Category: Journal
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My first highland dance exam
I did my first highland dance exam today. Watching Elizabeth dance has inspired me and I’ve been having lessons in an adult beginner/intermediate class with Pam Dignan who gave us the opportunity to do an exam if we wanted. So I did and I danced a 3-step fling and 3-step sword. It is the very…
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Is Trump a Russian asset?
I asked Grok, Elon Musk’s AI tool, whether Trump is a compromised Russian asset. It said yes, with a likelihood of 75 – 85%. It may seem a like joke but as this Senator says in the video below, if he was a Russian asset he would be doing exactly what he’s doing now. It’s…
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“Give us your weapons, we’ll look after you”
On the 5th December 1994, the UK, US and Russia signed a security assurance with Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine relinquishing its nuclear weapons. At the time, Ukraine had the 3rd largest nuclear arsenal in the world; weapons left over from the former Soviet Union. The agreement was signed in Budapest, Hungary and as a…
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The new appeaser of 2025
On the 30th September 1938, Neville Chamberlain arrived at Heston Aerodrome near London with an agreement he’d just signed with a Mr A. Hilter in Munich, Germany. He waved the paper to a jubilant crowd saying, “it is peace for our time.” Great Britain had agreed alongside France, Italy and Germany to annexe part of…
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A trophy for Elizabeth
Elizabeth came 1st in her dance competition on Sunday in the intermediate 14 years and over category. This is the second intermediate competition she’s won and also the second competition she’s ever won. She never won any when she was in beginners and only ever managed one 2nd overall in novice. It’s a reflection of…
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Soup, hamster, lights
Dinner tonight was soup with homemade sourdough. I made the soup using Hodmedod’s mix of British grown peas. You can buy it in 5kg bags to save money. The pea mix alone consists of 5 different varieties: red fox carlin peas, black badger carlin peas, marrowfat peas, blue peas, and yellow peas – all grown…
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“No murders at all” in Lucy Letby case
It has been a while since I’ve written about Lucy Letby and the terrible miscarriage of justice she has endured but I think about the case often. In my last post about it in July 2024 I likened it to the imprisonment, torture and execution of an innocent Scottish woman called Agnes Sampson in 1591…
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Daniel turns 18 and gull rescue
Daniel turned 18 this week and when asked what he’d like to do to celebrate he said a walk in the woods with a picnic beside a waterfall. And so we planned the Kincardine O’Neill and Dess Waterfall circular walk for today. In preparation for a picnic I walked into town this morning to get…
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Dancing, hair and Dickens
Elizabeth got her first ever 1st overall trophy today in the intermediate section of a highland dance competition. She came 1st and 2nd in every dance taking 1st overall. She was absolutely thrilled. The trophy is massive and by far the biggest and heaviest one she’s ever got. I’m still having weekly highland dance lessons…
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Knitting with cables and photos from the weekend
Yesterday we went to Blairgowrie to have Elizabeth measured up for a new highland dance jacket at Piob Mhor, a shop that makes kilts and highland dance outfits. It was a gorgeous drive as Aberdeenshire is still covered in snow and the hills to the west were white. As we went south the snow gradually…
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Sledging at Duthie Park
I do love the snow. We had another snowy day today and Aberdeen is looking beautiful. We made the most of it and went sledging. There’s rain forecast for Sunday so it looks like it may disappear soon unfortunately. I got a video of a starling at the bird feeder this morning when it was…
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A walk in the snow at Tom’s Cairn
We woke up to a winter wonderland today. I immediately went out for a run in the snow, stopping many times to take photos. After breakfast we went for a hill walk in Finzean up to Tom’s Cairn. We haven’t done this walk before and I was a bit hesitant about an unknown hill walk…
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Happy birthday to Elizabeth and happy hogmanay 2025
We followed our tradition on New Year’s Eve yesterday which also happens to be Elizabeth’s birthday to go to the pantomime at His Majesty’s Theatre. It was excellent. We had particularly good seats this year in the 5th row from the front but this meant we got wet as in typical pantomime style one of…
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Finzean walk and shop
I think I’ve fully recovered now aside from being a bit snotty with a lingering cough. We made the most of a sunny, mild winter day today to go for a walk in the countryside. I chose Finzean because I wanted an excuse to visit the Finzean farm shop. We arrived at the farm shop…
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Christmas 2024
Merry Christmas everyone! I am feeling much better today and it has been a wonderfully relaxing day at home. We all slept in, opened presents, then went for a walk down the river with some friends. It’s been an exceptionally mild day today of about 12C. Then we had a late lunch of roasted vegetables,…
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Lebkuchen
I make lebkuchen in December every year. This year I modified the recipe slightly to make it healthier by reducing the amount of sugar and replacing vegan butter with olive oil. I try to avoid all seed oils these days but olive oil in small amounts is probably ok. This is the good thing about…
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Covid for Christmas
I finally got covid. I took a test on the weekend and the two lines appeared immediately. I haven’t had covid until now and was thinking I might be one of those super-humans who have no symptoms but it turns out I was probably just protected previously thanks to the vaccine. Ben got very ill…
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Street art, yule logs, and Christmas puddings
This week the local artist behind KMG painted the other wall on Deeside Way beneath Great Southern Road. She did the opposite wall for us a couple of years ago in 2022. I have always thought it would be nice to continue the theme along both sides of the path so this year we applied…
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Newton Dee pasta and parsnip soup
Last Saturday we went for lunch at Newton Dee. It has been a long time since I’ve been there and it was delightful. They had a good selection of cakes and I always enjoy looking at their crafts. I stocked up on goodies in their grocery store including this fantastic find of Newton Dee pasta…
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Sourdough mother, glasses and beets
When I first started making my own sourdough consistently a couple of years ago I used a starter bought from Hodmedod’s. I’ve been feeding and nurturing that same starter ever since. Recently I wondered how old it was, or as they say in baking parlance, “how old the mother is”. I emailed Hodmedod’s to find…
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