insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman
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Ceilidh at Mar Lodge
We went to a ceilidh at the stag ballroom at Mar Lodge last night. The ballroom is slightly on the macabre side with over 2,000 red deer skulls lining the ceiling and walls, many of which were stalked by members of the royal family going back to the 18th century. The building is almost unchanged…
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Stupid policies
Daniel is still hobbling around on crutches. It has been more than a week now since he fell off his bike but just yesterday he started to be able to put a little bit of weight on his foot. He’s not quite ready to dispense with the crutches fully but maybe by the end of…
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Giant courgettes
It was just as well I chose to ride Busby my cargo bike to the allotment today to cope with the weight of my courgette harvest. I didn’t get to the allotment last weekend so it had been two weeks and many of my courgettes grew into marrows. There are too many for us so…
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Busby the bakfiets is back in business
I stopped riding our bakfiets, Busby, back in 2018 when we got the electric cargo bike. Poor Busby has been sitting in our backyard ever since, tolerating all weathers and filling up with leaves and debris. I finally decided I couldn’t neglect him any longer and we booked him in for a service with the…
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Litter picking
We went litter picking beside the River Dee today with members from Aberdeen Cycle Forum. There’s a pretty path along the river that goes from the rowing sheds down to Victoria Bridge but unfortunately it looks like party central with mountains of bottles and cans. Well no more! We collected 20 bags of rubbish in…
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Congratulations to Daniel
Daniel smiling with my crochet fox head in the background.
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A knitted jumper for Daniel, antique binoculars, and a cat pic
I just finished knitting Daniel a jumper. For this I reused some Bluefaced Leicester yarn I’d previously crocheted into a jumper for him but it wasn’t a good fit so I frogged it. Fortunately knitting uses less yarn so I’d had plenty for this jumper with some to spare. I used a pattern from Harry…
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The Battle of Corrichie re-enactment
We had a terrific day in the field next to Milton of Crathes watching a re-enactment of The Battle of Corrichie: a bloody clash in Aberdeenshire between the forces of Mary Queen of Scots against the Earl of Huntly on the 28th October 1562. There was also a fascinating living history camp, a birds of…
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Old dog, new tricks
Lately I’ve been thinking about how we’re on this earth for so short a time and we should make the most of it. Learn and do as much as you can while you still can. I’ve really embraced this philosophy over the past year and have ticked three things off my list that I’ve wanted…
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I’d rather die in a freezer than an oven
The hottest temperatures today will be the coldest temperatures in the not-too-distant future. The only way to stop the warming is to make our emissions zero. It’s not enough to reduce them. They have to be zero or the warming will continue. Even if we were to reach zero emissions tomorrow, the earth will continue…
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Willows Animal Sanctuary
Yesterday we visited Willows Animal Sanctuary just north of Aberdeen. They rescue abandoned farm and domestic animals and give them a home to live out the rest of their lives in peace. They’re a charity entirely dependent on donations and have struggled over the past few years, first with covid, now with the cost of…
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I knitted a dress
I’ve been slack at writing lately because all my spare time has been spent knitting. I need one of those stickers for the car window that says, “I’d rather be knitting”. I just completed my first dress and it has turned out rather well. It was knit in the round from the top down. Last…
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Robin Hood at Drum Castle
Last night we saw the Three Inch Fools perform a musical version of Robin Hood in front of the majestic 13th-century Drum Castle. It has been several years since we’ve been to open-air theatre thanks to covid and I’d forgotten how wonderful it is. This was probably the best one we’ve seen with with slap-stick…
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A pink kilt
I bought myself a second-hand kilt on Vinted. It’s a bright pink Harris Tweed 21st Century Kilt and has been worn only once by a piper at a breast cancer charity event back in 2011. Elizabeth Hurley was at the event and signed the underside of it. As with all second-hand clothes I wash them…
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Royal Deeside
It was Etienne’s last day in Scotland today so we took him to our favourite place: Braemar. On the way there we stopped in Ballater to show him Queen Victoria’s train carriage. And her waiting room with toilet. In Braemar we had lunch first then walked up Creag Choinnich. This next photo is a view…
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Piping championships, highland dance show, cycle paths, gulls, and hamster
Lots has been happening here. Last Saturday was the European piping championships in Duthie Park which saw some 150 pipe bands playing. It was very loud and our brains continued playing bagpipe music long after they’d finished. There was also highland dancing, lots of activities, and a dinosaur trail in the winter gardens. I do…
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Newburgh seals
Daniel has been doing a terrific job of entertaining Etienne during the week while Ben and I are working. Today I took an extended lunch break and drove them to the seals at Newburgh. It has been several years since we were last here and I forgot out pretty it is. It’s about 20 minutes…
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Newton Dee and a hamster update
The kids cycled themselves to Newton Dee today, had lunch, then visited the playground. I think they enjoyed themselves. Daniel took these photo. I took Rocket to the vet for his monthly teeth-trimming. I’ve found a vet who has experience with hamsters and she trims his teeth once a month now. She was quite surprised…
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A walk at Crathes Castle
We took the kids for a walk at Crathes Castle today. I always enjoy coming here as there are so many walks you can do to suit whether you want something short or long. It’s also more pleasant on a hot day to walk in the forest. And of course it’s a bonus to have…
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