Wednesday 31 December 2008

Bye, bye 2008

Another year comes to an end, so let us raise a glass to wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year.

Best wishes for 2009 from Gwen, James and Esmé

Sunset on the Year
























Sunset on the last day of the year over Glen Prosen. A soft winter light and gentle haze has characterised a day with no wind and temperatures that have clung firmly around freezing.

Esmé had soft winter sunshine to hone her photography skills. As well as amazing us by walking all the way up a hill, then insisting on going further, and further along the track. We had to stop her or we would have been trying to get back to the car in the dark. From Esmé's camera here is a picture of the Airlie Monument or 'Giant's Castle' whichever you prefer.



Light at the end of the year

A year that ends with days of perfect light can't be too bad. Just a day to go before the trials and tribulations of this year can be metaphorically buried, while the memories of the year captured as photographs become idealised moments. Taking the picture is a self differentiating act, the camera only tends to come out when the smiles are full, the sun shining and the occasion suitable. A slice in time is removed, taken out of context and every contact thereafter imbues it with new meaning, usually a subtle adition, but always widening the distance between the image and the event. Pictures on mountains especially and most immediately fall short of the original experience. While mountains are out of bounds for now, my legs can just about cope with the beach and the light on the 29th was incredible. This lends the picture all the more power, making it the more capable of cutting me off from the actual event. Although the light was magical and the sea was playing its part admirably neither of these were the most important part of the half hour. It was the company of Gwen and Esmé, all three of us collecting shells and driftwood relaxed, at peace. With just a day in between, this kernel is already slipping, so what hope of remembering the truly important parts of the year?

Friday 26 December 2008

Happy Gwen Day!

The momentous day has arrived and eventually Gwen has like a modern day Methuselah reached the grand 'old' age of 30.  Stop where you are! No donations are required as yet for the care home, she still seems capable of going to the toilet unaided, at least when sober. So, in this most festive of seasons an extra day of merry making has been squeezed in. This bonus satiation has caused an equally pressing, if somewhat less pleasant reaction between our collective waistlines and our collective waistbands, but before we all turn to search for the corrective equation to this wayward chemical reaction (no doubt fresh green salad features in there somewhere) raise a glass to Gwen and remind her that women truly blossom at 30.  Here's to Gwen!

Tuesday 16 December 2008

Another Birthday!

It's Emily's birthday today...Happy Birthday!
You know what that means though..don't you?
Yes, 10 days til my Birthday, wayhey!!!

Monday 8 December 2008

Going for Green!!!!

The school Esmé's Nursery is attached to, is going for their Green Eco-Schools award. The staff and kids seem to be backing it enthuastically and on Saturday James and I were getting stuck in too!
Some of the older pupils have drawn up plans for the area we cleared. They are planing to plant a Sunflower field, Wheat or Barley fields(?, not sure which) and have a Bee and Butterfly Garden.










While we were busy outside, it was all go at the Christmas Craft Fair. Marta launched her 'Marta's Eco-crafts' business, making and selling funky handcrafted items, made from recycled materials. Cool isn't it, well done Marta!
Marta's boys and Esmé were giving her lots of support and help!!!!

Many thanks to David for the photos!




Saturday 6 December 2008

Sledging Fun

Esmé had great fun in the snow and ice in Glen Lethnot today. Unfortunately on her last run the sledge tipped and she scraped her face and split her  lip :(  She was very brave though and is now covered in arnika cream. 

Esmé comic genius!


Just to prove how easy comic life is to use Esmé made this. She selected all of the components and did the dragging and dropping. The only part I did was the typing and saving.

James.


Thursday 4 December 2008

So what happened?


No snow fell here last night, I had grand plans for snowy fun on my day off, but no, it didn't happen :(

I had even imagined all the Dundee schools being off and James being able to enjoy the snow too. However, the schools were open and the rain seems to be bringing the winter wonderland to an end for the moment, even the carpark at James' work is turning to slush.
 
There is one thing for certain, there must have been thousands of disappointed faces looking across the classrooms today, from both sides of the teachers desk!!!

(Last Sunday was cold and very crisp. Barry mill was still thick with frost after midday)

Saturday 22 November 2008

It's snowing.....

Wow, I know it was forecast for wintry showers, but I really didn't expect to waken up to a blanket of snow covering the garden! Esmé was utterly delighted, til the temper tantrum anyway. Ahhh to be 4 years old....

It was oh so cold, bbbrrr. Beautiful though...













We had a glorious walk last weekend in the last autumn sun, through Craigmill Den and back along the beach. It was sunny with a chill to the air, but definitely still warm enough to linger and beach comb!














In contrast, today definitely heralded arrival of winter! It was freezing, literally, we didn't even make it down to the beach!

Could we be in for a white Christmas? Who is to say, but it is guaranteed to be the number question from my pupils on Monday.
Note to self...keep an eye on those synoptic charts....

Monday 10 November 2008

Fabulous, fizzing fireworks.

Surely everyone loves fireworks? We do, James, Esmé and I are all big fireworks fans. Without a doubt the best fireworks which James and I have been to are the Edinburgh Festival Fireworks ~ totally amazing, if you ever get the chance, go!















Back to this year, we were spoilt, we went to the Coastguard fireworks and then on Guy Fawkes Night we went up to Next Generation and met up with Simon and Eleanor, and Su, Mark and Benjamin. After soup and stovies the fun began.

















The only bad thing about the fireworks was that Margaret was poorly and unable to come along. It really was a shame, especially since she organised our fireworks evening!

I am however please to report that she is on the mend ~ get well soon Margaret xx

Monday 3 November 2008

Busy weekend for birthday girl!!!!

Esmé turned 4 on Thursday and we seem to have been celebrating ever since!

Esmé was delighted to have Alex round to show her new big girl Lego off to and everyone at nursery sang Happy Birthday to her.

Aunts, Uncles, Grannies and Granda popped in to help Esmé blow out her candles on birthday cake number 1.

To be honest it really doesn't feel like 4 years since we were bathing her in a basin on the same table featured in the picture!








Friday was Halloween, I really did want Esmé to be born on Halloween, but when it came to it, that was never going to happen.....
Esmé had her nursery Halloween party and dressed up in her pumpkin dress and got plenty of party game practise for Sunday.
I did dress up as a witch for work, but was gutted that I forgot my broom stick...
I still managed to forget it when we popped into the Abourkir's kids party in the evening :(

We had our annual family outing to the Carnoustie fireworks on Saturday, this year followed by soup at OC's.

Hopefully there will still be fireworks and a torchlit procession to go to next year, but lack of donations last year had put this years fireworks in jeopardy. There have been a alot of people trying to raise money to support the fireworks and hopefully more people made contributions this year.

It really would be a sad day if this tradition came to an end.







Sunday was party time. Friends and family were invited to Esmé's fancy dress Halloween birthday party. There was a fabulous fancy dress turn out amongst the children and the 'big kids' effort was pretty good too! A big well done to the all the winners, but especially to the Ghostbusters in the adult/big kid category!!! (May I add that Indian Jones was one of our favourites.) Once more we had fantastic selection of carved pumpkins for the pumpkin competition - well done everyone. So much easier than the dreaded turnip scooping our childhood...
The party was huge, busy, noisy and a bit mad. I think everybody enjoyed themselves, Esmé certainly did. There is no way we could have pulled it off had it not have been for the help and support we received. Like the Oscars there are too many people to thank everyone by name, but must say a special thank you to Granny Sheona and Granny Phyllis, Auntie Dawn and Marta.

Esmé has received so many lovely presents she has truly been spoilt, Esmé sends a big thank you.

So we are almost back to normality, whatever that is in our house, but we still have the fireworks on November 5th to look forward too!!!!

Sunday 19 October 2008

Happy Birthday Cameron!!!!




Happy Birthday Cameron!!!

Lots of Love from

Auntie Gwen, Uncle James
and Esmé
x x x








Esmé's birthday card for Cameron

Wednesday 15 October 2008

Labour of Love...

From when I first fell pregnant with Esmé, I have wanted to make something for her to keep. I couldn't knit, I have no obvious and useful skills, what could I make? I really couldn't think of anything, but it still bugged me I wanted to make her something. Over 6 months ago I started on her blanket...


...and I crocheted it!!! This time last year I could not crochet, I wouldn't even have known which end of a crochet hook was which! Around Christmas time last year, I saw lovely crocheted flower pins, for bags and jackets in DCA. They cost a small fortune and I was sure I could have a stab at making something similar. After all, the other women in the family seem to be able to use metal sticks to produce something wonderful out of yarn. And this was when I enlisted the Phyllis to help me.

Before Esmé was even born, Phyllis had made her a beautiful crocheted shawl, and we used it all the time. I loved it and marvelled at someone being able to produce something so lovely. It never crossed my mind that I could learn to crochet. However, after seeing the flowers I decided to ask Phyllis to help me and early this year, maybe 8 months ago, she started to teach me to crochet, may I add here that she is a wonderful tutor!

I diligently practised my squares and circles and at some point along the way, I decided that it would be a great idea to crochet Esmé a blanket. I eventually found the perfect wool, courtesy of Angels and Elephants, who have an Ebay online store. They buy in Shetland wool and dye it themselves. In fact they ended up dying a few batches especially for me, due to my complete inability to judge how much wool I would need! Thank you Kellie x

Of course, me being me, I couldn't find a pattern that was exactly what I wanted. In my wisdom I decided that, as a newbie hooker, the best thing to do would be to improvise on a pattern in one of Nicky's crocheting books and then make the rest up as I went along! As a result the blanket is the combination of five different patterns, with a little bit of Gwen for good measure!!!

Six months down the line and the blanket is finally finished. I am truly proud of my efforts and very grateful to James for his patience and support, to Kellie for keeping on dying more wool for me, to Phyllis for teaching me how to hook and for keeping me right, to those of you who have endured the blanket traumas and of course to Esmé for being so patient!



...I truly am a happy hooker!

Saturday 4 October 2008

Jambo Lizzy and Ruth

The holidays are here, the term has flown by. James is still in shock to find himself at the end of his first term at school. I don't think that James or I can quite believe that Esmé has completed her first term at school nursery. The fact that she will be going to school next summer really seems to becoming a reality! She has had a ball, Esmé's favourite things at nursery are gym and show and tell. She actually asked me this morning how many sleeps it was till nursery starts again!!!!

I do enjoy my job, but I have to say that the last weeks of a school term always seem a little stressful, as the kids start to get impatient for the end of term. This term has been entirely different. As most of you are aware Websters is linked with Litein High School, in the Rift Valley Province
of Kenya. Earlier in the year one of the geographers, Richard came for a visit as part of the Global Reciprocal Visit Scheme. For the past 2 weeks we have had Lizzy, an English teacher and Ruth, a History and RME teacher visiting.

They are both fantastic ladies and it has been a wonderful experience having them in school. They
have been rushed off their feet visiting classes and groups both within the school and local community. The Home Economics dept. hosted a coffee morning in aid of the link. Which was very successful. Esmé was very excited about going and getting to meet Lizzy and Ruth. The three of them really seemed to hit it off!

I have bee
n involved with the Kenyan link since the start, although mostly as an interested onloooker, Mike has been the driving force within the school. I always believed in the link and felt it would be an enriching experience. We have begun to amend our syllabus to include a study of Kenya, this is part of an enriched task and runs as part of a faculty wide project, working alongside History and RME. I know that Lizzy and Ruth have been working on curriculum development too. We also have a number of pupils who now have Kenyan penpals.

The link has however, bought so much with it, other than curriculum development and greater awareness and knowledge of another country. It is difficult to describe, but suddenly Kenya doesn't seem like a distant land. And I count myself lucky to have had the opportunity to meet some truly wonderful people and dedicated teachers to boot!

I hope that Lizzy and Ruth have lovely last few days in Scotland and have a little time to chill out before returning home.

Happy tattie holidays!

Monday 29 September 2008

Perthshire Open Studios

Our friend Mhairi makes lovely jewellery. Everything she makes is beautifully hand crafted.

This week she is been involved in the Perthshire Open Studios week and is been exhibiting with Gerry and Alison in their studio. It is a unique oppertunity to meet local artists and makers in their studio's, watch them work and even have a chance to buy something really lovely...Christmas is only 3 months away......

Visit http://www.perthshireopenstudios.com/ for more info and if you are free this week, why not go along!

Wednesday 10 September 2008

So the world didn't end today....

Work today has consisted of much speculation about whether we would indeed be swallowed up into a great big black hole or not. There were a few interesting theories flying around my classes...

Firstly, the Large Hadron Collider(LHC) would create are enormous black hole and by 09.15 would would all have disappeared into it. Life as we know it would be at an end. As the day went on new deadlines for the black hole swallowing us up were created, to allow for the fact that we were still here.

The second theory argued was that the world was not going to end today. A black hole would be created, however it was apparently going to be so small the only small things would get sucked into it and we were too big. I can see this becoming an excuse for the mysterious ongoing disappearance of pencils, rulers, jotters and anything required in class! :p

A group of pupils informed me that since the world was going to end today, there would have be no point in wasting their last night on Earth doing their homework!!!!! I am glad to add that the homework in question was not for me!

After much speculation about 'Big Bang Day', it is good to see that the £5billion the French and Swiss spent creating it was well spent and that we were all still here to see the the two little lights on the screen. I was informed by a pupil at the end of the day that I was wrong, we had not yet survived 'Big Bang Day', because, wait for it, we are not going to get swallowed into said enormous black hole until tomorrow morning!Although who is to say? After all no-one seems to know exactly when they plan to run the first actual collision!!!

Gwen

Monday 18 August 2008

Back to school...

....what already???? You must be joking....

Ahh yes the echos of pupils and teachers alike, sounding all round Scotland.

It is true, as it always is, that the summer holidays have flown by. It is hard to believe that we have had 7 weeks off this year.

I have mixed feeling about going back as you might expect, but it will be nice to get back in there, I do enjoy my job, well, most of the time anyway!!!

For me it is just 'going back', for James and Esmé this week marks excting new times. Esmé starts at the school nursery and she is very excited about this. Apparently, big girls(and boys, no doubt) go to the school nursery! James, of course starts, in his first teaching job, so tomorrow is a very big day for him. Luckily he is feeling alot better.

I would like to say a big thank you to James and Esmé for a lovely holiday. After a hard year it has been great to spend time together.

So, good luck for your first day at school James!!! Don't wind the older ones up, they'll flush your head down the toilet........or is that just at secondary?

Gwen x

Monday 4 August 2008

...and he's home!!! Hooray!!!

Just to let you know that James is now home, having had his mri this morning. He is feeling much better and is very glad to be properly reunited with his laptop, without the fear of having to leave it at 8.30pm! Glad to have you home Honey xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I would to say a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has helped us out, while James has been in hospital. I have no idea how we would have managed without you all.


Saturday 2 August 2008

Day Release

James here on day release from hospital. The NHS at 60 is in fine shape and I have a room of my own, en suit, with a TV. It doesn't have internet access though. I now realise just how much I use it now for everything.

Hopefully I will get my MRI scan early on in the week and with any luck it will indicate what is wrong. So far I have avoided the threatened lumber puncture. The CT scan was interesting, something akin to sticking your head into the whirling drum of a washing machine.

Gwen has been great and made sure I am getting plenty of food and reading material to stop me going mad. I really miss being at home though, this really isn't how I planned to end my summer holidays.

Thursday 31 July 2008

Inverness

Last week we were up in Inverness on holiday, having a lovely time. We had intended to get a holiday post on here sooner, however, James started feeling unwell and after a trip to the doctor on Tuesday, ended up enjoying the hospitality of Ninewells. He is feeling much better thankfully, but is still in so the docs can keep an eye on him. Esmé and I are missing him loads and hoping that he will be better and back home very soon. I have cobbled together a post, we had such a good time and did so much, I am not about to try and get it all down, just some of the highlights. It will be be wholly inadequate without James' input though, I fear.

We hadn't planned on going away on holiday, but it didn't take much to change our minds!!!
So, we headed up to the lovely Iris' B&B(please get in touch for contact details). As we left Carnoustie the sun was shining on us and it remained so for the whole of our holiday. To be honest as we sat out every night in shorts and t-shirts til 11pm, it was hard to believe that we were holidaying in the north of Scotland! We slapped on the factor 50 daily and topped it up and we all have managed to still get a tan.
We managed to squeeze so much into our 5 days away.

We went along the coast abit to Burghead to visit the old fort and well. We never got into the well, the key holder wasn't available :-(

The rock pools at Burghead are fantastic, they were all crawling with crabs, hermit crabs, anemones and sea hares(as seen in the picture).
The stone was a lovely golden colour and the water in pools was so clear...they really were the perfect rock pools!!!



We decided to have lunch on the beach at Burghead and discovered that it wasn't just the rock pools that were amazing. Burghead also sports perfect sand castle building sand.

You can imagine the seen Mum and Dad getting stuck into building a huge sand castle, small child disowning parents.
Esmé was trying to pull down the castle, she took great delight when she, along with the various friends she had made in the beach, was allowed to knock down the castle!

May we add it was the biggest and best castle on the beach and there were lots of people at the beach!!!




If you are in Inverness you really do have to visit the Black Isle, it really does have some beautiful spots and interesting places to visit. We didn't make it up last time, so we thought we better had this time.

We found a museum in Rosemarkie that houses the local history information and artifacts, including locally found carved stones. It is great to see stones in the area they belong to... The museum also had a good range of things for kids to do, including this harp, which children are encouraged to play!

We saw alot of different birds and animals while we were away. We watched a red squirrel run up a tree, saw a deer, Esmé spotted many a bunny and there were jellyfish galore.

However, while up in Cromarty stood caught sight of a little lost mole looking for his mole hole. For all of us it was our first ever mole sighting!!







I fondly remember as a small child, probably about the same age as Esme is now, going on a barge on a canal. I don't think that I had ever been back to visit a canal since, until last Thursday!















Now Esmé would have loved to go on one of the boats in the canal, we didn't manage that, but we were lucky enough to see 2 boats go down through the locks on the canal. Esmé was fascinated watching the water level out between locks. She was a little disappointed that they wouldn't let her on them though!!!







We walked right along the tow path between the two road swing bridges. On our way along we found the first of the years raspberries. James bravely clambered in to get them and oh they may have been small, but they were nice and juicy!









On our visit to the Black Isle earlier in the week we had run out of time and had to forget visiting the Black Isle Brewery.
We decided that before went headed for the lowlands on our way home, we would pop in. It is a small scale micro brewery and it was interesting to see where the beer comes from.

All real ale lovers should try the Black Isle Brewery beers and if up that way, it is worth a quick visit, even if it is just to stock up...






Happy holidays!!!

Sunday 20 July 2008

We have been meaning to put this on since we came back but here is a video of the lovely summer weather at the summit of Stuc a Chroin back on the 5th of the month. Wintery conditions forecast for high tops this week temperatures close to zero brrrrrrrrr.

Thursday 17 July 2008

Esmé's first camping trip

We have been thinking about taking Esmé camping for a while now and since Kev gave Esmé a wee persons sleeping bag, we thought we had better get on with it.



So we packed up the car, with everything apart from the kitchen sink and the laptops. Then we made for the coast via the chippy. Having found the 'good chippy' in Montrose to be shut, we continued up to Inverbervie.

We had a yummy, truly Scottish tea and then had a walk along the beach. Having spotted a perfect site, a good bit away and across the river from the camp and caravan site. We got our kit and set about making camp.

There was plenty of evidence of previous campers, but we gathered most of that up and burnt it on our camp fire.







It kept us warm well into the night, as we watched the sun go down, lighting up the clouds beautifully and later as we counted the stars as they came out for the night.

We awoke on Tuesday morning to sun and the sound of many a sheep bleating around the tent. They did keep a respectful distance as we had our breakfast!

Esmé thoroughly enjoyed the experience and is keen to go again, although she was a little upset, complaining 'Daddy rolled on me and squished me'!!!! Never mind, these things happen!!!!!!!

Wednesday 16 July 2008

Oh my word, that is so sweet!


As you all know James has just finished his PGDE(Primary). It was a hard year of much laughter and tears. For some on the course however, they found a little more than they expected. Paul and Elaine meet on the course, fell in love and got married on Saturday! See, we told you it was sweet!!!!

The whole wedding was lovely, very romantic, the food was great and the ceilidh was grand and everyone had a ball, especially the kids.

So, congratulations to the happy couple and of a big thank you for a lovely day, from all of us.

With a little help from our friends


We love the beach and spend alot of our time down there. Since the start of the holidays, we have set about experimenting with sandcastle building.

Rarely has this been a purely aesthetical venture. We have been going for good defence and scale. We had to purchase two extra big spades, so we had one each and have taken to lugging the tub~trug along too, to facilitate greater quantity sand moving! Oh yes, we are taking this very seriously!

However, how do you go about building a huge multi#sandcastle empire before tea time???

The simply answer is have a fun afternoon with your friends! Marta, Jamie and Alex joined us and together we made this monument to sandcastle building. Thanks guys xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Two at a time baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We made our third attempt, this year, to get to the summit of Ben Vorlich. On both of our past attempts, the weather beat us back.

On the the 5th July, the forecast was for sun with shower, with some wind rising gusts of 40mph max. So, in good faith we set off, thinking it would probably be a pleasant summer days walking.

As Ben Vorlich came into view it became apparent that the weather was somewhat at odds with the forecast. The summit was shrouded in cloud and as we climbed higher it was clear that it was going to be another very windy day.

We were frozen, but trumphant as we reached the summit and our glee lead us to successfully make it up to Stuc a Chroin!

Rather wind blown, we returned to the car, glorious in the knowledge that we had done both the Munros in the area and that we would not have to return again, well not this year anyway!!!

Tuesday 1 July 2008

Slugs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails...



... well slugs, snails(still), worms and slaters anyway!

Esmé's interest in all things 'creepy crawly' simply grows and grows. Not content with just two racing snails ~ normally named George and Molly, Esmé has decided that a careful study of the creatures in the garden should take place at every possible opportunity.

Her sand bucket doubles as a collecting pot, for the beasties she finds under her rocks and stones in the garden. She takes great delight in finding the largest slugs and biggest families of slaters.

To aid her in her investigations we bought her a 'Bugscope'. She is now able to examine her captive creatures until her heart's content! And of course it is a very valuable learning experience ;-)



Oscar was a little put out that both Ivory and Cola had made their débuts on the blog, but that he was yet to be seen. He made sure he was in the picture this time!!!!!

News Flash


Despite heroic efforts, the latest additions to Carnoustie's sea defences fail!

It has to be said that we all put in an hours hard graft, before the natural forces of the sea breached our sea wall!!!

Sunday 29 June 2008

Scrubber!

James has definitely found his true vocation. Forget education, he is going to open his own laundry service featuring his patented (pending) washing system. Also know as the bucket!

He did a great job, the jackets were most certainly beading, as were his hands!!!!

It says you can wash Paramo in the washing machine, but we think there is still too much detergent build up. So a bucket and hot water is all that's needed to avoid the problem. Lets see if it works in the rain. We both have memories of being frozen in January in first rain then snow and sub zero conditions. Not nice!

Life's a beach

In between rain clouds we have managed to investigate life in the rock pools, crabs, fish, anemones, hermit crabs and more. Esmé is enthralled, although the crab in the picture gave her a fright!



















In contrast to the leaden skies of last week this morning was bright from first thing. Just as well since Gwen had offered to walk Cola. Plenty of Jelly fish on the beach and Cola had a good time although he must have wondered why it took 3 hours. But Esmé managed along the beach up Craigmill Den and back through Panbride all without help. But she definately doesn't want a dog now that she knows you have to do that twice a day.