason, that's who it was. And she paid the price! Whilst I was wearing a 'rain' coat, hers was 'shower proof' and as we took off our coats in the coffee shop, it was quite obvious who was wearing the 'rain' coat and who had opted for 'shower proof' as sufficient protection from the elements!

I was dry apart from my trousers. Anne was soaked to the skin. The lining of her coat was as wet as the outside. Blouse, trousers and underwear were all soaking wet!

It was cosy and warm indoors so she wasn't too uncomfortable but the hard bit was putting the coat back on again to walk home. Just thinking about it makes me shudder in sympathy.
A hot shower as soon as she got home helped but she reckons it took her hands till teatime to get the feeling back, they'd been so numbed by the freezing cold and relentless rain! Brrr. At one point on the way back, she confessed that the water was running down her skin inside her clothes!

Took some photos of Luca on Tuesday night. We wanted to let Auntie Lucy see that her little puppy Abbie dog had arrived safely. Luca insisted on finding it a wee bed (ended up in a pudding bowl) and we took it home leaving it sleeping on a cushion near the bottom of Luca's bed.

Luca with puppy in it's pudding bowl bed.

Ian was home early on Tuesday and having plonked himself down in his chair, the conversation went something like this . . .
Granda Ian: I'm thirsty.
Luca: I'm thirsty too.
Granda Ian: I think I would like a cup of tea.
Luca: I think I'd like Ribena.
Granda Ian: Whose going to make it, then?
Luca: I imagine it'll be Granny Jo.

This was before our time playing with his pennies and yoghurt pots ( he likes to share the pennies out between the cups), I suggested he count the pennies to which he replied in a weary tone put on specially while slowly shaking his head, "You count them because it's not my job, it's yours."
I wonder where he got that from?

Luca with his yoghurt pots

To finish off the evening, he confided on the way home,
"Your hair looks like broccoli, Granny."
I'd like to know where that came from too!

I found a good birthday card for Johanne's sixtieth birthday. She's the week after me. It shows a photo of a smiling woman probably from the fifties by her clothesand hairstyle, holding up a glass of clear liquid. Underneath it reads:
Now she had reached sixty and recalling her doctor's advice to eat more fruit, she popped off to put some cherries in her gin.
It made me laugh, anyway :)

Ok time to go. Thought you might like a record of the demise of an old friend.

The sad sight we were greeted with the other morning. The garage is no more :(

 Sun's back out again :)

Saturday 12th March

I was just wondering how these wee crocuses were doing now that they are covered in snow again.

Big sister, Mary had texted me the other day from Elderslie to say that she had driven through a snow blizzard to get over to Houston to let Julie get out to work. We're fine up here I'd been able to reply but not now! According to the weather map snow is covering the whole of the north and the west of Scotland.

I stopped in the supermarket carpark this morning, just to admire the scene. Huge snowflakes the size of 50p pieces filled the air, the hills across the river shrouded in a fog of snow. It was like an impressionist painting :)  

In the short time I had been in the shop, my car had been covered in enough snow to make it necessary to clear it off before I could drive home.

It won't lie for long. The sun's too high in the sky at this time of year. This pronouncement is based on a gem passed on to me by an old local many years ago.

Well at least I'm at peace. Yes, I did find the enthusiasm somewhere yesterday and am now sitting in a nice clean house. I've also changed the arrangement of the furniture in our bedroom and we are now lying east west as opposed to north south. I wonder if this is good or bad.

Now I'm off to have a bath. . . I know it's rather decadent to bathe in the middle of the day, but whose going anywhere in this weather, anyway.

I think I might even light some candles!   :)

Friday 11th March

Exercise this week?
Walked on Monday and Tuesday
Swam on Monday and Thursday

Result at WW on Thursday night?
Well, bear in mind, we have just passed through a birthday celebration.
I've put on a pound. . . I am now only a pound and a half under my target weight. Oh no!! If I don't get a handle on this, they'll start charging me again to get weighed and there's no way, I'm going down that road!

My weight loss buddy remained the same as last week which is disappointing. She has a target date to get down to her target weight by the end of May and I dearly want her to make it - apart from the obvious reason you know - she succeeds, going out at six thirty on a Thursday night is not much fun. The now defunct Wednesday morning class - the one we originally joined - was infinitely preferable but of course it's not an option now :(

So can I have some positive thoughts eminating from you to her over this week end? Please!
. . . "You don't want to open that bottle of wine. . . you really don't want to open that bottle of wine!"

Thank you :)

The house is a tip and seems to have been forever - it's really starting to get to me so I'm trying just now to build up the enthusiasm to start cleaning!!

Wish me luck :)

No photos worth taking today so here's one I took in Adelaide, in a pub!

Thursday 10th March

YOUR PARCEL ARRIVED, LUCY!

Granda Ian with his Christmas card from Braeden

I took this photo of Granda Eein holding up his card. He was tickled pink, Braeden, when I gave it to him!

Would everybody like to see the cards that Braeden made? Very impressive, aren't they?

This  is the one that Braeden made for Granda - can you make out his name at the bottom?

And this is the one that Braeden made for me and you can just make out my name at the bottom of it!

My first personalised card!

Thank you very much, Braeden!    :)

Very neat writing, by the way :)

GINGERBREAD MARSHMALLOWS

Sent from Oregon because having been bought as a Christmas goody, nobody over there seemed to like them!

But we did, didn't we boys?

Oh yes, very yummy!!

Wednesday 9th March

 

 "I can't get these candles lit!

Everytime I light them, he blows them out!"

 I love the devilish look on Luca's face, don't you?

Uncle Ross, however, was not going to be beaten by a four year old! . . .  

 

 

I'd bought little tear drop candles that spelled out Happy Birthday but I didn't have the heart to rearrange the candles after Luca had enthusiastically planted them all in the cake.

"It's an anagram," we told Ian, "for Happy Birthday :)"

AND SO TO THE BLOWING OUT OF THE CANDLES

Here are the determined duo attempting to blow out the candles . . .

 

. . . still attempting to blow out the candles, with advice from Granma Liz . . . 

 

and finally managing to blow out the candles with the extra wind needed being delivered by Daddy.

 

You can just see Gary giving his support at the edge of the photo! I think he was beginning to worry that Granda and Luca were going to expire before they got those candles blown out.

Of course if they'd taken Granma Liz's advice and moved the cake a bit closer, the job could have been done in half the time!!

A good day!    :)

Monday 7th March

What was for tea tonight?
Leftovers from yesterday's birthday lunch, of course!
And what will we be having for tea tomorrow night?
Why, we'll be having leftovers, again. . .
but with the addition of sausages . . .  because Luca will be eating with us.
And we all know there are limits.
Sausages are good :)

A lovely day again today. I can't believe how lucky we've been. This morning I went out for a wee walk with Anne - without a coat on - and it's only early March!!

Yesterday, when Luca took a little bike ride with me pushing from behind (the bike has a big long pole attached which means you can walk along behind the bike pushing it along without bending down), he turned round and said, "Isn't it a lovely day!" It certainly was!

Look very carefully at the photo below. Look closely . . . there's a salmon in the water.

Sri and I took a walk along the platties the other day and came across this guy  in the process of reeling in a fish. Neither of us had ever seen anyone catch anything before, so we lent on the railings and watched. Fascinating. I struggled to get my camera out and missed the best shot which was of him holding up his prize but I think you can just about make out the salmon. He's letting it go to carry on swimming up the river.

As we wandered on we were joined by a woman with a newspaper in her hand.
"I've never seen anyone land a fish before," she said, "D'you think it hurt being dragged about with a hook in your mouth?"

Does it? I'd never thought about it before.

Saturday 26th February

Things are looking up. . . the temperature is rising and we've seen some blue sky the last couple of days. Thank goodness :)

My little daffodils at the front door have decided that spring is on the way. Look they're peaking up out of the soil!

Another week has passed in a flash.
I swam twice this week and walked once. . . my proud boast to the nurse at the heart clinic on Thursday morning!
Brownie points :)

"You're looking much better this year," says she.
"Yes," say I.
"Probably because my diet has improved. Eating a lot more vegetables and a lot less cheese," I smug.

"You know the latest findings are showing that dairy products don't affect your cholestoral level. My husband read it somewhere. . . Google it!" says she. Mmm.

"So what about alcohol?"
"Really only at weekends," I reply. "Couple of bottles of wine," I state defiantly.
"Excellent," she says, "mustn't give up the wine!"
Not a teetoller then I guess.

For you , Lucy. My blood pressure is 130 over 80. I told your father this because the nurse assured me it was a good score.
"Mine," he chuffed, "was 110 over 60!" Oooh.