insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman
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Haus Der Musik
Beautiful things make me happy. How about you? By beautiful things I mean art, music, trees, flowers, sculptures, architecture – that kind of thing. Vienna is flush with all these things and I feel inspired after our trip there. Even the public gardens were artistic in their own way. Gardens in Aberdeen tend to be neatly laid out…
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Vienna, WordCamp EU, and Gustav Klimt
I have been remiss in not posting anything for days and days but I have been so busy. WordCamp EU 2016 is now over and all I can say is, WOW! It was so huge with over 2000 people turning up and more than a hundred volunteers. The best part for me was seeing old friends and making…
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A Viennese waltz
I’m very excited to be attending Word Camp EU in Vienna this week. The lineup of speakers is superb and so many of my coworkers are going that it’ll be like a mini grand meetup. Ben and the kids are also coming along and we’re going to stay in Vienna for an extra couple of days afterwards…
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My daughter is a Hitchcock fan
I introduced the kids to one of my favourite Hitchcock films this week, The Lady Vanishes. It was made in England in 1938, before Alfred Hitchcock left for Hollywood. It’s pitched as a thriller but a 1938 thriller is quite different to a modern one; there’s not the same level of violence and thus it’s suitable…
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Should I chain myself to a tree?
A little part of me grieves whenever someone chops down a tree and this very nearly happened today. This morning some workmen appeared on our street to chop down several beautiful old beech trees. We did not receive any warning of this other than a street sign which appeared about a week ago to say there’d be roadworks…
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Kincardine Castle
It feels like ages since we last spent a Sunday afternoon exploring a castle but today the gardens at Kincardine Castle in Aberdeenshire were open to the public so we went to have a look. The castle is a beautiful Victorian building designed by architects Niven and Wigglesworth and positioned on a hilltop overlooking Royal Deeside. The…
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Repeating a year at school
We got some great news today about Daniel: it looks like they’re going to let him repeat year 5 next year at school. It might seem like a strange thing to be happy about and also a very simple thing to arrange but it really wasn’t. They don’t let children repeat years in Scotland for two…
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Stinging Nettle Soup
Just over our back fence is a prolific jungle of stinging nettle. I have always viewed stinging nettle as a bit of a nuisance because touch it with your skin and it’s very unpleasant, leaving a stinging sensation for sometimes a day or two. However I recently discovered that the leaves of stinging nettle are super nutritious because…
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Hemp milk
I’ve been feeling really irritable this week for no apparent reason. I couldn’t figure it out but recently I decided to give up chocolate and other sugary things. Maybe I’ve been suffering from withdrawal symptoms? This morning I decided to do the only thing I knew would help: I cycled out to Newton Dee to…
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Poppies and swear words
The blue poppy in my garden is a Meconopsis Sheldonii aka Himalayan Blue Poppy. Two of the flowers have opened up today and they’re absolutely stunning. Apparently this is a very sought-after plant and tricky to grow but it thrives here in the north-east of Scotland. It likes cool and damp summers just like me 🙂…
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Blue poppies
Another Saturday and another children’s birthday party at Codona‘s by the beach in Aberdeen. Last Saturday we also went to a children’s birthday party at Codona’s and I found the bike ride there incredibly stressful. This Saturday I took a different route and it was just as hard. I even cycled the wrong way down a…
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The gin verdict
This might be a little premature because I haven’t finished the treatment but so far, gin seems to be working well as a weapon against hair lice. I treated Elizabeth’s and my own hair twice last week. Then I did it again earlier this week, but just the once. I’ve been inspecting Elizabeth’s hair and haven’t…
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What’s growing in my garden?
A couple of months ago I posted a photo of my newly planted tomato seedlings: Here they are today: One is a cherry tomato plant, hence the smaller size. I actually thought they were both cherry tomatoes but now I’m not so sure. There’s a bean shoot growing in there too. I’ve probably got too many…
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Should cyclists be allowed to run red lights?
People like to complain about cyclists: “They don’t obey the law,” “They run red lights,” etc. I’ve seen cyclists go through red lights before but I don’t object when they do it. Why not? I’ll try to explain using a situation I found myself in today. I was on my bike with kids inside at an…
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Nuu Muu and World Bicycle Relief
I found these fantastic dresses for cycling last week. They’re actually exercise dresses for any type of exercise: running, cycling, yoga and probably even swimming. They’re made by an American company called Nuu Muu. NB: Nuu Muu are not paying me to write this post. I just think they’re fantastic because they’re so comfortable to wear…
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I’m not an alcoholic, I just have hair lice … probably
Elizabeth has hair lice. We had reports from school last week that it was going around so I inspected her hair last night before bed and found four of the little buggers. It was already fairly late and I wasn’t sure what to do but I didn’t fancy going to bed without doing anything so we…
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Cycling with babies and toddlers
I watched this video recently of cycling with babies and toddlers on the Dutch Bicycle blog. I won’t say anything about it other than to point out to those who might be horrified when they see it that the Dutch have the lowest incidence of head injuries in the world.
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I’m sorry, Harald!
I had a bit of a rant this morning about Harald. I’m very sorry, Harald. I’ve just come back from a fantastic cycle out to Newton Dee. It’s only about 8 miles there and back and goes up an elevation of almost 50m on the way out which means it’s mostly downhill on the way back.…
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