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

...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.

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.

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!!!

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.

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!!!!!!!

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.