Things come in fives...

 
This was a more domestic week. On Monday the two sisters, and the sister-in-law, of the husband of my American second (or something) cousin who came to stay with us a couple of months ago - are you following this? - visited Edinburgh briefly en route for a cruise ship, so I gave them a walking tour of the city and then they came back here for dinner. So that was very nice. Their cruise goes to Orkney, Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland, which sounds lovely. The only snag might be the weather, which in Britain at least has been, on and off, very rainy this week. On Monday it was only very briefly, but torrentially, wet. We had just left the cafe at Holyrood Palace and immediately decided that another cup of coffee would be very welcome - back in the cafe. 

Other than that, there's been some coffeeing with friends, some lunching with friends, some being with the grandchildren - that sort of thing. Yesterday we took the Edinburgh Two up to see the Unbloggables, which was lovely (and not wet, or only a tiny bit). 

Son lives in the country, in a scenic but (for us) inconvenient area. Still, I can see the appeal. If my life were different, I too would like to live in the country. At least in the summer. 

Only one of the children sat down in the water. 

Their bloggable cat, in catmint (I think). 

Since we got back from being away, we've had a series of minorish, but tedious, problems.

1) While Mr L was still in Hamburg, I found a dead rat in the back garden! Now, firstly, a rat! and secondly, I don't deal with dead things. I'm a vegetarian and very squeamish. However, I had to deal with it. Please applaud. 

2) Also while Mr L was in Hamburg, I looked up at the bedroom ceiling - the fairly newly decorated bedroom ceiling - and there was a damp patch, clearly a leak. The roofer has now fixed the leak, at least we hope so. The brown patch remains to be dealt with.

3) The cord of the blind in a spare room broke. Mr L has fixed this. 

4) The dishwasher stopped working. It needs a new bit, which a dishwasher chap is going to get for us. Let's hope.

5) We have two skylights in our kitchen, made out of some sort of plastic. This is one of them. A huge brown ... splodge? burn? who knows what? - not us ... has suddenly appeared on it. It's as if an ostrich had been flying overhead and done something unmentionable on it. However, the very heavy rain of the last few days has had no effect. We can't imagine what it is. We are no longer willing to climb on roofs to investigate, so contacted a handyman who we've used before. Sadly, he's about to go on holiday and can't come and look at it till late in August. Could it be a burn? We don't get aeroplanes flying above us as a rule, though we do get the occasional helicopter nearby. Do flying vehicles drop hot things? 

Oh well, these are all minor things compared to the disasters suffered by many people in the world and no doubt something will be able to be done about it in due course. But that's enough little problems, thank you, world, for the moment. 

Bugs

Littlest Granddaughter has been visiting us with Daughter 2, and Son and family came down at the weekend. I have lots of cute photos, but none really bloggable. So here are our portraits, drawn by Littlest Granddaughter. She's really caught Mr L's beard and my elegant hair. 

Daughter 1's family have all had terrible colds, and sadly, Littlest Granddaughter also had a nasty bug, so we didn't see the Edinburgh cousins, in case of a germ exchange, and didn't really do anything exciting with Littlest, who really wasn't her usual self. 

So there's not a lot of news, other than that our lawn has had its first cut of the year - and I've done quite a bit of cutting down and leaf-raking in the garden - so there's a real feeling of spring in the air, with bulbs sprouting and in some cases flowering. 

As always when Daughter 2 goes away, I feel very down. But things will improve, though possibly not this weekend, when we have to clear a bedroom so that the floor can be treated against woodworm. We have - had - a cane flower pyramid which for years we've put outside the front door with lights on at Christmas. For the rest of the year, it lived in a cupboard in the eaves. And this year, when we took it out, it had definite woodworm holes. So we threw it out and got a chap to check for woodworm in the eaves, which he duly found - or at least he found a few holes. So we need to clear the bedroom and lift the carpet - such jolly fun - and spend a lot of money on dewoodworming. Ah well, such is life. 
 

No news from any foreign coast

Yesterday we went up north to visit Son and family. We took with us the kilt that Mr L's mother made for Son when he was 6 and we were invited to Mr L's cousin's wedding. Kilts, made properly (and this one was - my MIL was a very good seamstress) take a lot of material and kilt-making is a skill. Medium Granddaughter is only 5, so it was a bit big for her, but having tried it on, she wore it for quite a long time. Notice also the sporran that used to belong to my brother when he was a little boy. He's going to be 74 tomorrow (happy birthday, P) so the sporran must be almost 70 years old. I'm not sure that either Medium or her little brother will get a lot of use out of the kilt but there might be the occasional school ceilidh or something. Or maybe not - she goes to a very small village school - but anyway, the kilt has been handed on. 

It was so lovely to see the family. I miss them. 

We've gradually been putting pictures back up on the walls that were recently redecorated. One of my excellent ideas (how my husband loves my ideas...) was to move the paintings that were on the staircase (that I was a bit worried would get faded by the sun) into the darker back part of the hall, and to move the blue plates in the back hall on to the staircase, since the sun wouldn't damage them. 

We've had these plates since shortly after we moved into the previous house - so, about 45 years - and I bought them in bits and pieces at antique fairs because I liked them and I wanted to distract attention from a rather bumpy wall in the dining room. Also they were quite fashionable - it being the era of Laura Ashley, Victoriana and so on. Over the years I'm sure they became unfashionable but I still liked them, and now I'm told that they've become quite trendy again. Having taken them down for the redecoration, I considered not putting them up again but am quite fond of them - though did manage to cull my three least favourite.

We've been putting off hanging them again because of course it's much more difficult to hang plates of different shapes and sizes on a slanting wall than a straight one, in any planned and sensible-looking arrangement. However, today was the day. Here's Mr L considering the situation.

We tried various configurations. 

The piece of string that you can faintly see on the floor is supposed to represent the slope of the wall. 

We did it in the end. Mr L was very patient. They will never move again till we downsize, by which time they may go to a charity shop because I don't think I can do this to the poor man again. 

In other words, nothing much has been happening. I haven't quite been able to justify starting another quilt (there are a few pictures still to go up) and I feel rather glum what with one thing and another. But one must count one's blessings. 
 

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. 
 

Argh

On Tuesday we went up to visit Son and family. This was lovely, but I'm not allowed to post pictures of the children so you'll just have to imagine them: Medium Granddaughter is now 5 and at school, an enchanting little wiry fairy with blondish hair and hazel eyes. She's very loving towards us, which is unbelievably wonderful considering that she doesn't really see us very often. She gave me a red balloon which she blew up all by herself. Little Grandson, 2 and a half, is a beautiful, smiley little person with big blue eyes. He's a bit more wary of us - chats away but doesn't offer cuddles as his sister does.

Mr Life helped Son to put up monkey bars in the garden. I suppose it's partly genetic - Son and DIL are energetic types - and partly that the children are taken to playparks a lot, but both the children are very physically agile. They've both been able to jump high on trampolines for a long time, and Medium Granddaughter is very good at swinging herself hand-to-hand along the monkey bars. Her little brother tries his best to copy everything she does. 

It's so awful, really, just to see them every few weeks, as visitors. However I realise that we're also lucky to have them. I love them so much. I just hope that we live long enough to establish a real relationship with them that they'll remember when they're grown up. It's not very likely, though, since we're 71 and 73. Ah well. 

We're still in the toils of decorators - mainly just one, a nice Lithuanian chap called Egis. He's been working steadily and has now finished the hall and stairs and is working on our bedroom and the downstairs bathroom. The house is in chaos. Even in the hall/stairs/landing we normally have a chest of drawers, a set of shelves with various doo-dahs on them, a grandfather clock, four child's chairs, a dolls' house, a large bookcase and quite a lot of pictures and plates on the wall. All of this is now either in an upstairs bedroom or in the sitting room. (Fortunately we have a second, smaller, living room also.) But now all the contents of our bedroom are also in the sitting room, including all of our clothes (the fitted wardrobes are getting painted), as are various things from the bathroom - essentials such as bathrack (bookrack), pictures, a glass paperweight and duck... . 

Of course when we staggered through with all of our clothes, it was brought to our attention that there are lots of them that we no longer wear, even though they're quite wearable. These are mainly left over from our working days, which I have to admit are ten years ago now. I might wear these smartish skirts and blouses again but - let's face it - I've spent the last ten years not really doing so. So we swear that we're going to have a sort out and not just put them all back. But - argh - it's going to be so much work just getting the house back to rights again without making stern decisions as well. And then there are the books! It makes sense not to keep more books than will fit on the shelves (or than we'll ever have time to reread). But which to take to charity shops along with those redundant clothes? And which day to summon up the resolve to do so? I'm exhausted at the thought, but am trying to tell myself how much better we'll feel once we've done all this. 

In three weeks' time, I'm telling myself, we'll be in a tidy, slightly decluttered house, with pictures back up on walls and nice fresh paintwork. That will be very nice. At the moment, however: ARGH.

 

Decisions...

What an uncommenty world Blogland is nowadays, and indeed how few of the blogs that I used to read still exist, alas. In several cases I'm now Facebook friends of these ex-bloggers, but I don't think that Facebook is the equal of blogging, though I do like FB as well. Ah well.  

I've uploaded these pictures from Google photos, unlike my usual habit, and I can't get them to go in the right order. I started at the bottom of the ones I wanted on Google photos, and they came backwards on to the blog, so I tried again by starting at the top and the same happened. Anyway, we've had our smaller living room sofas recovered and I've been looking at cushions, worthy of the new covers, in John Lewis, where I was horrified to find that they cost £40 or £45 each. The one above might match quite well but I'm not sure it's really my style. But hey, I thought, I can make cushions. 

For example, I like these fabrics. But it turns out that they're £35 a metre, which makes the £45 cushions seem not so bad. 

So I bought this one and will consider my options. 

We've got decorators in at the moment, which seemed like a good idea some months ago. Annoyingly, they came on Tuesday, said that they couldn't come for the next two days and then the boss left, leaving a Lithuanian chap to strip the paper as above. He worked hard and tidied up after himself but I hope they're going to be here from now on. They're doing the kitchen, a bathroom and, argh, our bedroom. 

Earlier in the year, when sorting out Stuff, I put all postcards, other cards and letters in a big box, unsorted. I am now doing the sorting and finding all sorts of things such as this card from my parents on my 40th birthday. I'm now 71. How I would love to look 40 now! - or indeed to be 40. Life is fleeting. 

That's my lovely mum's handwriting. Can't throw this away - indeed I can throw almost none of it away. It's all very nostalgic and a mixture of heartwarming and sad. 

There are lots of home-made cards, such as this from Daughter 2 when she was very small. She's mildly dyslexic but extremely nice! 

Before the decorators came (see, this is backwards) we took down all these blue plates from the back hall. I've had them more or less all our married life - they were originally acquired to hide a bumpy wall we had in the previous house, bought in 1976. Will I put them up again? Ironically, Daughter 2 (who knows such things) tells me that plates on the wall are fashionable again. 

And here's a more modern drawing, which I found around the place - Biggest Granddaughter doodled this. Rather sweet! 

 

Life is so full of a number of things, if not precisely the things one would choose

Life is full of activity, despite what you might expect from two pensioners in lockdown. This was the part of the study behind me as I type - after Mr L had cleared his desk and the filing cabinet, and then various things had got put on the desk because it was a convenient empty surface, the way that things do. Then we got someone to come and take away the cabinet and someone else claimed the desk but wasn't coming to get it yet, so Mr L disassembled the desk and put it into the sitting room so that he could assemble the new bunk beds. 

Then I started sifting through my dad's archives again and found this - Edinburgh University Student Handbook, 1946. Why did you keep this, Dad? As you can see above, hints for students may have changed slightly in tone since then, though the advice is sound enough in general. What did girls do in their spare time?

Oh, this. This is from the section on the Women's Union. Let's forget about being ambitious, girls, and rejoice in our womanliness. Well, why not? 

I rather like this, from the Congregational Students' Society. Inactive but varied. 

Our lives are fairly varied - within limits. For example, one can pick a nice little bunch of flowers from the garden

and go to the Botanics, which is full of rhododendron frilliness. 

Meanwhile, Mr L satisfied himself that his measuring was correct and he would indeed have to move the four (narrow) Billy bookcases one inch to the left. (This is one end of the new bunks.)

While in my own archives, I came across this newspaper photo of my friend Dorothy in a report of her death in Brussels at the age of 23. She was walking along a pavement and a car swerved and hit her. She was one of my best friends from the age of 5 and I often think about her, and about all that she's missed. Another friend had been killed in a car accident the previous year, also aged 23, so that was a grim period and a fairly early lesson about the frailty of life. 

Back in the study, Mr L - and to some extent, I - emptied the bookcases, which made the sitting room look like this for a while. Thankfully, someone collected the desk and now the contents of the bookcases are back again, some of them having been disposed of in the meantime. 

While Son-in-Law 1 helped with the final stages of putting the bunks together, I took Big Grandson on a tram ride - very exciting for this public-transport-addicted 9-year-old who's had to go cold turkey for the past year. We rode out to the airport, which was deserted. 

I bought him a packet of crisps from a vending machine. He read the slogan. "Come on, crisps," he said. "Impress me." Then we rode back into town and got a bus home. Woo hoo. 

And look - bunks in place of the desk and filing cabinet. Not so useful for doing one's paperwork, but more useful for storing grandchildren. 

One can dream.