A bit of a whirl

Daughter 2 and Littlest Granddaughter reached their hotel in Glasgow at nearly midnight and fell into bed. The next day they got the train to Stirling, where we collected them. 

And then we went to Crieff, one of my very happy places, to stay in a lodge in the grounds of Crieff Hydro. All of our children and grandchildren, as well as my brother, sister-in-law, nephew and nephew's fiancee were there, so it was lovely - but somewhat hectic. 

There was pony-riding, 

climbing the Knock, the hill behind the hotel (this is one of my favourite ever views)

zip-wiring,

and swimming. Most of these activities were merely spectated by Mr Life and me... .

And now we're back. Daughter 2 and Littlest Granddaughter are staying for most of August while Son-in-Law 2 performs in the Fringe and Daughter 2 works, so Granny's holiday club has swung into action. Gird your loins, Granny.

Last year, I planted a seed from this lupin

and because lupins don't come true from seed, this has happened to the seedling The wonders of nature (and the depredations of slugs). 

Look at these nicotiana in the garden! I've never grown them before, but certainly will again. 

And for some reason, one of my amaryllis bulbs has decided to put on a second flowering after its March blooming. The wonders of... etc. 

Life's not dull. 
 

Ups and downs

On Sunday we went to the Botanics with the Edinburgh family. The children draped themselves over their favourite tree. 

Then on Tuesday we did a recce on another walk for the group. We started in Dunblane Cathedral, where we'd never been. It was built mainly in the 1200s, though the bell tower is 1100s, but it became derelict and only the chancel was used till the main building was restored in the 1800s. 

This is what it looked like pre-restoration. 

I loved this 19th century carving on the ends of the pews. 

Then we set off. 

It was a mainly lovely walk along the Allan Water, though quite near the beginning there was a steep earth bank to climb up, with nothing much to hold on to. However, we had our sticks and managed, so I think the walk will be ok for our friends too. The weather was quite warm, but luckily the walk is mainly through trees. 

We'll be leading the walk in September, which is a pity because the flowers were beautiful - 

meadowsweet, 

ragwort (I think) and willowherb 

and a there was also a certain amount of mud. 

Today (at last) was Littlest Granddaughter's last day at school so she picked flowers from the garden for her teachers. 

And she and Daughter 2 should be here by now, except that their train, and all the other trains going up the east coast, were cancelled because of a fatality, ie a suicide, on the line. Very sad indeed, but also horrendously inconvenient for thousands of people and traumatic for the train driver. 

So they're on their way to Glasgow to spend the night and we'll see them tomorrow. Can't wait!

 

Big Grandson is 13

Big Grandson was 13 on Wednesday. 13! A teenager! Fortunately he's showing no signs of being a grumpy one. None of our children were difficult teenagers either, so I'm hoping that this continues. He's a lovely chap. They came here for tea, he having been with his dad on a bus trip round the city - which he loves doing. 

They usually come on Fridays, and yesterday he had a nostalgic play with the Brio that now resides in cupboards most of the time (there's a lot of it!). He and Biggest Granddaughter had a good time with it and he requested that it be left out so that they can continue with it tomorrow. He used to play with it every time he was here, but (sniff) now he's mainly grown out of it. It takes up a lot of room in our house... 

And today we went for a walk with our walking chums. 

It was very enjoyable. The weather was warm (at last) but we mainly walked through woodland so it wasn't too sticky. 

Then we came home and I wandered round the garden for a bit. It's very flowery. The perennial sweet peas are doing well. 

The (pestilential but pretty) Japanese anemones are growing into the phlox again. 

This is a pretty hydrangea which my work colleagues gave me when I retired. For a few years it refused to flower once I'd planted it in the garden, but after I threatened to dig it out, it did flower and has continued to do so every year since then. 

I love this verbena. It's taller than me. I hope it survives next winter - it got through the last one, but that was quite mild. 

This fuchsia at the front of the bed is very hardy; I love it. 

This is a good clematis, though unfortunately the slugs agree. 

This clematis hasn't done so well as usual, this year; presumably it's been too chilly for it. 

Just as I sat down in my little reading nook, our neighbour started mowing his lawn, very noisily. He's very meticulous and likes to mow it in stripes. Eventually he stopped, but by that time it had started spitting very slightly. I tried to ignore this, and read on for a while. But then the rain became just a bit too damp. Oh well. It saved me from having to water the pots. 

 

Rosebuds

We went over to Fife today to have lunch with Mr L's cousin and her 100-year-old mother - Mr L's aunt by marriage. This is the view from the restaurant. Aunt J is really amazing - no sign of dementia - but in the last year or so her eyesight has been going and she needs a walker for balance. This must be so trying for her. She was a doctor and still lives in her beautiful house but can no longer really go into her lovely garden because it's on a slope, and anyway she can't see the flowers. Fortunately she has help with the house and garden, and also has her daughter, who lives in Edinburgh but nobly spends every weekend with her. But Aunt J says that she enjoyed her 90s much more than her 100s, and I can see what she means. 

Oh dear, old age. 

Meanwhile there's no use thinking about one's own ageing (we're merely in our 70s, after all, and in reasonable nick). 

I've been back at the archives, and by the simple change of moving things into the reasonably large sitting room instead of spreading them out on a bed, have made progress. The piles are no longer in danger of collapsing into one another. Going through my parents' papers is rather sad, though. We made a book for my mum's 80th birthday by writing to all her friends and asking them for reminiscences and photos. We got an excellent response, but while it's very heartwarming to read about what a lovely person she was, it's also sad that not only she, but most of the contributors, are no longer with us. Ah me!

Gather ye rosebuds... And meanwhile, the grandchildren are very cheering. They're now nearly 13, 11, nearly 8, not far off 7 and 5. And very lovely!

To and fro

Unusually, we've been up north three days running. On Wednesday we drove up to 

visit Son and the Unbloggables near Dundee, which was lovely. The Unb. grandchildren are very sweet. I just wish they lived nearer. 

Then yesterday was my birthday. (Happy Independence Day, Americans. Are you doing ok? - not sure we are on this side of the pond, but we've had an election so let's see if the new lot can improve things. As for your election, hmm). 

The family are a) visiting in-laws down south or b) in their usual places of residence, so we took ourselves up on the train to look at the new museum in Perth. It was very impressive. We saw the Stone of Destiny (very important for Scottish people, though admittedly just a lump of sandstone) and various other interesting and astonishingly old things. They had an exhibition on unicorns in folklore and art, with exhibits such as this - a bestiary made in the 1100s. It's amazing how well it's survived, don't you think? What of our age will survive that long, I wonder?  

And look at this ceramic cooking pot from 1000ish. 1000! William the Conqueror could have had his soup out of that. I mean, it might have been 66 by then, but it's 1024 now. So at a mere 66 it would probably have been in working order.  

Today we again got on the train and this time went to Dunblane, childhood home of Andy Murray. The purpose was to recce a walk for the walking gang. We're not leading it till September (well, Mr L leads it really; I have very little sense of direction) but we were trying to get ahead of ourselves. This walk featured in a newspaper some time ago and it looked promising. 

T

However, it wasn't. A lot of it was up this narrow path, with grasses sometimes above my head, and a rocky, muddy, slippery surface which made it hard to keep one's feet. There were many parts at which breaking an ankle seemed all too feasible, and it would have been very tedious for the ambulance men to have to struggle along this path with a stretcher, particularly if I'd been on it. And as well as that, single file isn't really good for walking in a group, when the whole point is to chat the miles away. 

There were nice open bits to the walk as well -

but on the whole - no. The plan had been to walk to Bridge of Allan and then, with minor variations, back along the path again to Dunblane, but by the time we got to Bridge of Allan we'd had enough and just got the train home from there. So though it wasn't an unenjoyable day, we're going to have to find a different walk for the group - which is a bit tedious, but hey ho, it was exercise and fresh air and a workout for the thighs, so it's all good. 

And tomorrow we're staying in Edinburgh.