Football and Pickleball

Sunday was an absolutely beautiful September day. I had brunch with my lovely god-daughter Jennifer at Homegrown Garden Centre. It was really nice to have a proper catch up. I arrived home at about 2 p.m. and asked James what the final score was for the Old Firm game; it had started at 12 and I got caught up in some of the football traffic before I got on to the motorway. Just at that moment the strains of “Penny Arcade” came floating through the French windows from next door and we could hear Brian singing along and shouting “Here We Go!” No need to confirm a Rangers victory when Brian is our next door neighbour and sure enough Rangers had won 1-0! 
Today I had a pickleball coaching session at The Court in Croftfoot and it was really good; I felt like I learned so much. The hour flew past and I was really impressed with the smart air-conditioned premises. Ally and Cat have just spent a week in the cottage in Ullapool; this evening Cat travelled from Inverness to London by plane and Ally drove to Glasgow after dropping her at the airport. He arrived in time for a late supper and we all chatted about his upcoming travels.

De Gaulle

Ewan recently mentioned a new French film about De Gaulle that has been released in the UK recently; in fact it’s two films, one called De Gaulle: L’Age de Fer (also called Résistance) and the other one called De Gaulle: J'écris ton nom (also called Liberté) we intended to go to see it last week, but with all the excitement about baby Jessica’s birth it went out of my mind. However James reminded me about it yesterday so we looked up where the first film was showing, only to find that we had just about missed it; the only place that we could find that it was showing today (within travelling distance) was the Vue Cinema in Edinburgh near the Playhouse. Nothing daunted, we booked the 9.40 a.m. showing and set off to Edinburgh in good time this morning by train. What an excellent film. The actor who plays De Gaulle, Simon Abkarian, was fantastic. What a character De Gaulle was, he can’t have been an easy person to be around! He and Churchill (played by Simon Russell Beale) had such great chemistry. I learned lots about De Gaulle’s part in the war that I didn’t know before, and about how the French Resistance began, and I can’t wait to see the second film. 

Meeting Jessica

James and I met Jessica for the first time this afternoon. It was truly amazing to hold my granddaughter in my arms. James held her too and was terrified of dropping her! My son’s daughter. She is so small and pretty; her nose and lips and chin and forehead and little ears are all perfectly proportioned. She slept throughout our visit so I still haven’t looked into her eyes, which I am told are hazel coloured. Her baby hair is dark brown on her beautifully shaped head. After we took some photos I just stood beside the pram looking at her while we chatted with Chanel and Davie. James and I were careful not to stay too long; her mummy and daddy need their rest because she is of course keeping them up at night. It was so great to meet her. 
In the morning James and I had been over to the south side; James had his second physiotherapy session for his sore knee at Hampden and I had a chest x-ray and a hand x-ray at the New Victoria. What a pair of old crocks we are! Afterwards we had brunch in the Brooklyn Cafe which was very pleasant. 

Kilt!

It has been a busy week; quite social and also quite useful, which is always satisfying. Socially I have met up with quite a few of my chums and also played Pickleball which was most enjoyable. We had an interminable meeting with a bathroom designer on Monday. It had to be done because the en-suite really needs redone, but James and I both hate planning this kind of thing. The endless choices and decisions are exhausting, and by the time we went home we both had headaches! Much more satisfying was my visit to the dentist. I have been nervous about my fragile feeling front teeth for years, they have been increasingly thin at the tips and I have been expecting one of them to simply snap off at any moment. In the other hand I didn’t want John McG to stick big veneers on to them which might fall off themselves. However he reassured me that the new material that he uses is fantastic and will work well. I am particularly pleased that my teeth feel very normal and not too thick in my mouth. 
Another useful event was a very overdue appointment at the hairdresser for me, the lovely Britney smartened me up quickly and pleasantly, and I was home in plenty of time to accompany James to the Kiltmaker in Giffnock. Yes it has finally happened! Former kilt hater James has decided that with three weddings next year (and perhaps more on the horizon) it will be sensible to buy a kilt to match those of our sons. It will also be cost effective compared to hiring a kilt. So James will be sporting a kilt soon for the first time in more than fifty years. I can’t wait! 

Baby Dreams

After all the excitement we had a pleasantly quiet weekend. Saturday was another beautiful sunny day and we had breakfast in the garden with Ally and Cat, all of us so happy about the safe arrival of Jessica. Ally and Cat packed up and set off after lunch to Ullapool where they will be spending the week. I hope that they will have a lovely relaxing week; Cat will be working but hopefully will also have some time to enjoy being in the north-west. 
Today James and I had a video call with baby Jessica (and her Mummy and Daddy of course!) Chanel and Davie are having a week with Jessica to settle in at home after their long haul in hospital last week, so we won’t meet her in person until Friday. They are very happy although somewhat sleep-deprived! Oh she is so very sweet! She was fast asleep but we could see her eyes moving under her eyelids as she was dreaming. I wonder what a two day old baby dreams about? Her features are so neat; she is a very attractive baby. 

Jessica’s Birth Day

At about 4 a.m. in the morning we got the message that Davie and Chanel’s baby has been born at 00.46 a.m. Her name is Jessica Anne Anderson and she is 5 lb 7 oz / 2.475 kg. It is the most wonderful news. I won’t give details of the birth here because that is Chanel’s and Davie’s own story for them to tell, however I can report that Mummy and baby Jessica are both doing well and that Daddy is very happy. And James and I are grandparents! Jessica is absolutely beautiful. 
Jessica has been born on a lovely sunny early autumn day. The leaves are not yet falling from the trees but the berries on the rowan trees are very red. Chinook helicopters were flying over Uddingston as part of a training exercise. 
James, Ally and I headed over to Uddingston in the morning to finish off a few tasks in Davie & Chanel’s house. I did the second half of the stencilling while Ally and James put up shelves in the nursery. We had a break for lunch and nipped to the café in Sterling in the Birkenshaw Industrial Estate. We then pressed on and got finished by tea time. 
Cat arrived by train and the four of us had dinner together and raised a toast to baby Jessica. Welcome to the family Jessica! 

Stencilling

We are still waiting for baby but keeping ourselves busy. I don’t like to contact Davie too often to check on progress; he is being very good at keeping us informed. I was at a very eventful Children’s Hearing on Wednesday, and today I was stencilling all morning. This has been organised by Ally; he is being such a fantastic uncle to his niece even before she is born! Davie mentioned to him that it would be great to have a stencil of safari animals on one of the nursery walls. So Ally searched online and found an attractive large stencil and then he and James shopped for paints and stencilling brushes. They used the laser level to affix it to the wall and the rest was up to me. I was quite nervous because I haven’t done stencilling for a long time, decades in fact. I did a sheep jumping over fences frieze for Davie’s own nursery (with one little black lamb among the white ones!) and I did quite a time consuming frieze consisting of several colours of flowers in our old bedroom. Both are long gone due to room changes; although some golden stars that I stencilled on Davie’s bedroom ceiling still shine faintly through the paint that was painted over them! 
There was nothing for it but to get started; I worked all morning bring while listening to Gyles Brandreth’s Rosebud podcast. Meanwhile downstairs James and Ally were building a flat pack dresser for the kitchen; it was more complicated than they thought and it took them more than five hours in total! 
The three of us later had a convivial lunch with Christine and Gerry at Caulders Garden Centre, it was great to see them. Still no baby news. 

Waiting for baby

Chanel is now in hospital, having been induced yesterday, so we are excitedly awaiting baby news. On Saturday evening we went over to Gordon’s for dinner with him and Morag, and also Pamela and Alasdair who live near us and kindly gave us a lift there and back. Alasdair goes to Australian Pink Floyd with James and Gordon every year. We had a very pleasant evening. 
Ally and I have now moved all of the food that we made into Davie and Chanel’s freezer, and Ally had been doing doing model aeroplane construction and painting. 
On Sunday the weather was beautiful so James, Alasdair and I decided to go for brunch in Troon and then for a walk along the beach. We saw kite surfers scudding along in the sea, and there were lots of people out enjoying the sunshine: 
Later we watched a film recommended by Ally called Masters of the Universe which is a recent reboot of the old franchise. It was good fun and sent itself up nicely as well as relating a good yarn. 
Yesterday I went to the Burrell Collection with Sue H to see their current exhibition, Drawing Inspiration. It consists of thirteen drawings, by artists such as Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Édouard Manet and Jean-François Millet. You can see close up the pencil or charcoal strokes on each drawing, so it demonstrates the techniques and process of drawing. We both enjoyed it very much, and we also enjoyed our brunch in the Burrell Café! 
The impending Anderson baby is in our minds at all times. At Pickleball today I had my phone handy just in case there was news and during one of the games it rang! I rushed over to answer it and the whole room fell silent - it turned out that it was Ally phoning about some stencilling he is planning! 

Batch Cooking

Heather and Ewan set off home on Tuesday; we did a bit of tidying and cleaning around the cottage before heading home with the cats on Wednesday. And now we are on the countdown to Davie and Chanel’s baby! 
Ally is in Cambuslang, where he has been working with Davie to paint and decorate the baby’s nursery. He has been a bundle of energy and has worked really hard. He has done work in our house two; replacing the hinges on the utility cupboards to make the “soft close” again, he cleaned and fixed the gutter at the back of the house, and fixed the security light on the garage. Now that we are back home, Ally has also been encouraging James and I to join in the preparations! So for the last two days Ally and I have been batch cooking meals to put in Davie and Chanel’s freezer for after their baby is born. We have made chilli con carne, basque chicken, boeuf bourgignon, and lasagnes. They are all in freezer to oven containers ready to be transported to Uddingston. If it hadn’t been for Ally’s insistence I would probably have put this task off, but he was so keen to get going that I was swept along by his enthusiasm and I actually really enjoyed it! Hopefully this will be a good help to Davie and Chanel. It has also been great to spend time with Ally. James too was engaged in culinary activities; he has made some delicious damson jam from our own tree. 

Caravaggio’s Shadow

Sunday was drizzly but that didn’t stop James, Heather and Ewan from walking up Ullapool Hill. I met them at the Cult Café for lunch by which time the weather had brightened considerably, in fact it was even dry enough to sit outside the cottage for a cup of tea. 
After dinner we watched a film - Caravaggio’s Shadow. I had seen it advertised a while ago but couldn’t find it online so I ordered the DVD instead, especially for this weekend. This is because all four of us like Caravaggio, Ewan in particular. I had pre-watched it a few days ago to make sure that it was suitable for viewing with our friend; there was an orgy scene but it was brief and there was nothing too graphic! It was a good wee film presenting a theory about Caravaggio’s mysterious death at the age of thirty-nine, with flashbacks to his earlier life. It was in Italian with English subtitles, deliberately filmed in colours typical of Caravaggio’s paintings. The actor playing the title character bore a startling resemblance to his self portraits. I enjoyed it - both times! 
Today we returned to Inverewe Gardens, on what turned out to be a sunny morning. Heather and Ewan have been there before, including a visit with us, however enthusiastic horticulturalist Heather was keen to return. The gardens were looking good and the Eucryphia was still in bloom although some of the white blooms were beginning to fall. We had lunch in the self-service restaurant. On the way back to Ullapool we stopped at the Arctic Convoy Museum at Aultbea. We have driven past it many times but this was the first time that we have visited it. There was a guide, Jenny, who gave us a short talk about it before we browsed around. Apparently Loch Ewe was a very busy place during the 2nd World War because it was the point of departure for many of the convoys bound for Russia. The stories of the people involved were so interesting, and the tiny museum was fascinating, much more so than I thought it would be. 
Dinner later was at the Ceilidh Place and when we got back to the cottage we played our board game of the summer - Sequence! Heather and Ewan seemed to enjoy it and we played a couple of games. 

Handa Island and Pies

 The weather forecast for the weekend of Heather and Ewan’s visit to Ullapool was dire. But we didn’t want to stay indoors so on Saturday we decided to head for Handa Island, clad in waterproofs and our trusty walking boots. We were so lucky because although the skies were grey it didn’t rain, so we walked the 7 km around the island without getting wet. James and I have visited Handa Island a couple of times before; it is reached by a fifteen minute ferry journey in a small boat. The puffins for which it is famous in the early summer have long departed out to sea but there were plenty of other seabirds to watch, including fulmars, kittiwakes and great skuas (aka bonxies.)
The sea cliffs were spectacular with birds wheeling round from their nests, and we were surrounded by many smaller islands and we could see Lewis in the distance. There is a Rangers Hut where we were given a little talk before we set off along the path. I felt a bit conflicted about the well maintained path which included long sections of duckboards. It all felt a bit too curated. On the other hand, without it we would never have been able to traverse all the marshy bits of the island. 
Back in the mainland we headed to Lochinver to purchase pies for dinner, and we planned to have a light bite to eat at one of the several cafés in the vicinity. It was by now about twenty to four, and the pie shop was due to close at four, but I thought that it would be ok for us to have a quick soup and a roll, or a scone and a cup of tea, right? Wrong! The lady who was serving in the café told me that they had “run out of nearly everything” and when I returned briefly (while the others were queuing for the pies) to ask if we could just have a coffee with biscuits she made an exaggerated face of disappointment and slumped her shoulders when she saw me approaching and told me that they were no longer taking orders. There was no point in arguing but as James commented later, I wonder how the owner of the shop would feel about customers being turned away when it would have been so little trouble to serve us four coffees - and to receive our money! We made our way to Delilah’s where we were able to get coffees but there was no food being served apart from a few biscuits which we devoured. 
We were certainly more than ready for an early dinner of pies and mash when we got to the cottage! In the evening we went to see the traditional music group Ape House at the Ceilidh Place venue. They were very personable and i liked their music but all the fresh air and walking had taken its toll and a couple of us (who shall remain nameless) were snoozing, so after a quick confab we slipped away at the interval to have a nightcap back at the cottage. 

Music Quiz

Margaret set off homewards on Wednesday, we really enjoyed her company. We then had a quiet couple of days; the good weather lasted and I spent time in my hammock. I was delighted to have been awarded a 2nd and 3rd place in the photography section of the Ullapool Craft and Flower Show; I had entered various photos of the local area and my winning photos were of a dolphin jumping out of the water with a fishing boat in the background, and a sunny view of the Scoraig peninsula from the lighthouse at Rhue. Not bad for a first attempt. 

Heather and Ewan arrived to visit us today; we had lunch and sat outside the cottage to have a cup of tea before we walked down to the village. After dinner we went to the Arch Inn to take part in “Mr Murray’s Music Quiz,” a raucous event run by the eponymous Mr Murray, a retired teacher from the local High School, to raise money for a forthcoming school trip. We were very impressed by both Ewan’s and Heather’s superior knowledge of songs from every decade, and if the competition had been based solely on song and artist we would have definitely won. However we also needed to pinpoint the year that the song was released in the UK, and despite being able to guess within a year or two, we rarely got the year exactly correct, which was frustrating. We ended up somewhere in the middle of the scoreboard. The locals became increasingly loud as the evening progressed and sang along with all the songs and kept on singing after each excerpt was finished, which slowed down the quiz considerably! To be fair we sang along too! Soon many people were dancing on the chairs and the tables! Despite its excessive length it was a fun quiz and a happy evening. 

Brilliant boat trip to the Summer Isles

Today, Margaret and I decided to go on the Shearwater boat trip. It was an absolutely beautiful and sunny day; market has brought us brilliant weather during her stay, much better than was forecast. We armed ourselves with coffee and sweeties and soon set off into the loch towards the Summer Isles. We had a fantastic trip. Not only did we see lots of seals, we saw the two sea eagles flying around the cliffs and landing on the rocks. We spotted lots of seabirds including a mummy and daddy guillemot swimming along with their cute baby guillemot between them. We also saw dolphins which came really close to the boat, and even a Minke whale, black and sleek, which was amazing to see. 
We met James for lunch then had a relaxing afternoon sitting outside the cottage in the sunshine. 
Ruth, Donald, and Donald’s sister Sandra arrived later and we all sat outside for pre-dinner drinks. Margaret and the Watts all got on really well (as I had expected they would) and we had a fun dinner at the Ceilidh Place together. When we walked back to the cottage we saw a beautiful sunset but we didn’t linger too long to watch it because the midges were out in force! 

Margaret and James climbed Stac Pollaidh

Sunday was a cloudy and slightly drizzly day but energetic James and Margaret climbed Ullapool Hill anyway. They met a rather eccentric man who is in the process of climbing every hill in Great Britain - all of them! We then met in the Cult Café for a tasty lunch. We had such a relaxing afternoon reading the Sunday papers. 
In the evening we played Sequence which Margaret picked up very quickly and in fact won! 
Today the weather forecast was very good today so we set off to Coigach and James and Margaret climbed Stac Pollaidh. My intention was to go for a short walk and find somewhere near the loch to read my book but it was too midgy and after a while I retreated to the car. The intrepid hill-walkers returned after a couple of hours; they said they had a great time and when I saw Margaret’s photos from the top they were absolutely beautiful. We drove to Achiltibuie and purchased sandwiches from the village shop, which we consumed while sitting in a bench in the sunshine, looking over towards Tanera Mor. We then drove the short distance to Achnahaird Beach which looked stunning with the mountains behind. We took some deckchairs down to the beach and sat and chatted. I went in for a swim which was delightful, at this time of year the water doesn’t feel too cold and I enjoyed being lifted up and down by the waves. Back at the cottage later we all had showers and relaxed. When I was upstairs getting ready for my shower I could hear Flora talking to Margaret who was sitting outside on the bench, and Margaret replying, which was very sweet! Tom spent time with Margaret outside too. After dinner we were all rather exhausted from all the fresh air and had a fairly early night. 

Eucryphia at Inverewe Gardens

Margaret arrived to visit us on Thursday and it was great to see her. She doesn’t know the area around Ullapool well, which is lovely for us because we can show her around some of our favourite places. When she had unpacked, we went down for a walk around the village, visited the harbour and had afternoon tea at Tea by the Sea. 

Yesterday Margaret and I went back down to the village by ourselves and browsed around the few shops, had a cup of tea (of course) and then Alison and Hugh Birkmyre arrived for lunch. As I had expected the and Margaret got on very well and we had a chatty afternoon.

When James, Margaret and I arrived at Inverewe Gardens today, the National Trust guide greeted us warmly and told us to watch out for two Eucryphia trees, which have beautiful flowers in August. Sure enough, we found both trees and they looked absolutely beautiful with copious white blooms. It was another warm day, with mixed sunshine and clouds. We had a look round the house before having a nice coffee and and some cake sitting outdoors at the picnic benches overlooking the lawn. We walked all around the gardens enjoying the late summer flowers.

Our next step was Gairloch where we had a very pleasant walk along the sandy beach at Big Sand before visiting the Gael Centre. We had actually planned to have soup there, but by this time it was 3 p.m. so the soup was all gone so we had to have more cake instead! 

My Mum’s Wedding Ring

Kerry was recently chatting with me about the shape of wedding ring that she would like, and it sounded very similar to my Mum’s wedding ring, which is a simple rounded gold ring. I didn’t want her to feel obliged to have it, so I had a word with Jamie and said that they should discuss it. A few days later, I got a lovely phone call from Kerry to say that she did indeed love the ring and would like to have it if that was okay by me. Of course I said yes and posted the ring (recorded delivery) to New Zealand. It arrived there safely and surprisingly quickly, and I’m very pleased that Kerry likes it. I think my mum would be very pleased as well, because she loved Jamie so much and I think it would appeal to her that Jamie‘s wife will be wearing her wedding ring. Needless to say, Ally and Davie will receive similarly sentimental and valued items for their girls when they get married. 
Until I posted it, I wore my mum’s wedding ring on the middle finger of my left hand. The ring mark is still there for now and I think I will be a little bit sad when it fades. However, I am glad that the ring will continue to be loved by future generations of Andersons. 

A flying visit to Cambuslang

I’m back in Ullapool after a whirlwind weekend in Cambuslang. The house was very quiet without the cats, who of course stayed with James and Ullapool. However, I did have a companion; Alasdair. He has just arrived for a few weeks in Scotland where he is helping Davie to renovate the nursery for Baby Anderson. He will also catch up with a few of his Scottish friends, do some hill-walking, and plan his travels around the world over the next year. Understandably, he doesn’t want to set off until he has met the baby. It’s going to be nice to spend some time with him before he sets off on his adventure. 
Ally, me, Davie and Chanel met at our house for a curry and a catch up on Sunday evening, and then after my Children’s Panel on Monday morning I had a catch up with Alison T. Ally joined us when he arrived back from decorating the nursery and we all had a good chat. Chanel and I went out for brunch on Tuesday  to The Hidden Tearoom in Bothwell. I had a Bakewell scone which was absolutely delicious and we had some good girly chat. And then I set off north, listening to Comanche Moon by Larry McMurtry on the way. It was a quiet and straightforward journey and when I arrived back in Ullapool James had made his famous asparagus risotto which was a lovely welcome back. I also got a nice welcome from both cats! When Flora rubs her face against my cheek for ages and presses her forehead against mine it makes me so happy. And I feel the same when Tom offers to let me rub his tummy by rolling on his back, and speaks to me with his silent miaow. 

A History of Paper

I set off from Ullapool to Cambuslang today; I have a Children’s Hearing to attend on Monday in Hamilton. Last night Kenny and Cornel arrived to go hill-walking with James; we had dinner together and a nice chat. 
This morning I drove to Susan W’s house in Blair Atholl. She made me a delicious lunch including fresh vegetables from her garden when I arrived. Her house was formerly the local bank, and the front part still has the door to the vault. It’s very pretty and is set in large gardens. Susan has renovated it since her Dad died a few years ago and it is absolutely gorgeous. 
Susan then drove us to Pitlochry Festival Theatre; the first time that I have ever been there. It’s really smart and we got ourselves coffees before the performance started. We had excellent tickets in the front row. The play A History of Paper was performed by Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson. These two excellent Scottish actors have known each other since they were young and they interacted very well together. I hadn’t realised that the play is actually a musical, which I liked. It was all about the paper that we collect during our lives and how that kind of tells the story of our lives. Near the end, there is a real twist which I didn’t see coming, and which was very sad and moving. I’m so glad that I went to it and I look forward to visiting Pitlochry Festival Theatre again. 
Back at Susan‘s, we had a cup of tea and a nice chat and then I set off to drive the last hour and a half to Cambuslang. 

Summertime

The UK has experienced its hottest day of the year and fifth hottest day on record, as a heatwave that gripped much of the country peaked at 38.1C on Thursday, the Met Office said. 
Kew Gardens in west London recorded England's top temperature
This all somewhat passed us by in Ullapool, where it was still cloudy; however it certainly was warm even though it didn’t reach the dizzying heights of the south of England. It was muggy and hot all day, and when we went for a stroll down to Tea by the Sea it felt almost too hot to sit outside! 

Back at the cottage I enjoyed lying in my hammock and reading my book. I do love the summer! 

Not a Total Eclipse for us

We didn’t see the solar eclipse from Ullapool (it was not quite total in the UK but total in Europe) because the sky was cloudy. James had prepared by making himself a pinhole viewer, but there was no opportunity to use it. We did think that the light got noticeably duller around the time of the eclipse and then brightened up again. However Jennifer and Russell got good views of it in Buckinghamshire and sent us great photos; Jennifer told me that it was eerie to see. She said that since the sun was not completely eclipsed, it did not get at all that dark outside and was only really noticeable through the special solar glasses which have sold out all over Britain in the last few days! Ally and Cat also sent photos as did Davie and Chanel; they had (separately in Limehouse and in Uddingston) used colanders to focus the light onto a piece of paper and then the tiny circle of light became partially eclipsed. Gordon and Morag saw the full eclipse from Mallorca and from their photos it does look as if it got markedly darker there. Their photos were the best of all, they had driven around to find a good viewpoint and saw it very clearly. 

Cawdor Castle and The Odyssey

We have had a great time with Jennifer and Russell, the weather has been mixed, but we still went out for a walks as well as reading our books, chatting, and playing Sequence. As ever, they were great guests and seemed to enjoy themselves. Russell of course drank lots of cups of tea and when I realised that we had not stocked up on his favourite Yorkshire teabags I bought some for him despite Jennifer’s protests. When Jennifer jokingly told him that he shouldn’t have mentioned getting different teabags, he replied, “It’s not my fault - you’ve made me into a monster!” Which I thought was very funny! 
The other thing that Russell enjoyed saying with a mischievous look was “Susan, you’ve done it again!” every time I served up a meal, which he had already told us was a way of say of seeming to compliment a meal without actually doing so! 
This morning we drove through to Inverness, walked along the river in the sunshine and had a light lunch up at the castle. Then we dropped Jenn and Russ at the airport for their flight home, where they will be arriving to another 35 degrees heatwave! 
James and I decided to visit Cawdor Castle. I have been there many years ago with my mum and the boys, but James has never been. It was looking very pretty in the sunshine and the gardens were lush with beautiful flowers. We had a nice couple of hours there before going to see the film of the moment, the Odyssey. It was certainly visually stunning but I found it a bit long at three hours and may have dozed off during the battle scene near the end! 

A Robert Burns evening

Last night the four of us went to a concert in the Ceilidh Place Venue. The performers were Liza Mulholland and Hamish McDonald, both based in Inverness. They were both excellent musicians and singers. The performance had a Robert Burns theme, although only a few songs were his. There was a variety of Scottish songs on Burns themes, some of them I had heard before and some never. Some songs were very humorous others had a deeper meaning. It really was a tremendous performance, but I did think that it was a shame that there was only a small audience for such a fantastic event. In the second half quite a few more people drifted in from the pub, which I think was much nicer for the performers. They gave us just as good as show both before and after the audience increased.
Tonight Rona’s son Duncan came to dinner; he has joined Ullapool rowing club and had been practising with them. Again I was impressed by his cheerful and polite demeanour. He’s 23 with a degree in geology and will probably move to a job in Canada next year. Meanwhile, he is enjoying being in the north-west of Scotland which does not lack in geological features! 

The Rock Stop and a relative

Today we did a pie run to Lochinver (of course!) First we visited the Rock Stop near the Kylescu Hotel, a small Geology museum with attached café. I asked if our cousin Rona’s son Duncan was there, because she recently told me that he was volunteering there. The manager told us that he is still in the area but was working at the Kylescu Hotel that day, so after lunch we went there for a coffee. I haven’t seen Duncan since my cousin Doug’s funeral in 2018, when Duncan was only fifteen years old. However we recognised him straight away; he had a real Rennie / Whyte look! He looked a bit like a much younger Roddy! What a pleasant and friendly young man he is.
By this time we were cutting it fine to make it to Lochinver for pies before the shop closed at 4 p.m. My enthusiastic and slightly speedy driving got us there five minutes before closing time, but unfortunately had result that Jennifer felt a bit nauseous. We chose our pies and Jennifer soon perked up. It was a beautiful day and we strolled around Lochinver, we had drinks sitting outside Delilah’s in the sunshine and went up to the pottery to get some great views of Suilven. 

Dolphins at Fort George

Jenn and Russ have arrived for a visit to Ullapool! We collected them from Inverness Airport and then went to Fort George. We had soup, scones and coffee in the very pleasant wee café there. We walked right round the walls of the fort, peeking over the walls to spot dolphins, of which we saw a few. There was a really interesting weather phenomenon while we were walking around the ramparts of the fort; we were enjoying warm sunshine, but with very dark rain clouds in several directions. We could see rain falling in sheets from the clouds only a few miles away. Sure enough the rain started to fall on our way past Inverness, and it rained very heavily in bursts on our way back to Ullapool. A convivial evening in the cottage ensued. 

Ally goes to Ukraine

James and I have been enjoying a quiet time in Ullapool, enjoying the house and garden, sitting outside on the benches with the cats a lot. I have been doing some watercolour painting. 
Ally and Cat have been on holiday to Slovakia; Andrew joined them and then Cat went home while Ally and Andrew continued into Poland.
Ally had told us that he and Andrew have been planning to do a day trip to Ukraine while they are in Poland, but I wasn’t sure exactly when. Today I was thinking about it and I sent him a message to ask if he had been there yet. He messaged straight back to say that he was in Ukraine right now, having lunch in the beautiful city of Lviv. As Ally’s mum, I must admit that I’m not thrilled to think that he is in a war zone but he is 32 years old and it’s not my place to tell him what to do. Lviv is in the west of Ukraine and does not get a lot of attacks but they still do get some shelling at night. However Ally and Andrew were there during the day and all went well. He messaged us again later to let us know that he was safely back in Poland. He found the Ukrainian people to be very friendly, but you could see signs of the war; there were windows sandbagged as were many of the statues around the city. Lviv did look lovely with elegant buildings and squares. I was glad to hear that he was back in Poland. 

We didn’t mean to go to Durness

The fires in the Gironde region at their worst caused a "pyrocumulonimbus" - a giant fire thunderstorm fuelled by its own winds and lightning. There is a smoky haze over Bordeaux and even eighty miles east of Bordeaux at Jennifer’s house in Lot-et-Garonne the air smells smoky. However although it is still burning, the firefighters in the area seem to be containing it so Bordeaux is not immediately under threat. 
I was sorry to hear that my favourite Goody, Bill Oddie, has died. Although I liked the other two as well, in fact they were all my favourites. The Goodies was such a great programme in my childhood memory. 
I have done so much batch cooking that the freezer in the garage is just about full, so today James and I decided to go on a northerly expedition to the Rockstop Café near Scourie and then Lochinver. However at the turn off to Kylescu we came across two hitchhikers, a mother and son from Germany, who were heading to Durness. So we decided just to take them there instead! They were very pleasant; the mum, Katya, is a chemical geologist and the son, Anton, is still at school. We drove through the beautiful Sutherland scenery with James pointing out the mountains like an proper tour guide, and as we arrived in Durness a mummy duck and six ducklings crossed the road in front of us, it was very sweet. There was even less of Durness than I remembered. After we dropped Katya and Anton off, we had a light lunch at Coco Mountain in the hippy dippy craft village and then went for a walk along Balnakiel Beach. It’s a gorgeous beach with a broad swathe of white sand, and the weather was blowy but sunny. The mountains and lochs were spectacular on our way back to Ullapool. 

A Country Night in Inverness

We had a relaxing start to Saturday and enjoyed sitting outside in the sunshine at the cottage. After lunch we headed back to Inverness where we did a large Tesco shopping for some batch cooking, and then we met Alison and Hugh for dinner. Alison had booked  McBain’s, which is down at the river a short walk from the Eden Court Theatre. The restaurant was very busy and I was glad that Alison had booked, because Inverness is clearly very busy at the height of the summer. We had a tasty meal and a good chat. 
I’m just blogging The show that we went to see was Dominic Halpin and the Hurricanes playing “A Country Night in Nashville.” It was Alison’s suggestion that we should go and it turned out to be excellent, they are such a good covers band and played lots of well known Country songs. There was a great atmosphere and everyone was up dancing. The second last song was my great favourite “Wagon Wheel” and the last song was James’ favourite “Dance the Night Away” which was a great ending to the concert. 
Today I have been cooking all day while listening to podcasts and taking the occasional break to sit outside on the bench and drink a coffee in the company of Tom and Floof. Unfortunately I have run out of containers to freeze the food so I have had to order more online! 

Commonwealth Games 2026

Last night James and I went with Davie and Chanel to the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games. It was held at the Hydro and first we had a tasty dinner in Joia on Argyle Street. When we were walking through the tunnel that crosses the Expressway we could see all of the athletes lining up outside the Hydro to do their parade. The Opening Ceremony was excellent, very well organised. The King and Queen appeared to arrive by Tardis which was quite amusing, and were escorted to their seats by Sir Chris Hoy. There was music and dancing, and in came the athletes, happy and excited to be there after all their hard work in training. Various officials made some pleasantly short speeches and then there was more musical entertainment culmination in KT Tunstall singing “Suddenly I see.” There was a big queue at exhibition Centre station, but thanks to Chanel’s state of pregnancy were waved to the front of it which was delightful. A great evening.
And then today we were at the SEC to watch two sessions of the Commonwealth Games, again with David and Chanel. The first one we watched was five aside basketball which was very fast moving and very interesting, it took me awhile to pick up the rules. We had lunch in the SEC and then went to our second section, which was bowling. Again it was very interesting and I felt I learned quite a lot about the game. James and I left a little bit early because we were going to drive up to (Ullapool) in the evening. After dinner we captured the cats with unusual efficiency, and made good time to Ullapool, arriving at about 11 p.m. The cats were on good form and went outside to explore the garden. 
Further to my post on Wednesday, we saw on the news that all of the Cap Ferret peninsula has now been evacuated, either by road or by the same ferries that we took between Cap Ferret and Arcachon. 

Cooler Summer in Scotland

Our journey home on Tuesday went smoothly and by mid-afternoon we were reunited with Tom and Floof who seemed very pleased to see us and followed us around the house and garden.
I was shocked to see on the news that huge forest fires have broken out near Cap Ferret on the Arcachon Basin, where we were only a few days ago. And two local firefighters died earlier this week fighting another fire close to Bordeaux airport. As I have already mentioned in my last few blog entries it is very, very hot down there in South-West France and all of the grass and trees must be extremely dry and ready to burst into flames. 
I have recently been in touch with my Mum’s friend Heather from Glasgow School of Art in the 1950s. Heather has sent me a bundle of letters that my Mum wrote to her in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I was a little bit worried that I would feel very sad when I was reading them, but they were lovely letters and it was just like hearing my mum‘s voice again. The first letter was written just three months before my dad died in January 1997; at that time they couldn’t find anything wrong with him but with hindsight it seems obvious that the cancer had come back. Mum was never really the same after he died. She tried, and in a lot of ways succeeded, to get on with her life, but she had loved and relied on him so much, and missed him very much for the next 13 years. She did get a lot of joy out of all five of her grandsons, and she was a fantastic grandmother. She used to make all sorts of arts and crafts with them, they were very lucky. It was great that she lived just along the road and we could all pop in and out to see her. In one of the letters she had written a wee poem about Dad and her, here it is:
He was my life, he was my friend. 
Our parting had to come one day. 
But surely this is not the end
He waits for me? I cannot say.
But if we never meet again,
If what I had is all there is,
I will not be ungrateful then
That he was mine, and I was his.

Bletchley Park and The Cherry Orchard

The first thing that I noticed when we walked down the steps of our plane at Luton Airport was how pleasantly cool was the midnight air - so much cooler than Bordeaux! Our plane was an hour late when we arrived at our airport hotel, just a short walk away from the terminal, we dived straight into bed. 
The temperature today at Bletchley Park was 26 degrees, which I used to think was very warm but at 10 degrees cooler than Bordeaux it felt really refreshing! There was a nice gentle breeze too. We went to Bletchley on our way to Stratford-upon-Avon and the huts with exhibitions about all the secret code-breaking during the war are really interesting and the grounds are beautiful. James was fascinated by all of the code-breaking machines and the history of the place. We continued to Stratford and checked in to the Swan’s Nest hotel, a pleasant and very central hotel right beside the river. Dinner was at our favourite, the Rooftop Restaurant at the RSC, and then we went downstairs to watch our play.
The aristocracy in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard are so frustrating. They don’t want to lose the estate, including the cherry orchard, but they are not willing to do anything at all to save it. There was an extremely strong cast. Kenneth Branagh was energetic as Lopakhin, who tried and failed to motivate the estate owners with practical suggestions but was himself paralysed with indecision when it came to proposing marriage to Varya. Helen Hunt was the feckless matriarch Ranyevskaya and Bill Pullman was her idle brother Gaev. The younger members of the cast were also very good and their characters proved equally as incapable of helping themselves or each other. Michael Elwyn, who is 83, played the aged and loyal retainer, ultimately forgotten by the family, who shuffled around the stage muttering to himself. I really enjoyed it but James said that it’s the second worst play that I have ever taken him to (after Long Day’s Journey into Night!) I reminded him about Waiting for Godot but he said that didn’t count because that time he left at the interval! 
I saw Summerfolk in March this year at the National Theatre, which Gorky wrote as a response to The Cherry Orchard. So it was interesting to compare the two. Chekhov seems to sympathise with the melancholy and fading aristocracy who are losing their heritage and their way of life. However Gorky portrays his bourgeois characters as brash and stupid and unaware that the peasants will soon overthrow them in their turn.
We strolled back across the bridge to our hotel for a drink in the bar on this last night of our holiday. 

Art in the Submarine Base

It was our last day in beautiful Bordeaux and the temperature rose to about 37 degrees in the afternoon! We had breakfast sitting outside a café in the Place de la Comédie which was a great place for people watching. Then we had a stroll around the old town before taking a tram to the Musée Mer Marine in the old harbour area of Bordeaux. It was a great wee museum, all about the history of sea-faring in Bordeaux from pre-historic times through Roman and medieval times to the modern day. It was really interesting, with lots of model boats of different eras which I loved. It was a short but hot walk from there to the Bordeaux Submarine Base (Base Sous-Marine,) built by the Germans during the Second World War, which is now used as an arts venue. The concrete walls are amazingly thick which makes the interior fairly cool, and we watched two projections all around the walls of several huge halls; one was about Matisse and one was about Frida Kahlo. The submarine tanks are still full of seawater, twelve metres deep, so the projections were also reflected in the dark water which was very effective. I was sitting on the concrete floor watching the display when an official came up to me and told me to stand up; he explained that the designated seating area was in the next hall. I was so flustered when I was getting up that I managed to knock my sunglasses irretrievably into the water below. And there they must remain, along with the ghosts of Nazi submarines. The official pointed this out to me rather sternly, which I thought was a bit rich considering that it was at least partly his fault!
By the time we were ready to go back to the hotel I just couldn’t face the twenty minute walk and then tram ride back to the hotel so James very kindly ordered an Uber which was air conditioned and so pleasant, and it delivered us right to the door of the hotel. We had cool drinks in the bar and read our books for a while before heading to the airport for our evening flight to Luton. 

A Day at the Seaside

We caught a morning train to Arcachon. What a lovely little seaside town it is! It’s also very smart and there are posters to warn that topless people (whatever their gender!) will be fined. We had breakfast sitting in the shade outside a café decorated with flowers, then wandered through the market where James bought me a sundress, a beach bag and a towel for the beach. But before swimming in the sea we spontaneously jumped onto a ferry which took us across to the peninsula of Cap Ferret. On the way we got an excellent view of the famous Dune du Pilat; basically a really massive pile of sand. The pretty seaside village of Cap Ferret is even more upmarket than Arcachon, and it has lots of oyster beds on the seashore. We walked along the front and had cake and ice cream at the delightful but expensive Frédélian Restaurant. By this time it was very, very hot, and the sea breeze was like a hot hairdryer. After a refreshing drink beside the pier we caught the ferry back to Arcachon. There was a long queue of day-trippers heading back so there were extra ferries running, which was very helpful. James found himself a bench to sit on and read his book, under the shade of one of the huge, mushroom shaped pine trees that line the promenade in Arcachon. And now arrived the highlight of my day; a swim in the sea! It was very busy in the supervised area of the beach; lots of families with sunshades and towels, but it didn’t matter because there was plenty of room in the sea! The sea was like a warm bath but it was cooler than the air temperature and it was absolutely idyllic swimming about in the gentle waves from the many boats. Eventually I reluctantly left the water and used one of the beach showers to remove most of the salt from my body. I dried off so quickly in the heat that I barely needed my towel! We had dinner in one of the beachfront restaurants, watching the waves lapping in the sand. We caught the 9.05 p.m. train back to Bordeaux, which takes about 50 minutes. By the time we got back to the hotel it was dark and we had showers and went straight to bed, exhausted. 

Back in St Emilion

We visited St Emilion two years ago with Jenn and Russ and it was lovely to be back in this beautiful little village with its steep cobbled streets and many wine shops. It’s really easy to get to by direct train from Bordeaux, which only takes just over half an hour. It’s about one and a half kilometres walk from the train station to the village; We had breakfast in a little café called Le Bouchon before strolling around the streets. James did some wine tasting at Couvent des Jacobins and treated himself to a bottle of red. We decided to return to Bordeaux late afternoon when it was extremely hot so we treated ourselves to a taxi back to the station kindly ordered for us by the proprietor of a café. To our surprise the taxi which arrived was a very smart Tesla whose doors opened up like gull’s wings. We got envious looks when we drew up at the station in it. A mercifully air-conditioned train carried us back to the city in comfort. 
In the evening we sallied forth into the town centre of Bordeaux, a little cooler than during the day. I took off my sandals and joined the many people paddling on the surface of the Water Mirror (Miroir d’Eau.) It’s in front of the Place de la Bourse, and is a large reflecting pool with only 2 cm of water over gigantic granite slabs, which is still very pleasant on the feet. We had a delicious dinner in Place St Pierre and lingered over our coffees in the twilight. As we headed back to catch the tram back to the hotel we could see the Pont de Pierre bridge over the Garonne, lit up against the darkening sky. 

A Hot Day in Bordeaux

We spent most of today walking around Bordeaux revisiting this beautiful city. We had a nice petit déjeuner formule near the station and then headed into the old town. It was hot, hot, hot! However we walked in the shade where we could, and I used both my cooling towel and my cooling neck fan to control my own temperature. James of course was fine; he manages in the heat much better than me. As we walked along the streets we recognised the route through several little squares and along a narrow street, where we used to walk two years ago; our current hotel is not far from our previous one, both are near the station. 
We went to the Bordeaux Museum, which we had already looked around on our first visit two years ago; it was very interesting especially seeing how the city had evolved over the centuries. We walked around the shopping area and had cool drinks in one of the many tree-shaded squares. The buildings are very elegant and there are great big city gates. It is such an attractive city. James purchased 72 hour tram tickets and there is a tram stop just round the corner from our hotel; we can travel to or from the centre of town in about 15 minutes which is really handy. After a late siesta back at the hotel we went to a nearby restaurant for dinner. It’s called “Eat Salad” which sounds like a bit of a command to me! It was simple but tasty. 

Sous la Canicule

After a delightful breakfast on the patio and a morning at the pool we all went into Eymet for lunch. We went to a little creperie in the main square where we had some excellent galettes. The medieval town centre is very beautiful, we visited it two years ago as well. Back at the house we packed up and said our goodbyes to Russ, then Jennifer gave us a lift to Marmande where we said goodbye to her and caught a train into Bordeaux. Jenn and Russ will be leaving France tomorrow after six weeks of holiday, however we’re staying in Bordeaux for a few more days. We had planned lots of day trips but it’s so hot that I think we will need to choose carefully and perhaps have shorter trips. This heat wave is called a “Canicule” in France. La canicule is the French for a heatwave; Cani comes from the Latin for dog, so it is actually similar to the old phrase “dog days of summer.” Apparently this is because the arrival in the night sky of Canis Major, the Dog Star, often heralded hot weather. We checked into our hotel and had dinner before watching the England vs Argentina football World Cup semi-final on television. England scored a goal but Argentina (who seemed to be playing a bit rough!) then scored two goals and soon it was all over; we felt really sorry that England lost. 

Football World Cup and late night swimming

Today was hot in Lot-et-Garonne; 37 degrees. After breakfast of baguette with butter and jam, James went for a walk to Allemans du Dropt and Jennifer and I headed to the pool where we swam, read our books and chatted. 
In the evening we went back to Allemans where the whole village was watching the France v Spain semi-final on a giant screen in the colonnaded village square. There were also food stalls and bars open for the Bastille Day celebrations. Unfortunately for the spectators France lost the match, so their celebrations were rather curtailed; the planned fireworks had already been cancelled because of the current fire risk due to the hot weather. Someone started playing Viva Espana on the big screen and someone else immediately unplugged it! 
We went back to the house and went for a late night swim in the pool. We floated around looking at all of the stars in the clear sky. We saw the Milky Way, lots of constellations, and Star-links shooting across the sky. It was magical. 

Bonjour la France!

We got up nice and early and were in excellent time for our 8.20 flight. Our journey went smoothly and we arrived in Bordeaux where the pilot told us that the temperature is “only” 35 degrees which made the passengers laugh! (This part of France has been very hot recently with temperatures up to 42 degrees!) we jumped straight on a bus from the airport to the station which meant that we had time to have a light lunch in a café opposite the station before catching a train which arrived at Marmande at 3.40 p.m. Jennifer and Russell were there to meet us and whisked us to their beautiful red-roofed farmhouse in Puysserampion. It wasn’t long before I was in their delightfully cool swimming pool, which is surrounded by grass, fig trees and plum trees, with fields of sunflowers and maize all around. Jennifer and I swam around and chatted and drank cool drinks. It was really hot so thank goodness for the pool. Also thank goodness for the air conditioning upstairs which ensured a good night’s sleep for us later. Jennifer and Russell made us a splendid barbecue later. They lit candles all around the patio and had a large fan to keep us cool. We listened to music including Ben’s recently released album which was brilliant, and then a mix of 70s and 80s music which felt very appropriate for the warm summer evening. After the barbecue and a gorgeous cheeseboard, Jennifer produced an amazing and extremely tasty raspberry tart which was the perfect ending to a perfect evening. 

Celebrity farewells

Three very well known people have died recently, all of them in their seventies but before their time. 

Bonnie Tyler died on 8th July (confirmed on 9th) This was sad but she had been very ill in hospital for months so it wasn’t a surprise. We loved seeing her at the Dubai Expo with Ally and Cat and I have always been particularly fond of two of her songs. Firstly “Lost in France” which was released in the hot summer of 1976, just at the beginning of my love affair with France. And secondly of course “Total Eclipse of the Heart” that classic rock anthem from 1983, which had a great video, and to which we all danced in Dubai. 
On Friday 10th there was news of the politician (and one time Strictly Come Dancing contestant) Ann Widdecombe’s death, she was found dead in her home on Thursday. She was elderly (not that elderly; 78) and these things happen. But by later in the day it was reported that she had been murdered by an intruder, which is horrible. One suspect was arrested and released but now someone else has been arrested and no one else is being sought so it looks like they have got him. 
And this morning we heard on the news that the New Zealand actor Sam Neill has died. He was so brilliant in the first Jurassic Park film; brilliant as the paleontologist absolutely bowled over by seeing real dinosaurs. He also had a vineyard in New Zealand, and seemed an all round good guy. One of those strange coincidences is that when we were in Crystal Palace Park yesterday with Ally and Cat, looking at the dinosaurs, Ally mentioned that they have recently been re-watching the Jurassic Park films, and we were talking about the stars; Richard Attenborough, Jeff Goldblum, and of course Sam Neill. 

Brunch and Crystal Palace Park

This morning Cat took us to a new brunch place in Wapping called El & A’s Brunch which had fresh and delicious food. It also had a powerful fan to cool the air, which was very useful because this was another very hot day in London. 
We then travelled to Crystal Palace Park by the overground which was delightfully air-conditioned. James and I have never been to Crystal Palace and it was very interesting; the buildings are long gone but there is still a large, level expanse of ground where they once stood. Ally expertly navigated us on shady tree-lined paths through the large park, we stopped for cool drinks at a wee café and Ally and Cat got brain freeze from drinking slushies! I opted to sit under the shade of a tree while the other three boldly attempted the maze. They quickly got lost and I could hear their voices from time to time as they passed near me behind the hedge which was very funny. They finally emerged and we continued through the park to see the dinosaurs! These life size models of dinosaurs were constructed in Victorian times according to what the scientists in those days thought that dinosaurs looked like. There were information boards which showed how the Victorians had interpreted the bones compared to how modern scientists have interpreted them. (Although who’s to say that we haven’t got it right either!) As a result the dinosaur models in the park, although impressive, are a bit strange looking to us. My favourite was a fat dinosaur lying on its side! 
Back at the flat we had coffee before bidding a fond farewell to Ally and Cat, and heading to Gatwick Airport where we had booked a Travelodge in view of our early start tomorrow morning. Soon we were tucked up in bed with the air conditioning on full blast! 

Lunch, theatre and football in London

A beautiful day in London; not a cloud in the brilliant blue sky. Alasdair and Cat took us for lunch to Murano, a restaurant that Cat knows. It was their (very generous) Christmas present to us. The restaurant was pristine and delightfully cool in this hot weather, and the service was excellent. But the food was the absolute star of the show: it is Italian as you would surmise from the name of the restaurant, and of an extremely high standard. It was also very imaginative; the gazpacho and panzanella that I ordered were unique and gorgeous. For dessert, Cat and I both couldn’t decide between the caramelised lemon tart or the strawberry soufflé so we ordered both and split them! Both were equally delicious. Ally enjoyed his semi-freddo and James his frangipani tart. We had such a lovely time and chatted about anything and everything.

Into the hot streets of London we went, and strolled through Green Park and St James’ Park, both busy with families. We had drinks in a German Beer Cellar before making our way to one of our old favourite haunts; the Globe Theatre. There we saw a really good production of Much Ado about Nothing, which was laugh out loud funny. The best characters were Benedict and Beatrice. 

Then we went back to the flat where we were joined by Andrew to watch the World Cup semi-finals. We sat on their comfy couches with the French windows wide open to the balcony and the Thames beyond as the cooler night air began to come in. It was idyllic. Ally and Cat provided us all with drinks and snacks and it was a fascinating game, full of thrills and tense moments including a goal from Norway that was disallowed. England finally won the game in extra and we were delighted for them. What a perfect day we have had! 

Buddleias in Luton

Yesterday was another very warm day. James and I went into town to have brunch with Gerry and Janis at All Bar One. We had our usual cheery chat about holidays and grandchildren and all the fun of retirement. Back home we finished packing and enjoyed the sunshine with the cats.
What a warm night it was, I opened all of the windows upstairs when we went to bed but it was still really warm. 
In the morning we set off to drive the six and a half hours to Luton Airport (plus stops so it was more like eight hours. It got hotter and hotter as we drove south. We parked the car in the long stay car park and caught a bus to the train station. All around the airport were buddleia with their blue blooms, they are very attractive. The most trying part of the journey was the Luton Express train to St Pancras. It was almost unbearably hot, if there was air conditioning it was overwhelmed by the heat. As was I. So when we arrived at the station we popped into an air conditioned café for an early tea. Pleasantly cooled down we travelled to Ally and Cat’s flat. It was great to see them and we had a cup of tea and a good chat. They had very kindly purchased a large but very quiet fan which kept the spare bedroom nice and cool for us. The sky was a stunning pink and blue as the sun set. 

Gooseberries and baby kicks

Yesterday I took part in my first three children’s hearings as a qualified panel member. It was online so I was worried that the technology wouldn’t work but it was all fine. The other panel members were both supportive and complimentary. My next hearings are in August in Hamilton. I’m pleased to have got started. 
This morning I had brunch with Sue H and we had a great chat. The weather had started grey and cloudy but the sun came out and it became a hot and sunny afternoon. The cats loved us being in the garden and stretched out on the slabs, moving into the shade when they got too hot. I picked lots of gooseberries and washed, topped, tailed and put them in the freezer. 
This evening we went to the quiz night with Davie and Chanel at the Rowantree Inn, where we triumphed, winning by half a point! Even more excitingly Chanel let me put my hand on her tummy and I felt the baby kicking! 

Duxford Air Show and another magnificent barbecue

Yesterday we went to the Duxford Air Show with Mitchell and Gosia. It was a gorgeous day although by the afternoon I was sweltering and had to seek the shade of the beer tent canopy! My hero Gosia brought me a cup of ice cubes which I put in James’ skip cap on top of my head; this cooled me down very effectively. The display was full and lively, mainly of WW1 and WW2 planes. Gosia had brought a lovely picnic which we ate while sitting in deckchairs on the grass. We also went into the museum where we went on Concorde, this was a test Concorde which never carried paying passengers. There were lots of other planes too and James was in his element. It was a great day. We got back to Gosia and Mitchell’s at about 6.30 and they made another fantastic barbecue which we ate in the garden in the warm evening. Mitchell and James drank a bottle of Saint-Emilion 
The England World Cup football game against Mexico was due to start at about 1 a.m. so none of us planned to watch it. However Mitchell was awoken by cheering emanating from their local pub (which isn’t even all that close to their house!) so he couldn’t resist getting up to watch the end of the game. It was worth it because they won 3-2! James and I didn’t hear him getting up and slept through the whole thing. 
In the morning Gosia and Mitchell went to work while James and I had breakfast in their garden, then Mitchell very kindly popped home to give us a lift to the airport. We also heard the happy news that our niece Jenny is engaged to James! They are a very pleasant young couple and we wish them all the happiness. 

English Villages and a magnificent barbecue

4th July
Gosia and Mitchell collected us from our hotel this morning and gave us a brilliant tour of some of the very pretty villages in Essex and Suffolk. 
These are a few of many highlights. We visited a really high and beautifully built railway viaduct at Wakes Colne, constructed of red brick in the 19th century. Needless to say we climbed up into the arches to take hilarious photos! 
Then we had a walk in the tiny village of Kersey in Suffolk, which is stunningly pretty. It has a Norman Church at one end, and a shallow ford right in the middle of the road. The beautiful medieval timbered houses had many huge hollyhocks in their gardens and even sprouting from cracks in the pavements. 
We had coffee at a wee café in Long Melford which has quirky and interesting shops along its high street. 
This was the area that Mitchell grew up in, and he showed us where his parents had a shop right across the road from where they lived in Sybil Headingham. In Little Maplestead, back in Essex, we stopped at St John’s Round Church, one of only four round medieval churches in the UK. It was a joy to behold and quaint on the inside too, with stained glass windows and a wooden beamed ceiling. 
Back in Braintree Gosia and Mitchell made us the barbecue of all barbecues which we consumed in their verdant garden. We had such a great evening in excellent company. 

Farewells and journeys

We packed up and left Ullapool after lunch yesterday. Jamie and Kerry also set off southwards and went into Glasgow to look at wedding rings, and Davie and Chanel are staying on in Ullapool for another few days of holiday. On the way south James and I listened to The Rest is History podcast about Boswell and Dr Johnson; it was very informative and in places very funny. 

We had a nice chat with Jamie and Kerry in the evening and then this morning we had brunch together at Hugh’s in Burnside before bidding them a very fond and wistful farewell when they set off back to New Zealand via Glasgow Airport and Dubai. 

However Jamie and Kerry were not the only ones setting off on a journey! A few hours later we arrived at Glasgow Airport ourselves for our flight to London Stansted. We are going to visit Gosia and Mitchell and go to the Duxford Air Show. Because of our late evening arrival we have booked in to the Radisson Blu at the airport for our first night. It is comfy and has air-conditioning thank goodness. 

By the way I have just finished a biography of Eileen Blair, the wife of writer George Orwell. I realised that the man who towed my car out of a field on Jura in 2024 is the grandson of Robin Fletcher, who rented Barnhill on Jura to George Orwell in the late 1940s when he was writing the book 1984! What a coincidence! 

Otter Spotters

Today was rather a drizzly day on and off but that didn’t keep us indoors; we walked into the village and had a convivial lunch at the Ceilidh Place.
Jamie and Kerry walked up Ullapool Hill and later we all watched the England v Congo football World Cup Game which England won 2 - 1. We had chilli con carne for dinner and then played Sequence. It was a lovely day but the best was yet to come! 
At about 10.30 p.m. Jamie suggested sallying forth into the dusk to see if we could see some otters at the estuary; Cal had told us yesterday that it was the best place to see them. I had already gone up to bed but Chanel knocked on my bedroom door to invite me and I gladly joined the young ones and headed to the estuary. We walked along the edge of the Bull Park and although there were quite a few bats flying around and there were a few ducks nestled on the grass above the riverbank, we couldn’t see any otters. After a while Chanel and I decided to walk back to the cottage and just after we set off, Chanel pointed at the riverbank just across from us. There were two otters splashing in and out of the water! We quickly phoned Jamie and Davie who were close by and we all stood and watched the otters. It was amazing! The otters seemed to be having lots of fun, playing about and running along the riverbank. What a fantastic end to the day, and the first time that I have seen otters in the wild, apart from sea otters floating past the ship in Alaska in 2013.

Midgiegate

Last night was not without incident; after the party a window was found to have been left open, a light had been left on, and ten million midges had invaded the living room where Ally and Cat were to sleep. Ally and Cat had to fight them off valiantly with a feather duster! All was sorted but there were a few very tired people in the morning. 
Cat’s second cousin James and his partner Cal arrived round for morning coffee and it was great to see them again. They were telling us about their recent adventures racing up steps on St Helena, filming a bicycle race across Africa, and their ongoing project of restoring their boat. Cal was telling us about reintroducing Manx Shearwaters to the Isle of Canna after their population had been wiped out by rats; it was fascinating. They had to move some chicks from Rum to Canna before they became fledglings, so that when they first saw the world it was from Canna and therefore they would always return there. 
We said our goodbyes to Kevin, and Jamie and Kerry drove him to Inverness to catch his train south. The rest of us also headed to Inverness where we met Davie and Chanel, who had just driven up from Uddingston, and the eight of us had lunch in the Castle Tavern which was excellent. Then off we all set to Fort George, a perfect destination for this sunny afternoon, suggested by Ally. We strolled past the barracks and up to the ramparts overlooking the Moray Firth, where we could see a number of dolphins besporting themselves in the water below us. Then we made our way around the ramparts back to the entrance. 
Sadly it was time to say goodbye to Ally and Cat, who were returning to London this evening. James and I dropped them off at the airport and met Jamie, Kerry, Davie and Chanel back at Ullapool where we had pizzas for tea. Later we watched Cal’s documentary about paddle boarding from Lands End to John O’Groats which was very interesting and beautifully filmed. 

Boat trip at Kylescu

We decided to take the ferry to Handa Island this morning but after driving the hour and twenty minutes to Tarbet we found a notice on the ferry kiosk which said “No ferries today, sorry!” This was mildly annoying because this was one of the days that they are supposed to be open, however we are all very adaptable so we had a delicious seafood lunch at the Kylescu Hotel and took the boat trip on Loch a Chàirn Bhàin to see the UK’s highest waterfall, Eas a' Chual Aluinn. We also saw lots of seals with their newborn babies, various seabirds and some dolphins leaping from the water. The sun came and went behind rain clouds but it only drizzled for a short while and we got fantastic views of the waterfall and surrounding hills. James had a very heavy nosebleed earlier, so after our boat trip James, Kevin and I headed back to the cottage while Ally, Cat, Jamie and Kerry stayed in the north to visit Ardvreck Castle among other places. I dropped James and Kevin at the cottage while I went to Tesco but when I arrived home I found that James had inadvertently locked me out. The trouble was I knew that both men had been going to have naps so I didn’t want to disturb them so soon. So I sat outside the cottage on the love seat to read my book, which wasn’t a problem until a very persistent seagull arrived to investigate my shopping bags. I didn’t realise just how bold it was until it jumped forward and pecked a hole right into a packet of venison meatballs! I had to chase it away again and again! 
The young folk arrived home and found me outside; Ally opened the living room window which I hadn’t realised was unlocked and climbed in to open the back door from the inside! 
My dinner of venison meatball casserole (not made with the ones that the seagull had pecked) went down very well; I served it with pasta and garlic bread. Then James and Kevin relaxed while I played Sequence with Ally, Cat, Jamie and Kerry, the board game that Gosia and Mitchell taught us. The young ones took to it like a duck to water and we had a hilarious time. The party was still going strong when I went to bed! 

Cullen Skink

On Saturday morning James and I set off to Ullapool with Ally and Cat, as did Jamie and Kerry with Kevin in their hired car. Davie and Chanel will be joining us on Tuesday after their antenatal class. We met for a very nice lunch at the Route 7 cafe in Aviemore, and stocked up on beer at the Cairngorm brewery before arriving in Ullapool mid afternoon. A trip to the pub was followed by fish suppers and an evening of excellent chat. 

We woke to a beautiful sunny morning on Sunday and walked down to the village for coffee at Tea by the Sea and then lunch at the Seafood Shack. It was sunny and warm sitting outside and Kevin had his first ever Cullen Skink. The seafood there is so fresh and delicious; I had Cullen Skink too because I’m toying with the idea of becoming pescatarian to improve my vegetarian diet. We strolled home and had a relaxing afternoon at the cottage reading and chatting, before having haggis neeps and tatties for dinner. Then at Jamie and Kerry’s suggestion we watched an amazing documentary about an Australian doctor who is an expert cave diver and who was planning a big dive in New Zealand’s unfeasibly deep Pearse Resurgence. I would absolutely never want to do this but the documentary was fascinating. Their adventure was so extreme and technical but also based on trust and friendship. The doctor, Richard “Harry” Harris, is an anaesthetist and, as a cave-diving anaesthetist, he was uniquely qualified to assist in the rescue of twelve schoolboys and their soccer coach when they got caught in flooded caves in Thailand in 2018. Harris anaesthetised the boys so that they wouldn’t panic during the rescue through water-fillled tunnels and they all survived. He’s a proper hero, as is his friend and diving partner Craig Challen who was also part of the Thailand rescue and also in the documentary. 

Inside outside barbecue

When we woke up this morning we were surprised to find that it was strangely dark outside! At least it seemed dark compared to our recent unremitting sunshine. There had been thunder, lightning and heavy rain during the night, and it was still very overcast. It was still very warm and humid though. We had a meeting in Glasgow in the morning and enjoyed a lovely coffee afterwards, sitting outside a wee Italian café. In the afternoon I prepared the salads for our evening barbecue. There were eleven of us in total, the core eight of our family (plus Chanel’s baby bump of course!) and Kevin, Heather and Ewan. Everyone gathered from different places; from Liverpool, London, Uddingston and Lenzie! I wouldn’t call it my finest culinary evening; the weather forecast was too rainy to count on having a full barbecue so I had cooked chicken and beef in the oven while Jamie barbecued sausages and mushrooms outside. We sat outside before dinner but came inside for the buffet style meal, during which time the rain started again. So I felt that the meal was an uneasy mix of indoors and outdoors, neither one thing nor the other. However there was plenty of food and everyone socialised and chatted. I realised that everyone who was there tonight will be at Jamie and Kerry’s wedding next January, and it was the first time that Heather and Ewan have met Kerry and Kevin, and the first time that Kevin has met Ally, Cat, Davie and Chanel. It was like a pre wedding meet up! 

Late night Ice Bath

Well who would have thought that today would be the warmest day yet! It was at least 29 degrees and the heat was fierce. We had every door and window in the house open to try to create a through draft. The cats were just sprawled on the tiled floor of the back room to try to keep cool. I did some prep for my first Children’s Hearing in July and some housework, but I spent a lot of time reading in my hammock and in my ice bath. I hadn’t switched on the cooling unit in the morning so the water was tepid rather than cold but it was still refreshing. I switched it on in the afternoon and by the evening the temperature had dropped to about 10 degrees which cooled me down nicely before bedtime. It was fun to be in my ice bath in the dark; unsurprisingly Tom and Flora came outside to keep me company - not in the water of course but sitting on the slabs nearby. 

Secret Victory

Another hot, sunny, beautiful summer day! In the morning I had coffee at Hilary’s; we sat outside in the shade in her lovely garden and had an excellent chat. And from there I went straight over to House for an Art Lover where I had lunch with Philippa. Although there are outside tables we actually chose to sit inside because it was cooler! We had a good catch up, it will be really nice when she and Steven move back permanently to Scotland. Back home I jumped into my ice bath to cool down; Tom did the most ridiculous double take when he came round the corner of the house and saw me in it! Flora and Tom are enjoying the warm weather and they love the French windows being open so that they can stroll in and out of the house without using the cat flap. They also love us spending so much time in the garden and keep us company. 

Jamie arrived home from his conference and we met Davie and Chanel at the Rowantree Inn where we had pies and chips before the quiz. Lee wasn’t there so there was a substitute quizmaster who was nice but not as personable as Lee. There were some tricky questions but we still managed to come second equal. Or so we thought - when Chanel added up our answer sheet we actually had two more points than had been counted so we were the rightful winners! However we decided not to challenge the result because we didn’t want to make a fuss, so we enjoyed our victory privately!