Thursday 28th May

...and it has turned into a beautiful sunny day!

Kelly left about two oclock with her buddy, Lucy, to head into town to meet up with Katrina and then eventually head out to the airport to pick up Craig, who had selflessly stayed at home a bit longer to make their new home, Chez Caravan, more habitable.

By now they and many others will be sitting in Black Friars having a'Friend's Reunited' get together!

I've done a little weeding in the garden this afternoon but I wasn't really in the mood...bending was a little difficult after I stuffed myself with fruit tart, birthday cake and crisps after I'd eaten my lunch which was predomanitely crusty bread - well known for its bloating properties!
What can you do when they're in the house?
Exactly, it's a hard life :(

Problem is there's still half a bottle of red wine sitting in the kitchen waiting to be finished. Liz and I should have finished it off last night :)

It was Lucy's birthday yesterday and we celebrated with a 'Peppa Pig' birthday cake!
Luca appreciated it.
I stuck 3 white candles, 3 yellow ones and 3 pink ones into the cake - the idea being that the white ones were 'tens' so that was thirty and the yellow and pink were units... so 36!!


It was around seven thirty, when we finally sat down to eat. Luca had eaten earlier
...and what had he eaten?
You're right - beanies with sausages and a yoghurt.








There was a football match on which was a big draw for several members of the family... their number didn't include Liz, Luca or I!!
Here's a photo of Liz and Luca finding something else to do.

Grandma is a really good drawer!

Now what about the birthday girl?
Here she is!


This is one of the earliest photos we have of the birthday girl. She was only a few weeks old at the time.


The hairstyle her mother is sporting was very fashionable in the early seventies. It was called a feather cut!
Enough said, I think!

Playing detective!

This is part of the reason I've been so busy this week, I found a website
www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

What a mine of information!

It has all the births, deaths and marriages from 1855 and every census from their conception up until 1901.

So far I've spent £12 on credits to access information!!
... but I have found out that Granny Lottie's mum's mum's dad was an Irish lad!

His name was John McMahon.
He was born in 1839/40
And he was a coal miner!

There's a lot more which I will drip feed you.
Suffice to say, I haven't found any Paisley buddies in my past yet although John and his wife Eliza (she was from Old Monkland in North Lanarkshire - mining country) were living in Paisley in 1901 according to the census.

Interestingly, the census records their daughter Jane as living with them but her children (including my Renfrew Granny aged 7) are recorded as visitors.

Any theories?
Too late to ask my granny what was going on.
I'll start digging again as soon as I feel I can squander some more money.
It's very addictive!

This old photo was taken around 1914 (I'm making that assumption because the boy in the back row is wearing a soldier's uniform).
The older woman on the right is Jane McMahon, my great grandmother and the girl standing at her right shoulder is Granny Lottie's mum, my Renfrew granny!

Response to a certain blog

My, does that boy spin yarns!!!
Look at the photo in the post before this one.

Does that look like a wee boy who isn't happy to see his daddy home, I ask?
Quite!

As for not feeding my grandson - he wouldn't eat his mummy's delicious home made macaroni cheese.

"Nohhhhhh!" he wailed, "No macaroni cheese."
Followed by, "Yoghurt, yes?"
Eyebrows raised and tone sweet.

I even tried the macaroni again after the yoghurt only to meet the same response, "Nohhhhhhh!"

And OK he was late to bed but this was for the best because what did he do in his nappy just as he was given his bedtime bottle?

Yes your right... "No poo!"

Do not read and accept anything a certain person writes in his blog - It's all for effect!

Thursday 21st May

It's been a busy week - haven't had a lot of time to reflect but since I've got some photos from yesterday at Inverurie, I'm making time in my busy schedule to put them in!

Here we are ...


I could kick myself for not taking a photo of Gary after he took off his hat - he's got hair - yeeha as Kelly would say.

Seriously, he looks great :)
What a handsome boy!

Thursday teatime

"I'm so glad you woke up before Granny had to take me home, Uncle Ross, because now we can sit together on a soft seat and I can read you a really good story!"

"Now, where will I begin?"

Monday morning

I took another Mother's Day yesterday since Ian was off at Boat of Garten for his annual golf sleep over.

I spent most of the day lounging in front of the TV watching episode after episode of 'The Ghost Whisperer'.

It was one of those bumper crops that the channels do now and again to bring everybody up to date and I am now ready and prepared for series 4!

During the adverts and between episodes, I read my current book - The Resurrectionist by James Bradley - 'An earthy, brooding Gothic horror...Gory at times, philosophical at others, this is atmospheric stuff.' Big Issue,

... and when I got hungry, I ate toffee or chilli beans of which I had made enough yesterday for the feeding of the five thousand.

To finish the day, I set the timer on the bedroom TV to play an episode of Wycliffe (the series is set in Cornwall so you get lots of backdrops of the area - some of which I recognise) and settled down.

Missed most of it.
Next thing I knew it was this morning!



I've promised myself that I will walk today to make up for being a couch potato yesterday.

Saturday morning

Luca has just left, heading into Aberdeen with his mum and dad.

Unfortunately he is still wearing my gold and amber beads, there is an overpowering smell of Opium (my favourite perfume...really heavy) emanating from him and the remnants of his breakfast are still visible - like a little moustache and beard!

A plea to Luca's parents:
Please let him stay again Mummy and Daddy.
We'll try harder next time to maintain standards!

No photos I'm afraid from the sleep over but I do have some from his trip to Kindergym on Wednesday morning.
I used to take Ross to Kindergym when he was Luca's age... Happy days!








The kids are given free choice for most of the session but they have 'circle time' at the end when their activities are directed...
On Wednesday, they were given drum sticks and encouraged to beat out rhythms ...and nobody stuck a stick in their neighbour's ear or up their mother's nose! Amazing!






We all sang 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' which was really good fun too!

I mentioned to Carole that when Ross and I went they used to get out the parachute and the parents held the edges making it fly up and down to let the children have fun running underneath it, and she said they do that too!

It was all good fun.