Seven miles

August is going to be busy with Festival visitors, and we're leading a walk in early September, so we did an experimental recce on Friday. We got the train to Kirkcaldy (pronounced Kir-coddy) and admired their civic flower arrangements. 

Then we walked down to the sea through Kirkcaldy and on to (a bit of) the Fife Coastal Path, 

which was scenic. We took the high tide route because... the tide was high. 

We reached Dysart Harbour, where we had lunch. 

It was quite a warm day, though intermittently cloudy, which was good. It would have been a hot walk otherwise. 

I was intrigued by this shed covered by, I assume, names from former boats. 

Then we retraced our steps.

Not sure what this little lookout tower was for, apart from the obvious. 

As we walked through Ravenscraig Park, we detoured to Ravenscraig Castle, which was built for Mary of Gueldres in about 1640. 

It used to look like this. 

But now looks like this. We scrambled about a bit - well, maybe not precisely scrambled, but went up and down some rather precarious steps and steep, slightly slippery paths to get to the back of the castle. Some people never learn. 

And then we went back down into Kirkcaldy, noticing this building as we passed. It was built in 1692 and was in distinctly better repair than the castle. It's now a medical centre. 

We think we did about seven miles, and the road up the hill through the town to get our train was a bit wearisome. Fortunately, the art gallery, with its very nice cafe, is just adjacent to the station, so we went there for a short collapse and refuel. It was a good day, though. 

 

Flowers and flying

It was Big Grandson's 15th birthday on Friday. 15!!! It seems no time since he was a baby. He's still a lovely boy, though, and certainly Big - nearly 6 feet tall. He doesn't really want stuff, so Mr L and he went off to Newcastle for a couple of days to ride on trains and buses and the metro. They had fun. 

On Saturday, we went with our walking chums to Haddington, to walk along the river to East Linton. 

It doesn't really look it here, but it was a hot day. 

This bit looks fairly idyllic, 

as does this, but actually, a lot of the time we were walking in single file along the river bank, on a very narrow path with small rocks and tree roots sticking up, so it was quite tricky. 

Which explains how I - no one else, just idiot I - managed to trip on one of these stones/tree roots, not once but twice, both times going flying. The first time I landed mainly on my right thigh, up at the top, and thought - argh, my new hip! But fortunately I don't seem to have damaged it. The second time I landed on my hands, knees and nose. Again, though nothing was exactly improved by this, nothing was broken, which was a great relief and I hope shows the relative strength of my bones. But I was pretty shaken up both times. Since we had a good two miles of path to go before we reached a road, I just got up again and, after some sticking-plastering, plodded on, though more slowly and carefully. It does make me wonder how, if I had broken a leg or ankle, the emergency services would have reached me. We were on a river bank, surrounded by trees - a helicopter wouldn't have worked. It would have had to have been a stretcher party, plodding along two or three miles of this narrow path. Lucky them!

Ah well, the garden blooms on,

though I must do something about the pretty, but rampant, Japanese anemones. As I say every year at about this time. 

This week's victims of my minimalising: two crystal butter dishes (we have four) and a crystal heart that I think I bought my mum when desperate for a present for her. It's pretty. But I don't need it. 

My agapanthus is doing well, It's enormous. One day we may be unable to get out of our kitchen door. 

And we went to the Botanics today with the Edinburgh Two plus their dad, and admired the wild flower meadow patches. 

All very flowery. But we need rain. 

 

Whizz

And so life gallops on. Minimalising Monday last week featured some scarves. Once upon a time, I wore smart(ish) coats with scarves supplying a touch of brightness at the neck. Now, not really. So they went. 

The garden blooms away. I do love it. 

I've done a bit to Mr Life's shirt quilt - here are some piano key borders. I do like making them. 

Ah, these Shasta daisies are very pretty, though give them an inch and they take an acre. Not that we have an acre.

I love this shrubby clematis. It blooms for months. 

Yesterday we drove up north to visit Son and family. Here he is (the children were also there) on a bike... don't know what you'd call it. A skate park, but for bikes. 

We went back to their house, where the grandchildren brought out their quilts to lie on and for various other activities. Medium Granddaughter is rolled up in hers. Small Grandson is using his for the roof of a den made out of sofa cushions. My mum's sofa cushions, in fact. I wish she could have met the children. 

Bouncing on the trampoline. 

And this week's offering to the gods of minimalisation. Very nice cups and saucers - which haven't been used for years. They've gone to the charity shop and the cupboard is less full. (Still quite full, mind you.)

 

Hothothot

We have been down to visit Daughter 2 in London. We were supposed to go the previous week, but postponed because it was SO HOT, but actually it was pretty hot when we did go. We didn't do anything Londony, because who wants to be even hotter? But we did the odd useful task, such as a bit of gardening (me) and erecting a guinea pig run from a kit (Mr L). 

This was popular. 

I had my 76th birthday on July 4 (happy 250th, USA) and Daughter 2 laid a fancy table, with my mum's tablecloth and Mr L's mum's china, on orders from Littlest Granddaughter. 

I admired Daughter 2's tissue box and wondered if I could make a quilt of it. 

There was scooshing of water to cool down. 

And Daughter 2 and Mr L put up a sort of sail (this was it in its unfinished state) to shelter their kitchen windows from the sun. Not sure it's a long-term solution. 

When we got home yesterday, bollards celebrating Edinburgh's 900th birthday had sprouted in the streets. Evidently it's 900 years since King David 1 established us as a burgh in 1124 - which makes it 902 years ago, but never mind. Maybe we're trying to be slightly rude about the relative youth of the USA? Anyway, I'm sure Edinburgh was a (small) town long before that. Our oldest surviving building dates from 1130-ish. 

It was relatively cool here yesterday, but today it got up to 26C-ish, which is 79F-ish - much too hot for me. But it's not too bad in the house. Too hot for gardening, but I took some photos. Everything is flourishing. 

Including the weeds. I don't mean the clematis above, which I love. It's mostly the little willow herb, which hides among the plants and suddenly pops up with a million seeds. It's pretty enough, but not in my garden, thank you. 

 

Family stuff

For Mr L's birthday, a few weeks ago, Son and Mrs Son gave him afternoon tea on a steam train, above. 

We did it on Tuesday. This is the afternoon tea. 

And this, for I think only the second time ever in my blog (which is now over 20 years old, good grief, why do I do this?) is me. I don't like having my photo taken, hence the rabbit-in-headlights smile, and it was both very hot and very windy, hence the Einstein-like hair and the baggy shirt. 

Minimalising Monday has got a bit behind, but last Wednesday we gave our garden umbrella to the daughter of friends. We bought it during Covid, at the point when you were only allowed to be visited in the garden - and this coincided with nice weather. But mainly it's lived under the bed. Neither of us sits in the garden very much, and if we do, we don't bother with the umbrella and just sit in the shade. As above. Whereas their daughter has just bought a house with a garden, and wanted one. Done!

This, randomly, is a photo of my lovely granny and grandpa, Ella (Isabella) and Tom Campbell. Well, to be frank, my granny was lovelier than my grandpa, who was good at heart but could be something of a curmudgeon at times. My granny was an absolute pet. She had a sad early life, but was so contented with everything in her adult life and never said a cross word. This photo had gone brown, but SIL 1 used the magic of electronics to restore the colour. 

The year has turned, but the days are still long. This was taken at ten at night. 

Minimalising Monday this week - slim pickings, but it's something. Two perfectly nice pots that somehow never get used. 

We took the Edinburgh Two to the Glasgow Science Centre today. Look at the size of Big Grandson! He'll be fifteen next month. He doesn't really need to be taken anywhere, but we do like having them around.