A New Christmas Jumper

This weekend has been a long overdue quiet one. We got the house tidied and all the odd jobs out the way. It's a low key set up this Christmas - we're planning on using the time between Christmas and New year to get some long overdue DIY done, so it's jusg the window and a few festive ornaments. 

Which, really, is how Missy prefers it - our little Scrooge is quite happy to let the nonsense pass us all by. 

It wasn't all work and no play though - I got us all matching jumpers and, with a bit of upcycling wizardry, had a kids one adjusted for Missy. 

Next years Christmas card is going to be epic. 

Missy got to debut her new glad rags on our second shot at a Lead the Way walk, this time a Christmas themed one around Arthur's Seat. 

Despite very good ticket sales, it wasn't a very big turnout. I suspect anxiety on the new Covid strain is to blame, but nonetheless, we still had a good time with those who did come along. Missy made some new friends and we had an all girl pack hanging out together. 

Our hour walk turned into an hour and a half and Missy is worn out from all the attention. Not a bad way to finish a quiet weekend. 

Until next time! 

Bird Watching at Holyrood

This was to be a quiet weekend with the hubby working both days, but the thought of two days with no solid plan was too against my nature. Fortunately, a good friend of mine came to the rescue and a girls day was organised (Missy most definitely being one of the girls!).

The weather was originally meant to be pretty bleak Saturday, so we decided on a trip to town to do Holyrood and Arthur's Seat with the intention of finding a nice cosy pub once we were too wet and cold. It came as a bit of a surprise as the overcast clouds broke as we met up and the sun came out for us. Our walk turned into a meander before we simply gave up by the loch and decided to share some  chocolate mini eggs and watch the birds as Missy sunbathed.

A pheasant was strutting about taking no notice of the many dogs off lead. Missy gave up her sunbathing to stand and watch the silly thing as it confidently strode towards us. I'm not terribly sure what it expected, but eventually Missy gave a lighthearted run at it and stopped a good ten feet from it as it flew (she enjoys flushing pheasants, especially when you least expect to have a shrieking ball of feathers flap noisily past your head, but has never had an inclination to catch one) and it grudgingly stared at us from the other side of the lake.

Missy trying this bird watching malarkey

My friend will insist she isn't a bird watcher. She will compel you to believe that she doesn't take any interest at all in the sport and that she only knows her different ducks due to her father being a keen bird watcher. Well, as we playfully argued over the semantics of using the word "sea" to describe gulls, she pointed out pheasants, different ducks and then spotted the heron.

It was small by heron standards, perhaps a hatch-ling from last year, and it was creeping about in the reeds and doing a very good job of not being noticed. We both grabbed our cameras and waited for the moment it would become visible from the reed. Except it didn't move from them. It kept creeping round, one long leg moving after another long careful step. Missy had figured out we were looking at something and, sniffing, she stood up for a better look.

The heron opened its wings and glided away from us to the other side of the lake. Unimpressed, Missy returned to sunbathing as my friend and I compared photos. She had brought her telescopic lens so had managed some good close ups whilst I only had my basic lens and had caught the scene as a whole.

Deciding that that was certainly enough excitement for the day, we headed to the Auld Hoose and had the biggest plate of nachos you have ever seen. We couldn't finish it and Missy was allowed a few plain nachos. We said farewells, stopped midway home to walk at Almond Valley and then arrived home at four.

As the heavens opened.

I had a brief panic about my courgettes which I had planted out that morning, but decided there was nothing to really be done and chilled out with some tea and a good book.

Today was a quiet day. The sun was shining as promised and I did some more gardening (moving my established strawberries into a bigger pot and getting my Chinese Cabbage out of the seedling trays and into something a bit more suitable). For the most part I was rolling about in the grass playing with my macro lens. It was a Christmas gift and I've only just had a chance to play with it now. 

There was some baking too and then some sewing. I've just finished a new project, but want to do some matching pieces to go with it before I show it off, so I'll share a project from earlier in the week:

These were meant to be a surprise present for my nephew, but after receiving a picture of him grinning away in a set I had made his sister some years ago, I panicked about the fit. Turns out my nephew is growing much faster than my niece did! After a quick discussion, I've added some little extensions to the shoulder straps and my sister is confident that he should be able to wear them for a wee bit.

I'm going to skip age 2 and move right onto age 3!

Next weekend promises some exciting adventures, so I'll see you all then!

Arthurs Ambles

A lot to talk about this weekend! Firstly, with storm Hector in full swing on Saturday, Missy and I spent a ridiculous amount if the day drying off in our dressing gowns. We managed to avoid the worst of the rain, but still managed to get soaked through twice. With the weather insisting we have a chilled out day together, I decided to get the sewing machine out (see bottom of post).

Sunday I'd organised with a friend to do the Arthur's Amble - Historic Scotland do free walks about Arthur's Seat and occasionally do one that is specifically for dogs too. So we turned up and were surprised to discover that everyone else booked on the tour had cancelled that morning owing to the poor weather the day before. But it was OK, we were quickly informed, there was the longer walk - Arthur's Adventure, and they would just check if everyone on it was happy to have a dog join. Lo and behold, three other dogs were already on the walk, the owners had booked not realising that it wasn't meant to be dog friendly, so we were more than welcome to join in.

It was a good group, everyone was really chatty and the dogs were soon off the lead to get to run and play, clearly ignoring their history lessons! The walk covered the geographical history of Arthurs Seat, as well as the human history from what we know of the early settlers 3000 years ago to the Kings and Queens of the 1800s. And of course everyone's favourite unsolved mystery of the landmark, the tiny coffins.

Getting home, I had a surprise. The caterpillar we adopted back in August (and I have just realised now I never wrote about) and had overwintered as a pupae, finally hatched! Quick back track, my youngest niece was keeping a caterpillar and my oldest niece decided to join in and, after finding this chap, I had too join in as well. The youngest niece ended up putting hers outside as the cats wouldn't leave it be, and I don't know whats happened to the other one...

So, firstly, Absolem as a caterpillar:

We knew Absolem was an elephant hawk moth when he was a caterpillar owing to those magnificent 'eyes' he had, but even so, the hubby and I were stunned at the colours of the pretty little moth. I immediately took him outside for a little photo-shoot and then left him be, he is after-all a wild moth, and I would love to have more in my garden. Although I won't be keeping them in the house again, he ate a phenomenal amount as a caterpillar!

Lastly, I finished my sewing project and I am a terrible person.

A truly terrible person.

Meet my tricera-dog!

I'd make it slightly differently next time, the hood is designed for a toy dog so is a bit too upright for her, so next time I'd change it to the more hound shaped hood I used for her bathrobe. However, I like the fit on the body, so will merge the two patterns. It will certainly make her next Halloween costume easier to make!

And of course I need to stress that she had tons of treats for sitting nicely in the costume, and had it on for about five minutes. Quick and easy, fun and stress free, the most important elements of a photo shoot!

Revisiting Castles

We've previously done Tantallon and Dirleton Castle before, and revisited them this weekend as part of my brothers birthday celebration. He purchased a Historic Scotland pass last year and is now working on getting all the castles in the central belt ticked off the list, so doing these two together seemed like a great idea.

The har almost hid Bass Rock from us

We had a panic about the weather as there had been lightning storms forecast for the weekend and then heavy rain was predicted for the day, so had made a back up option for the Seabird Centre (which I have only discovered now is dog friendly, so expect to see that in the future!) but thankfully the weather pulled through for us. We had some stunning har when we first arrived but it blew over in about 20 minutes to reveal a beautiful day.

Lunch was called for whilst in Tantallon, which was the first castle we did, and we enjoyed a picnic in a lovely sunny spot in the courtyard before moving onto Dirleton where we managed to catch the bulk of a 'Men at Arms' talk about medieval weaponry and life which was incredibly interesting (even though the thought of hurling burning piglet carcasses at the enemy was a bit revolting!). The chap running the show was great and did photos afterwards, my mum wanted a shot with him and, upon my request to pretend he was stabbing her, we got a terrific photo. Good times!

And then back to my mums for cake and take away - a very good ending for the day!

The weekend was finished with visiting friends in town. I had a moment of panic about whether Missy would be allowed on the replacement bus, but there was no problem at all. I popped over to the Meadows Festival as I had time to kill and we saw popped over to the Edinburgh Dog and Cat home stall and chatted away to the staff. Missy also found the fire brigade stand and decided that she was going to go and have cuddles there, so I had to make small talk in order to keep the dog happy!

I met up with my friends at the Holyrood 9a and their twins, now 4, are at that fantastic age where they can actually talk, and it's all sweet ramblings. Both are enamoured with Missy who, as I've said before, is very good with small kids. We then managed a walk around the 'mountain' (Arthurs Seat) and went looking for trolls in the hedges. After that we went back to theirs and the hubby joined us for dinner after work and we all stayed up far too late.

Tired today, but absolutely worth it!