That's a Wrap on Easter!

It's been a very strange week. Firstly, the in laws arrived on Monday for the theatre (the Music of Harry Potter) on the Tuesday. They stayed until Thursday which was meant to be my day to reorganise the house for our friends and thier twins to come stay.

Except on Monday we found out one parent had covid, and by Wednesday, so had the other. So our action packed weekend with the neice and nephew was cancelled. I won't lie, I'm absolutely devastated for the kids, they were so excited to come over, but after the in law visit, I was gubbed, so a long weekend to myself to get on with jobs was just what I needed. 

And of course, it wasn't all work and no play - I scheduled in several nice dog walks. Firstly was the House of the Binns. This site has been on our radar for a long time (I mean, bins? So what, is there a wheelie bin collection or something?). But it hasn't been advertised as dog friendly, until now. My friend works on thier social media team, and informed me that dogs were allowed, on lead, and they had to be good with livestock. 

Missy checks those boxes, so I met up with her on her lunch break and she got some nice photos of Missy for use in the future socials. After a short walk, I said cheerio and did the 1.5hour parkland walk. 

Absolutely worth the effort. Stunning views (who doesn't love a folly?), a good solid walk somehow new for Missy, and now I have ideas to pass onto my friend for site improvements. A very good day! 

After our solo adventure, hubby joined me on Saturday to the National Museum of Rural Life. As with Fridays adventure, dogs had to be on a short lead, good with livestock and not permitted within buildings. It finally happened, I started to feel "Eastery" (like Christmassy, but for lambs and bunnies and the start of nice weather).

I had lost my springtime zest with the cancellation of our neice and nephew (like Christmas, children really make the occasion), so was delighted to be cheered in the soul again. This site offered a working farm (yes, I triple checked the number of piglets, Missy was besotted, as always) with a historic farmhouse set up as in the late 1800s which hubby and I took turns to look about. The farm cat kept a close eye on Missy, and we joked about having her show that her pockets we're empty - no piglets or lambs had been smuggled away. 

Then at the other end of the site was a farming museum of the area, which again, we took turns around. My visit was brief in the museum, but there was lots of interesting things to see and read. My favourite was a wall mounted row of horse drawn ploughs, the further away the more modern it was.

I think all my neices and nephews would enjoy this one, so I expect we'll be back again! 

Lastly, today was Traquair House, my brothers suggestion. As above, on lead and not indoors, but with less emphasis on farmlife (although there was a pig, which Maisie did not like and barked at whilst Missy nearly took my shoulder out its socket in her earnest desire to say hello to it). My mum also came along and sat out of some of the dog walking in favour of visiting the house.

My brother was initially disappointed that all of the Easter events were for kids (I agreed, I think a grown-ups race through the maze for eggs would have been hilarious) but at the same time, didn't take it to heart.

We did get in the maze towards the end of the day, and it was definitely a highlight. Probably one of the best hedge mazes in Scotland (which dogs were allowed in, always a bonus! Maisie tried to swim in the river and took umbridge at the Easter Bunny (a very tall man in taller stilts), barking at him once his back was safely turned towards her.

And that's it, that's the week! I did get on top of the house, and the grass has had it's first cut. The greenhouse is packed with tiny pots of mud full of potential, eagerly awaiting the summertime. 

Not a bad rescue of the weekend, it I do say so myself! Although I think I'll take Easter Monday off to recover! 

Until next time! 

The Suggestion of Spring

It's been a busy few weeks. We had the in-laws through again as they house sat (and Missy sat) whilst hubby and I went on a long overdue holiday to Disneyland Paris. I won't go into too much detail except to say that it's exactly what we've needed - a holiday away that felt "normal", a chance to throw the phones in a drawer and forget about them, and, most importantly, time for hubby and I together without work or chores or a million other things getting in the way.

It was cold, but dry which suits us perfectly. We had some lovely meals, met lots of characters and had some wonderful moments with them. My disney bounding was much complimented upon and we had a wonderful time.

Long overdue.

Of course I missed Missy terribly and, whilst I knew she was being well looked after, felt it was time to get home to her after the week. 

Missy was pleased to have us home, and to say farewell to Ruby! They get on great, but Missy has passed all notions of pandering to a young, naughty dog and is far more likely to ignore Ruby's antics than play with her. 

This last week has been getting back into the routine of things, although tomorrow marks the start of hubby's new job, so the routine is set to change again. He's rejoining the dark side and going back to retail. The cut in pay from the change and the reduction in hours is negated by the petrol costs, so we break even financially, and he'll have more time to help about the house.

And that's us. It's a true Scottish spring. The snowdrops are up, the daffodils are peaking thier heads through the soil and we have snow forecast for next week. On top of the torrential rains and winds (thank you Storm Otto, for the bath neither Missy nor I wanted!) 

Plans are afoot for a wee surprise next weekend for Missy, so until then, keep safe!

Spring is in the Air

Its been a strange week for me - I had to use up some annual leave or I'd have lost the days. Ordinarily that would have meant a wee trip up north to see the in-laws, or south to see my sister, or a staycation somewhere random and dog friendly but in these times of covid, that's meant more free time in the same 4 walls of the house.

To add salt to the wound, these two weeks (I also have next week off) were meant to have been reserved for a holiday in Florida. Thank goodness we had the sense to not book anything last year, but regardless, I have found myself a few times lamenting over foreign holidays past and where we may go in the future (I think Japan may be revisited as our next big foreign break, they seem to have everything in order and I only had time to do one of the two Disney parks when we went last time, although we did sit down and have a serious chat and, realistically, I think it will be 2023 before we go abroad again).

So, what have I been doing? Mostly the garden. There is now a new baby hedge in the front garden (hedge I say, its mostly a small wall of sticks) and the planters have been topped up with fresh compost and the seeds planted in the greenhouse. The waiting game has begun. Hubby was laughing when I dug out the spare calendar (they're like buses, some years no one buys you one, and then others you get three of them) and marked on it what seeds were to be planted each month, what would be ready to pick each month and a sketch of the planter rotation, but I think he's secretly impressed at the pedantic organisation.

Theres been lots of local walks, kite flying on the beach and, with the meeting up restrictions moving to 4 people in a group, we've got out to see some friends on dog walks. I managed to catch up with my brother at Almondell Country Park today and Missy and Maisie had a great time together. Missy can often take or leave the company of other dogs (she's clearly the cool aloof loner type), but Maisie is very sociable (I like to think of her as an overexcited cheerleader with an underbite) and this lockdown has been hard on her.

Not that she would pose for me in the daffodils! One day I will get a nice photo of them together.

With the warmer weather, spring has definitely been in the air and its got me out of my crafts rut and I made a new garland for the window - the rabbits I cut from felt myself, but the little flowers are ancient and have been kicking about the bottom of a drawer for ages now. Does it count as spring cleaning when its turned into spring crafts?

Beneath the Bluebells

Like most posts recently, we haven't ventured far. However, spring is well and truly in its stead and our little woods has been transformed. Its always a lovely time year as snow drops give way to carpets of bluebells and daffodils. 

Missy has definitely been enjoying the company, although my suspicions that she was raised by cats have come to light again as she always seems to be in the wrong side of the door - she's in and wants out, or out and wants in! (I feel a need to point out that she's never locked out, the sliding door is left slightly open and she can push her way in easily - but why do that when the humans will do it for you?) 

The garden is going well. I've got carrots, broadbeans and radishes out in planters, and my courgettes, tomatoes, kale, chard and sprouts are growing up nicely in the greenhouse. There's been a shortage of pallets at work, clearly everyone has the same idea of upcycling the wood! 

Missy has been enjoying the good weather too and has spent most of her time sunbathing!

Sewing has been productive if a bit sobering. I've made face coverings for my sisters family and for the hubby and I. After mass producing 30 odd masks, I'll be happy never to see the pattern again!

Next week there will be some more exciting sewing, but I'll wait until then to say any more. 

Getting ready for Spring

Either we are in the eye of the storm, or spring is starting to wake up and ease us into the year ahead. The temperature high this week has crept up from a balmy 7C to an almost tropical 10C!

Nicer weather, and the ground beginning to dry, means nice woodland walks! Missy is pleased to with the improvement too, bunnies and squirrels are peeking out thier winter hidey holes and she has enthusiastically greeted them.

Whilst she has been chasing small furry things, I've enjoyed all the late winter flowers as carpets of snowdrops have been popping up. I've also started to get the calendar filled up with dates for interesting events and our explorer to do list is getting pretty long.

Its still chilly in the evenings, so I've managed to get a good dent in my project to do list. I've got mother's day sorted for the MIL and I'm pretty certain she'll love it:

There are some bigger projects on the machine, which hopefully I'll share soon! Until then, we shall be enjoying the respite from winter. 

Revisiting Summerhall

Well, it's been a changeable weekend - Saturday was almost warm when out of the Arctic wind and today has been sleet and snow. Oorlich is a definite way to describe today's weather, and is a terribly fun word to say.

Saturday I took my mum out to the Summerhall Gallery. I had originally scoped out a new country park in the area but, being or the very fair weather walking type, my mother wasn't keen so we went for an indoors idea instead.

I've previously mentioned the Summerhall gallery, it's an interesting wee place and we caught it between main exhibitions, so just looked around at the smaller ones that were available. Some of it was pretty pretentious and high brow, but some evoked interesting conversation. My mother is not in any way an arts type, so it was interesting how the subject of grieving a memory you realise you have now forgotten impacted her and kept a steady conversation going between us. Even if it was merely trying to figure out how the topic was being expressed in a piece.

We did a short walk through the meadows both going in and out of the gallery and I had spotted all the daffodils in bloom, so Missy humoured me with some photos and spring truly felt like if had arrived, at least, when out the wind!

So imagine my surprise at snow this morning. Missy went out for a 5km run with the hubby and came back soaked through and shivering. She was quickly swaddled up with a hot water bottle - she is casting out her winter coat and probably found her sleeker summer one not up to the challenge of the sleet.

Difference a day makes!

The hubby and I had planned on going into Edinburgh and doing a non doggy day (a rarity, and organised well in advance with the dog walker coming in at lunchtime). There was two exhibitions at the National Museum of Scotland - one on robots (very much my mechanical engineer husbands kind if thing) and one on Scottish Samplers from the 1700s and 1800s (very much my kind of thing). We did the samplers first and, once the hubby realised exactly what we were looking at (he had expected tapestries, not the small practice pieces of sewing we were admiring), we both thoroughly enjoyed admiring the tiny stitches and the lost art of hand sewing. Looking at the mix of French knots, embroidery, cross stitch, eyelet and button holes, and black work we were both very impressed with the exhibition. It saddened me a bit that such fine art is really lost now (some of the cross stitch work was millimetres across) but it won't make give up the sewing machine. No matter how beautiful, I will not sew button holes by hand!

The robot exhibition was equally as good, if a bit of a gear change from the library like environment of the first exhibition. We were met with the creepiest life like baby doll robot I have ever seen and then swiftly moved into automaton and then the actual robots. I have a soft spot for automaton - gears and clockwork and wind up pieces fascinate me and I was very charmed with a rabbit in a cabbage that would sit up, bite a piece and then sink back down again into his cabbage bed. There were model solar systems and celestial clocks and a whole wonder of oddities. And then we were at the robots. Clearly the clever rabbit and planets could not hold the attention of the kids for here they all were - getting pictures with the robots and running about touching every button visible.

Well, we would go on a Sunday in the pouring sleet, so I can't complain that it was busy, only that I had been caught out by how quiet the first section had been! The robots first focused on the original classic robot/human design that we now think of and the different senses that they were trying to recreate from movement,  sight and touch to emotion and empathy. Some of it was horrifically uncanny valley, but some, like the robot with the bob haircut, were really cute. Lastly they focused on where the technology is going and to be fair, we live in an interesting age, so I look forward to seeing where it does go!

I've been lost in spring again with my sewing, and I'm super pleased with this completely self drafted pattern for a drawstring teapot cosy. I saw a similar design in Copenhagen and was charmed with the idea of a cosy I wouldn't need to remove from a teapot that was still relatively one size fits all (I've tested it on a few of my teapots and it certainly lives up to that expectation!)

That's all for now - once we reach April and we're officially 'on season' I should hopefully get some new adventures in, I've given up on the notion of an early spring to plan anything too outrageous before then!