What we did at the weekend

Grandson decided to make a shop. He kept careful accounts of his takings. His shop was situated in the kitchen doorway, which was slightly inconvenient, but his parents didn't seem to mind.

We went away for the weekend with our walking group to Lagganlia, near Kingussie. The countryside is quite hilly, but we trudged uncomplainingly... well, fairly uncomplainingly... up and down the slopes.

The heather was nearly in full bloom.

We did occasionally pause to admire the views

or eat blaeberries, the Scottish wild blueberry. That's not blood on my hand; it's blaeberry juice.

Ever upwards. Well, and downwards.

George, our minor celebrity / plant expert, told us the name of this toadstool. I think it was Fly Agaric.

He also told us the names of these native heathers. One is Calluna Vulgaris and the other is Erica Something.

This cow was particularly friendly. (I don't know why Blogger won't allow me to enlarge the photos today.)

On the second day, the walk was even hillier and somewhat muddy. The more limber of our group climbed down to these rocks beside a waterfall. I decided that I valued my ankles.

We came to this rock near Newtonmore, which claims to be the centre of Scotland. This is very much debated (Scotland has many, many islands, which make the calculation difficult). However, it seemed worthy of a picture.

More heather.

Shortly after this photo, when we were all congratulating ourselves on the lovely weather we'd had - not too hot, not too much wind, no rain - it began to POUR. So for the last half hour we didn't take so many photos but just plodded on, dripping, along/up/down paths turned to mud. Then we got back into our cars and in about two minutes, drove out of the deluge into dry roads and sunshine. Scottish weather at its most varied.

It was a lovely weekend: good exercise, good company, lots of laughs and quite a lot of food.

Summer lingers on...

Daughter 2 was here at the weekend. We went up to visit new Granddaughter M on Saturday and on Monday we went to the Botanics with Granddaughter L. Here, aunt and niece play hide and seek. Well, sort of. Little L seemed to think that just pressing her face against the bark made her sufficiently invisible.

We visited the Queen Mother's little memorial hut

 
and little L had a lie down for a while.

Yesterday Mr L and I decided to go for a walk along the canal from Slateford. I don't know whether all cities have these rural areas within the bounds of the city - it's the sort of thing that you don't find out if you're visiting for only a few days and walking round museums and so on - but Edinburgh is quite lucky in this regard.

We were intrigued by this modern extension on a bungalow.

Looking over the aqueduct demonstrates how non-rural this area actually is.

Unless you're up here.

This is the view from the next aqueduct. It's a long way down

and this feels worryingly narrow... .

However, quite soon we got too hot. It was what the weather report described as a "sizzling 25 degrees" (77F), with no wind and we're feeble Scottish people with pale skin

so we struck off into the woods, along the old railway line.

It was quiet and shady, with only the river, and some dog walkers, disturbing the peace.

We came out into Colinton Village (now part of Edinburgh)

and then turned back, saying hello to Robert Louis Stevenson and his dog.

Going back a slightly different way, we rather liked this cottage. It might be a pain living here in winter - access can't be very easy, surrounded as it is by footpaths - but on a lovely day, you could be tempted.

And back along the river to the car. I tried to think of a word to describe the sound of a small river. Babbling, splishing, splashing, sploshing, tinkling, bubbling, burbling - none of them quite right.

Four and a bit miles; a lovely walk.

(By the way, thank you to the kind people who claim that I appear to have no wrinkles in the previous post. Not so, alas. I was just a long way from Daughter 2's phone camera. I shall not bother proving this with a close-up; better to leave you with your illusions. Anyway, I felt I made up for this by my bewildered - nay, slightly demented - expression.)

Time flies like an arrow

It's been a busyish week or so, during which: the children conducted scientific experiments in the paddling pool;

we visited Granddaughter M (and again today. She's so lovely);

Daughter 2 has visited us twice (it was hardly worth her going back to London for four days);

This three-generation-in-a-heap photo was taken (how discouraging that I look about 90, but facts must be faced);

 
the garden bloomed on and on, belying the shortening days;

 
(phlox: can't you just smell it?);

Granddaughter L and I went to the museum, where she dressed up in the Explorers room;

(here she seems to be Dr Livingstone wearing a lifejacket and cosy gloves - she was rather warm, hence the rosy cheeks);

Grandson had his first full week AT SCHOOL;

some art happened in the kitchen;

Son-in-Law 1 dressed up in the crawl tunnel, while Granddaughter L wore my shirt and sun hat;

the sun continued to shine. 30 degrees in London, 21 here. I know which I prefer.

And Grandson fetched a torch to look down the hole that my washing whirly line stands in. He didn't find much down there but enjoyed looking.

So: not much spare time really; for which I'm very grateful. What joy these descendants give us.

Visiting Baby M

I've been up staying with Son and Daughter-in-Law, assisting with the baby so that they could catch up on some sleep. She is, naturally, very adorable. Here she is with the cot quilt that I made two years ago in the hope that one day, a suitable recipient would come along.

Daughter 2 came to visit and presented Baby M with the blanket she's been working on.

Isn't it nice?

Baby M's big sisters seem remarkably unperturbed.

The sun shone on us.

Then I came home and Grandson drew a picture of me. "I need white chalk for your hair, Granny." Gee, thanks, Grandson. I like to think that my hair is grey with brown bits, but I suppose chalk doesn't come in that colour. "One of your hands is rubbing your tummy." Yes, I can see that.


How I miss Baby M, with her so-soft little cheeks, big puzzled dark blue eyes, quiet snuffles and questing mouth. I'm so sad that she's far away. But I missed the others when I was up there with her. And yes, I do know that I'm lucky to have grandchildren at all.