I dream of green(ie)

As I strapped Miss Mouse into her carseat I noticed the vivid green reflection in the rear-view mirror, looking like a window onto another world. Doesn't it look lush?

Raindrops keep falling on my car

Being awfully good, I headed to the gym for a bit of a workout - as I arrived there it absolutely chucked it down for a few minutes, though the rest of the day it was mostly okay, just light showers. I like the way the rain on the windscreen turns the gym logo into an Art Nouveau swirl!

What's up Doc?

Yes, I know it's very dinky but they're a dinky variety I'm growing in a pot so I don't know much bigger they'll get - who cares anyway, they're delicious! Even the Boy tried a bit and agreed it was nice.

Fzzzzzzzz

Favourite ice 'cubes' (thanks to Ikea I think).

I'm the Map, I'm the Map, I'm the Map!

Following My Beloved's route - this trip has done wonders for my geography. Until now my knowledge of the west Highlands was pretty much limited to Fort William/Kinlochleven/Glencoe due to having visited relatives in that neck of the woods. The rest has been pretty much Here Be Dragons (or possibly Here Be Sheep) to me.

He's only been away since Saturday morning and I'm completely wiped out by the kids. Tonight I was so tired I managed to put the central heating on instead of the Hot Water Boost - and thus had a tepid bath. Lovely.

Sunny interlude

It rained most of the day but for an hour or so in the afternoon it was sunny and pleasant.

We didn't do much, just pottered around today. The kids watched Wall-E on DVD this morning and spent an hour running round shouting "Wall-E!" and "Eva!" to each other. Makes a change from "Darth Vader" and "Emperor" I suppose.

Epic

The momentous occasion today was My Beloved setting off on his Epic Bike Trip, the Lang Way Roond, as blogged on Bike-in-a-box. They (he and his bike-coven of one colleague) are doing very well in terms of distance but have no idea how long it'll take so I am in full charge of the Offspring for the time-being. Tonight I informed them I was being Tough Mama (counterpart to Evil Daddy who puts them to bed on Tuesdays when I'm out with my rough knitting friends) and there'd be No Mucking Around at bedtime. And they both trotted off to bed as good as gold. Who'd-a thunk it.

Running..

.. out of steam.

It was the last day of our little holiday - the kids spent the morning running around Mum and Dad's gorgeous kid-paradise of a garden, then Miss Mouse zonked out in the car on the way home. She woke up again when we were nearly at Perth then sang most of the way back home - some of it her own brand of gibberish, some of it actual songs.

I've just realised that although this is only my 299th post on this blog, it is in fact a year since I started it. Raise your glass to Project 365! Even if it's 66 pictures short (and really that's quite good for me).

The bison in the basin

Should the title be troubling you, I refer you to The Bedtime Bear by Ian Whybrow and Axel Scheffler, a favourite of the Boy's.

Anyway today we went to the Highland Wildlife Park and had a brilliant time. The rain shower on the mountains in today's picture only hit us for a minute or two and the rest of the day was great. There was much debate over favourite animals - for me it was the wildcats, for my Beloved it was the pine martens, for Miss Mouse it was the snow monkeys. The Boy had a number of favourites - pretty much everything that everybody else said, plus the Amur tigers. Can't fault his taste there, the tigers were fascinating, especially as we saw them at feeding time. Of course feeding time is when everybody goes to see them so my photos didn't come out very well - too crowded to get a decent shot - how dare other people want to see what I do? :-D

Gloooooooom

Ha! But it's not! It looks absolutely baltic but if you look carefully you'll see Things One and Two and Granny and Grandpa paddling and building sandcastles. It's merely the interesting effects of rain showers in the mountains.

Wheee! *squeak squeak*

Much fun to be had with Grandpa and a wooden hurlie - originally made for a pantomime, and with comically squeaking wheels!

Happy Piggies at the farm

Tabitha's first litter. Gorgeous bunch aren't they? Apologies for the strange line down the side of the picture - it's part of the sty and is overexposed to the point of weirdness!

Note to Miriam: this is Tabitha the piglet from last year - count your lucky stars that your Tab isn't growing up this fast :-D.

Happy Sockiness

M's summery socks. I really must become more interesting! I did do stuff today - went to the gym in the morning, pottered around with the kids in the afternoon, untangled knitting, cooked the dinner. Nah, hang on, I am that boring :-D.

Picnic in the car

They were debating whether they'd both fit on the seat.

Beginning

Not a lot to say about that!

Kettle

Our old kettle ceased to function so the kids and I went to get a new one. What an exciting life I lead! But at least I can have my coooooffffeeeeeeeeee now.

Out with the Boy

Miss Mouse was at nursery so the Boy and I went to the country park and did some exploring down by the burn.

The boy didn't want to be photographed - good job the scenery didn't mind..

Out for a walk

It was heavily overcast but very warm and I actually got very slightly sun-singed!

My scissors

For no other reason than I forgot to take pictures during the day and happened to be photographing my knitting in the evening. And I have floral scissors :-D.

Into the blue goddammit

I can't even remember what I'm quoting there. Anyway, look at that sky. Look at it! Isn't it just glorious? Celestial? Well, come the winter when every miserable git I encounter moans about how 'we didn't get a summer' I shall point them in the direction of this blog and say, 'Stop bloody moaning and pay attention!'

A Day at the Museum

Miss Chip-off-the-old-block!

The last calf - that is, the last born of this year's lot. His mother decided to do things the way nature intended and jumped the hedge to the farm next-door, and crucially, the farm next-door's bull. This calf is the result :-).

There was a craft workshop on too - the kids decided that decorating tiny cups with ceramic pens would be a good idea. The Boy goes for what Calvin would call neo-regionalism I think - flowers, sun and clouds. Miss Mouse is more abstract and influenced by Kandinsky and Pollock :-D. I am quite ridiculously proud of them.

Using mostly graph paper and colouring pencils..

Knitty calculation going on!

A new use for vampires

I dropped over to my brother's flat - it was a warm evening and he had his study window open, propped over as ever by Interview With The Vampire. He says it's nice to have some use for it.

Cast-iron clouds

I can't think of a comment for this pic, interesting or otherwise!

And now we're Truly Suburban

Today we went to B&Q to get some some plastic hooks and a bit of metal rod my Beloved needed for some bike-related thing or other.

Naturally enough we returned with an 8ft trampoline, because, philosophically speaking, what is a suburban* child-infested garden when it lacks a trampoline? Besides it'll wear the little b*ggers out! And was on a special offer.

The picture above shows my Beloved and his father (who'd dropped by for a bit, not knowing what he was letting himself in for) putting the trampoline together ably hindered by the Boy and his friend.

And today's second picture shows the Boy in action, some time later!

Actually it took a surprisingly short time to put together. And was suitably enjoyed by the offspring and their friends :-).

* To make matters even more suburban and middle-class we stopped at the farmers' market on the way home. But letting the side down rather we didn't buy anything and our next port of call was Lidl :-D.

Colours

I went into Glasgow today to mooch around a bit (I had John Lewis vouchers to spend, hurrah! Thank you, ex-colleagues *mwah*).

As well as hanging around the John Lewis photography and yarn departments for absolutely ages, I took a wander up to Mandors and got a few fat quarters to have a play around with patchwork. The display of craft fabrics looked amazing, so I asked if it was okay if I took a couple of photos - they were lovely and said 'Yes, of course!'. I'm not the first to ask apparently :-).

Sprouting green things

Sweet peas as I recall. I dug out various old seed packets recently and planted all the leftovers, even the things which should have been planted last year. It was a little late in this year really, but they starting sprouting straight away, so I might even get some flowers by the autumn :-D.

Rest and Be Thankful

My mother-in-law, the kids and I headed over to Loch Fyne today. On the way we stopped for a break at the Rest and Be Thankful, one of the most sublimely beautiful places I've ever been. Half an hour after we drove on an RAF Tornado crashed very near the Rest and Be Thankful, killing the two crew. It seems impossible, doesn't it? Though why I imagine that bad things shouldn't happen in nice places I don't know..

Almost ripe?

Mmmm, yummy.


So, it's July - nearly a year since starting this blog, though I'm a way off achieving the actual 365 days.
A quick sum: 147 + 131 puts me at, um, 278, which isn't bad as I want it to be an interesting habit, rather than a chore.