day four in the garden

 Pond buttercup

 Sea pink

Still sunny. Well, not now, it's eleven o'clock at night. But it was sunny, all day. It's all been a bit weird. There were loads of things I was going to witter on about but typically, now that I'm actually sitting down at the computer,  I can't think what they were. Ah well, enjoy the pictures!

three days of sunshine

Three consecutive days of sunshine. School sports day went ahead the other day and was a success (thank the weather gods - last year it had to be cancelled due to torrential rain). Miss M won the running and came second in the egg and spoon. The Boy, being uncompetitive, just had fun. I 'helped' on the PTA juice stall*  but owing to having been at the dentist for root treatment that morning and the numbness just wearing off, mostly what I did was entertain our Chair's baby daughter.

Today is glorious. I have been laundering and gardening, Cat 2 has been slinking and prowling, but thick-furred Cat 1 has been sleeping in a cool spot indoors almost all day. Yesterday he wouldn't go out until I hung the washing out and he could sit in the shade of damp sheets.  I don't know what he'd do in a hotter climate.

I have a mystery plant. Don't I always? It's doing very well but I don't have the foggiest what it is. For any experts/Dad, it's in the next two pictures and the 'flower' is about as big as my thumb nail:

* That's the Glaswegian use of the word juice, before you go thinking phrases like 'juice bar' and 'freshly squeezed'. 'Juice' is squash, 'fizzy juice' is a fizzy drink. The kids got squash and an ice-lolly. The parents got coffee or tea. I got a headache.

Springy

It was a beautiful day today, sunny and relaxed. Sometimes I feel as if I've been cold for months but today was bliss. We're not talking tropical, just nicely warm for once!  My Beloved was off doing the Yorkhill Easter Egg Run, a motorbike event which raises money for Yorkhill hospital, and the kids and I went to the Museum of Rural Life with my mother-in-law and my brother. We saw my Favourite Tree:

And lots of lambs, these two only about an hour old:

You don't get much more springy than that!

Before we went out I'd done an Easter Egg hunt for the kids again. As usual the clues were in rhyme. Very bad rhyme. I'm rather regretting doing that the first time because if I don't do it now I'll feel I'm not trying hard enough. The kids did say it didn't have to rhyme though. It's just me putting pressure on myself - ridiculous! :-D

They were good bad rhymes though!


Also the sock progresses:

Actually since then I've turned the heel - it's really fun knitting, this. So quick - hurray for small feet! I think this may be my quickest ever sock actually. There's nothing like an instant gratification project..

It's been a lovely weekend. Although I've still been getting some studying in, the pace has been much more leisurely for the last couple of days. I do like a bit of leisure.

frosty

We had the first frost of the winter last night, and a clear night was followed by a beautifully clear day. I don't know what temperature it got to in the day but it felt chilly all day - the sun was warm, but the moment you went into the shade you felt it.  It was great to see some blue sky again though! Up near the library you could see for miles and miles. I should have taken more pictures really but I was just too cold at that point. It was my first gloves day of the winter too, reminding me that I really should knit that second mitten, y'know, sometime before spring.

Tonight being Bonfire Night, the kids and I ventured out for a walk to see if we could spot fireworks. I took loads of photos but obviously they're mostly useles - that one above is of the moon with fireworks and the tops of some trees. Or alternatively it could be a colony of glow-in-the-dark bats. The cats have been more twitchy at the sound of explosions this year (perhaps there were more fireworks this year because it was a dry night?) but not excessively so. While we were out firework-watching we saw a fox slinking around completely unconcerned about the whole thing. Animals must think humans are very peculiar sometimes.

It was still cold and clear with very little breeze and the moon was particularly beautiful:

We were trying to decide whether it was full or not, but apparently it's waxing gibbous.

My brain is still addled by Cézanne - nearly finished though. I just have to add a bit to the Cleopatra answer and trim a bit more off the Cézanne one. Actually I could easily have written something twice as long for the Cézanne, which I suppose is reassuring in that I have plenty to say, but it's also quite frustrating that I'm having to prune quite so drastically. I'm only good at pruning drastically in the garden!

summer term frenzy

Every year it takes me by surprise - the Easter holiday drifts by and then we're into the summer term frenzy and so much happens that I'd like to blog about, but there never seems to be any time. The days get longer, yet somehow shorter, and my to-do list gets ever more unmanageable, and the weeks fly by far too quickly.

At the end of May there was a long weekend and we headed to the Highlands to see Mum and Dad. While we were there we saw an oystercatcher nesting in an overflow carpark at the Highland Wildlife Park. She was very defensive of her nest and the staff had put out traffic cones to protect her well-camouflaged eggs.

And back at Mum and Dad's, the duck who has adopted them and flies in most days for a snack.

As we edged into June we had the school's fun day, for which I did what felt like an epic amount of baking (somehow when you do what feels like an epic amount of baking it only ever amounts to enough to fill a few plastic tubs) and manned the coconut shy. There was a bit of lemon drizzle traybake left. I'd never made it before but it's a very forgiving recipe and turned out perfectly. I'm not really that much of a cake person, but this was quite good.

School sports day got cancelled at the last minute due to torrential rain and the teachers, PTA (including me) and teenage helpers from the high school, cobbled together an indoor alternative which left us all knackered.

And I caught a cold, which always seems so unfair in summer. Accordingly I treated myself to a copy of Pompom Quarterly  - I ordered last winter's issue, because there's a hat pattern in it I really like and I don't really do summer knitting. Out of season it may be, but it's lovely.

Then the sun came out again and I found this gorgeous bee in my garden:

I think it's a red-tailed bumblebee and is apparently quite common but I've never seen one before.

The sky was so blue I went round the garden taking pictures of the underside of the flowers and plants. My favourite is this poppy - the contrast with the sky is so strong.

The garden's looking quite happy actually. Quite exuberant in fact. And nicely quiet. The school year finishes a week on Wednesday and the frenzy continues until then, so I'm hoping for a few quiet (and dry) spells when I can sit in my deckchair and appreciate it all.

I am Oz, the Bright and Colourful

I seem to have acquired a small and very bright, floral fabric stash - soon to be skirts for Miss M.  And maybe a cushion cover. And I've even got matching threads. Dear me, that seems suspiciously like being organised.

Out in the garden, into which the sun shone again today, things are also bright and floral. These tulips are a bit garish really (red and white stripey) but they do brighten things up.

We're all settling back into routine again after the kids' school holiday (two blissful weeks of not rushing in the morning!) but it doesn't take long to get back to normal. This term has several interruptions - public holidays, in-service days, sports day and so on - so it tends to fly by. The kids are having their school photos taken tomorrow so my little scruffbags are having to wear actual shirts and ties rather than their usual casual polo shirts. They are not happy about this and to be fair, last year's pictures were a bit pants so I'm not sure why I'm bothering. Mindless optimism probably. Maybe this is the year they'll look like themselves and not like newly-promoted Chief Inspectors or Conservative party candidates.  They only get class photos in Primary One and Primary Seven so they're just individual or sibling photos this year. Maybe I should get them to pull silly faces. They'd look more like themselves if they did. Oh, the temptation!

Disaster and triumph (may be slight exaggeration)

Why do weird things not happen when My Beloved is in the house?  On Monday the cabinet that encases the boiler just fell off the wall. Out of the blue. Very fortunately it just sort of flipped out away from the wall so the boiler wasn't damaged and neither was the microwave that sits underneath it. In fact the only thing actually broken was one of the cat bowls but it was a cheapy plastic thing so was easily replaced for the unprincely sum of 79p. And even more fortunately neither the kids nor the cats (nor me for that matter) were in the kitchen at the time. I was up in the bathroom trying to get the shower curtain pole back up because it had just fallen down. Honestly, in any other part of the world I'd have suspected an earthquake but it's about as seismically active here as a teabag.

Monday was a bit chaotic generally, it has to be said - I had an exercise class in the morning, then Miss M had her ballet class in the late afternoon, then a gymnastics class after tea, so it was a bit of a running around day.  On the upside, the weather was sunny and bright and both the kids and the cats got out into the fresh air a lot, and I got a tonne of washing done and out on the line.

The garden is starting to look more springlike:

And yesterday (also sunny) we discovered that there are masses of tadpoles in our tiny pond. I'd been about to clear some of the green sludge out of the pond when I noticed all the black wriggly things.

The camera sees many more details than my eyes did!  Now I'm wondering if I should try and clear some of the green sludge out to give the tadpoles some space or if they need it to lurk in or eat. All I remember about tadpoles from the tadpole tank in our classroom when I was in Primary Three is that they'll eat each other given half a chance. Bleurgh. However I am delighted that our tiny pond has been deemed worthy of spawning in, so good luck to them. I'll just not look too closely.

In the interests of staving off holiday boredom I got some marbling inks off ebay (yes, I actually planned ahead!) and Miss M and her friend had a go at marbling yesterday. I think the results are beautiful - why have we not done this before?

Not sure what to do with them - maybe cut out shapes and stick them up on the pinboard?

The latest episode in my further adventures in sewing is that I have made a small drawstring bag which is now a lavender bag (I made a small pouch for the lavender to go inside the bag otherwise with just a drawstring there would be lavender everywhere) and I'm just trying to pluck up enough courage to start Miss M's skirt. I've washed and ironed the fabric, now I just have to stop over-thinking it and just have a go.

The kids are out for a bit with their Grandad tomorrow so my plan is to try to start the skirt then. How hard can it be?  (Don't answer that)

Woohoo!

My computer is working properly again! I'd had an upgrade go a bit wonky, so My Beloved reinstalled and tweaked and fixed and now it's functioning so much better. Of course I have to fight the kids for the computer but they're asleep and it's mine all mine!

I was of course going to write a sensible blog post, but it's been a long day and it's a bit late at night for rational thought, and besides I have a rather silly picture of a duck to share with you:

This was one day last week when we had actual sunlight. The reflections were so bright I couldn't even see what I was taking a picture of, but quite by accident I've taken a picture that really makes me smile. It reminds me a bit of the opening titles of Peter Davison era Doctor Who, so it's a space duck. Or perhaps a time-duck.

It really was a beautiful day, though still a bit chilly.

In other excitement, our washing-machine shuffled off this mortal coil recently and our new one arrived last Thursday so I've been playing with that. It turns out that it sings little tunes to me when it finishes a cycle, and when you turn it on or off, which I'm still at the stage of finding amusing. I've learned how to switch the sound off though, in case it all becomes too chirpy and Talkie Toaster for words.

Sprung

No, I haven't been sprung from the joint. Nor have I sprung a leak. Nope, what has happened, and it's really most unlikely, is that spring has sprung. We have had two consecutive days of sunshine, blue skies and relative warmth. Two! It's not been raining! Yesterday the kids came running out of school into the balmy 10.5 degree sunshine shedding jackets, cardigans, hoodies like, well, Glaswegians in the spring. And there are yellow things in the garden.

I'm still not feeling 'one hundred per cent' as athletes being interviewed by the BBC always say (shortly after the default athlete sentence opener 'well, I mean..' pronounced 'wellamean'), but a little bit of sunshine certainly helps. And watching Cat1 blissfully expose his belly to the sunlight is both amusing and relaxing. Talking of whom...

Monday afternoon was chaotic.  We were running around getting ready to take Miss M to her dance class, when the doorbell rang and it was a creepily smiling man who wanted to give me a leaflet, not as I initially thought about 'the Good News', but about a service he offered cleaning leather suites. ''Er, no, sorry, we're just going out, bit of a rush.." I muttered shutting the door in his face while simultaneously thinking "I use baby wipes to clean the leather settee, doesn't everyone?"  Maybe specialist leather suite cleaning is a euphemism for something. 

Then we continued to run around like headless chickens, because I couldn't find my keys. That deserves the bold type, it's the kind of thing I get anxiety dreams about. I looked everywhere, even most unlikely places (bathroom), and had the kids searching too, which is usually pointless but worth a try. By this time we're really actually running late and I hate being late. Then as I was looking upstairs for the second time, the kids shouted up "We've found them!"
"Where?" I shrieked, running down the stairs.
"Under the cat."

I'd thrown my keys on the footstool as we'd come in from school and the cat had gone and sat on them. And continued to sit on them while I ran around looking for them. *sigh* Until he got bored and sauntered off.

At times like this I need mindless knitting. Or actually the crochet is good at the moment because it's getting easier and less wonky and therefore more enjoyable, but I still have to concentrate a bit so it takes my mind off whatever my subconscious feels I should be fretting about. But back to knitting and a recent piece of mindless knitting, a facecloth:

I hardly ever knit with cotton as I don't find it the pleasantest thing to knit with, but actually a garter stitch square is fine because you don't need a lot of give in it. What I'd forgotten was what a pain it is finishing off because any ends you weave in promptly unweave themselves and knots tend not to stay knotted*.  So I googled for an answer and found this Youtube video which has an answer that is both clever and so blindingly obvious that I really did want to kick myself. And I hope that if I include the link here I'm more likely to remember it next time.

I can't see a need for a vast number of facecloths but it was a quick enjoyable knit and I learned something useful from it. And at the time I was avoiding a half-turned heel that was not quite right (fixed now - just needed daylight and concentration). It's always handy to have a procrastination knit in the background!

* I'll confess here that although it is considered a cardinal sin on Ravelry to tie in a new piece of yarn, of whatever type, I've done so for years and don't think it matters much if the 'wrong' side is hidden. For example, inside a garment where it's not seen, as long as it's not a huge knot that'll rub, why worry?

Scarfy goodness

 Yesterday I finally remembered at the appropriate time of day to take some pictures of my Hitchhiker and as luck would have it it was a cold sunny day so the light was excellent. I did take some pictures of myself wearing it (knitting selfies are less frivolous than normal ones, eh?) but they were abysmal. I looked pale, cold and rather forbidding, and not in a cool Ice Queen kind of way, more of the sarcastic maths teacher with a headache genre.

I'm so chuffed with how well the Hitchhiker turned out. I was a little haphazard with my row counting so some of the points ended up a bit longer than others but I think it looks pretty good. I debated with myself for a while as to whether I should cast off at the 42nd point or whether the last point doesn't actually count as a point - and I couldn't find the pattern so I don't know if that's mentioned. In the end I decided the last point doesn't count as a proper point so depending on your point of view it may have 43 points. It's very long and very warm too which is good as this morning we woke up to a hard frost and the first light sprinkling of snow this winter.

Very sunny and beautiful clear blue skies though which makes up for an awful lot.  That photo was taken about midday actually. I like the contrast with the golden leaves just hanging on by the skin of their sap and the snow/frost. The amazing yellow maybe-maple leaves that have fallen off a tree near the school looked amazing with frost on them but I didn't have time to take pictures this morning.  Also I'd have felt a bit of an idiot, to be honest. Sometimes I'm uninhibited about taking photos of random things, but sometimes I'm not.

I've taken to comparing the various weather forecast websites, just for fun. It's Parents' Night at the school tonight so that may coincide with torrential rain, a light rain shower or hail, depending on which site you look at.  I'll just wait and see.  I imagine a plague of locusts is probably not likely. Freeze-dried locusts maybe. Or soaking-wet or merely-slightly-damp locusts possibly. Weather's such an adventure!

St. Andrews bliss

So it's the tail end of the school holidays - the kids are back to school on Wednesday. And although it's been a great summer, I think they're quite happy to be going back really. Normally I'd be quite relived  - being chief finder-of-interesting-and-fun-things-to-do for seven weeks takes its toll, and I am pretty tired I admit, but it's been so much fun this year. Partly because we had a lot of good weather, and partly because the kids are a bit older and better able to entertain themselves.

Last week we had our final fling and headed off to St.Andrews for a few days of pottering. We stayed in the same place as last year, a hall of residence, though finally finally it's got rid of the ridiculously short-sighted name of New Hall (it was built when I was a student) and is now Agnes Blackadder Hall, after Agnes Forbes Blackadder who, in 1895, was the first woman to graduate from St.Andrews University and went on to become a doctor of some note - more information here. It's a good name, though I suspect part of its popularity is due to the opportunity for many many Baldrick jokes!

 We did a lot of nothing much - some time spent on the East Sands rock-pooling...

 ..some paddling, quite a lot actually, even the Boy joined in - those are his feet there..

.. some eating of ice-creams. Or sorbet in my case. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

One evening the Boy and I went for a wander out towards the hall I lived in during my first-year. It's no longer there, thankfully, and has been replaced with self-catering 'apartments' which look much pleasanter to live in, but the path to it is just as lovely as it ever was.  That field was one of my favourite views when I was a student. I saw it in all weathers and conditions.

The next day there was more messing around on rocks, investigating rock pools or pretending to be on a pirate ship:

Also a trip to the aquarium and a visit to the castle. I'd got the kids a drawing book each and the Boy spent a lot of time drawing plans of the castle, while Miss M wrote lists of rooms and other points of interest.

She particularly likes the mine and countermine, which are a siege mine and the tunnel dug by the besieged to meet it.  She got her daddy to take her down the tunnels several times. From inside the castle you go down the countermine which is very low-ceilinged and truly unpleasant until you climb down a short ladder into the mine, which has a higher ceiling and is generally more spacious as those digging in from outside had better equipment and so on. From that point steps lead up until they eventually stop at a wall, which I imagine stops you ending up in somebody's cellar, and there's a small manhole in the ceiling letting a bit of light in. I don't think Miss M is all that interested in the history really, it's more the 'secret passages' thing. Unfortunately I'm claustrophobic (hence the mine/countermine being a job for daddy!) and have never actually got further than the short ladder bit, but I've just watched this Youtube video that shows what it's like (the second half, on the way back from the far end, has better lighting so you get more idea what it's like). Hurray for the Intertubes! I can't imagine I'll ever get to the end of the tunnel myself, but at least I know what it's like now! Dark mostly.

I think that's our last time at the hall as sharing a family room is so tiring, especially when the youngest gets overtired after eight o'clock and we all have to go to bed early, but maybe a holiday cottage or something next year, if we go back. Shame really as breakfast there was fantastic, but decent sleep is even more so!

Train trip

The kids and I headed north for a few days with my parents last week. Just for fun (and because I didn't fancy driving), we took the train - I think it was the first time the kids had been on a longish train journey (i.e. more than an hour) and in fact it ended up taking more than an hour longer than it should have done. There were electrical problems "due to the adverse weather conditions", so I'm assuming thunderstorm, and we were stationary in Pitlochry station for 45 minutes, though it didn't actually feel that long. Then we had to stop a few times further north (such as in the pic above, in which the landscape would normally be a bit of a blur) for the same reason. The kids were fine though, not too moany. And I got a free coffee out of it :-D.

 The next day we spent at the Highland Folk Museum, always a favourite.

The following day it bucketed down. So the Boy, my mum and I went for a walk in the rain and discovered it really was nice weather for ducks:

 Especially as Mum nipped back to the house and got bread for them. That made us popular.

It was also nice weather for teeny tiny toads, about as big as my little finger nail. I can't quite believe this picture came out so well! That's a dead leaf it's half under, the stones are just the gravel of the footpath. You might have to click to embiggen, it's obviously a toad to me but the more I look at it the more I wonder if anyone else will see it. *paranoia*

And the last day was glorious! Our train wasn't until mid-afternoon so we spent most of the morning in the garden, before heading off south again. We even had the paddling pool out.

Fantastic wee holiday and it was surprisingly easy to travel with the kids. Though I made sure they carried their fair share of luggage, poor little beasts of burden that they were.

Saw this retweeted this evening: “@oceaneyes Now that we have 12 Doctors I'm going to use them to tell the time, it is currently half past Sylvester McCoy.” Well, it's 12 minutes past Peter Capaldi, so I'm off to bed!