Thursday, May 24, 2018

Only 24 hours per day

"I'm a master of disguise," said Biggest Granddaughter. I do love the things they say at this age.

Goodness, life is busy - there's not time to do everything I want to do. I'm always chasing my tail. How can this possibly be??? We're retired!!! But, for example, we go for a walk most days, looking over the rooftops to the Pentland Hills, above. We're lucky to live in a city between the hills and the sea.


Our normal walk is along by the golf course. There are never many people playing golf but I suppose that if it weren't a golf course, it would probably get built on.


Another day I (unusually not Mr Life, who was down in Wales with his railway group) went with the walking friends on a circular hike from Lasswade. It was a lovely day - the weather has been uncharacteristically fine for a few weeks now.

Bluebells.

And gorse.

And the Royal Wedding, which some of the group watched via live streaming at lunch time. No escape! I saw the edited highlights later and thought it was a praiseworthy attempt to reach out to ordinary people. The dress was slightly boring, though, no?



We looked sadly at Mavisbank House, or what's left of it. It was built in the 1720s - designed by William Adam - but fell into neglect and then suffered a terrible fire in 1973. People keep making plans to get it at least partly restored, but it would cost millions. Anyone got some to spare?


This is its walled garden, which appears to belong now to the houses on the far side. They don't really seem to be gardeners, frustratingly, but on the other hand it's a BIG space.


And another day we took the little ones to Almondvale Country Park, where they patted guinea pigs


and climbed


and bounced. Such fun.


Daughter 1 has made a chart to attempt to make leaving the house for school in time slightly easier. I think it's sort of working. Can you see the two illustrations added by Grandson?

And now the garden's getting away from me, and I've only done a bit of cutting out of the next quilt, and as for writing that Booker-Prize-winning novel... .

5 comments:

  1. Always enjoy a good walk and a day with the older grandkids. Love the chart, hope it helps.

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  2. What you're keeping busy with is all wonderful stuff though! Well worth giving up the prize winning novel. :) Love the chart and little ones' sayings. I wish I had written down what my girls came up with at that age. I did think that the wedding dress was boring, and also unflattering. Although it was expensive, it looked cheap.

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  3. We used to have a chart like this for weekly activities but it wasn't nearly as full as our grand daughter's schedule which is a whirlwind. Haven't spotted the additions yet.

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  4. A city between the hills and the sea. That sounds so satisfying, delightful, intriguing. How much fun your grandchildren are. They do say things that make you smile.

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  5. Oooh, did you say it out loud LOL??? I thought the wedding dress was VERY boring - Kate's was so much more elegant and pretty. And it almost seemed like there was a little bit of silent cringing happening during the particularly "American" parts of the ceremony - I would have preferred a more traditional Royal Wedding LOL!

    And what a fun little chart to get everyone out of the house -- although, grandsom is so good at drawing, I'm having a hard time figuring out the parts that he drew -- maybe the little people leaving the house at the end?

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