Keeping busy

Nothing much has been happening here, or nothing of interest to the world, but Daughter 2 has pointed out that she hasn't had much to read recently in the blog, so here I go. On Saturday, we visited Son and DIL and beautiful Granddaughter-the-Younger up north. I'm not allowed to put pictures of her on the internet so you'll just have to imagine her big shiny eyes, huge smile (with, often, a sticky-out tongue), peachy skin and general loveliness. Here we are, taking her for a walk in Camperdown Park. It was somewhat chilly.

It's amaryllis season in Life Towers. They sit on the landing window sill looking rather boring all year and in January or February they have four days of glory and then go back on the landing window sill. I haven't the heart to throw them out. They do multiply somewhat, though.

Yesterday I took the little ones to the Scottish National Gallery. Grandson had seen this picture before and was keen to see it again (and have a cake in the café). It's by Frederic Edwin Church and features Niagara Falls from the American side in 1867. It's rather fine. I'm not sure why he's a particular fan of waterfalls - they don't measure up to traffic lights, naturally (I'm not sure that Mr Church painted any traffic lights; he missed a trick there) but he really likes them and this is rather larger waterfall than any he's seen in real life. I was there in 1970, though on the Canadian side.

Today we took the little ones to the Glasgow Transport Museum. This is supposedly a fire engine. It's not very realistic but it has a steering wheel and flashy lights and is popular with small children.

The building is by Zaha Hadid and is frankly not very pretty (to my mind) - I'm sure it's very clever, though. However, the museum itself is very well done and imaginatively laid out. There's a tall ship moored outside on the river. We will perhaps visit it on our next trip. (She's drawing on a piece of paper, by the way, not the table.)

Outside, there are very large chairs covered in artificial grass. Obviously the children had to sit on these. I'm so aware that in the blink of an eye, they'll be much bigger and not that keen to spend time with Granny and Grandpa, so I have to take every opportunity to do things with them now.

I hope they'll visit us in our dotage... .

Various unconnected ramblings

There's not a lot happening around here because Mr Life has been quite unwell for some time now. He's been getting tremendous pains in his head. We've both had coughs since Christmas ("Ah yes, the 90-day cough," said one of our friends encouragingly)  and whenever he coughs or bends down, he's in agony. He's on a lot of painkillers which seemed to be doing a bit of good and now seem not to be. So he's not a happy chap. He's had all sorts of scans and things and unless the latest one shows something dire, the problem seems to be neuralgia. Which doesn't sound too bad but clearly is.

So a propos of not very much apart from an attempt to cheer myself up, here's a picture of Granddaughter the Elder - not in the snow, which we haven't had any of - but playing with foam at the children's favourite Sunday afternoon venue, The Yard. It's amazing how much fun can be had from soap liquid bubbled up through water.

And the indoor area of The Yard is pretty good too, with a soft play area which incorporates several huge teddies.

I've been thinking recently about politeness, as taught to children. Our older two grandchildren are now pretty good at saying please and thank you when appropriate, but when you think about it, the social nuances aren't that easy. After all, when you ask a loved one to do you a minor favour - pass the fruit bowl, for example - you probably don't say, "Please could you pass me the fruit bowl?" I would probably just say, "Could you pass me the fruit bowl?" I might put "please" on the end of this. Or maybe (is this a Scottish expression? - not sure) "Go and pass me the fruit bowl." Either of these is perfectly polite in a family setting. And indeed "please" could be slightly aggressive, as in "Please shut the door" - depending on the context.

And how often do we actually say "please" to a child? Sometimes, but not always. I find myself saying "Put on your slippers" or "Can you help me put these back in the box?" Isn't it amazing how little ones learn the distinctions and end up being reasonably polite?

All the offspring, two of their spouses, and the grandoffspring were here last weekend, which was lovely (though Mr L was too ill to enjoy it properly). When it all ended, Grandson and I accompanied Daughter 2 - who is a very jolly and loving aunt - to the station to go back to London. On the bus back, I said to Grandson, "You're the light of my life," and he said very politely, "You're the light of my life too." Then he paused and said, "But I REALLY like Auntie [Daughter 2] as well!"

As do we all.

Snapshot

This is another picture that I really like from the gallery we visited the other day. It's a trompe l'oeil painting of a pinboard by Thomas Warrender, a Scottish artist. He lived from about 1650-1713. Other artists before and after him have painted similar pinboards, notably Evert Collier, a Dutch artist who died in 1708.


As you might imagine, Warrender doesn't seem to have chosen the items on his pinboard at random. The date 1708 is the latest date on the printed material on the board, so presumably the painting was completed at some time after that. 1707 saw the union of the Scottish and English parliaments,

and the booklet at the top right says, "The Dangers of Popery Discovered", while the one in the middle at the top says, "A Solemn League and Covenant". The Covenanters belonged to a Presbyterian movement.

According to Wikipedia, the overlapping playing cards symbolise the union of the two countries. But the dividers (if that's what they are)? the white feathers? the medallion?

And I'm not sure who this chap is. Queen Anne was on the throne in 1708, so it's not her. He looks more like James the Second (and Seventh of Scotland) but that doesn't seem likely. I wonder if it's Thomas Warrender himself? Isn't it fascinating? - a little message from long ago. (Not that it's an entirely clear message nowadays.)

If you'd like to see a better photo than my phone's camera could manage, then Google-image Still Life - Thomas Warrender.

Blue

So - what's the weather like here in January?


Well, on Saturday we set off to meet up with the walking group. This is what it was like near us - foggy.

In 20 minutes' time, when we reached the promenade at Joppa, an eastern suburb of Edinburgh, it was like this.

We walked along the coastal path, past Fisherrow harbour.

These fishermen had been yarnbombed. They're bollards, preventing people from inadvertently (or otherwise) driving on to the prom.

It was a perfect day: blue as forget-me-nots and without a ripple on the water. You can faintly see Edinburgh's city hill, Arthur's Seat, on the horizon. It was obviously still misty there.

We kept on till we got through Prestonpans and then a little further,

to Cockenzie, where we had lunch. We'd walked for six and a bit miles and we briefly considered walking back again. But then we got the bus instead.

Paintings

We went today to the Scottish National Gallery to see the January Turner exhibition. These watercolours were given to the gallery on condition that they were shown only in January each year, to preserve them. They were... very good. Very Turnerish. I'd have had a few as presents, if anyone had been offering. But on the whole, Turner is a bit wispy for me. A bit too Ola Gjeilo rather than Mozart. Each to his/her own.

After that, we wandered through the gallery. I do like this painting by Alexander Nasmyth, 1758-1840. It's of Princes Street and shows the beginning of the building of the Royal Scottish Academy, which is just in front of the gallery we were visiting. 

You can see the pillars going up.

This is what it looks like today, side on.

Here's a painting of Princes Street Gardens and the Castle in the 1860s by Samuel Bough (1822-1878). At this time, the gardens were privately owned by the owners of the houses in Princes Street, and were accessed by a subscription scheme - until 1876, only a few years before my older grandparents were born. This seems unbelievable now - the gardens are widely used by everyone. Queen Street Gardens, parallel and not far away, are still private. (When I'm dictator, I shall annexe them and open them to the public.)

Interestingly (to me, anyway) there's a path on the other side of the railings. Maybe it was artistic licence and the path wasn't really there, but if it was, then at some point it was removed, because now the ground banks steeply down and then there's a path.

And this is a painting by Velazquez (1599-1660) in the gallery. It's one of my favourites: An Old Woman Cooking Eggs. Not so sure about the "old" - in her 50s, maybe? But why is she looking at her grandson (if that's what he is) instead of the eggs? He's not looking at her. I reckon he's in trouble.

Isn't the onion exquisite? (Sorry about the reflection of my phone on the glass, and the poor quality of my photos.)

And aren't the jugs?

And the shadow of the knife on the bowl?

And the brass pan?

Imagine this being painted in Spain in 1630 or so and still being admired in Scotland (and in my blog...) nearly five hundred years later - and, no doubt, further into the future. Velazquez might have been surprised... or perhaps not. I wonder if he felt that his paintings were for all time - or if he expected to be forgotten.

(And Sarah, thanks so much for your comment. How interesting that you, too, have some of that flowery fabric!)

Flowery dress

When Daughter 1 went to nursery at the age of 3 in 1982, parents had to supply a painting overall. I considered making one but then came across this brown one and bought it instead. Then I felt a bit guilty that it was such a boring colour, so I appliqued a dolly on the back.

I got the scraps of fabric from my mother-in-law, who was a wonderful seamstress and had made a dress for Daughter 1 out of the flowery material.


Fast forward to this afternoon. The grandchildren were here and wanted to paint, so I fished out the elderly painting overall to put on Granddaughter-the-Elder.

After this, we had some stories. I was reading this book (published 2010,  highly recommended) to the children.

And then I noticed Lola's dress.

I'd love to know how Lauren Child came to have this fabric.  And does anyone else recognise it?

Art. And traffic lights.

Daughter 1 and I took the children to the Portrait Gallery for the first time today. It's an amazing Neo-Gothic building and, rather to our surprise, the children found it interesting. There's a painted frieze around the main entrance hall, featuring lots of people from Scottish history, and the little ones gazed up at them and talked about them a bit.

They also looked at the various busts, such as this one of James Watt, the engineer. Granddaughter the Elder was particularly intrigued by Queen Victoria, who was wearing a crown as all good queens do. Grandson (surprise, surprise) was keen to know how many of the great and good immortalised here in marble had lived long enough to see traffic lights installed. Not many in this room, Daughter 1 and I decided.


The main purpose of our visit was to look at the BP Portrait Competition exhibition, which Mr Life and I had seen at the weekend. I had no idea whether it would hold the attention of a 5- and a 3-year-old but we thought it worth a try. And it did. They wandered round, looking at all the (amazing) portraits and each chose their favourite.

Outside the exhibition room, there was a little stand with mirrors, paper and pencils, and visitors were invited to try drawing their own self-portraits and to pin them to the wires encircling the space. Grandson was enthusiastic to try this and worked busily for some minutes.

Here he is with his finished portrait.

It hasn't quite captured his loveliness but he carefully gave himself eyelashes, eyebrows, ear whorls and a quilted sweatshirt - though no hands or legs.

It was lovely to see how much they enjoyed themselves.  We must do this again.

Afterwards, we went to the café. Grandson looked at the pink tulip in a vase on our table and then saw a red one on another table. Then he saw a yellow one. "Do you get green tulips?" he enquired. Art may be one thing, but the possibility of making a traffic light arrangement in tulips is quite another.

2017 commences

So: Happy New Year to all bloggy friends. Surely 2017 has got to be better than 2016. (Hasn't it?) Not that it's been particularly bad for our family - indeed, compared to so many people in the world, we're ridiculously lucky. But as for others... .


Anyway: in the final few days of the year, we walked in the Botanics with Daughter 2 before she (sigh) went back down south;

we visited Son and DIL with my brother and his wife and took Granddaughter the Younger out for a walk in the countryside where she lives (it was windy);

and after my brother and sister-in-law left this morning, I went into town on a bus, took this photo through the window, had a little wander around in the sunshine and thanked my lucky stars for living in a relatively beautiful and peaceful place. There were lots of people with suitcases who had presumably been here for the Hogmanay celebrations and were going home; and various other tourists who had for some unaccountable reason decided to come when the days are shortest and the flowers least abundant. It was sunny today and very pleasant, but if you were thinking of coming to Edinburgh I'd generally advise that you come in the summer or at least the spring or autumn.

And then I came home and began the slightly dispiriting task of taking down the Christmas decorations. But in a way it's nice to get the house back to normal: do a bit of dusting, shake one's feathers and look forward to spring.

Comings and goings...

So Christmas came and went, very pleasantly. Daughter 2 arrived first and decorated the Christmas cake.

Then my brother, his wife and offspring arrived from down south, and Son-in-Law 2 and Son, Daughter-in-Law and their baby also joined us from up north. Daughter 1, Son-in-Law 1 and their children were also here most of the time, though not sleeping in our house (fortunately, since the house was by then slightly full)

- like this -

and generally speaking, there was a lot going on but it was lovely.




Then Son and DIL and baby went away,




the rest of us went out for various walks

(Granddaughter the Elder had by this time decided that it was TOO WINDY (though in fact it wasn't - she DOESN'T LIKE THE WIND, which is unfortunate since she lives in Edinburgh, which is quite a windy place) - and had returned to the car with her father.)

and Grandson found a Big Waterfall.

Today, Daughter 2 and I went round to Daughter 1's to play with the children while their parents got ready to visit Son-in-Law's family in Worcester; and then they went; and tomorrow, alas alack, Daughter 2 departs back down to London. And then it'll be just us and my brother and his wife. They're staying till the 2nd. And then there will be us two... .

Still. It's been nice.

'Tis the season...

Well, I think that's us organised for Christmas, apart from the final touches to the cake, which Daughter 2 traditionally decorates in an elaborate and architectural manner. She arrived home last night (hurray) and my brother and sister-in-law arrive later today. Son-in-Law 2 will get here on Friday. Then on Saturday, we should be joined by my nephew and niece and also Son, Daughter-in-Law and the baby, Granddaughter the Younger. Daughter 1, Son-in-Law 1 and their two will also be around, but not actually sleeping here, which is just as well since, as it is, 10 people living in our four-bedroom, two-bathroom house will make it a trifle full. However, it'll be fun.


Of course, I wish that my mum and dad could come too. Dad never saw any of the little ones. Mum knew Grandson until he was one. What a change she'd see in him!

We never knew that, inside that little head, there were thoughts forming about traffic lights, road signs, road markings and layouts and the important distinction between pelican and toucan crossings.

Thinking of you, Mum and Dad. Happy Christmas to all bloggy friends!

Trifles

Just like any granny, I find our little people endlessly fascinating. Grandson spends a lot of time drawing road layouts, or - a fairly new development - railway layouts, as above. But the other day he decided to draw a picture of his mum. She was at work at the time, so his dad produced this picture of her on his phone.

And Grandson drew this.

I was surprised at the detail: eyelashes and all. He's not Michelangelo but it doesn't seem too bad for a five-year-old's first attempt at a portrait.

I went Christmas food shopping today (there will be 14 of us on Christmas Day). I was a bit worried that it wouldn't all fit in the fridge and freezer but it did, just. I had to remove some frozen plums to make room for other things, so I made a plum and apple loaf. Just as I was spooning the mixture into the tin I realised that I'd missed out the baking powder and then it occurred to me that I'd used plain flour instead of self-raising, so I put it back in the bowl and added a bit more baking powder than the recipe had suggested and gave it a good stir. I think it'll be okay. If not, I suppose it can be a base for a trifle. Or something. I had been quite pleased with my efficiency today, up till that point.