insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman
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A walk at the Finzean watermills
We went for an amazing walk and picnic today at the Finzean watermills. They’re quite tricky to find because the road doesn’t appear to have a name (it’s referred to as an access road for the Forest of Birse) and there’s no obvious postcode for the mills, so print and follow the directions on this…
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Of cat food and poo
Ben ate cat food. I was refilling the cat food jar with dried biscuits and one of them fell on the bench. Ben has a habit of hoovering up all food scraps. Nothing goes to waste in our house. Later that evening he saw a crumb of food on the bench and put it in…
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There’s no getting rid of me now
We got some very exciting news today. The home office emailed us to say: I’m sorry, Britain, but this means you’re now stuck with us! I love living in the UK. I always have. As a 20-year-old I came here on a young person’s working holiday visa and I knew then that I wanted to…
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Her Majesty’s butler
Last week Victoria began showing interest in wanting to go outside. Being the softy that I am I conceded and now she wants to go outside everyday. This would be fine except that I have become the butler to Her Majesty as she constantly wants to come in and out all day long. She begs…
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Poetry in motion
One of my blogging friends, Geoff Le Pard, is an author and poet. You can see his list of ever-growing books at Amazon. His latest publication is a book of poems called The Sincerest Form of Poetry and in celebration of this I’ve invited him to write a guest post on my blog to which…
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Glasgow in autumn
We’ve come to Glasgow for the weekend to submit biometric data (fingerprints) for our permanent residency application. We’ve been waiting to do this since March when everything closed down. The centres began opening again in June and we’ve been waiting patiently for Aberdeen to reopen but as of this writing it still hasn’t. Every month…
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Falls of Dess
Today was Ben’s birthday and we had a delightful picnic with cake and whisky beside the Falls of Dess. I never knew these falls existed and what a wonderful find they are at only 40 minutes by car west of Aberdeen along a lovely forested walk near the quaint village of Kincardine O’Neil. Ben and…
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You have to murder to call it a burger
The Dutch comedian Arjen Lubach launched this satirical marketing video for the meat industry this week to highlight an upcoming EU parliament vote on whether to ban meat-related names for plant-based products. The marketing video starts at 2:47 so you’ll have to fast-forward to then as the first part of the video is in Dutch…
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I broke my phone and photos of the autumn colours
My last blog post I wrote and published from my new phone when I was out and about in town. As I walked back home, tragedy struck when I dropped my phone, smashing the screen. I had bought a spigen phone case for it because these had always protected my iPhone very well but they…
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Chunky crochet hat
I got given some very chunky yarn for my birthday. I’ve always struggled to convert a chunky yarn into a hat but I keep trying because I love a chunky yarn and it’s so quick to work with. One of my previous attempts gave me a Marge Simpson hairdo. (https://rachel.blog/2017/02/13/when-crochet-goes-wrong/) This time I think it…
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Storm Alex, cycling, and cat-shaming
This weekend we’re getting the tail end of storm Alex which has brought a deluge to France and Italy and caused severe flooding. Yesterday we had heavy rain non-stop all day here. Elizabeth had highland dance in the afternoon and so I cycled her there in my cargo bike, Hoss. One of the nice things…
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Macdui Lodge, Aviemore
When we went to Aviemore we stayed in a pretty cool place so I thought I’d write about it. Our accommodation was Macdui Lodge at Pine Bank Chalets. This was our second visit to Pine Bank Chalets and it won’t be the last. The owners are so nice, the chalets are well-run, and the location…
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Potarch Bridge
We visited a lovely bridge over the River Dee today called Potarch Bridge which is about 40 miles west of Aberdeen. It was built by the engineer Thomas Telford in 1811-1813. This is the same Thomas Telford who built the Caledonian Canal and many other bridges all over the UK. I do love an old…
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Agent Sonya: the woman who nearly killed Hitler
I listened to a terrific podcast this week from Stories of our times called Agent Sonya: the Soviet spy who came in from the Cotswolds. It’s about a German woman called Ursula Kuczynski who spied on Nazi Germany for the Russians in the 1930s and 1940s. She was Jewish and soon had to flee Germany.…
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Pot-pourri from a Surrey Garden
This book appeared in the post today. It was addressed to me but I have no idea who sent it. Perhaps it’s a birthday present? Thank you whoever you are! It’s right up my alley. In the forward it says, “Through her writing, she [Mrs C.W. Earle] swayed a wide public away from geometric formality…
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The cold-blooded killer
We took the cold-blooded killer with us on our holiday to Aviemore last weekend. It’s the first time she’s been away with us so we were a little concerned about how it might go but it turned out brilliantly. She seemed to enjoy exploring all the nooks and crannies in a new house. We even…
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Loch an Eilein and Landmark Forest Adventure Park
We’re back from our holiday in Aviemore and although we were sad to leave it’s nice to have decent wifi again at the very least so I can see all the photos we took. It’s also nicer to view them on a big screen. My new Samsung phone has a brilliant camera and so we…
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An Lochan Uaine and the BMW i3
I managed to tick swimming in An Lochan Uaine (green loch) off my bucket list today. It’s an emerald-coloured lochan with a sandy beach about 5 miles from Aviemore. It’s so inviting that even Daniel and Ben ventured into the water, despite the frigid temperature. I’m not sure what the temperature was exactly but it…
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Half my life
I’m 45 today. If I’m lucky enough to live to 90 then I have lived half my life. I hope I’m still riding my bike at 90. You’re only as old as you feel or, as Groucho Marx once said, “You’re only as old as the woman you feel”. I heard another quote recently that…
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Purple cardigan
A British mathematican at Imperial College London has won a mathematics prize worth £2.3 million. I had no idea there was this much money in maths. I’ve told Ben he needs to start proving more theorems. Covid-19 is on the rise again in the UK which means we need to be more careful than ever…
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