Month: September 2020
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Potarch Bridge
We visited a lovely bridge over the River Dee today called Potarch Bridge which is about 40 miles west of Aberdeen. It was built by the engineer Thomas Telford in 1811-1813. This is the same Thomas Telford who built the Caledonian Canal and many other bridges all over the UK. I do love an old…
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Agent Sonya: the woman who nearly killed Hitler
I listened to a terrific podcast this week from Stories of our times called Agent Sonya: the Soviet spy who came in from the Cotswolds. It’s about a German woman called Ursula Kuczynski who spied on Nazi Germany for the Russians in the 1930s and 1940s. She was Jewish and soon had to flee Germany.…
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Pot-pourri from a Surrey Garden
This book appeared in the post today. It was addressed to me but I have no idea who sent it. Perhaps it’s a birthday present? Thank you whoever you are! It’s right up my alley. In the forward it says, “Through her writing, she [Mrs C.W. Earle] swayed a wide public away from geometric formality…
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The cold-blooded killer
We took the cold-blooded killer with us on our holiday to Aviemore last weekend. It’s the first time she’s been away with us so we were a little concerned about how it might go but it turned out brilliantly. She seemed to enjoy exploring all the nooks and crannies in a new house. We even…
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Loch an Eilein and Landmark Forest Adventure Park
We’re back from our holiday in Aviemore and although we were sad to leave it’s nice to have decent wifi again at the very least so I can see all the photos we took. It’s also nicer to view them on a big screen. My new Samsung phone has a brilliant camera and so we…
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An Lochan Uaine and the BMW i3
I managed to tick swimming in An Lochan Uaine (green loch) off my bucket list today. It’s an emerald-coloured lochan with a sandy beach about 5 miles from Aviemore. It’s so inviting that even Daniel and Ben ventured into the water, despite the frigid temperature. I’m not sure what the temperature was exactly but it…
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Half my life
I’m 45 today. If I’m lucky enough to live to 90 then I have lived half my life. I hope I’m still riding my bike at 90. You’re only as old as you feel or, as Groucho Marx once said, “You’re only as old as the woman you feel”. I heard another quote recently that…
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Purple cardigan
A British mathematican at Imperial College London has won a mathematics prize worth £2.3 million. I had no idea there was this much money in maths. I’ve told Ben he needs to start proving more theorems. Covid-19 is on the rise again in the UK which means we need to be more careful than ever…
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Pavement cycling
David Hembrow is an Englishman who lives in the Netherlands and writes a blog called A view from the cyclepath. He also has a You Tube channel about cycling infrastructure. He’s very good at making observations about people, transport, and infrastructure and drawing conclusions from what he sees. This video is a very good one…
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Online schooling
The kids started back at their online school yesterday. Everything went very well and I think they even enjoyed it. They were both ready to go back. Elizabeth started labelling all her notebooks last week and transcribed her French dictionary into the new book. The school gives them a nice structure to the day as…
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Spuds
I’ve never been a huge fan of potatoes but it’s funny how when you start growing something yourself it takes on a new value. Potatoes are so easy to grow, they’re not affected by slugs, or pigeons, and they don’t need any special netting. All you do is bung them in the ground in spring…
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Cycling infrastructure benefits everyone
The Aberdeen City Council has really been getting a hammering from residents in Aberdeen about the installation of a segregated bike path at the beach. I can see what an uphill battle it is for cycling here. Some of the comments I’ve seen are extraordinary. One woman wrote: okay well I’ll carry on as normal…
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Aberdeen beach cycle path
About a month ago the Aberdeen city council announced plans for a bike path at the beach. This is being developed from part of their spaces for people funding which is money they received to help pedestrians navigate in a world with a novel virus flying around. I was interviewed for the story when it…
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Some photos and switching country in the Google store
The avocado tree on our kitchen windowsill is getter rather large. It’s going to reach the ceiling soon. We’ve noticed in the past week or so that the trees are showing the first signs of autumn. The next two photos were taken in Duthie Park. One of the courgettes at my allotment got a bit…
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