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Photos from our weekend
Friends of ours who we haven’t seen since 2014 visited us from New Zealand this weekend. It’s wonderful to catch up with old friends again. Daniel in particular really bonded with the son who is a similar age to him. Here’s a photo in our backyard, complete with finger in front of the lens. On […]
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Pets and wildlife
I think Victoria has been missing the hamsters. She used to like sitting above Daisy’s cage watching her. It was hamster TV. Just before Daisy died she came out of her burrow and simply stopped moving. I knew it was over then. Victoria started making whiny noises and tapped on the side to try to […]
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Another hamster death and the fox returns
Daisy our hamster is dead. After Bella died earlier this month I decided I wasn’t going to make the same mistake with Daisy and a few weeks ago I took her to the vet. It can be hard to tell when a hamster is unwell as they’re out at night when we’re asleep and both […]
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Street art for Deeside Way
Earlier this year I applied for a grant from Sustrans on behalf of the Aberdeen Cycle Forum for art on a popular walking and cycling route in Aberdeen. Sustrans have an ArtRoots fund especially for projects like this. The funding application was successful! This was a very different campaign for me. I’ve organised protests, cycling […]
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Who would be king?
The Monarch’s Song from the terrific children’s BBC production, Horrible Histories, helps young people learn the names of all the monarchs in British history. However it has always bothered me that it starts with William the Conqueror because he was not the first King of England. The very first King of England was Æthelstan, the […]
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Hövding deployed, a birthday and a BBQ
Yesterday my Hövding helmet deployed the airbag and I wasn’t even on my bike at the time. The Hövding is an airbag helmet. You wear it around your neck and in the event of an accident while cycling, it deploys an airbag around your head. It’s got much higher shock-absorbing ability than a plastic helmet […]
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I am a British citizen
Today I took my affirmation of allegiance to King Charles III at Aberdeen’s Marischal College and in return I received my certificate of British citizenship. They didn’t reject me for my convict ancestry or my endless campaigning for cycle paths and so I’m very proud to say that I’m now a fully fledged British citizen. […]
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Finding comfort in science
I’ve been very hard on myself this past week about Bella and so I took some time last night to do some research into the disease the vet diagnosed her with. He said it was proliferative ileitis which is a bacterial infection in the intestines thought to be caused by the bacterium Lawsonia intracellularis. It […]
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Two deaths in one week
Bella, our hamster, died on the same day as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, on the 8th September 2022. Bella’s death hit me harder than I was expecting. We haven’t had her for very long but I noticed over the past month that she was losing weight. I started to weigh her regularly to see […]
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Clever crow stealing peanuts
I felt bad recently because when I replaced my bird feeders with ones that had a protective cage to keep pigeons away I realised it would also prevent blackbirds from accessing the food. Blackbirds are ground feeders but I did see them occasionally use the hanging feeder. I remember it because there were two of […]
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Braemar Gathering 2022
We had a splendid day at the Braemar Gathering today which finally went ahead after a two-year hiatus. We previously went in 2017 and 2018. Friends of ours invited us to stay with them in Aboyne overnight which made it a much shorter drive to and from the games. We arrived late to avoid the […]
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Ross Ainslie live in Braemar
We went to a Scottish folk music concert in Braemar last night and it was amazing, to use Daniel’s words. We were worried Daniel and Elizabeth would find it boring or want to leave early but they both loved it. Daniel even described it as a great memory he’ll never forget. Ross Ainslie played with […]
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Feeding and bathing the birds
The magpies and slugs now eat the food I leave out for the hedgehogs. I know because I leave the camera out on it overnight and there’s very little activity from anything else. Something that did surprise me is how popular a bowl of water is. I was going to throw away a chipped pasta […]
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Wildfarmed flour, giant vegetables, and bicycles
I was very excited to discover today that Bandit Bakery sell Wildfarmed flour. Wildfarmed flour is the future of farming because it prioritises soil health by growing perennial plants alongside crops like wheat so rather than having a giant field containing one single crop it’s a more natural and sustainable biodiverse ecosystem consisting of several […]
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The book of Deer at Aberdeen Art Gallery
We went to Aberdeen Art Gallery today to see the Book of Deer which is a 10th century manuscript thought to be of Scottish origin and which references the monastery of Deer in Aberdeenshire. It’s currently on loan from the University of Cambridge where it has lived since 1715. The book is written in Latin […]
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First blackberry crumble of the season
It’s blackberry season – yay! This means lots of blackberry crumble. Ben went foraging and collected a huge container full yesterday, half of which got eaten last night. There are so many wild blackberries all over the place in Aberdeen and the fruit ripens at different times – I guess depending on how sunny a […]
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D&D, cargo bike, summer, and gardens
The kids played Dungeons & Dragons at Geek Retreat in Aberdeen yesterday. This was their second time playing and they love it. They went with friends this time which would have made it even better. On Saturday afternoons you can book in for a beginner’s session and learn how to play. Their first game was […]
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A computer game and a highland dance update
Daniel wrote a game in Javascript. It’s a re-creation of the snake game. You’re the snake and you move around the screen consuming fruit. Each time you eat a piece of fruit you get longer. If you touch the edge or yourself you die. Movement is via the keys W, A, S, D on your […]
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The Aboyne Games and foraging for dinner
Yesterday we went to the Aboyne Highland Games and Elizabeth competed in the highland dance. It’s the first time we’ve been to the Aboyne games and the first time it has run since before the pandemic. Elizabeth came last or second last in her dances. The other girls were quite a lot better and I’m […]
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Happiness is …
… seeing our first guest in the pond hotel. Can you spot him? We hope you liked it, Mr Toad!
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