insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman
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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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A hair cut, pea and mint soup recipe, and giant violins
I had a bad haircut just before Christmas and couldn’t stand it any longer so today, on the spur of the moment, I went in search of a haircut. All the women reading my blog will understand the impossibility of my quest: one does not simply walk into a hair salon on a Saturday afternoon…
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Booster shot and back to school
I had my booster shot on Saturday and that completely wiped me out for the rest of the weekend. I’m only just feeling better today. I got a half dose of Moderna after having had two jabs of Pfizer. I had a similarly bad reaction after my second Pfizer dose with fever, aches, headache, and…
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New Year’s Day 2022
We all got wet suits for Christmas so we decided to christen them at the beach in Aberdeen today. That’s Daniel and Elizabeth in the centre of this next photo venturing in together. I’ve never swum in a wet suit before but I have done some winter swimming and I can tell you the wet…
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Hogmanay and Elizabeth’s 12th birthday
It’s Hogmanay and Elizabeth’s birthday today. The years tick by and although there are big global events – like the pandemic – we still go through all the same motions each year. Elizabeth is 12 and had a lovely celebration at home with two of her school friends. Elizabeth was such a cute little baby.…
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Scottish wildcat
Today we think we saw a Scottish wildcat. This is another very elusive creature whose population has been decimated over the past couple of hundred years. It is critically endangered and although it once roamed all of the UK it is now found only in northern and eastern Scotland. If it is a Scottish wildcat…
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Christmas 2021
Christmas in the Scottish Highlands is turning out to be one of the best Christmases we’ve had. I even saw a pine marten for the first time ever. These are very elusive creatures whose numbers have dwindled over the past couple of centuries due to hunting for their fur, habitat loss, and predation control. I…
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Ruthven Barracks, Kingussie
It snowed last night so it’s looking like a white Christmas for us this year, hooray! It was a lovely sunny day today so we walked to Ruthven Barracks. On a natural mound, a stone’s throw from the village of Kingussie is Ruthven Barracks. There was once a wooden castle here in the 1200s. It…
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Creag Bheag, Kingussie
We did a hill walk up Creag Bheag today. We were lucky to have views in all directions from the top and it was so calm with not even the whisper of wind at the top. The landscape has been gloriously silvery all day again today and it really felt like we’d stepped into the…
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Gynack Burn, Kingussie
We made it to the highlands! I’ve got holiday cancellation PTSD and before each holiday now I get paranoid that it’ll be canceled too. The night before we left I woke up at 2am thinking I’d lost my sense of taste and smell. I went downstairs and tasted some salt, felt reassured that it tasted…
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Omicron land
We’re living in Omicron land here with the new variant taking over as the most dominant in Scotland as of today. Things change so rapidly. Last month the UK was in the best position in Europe to manage the virus over the winter. Then Omicron arrived. I’m not so worried about getting sick although I’d…
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