Walls

I've now cut all the tumbler shapes for the middle part of the quilt I'm making for my friend - these are all from the shirts and pyjamas of her late husband. It did seem a bit odd, handling his clothes, but she was keen for me to do it and she's a lovely friend.

And... the annual photo of my amaryllis - watered for 360 days of the year when it's a potful of green leaves, all for the triumphant five days when it's glorious.

Big Granddaughter went to a climbing wall party the other week, so was keen to try it again. So SIL 1 and I took her and her brother. This place is bonkers - see that person up there? She was a young woman. She climbed up there, foothold and handhold, foothold and handhold, removing one hand from time to time to clip herself on to the next hook. Mad!!! Very brave, looking at it another way. It was VERY high, much higher than it looks there.

But then, can you see Big Granddaughter???? Yes, there she is, at the top, having gone foothold to foothold, handhold to handhold up there. She did it lots of times, on different walls. The boy at the bottom is Big Grandson. He (wisely) never got above head height before deciding to come down again. That's my boy... .

This was another thing. You had to crawl - or some bigger kids just stepped - from pole to pole. She went right to the top, which is about twice as high as she is here - and then the way to descend is just to launch yourself off and the harness lowers you down. Theoretically. (Well, it did. But I wouldn't have trusted it.)

Then we came home and did lots of Heads, Bodies and Legs. Much more my idea of fun.

She's an avid reader. Son used to get The Beano when he was little and I kept his collection. She's about to be seven. Time whizzes past.

Today we visited friends and they took us to Paisley Abbey, where we'd never been. It's quite impressive. 

Someone had done a nice time line about its history. 

I'm not sure what my favourite castle is. You?

Oops indeed. The choir area got rebuilt only in the late nineteenth century.

It's a lovely building but it would take a bit of filling - I doubt if it's often standing room only these days.

Aesthetics

It was a beautiful day yesterday and we went up town to see the Arthur Melville exhibition. It was excellent. Here's a photo of Princes Street Gardens, just beside the gallery, with the Castle lurking behind a tree. Very Edinburghish.

And here's the Scott Monument - Gothic and somewhat impractical, but ornamental in its way.

And here's the shadow cast by the said Scott Monument on a reasonably nice elderly building, which fits in quite well with the rest of Edinburgh's architecture.

But look at the building behind it, which is nearing completion.

Here it is from the opposite direction. In the background you can see the pleasantly wiggly, domey, spirey skyline of the Old Town. Now, call me an old fuddy-duddy but how on earth did anyone grant planning permission for that lump of glass in this context??? - just round the corner from Edinburgh's main street.

I tell you, when I rule the world there will be some changes. Granted, glass buildings in historic cities are not the world's biggest problem by a long way. But - hmm.

More pleasingly (and you have to concentrate on the pleasing things sometimes or you would despair) the hyacinths that Daughter 2 gave me at Christmas time are opening beautifully.

And I've cut out 430 pieces of fabric to make my next quilt top. Yes, a perfectly sensible thing to do. Or at least a harmless one.