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Half term
Solstice again, and it looks like being a very, very busy day. Last weekend we went to Vane Farm, not been for ages, and oh happy joy, the flowers are out in the bumblebee meadow and beyond. Not only that, but in the furthest hide we saw male and female Little Ringed Plovers, nesting on…
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#dingding
Busy day yesterday, we met our friends the White family for lunch at Cafe Andaluz , then Team Holmes boarded an Edinburgh tram for the very first time, and rode in style from St Andrew Square to Shandwick Place. For those of you unfamiliar with this transport farrago, they are massively over budget and put a…
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Spinally tapped
Another evening at Pilates, another well stretched me. We had a very interesting weekend with our friend Rieko, from Tokyo. Saturday: National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh; Meadows walk; Burrell Collection, Pollok Park, Glasgow; then home for a gourmet Japanese meal. Sunday: The Kelpies, Falkirk; the new exhibition at the field of the Battle of Bannockburn;…
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Scottish Serenade
Pretty short on updates, spent my birthday weekend at Blair Atholl with After 8 Mince, the groupies, Yard of Ale, On the Wagon, Dalgety Bay Folk Club and some very hard working hotel staff. Then a whizz up to the Highland Wildlife Park to see the red pandas, the wolverine, the capercaillie (finally) and the…
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A Walk in the Park
Pollok park in Glasgow to be precise, where Paul and I went to join a five mile sponsored walk in aid of Parkinson’s UK last Sunday. If you have missed my mumbled appeals for sponsorship you can still support us by clicking on this link. We’d never been here before so we went across to…
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Al-Gharb
Somewhat uncharacteristically we jetted off to warmer climes last weekend. John & Yvonne are spending winter in Portugal and we thought we had better go and see them. Never having been to the Algarve we were very excited, and once installed it felt like walking out of a black and white film into a…
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Statuesque
Back to Northumberland we tootled, this time to Slaley Hall, to swoon once more at the autumn colours, and spend a lot of time talking. Noted redwing and song thrush feeding voraciously in the rowan tree outside our bedroom window. On the Wednesday we went our separate ways, Paul to a star camp in Galloway…
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Post, equinoxial
As sweet and musical As bright Apollo’s lute, strung with his hair; And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony. Love’s Labour’s Lost (4.3.289-292) Shakespeare Thanks to Poppy Lee for that quote and please have a look at her website, she’s a genius. The trouble with being…
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Bauxite no more
Roasty toasty Fife still and ever on – went to Burntisland yesterday, and the scene was just lovely – every café was full to bursting, there were queues outside the chippies for cones of chips and cones of ice cream, screams from the shows*, and once I made it to the pool, delight as…
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Banking on it
Nothing new has happened. This is a Good Thing, there was far too much new stuff earlier on this year. Although we have been away, to glorious Perthshire (Blair Atholl with the Mincers and Dunkeld by ourselves) and to London. I think we maybe pushed the envelope until it burst when we went to the…