Tapsalteerie

On Saturday we happily escaped our upside-down house and met up with our walking friends. We drove to Ormiston in East Lothian and parked in the main street and then we looked at Ormiston Cross and read the information about it. 

Ormiston is a very typical East Lothian village. 

As I so often do when I'm somewhere other than Edinburgh, I wondered what it would be like to live there. Quite nice, I'd think. 

And then we had a lovely five or six mile walk through the countryside. 

The weather was perfect for walking: not a breath of wind, mild and not sunny. At this time of year, the sun is so low in the sky that it's uncomfortably bright unless you've got your back to it. Which, in a circular walk, you often don't.  

We came across three sort of totem poles - one depicting the coal mining that used to take place here, one showing the market gardening that still does and the third - this one - with carvings of the local wildlife. These are relatively modern. I taught in East Lothian for the first six years of my working life, and most of the less academic lads planned either to go down the pits or to the fishing. It wasn't easy to persuade them of the importance of the correct use of the apostrophe.

It was such a lovely day in good company. 

The next day we went with the Edinburgh family to the Botanics, 

where autumn

is definitely beginning to assert itself. 

And on Monday, when the children began their October holiday, Son-in-Law 1 took Biggest Granddaughter - who is intrepid - to an indoor climbing wall, while I took Big Grandson - who isn't, but who is very interested in transport - to see how Edinburgh tram extension is going. Slowly and messily, that's how. 

And then we took a tram to the airport and back, because that's fun and interesting. Apparently. 

Another day we went to the local trampoline centre and they bounced. And then Nanny and Gramps arrived from England so we were off duty for a while. 

Our house was still in the throes of decorators, who by this time were in our bedroom, the downstairs bathroom and the kitchen, so we went for a walk along the river and had coffee at the gallery because the kitchen wasn't really accessible. 

It was nice to escape. One feels very lazy lounging around one's house while other people work in it. On the other hand, it's not that easy to get on with things when one's possessions are all in the wrong places. 

Yesterday the kitchen still looked like this.

But hooray, it was all finished today so we're gradually reassembling the rooms. And we're never doing anything to the house again. It's fine for the moment (or, it will be once we've got it all back to rights) and by the time it isn't, we'll either die or move. 

Or that's how we're currently feeling.