Simple pleasures

It was a nice day on Thursday so I took Smallest Granddaughter to Lauriston Castle, which has pleasant grounds to walk in, including a Japanese garden with a little island reached by stepping stones, which children always love. 

We were there for quite a long time,

which was fine, because the aims were 1) for her to have fun and fresh air and 2) to give her mum, who was working upstairs at home, peace to concentrate. Also, I don't like to spend the whole day in the house. I like fresh air too. It was my mantra when our own children were small - "Come on - fresh air and exercise." I was also somewhat notorious for taking them for wet walks, if that was the only possibility. I still like wet walks as long as I have an umbrella. Which is just as well, considering the weather we've been having lately. 

She swooshed branches in the water and spread the droplets around. 

She climbed trees. 

And when we got home, we sat in the garden for a bit. It's been so wet that even this was a treat. 

And then yesterday we went to the beach and ploutered around. Here she is scooping up dogs' footprints and scattering them. There were lots; dog owners like to walk their pooches on the beach. I quite like dogs individually, but there are so many of them since lockdown, often in slightly alarming packs overseen (sort of) by professional dog walkers. Fortunately Smallest Granddaughter doesn't seem to be frightened of them. 

She soon took off her boots and socks to paddle, and to throw stones and handfuls of wet sand into the sea. 

Simple pleasures.

But now they've gone back to London, alas. Which is more restful, but sadder. 
 

April showers

The weather has been fairly horrible - rain and wind, though not at the same time - and the town is full of tourists who might reasonably have expected to enjoy Edinburgh in the spring; and will probably go home and tell their friends that it rains all the time in Scotland. To do Edinburgh justice, I think the weather all over the UK has been similarly revolting. Last Saturday was sunny but very windy - I mean very - and we walked down to the flower show to enjoy the spring display. Sadly, because of the wind, and because the show was in a marquee, everything had to be moved for reasons of safety into a small room nearby, so it was all squashed together. Such a shame for those who had planned for months to get their flowers in tip-top condition for the judging. Still, first world problems, I realise. 

Small Granddaughter and Daughter 2 are visiting at the moment, which is lovely. SG and I went to the museum today while her mum was at work. This is her wearing an octopus suit. We had fun, though it was very busy. 

Life has been full of family meet-ups, but the Easter holidays will be over in less than a week and things will become more peaceful. Which has its advantages, I suppose.  

 

Little bits of life

The garden is blooming but the weather is currently REVOLTING - cold and wet. Sorry, tourists. April is a reasonable time to come to Scotland, but not this April, or not so far. 

Friends very kindly sent us a token to have a meal in a certain restaurant, so we went with the Edinburgh family and here's Big Grandson, taking the opportunity to bus-spot while awaiting his lunch. 

A week past Saturday, we walked along the canal path at Linlithgow and sat on a bench to finish the coffee in our flasks. When we got home, I found that I'd replaced the cup, but not the stopper on mine. So on Monday we were going back to Linlithgow anyway and walked along to the bench just on the off chance that the stopper might be there, rather than having blown into the canal. And we found that some kind person had taken the trouble to tie it to the back of the bench! With green silken cord, no less. How nice!

It seems quite tempting to live in this canal-side cottage, but you'd have lots of people passing your front windows. 

Yesterday, Son came down with his little ones, which was lovely. The Edinburgh Two and Daughter 1 came to and the cousins played together. Son and co stayed overnight and today we all went to the museum, along with lots of other people finding something to do indoors out of the rain. 

It was good, though. 

I was thinking today, alarmingly, that it seems not long since my Norfolk aunt died, but that was in 2018. Six years. And in another six years, if I'm still around, I'll be coming up for 80. How can this be...? 

Need to get on with things. Bell distantly (or maybe not...) tolling. 

 

Keeping busy

I've at last finished Big Granddaughter's dragon quilt. I started making it ages ago but then got diverted into making a cot quilt for Daughter 2's friend's baby. This type of thing is VERY easy - all you do is choose a big patterned fabric for the middle and then add lots of borders until it's big enough - so, no planning involved, really, and none of that pesky fiddle of getting rows of squares to have corners at the same place as the rows above and below. In this case, Big Granddaughter - who's eleven - chose most of the fabrics from my stash. The exceptions are the purple and violet ones, which I had to buy because I don't really do purple (but this is her current favourite colour) and the dragon fabrics, which I got from the same source as for Medium Granddaughter, who originally requested a dragon quilt.  Big Granddaughter, on seeing that, asked for one too. 

When she was five, she asked for a quilt with "bunnies and hedgehogs" but I made the fatal mistake of including maybe six squares of Peter Rabbit fabric, which she considered, by the time she was ten, were too babyish. How long, I ask myself, will she consider dragons suitable? 

By the time I was quilting her new one she was interested in the quilting itself and, having inspected my various templates, chose which designs she wanted in the different borders and in most cases also the colours of quilting thread. I have only a few darker colours and hadn't used them much, but I'm now a convert - they show up so much better. 

Anyway, what fun, but it's not really my creation. I just did the sewing. I really prefer having more of a free choice, but on the other hand it was really nice that she took an interest in the design. 

On Saturday, Mr L and I did the recce for a walk we're leading (well, he's leading, being the one with the sense of direction; I just follow along) in May. We got the bus to Linlithgow and walked down this path to the river. 

It was a pretty walk, 

though a bit muddy and rooty, which made it quite hard work. 

Then, after a detour into Muiravonside Country Park, we walked back to Linlithgow along the paved canal path, which was much easier. 

According to Mr L's device it was over 6 miles, which was further than I'd walked in a oner since my new hip - and it was fine, which was very good. Also there were various flights of steps, and Mr L's angioplastied heart was also fine, which was even better. Mind you, we were happy to sit down on the bus on the way home... .

And on Sunday we walked in the Botanics with Daughter 1 and family - lots of rhododendrons

of various colours

and some jolly good magnolias also. 

Not to say ten thousand or so daffodils, tossing their heads in spritely dance. 

 

Back again

I've been down in London visiting Daughter 2 and family. Littlest Granddaughter taught me a very complicated game. 

Daughter 2 managed to get the grass cut. It's been very wet down there, and their garden is terrible London clay, so is very soggy in those circumstances. But the grass'll dry better now it's shorter. We also did some weeding and Daughter 2 planted some stuff. So, all good. 

We did a bit of playparking. 

We also sat in her kitchen, chatting and admiring the cut lawn. The second of Littlest G's front teeth wobbled out. She doesn't believe in the Tooth Fairy but was happy to find the pound coin underneath her pillow. 

Then I came back. This is Kings Cross station. That crowd on the left is a long caterpillar of people queuing up to have their photos taken (at, I imagine, some expense) in front of a wall which is blank apart from a sign saying "Platform 9 and three-quarters" (the three-quarters is written as a fraction but I can't get my computer to do this in Blogger).  There's always a queue like this. Strange! I never got into Harry Potter - read the first book and thought it was a bit unoriginal, but am informed that things improved in subsequent books. I haven't seen the films either. 

It was nice to get home, but I miss Daughter 2 and her little one.  

And while I was away, this happened. 
 

The young and the old

Talking of dementia - the day after my last post about my choir friend who's been diagnosed, I sat down in the dentist's chair, swung my feet up and noticed that I was wearing odd shoes - both black and flat, but from two different pairs. Then I went home again and Mr Life pointed out that I'd buttoned my shirt up wrongly - one too many buttons at the top, one too few at the bottom. Hmm!

I remember this stage so well with our own children: when they know things and can do things that we didn't and couldn't. And it's so interesting and heart-warming. These are cereal packets that Big Grandson designed in some class (Craft, Design and Technology?) at school. I couldn't do this on the computer if my life depended on it. The flavours, by the way, are: Classic Oat & Wheat, Chocolate Chunks, Lemon and Lime, Canadian Maple Syrup and Blueberry. I like his wording as well as his pictures (though I am his granny). 

Of course, the next stage is that they become so competent that they grow up and move away... .

Biggest Granddaughter is now 11. She's at that grown-up-in-some-ways stage. For her birthday cake, she requested that Daughter 1 make a sophisticated unicorn. Sophisticated, she decided, meant in this case black. She and her friend went ice-skating at the rink near us "and then we're coming here for pizza and ice cream, Granny". What, my house? Oh, ok. So they did and it was lovely! 

Littlest Granddaughter took pictures of her gap and her very wobbly tooth with her mum's phone. 

I'm sitting here listening to Rheinberger's Mass in D, opus 194, which we're singing at one of my choirs. I'd never heard of Rheinberger until a couple of years ago, when we did something else of his (can't now remember what...) but he's wonderful and should be better known. 

So yes, nothing's really happened, though I'm nearly at the end of Biggest Granddaughter's second quilt. I made the mistake of including a few bits of Peter Rabbit fabric in the one I made for her when she was 5 and wanted "bunnies and hedgehogs" and now it's too babyish. Ooops. She requested a dragon quilt like the one I made Middle Granddaughter, though I'm dubious that she's going to want that when she's older. Ah well, I can make a third... if I'm spared... .

 

Fine

We went up to Son's at the weekend and saw him and the UnBloggables, who're now 7 and 4 and delightful. This is the view from his garden. Ideally, I would live somewhere like this too, though it wouldn't be practical as an old person if one couldn't drive. In town, we can walk or get the bus. There, they drive everywhere. Anyway, with one child north and one south, we have to stay in Edinburgh, which is gettatable from both directions. But at heart, I'm not a city person. I would prefer to live in a small town in East Lothian, with views of the sea, and just visit the city from time to time. 

Hey ho. 

It's fully spring now, and we've had some very pleasant weather. This gorse by the riverside smells wonderfully coconutty. 

And of course we went to the Botanics the other day, which always lifts the spirits. 

Yesterday we visited friends in the west of Scotland. We walked along Loch Winnoch in the sunshine. it was lovely: good company, fresh air, sunshine, swans, delicious food. 

So: nothing's happened. But this is all right. 

I sat down beside another soprano in choir yesterday evening and said, "How are you?" 

"Fine," she said, in an obviously not-fine way. 

"Oh dear," I said, "what's the matter?"

"I've been told I've got dementia," she said. 

It's what everyone our age dreads, isn't it? Hard to think of words of consolation - well, there aren't really any.