Walking the Tweed

Well! We've had the most tremendous palaver to write this blog post, and I'm sure it's not worth it, but if you're reading this at all - goodness me, you nearly weren't. 

To go back a bit - part of this is due to our (well, my) having decided that to use a single bedroom as a study only was a bit of a waste. We do have four other bedrooms, but with two distant offspring plus partners and three distant grandchildren (the Edinburgh ones don't have to stay the night), these aren't really enough - and that's not mentioning my brother and his family, who come sometimes from Surrey. So I thought maybe if we did away with one of the desks and desktop computers in the study, we might squeeze in a single bed, which would help, if only marginally. 

(How do people manage to downsize? We need to upsize. Anyway... .)

One thing we would need to do, with only one desk instead of two, would be to share a desktop computer, and since Mr L's is newer and faster, this would be his. BUT I like to use Picasa for my photos and this is apparently ancient technology, which wouldn't work on his computer. So SIL 1 and Mr L have been trying to teach me Google photos and show me how to use these on my blog. Which seemed to work, but when I did it, the photos appeared on my computer screen in my blog, but nowhere else. Mr L then worked out that it was because I hadn't saved them on my computer, but only in the cloud or something, in which only I had access to my photos. So Mr L then saved them to my computer, put them in my blog post - and they were all in reverse order. 

After much experimenting, he managed to work out how to get them in the right order but - really! 

I feel there should be a special circle in hell devoted to young men (or indeed women) in California who muck up systems which work perfectly well for elderly ladies because they need to justify their enormous salaries. I also feel this about complicated cars. We have cars. They work. Why mess with them, apart from making them less polluting (which I'm fine with)?

The chaps also kindly swapped me to New Blogger (again, what was wrong with the old one? - but it seemed inevitable) so there's another possible way for me to get things wrong. We'll see. 

Anyway, yesterday we drove down to Peebles, 45 minutes away, to get a change of scene. It's a pretty little town but we didn't go into it, except to park. Instead we went for a 5-mile-ish walk up the River Tweed, across it and back down the other side. 

We passed Neidpath Castle, built in the 1260s. It's owned now by the Earl of Wemyss (pronounced Weems) and March. You can hire it for your film or wedding, should you wish to pay for the privilege. As you can see above, it's built at the top of a steep slope down to the river, and I wouldn't have liked to be the 13th century builders who balanced on (I assume) wooden scaffolding held together with ropes while constructing it. But it still seems to be standing. 

So we wandered happily along the river, and eventually...

crossed the Old Manor Brig (bridge) built in a relatively recent 1702. It's quite high above the river and again, I wouldn't have volunteered to be among the building party, especially as the roadway slopes quite steeply up from one side to the other. However, it still feels very solid, which it wouldn't if I'd built it. 

Then we climbed up steeply. I don't know why this photo is so blurry, since it wasn't originally (sigh, grinding of teeth) but anyway, this is where we had our lunch. The view was lovely but there was quite a chilly wind, up this high. 

The countryside was quite autumnal, with (I think) knapweed, 

haws on the hawthorn, 

and hips on the rose bushes. 

I recently noticed a comment from Doll in India, who says she's been reading this blog since about 2007! This is very astonishing. A long-service medal is winging your way, Doll. 

So... this post has taken my two assistants and me a total of about five hours to do - never was so much effort expended by so many people for so little point - but anyway, here it is. Thank you for reading this far. Now I'm off to have a coffee. 

 

Venturing out - week 24

And so life trickles on. We had a walk to Saughton Park yesterday. There's still plenty of colour, but things are beginning to go over.

Lots of oranges and purples lend an autumnal feeling to the park.

This is a beautiful hydrangea, though.

And this lovely thing - I can't think what it is. The pink is actually the seed heads. It looked like -

this when it was in flower. Not an astilbe - wrong leaves. Must ask our gardening expert friend. [Edited to add - he says it's persicaria polymorpha. And it is.]

Today we went to a garden centre, which felt daring. Everyone wore masks and kept distant from one another. I wanted to buy a verbena, which is still flowering at this time of year in other people's gardens, but there were none for sale. We could have bought a fake Christmas tree, though. (No!)

I did buy some bulbs to go in front of the fence we haven't got yet, but which in my mind will be behind the new turfed area that we haven't got yet either, which will go where the hedge was, that we got cut down. Planning ahead, that's the thing.

I've finished my African fabrics quilt top and it's VERY BRIGHT. (And needs an iron.) I would never have chosen any of those patterns, and certainly not together, but in a strange way I'm getting used to it. My half-Zambian friend wanted me to use the fabrics, though, so I had to get on with it. It's probably good for me, a wishy-washy pastelly person, to be forced out of my comfort zone. (Way out.) I hope my friend likes it. It'll take me a while to quilt, and then I've got two cot quilts to make: one for Daughter 2's friend and one for my best schoolfriend's grandchild. He/she is a fourth baby, so it seems a bit late to me, but my friend asked me to do it so I will. But not next: the other baby is due first.

A friend's grandchildren have been tested for Covid-19, having developed a fever - so they're isolating and the friend can't come for coffee in the garden as arranged. The coffee date is a minor thing but I can see this happening all winter and beyond - why would children not get infections at school and, till given the all-clear, have to quarantine? We're not nearly out of this wood yet.

Virus is still around... but this was Saturday, week 23

And so another week draws to a close. Our actor son-in-law's theatre group did their second on-line complete show last night - they're amazingly good. They improvise a musical from audience suggestions - in last night's case, the online audience.  They did it in a hall, yards away from one another and behind screens, with SIL introducing and directing the show while doing the vision mixing (if that's the term) to make split screens or to switch from one person to the other. You'd think it was impossible. It's still available to watch online.

Today was a great step - well, let's hope forward - because we took the Edinburgh grandchildren out for lunch. It's the first time we've been in an indoor cafe since lockdown. It wasn't busy and the staff were wearing masks and altogether it felt safe. I think. It was lovely, anyway. We went to Swanston, to the brasserie beside the golf course.

Then we climbed the hill, past the cottages (built in the 1760s) of the village and up a sometimes muddy path. It's been rather wet recently.

The children enjoyed this hollow tree.

Yes, rather muddy, as I said. But fun.

Then we came home for tea and a bit of Brio-ing etc. By this time, sadly, the children had both developed streaming colds. They were very uncomplaining about this but I somewhat fear that we are doomed. There was a lot of sneezing. Still, it was a lovely day.

But there's a distinctly autumnal chill in the air... .

Happy birthday to our lovely son, our youngest child. He was 36 today. Sadly, we didn't see him but we did see a video of his wife and children singing Happy Birthday to him, and Medium Granddaughter blowing out the candles on his cake.

Still the Covid life - week 23

Well, you don't say... It's not surprising that once the schools go back, there are lots of children with suspicious symptoms but it would be nice to think that someone had anticipated this.

However, freed from such things, we went to Lauriston Castle, walked in the grounds and had an ice cream (well, some did) from the newly-opened Mimi's Bakery.

Mr L and I went for a lovely sunny walk along by the golf course.

Things are beginning to look ominously autumnal. I'm never a huge fan of autumn (decay, death etc - though also beauty) but in these days, with worries about lockdown starting again (who knows?) it seems less welcome than usual.

There was a Red Arrows flypast the other night to commemorate VJ Day. It was rescheduled from earlier in the month, when it was too misty. This was spectacular, if noisy and somewhat alarming. (I'm easily alarmed and it looked very dangerous.) We remembered about it just in time to rush out from the house as it came overhead, but I hadn't taken my camera out with me. This was the smoke trail, though - rather pretty. I'm glad I did remember because it came very near our house and the noise would have given us (well, me) an awful fright if we hadn't expected it.

Yesterday, however, the weather was horrible all over Britain - windy and wet. We went up to see Son and his little ones - DIL was at work - so this was lovely apart from the driving. I'm always nervous on Big Roads, especially when the visibility is poor. Fortunately Mr L is braver and he drives.

Little Grandson is so cute. He's talking a bit now and is a very jolly little person.

We went out for a very wet walk.

Then Medium Granddaughter came home from nursery and among other things we watched a bit of Bing. It's a very strange programme but the children seem to like it. Medium is lovely and very chatty. I wish we saw more of her and her brother. She seems to accept us as part of her entourage, though, which is nice.

And there's always the garden. I do love clematis, and the colour of this one is very cheering on a dull day like today.

The garden is turning autumnal but there's still lots in flower.

And then there's the Big Mess. We got chaps to come today and remove the original 90-year-old iron fence which was lurking behind the hedge and I've been contacting landscapers to come and estimate for making this into a seamless extension of the lawn. There's a bit of work to do... .

And the Covid situation is still quite restricting. I've been socialising with friends in the garden, or singly in the house, but not to the same extent as usual with jolly groups. My two choirs are only going to be doing things on Zoom - which is not the same - and other activities are very much curtailed also. Mr L and I haven't gone far afield to visit gardens or stately homes or even nice cafes because it seems rash to take risks - and also because we're never very sure if the loos are going to be open and Mr L is at the stage of life when this is a consideration. I'm fortunate enough for it not to be such a problem ... yet. All these are minor complaints; but all the same, one has kind of had enough.

However, I fear the situation isn't going to change for the better any time soon.

Still, there's quilting.

Not much is happening but... virus week 22 - Saturday

1) My husband has shaved off his Covid-19 beard. That means the virus is over, surely? (No?) We recently found this photo of him when he last had a beard (for one year) 40 years ago. The lady is his granny. Her genes gave him the white hair he has now, I think.

2) I've been getting on with the African fabrics quilt now that our visitors have gone (but we miss them). I can't say that I love it but I'm getting slightly used to the brightness. It's probably not at all traditional to do stars on African fabrics (I have no idea) but my friend chose them from photos of my previous quilts. The middle bit is going to be filled in with bigger strips. Or something.

3) Tara! - last night Biggest Granddaughter's Covid test result appeared and she - doesn't have the virus. Which we were pretty sure about, but it's nice to have it confirmed and be out of quarantine. The 48-hour test took 10 hours under a week, which isn't hugely impressive. However, the children can now go back to school and we can be back to sort-of-normal.

4) And finally - sitooterie - is it a real word? asks Lynley. Well, it's a real Scottish word, such as tumshie, bahookie, gallus, tapsalteerie, smirr, bauchles, baffies... .

(turnip, rear end, sparky/lively/bold, upside down/mixed up, soft moisture in the air/very light rain, old shoes, slippers...)

Not exactly lockdown but quarantine instead. Thanks, system. Week 22

The hedge chaps came. Poor things, it was very hot.

They set to.

They worked away.

 And here it is(n't). Gone.

I've certainly gained a lot of space, but you couldn't yet describe it as garden. At the moment it looks dreadful and is completely untillable. As I expected, there are stumps (soon to be ground down by a stump-grinding chap) but also lots and lots and lots of lilac suckers, ivy, stones, heaps of earth etc etc and huge quantities of roots. There was also the remains of a fox, which had lain down and died some time ago in the far corner of the garden, behind the sitooterie (or arbour) made by Mr L and Daughter 2 twenty years ago. Mr L dealt with the ex-fox. It's one of the things I keep him for. I don't do dead things. Well done, Mr L. The sitooterie is past its best, so will also have to be dealt with, as will the heap of rubble left by the previous owners, upon which the sitooterie was built. (On the rubble, not on the previous owners.)

So... I think I'm pleased. I'll be a lot more pleased next year, when it's smooth like a bowling green with a clematis-clad fence. I hope.

Thank you so much, by the way, to the commenter from Malaysia. Goodness, that's a long way away. I tried to look at your blog but my computer screamed in red at me that I mustn't, because it was very unsafe, so I didn't. But hello anyway.

Still no word of Biggest Granddaughter's lost test. Quarantine is over on Monday for her anyway so it hardly matters now. But it doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the system.

Quarantine - Covid week 22

Well, Biggest Granddaughter's Covid result didn't come in the suggested 48 hours (which would have been Monday morning if they work weekends - unclear) and indeed it hasn't come yet, and when Daughter 1 phoned up to enquire, it turned out that it had got lost. Or at least, there was no record of the test ever having happened.

Which is, you know, somewhat irritating, since it means that we all have to remain in quarantine for - not really sure how long. I must check. At the beginning of lockdown everything was clearcut, but as time's gone on the rules have become more complicated. The rest of this week, anyway. Biggest G and her brother thus have another week off school, having been back for a day and a half.

Sigh. Next time she has a little cough... well, I don't know. She's prone to little coughs.

So here's a photo of my pincushion. Daughter 2 borrowed it for a minor repair and returned it prettily arranged in flowers, which it wasn't before. This was my granny's pincushion, from her workbox that I inherited when she got dementia. She was born in 1885 and I imagine she made the pincushion. It doesn't actually look so worn to the eye. Daughter 2 and Littlest Granddaughter went home on Sunday, so it's nice to have a little reminder of them.

And here's our hedge. It's an annoying hedge, planted by the previous inhabitants of our house and added to by random nature. It's mainly lilac, with some leylandii, a wild rose, a cotoneaster, some holly... and it takes up a lot of room in our small garden. I love lilac blossom but the plants are very vigorous so we keep having to cut the hedge back, which very much limits the number of flowers we get, and lilac also suckers like anything. We recently got chaps to prune the hedge and when I muttered under my breath that I wished it wasn't there, the boss chap said that they could remove it. And theoretically they're going to, tomorrow.

I'm somewhat dubious that they'll be successful because there are a lot of stems, with all those suckers. He said confidently that they would grind the stumps, and I asked our horticulturist friend, the Minor Celebrity on Scotland's gardening programme, and he said that the suckers would be discouraged if the main stems were gone. So I'm pinning my faith on the experts.

It's about five feet wide, which is why I want rid of it - I'm excited at the idea of an extra five feet in the garden. But I'm worried that it'll look like the Somme battlefield with suckers, instead of the extra sward I'm planning to create.

That's if the chaps come tomorrow. It's been wet this week and so it could easily rain, and anyway he only hopes to come if they get the morning job finished. I think our hedge will take them more than one afternoon.

Ah well. I hope I don't regret this. (I suspect the chaps might.) I suppose I shouldn't really let them come because of the quarantine but they don't need to come through the house and I'm not planning to do anything apart from watch in horror from the patio doors. And anyway I'm as sure as I can be that there's nothing wrong with any of us.

Still kind of lockdown, week 21, seeing offspring

Littlest was sitting at the piano, singing "Twinkle twinkle, little star" and accompanying herself (with two fingers, and not with the right notes but with a nice regular beat). I'm not taking this as a sign that she's going to be a performer like her father. I'm sure this means that she's going to be a fairly musical corporate lawyer. 

I took her to the playpark. "I looking out to sea."

She discovered that Playdoh cuts nicely with scissors. Who knew?

After one and a half days back at school, Biggest Granddaughter came home with a cough. She's otherwise perfectly well as far as anyone can tell. She's prone to coughs whenever she gets a cold, but nonetheless we all realised that it might just be The Virus, since she's been down south on a visit to her other grandparents. Not that there's much of the virus down there or here at the moment, but to be on the safe side, her parents nobly took her for a test on Saturday morning (results in a few days). So they then came round, but we stayed out in the garden. Littlest Granddaughter loves playing with her big cousins, or - to be more accurate - following them around, copying what they're doing and asking them lots of questions. They're remarkably patient.

At one point Biggest Granddaughter found herself a chair, a rug (yes, Scotland in the summer) and her Beano annual for a nice quiet read. (The Beano is a comic.) Littlest stood beside her. "I want to see. What he doing? Why dat boy chasing dat dog? Why dat man got a big nose? Why he looking cross?.. ." Poor Biggest.

Here is Littlest today, looking at "Me and My Cat?" by Satoshi Kitamura. It's a very funny story about a boy who gets turned into his cat, while his cat gets turned into him - all by mistake, by a witch who came to the wrong house. I greatly recommend it for children of maybe four and upwards, but I'm quite glad she didn't ask me to explain it.

And now she and Daughter 2 are back in London. It was so lovely to have them for a whole fortnight - when will that ever happen again? - but the house is very empty without them. I hope we'll see them again before too long, but in these uncertain times... who can say?

Sigh. I do hope Biggest's test is negative or else the extended family will all have to quarantine... at best. We're actually all fairly sure it's just a cold, but I don't know that we're basing our diagnosis on anything except that the virus seems unlikely, she seems well and it would be terribly inconvenient if she did have it. But I still think she doesn't. Strange days, though... .