Saturday afternoon

I've come upstairs for a while to sidestep the temptation that is the custard doughnuts brought home by Ian along with rolls for lunch, after he discovered that the golf course was closed because of the rain.

I had one after my roll'n'bacon at lunch time. Delicious! Ian had two and Ross declined - he is going to be surrounded by cakes at work this afternoon (working one till close), he said. As though that was a reason not to have one?

So there are two left in the bag!!

Ian left about ten minutes ago to go to the Camra meeting up at The Legion and no sooner had the door closed behind him than my feet walked me into the kitchen and my hands opened the doughnut bag and my nose inhaled the aroma of deep frying and sugar . . .

And now I'm up here in Luca's room typing:
 I will not succumb to temptation!!

Ok here goes. . .
Tuesday was a success. I was amongst the first folk in the school playground and Luca and I spent some time in the park before heading home for tea.

"I'm a big boy now," he told me as we fastened him into the car seat. "This is a baby seat!"

Mum and Dad have upgraded to 'big boy carseats'
I guess that's me told.

We all know that Ross was 28 on Wednesday and that we sang Happy Birthday and blew out candles and ate cake. The photo evidence being on Ian's blog.

So, onto Thursday which was a bit of a worry. It was my first visit back to Weight Watchers since coming back from holiday and my free pass was on the line. . . the worry compounded by birthday cake on Wednesday and post swimming cinnamon swirl danish pastry on Thursday afternoon :(

Ten stone three and a half pounds. Safe but not much room for manouvering.

Enough, let's change the subject!
Here are some blasts from the past, Gary!
I found them in the folder I'd made called, Gary. Started it round about your birthday and had forgotten all about it! The seventies' photos I did upload but not these from the eighties

Your first Hogmany -at Granny and Granda Stewart's

From the look of you, we should have waited for another year! You're as white as a ghost.

 Our first Christamas in Edinburgh

You would have been about Luca's age then. I think that Christmas tree in the background might be the same one that Ian and I bought in 1972. Did we really keep it that long?

 October holiday in Majorca

Was that our first venture into the world of hotels? I think it might have been. Meal times in the hotel were buffet style which made for interesting combinations. Didn't it Kelly!!

Our first Christmas in Banchory

What is that your holding, Gary? I can't make it out. There's your piano to the right in the photo, Lucy. And check out the computer behind you all!

Northern Spain

This was the year we went to the South of France on holiday and drove along the coast into Spain on a day trip. Ross was very car sick on the journey. My abiding image is of us sitting on the ground at the side of the road in the scortching heat watching the ants carry off what Ross had just thrown up!

 Our First trip to America

You sat beside me, Gary on the flight over and even then you took up more than your fair share of room. At one point on the journey, you got a bit restless and in the course of shuffling about, my coffee landed on my lap! The big brown stain on the front of trousers was bad enough getting off the plane, but since our luggage had been delayed in London, I had to wear the same trousers + stain the next day :(    D'you notice how we're all squinting in the bright sunshine? Not used to it, you see :)

Time to go! speak to you all again soon, hopefully.

Monday morning

Couldn't get to sleep last night even though I was really tired and had gone to bed about tennish. Lay there tossing and turning . . . saw eleven thirty come and go :(

Eventually I must have fallen asleep but I wakened again at about four.
Now this in itself was not an uncommon event - but when I lay down again I became aware that my pillow was drumming like a machine gun. I lay there till it drove me nuts and then I investigated.
It wasn't rocket science to work out what was going on.

Ross.

I stomped down the stairs, found him on his computer playing some computer game and gave him a piece of my mind. He turned the volume down and I went back upstairs - still fuming.

But aren't we all our own worst enemy. Back upstairs I tossed and turned. Every time I closed my eyes, my mind started berating Ross all over again for staying up so late playing games, how he wasn't taking a responsible attitude to his work blah, blah, blah.

 And the longer I kept my eyes closed, the more I thought of  to add to my tirade and the more wound up I became.

D'you know what saved me and calmed me down enough to sleep? I sat up and told him everything I was thinking. Even the stuff I've never said but have thought. No he wasn't there but hearing my voice in my ears did the trick!!

I would definitely recommend this strategy to anyone :)

. . . and here he is, the present bane of my life at a less stressful time in our relationship :) A lot of water under the bridge since then!

This was one of the first photos I scanned and I hadn't learned at this point how to make the photo fit the page. I'm doing much better now :)

Sunday evening

Just a little cheery memory! Lunch at The Wild River Brewpub.

I need some sympathy, please. Ross has given me his cold and my nose is running like a tap and my eyes are on fire.
I'm going to have an early night and hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

It's been a quiet week.
Tuesday, I was over in Inverurie to go with Carole to pick Luca up from school.
Carole showed me where to park the car and where to stand and wait for Luca to come out of school. So I'm all organised for Tuesday coming!

Mike and Val arrived earlier than expected at Carole's for a short break.
A happy coincidence!

Thursday afternoon I went swimming with Myra and Elizabeth. And boy was that hard going! I managed to complete my thirty lengths but it took all I had - I was exhausted :(

Last night, we went out to dinner at the home of Keith and Annette. I love going out to dinner and last night was very enjoyable :)

And here I am . . . CSI New York is finished. I've had half a bag of Moose Munch for my tea and I'm now watching an episode of New Tricks after which I shall take a hot drink upstairs with me and go to bed.

Tomorrow, the new radiator for the kitchen will arrive - another casualty of the Power Flush we had done last year, and then on Wednesday the gasman will come and fit it.

You know, the way things are going we may end up with new radiators throughout the house.This is our third one to spring a leak!

Tuesday 30th August

 My garden has produced enough rhubarb for me to make two rhubarb pies. Isn't that great? And there are still a few stalks to pick - you can see them in the top left of the picture above.
We ate one at teatime last night and I've frozen the other one for another day :)

If I can work out where, I'm going to plant some raspberry canes and maybe some more rhubarb and don't forget, we have an apple tree too which has several apples on it! Not bad eh?


But my slug and snail populations took liberties while I was away on holiday . . . how is this for cheek?

The bare stems you can see in the photo should be a beautiful lilly! 

When I came back from holiday, I looked at the stems - there was another skeleton in the other cavity wall exactly the same. But I had no idea what on earth I had planted! It took me almost a week to remember and my memory only came back because I had gone out for a walk the other day and came across some lillies in a garden up on Burnett Terrace.
It all flooded back! I had planted them in the earth to save them from possible dehydration which was a possibility since Ross was in charge of the watering while I was away. Well, that didn't work, did it!

 

Slugs and snails - Grrrr - they're making it very difficult for me not to hate them!!

According to my wee book '50 ways to kill a Slug', slugs love porridge oats. 

Here's what the book says. . .

1. Scatter oat bran around your plant and wait.

2. Oat bran is a favourite with slugs, but once eaten it expands inside them and their end is nigh - they have been known to literally explode.

They can forget the tossing onto the embankment or even death by beer . . . this is war!!

Thursday morning

I'm sharing my seat, here at the computer with Holly, the velcro dog. She has this thing about sitting right beside you or better still - on top of you!

This is a 'catch up' entry, because we went to Ashland on Monday and you haven't seen any of my photos so here goes. . .

ASHLAND

Ashland is a lovely place. It's not far from Grants Pass - probably took us about 40 minutes to get there. It's a spa town - got the fountain with the horrible smelly water that's supposed to be beneficial.

Here's a few photos taken in the park. It's shady which is great, has a swing park and has a little 'creek' running through it which is a magnet for all the kids and a lot of the adults who are feeling the heat.

This was the view from behind the others as we started back down the hill from the top of the park to the main road.

And this is the Elizabethan theatre that's been built in the town. It's a replica of The Globe in London!

Here's Ian posing outside.

And here he is disappearing through the entrance :)

It's open to the public as long as there isn't a performance going on. So we went in and had a wee wander around.

Long distance shot of Ian down at the stage.

Close up of Lucy, Ian and Cade  in front of the stage.

Braeden wanted to get up on the stage and perform but sadly there was a big sign up denying access :(

You can't see it, but the flag I tried to photograph was a skull and crossbones!
And I don't know if you noticed in the close up photo further back, but you can see sailing ship ropes.
What was being performed this week? I'll give you a clue, it was a musical. . .
Ian worked it out.
Something close to my heart because when I think of it I remember my baby son dressed in a silk dressing gown with a twirly moustache drawn onto his little face.
He was primary seven.
And somewhere in our house there is a video ( now there's a technological blast from the past)!
Was he playing the part (and singing!!) of the major general? !!
Did you get it?
 Did I hear you say, The Pirates of Penzance?
Yes, you got it!

Cade asked me to take this photo of him sitting on this particular seat. It's got the same number as his football shirt from last year. Most of the seats have little plaques on them with names and dedications on them. Think about fundraising 'buy a bricks' and you've got the idea!

And here we are in the Standing Stones Microbrewery having lunch.
Would you believe, as an appetizer we had deep fried brussell sprouts?
Yes, we did! And very nice they were too!!

Smashing day! :)

Tuesday morning

I took this photo when we were just about ready to leave for Springfield/Eugene. Can you make out Holly's wee face peaking over the top of the truck? She's heading for her holiday home where she was spending Saturday night with all her little buddies.
No doggies allowed at the hotel :(

Short legs meant I was in the back of the truck for the journey, with the boys, and Ian was in Lucy's seat in the front,with Lucy sitting in the little, make shift seat which I think is usually the arm rest for the front seats.
It was snug! :)

Half way to our destination, we took a comfort break at a bagle shop - ever noticed how my blogs always manage to include food? Why is that? I don't know . . .
Anyway, I had a BLT bagle with cream cheese which was lovely! I'm not usually a bagle fan but maybe I'll give them a second chance :)

AT THE FESTIVAL

My artistic shot. What do you think?

It was fun sitting below the canopy listening to the music and trying the different beers.



Here's Cade showing you a frozen chocolate banana . . . I tried it frozen and then again when it had defrosted and much preferred the latter :)

And here are Ian and Braeden listening to the music .

 

I didn't, but there were food stalls all around to tempt you and Scott and the boys filled up on tacos.
There's only so much you can eat :( and my bagle was more than enough to keep me going till dinner time :(

In the evening after dinner, we split up and while Ian and I went back to the festival, Lucy, Scott and the boys headed for a sports shop called Cabelas and look what Braeden caught!!

Lucy didn't come away empty handed either. . .

Check out the new footwear. She says they are ultra comfortable!

Cade found a big cuddly brown trout to bring home (I'll take a photo of it to show you later) but poor Scott left empty handed :(

Friday night

All about 'it'?
All about what, I hear you ask.
I know, I said I would tell you all about it but I hadn't actually started telling you so you don't know what I'm talking about. . .but I do.
I was going to tell you about our trip to The Family Fun Park in Medford on Cade's birthday. Ian was the one who did all the work. I was the chronicler.
With two cameras - Ian's and mine.

I'm thinking about sending this photo to Persil to see if they would like to use it for their whiter than white adverts

In the park, there were three outdoor activities:
bumper boats
crazy golf
go carts
And inside there were electronic games machines.
Outdoor activities? We can cope.
Indoor activities? Nightmare!!!!!! These places are always dark. Your ears are assaulted by dings and dongs and your brain is fried by flashing lights. . . you can tell how I feel about them?


We decided to spend time out of doors first.
Go carts . . .

Waiting for the flag . . .

C'mon Granda! hands on the steering wheel, foot on the pedal! Let's get going!

And here come the leaders of the pack. . . well actually the only folk on the track!

Bumper boats were fun too!

Ian, you're squirting in the wrong direction. Turn round!

Braeden quickly learned to use the controls after heading into the fray in a circular motion :)

And Cade?

Look out Granda, here he comes!!!

The battle over, the brave trio were soaked to the skin.

Luckily it was time for lunch and there were plenty of picnic tables out of doors to sit at and dry out :)

After lunch, armed with a cup of tokens, we entered the Nightmare.
And the boys loved it!
Here goes. . .

Phew that was exhausting wasn't it?