Blossom!

Life is too busy - lots of things to do in relation to the choir of which I'm chair, in preparation for a concert and, four weeks later, a Come & Sing (with catering). Also my other choir is having a concert in between these two events. Some tricky music! But lovely. Well, one piece is Britten's St Nicolas, which is less to my taste, though it has jolly bits. But otherwise Mozart, more Mozart and Purcell. 

The weather has often been beautiful, and I have much to do in the garden and not enough time. But look at my little cercis tree! It's almost too pink!

We had a day off from tasks on Saturday and went down with Daughter 1 to Selkirk in the Borders to see an exhibition by the (a?) Borders quilting group. It was great. Some of the quilts were quite modern, so more Britten than Mozart, but all were very impressive. 

I like this leaf. 

I like the colours of this one, though it's a bit exhausting to look at. Excuse my shadow.

One day I'd like to make some little houses, though with less orange. 

This was extremely impressive!

We had a little walk to see the nursing home where Mr L was born. It's now a clinic for young people with mental health problems. 

It has a lovely garden, though I doubt if these cherry trees were in it in May 1948, when he first came down those steps to start his life. 

 

Fresh air and exercise

I've decided to stop calling our decluttering "death cleaning" - a bit depressing. It's now Minimalising Monday; though if Mondays are too busy it can actually happen on another day. This Monday we took my mother's crystal bowl to a charity shop. It's been in our house since my lovely mum died in 2012, and I've never used it. I have several crystal bowls that I do use, and this one, because it's shallow, takes up a lot of space. 

And we took Mr L's old bike to a bike place where they refurbish them for good causes - youth groups and so on. 

We've also arranged for a charity to come and collect the books we're getting rid of. They're coming on May 5, so we need to tackle the books in the other rooms before then. I love a deadline. And Mr L is decluttering his old cameras. 

On Saturday we went on a lovely walk with the gang round Gosford House in East Lothian. 

The weather was perfect. 

This was our lunch spot. 

Reflections. 

Six miles, including walking along to the golf clubhouse for coffee overlooking the sea. 

And then home on the bus.

My little cercis chinensis is looking good, with its tulip entourage. 

Yesterday I was up town and admired the view from the bus stop.

And look at these frilly tulips in the garden! So pink. Lovely spring. 

 

The Death Clean continues.

It's the school holidays, and Son-in-Law1, the Edinburgh grandchildren and I went up Calton Hill, something I haven't done for years. Though it's in the middle of the city, it used to be very quiet, but it's now a tourist destination - coaches parked at the bottom - and there were lots of people wandering around. The weather was beautiful, which no doubt encouraged lingering.  

This is Edinburgh's Disgrace. The plan was to build a replica of the Parthenon, with stones exactly the same size as in Greece, in honour of the Scottish dead in the Napoleonic Wars. The money was to be raised by public subscription, but only half of the £42,000 was produced so this is all that got built. It's still quite striking. 

It looks as if this leads straight on to Arthur's Seat in the distance, but there's actually quite a chunk of town in between. 

You get a good view of the Castle and the east end of the main part of town. 

Littlest Granddaughter and Daughter 2 have been staying, and this sort of thing has been happening. 

Littlest has more or less taught herself to knit and made this, with some other creations. 

But they've gone now. It was a beautiful day again today - looking this way. 

Looking the other way, though - the Great Book Purge has begun. So far, we've succeeded mainly in making a Great Mess, but we have hopes to continue the death cleaning in this area. There aren't that many books that I actually want to part with, but facts must be faced, one of which is that we probably won't live long enough (ie to our 150th birthdays) to reread them all (as well as using up all my fabric stash; but that's another story). 

 

Bean chihuahuas

Oh, this is such a lovely time of year. These tulips are doing well (if slightly out of focus) but I wish those pinker ones in the background weren't so near the big clump of red ones. How did I do this? 

This is a bit of a mixter-maxter of colours too, but I don't really think it matters. Nothing actually clashes. 

I have various huge clumps of daffodils which I think every year that I should split up, but never do. Not sure my back's up to it. And anyway, they seem fine. 

Daughter 2 gave me this lovely camellia, years ago. 

The other day we went, with a group Mr L belongs to, to the herbarium at the Botanic Gardens. We were shown round by a nice young chap who has devoted his life to studying peas and beans. Evidently broad beans are very strange - "the chihuahuas of the bean world" - because they're so overbred that they bear very little resemblance to their original progenitor. I'm not a huge fan of them anyway, though I do eat various other beans as I'm a vegetarian. He showed us some of these folders, with dried plants from various time periods. They have - did he say 3 million? - specimens. They dry new ones much as one did as a child, by squashing them between newspaper in a press. It was very interesting. He said that some amateur collectors in the past would just label their specimens something like "Brazil", whereas nowadays labels are much more specific, eg "Rocky area with sandy soil near the top of the Knock, Crieff".

It's very much rhododendron time at the Botanics - though actually this spans several months. 

Today we went to the local flower show in Saughton Park. Oh, the scent of these hyacinths!

The park isn't in its full glory yet, but was still pretty, even though it was raining.

Our death cleaning is progressing quite well. We went to the tip and the charity shop the other day with quite a few items, and put things on Facebook Marketplace: two bed rails for children, a micro scooter and Daughter 2's drawing board from when she was an architecture student. The drawing board hasn't gone yet but the rest of the things have - they were free. It'll be a long time till we're exactly minimal (well, never) but I feel we're making progress, and I'm quite enjoying the weekly challenge of finding something we don't need.  

 

Edinburgh tram?

We've been away for a couple of nights to Crieff Hydro, an hour and a bit north of here. This hotel means a lot to me and our family. My parents took us there every summer from when I was three till I was eleven, and then we've all been back a lot since in various familial combinations. We took our children. Now we go with them and the grandchildren, and sometimes my brother and family. Mr L and I had our honeymoon there. Both my parents' ashes are scattered on the Knock, the hill behind the hotel. 

Of course things have changed a lot since I was first there in 1953; and we've liked some changes more than others. But much of the charm stays the same, such as, when one first comes in, the view through the spacious ballroom (which hosts Scottish country dancing some evenings) into the Winter Garden, a large room with huge windows on to the beautiful view. One sits there and drinks coffee with one's family. One waits for the children to come up from the pool there. One has a light lunch there. It's the heart of the hotel. 

Or, that's what it was like.

The owners have now put a huge oval bar in the middle of the (ex-) ballroom. Tastes vary, but surely no one thinks that this is a thing of beauty? 

As transport-mad Big Grandson points out, it's reminiscent of an old Edinburgh tram. But with added plastic greenery dripping from it. 

And the Winter Garden has been turned into an extra restaurant, with tables set from early morning for lunch and thus nowhere to sit with the family and drink coffee. Big round banquettes (is that how you spell them?) help to block out the light. 

With added fake trees, and other plastic plants. 

I know that with the world in a mess, saying that I'm heartbroken seems a bit of an exaggeration. But I'm very sad. 

Anyway, we had as nice a time as we could, all things considered. We climbed the Knock, as we always do. I wonder when the last time we manage it will be...? 

This is one of my favourite views of all time. 

It's so peaceful. 

I always look at this distant white house and wonder what it would be like to live there. 

Failing the Winter Garden, we visited the town and its lovely shop, selling art and glass and so on (I managed not to buy anything this time, well done me) sat in our room, read books and did the crossword. 

And then we came home again. I like two-day holidays. So little packing. You don't need to worry about the house plants or the garden. So it wasn't all bad.