Charm

We went to an exhibition a few days ago - Modern Scottish Art, 1900-1950. As we suspected, we were more impressed by the earlier than the later paintings, though I do quite like this one. Stupidly I didn't write down the artist's name. I wouldn't necessarily want it on my wall, but it has a certain fishy charm (and doubtless other characteristics that eluded us).

Then we had coffee and cake in the café and gazed out of the window at the wintry sunshine.

We walked to and from the gallery, which might have gone part way towards working off the cake. You think?

Another day we went up north to visit Son, Daughter-in-Law and Middle Granddaughter. Son took us to a soft play centre. These places didn't exist in our children's day - or at least there was one, called Little Marco's, which was a delightfully relaxing day out for parents because it was all on one level and we mainly just sat smiling indulgently as our offspring trotted busily past. Nowadays they're built on various different levels and you have to follow your little ones as they race up squashy stairs, through tiny doorways, between padded rollers through gaps not designed for the plumper granny and along wobbly bridges (ditto). However, it was good fun and she's very sweet. Above you don't quite see her in the ball pool, one of the more restful features of the place.

And here you don't quite see her having some lunch. She's getting to know us a bit, I think, which is lovely.

Meanwhile, Daughter 1, Son-in-Law 1 and their two were visiting Daughter 2 and co. in London. Daughter 2 WhatsApped us various of Grandson's sayings, eg

"It's so nice to be in bed with you, Auntie [Daughter 2]. And this nice bouncy pillow."

"I love you more than I love [Littlest Granddaughter]. But she's cuter."

"She has a tiny tiny head. It's about the size of two tennis balls. And fluffy. It's more round than a normal head, though. More like a sphere. You and I have normal heads - more like 3D ovals."

They're now back in Edinburgh - we saw them briefly at the station this afternoon but I can't wait to see them at greater length tomorrow.

Now I'm off to try making patchwork triangles... Thanks for the various pieces of advice, patchwork experts. Think positive thoughts for me!

Rushing around

Our visit to Daughter 2 was dual-purpose: to see her and Littlest Granddaughter but also to visit again my aunt, who's now in a care home in rural north Norfolk in the south of England - which is not at all handy for Edinburgh.

Up till November 30 my aunt, now 93, was living independently and having a lovely life, but on that day a Tesco employee, pushing a large container on wheels instead of (as is the rule) pulling it behind him so that he could see where he was going, pushed it into her shopping trolley and knocked her over, breaking her hip.


She's had a partial hip replacement but is now scarcely able to walk and is permanently in a care home - never having been able to go back to her own home to sort out her things. Fortunately she has very good friends, including one who thinks of her as his big sister, and who has done so much for her. But the fact remains that her life has been ruined.


To make things much worse, she's extremely deaf and totally reliant on hearing aids - and one of these got lost at the rehabilitation home she was in after being in hospital, so till she gets a replacement she's more or less cut off from the speaking world. And she's hardly eating at all and is now very thin. I think she's really given up. Of course, she's 93 and many people don't get that far. But there's no comparison between her life now and her life less than three months ago. It's so sad.


She has no children, but my brother's family and mine are all very fond of her so have been visiting her when possible. It's quite a faff to get to her from here, and even from Daughter 2's home in London it's not that easy. Daughter 2 kindly said she'd come and bring the baby for Auntie to see again, so we hired a car and drove there, staying overnight in the village so that we could visit both days. It's very hard to think of things to say to someone whose life has shrunk so much - and who can't hear you unless you bellow in the ear that has the remaining hearing aid. Luckily my brother and my niece live not so far away and are able to visit more often - but it's still quite a trek to the village. I write to her every second day because she can still read.


So that took up two days of our five days down south. Another two were spent travelling down and up again. On Tuesday, however, we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum because Daughter 2, though she's on maternity leave, had a meeting that she wanted to go to since it might provide work for the company and she knew more than her colleagues about what this might entail. The meeting was at 2, so we went to the V&A for lunch, she fed the baby and set off, while Mr L and I wheeled the (fortunately sleeping) baby round the museum.




Look at this! It was carved out of rock crystal about the year 1000 and I WANT IT. I shall put it on my Amazon wish list.

And this - made about 1545. It's quite large but I'd find a place for it easily.

And this - about the same date. Another lady was looking at it with me and we admired it. She said that she wanted it. I didn't like to tell her that I saw it first so obviously it was mine.

Now, of course no one approves of ivory but wow, the workmanship on this.

All these teeny pieces!


At this point, Daughter 2 phoned to say that the potential clients had rung at 2 and postponed the meeting till 4! So she would come back and feed the baby again.

While waiting, we admired this dress, made out of hand-embroidered fabric.

Look! How many weeks would that take to do???


Daughter 2 reappeared, fed the baby and rushed back to her meeting, and Mr L and I battled through the hot, crowded London transport system and returned to the flat. Luckily Littlest Granddaughter's feeds are supplemented by bottles, so we were able to keep her going till her mum returned.

How lovely she is.

Including when she's asleep.

And now Daughter 1 and her family are down in London visiting Daughter 2 and family, so we don't have any grandchildren around. Mr Life is quite enjoying the peace for now, I do believe... . But I'm missing them all.

Baby baby

We've been down in London visiting Daughter 2 and Littlest Granddaughter.

And now we're back. Leaving them doesn't get any easier.

To be continued...

Quotable quotes

I've been piecing a quilt for Biggest Granddaughter - using the same design as I used for Littlest Granddaughter's, only there are going to be triangles in one of the borders. (Possibly. I've never done triangles so we'll see.) I'm intrigued by how the pattern is achieved, which I, not being a person with much spatial awareness, wouldn't have thought of. You make nine-patches, as above, and then cut them down and across, thus:

and then rearrange them thus. (Don't look too closely.) And then sew them all together and so on. I'm sure it's a common patchwork technique but I'm easily impressed. Her favourite colour is yellow and she wanted lots of animal fabrics, including guinea pigs.

I've got quite a long way to go yet.

Daughter 1 and I took her and her brother to the Camera Obscura on Saturday. There were lots of optical illusions to amuse them. It's such fun to be a reasonably large part of their lives.

I said sentimentally to Grandson the other day, "I hope that when you're a big boy, you'll remember coming to our house to play."

He looked at me in amazed dismay. "Can't I still come here when I'm a big boy?"

Of course you can, my darling boy!

I do love the things they say. The other day, Grandson looked in the cupboard in what used to be Son's room and discovered the Lego trainset. He bore it downstairs and said with warm satisfaction, "You never know what you'll find in a good cupboard."

Meanwhile biggest Granddaughter played with Lego pirates. "The pirate raft," she murmured to herself, "sailed elegantly past the railway."

And on Tuesday, she and I went to the Botanics. It was rather chilly but then the sun came out. "That's nice," she remarked. "I can feel myself relaxing already."

Oh, they're such a joy!

Granddaughters

On Tuesday we went up north to visit Son. We had lunch out with him and Middle Granddaughter. As you can see, she's getting bigger.

It was wet on the way up and VERY wet on the way down, but we were able to go to a park during a dry spell. Middle Granddaughter enjoyed splashing in the puddles.

She also enjoyed feeding the ducks. She does this quite often and isn't at all frightened when they crowd round her. They even allowed her to stroke them.

The ducks are very tame - here they are eating out of Son's hand. They're also quite plump, not surprisingly.

The sun came out for a while. It was so nice to be with Son and Granddaughter.

 Today I went over to sit with Biggest Granddaughter, who isn't very well and is off nursery. She perked up after a while. We read lots of stories and then she did some drawing

She tried out a French plait but didn't really approve, so we reinstated her bunches,

which she seems to feel are an essential part of her image.

Granddaughters are the best. Well, along with grandsons. And offspring in general.

Snow babies

We don't get a lot of snow in Edinburgh, or even a lot of seriously cold weather, but it's chilly just now - freezing-ish. Yesterday the children played in the garden. Here, Grandson makes a snowcastle with a bucket and spade from the sandpit.

And so does Oldest Granddaughter. Then -

she JUMPS on it.

Playing in the sand is quite a common activity here - we're on the coast - but playing in the snow is a novelty.

Predictably, Grandson makes roads.

We combine forces to make an extremely small and somewhat sinister snowman.

And Oldest Granddaughter, who has a heart-shaped bucket, makes a snowheart.

Such fun.

Things you see when you're walking

On Saturday, Mr L and I did the recce for our walking group's next walk, which we're leading. The weather was very nothingy - not cold, not bright, not windy, not wet. It was pleasant enough walking - from the Water of Leith Centre at Slateford - yet it's the time of year when things are a bit grey and one is pleased to see some colour in the ivy and the dead beech leaves.

When we got nearer town we saw this plaque, which we'd never noticed before. We were impressed that someone had remembered from 1848 to 1948 where Chopin had stayed for (maybe?) only one night. I myself have difficulty remembering where I went on holiday last year... .

See how still the water is.

After seven and a half miles we got to Leith. This area has been very much gentrified in the past twenty years or so, with lots of cafés and restaurants. We identified the all-important café big enough to take 15-ish people for coffee and cake at the end of next week's walk. Then we got the bus home.


When we walk locally, as we often do, along a former railway line - now a cycle/walking path on the embankment - we often look down at a garden in which a chap has built himself a model tram, complete with lots of signs, labels, bus stops, a Belisha beacon and so on. One day a few weeks ago we got into conversation with the man and when I said how much Grandson appreciated his efforts, he invited us to bring Grandson to see it. So on Sunday, Son-in-Law 1 and I did. Grandson was VERY HAPPY. The man, John (who's a bus driver) also gave him photos of his tram, some timetables of the sort that go into bus stops, a model tram and two bus magazines. He was such a kind chap. I think he was very pleased to find a kindred spirit in Grandson, who was very appreciative of all the detailed lights and buttons and so on with which the place was equipped.

John has also built himself a Tardis (that you can't see from the cycle path), with a K9 and a Cyberman and a control panel with buttons and a television that plays old "Dr Who" episodes. Grandson doesn't know a lot about Dr Who but he really liked the set-up all the same.

Then SIL 1 and I took Grandson on a real tram into town and got the bus home again - all of which amounted to a very satisfactory afternoon for Grandson.

And so life goes on. I do love being a granny.

Descendants

It's been a busy but lovely time in the last week or so. On Friday, Son-in-Law 1 and I took the Edinburgh grandchildren to the museum. Here you see them admiring some train (I think) traffic signals. Look at how long-legged Grandson is getting. I thought back on the first time I took him there - below. Now he's six and a half.

Then, hooray hooray, later that day, Daughter 2 and Littlest Granddaughter arrived for a five-day visit. Littlest Granddaughter is so lovely (totally unbiased opinion). She's now looking round a lot and smiling, which is so nice.

I do love babies: their soft skin and round eyes and bouncy faces. She's very wakeful during the day (mostly) but does sleep at night, so Daughter 2 is finding motherhood very fulfilling and much less hard work than architecture. I found that myself: one tiny person to look after instead of 100+ potentially stroppy teenagers who needed to have their writing marked. Babies are extremely hard work - I'm not denying that - but their needs aren't complicated and they're very cuddly.

However, alas, they went home this afternoon and I'm missing them a lot.

Son, Daughter-In-Law and Middle Granddaughter came to stay at the weekend and the Edinburgh family were here too, so that was exceedingly good. Middle Granddaughter was very dubious last time about her parents paying attention to Littlest  Granddaughter, but this time she was absolutely fine. They even had a bath together, with Son washing his niece, and Middle Granddaughter didn't object at all: in fact, she "helped" to bath the baby.

We warned Grandson that Middle Granddaughter (17 months) would probably play with (ie rearrange) his elaborate rail layout (which is always constructed on the sitting room floor) and he was very good about this. However, when Son and DIL had packed to go home on the Sunday - but Middle Granddaughter was still picking up bits of the railway - Grandson said to DIL, "Did you say you were leaving?"

She laughed and said, "Would you like her to stop playing with your railway?"

He hesitated, clearly wondering how truthful to be. Then he said cautiously, "Yes." Pause. "But she's very cute."

Tactful. Ish.

Snow, no snow

And so it's 2018. Since my last post, we had some snow which lay a couple of days. Grandson, down south with his other grandparents (where there was no snow), mourned, "It always doesn't snow where we are."

The ice froze on Inverleith Pond, which must have been annoying for the ducks. When I was at school we had to play hockey near here (I was never fond of team games; why would one care who won?) and once, when the ground was too frozen to play, we were taken here to slide on the ice. Granted, this was when the world was a colder place but all the same it's fairly unbelievable now. I'm not sure what would have happened if the ice had cracked. It's not a deep pond but we'd have got very wet and muddy.

And then the grandchildren returned and enjoyed playing with their new toys - and I enjoyed watching them. Grandson has remote control trains for his Brio and REALLY likes them.

Happy 2018, everyone. Let's hope for a more sensible year.