Easter Monday

It's not sunny but neither is it rainy or cold! So nothing to complain about there :)

a hellebores in our garden

Twenty to eleven. I've just spent the last half hour wandering through site after site of folk suggesting ways to make steps on steep slopes. You see I've got plans. Don't tell Ian - he'll only get upset :).

Having spent so much time on the embankment lately, I've had a lot of time to think what to do with it! Here's what I'm thinking just now. . . The top half - draw a line across the garden level with the top of the little retaining wall - is going to be wild. Nature can do what it likes up there.
Below that I'm going to cultivate - hence the need for steps. The slope is so steep that you can't stand on it so planting and weeding is a fairly hazardous exercise. Nothing fancy - I'll probably just use spikes and that specially treated wood - you know the stuff - its had wood preservative injected into it under pressure to make it waterproof.

I might take a wee trip into B&Q and talk to the nice man behind the sawing counter - they'll cut the wood to the lengths you want there - I first came across this service when I was still working and the kids were doing a project on wood - he gave me lots of little samples!

So if you have any experience in this department, please let me know :)

Gee was I tired this morning! Dreamed nonsense all night - my digestive system was working a night shift due to my excesses of yesterday - and was it worth it?
Oh yes!!

Gary serving the Costco apple pie. Mmmh :)

 We had a lovely day. Ross got up and Gary, Carole and Luca arrived after their Easter Egg hunt at Haddo House which Carole told me was so busy, they never saw even one Easter Egg :(

Not such a futile hunt at Granny and Granda's house though! I'd hidden everybody's Easter Eggs around the house (with names on them) - just like we used to do years ago and Luca and his daddy took on the job of finding all the eggs. He would run into the kitchen each time he found one and ask us to read the name. And was it his? I reckon he found everyone else's eggs before he found his own!

little happy face

 Still smiling thinking of his wee happy and excited face :)

Friday afternoon 15th April

Here's Flat Stanley all the way from America with Nessie whom we bought in Aberdeen.

 Braeden's Flat Stanley and I took a trip into Aberdeen and wandered round the shops - how disappointing! When I think back to the year Cade's Flat Stanley came to stay, there is a distinct dearth of merchandise aimed at children in the tourist shops now in comparison to then :(
However, we did our best. Didn't we Stanley? And then we came home and had a well earned rest in the back garden!

Here he is taking his well earned rest on the garden bench!

And here he is having a wee climb on Granny's bush - fun or what?

Dead end? :(
Never say die. . . on being told of our disappointing day Ross stepped up to the mark!
"Why don't we take Flat Stanley out for a wee drive in the car and show him some of the local sights?" he suggested.
"Why yes, what a great idea!" I grabbed at the offer.
 "Only one proviso, though. . . "
"I stay behind the camera. I don't do photos."
He's saving himself for the great unveiling. When he's lost a couple more stones :)
. . . And here are the results -

The River Dee with the Potarch Bridge behind us!

Crathes Castle

 And across the road . . .

Big Man at the Millton - best scones on Deeside :) If you look really closely, you can just make out Flat Stanley sitting on the top edge of Big Man's kilt! Interesting how I've unconsciously leaned back to keep the line with the sculpture!

We had hoped to get a photo of Flat Stanley with some of the baby lambs in the fields but by the time we got to them they were too far away so Ross used the zoom - no Flat Stanley in the photo unfortunately :(

Earlier this afternoon, I put Flat Stanley back in an envelope and sent him off back to Braeden in America.

Keep your eyes open for his return, Braeden. He's in a big brown envelope. Nessie, however is in a white box - he wouldn't fit in the envelope - too fat!

Monday evening 11th April

Well, that's today just about finished. Everybody's home now.

And since I've intended writing something in my blog for several days now but haven't, I've sat myself down with the laptop and will write something while I watch 'The One Show'.

Then I'll go through to the kitchen and clear up.

And how has this past week gone?

Good!

So here's Luca. He dragged all his cars outside last Tuesday because it was such a lovely day.

. . . and he posed for this picture. It was supposed to be of him and his cars but I didn't quite get the cars into the frame :(

The garden is starting to take shape now that the sun has appeared. I've been digging out all the dead wood and pulling up the huge patches of bulbs - weeds that have taken over the back garden these last couple of years! I forget the name of the plant but the flowers are orange. They look a bit like fuschia and the leaves are sword like - anybody know?

Not making good progress here. I keep getting distracted . . . Jim McDonald in Coronation Street, has just held up a bank but the police are outside. So goodness knows what's going to happen now. He needed the money to buy The Rover's Return for Liz. He had no money, so what else could he do? He got a sawn off shotgun from his old cell mate ( he's been in jail before) and pulling his bunnet down over his eyes, he went into a bank and joined the queue to be served.  It was a daft idea, wasn't it?

I really should get the kitchen cleared. 'The One Show' finished ages ago, been followed by 'Corrie' which has now finished  with the Jim cliffhanger and we now have 'The Dales' which is about the Yorkshire countryside and I can't stand much more!! 

Got to get out of here!!

Ian has given up his attempt to book flights - every time he blinked, the times and dates of flights available changed!! He's away - disappeared upstairs.

Tomorrow morning, Flat Stanley and I are going to take a trip to the Tourist shop in Aberdeen. Stanley arrived through the post the other day. Braeden sent him here for a wee holiday.

More information will follow :) I'll take his photo and let you see him. Braeden has dressed him like a ninja!! :)

Mother's Day

Well what a lovely surprise I had!

During mass this morning, I became aware of movement at my side and upon looking down was confronted by two great big brown eyes and a huge grin!

It was Luca!
Gary had come straight through after the wee fella's football practice to wish me a Happy Mother's Day! And knowing that I would be in the church had decided just to come in and join me for the second half :)

Wasn't that just so thoughtful?

When we got back to the house, Luca noticed that Ian's car was missing and as we opened the front door asked, " Has Granda gone back to Turkey Lurkey?"

No darling - just the golf course :)

I should have taken some photos while Luca and Gary were here . . .
Luca took a trip on the wee three wheeler bike along the main road and then up the hill at Corsee Road - mind you I was pushing from behind - and I could have had some good shots then :( 
And instead of giving you a photo of the cheesecake that Gary made for me, I should have put Gary and Luca in the picture. It was only after they went that it dawned on me :( 

Anyway, here's a photo of Luca from December.

And here's the cheesecake!

Gary and I had a piece each as lunch and it was delicious - seriously. I'll have another piece after my crispy aromatic duck at teatime! :)

Gary is away home with a chocolate cheesecake which he made here. He brought the ingredients with him and made it to take back to Carole as part of her Mother's Day treat! . . . Busy, busy, busy!!

I now have one of Carole's baking trays and she has one of mine! :)

Saturday afternoon

Some of my birthday flowers - what with Lillies from Ian and these flowers from my buddy Sadie, the house has been smelling absolutely gorgeous!

Another week has passed by and I've no idea where the time has gone!

Monday? No brainer - swimming with the girls in the afternoon. Thirty six lengths followed by a cup of tea and a cinnamon iced bun at Costco. A guilt free treat :)

No walk to Woodend Barn on the Tuesday, I'm afraid - miserable weather :(
So it was a wee wander up to Raemoir Garden Centre who had sent me a birthday card with a voucher for free coffee and scones for two!
. . .  and no, I haven't had the free coffee or scone yet, forgot the voucher :(
Next time.

It was just Luca and I at teatime on Tuesday night - the boys were both out. Not quite in the same way of course seeing as Ross was out on a job and Ian was out of the country.

Still we managed fine . . .  tea for two :)

On the way home, as we slipped onto the dual carriageway, we found ourselves behind a car going quite slowly. My back seat driver says, "Overtake that car, Granny!"

Now I know that we are coming up to another slip road and I'm in two minds. If I overtake him as we go past the entry of the slip road, the car I'm overtaking wouldn't be able to move out if he needed to. Should I go or should I wait. My back seat driver pipes up again, "You can do it, Granny! Just go fast!"

I decide I'll be past him by the time we hit the entry so I go for it.
And as we pass the car in front, I get my verbal pat on the back, "Well done, Granny Jo! I knew you could do it!"

Whose the adult??

Luca's crocodiles made with stones :)

Ian arrived home on Thursday. Hurrah! I celebrated by eating six chocolates out of my birthday box :)

So we were a family again which was nice although I have to admit I was disappointed to have to move back to my own side of the bed :(

Ian did  very well. He'd been up all night but still managed to keep going all day. He'd had to endure a 5 hour flight to Glasgow leaving Turkey at about two in the morning and then he had a 3 hour drive back up the road to Banchory. Gruelling? I think so.

So today, I'm sitting in the back room blogging and watching 'A Hundred Years of Us' - it's a series the BBC have made probably because the  1911Census is being released on 5th April!!

We've just been talking to a woman who was one of the first folk in this country to get Streptomycene - is that how you spell it? - for TB! She was very interesting. She told us all about her time in the sanatorium. Her dad had taken her there and when he got her to the door, he took one last look at her, turned and walked away.

It's so good to see the daffodils in bloom again :)

Our wee daffodils just a.t the door

This host of golden daffodils - well they will be soon - at the Bellfield Park

And these daffodils are starting to bloom at the foot of Corsee Road

 This morning, I took a walk along the river to Morrisons - I needed to get out and and get some fresh air and the sun had come out. So I took my camera  and my rucksack and off I went -  got some good photos. I took some of the river which is still very high and flowing fast after the winter's snow.

The water has covered this path recently but just now it's just below!

Sunday evening 27th

Another day done. Time to hit the sack - I am so tired.
Too many late nights I'm afraid.

I've decided I'll be fine once Ian comes home and boots me out of his chair. You see I sit here every night with my laptop on the little swing table, watch multiple 'who dunnits' and surf the net - in particular Ancestry and Scotlandspeople. Oh yes!! Fun, fun, fun.

I know - not fun for everybody.

Poor Mary got wakened at midnight the other night by my text message. I was so excited about what I'd found in the 1901 census that I had to tell her straight away. I didn't know she hadn't put her phone off!! Crumbs :(

The clocks sprang forward last night and yes, I did know but I forgot didn't I which is  how I came to find myself sitting in my jammies staring at Perry Mason at 9.30am thinking I had loads of time before I had to get washed and dressed for church!

So what saved me? I flicked on my computer and caught site of 09.30 at the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

The church was decidedly quiet this morning - I don't think I was the only person who forgot :)

Sunday lunch today was Morrocan lamb at Chez Inverurie. And very nice it was too :) Carole is going to send the recipe to me and I'm really keen to try it out!! I might even treat myself to a tagine - oh yes!!

No photos from today, sorry.
So here's a photo of Ian and Kelly at Maggie Beers shop and restaurant in the Barrossa Valley. Happy memory! You see Kelly's lunch? Novel idea huh?

Friday 25th March

Viburnum Nudiflorum growing in a garden beside the Burnett Park

I took  this photo the other day while I was out walking when the promise of Spring was in the air. . . and it's still there although today we've had quite a bit more cloud and a few spots of rain. 
Ah well never mind, it could be a lot worse.
I'm heading off to bed now and would have been there at least an hour ago had it not been for 'Embarrasing Bodies' - one of my current favourite TV programmes.
The presenter went round Llandudno asking folk to choose which activity wasn't advisable - picking your nose or cleaning out your ears.

What would you have chosen?
The answer? Cleaning out your ears can be dangerous - you can go deaf if you poke too much whereas picking your nose will do you no harm whatsoever and can actually do you some good as the crusty mucus can irritate the lining of the nose!
There you have it.


Of course, they obviously haven't heard the story of the man who was in a collision while driving his car and picking his nose at the same time, I'll wager.