Home and away

The blog is a very quiet, echoing place these days, but I persist. We went to see our friends in the west of Scotland on Wednesday  - postponed since 2020! - and on the way back got caught in the Glasgow rush hour. Never again! I mean, we'll see our friends again, but not on a week day. 

The garden flourishes. Spring is so wonderful. We've had a week of mild, shirtsleeves weather - but today it's more normal again. 

On Saturday we had a trip to Haddington on the bus. We arrived in time for coffee and such large cheese scones that we didn't need lunch, and had a lovely walk along the river. 

With swans. 

Haddington's a nice little town, not far from Edinburgh, but there's a lot of new house-building on the outskirts which is going to make a big difference to things. Here's the 18th century Poldrate Mill. 

Our walk was very peaceful.

On Sunday we walked along the prom at Portobello - still in unseasonably warm weather. It was slightly misty, so that the coast of Fife, on the far side of the estuary, was invisible. 

There were paddleboarders and swimmers. While the weather was warm, I'm sure the sea wasn't!

And in London, Littlest Granddaughter played in the garden. Daughter 2 and SIL2 still haven't been able to exchange contracts for the house that they hope to buy / their flat that they hope to sell. The lawyers and estate agents are hopeless - failing to answer emails, not investigating things for ages, saying stuff that can't be true if the other lawyers/estate agents are telling the truth. The chap they hope to buy from has been saying for some weeks that he's got a better offer and is threatening to sell it to these people  - if the truth is being told. But is it? If you're a competent, diligent person yourself, this sort of thing is very trying. Daughter 2 is being amazingly philosophical about it all. This is from having their offer accepted in mid-December - truly the English system (which is different from the Scottish one) is dire. 

However, there are direr things going on in the world so... Sigh. 

And Son and family have got Covid. We still haven't, though friends and acquaintances are testing positive quite frequently. It's bound to happen... .