Kevin Bridges at the Hydro

It has been a sad week for Star Trek fans. Walter Koenig, who played Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek TV series, died aged 90 a couple of days ago. And today the death was announced of Sir Patrick Stewart who memorably played Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was 86 and also had a distinguished stage career. 
We had dinner in the restaurant at the Marriot Courtyard with Gordon and Morag this evening. The food was quite pleasant but most of all it was very handy for the OVO Hydro where we were going to see Kevin Bridges. The two support acts were very good; Chris Kent from Cork in Ireland and especially Christopher Macarthur-Boyd from Glasgow, who went to Bannerman High School where I did a teaching placement long before her was born! Kevin Bridges was excellent, very good with the audience and very funny. The Hydro was completely full and his run there is for two weeks! He wasn’t afraid to joke about controversial topics, and was only momentarily distracted when a fight broke out somewhere high in the auditorium between a couple of women who were somewhat inebriated. It was a very entertaining evening.  

Simon Yates and the missing rope

Just over a year ago when we were visiting Ally and Cat in London, we gathered some acorns in Oxleas Wood near Eltham, when we were walking a section of the Capital Ring. One of them has been in my desk drawer ever since. I have decided to try to grow it but I think I’m too late because one year is apparently the limit to plant it and I’m over that. If it doesn’t grow I can always try to grow one which has fallen this year. I have purchased a little “acorn vase” to try my luck. The acorn sits in its narrow neck with a reservoir of water beneath. 
Lesley and Chris came round for lunch today. We gave them spicy pumpkin soup followed by apple crumble. We used Cat’s Mum Christine’s recipe for the topping and it turned out really well. We had a good laugh and caught up on news. 
This evening we went to Cumbernauld Theatre with Gordon and Morag to hear Simon Yates speak about his mountaineering adventures. He is the climber who had to cut Joe Simpson’s rope when they were climbing together in South America after Joe Simpson fell over a cliff. (Yates had no choice or else he would have gone over the cliff too). Against all the odds Simpson survived and crawled back to their camp three days later. This incident became famous because of Simpson’s book and the subsequent film. James and I went to see the film at the cinema in the 1990s and I also remember us watching it on holiday in Orkney with the boys. Simon Yates appeared in the film as a narrator and although he is of course now in his 60s, he hasn’t changed much. He is a very good speaker, and told us about his extraordinary adventures in a self-deprecating and understated way, illustrated with slides. At the interval we were chatting to him as he signed his books, and Gordon (who, Morag told us, had been wondering about this all day) asked him if he had kept the rope that he cut! It was very funny! Simon Yates explained that he hadn’t kept it and it had ended up in the ravine into which Simpson had disappeared. An excellent evening. 

Chanel’s 30th Birthday

James was out using his new leaf blower in the garden yesterday; he is loving it! He brought me the last two yellow roses from a bush in the front garden. It’s called “Absolutely Fabulous” and James bought it in 2023 after we saw one in Tralee in Ireland. We loved it for its bright colour and its gorgeous scent, and the two last blooms today still smell lovely. I put them in a tiny vase and set them on the kitchen ledge. 
Yesterday was our Chanel’s 30th Birthday! We popped round with her gift late afternoon and gorgeous wee Jessica was sleeping peacefully all snuggled in to her Mummy! 
The wild and rainy weather continues; we went to Italian Renaissance Art today and had lunch first at Offshore Café in Gibson Street. It’s ages since I have been there and I have very happy memories of having lunches there about 20 years ago with Fiona M and our lovely tutor Ernie. The Art History class was good and I was amazed to learn that the Bellini cocktail was invented by the chef in Harry’s bar in Venice and so named because it’s peachy pink hues were reminiscent of the colours used by Italian Renaissance artist, Bellini. Similarly, the same chef named his thinly sliced raw beef dish, carpaccio, because its red colour reminded him of the palette used by the Italian Renaissance artist Carpaccio. How fascinating! 

World Opera Day

World Opera Day is today, the 25th October. I only know that because when James and I were at the Theatre Royal this afternoon the director Sir David McVicar came onto the stage to tell us so. We were there to see Turandot, the first time we have seen it, and it didn’t disappoint. The plot was about a cold-hearted princess who asks each of her suitors three riddles. If they get them wrong they are executed. Our hero Princes Calaf turns up and is not put off by this ridiculous and deadly test. Will he melt the ice maiden’s heart?
It was great to hear the iconic Nessun Dorma in context, when the whole kingdom is forbidden from sleeping until the hero’s name is revealed. The cast and lavish costumes and sets were all wonderful. It was an excellent way to spend a windy and rainy afternoon. 
When we got home James made dumplings to go with the boeuf bourgignon that I made yesterday. I wanted dumplings too so I ate them with vegetable chilli. We had a cosy evening with the cats. 

Storm and Batch Cooking

Well now we have another storm called  Storm Boelo and this one really is very windy as well as rainy. As I lie here in bed the gusts of wind outside are so fierce that the cats keep staring at the windows. It is a momentous day at Casa Anderson because we have made the move to our winter duvet! And the clocks will go back tonight. 
We made the most of this miserable weather today and did some batch cooking. I made vast quantities of boeuf bourgignon and James made four times quantities of his signature vegetable curry. In a moment of carelessness I grasped the metal handle of my one of big casseroles just after I took it out of the oven. It burned my hand sorely so I ran it under tepid water for about twenty minutes, but it was still painful. I put germolene on it and bandaged it up, which helped considerably. We had some of the vegetable curry for dinner and it was delicious. 

Tenzing and Spark

Today we have had the first named storm of the season; it’s called Storm Austen. In the 1970’s we would just have called it bad weather! It’s very wet but not much wind; I think it’s worse in parts of England.
On Wednesday, we went to the Royal Philosophical Society again, this time to hear a talk about investigating the solar system using an observatory in Chile called the Vera C. Rubin. It’s on top of a mountain north of Santiago but not as far north as San Pedro. The speaker was an American lady called Dr Megan Schwamb and she was very interesting. She is very clever and clearly loves her work. She is cataloguing millions of asteroids, comets, and near-Earth objects. It was quite technical but she explained it well. 
Then last night, James and I went to the cinema to see the film Tenzing. I went along because I thought that it would be nice for James, because he loves mountains. However, I think I loved it just as much as he did. It’s a tremendous film, fascinating and heartwarming, and I love that Tenzing and Hillary remained friends for the rest of their lives.
Today I was out for lunch with Chanel and Jessica! We went to Homegrown in Gartcosh and it was great, three generations lunching together! Jessica was just delightful, Chanel expertly fed her while we were eating and we had a good chat. Unfortunately Chanel had sad news to tell me. Her grandmother Parveen died on Wednesday and her funeral is today. She has been very ill recently but they thought that they would have more time with her. 
In the evening we went to see The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at the Citz. I remember watching the tv series in the 1970s and it certainly captures the atmosphere of an all-girls private school like the one I attended. The first half was entertaining but the second half became (inevitably) increasingly depressing. James was not impressed. 

Art History issues

We had rather a disappointing afternoon last Tuesday because our Art History class had to be abandoned. Sybren couldn’t project the slides from his laptop to the big screen no matter what he tried. After half an hour one of the class pointed out that it’s not much good going to a class about the history of Art when you can’t see the paintings, and Sybren agreed to postpone the class. There was much dissatisfaction among our classmates and everyone vowed to send a stiff email of complaint to Sybren’s manager. James and I consoled ourselves by going to the Art Galleries for a coffee on our way home. Just as we arrived back at the car the heavens opened! The rain was lashing against the windscreen as we drove home; we were so lucky not to have been caught in it.
The art history drama continued after I sent my firm but fair email to Blair. I got several emails of apology from different officials which assured me that the issue had been resolved. And then today when we turned up for the class, Blair himself was standing in the corridor to make sure that the technology was working properly. I noticed that many of the class members seemed very excited by the issue and almost seemed disappointed when everything was working perfectly today. I suppose the next step would have been riots on the scale of what has been happening in Paris over the last week, with looting and tear gas! The class was very good and I really liked the paintings and frescoes by Fra Filippo Lippi. 

Birthday and Babies

On Friday I took the train and underground with Sue H to see the Hunterian Art Gallery at Glasgow Uni. I haven’t been there for many years.  First of all we had a tasty lunch of croque madame and croque forestière in the Patisserie Françoise. On our way in to the Hunterian through the revolving doors I had an unfortunate freak accident with the toggle on my jacket, when it got caught in the door, the elastic stretched out and then zapped Sue really hard on her thumb. I felt terrible because I could see that it really hurt her. We were both very impressed with the art gallery, Sue hasn’t been there for ages either. There was much more to see than I had remembered; lots of paintings by the Scottish Colourists. It was a really good afternoon.
Saturday was Davie‘s 31st birthday and he, Chanel and Jessica came here for lunch and birthday cake. It was really great to have the three of them round and Jessica was very alert. I love the way she looks around and then really focuses in on your face! She is so gorgeous. I feel so blessed to be a grandma. 
On Monday, I visited another baby! I drove through to Glenrothes to visit Rachael and baby Robin who is now four months old. He is a gorgeous boy, full of smiles and very active and wriggly. It was a lovely drive there and back in the car through beautiful countryside.

• I’m glad to say that Sue’s thumb made a full recovery. 

Barack Obama

The week has continued very pleasantly with a mixture of fun and useful activities. We have pressed on with booking our holiday in Tahiti after Jamie’s wedding. It’s all very exciting. It’s really a holiday in three parts; firstly New Zealand, the wedding and a holiday to Blenheim vineyards with Heather and Ewan, and Margaret will join us for a few days in Auckland. Then James and I will have a couple of weeks in Tahiti on three different islands. Finally we will have a short break in Chicago on the way home. It didn’t occur to us when we booked it that Chicago in February is going to be a lot colder than our other destinations, and will require a whole different wardrobe!
I went back to Fitsteps on Wednesday for the first time in years. There were a few familiar faces from Pickleball there! Then I had a nice catch up with Linda P over coffee, and in the evening we went to see Barack Obama speaking at the Hydro. I decided to book these tickets awhile ago because Barack Obama is such an amazing part of American history, and he is also reputedly a very good speaker. This turned out to be correct, he spoke confidently and unhurriedly about the issues challenging the world today and his hopes for the future. I was really glad that we went along. After all of his chat about peace and love, I couldn’t help noticing that the audience were all jostling each other on the stairs on the way out of the venue! Ironic. 

Flora and the jigsaw

On Friday Marjory and Forrest came round for lunch. They were on good form and were telling us all about their house move, which is going to be quite complicated as they need to do it in stages. We were also talking about Jenny’s wedding next September which should be a lovely family occasion.
From the top hall this morning, I noticed that Flora was jumping around in the back room. In closer inspection, I saw that she had managed to get hold of a tiny piece of James’s current jigsaw and was playing with it, batting about on the floor with her paws and jumping in the air. It was really cute.
I decided to go down to the leisure centre for a swim but I couldn’t make any bookings because they have a new system and I couldn’t get into it no matter how much I tried. When I popped in the lady at reception was really helpful and sorted me out. By coincidence an aqua aerobics class was just about to start in the pool and there were two spaces left, so I joined in that thoroughly enjoyed it before going on to swim a few lengths.  I really should go swimming more often because I enjoy it very much. 

First chill of autumn

When we woke up on Thursday, James announced that it was 3°C outside, the lowest this autumn so far. And sure enough it really did feel quite autumnal when I got outside. It was beautiful too, with blue skies and the leaves on the trees just turning to gold and red. After nipping out to do a few errands I spent the morning doing a training course about the new children’s legislation for older children. Heavy stuff. 
I had a lovely catch up with Ally Walker over lunch at the museum of rural life in East Kilbride, we both had lots of news to share. She invited me to a Café Litteraire at the Alliance Française at the end of November; the book to be discussed is “L’heure des prédateurs” by Giuliano da Empoli so I will need to read it. I feel excited but rather daunted at the prospect! 
Then James made delicious asparagus risotto for dinner and even made our old favourite of Angel Delight poured onto tinned pears for dessert. He is definitely in my good books for that! 
Later on I hosted book club; we were discussing the Nightingale by Kristen Hannah and our discussion of the book led on to the French Resistance and the Second World War. It was a really good chat. 

Royal Philosophical Society

What a laugh we had on Monday at our ladies lunch in Il Pavone. There were only three of us because Maggie was in London to see her new grandson, and Helen couldn’t make it because of a tyre puncture, so Libby, Wendy and I decided to ask the waiter to take a photograph of us looking sad without the others. The photograph was hilarious. I was staring gloomily into my coffee cup , Wendy was making a sad face at the camera, and Libby was attempting to pout but trying not to laugh which resulted in a very strange expression. We immediately sent it to our absent friends who thought it was very funny but both wanted us to arrange another meet up before Christmas so that we can all be reunited! James and I were back at our art history class on Tuesday; this week we were looking at the use of perspective in the Italian Renaissance. I found it a bit dry and it doesn’t help that the room that we meet in it’s so warm. It’s in the James Black building in the university, and there is nowhere nearby to get a coffee at break time, so James and I go for a walk up and down the corridor and look at the science posters. Later I went to Pickleball coaching, which I really enjoy. The proof of this is how quickly the hour flies past.
Today I had lunch at the Burrell Collection with Hilary, we parked at the old cricket club and walked the short distance through the park to the museum. It was very beautiful with the leaves just turning golden, and Hilary suddenly said “how lucky we are!” And I have to say that I agree with her! We had a lovely lunch and talked, among many other things, about grandchildren. Hilary has four much loved four grandchildren and they are all very different from one another.
Talking of grandchildren, I popped round to see Jessica and Chanel later in the afternoon. Jessica was very cute, moving and stretching in her comfy pram and definitely looking right at me when she opened her eyes. Davie arrived in from work and was telling us about his day.
In the evening James and I went to our first lecture at the Royal Philosophical Society in the Dir Charles Wilson building at Glasgow University. It was about the Chemistry of life and death. There was a lot about mitochondria and the Krebs cycle. The speaker was called Nick Lane from UCL. He was immensely popular, it was standing room only at the back but luckily we got two of the last seats available. He was very personable and a good speaker, and James enjoyed it very much, however the science was way over my head and I really felt as if I must have looked like a dog watching a card trick! 

A pleasant autumnal week

Tuesday was a sunny and breezy morning and we played Pickleball outdoors, it was excellent fun as always. Then James picked me up and we went straight to Italian Renaissance Art, following the same routine as last week. Unfortunately, the Wi-Fi wasn’t working in the dilapidated Sir James Black building, so Sybren had to carry his laptop around the room to show us the slides. It must’ve been exhausting for him. Luckily for me, I had already printed out the slides so James and me were able to have a closer look at them. This week we were learning about the many artists who were involved in creating Florence’s Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral; builders, sculptors, painters and more. Brunelleschi, Ghiberti and Donatello were the big hitters in the early 15th century. 
We had dinner at Heather and Ewan’s, the veg lasagne was delicious and so was the apple and blackberry crumble. We had a nice chat and heard about their holiday in Croatia. 
On Friday we caught up with Stuart and Anne for the first time in ages, it was really great to see them and hear all of their news. And on Saturday night we had Gordon and Morag round for dinner with Cornel and Heather. They hadn’t met before, however they all got on extremely well and we had a good laugh. I was gratified at how well the meal was received. Tom and Flora were enjoying the chat and sat in the lounge with us looking around at everyone and being admired (but not jumping up in anyone except James and me.) I’m so proud of how social they are! 

Talking of cats, I was cat-sitting Skye and Harris this weekend; Davie, Chanel and Jessica went to Warrington to visit Chanel’s Grandma who is very ill in hospital. The good news is that she is doing much better and is expected to get out of the ICU tomorrow.

Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks

Our guests left us on Saturday morning to catch the 10.30 ferry to Stornoway where they were going to attend a family party. They will return to the cottage on Wednesday evening and, depending on the weather, may stay for a few days. 
However we won’t be able to join them because today we have headed down the road to rejoin the cats and to go to various events over the next few days. We were unlucky in the way down the A9 to get stuck behind a traffic accident, and we were sent on a long diversion via Dunkeld. * 
It was really tedious. 
We barely had an hour in the house before we needed to set off to see Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks at GRCH. We parked at Cowcaddens and hurried along the road to the concert hall. But when we arrived I realised that I had left my phone at home. My phone had the tickets in it and I couldn’t log into the ticket website from James’ phone because the password was randomly generated and is saved in my phone. We went to ask for help at the box office but there seemed to be no way to retrieve the tickets. 
James immediately plunged into the five stages of grief, but got stuck at number two - anger! Then one of the people at the help desk said that he had the list of tickets bought via ticketmaster and he was able to find our names and reissue our tickets. We got to our seats just as the concert was starting - phew! 
I enjoyed the concert more than I thought I would. The psychedelic music of Jon Anderson is more James’ taste than mine however his voice is still good and I enjoyed the concert. The concert was sold out and the partisan audience loved every minute of it. No one of course loved it more than Jon Anderson himself, who was clearly enjoying the adulation of his fans. It’s hard to believe that he is nearly 82 years old.
* Three people were taken to hospital but no fatalities I’m glad to say. 

The “Lost” Cat

Tom climbed in the kitchen window of 10 Cadzow Drive at some point today. The inhabitants must have assumed that he was a stray, closed the window, fed him a can of tuna and put the word out that they had a lost cat in their house. Christine next door phoned me at about 6 p.m. to tell me that no. 10 had told Brian about it when he was out walking Bailey. I phoned Angela who went round and chapped the door of no. 10. The first thing she saw when they opened the door was Tom, rolling about happily on his back on the hall carpet. The people who live there were very nice, and told her that when they searched Facebook to see if there were any reports of a missing cat, they found a post from Cat five years ago about Tom being lost! He did have a collar on but it may have had the old house phone number on it. Angela had a look but she didn’t have her reading glasses with her so she couldn’t read the number. So we will have a look when we get home and make sure that he has an up to date tag on his collar with my mobile number on it. Tom returned home with Angela unrepentant and I have a bad feeling that he may visit number 10 again! Anyway all’s well that ends well but we will be having some stern words with Tom on our return home! Not that he will either understand or care! 

Autumn Visitors

We have had a really lovely autumnal weekend in Ullapool with Christine and Gerry. We arrived on Thursday afternoon, without the cats this time, and the Reids arrived a few hours later. We had a pleasant dinner and evening in the cottage, and then introduced Christine and Gerry to our favourite game of the summer; Sequence. They seemed to enjoy it and Christine and I beat the boys. On Friday James and Gerry went for a walk up the quarry road to Loch Achall. Christine and I strolled into town and had a look round the shops, something I don’t do very often so it was good fun. We had a good chat too. We got a message from James to say that he and Gerry were back in the village so we all met at Cult Café for lunch. After a relaxing afternoon we had some really delicious handmade pizzas at Oak and Grain in the village before heading down to Rhidorroch Distillery for drinks and to listen to some traditional music. Back at the cottage our convivial evening continued with much chat and laughter. 

Farewell to Ally until January

A pleasant and social day. We had brunch with Janis and Gerry at our old favourite All Bar One. It was, as ever, lovely to see them and there was much talk of grandchildren; their wee grandson Rory is nearly two and is a handsome wee fellow. Alasdair was in town getting an inoculation for his travels, so he came to join us afterwards; he has known Janis and Gerry since he was a student. 
My next stop in today’s social whirl was coffee with my once-upon-a-time job sharer, Margaret N. We job-shared for eight-and-a-half years in the 1990s into the early 2000s and she was excellent; always very organised and a great teacher. We had a good catch up in Margaret’s beautiful home, lots of family news and some interesting news of former colleagues. 
And then James, Ally and I went over to Uddingston to visit beautiful Jessica - and Davie and Chanel of course. Jessica had just been fed and was quite sleepy, it was lovely to hold her. Davie and Chanel were in good spirits, parenthood suits them. 
Back home we had a farewell curry with Ally. Tomorrow he will drive back to London, then next week he and Cat will travel to Barbados for a holiday together as Ally starts his travels around the world. We won’t see Ally until we all meet in New Zealand for Jamie and Kerry’s wedding - we will miss him. 

More De Gaulle

Today was a sunny day and I went down to pickleball at the tennis club for an enjoyable few games. Then followed James’ and my carefully planned arrangement to get to our Art History class in time. I left Pickleball ten minutes early and James collected me by car from Central Avenue. I changed my top in the car and had a snack before we arrived comfortably in time to park and walk to the class. The tutor is the very pleasant and intelligent art historian Sybren who taught the Northern Renaissance course last year. He was telling James that he did a degree in Geology during lockdown because he was bored - and got a First! The introductory lesson was all about who decided that the Italian Renaissance was so great - spoiler alert - it was the Florentines who thought that everything had been leading up to their self-described perfect art. They discounted or minimised other art movements as inferior. It was fascinating. 
Then off we went in the next part of today’s adventures to see the second De Gaulle film; Liberté. Having almost missed the cinema showings of the first film we booked the second one quickly afterwards. This time we were in Glasgow at Braehead Odeon and we were in nice time to have a cup of tea before our film. It was just as good as the first film. De Gaulle was such a character. Over the closing titles a twenty-one stanza 1942 poem by the French poet Paul Éluard called “Liberté” was read aloud; he names many places, real or imaginary, on which he would write the word liberté. The last line of each verse is J’écris ton nom. Thousands of copies of it were dropped by parachute that same year by the RAF over occupied France. It was a fitting and moving end to the film. 

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.