Grabbing it while you can!

The sun, I mean...

Sitting in the garden for the whole day cause you never know how long it'll last, ignoring chores and dreaming of being transported to a similar scene in the countryside very soon.

Morning cappuccinos and reading, endless - I do mean endless and a whole post needed to discuss - crochet, gazing at roses and my boys and our cats.

Happy days.  

We're off camping next week, once we decide which part of glorious Scotland we want to see.  West Coast, the Highlands, the Islands?  So much to choose from.  Tolerating midges and soaking up amazing scenery.  See you when we get back...

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Let it pour and pour.....

The rain is never ending today.

I love never ending rain.  No indecision, no dithering over a bit of rain or a bit of cloud or a bit of sun.  The decision is made, the answer clear; it will rain and rain and rain. ' Dreich' it is and I love 'dreich'.  'Dreich' is meant to be cold and miserable and yes some days 'dreich' certainly captures the feeling the weather induces, but today it feels right.  I even walked with my Biscuits to school just to be out in it.  Colours are popping, particularly green and I do love our garden in the rain.  

It is small and no matter that I sometimes yearn for more space I feel cocooned in it, comforted and at peace whether in it or looking at it and today it is a pleasure to see it out there.  There is enough space for a table and chairs and for the fun and frolicking of trampolining and it is ours, all ours.

I am not, however, a natural gardener.  I very much like a garden that looks untouched and left to grow however it pleases; walls of ivy or clematis, alive, grasping to hold on to what ever it touches. I find it utterly romantic and am happily lead into thoughts of fairy tales and magic.  Of woodlands and homes in hollowed-out trees of hidden lives behind hidden walls, lonely princesses and curious strangers.  I just cannot bring myself to constrain and control.  I am absolutely sure there are sound gardening reasons why you should but, for me, it feels wrong.  I surrender to their need to climb, to cling and take comfort in the wall of green, vivid life.  

I also love the stones we have; weed suppressors but, for me, they take me to wild Scottish beaches.  They are battered and bruised by the North sea and for their trouble give forth their intense colour and patterns.  Something they barely give up in the dry.  Hidden treasure.  I imagine being at a Scottish beach today.  Of  being soul cleansed by the severe wind and the certainty I am alive because I feel so much.  

I spend a lot of time in solitude; in my head.  I am by nature a brooder and often I marinade in things I shouldn't but I am also a romantic, an optimist and see things in a skew-wiffy way always enrobed in my imagination.  Always reminded of songs or things I have read or feelings I have had, of love and of living, of the nature of beginnings and of endings.

Today I am content and fit to burst, all because of the never ending rain and the view of it's power over our garden and, in oh so many ways, over me.

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Sports Day, Baking, Bunting and Beau-Beau...

Howdy folks, what a day!   

Up and down, up and down and up and down again to school for my Biscuits' Sports Day.  Of course the usual happened, school  gave us unconfirmed dates, didn't actually confirm with the parents but all the kiddies knew and most didn't bother to pass that info on......so I found out at 8.45am this morning that my presence would be required at 9.30am (it turned out for one and a half hours.. ahhh!!) and again at 1.30pm (only an hour..phew!).  Eldest Biscuit's was almost rained off and I was expected to capture their escapades on video for the Husband to see but of course talked over most of it and missed bits.  Oh well!  I did my best with the talent (or lack thereof) to record it for prosperity. 

It has been decidedly chilly here in my part of Scotland for most of the week, after what was a spectacular weekend, whether the sun has shone or not so I got around to making the bunting for the garden parasol just in case warmth was attached to the appearance of sunshine.  It was just after completion so I think I may have sewn some wishes into it without realizing, that or some Gypo magic.  It took the best part of a day to do and I took the skin off my pinky using the pinking shears which is why they are named that way I figure.  I'm pleased with the end result so I shall suffer my injuries (not quietly, never quietly!)...

The clematis in our garden is quite resplendent just now, Hubby is desperate to cut it back but he's been warned there will be no more cake or biscuits if he does.  He's not silly enough to risk it!  I love climbers!  Love how they seem alive, search and grab hold of anything in their surroundings.  I love to cover fences in them too, a wall of life!  The clematis in the photo also has a dual purpose, other than looking glorious, of keeping the living room cool, only letting in dappled sunshine.  I do love it so!

I had to bake something of course this week, have been promising myself Peanut Butter Fudge care of Sophie Dahl but got sidetracked by yet another yearning for lemons.  I was sensible and practical in making two so some could be frozen.  Not greed you understand!

I'm quite sure if I looked close enough at the citrus juicer I'd see myself akin to a mangled reflection in a fairground Hall of Mirrors.

And finally.....my poor baby Hamish AKA Beau-Beau has a sore eye and of course there is no photo of that but I felt I needed to hear a collective "aw!!" for him.  So whenever you are ready.........thanking you!

X

Why oh why...........

....am I having to drag myself upstairs on the mind-boggling quest of cleaning toothpaste off of mirrors, wall and tiles?  Not to mention dealing with a toilet used by three menfolk.  When all I want to do is grab my knitting/sewing/magazine and or book and join this gorgeous man cat.....

....out in the garden even if it is deceptively chilly out there.  Pants and poo I say!  

Pants and poo!

I admit though, I am doing a good job of putting it off...

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A week.....

...it has been.  

Up and down which is usually the way with school holidays.  Moments of pleasure shared with my boys, moments when I consider the legalities of locking them out the house until their Daddy comes home from work.

The bad - after being away at cub Camp all weekend and banning Youngest Biscuit and I from watching Doctor Who (A Crime!!!) until Hubby and Eldest Biscuit came back, aforementioned Eldest woke up very poorly on Monday morning, lay on the sofa for two days, so no going out, and since has been in a mood most foul, many arguments and strops and sending/stomping off to his bedroom have ensued.  It hasn't been pleasant.  To top it, Youngest Biscuit's bestest wee friend was away so that spoiled his whole life apparently so many arguments and strops and sending/stomping off to his bedroom have ensued.  Yes it's been repetitively horrid, yet there have been.....

The good - I received my birthday present from Hubby.........

Martha

Is she not beautiful?  Look at that face!

She is from The Vintage Magpie and I love her.  Deeply.  I feel like a little girl just looking at her and a delighted, heart glad one at that.  Go look, but be warned!  Your purse may empty!

Time has been spent in the garden mainly to bang my head as I hang out washing but we did spot our first Ladybird of the year....

It was huge and it was like receiving a magical present when we spotted it.  It even did that wonderfully freaky wing opening thing that reminds me of the DeLorean from Back to the Future.

I even managed to get my blog giveaway goodies posted to their recipients and was very touched by how welcome those goodies were.

My bunnies...

of Ali's knitting bag, are!!

..and lastly to chocolate cake as, in my opinion, there can never be enough photos of cakes.  Not never, not no how!!

and I got to be girly and my Biscuits still ate it!

I must face my demons now, i.e clean the effing bathroom but there are good things this weekend.  Tonight I am making vanilla ice cream to go with Sticky Toffee Pudding for tomorrow as we are having the postponed birthday meal for my gorgeous Father-in-law.  We are on a mission you see.  Many moons ago, in a former life it feels at times, we ate a meal at Charlotte Square in Edinburgh in the National Trust For Scotland restaurant and were served the best, the most delectable Sticky Toffee Pudding that there ever was.  The sauce tasted of childhood memories of jaw sticking McGowans Toffee and ah we had our benchmark.  We have yet to find a recipe that has reached it, so tomorrow I will be trying a James Martin recipe in hopes of it being that good.

I confess, in a way I hope to never find it as one I wouldn't want to negate that fine, fine memory and two to lose the excuse for continuing to feed everyone and myself one of the best ends to a meal.

Enjoy your weekend!

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