Last day of winter?

I'm very excited at the prospect of Spring being just round the corner. It definitely seems a little milder and the crocuses and daffodils are beginning to bloom. This morning Jack and I enjoyed watching two squirrels on the bird table eating bread that James had put out onto the bird table, and nuts from the feeder. When one of the squirrels dropped some bread, a wee bird hopped past and picked it up off the ground; it was very sweet. One of the funniest things I saw at the weekend was Ally and Davie chasing the squirrels up the garden, the squirrels were far too fast for them! Jack is too wise even to try. Davie phoned me at lunch time to say that his interview at Riding for the Disabled went well; the next step is an induction. Most importantly he enjoyed it and wants to go back. I read on the Internet this evening that Davy Jones of the Monkees died today aged 66. Another part of my youth gone; Jennifer and I used to watch the television series in the seventies (repeats I assume) and James and I went to one of the reunion concerts in the 1980s. However my favourite Monkee, Mike Nesmith, did not take part in the tour because he was so rich; he inherited millions from his mother who invented one of the earliest forms of correction fluid. He was also the best looking (in my opinion) and wrote some great songs. Anyway Davy Jones was my second favourite Monkee because although tiny, he was cute. 

A fine walk by the sea

Back down to the Ayrshire coastal path today; we are getting to know the A77 very well! We were walking from Girvan to Maidens with my school walking club and had a great time. It was cool but dry and although we have walked that section before it was very enjoyable. What surprised me most was that I was actually looking forward to it beforehand. This may seem strange, but I tend to worry before I take exercise because I feel that I won't be up to it. I worry in case I won't reach the top of a hill, or get to the end of a walk, and I worry that I will hold up the other people I am with. This is not my imagination - I take exercise very sporadically so I really can be much less fit than the rest of the group. I have trailed behind the rest on many an occasion. So quite often I will lie awake the night before a trip, hoping that bad weather will result in it being cancelled. It never is! Once I get going on my walk I usually relax and enjoy myself; if it's a hill walk I don't really relax until I reach the top. Anyway, maybe it's the familiarity of Ayrshire, or the fact that I have been walking with James fairly regularly over the last six months, but last night I felt none of the usual dread, and in fact I was raring to go this morning! Now I had better not get too excited about this, because I knew it was going to be a very easy walk, but my optimism must be a positive thing! 

On the train with David

Davie and I are on the train testing out his journey for a job interview on Wednesday; I want to make sure that he knows the way. We have had a busy weekend so far; I was at book club last night and today we went to get Ally fitted for the kilt that Grandma is giving him for his 18th birthday at the end of March - a very generous present. We had some errands in the west end so we took Grandma for lunch in Oran Mor. Talking of birthdays, it was Jamie's 22nd birthday yesterday - I can hardly believe that is the age of the tiny baby who stared at me so intently and alertly with his big blue eyes just after he was born. It seems like yesterday. Jamie hasn't decided what he wants for his birthday, and we won't be seeing him this weekend because he is in Aberdeen rowing today and then having a massive party tonight, to which we are not invited. In fact the only reason that I know about the party is that Ally has been invited! He is delighted and is getting a lift to Dundee with the women's rowing team (I bet he's delighted about that too!) I have been reflecting about how all three boys are turning out to have many of James' annoying traits:
1. Quoting obscure song lyrics.
2. Singing to the cat.
3. Quite grumpy if contradicted.
4. Disproportionate love of science and technology.
5. Rude about my driving and skiing.
6. Dogmatic.
7. Bizarre sense of humour.
8. Rarely show remorse.
9. Strange taste in music.
10. Unwilling to answer phone.
The boys don't have all of these behaviours in the same proportion; for example Ally is definitely the grumpiest, Davie talks the most in song lyrics, Jamie has the strangest tastes in music, but they all display these traits to some extent and I find it quite unnerving. On the other hand, all three boys share James' good qualities too; loyal, generous, and loving. And I have grown to quite like their bizarre sense of humour. 

Catching up at Piccolo Mondo

I had a lovely meal tonight with Kari at Piccolo Mondo, where there was an excellent "5 pm" offer of just £10 for two courses, as long as you book for between 5.30 and 6. This suited us very nicely for an early meal together, and the price also included an aperitif and either a liqueur or a coffee! I have been there once before, with James, Kathryn and Alan, and once again the food was delicious in very nice, traditional surroundings. However the best thing about the evening was catching up with Kari. We have kept in fairly good touch over the years and our boys get on very well when they see each other. Months can go by, but when we do meet up we resume the conversation as if we had seen each other the day before! How nice that a cousin has become such a good friend. 

A house full of boys

I dearly love my husband and three sons, and I feel so lucky to have them in my life. However there are occasions when I feel a bit outnumbered by men, and tonight is a good example. After a long day at work culminating in a training course from 5.30 until 7.30, I made the dinner and was looking forward to a well earned rest, watching an episode of Mad Men. However when I sat down I found that James, Ally and Davie had just started watching a programme called "How to Build a Jumbo Jet Engine". Imagine my dismay. The programme turned out to be just as boring as I feared, featuring various (no doubt very skilled) workers describing how they make their own particular component of a Rolls Royce engine. However when I pointed out to the boys how dull this was, I was rudely advised to "Shut up Mum", and told in no uncertain terms that they would not be changing channels. The programme is still dragging on, and the workers are now slowly assembling an engine, in front of the fascinated eyes of my husband and offspring. The only interesting thing that has happened in the last hour is that a frog is looking in through the French windows at us, it has been doing this for the past few evenings, I wonder why. David has named it Freddo. Back to the programme; a very senior engineer is now checking an engine using a long stick with a light on the end of it, so I have high hopes that it will end soon. 

Having a laugh

I found something that I thought was funny on the Internet on Monday and I showed it to Alasdair after tea.

http://www.27bslash6.com/missy.html (about a missing cat poster by David Thorne - he kept wilfully misunderstanding what sort of poster the lady with the missing cat wanted, and the artwork that he came up with is very amusing!)

Ally laughed and laughed. It was lovely to see! He laughed so much that he was wiping tears from his eyes. David also thought it was funny and fell on the floor laughing at one point. And James enjoyed it too. I think it is the cat theme which we all liked. It set the mood for a relaxing evening watching a programme about the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and then an episode of Mad Men - we are nearing the end of the second series. Jamie phoned later and was telling me how much he enjoyed his rowing weekend in Peterborough, which had 150 boats, more boats than he has ever seen! His poor hands are a mess from all the rowing; David told us proudly that "Jamie's hands are like other peoples' feet!" (because of the hard skin! Yeuch!). I also phoned Jennifer and we had a good chat. And David told me he has started his own blog - I read it and it's great, I'm so proud! 

Snowdrops at Skelmorlie

It has been a very nice weekend. A curry on Friday, a lovely evening with Caroline and Jamie on Saturday, and today another section of the Ayrshire Coastal Path with James. This time we walked from Largs to Skelmorlie. We parked the car at the beautiful Victorian Wemyss Bay Station with its sweeping curves of glass roof, and got a taxi to Largs. As James pointed out, it was very rural for a coastal walk! The route took us inland for a lot of the way, through farmland (where we encountered three angry geese) and across hillsides up to Knock Hill where we got great views back to Largs and way down the coast to the south, and also across the Firth of Clyde to Bute, and north to the Inverkip power station with the Greenock hills beyond. We were so lucky with the weather; it was sunny the whole way (about 13 km - 4 hours including the diversion up Knock Hill where we had a stop for lunch). We could see that there was rain coming in from the Cowal Peninsula across the Clyde Estuary, but it stayed dry for us and it started raining in Skelmorlie about thirty seconds after we got back into the car! A highlight of the route was all the snowdrops that we passed on our way. We're on our way home now and I can't wait to get into a hot bath! Update at bed time: there was not enough hot water for my bath so it was lukewarm, and as I disappointedly got out of it I knocked over my mug of coffee which broke on the bathroom floor! What a mess! Davie offered to clear it up for £5 and he made a lovely job of it. Later we had a jolly evening with Grandma watching the last episode of "Call the Midwife", which was very good.