Change and perhaps a bit of decay

Blogging used to be such a community - it felt like a conversation. In fact, it was. But - as I've said before - so many of my bloggy friends have dropped away - though some are now Facebook friends - that it feels a bit daft to keep putting out into the ether pictures of mundane old-lady activities. People are reading (according to the stats, which I occasionally look at) but on the whole I don't know who they are. So I think I'm inclined to stop. I started in 2006 and things change. 

However, I'll record yesterday, when I saw a consultant about my arthritic hip - he was very nice, if disconcertingly young. I'm now on a long, long list to get a replacement hip. It's not that bad, though, and after seeing him, we went on a 7.72 mile walk (according to Mr L's device) to do a recce for the walk we're leading in a few weeks. It was, frankly, something of a struggle towards the end! It wasn't easy walking because it started along a beach, which was at first sandy (not easy to walk fast on) and then stony. I really love the wonderful variety of colours of stones - but they make for uncomfortable walking. Is it just Scotland that has such a colourful selection of stones on beaches and riversides? I don't know - probably not.  

Then the route led along the cliff top. The flowers, particularly the campion, were beautiful but the path was somewhat imaginary - consisting mainly of slightly squashed long, wet grass - again, a bit of a struggle to wade through. 

One didn't want to fall off the cliff. 

After a few miles the area became wooded but was still slightly precipitous, as evidenced by this somewhat discouraging sign. 

It was still pretty, though. 

Then there was open country, with lupins growing wild. Considering how I have to nurture lupins in my garden, defending them valiantly from slugs, snails and aphids, I'm always amazed at how they seed themselves in rough grass in the countryside. 

We passed a field which from a distance I thought was planted with tulips, but as we got nearer I realised that it was red clover - grown, I assume, for green manure. Isn't it beautiful? 

And there were one or two tiny villages. 

And then we looped back along the cliff "path" and beach for the final three miles or so - which seemed quite long. 

We were pretty tired. We might be getting old. And then we have to do it again in a couple of weeks! 

 

Then and now

You'd think retirement would hold lots of quiet, uneventful days, wouldn't you? And yet it's packed with activity - for which I'm on the whole very grateful. Lots of gardening, family things, coffees and lunches with friends, emails to write. Not to say books to read and quilts to make. But I'm not getting on with the archiving/decluttering.... We went up on Tuesday to visit Son, meeting him and Little Grandson in the Dundee Botanic Gardens, which are very pleasant, though not as extensive as Edinburgh's. 

In the afternoon, Son cut his grass. You can't see, but Little Grandson is riding the mower in front of him, complete with little ear defenders. 

Down south, Daughter 2 was spelling out words in the bath for Littlest Granddaughter (at the little one's request), with foam letters - bus, cat and so on. This was a surprising one, though. 

Today we went with our walking group in the East Lothian countryside, based round various places where the 1745 Battle of Prestonpans happened (Bonnie Prince Charlie and all that). We gazed at fields green with growing crops and imagined shouts and yells and chaps with tartan plaids and dirks and claymores. Poor things, how horrible for them. 

The hawthorn is beautiful at the moment. 

As are the campion and cow parsley.

You would never know that men had fought and died in these lanes and fields. Peace - so much better. 

 

New

We're back from a few days down south, visiting Daughter 2 and family in their new house (6 days after they moved in. They were impressively organised). It had been empty for nearly a year and the grass at the back was extremely long! The house was worth all the wait and stress, though - it's very nice and very suitable for their needs. 

There was the odd snag - Mr L is a tall chap, but not that tall. They're going to change the light fittings anyway. 

They got a gardener to come and cut the grass - it took him nearly three hours and generated a lot of clippings, which he took away. The garden is not fancy at the moment but has great potential. 

We went to a park which had a railway. This was very popular, especially with the oldest and youngest of the party. 

It's a beautiful park - up quite a big hill, but not really far from the new house. 

There's another playpark, just round the corner from the house, which I imagine they'll visit a lot. 

This is the view from their top windows. 

And then we came home again and as usual, having been with them, I miss them even more than when I haven't seen them. However, I'm happy to have seen them settled in the house. Their previous home, a flat, was nice but small - this has so much more space. We met various of their neighbours and they all seem very pleasant too, which was a great comfort. 

My dear bloggy friend, Thimbleanna, was to have come to Edinburgh for a flying visit with her cousin yesterday on the way to the west of Scotland to walk the West Highland Way - quite an energetic enterprise. However, because of plane delays, they had to go straight to Glasgow instead. Alas. So we went to the Botanics to cheer ourselves up and found that 1000 tulip bulbs had been planted in the beds where there are usually annuals. 

They were beautiful - food for the eyes and the soul. 

 

Blue

Littlest Granddaughter has settled happily into her new room in her new house. 

Here she is, having a slight picnic in the garden. That grass is going to be cut soon!

And she's now a commuter, back to pre-school every day where she used to live. 

Meanwhile, my mecanopsis is flowering. I have three plants and so far one bloom, so it's a case of "try harder" at the moment. But this one is pretty. 

I took Big Granddaughter to bounce; her brother wasn't well, poor chap. 

 She borrowed my phone. I do not have pink hair - among other things.