Category: Journal
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Baking, gardening, and baby cyclamen
I’ve had the day off work today and it has been lovely to just potter around at home. I did some gardening and baking. Ben made hot cross buns this morning, just as he does every Easter. I made scones. Both scones and buns were both delicious! Earlier this year I noticed my cyclamen producing…
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Birnam, Dunkeld, Beatrix Potter, and a bookshop
We’re back at home after a wonderful week in Glencoe which is now at the top of our list of the best holidays we’ve ever had. We stayed in a self-catering holiday house which quite possibly has the best views in all of Britain. There were plenty of walks from right outside the front door…
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Pap of Glencoe
We walked part of the Pap of Glencoe walk which is a hill walk starting from Old Glencoe Road, just a little bit east of Strath Lodge Glencoe. It’s a rocky, boggy walk with bits that require scrambling on all fours. There are also streams that you need to cross over although with a bit…
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More pics of Glencoe
The last time I was in Glencoe was more than 20 years ago and I’d forgotten how beautiful it is. Unlike the east coast of Scotland the mountains here are rugged and domineering and make one feel small and insignificant which is comforting. April is a wonderful time of year to tour Scotland because there’s…
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Rachel Martin: Closing keynote – Blogging as therapy – the Christchurch earthquakes
Here’s my talk at WordCamp Edinburgh in 2017 on blogging as therapy and my experience of the Christchurch earthquakes.
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A day of rain and fearsome mountains
We awoke to a rainy gloomy day today and spent the first half of it relaxing inside by the fire and eating soup. To avoid coming down with cabin fever we ventured out in the early afternoon to take in some of the sights around Glencoe. The mountains looked particularly fearsome with dark clouds above.…
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Pottering around at Glenfinnan Viaduct
We visited the Glenfinnan Viaduct which is a concrete rail bridge built in the late 19th century. It’s located at one end of Loch Shiel, in the west of Scotland, about 17 miles from Fort William. It’s famous for being a film location in the Harry Potter movies: the Hogwarts Express traverses the Glenfinnan Viaduct…
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Glencoe and Hagrid’s hut
We’ve had a lovely couple of days in Glencoe, Scotland. What a beautiful place! Part of the reason we came here is because we recently read all the Harry Potter books to the kids at bedtime. This is the second time I’ve read them aloud because I did it for Daniel some years ago and…
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LGBT lessons and protesting parents
Parents in Manchester have been protesting outside schools about the No Outsiders programme which teaches kids that it’s ok to be gay. When I first saw the protestors I thought schools must have been showing kids x-rated pornography, but it turns out all they are doing is explaining that some kids have two mummies and…
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Aurora hunting, vegan treats, and made in Scotland
We went aurora hunting last night because every newspaper said we’d see a magnificent light show when a solar storm arrived, supposedly sometime between 6pm and 9pm. But it turned out to be a non-event because there was no aurora. We drove to Dunnottar Castle thinking it would be a good spot because it’s away…
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Inside Hoss and guns
Elizabeth and I had an appointment this morning which I cycled to on Hoss. We were a little early and it was cold so I hopped inside Hoss with Elizabeth because it’s cosy and warm in there. We took some photos. An adult can fit comfortably inside. My head did touch the roof but because…
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Aberdeen’s beach and veganism is mainstream
Daniel was invited to a birthday party today and much to my disappointment it was at a trampoline place by the beach. I dislike going to the beach in Aberdeen for two reason – 1) It’s a bugger to get to by bike. There’s no good route and I’m always stressed and worried about large…
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King Street Design Competition
We announced the winners of the King Street Design Competition today. It took a bit longer than expected because we extended the competition by one week and then the judging took just over two weeks. However the whole thing was a great success. I’m so impressed with all the designs we received and it was…
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TradeMe must stop selling guns
The news out of my old home town of Christchurch today is very sad. Kia Kaha, Christchurch. I feel like I say that a lot. Christchurch has had a really rough decade. When will it end? I wish the media would not report the names of terrorists. It encourages idolatry and copy cats. They should…
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A doggy to cuddle and I made sauerkraut
Today I’ve had Millie for company. She’s an adorable 1-year-old cockapoo. As you can see she’s made herself at home 🙂 Millie is our first dog from Borrow My Doggy. Her owner works all day and wanted her to have some company while he’s at work. I’m at home working all day and also wanted…
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Scottish poetry and highland dancing
I managed to clock up over 12,000 steps on my Fitbit yesterday while sitting on my butt. It’s not like the last time I boasted about doing exercise without doing any exercise – last time I really did exercise, thanks to active travel. However yesterday we used the car-club car to get around and so I…
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Highland dance and TV rants
It has been a crazy busy week and the craziness is still going. Elizabeth has been performing in her Highland Dance show and we’ve had rehearsals and performances all week with the finale tonight. I helped backstage on two nights and it was really well organised. I’m so impressed with the dance school. The students…
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A clothing library
I got some great stuff at the charity shop on the weekend. One treasure is this turtleneck top made by Geiger of Austria which I bought for £7. I’ve not heard of this brand before, probably because it’s out of my price range, but I love wearing turtlenecks in winter and this one is very thick…
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Where underpants come from
I’ve successfully completed one week out of 52 in my quest to avoid made in China. You might be wondering why I’m doing this. I have several reasons. China is producing many of the world’s goods and doing so with a poor track record on the environment and workers’ rights. Chinese-made products are often poor…
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Mishmash of crochet, forceful vegans, ISIS brides, and made in China
I’ve been a little quiet recently which does not mean I haven’t had a lot to say. I’ve just been busy. All my spare time lately has been spent crocheting. I’ve become obsessed with socks and have made so many now and even designed my own pattern for crochet socks which I’ve put up for…
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