Going

Well, we had some good times with Littlest Granddaughter. 

And sometimes the Edinburgh cousins came round. 

And lots of old toys came out. 

And of course we went to the Botanics. 

In the sort-of rain. 

But now Daughter 2 and Littlest have gone home to London, and this is very sad. 

Though I did sit in the garden when they'd gone and read my book. Which was nice, in a mournful way. 

Foolishly, I never expected our children to move away from Edinburgh. Of course I should have at least considered that they might. 

I don't know whether this would have helped, though. 

A number of things

Life has been very full and yet I don't seem to have taken many bloggable photos. There's this, though: the splendid and huge agapanthus outside our kitchen window. I believe it's a terrible nuisance in Australia, and indeed I could never manage to dig it up from this flowerbed even if I wanted to, but isn't it beautiful? I'm quite tempted to try to hack a bit of it off and plant it in the back garden, because this enormous clump isn't seen from the street or any other of our windows, which seems a shame, and I would enjoy seeing some of that blue in the back too. 

Small Granddaughter has been trampolining again, this time with Daughter 2 on Friday because Mr L and I were having his Australian cousins to lunch and the rest of the day. Then we did a big shop on Saturday prior to having a meet-up of all of his surviving cousins on his father's side on Sunday - yesterday. There used to be 6 of these cousins plus him, and now there are only three plus him, which is rather sobering. The three that have died were all younger than him, too. However, the cousin and his wife from Australia came back on Sunday, and they, with two other cousins and their husbands, plus most of our lot, came to lunch. It was a lovely day. I find cousins intriguing, having none of my own and thus never having shared my grandparents. Sadly, the Australians - who also came over, when the cousins also all met up at ours, ten years ago - say that this is their last visit. They aren't getting any younger and have some health problems. And we'll never go to Australia. So we'll never meet again, which is quite sad to contemplate, because they're very nice. 

On Friday evening the Australians were keen to see Son-in-Law 2's show, Showstopper The Improvised Musical, so we went to it with them. SIL2 has been with this company for quite a few years and it always comes to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and always does well here. So it was nice to see it with the cousins, who enjoyed it a lot. 
 

We have (mainly) had fun

We have been quite busy. Summer has at last arrived, so we've been in the garden a bit. 

And played with Lego and other stuff. 

We have trampolined with the cousins (well, I just spectated),

played in playparks, 

visited Jupiter Artland with family members, 

where there is art in the woods

and there are huge "landforms" to run around

and a weird sort of statue thing, which the kids always like (surprisingly).

We have visited the beach

- and Vogrie Country Park, also with the cousins. 

So we have not been idle. We have had fun, and some of us have had ice cream. 
 

Cloak

We walked along the river with Littlest Granddaughter. She was being a kitten, hence the black tail. 

"Now, we could just go back, or we could go over the bridge and up quite a lot of steps, and there's a cafe at the top. Which would you like to do?"

Up the steps. 

Yesterday we went to the Botanics with the Edinburgh family. The herbaceous border is at its best. 

Then this morning we finished making the blue cloak (with a hood) that we started yesterday at Littlest Granddaughter's request. I'm no dressmaker, but I had an old duvet cover and a sewing machine, and Daughter 2 has good 3D design ability, so we (mainly D2) succeeded. Littlest G chose a fancy gold button from my special button box to fasten it together. 

Shades, maybe, of the KKK or The Handmaid's Tale, but she seemed pleased. I hope she doesn't ask for a tutu next, or a cat suit. Quilts, I can make.