insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman
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Home-grown and a Rocket update
This is my lunch most days. It consists of my home-made sourdough which I bake several times a week now. As well as avocado, beetroot, tofu and today I have home-grown radish and rocket. Not much grows at this time of year but radishes and salad greens do. I’ve also had a constant supply of…
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A beautiful wedding
We went to a friend’s wedding yesterday and it was marvellous. Weddings are wonderful things. What’s not to like about food, wine, dancing, and funny speeches? But weddings in Scotland are even better because they have ceilidhs. The ceremony was in the winter gardens at Duthie Park which was perfect. Aberdeen put on a beautiful…
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Hamster, home, and water leaks
A couple of people have asked me how Rocket is doing and he’s doing great. I took this video of him the other day rolling in his sand bath. This is just his travel sand bath as we had to take him in a smaller cage for our holiday so I used the smaller sand…
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Fettercairn Distillery
Earlier in the week we visited Fettercairn distillery which is in the loveliest of little villages, Fettercairn. Fettercairn has a general store, a cafè, a dress shop which was incredibly busy when I went in – it seems people travel from all over to visit it – and of course the distillery. The village has…
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House of Dun
We went for a tour of the gorgeous House of Dun today, a Georgian home built for the Erskine family in 1743 by the architect William Adam. In 1980, the 21st and last Laird of Dun, Millicent Lovett (nee Erskine), died without an heir and left the house and contents to the National Trust of…
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Photos of Glen Esk, Fettercairn, and Fasque House
This is a collection of photos of Edzell and surrounds from the past two days. This is the gorge in the River North Esk looking downstream towards Gannochy Bridge. Incidentally we think we’ve been pronouncing Gannochy incorrectly. It’s not like the potato pasta – ga-nocchi – but more like the thing you blow your nose…
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Glen Esk and Loch Lee
Scotland never ceases to surprise me with its landscapes. Decades ago when I came here as a very young adult I can remember driving around with friends and it felt like every mile or so we wanted to stop the car and take photos. It felt a bit like that today. You can drive up…
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Angus for a holiday and Rocket relaunched
We’ve come to Angus for a holiday that is three years overdue. We booked it originally for April 2020 but covid cancelled it so the holiday was rescheduled for 2021. Covid cancelled that too and it got rescheduled for 2022 but I made the mistake of booking a time that did not coincide with school…
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Diversity blend flour
I recently discovered this diversity blend flour from Hodmedods and have been putting it in my home-made bread. I mix is with my usual multigrain flour and the bread turns out like this. Doesn’t it look delicious! The ingredients are fantastic too – organic wheat, lentils, barley, peas, rye, oats, spelt, nettle, seaweed. It’s wonderful…
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Protest at NZ High Commission in London
Since the voices of Iranian New Zealand women were suppressed through violence and intimidation in Auckland on the 25th March 2023, I thought I would share a link to a live stream outside the Iranian New Zealand High Commission in London, filmed yesterday, where British women give them a voice. You can watch it here…
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I may not agree with you but I defend your right to say it
At the Let Women Speak event in Auckland on Saturday 25th March 2023 women were denied the opportunity to speak by a violent and intimidating group of protestors. You have to wonder what ordinary NZ women want to say that would trigger this rage. We don’t know because they weren’t given the opportunity to speak.…
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Aurora in Aberdeen finally and World Athletics bans
We saw our very first aurora last night and in Aberdeen too. Cities aren’t usually good places to see it because of the light pollution. My photo of it is a bit pathetic but I was still pretty chuffed to finally get to see it. I dragged everyone out of the house at 9:30pm and…
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Unparliamentary language
In the UK there are rules of etiquette in parliament that forbid members from using language that is inappropriate. These include words like liar, stupid cow, hypocrite, idiot, rat etc. If a member of parliament breaks the rules the speaker will step in and request the language be withdrawn. If the member fails to comply…
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Potato planting and wallpapering
We planted some potatoes at the allotment today. Lately Elizabeth has become interested in gardening because she has idyllic visions of being self-sufficient. I can remember going through a phase like this when I was about her age. At the time it motivated me to try making my own soap which I did with a…
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Pizza on a zero salt diet
It has been about a year since I gave up salt and with it all fast food and yummy things like pizza and burgers. Pizza is something I have missed but it’s surprisingly full of salt so it is definitely a no-go. Have a look at the nutritional content next time you buy a pizza…
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Wallpapering and ants
I spent the day wallpapering our entranceway. Whenever I wallpaper I tell myself I’m never doing it again. But then a year or two later I’m back at it. I really struggled with this one. It seemed an easy wall but the end result is bubbly. I’ve never had wallpaper bubble before and the only…
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Snow day
It’s a winter wonderland in Aberdeen today. School was cancelled so the kids made excellent use of their free time and created a snowman.
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A gas leak
We had a gas leak. It was found by accident and thankfully there was no explosion and we’re all fine. In hindsight Ben and I have both realised that we felt dizzy a few times over the past weeks but we just put it down to a virus. The kids had also both complained of…
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Daniel won a prize
Daniel won a Divoom Pixoo for his snake game which he entered into the Dresscode Halloween coding competition last year. They’ve only just announced the winners because they had so many entries from students throughout the UK and it took a long time to judge them all. You can play his game on a desktop…
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A knitted jumper
I knitted myself a jumper. I’ve crocheted for years and years but never really tried knitting until this year. I made myself the same jumper I knitted for Elizabeth but in a different colour. She said she wouldn’t mind if we had matching jumpers. It’s very satisfying to make something with your own hands. Machinery…
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