Category: Journal
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Busy weekends, crochet, step stools, greenhouse, and war
What a busy weekend this has been. I went into hyperdrive on Saturday and accomplished a huge number of jobs which felt good. I started the day packaging things for the post office and writing a letter. Then I dropped some used carbon dioxide cylinders off at the corner store to return to the manufacturer […]
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A new kitchen: before and after pics
This week we got a new kitchen. It was planned last year and fortunately went in after the laundry fire and not before. The fire did make things a little more chaotic because last weekend we had to empty our old kitchen of stuff; stuff we were planning to put in the laundry. Instead we […]
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The day after the fire
I didn’t sleep very well last night. I could smell smoke all night and it’s difficult to ignore that when the previous night this same sense of smell helped avert a serious disaster. I kept reassuring myself it was just the left-over smell from the previous night but then when I shut my eyes my […]
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Fire in the night
We had an eventful night last night and a close shave. I woke up at around 4:15am and thought I could smell burning plastic. My body wanted to go back to sleep but my brain was telling me to go and check it out. I have a very strong sense of smell so I got […]
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The highland dance exam, some crochet, and groat oats
Elizabeth did her highland dance exam today and she thinks it went well but she won’t get her results for at least a few weeks. She got highly commended in the national exam she did last year. Thankfully the socks arrived in time along with the kilt which we sent off to have the hem […]
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A boy in a suit
Daniel is on a school trip. This is one of the nice things about being back at a regular school: he gets to go on trips with his classmates. On one of the evenings they were planning to go to the ballet and we were told a jacket and tie would be required. Daniel was […]
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War in Europe
Europe woke up on Thursday morning to news that Russia had invaded Ukraine. British and American intelligence over the past couple of weeks was spot-on, it seems, as they had been warning of an imminent attack. This impassioned plea from the Ukrainian UN ambassador to the Russian ambassador less than an hour after the assault […]
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Snow and lunch in Braemar
We had a lovely day in Braemar today: lunch followed by a walk in the woods. We finally got some snow and it was mostly sunny all day.
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Groat oats
The past two days I’ve had groat oats for breakfast. Many people probably don’t know what these are which is sad because they’re just unprocessed oats. Oats you buy in supermarkets have been processed, albeit only a little bit, to make them faster to cook. Groat oats are the original grain unaltered. For this reason, […]
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Bad science
I’ve just finished reading Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. It was published in 2008 but is still relevant today. Indeed I think it should be compulsory reading for high school students and all journalism undergraduates. There’s a fascinating chapter on the placebo effect, an eerily familiar chapter about the denial by some that HIV causes […]
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Scavenger hunt and Crathes Castle
Last weekend we participated in a Valentine’s Day scavenger hunt as part of a fund-raising exercise for the school. We didn’t win but we had a fun time nevertheless and opted to do some of the challenges at Crathes Castle which is always worth a visit. Here are some of the photos. We had lunch […]
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Violence against women and girls
Until recently I thought men and women committed crimes in more or less equal numbers. This isn’t the case. The Office of National Statistics publishes prison population figures every week and I downloaded the data for 11th February 2022. The difference between the sexes is substantial. In the last week, the number of prisoners in […]
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Meet Hareton
It has been a while since I last made an animal head. I need to feel motivated and that happened recently when I found some yarn that I thought would make a good hare. This is Hareton, the latest edition to our animal head collection. Hareton joins Wishart (deer), Rambo (ram), and Reynard (fox). I […]
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30-day litter picking challenge
I’ve started a 30-day litter picking challenge where I pick up one piece of litter every day. Only it’s quite addictive and hard to stick with just one piece. Once you start looking out for litter you see it everywhere and it becomes difficult to ignore. I’m currently on day 3. Here’s how it’s going […]
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Burns supper 2022
We’ve had a Burns supper every year for several years now; since I discovered this is a thing in Scotland although I’ve never been to an official one and I so we could be doing it all wrong. For us, it’s a nice excuse to have vegetarian haggis with lots of roast vegetables, drink whisky, […]
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Happy 15th birthday to Daniel
It’s Daniel’s 15th birthday today. It’s hard to believe I’ve now been a mother for 15 years. It seems like such a long time but then it has also been the best years of my life and seems to get better and better with each year. Daniel was a very cute baby; born 3 days […]
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Remembering Wildlife and Street Furniture
This week I’ve received two books where I’m listed in the acknowledgments. I’ve never been acknowledged in a book before so to be in two books in one week is quite an achievement. I didn’t actually do much in either case so I don’t really deserve it but I fully support both projects and while […]
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Christian the lion
Yesterday I stumbled across the obituary of John Rendall who died this week of covid, aged 77. The story caught my eye because he and his flatmate bought a lion cub (Christian) from Harrods in the 1960s. I was expecting to read some awful case of animal torture but it turned out to be the […]
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Allotment produce in January and Veganuary
I got four leeks and lots of kale at my allotment today. There’s still a number of leeks left; definitely enough to last us until spring. My pond is filled with leaves and I had this idea that I’d pull them out until I actually tried. They’re frozen in! I took this video of it. […]
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Portlethen and vegan galette with friends
We had a lovely afternoon with friends in Portlethen today. Portlethen is a small village about 7 miles south of Aberdeen. It was originally a fishing village and there’s an old harbour there where the fishing boats used to come and go. Today it is more like a satellite suburb of Aberdeen with lots of […]
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