Tagged by Tammy

Seven things to do before I die:

1. See all my children grown up and happy

2. Buy a home for my mother ~ white picket fence around garden

3. Be a fun loving and encouraging mum, auntie & granny

4. Own a cottage by the sea

5. Have a huge greenhouse filled with tomatoes & more!

6. Make my own wine / have all the family over for get-togethers

7. To travel a bit with my husband & visit my sister(Australia)

Seven things I cannot do:

1. Go spelunking – terrified of small spaces

2. Grow my nails – I keep trying though

3. Not worry about my kids

4. Swim the ‘crawl’ stroke properly

5. Have cats as pets- allergic

6. Live inland away from the sea ~ am a beachcomber

7. Smoke (unlike the woman in photo)

Seven things that attract me to my Hubby

1. Has a gentle temperance

2. Is also my best friend

3. He is very intelligent ~ l learn from him every day

4. He encourages our children and me

5. He works hard

6. A loving father who encourages girls to do as well as the boys

7. We have the same outlook on life

Seven books I love:

1. Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier

2. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

3. Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

4. A Clergyman’s Daughter by George Orwell

5. The Silver Darlings by Neil Gunn

6. Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee

7. Goodnight Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian

Seven movies I'd watch over and over again:

1. Cold Mountain

2. Pride & Prejudice

3. Far & Away

4. Braveheart

5. Father Ted (comedy series)

6. Titanic

7. Narnia

Seven People (groups) I'd like to tag:

1. My Son & Daughter

2. Parents

3. My brother & his wife

4. Always my sister but she will already have been tagged!

5. Father–in-law

6. My youngest sister

7. Best Friend, Stacy

Get-up-and-go

Today has been a varied mix of sudden chills and bursts of activity. I am desperate to finish off Mel’s room and as there was no one else around l set to work on laying the carpet ~ a bit of foolish spontaneity. Ok l almost passed out but am quite pleased with the results.

Sometimes you are glad that the family are not around especially when their rooms are as temporary dumping areas during times of re-arrangement ~ you can see by the photos how cluttered they were ~ managed to get it all out again before they came home though. Mother Magic!

My son Daniel has worked across the water from 5am till 8pm today setting up huge tents. He was so exhausted when he got in so showered, ate and is already in bed ~ another early rise tomorrow. I am proud of his outlook on this summer job ~ he sees it as both a challenge and an opportunity to put money away for University. We are proud of him and glad he is moving into manhood with a work ethic and not sitting around expecting ‘entitled’ handouts from the State. Sure there are many people who need and depend upon deserved Benefits but there are also many spongers.

Under the Weather

I’ve had a busy last few days ~ teenage parties, car boot sale, decorating my daughter’s room etc. Thought at first l was just a bit tired with climbing up ladders and throat was sore due to paint fumes but around 5pm yesterday felt awful and had to go to bed.

I’ll be taking it easy today ~ lots of hot drinks and rest. Weather is fantastic outside and l’m stuck indoors- the slugs and snails will be making a come-back!

Captured Snails and Midge wails

Reclaiming my garden is an ongoing battle ~ l am trying to restore a little balance and am collecting the many snails (Helix aspersa) by hand. The neighbours probably think that l’m a bit mad by the hours l keep, spring-boarding around the shrubbery~ not just in an attempt to grab as many of the wee blighters as possible but also in the hopes of evading the dreaded Scottish Midge!

These snails like this type of garden because they can shelter in the undergrowth and come out to feast at night. So far they have eaten all of my wee plants~ an army of snails- the flowers never stood a chance.

Anyway, off l go out again with my bucket in tow to collect ~ my cup of tea will just have to wait for now.

The photo shows their race for home- devils!

The News is Out!

I am going to be an Auntie again- yeh!

Lovely couple ~ don't you think?

Another November baby! Most of the family seem to have birthdays this month ~ it must be the water.

Oh well- another bouncy baby on the way- life is wonderful.

Here is wishing my wee brother, his lovely wife and the wee bump the very best.

A canny wee Scotsman

A canny wee Scotsman called Sammy MacNabbitt,

Was possessed of an odd an' peculiar habit.

He'd sit on the roof of his wee Scottish hoose,

An' sing all day long 'til the tiles rattled loose.

In MacNabbitt tartan, he'd start every mornin'

In kilt an' in sporran as daylight was dawnin',

With beret on head an' bagpipes in hand,

He'd sing an' he'd play like a wee Celtic band,

An' he'd dance to the skirl of his bagpiping lilt

With the whirl of a wee Scottish breeze up his kilt.

Now Mrs MacNabbit did not have a hunch

That he'd slip on the haggis she'd packed him for lunch,

An' Sammy MacNabbit fell kilt over head,

An' just for a while it was feart he was dead.

It's not a good thing to step on your meal

While playing the bagpipes an' dancin' a reel.

An' it's not very pleasant at all I suppose,

With a great haggis sandwich stuck well up your nose,

An' to judge by his screams, I very much doubt

That the pleasure improved as the stuff was scraped out.

So Sam does nae sing on the roof any more

An' considers it wiser to stay on the floor.

An' is he still singing? - och aye so he is,

He's the top o' the charts in the radio biz,

A star of the air and for your information

He's a disc jockey noo at a radio station,

He sings to the music as only he can

An' he's known to the world as Sing-along-Sam.

An' he sings o' the heather, he sings o' the glen.

O' bonnie wee lassies an' brave Scottish men.

O' the moors an' the lochs, an' yon bonnie braes,

O' the mists, o' the highlands an' Scotland the brave

He'll sing o' the bluebells that blossom galore,

But he will nae eat haggis for lunch any more.

(Anonymous)

Cultivate Creativeness

Melissa & Samuel

Sam (4yrs.) just gave me a gift,

“Here’s a little horse for you mummy.”

Made of sweetie wrapping and fashioned by his own wee hands ~ l think it is wonderful.

My daughter Melissa is also very creative, she designed this butterfly hat last year(Sam modelled it for her).

June 1st- Garden in Bloom

Have just been informed by my neighbour that this weekends forcast looks great- yipee! Lots to get done outside and will enjoy the sunshine.

Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil, getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity. ~Lindley Karstens

By the time one is eighty, it is said, there is no longer a tug of war in the garden with the May flowers hauling like mad against the claims of the other months. All is at last in balance and all is serene. The gardener is usually dead, of course. ~Henry Mitchell, The Essential Earthman, 1981

Gardening is a kind of disease. It infects you, you cannot escape it. When you go visiting, your eyes rove about the garden; you interrupt the serious cocktail drinking because of an irresistible impulse to get up and pull a weed. ~Lewis Gannit

The kiss of the sun for pardon,

The song of the birds for mirth,

One is nearer God's heart in a garden

Than anywhere else on earth.~Dorothy Frances Gurney

Interior Design for Family

Every time we were visiting with my father-in-law l would marvel at the size of the guest bathroom and could imagine the redesign of it from one room into two. There was potential for a smaller more modern guest bathroom plus additional en-suite for the master. So dad asked me to set to work on the design and planning. Not so easy as l had a solid concrete floor throughout to work with.

I sent down a booklet with a design proposal and within hours he was on the phone with the contractors!

Arghh. Designing for family is always a worry ~ you just want it all to work out well and hope they love the result.

The story so far:

• The original bathroom- photo taken Sat 13 May

• The plans – March 06- The larger perspectives had lighting effects and were rendered.

Slight change of direction when builder saw plans~ we were informed that the toilet piping had to be taken up into the roof space rather than along the extra cavity wall- Good news because it shaved a bit for the budget!

•First day of refurbishment ~ Today 1st June 06

Email from dad today: "All this without Semtex, we have changed our minds and want it restored. House full of dust and grit. Henry is a gem. Wall cutting on Friday.

Whose idea was this? !!"

Is there time to run? !!

Tell it like it is

The hedgehog

At dead of dayfall the spiky rustler comes.

Stout and fussy, the pincushiony foodnapper.

Darkles down ditches,

Grubbling gardenwards.

A midnight rifler through black bin bags,

The scurrying spinysnorter sniffles and scuffles,

Snailsearching.

Then, gutfully, he porkles back

Across the slugslimed street,

Till, fearstruck by a blinding roar,

He bristleballs.

And is splattened.

Why did the pricklepig cross the road?

by Sara-Louise Holland (11yrs)

ARGHH! Why, why, why did he have to cross the road? I love hedgehogs!

Kids ‘tell it like it is’ as l well know. Not half an hour ago l asked my four year old what he thought of his Auntie being pregnant and he answered,

“No comment ~ it’s none of our business but you can ask me in the morning if you like.”

Where did that come from?

Incidentally the Hedgehog is the UK’s top ten garden creature.

British Hedgehog Preservation Society

Hedgehog Friendly Garden

Awesome Auntie

My son, Daniel is heading out on holiday to Spain in a couple of weeks. At the last minute he had been let down by a Californian clothing company who would not ship to Scotland. My sister who lives in Brisbane, Australia went out shopping and in one day was able to pick up all the things he needed. Daniel and l were going to pay for this but Awesome Auntie refused and she is posting the stuff pronto ~ just in time for packing. xxx

That's what Aunts are made of

Arms bearing gifts, smiles that lift

Seeker of fun, warm as the sun

Valued wee sis, someone to miss

Birthday well-wisher, big ice cream disher...

That's what Aunts are made of

Hugs filled with heart, a fan from the start

Secrets to share, laughs to spare

Words of praise, generous ways

Grown-up best friend, love never ends...

That's what Aunts are made of

By Teri Harrison

Earthquake catastrophe

I can’t stop thinking about the earthquake in Indonesia ~ 4,600 dead so far! The quake, measuring 6.3, struck on Saturday morning shattering thousands of homes and lives.

Death – homelessness - overcrowded hospitals - searches for survivors - threat of a volcanic eruption, makeshift shelters - their needs are enormous.

Haven’t these people been through enough?

BBC NEWS

AID

Watery Wellies

Went for a lovely stroll with my husband and son this evening ~ lovely weather and calm waters. Sam could not resist going for a paddle, however he didn’t realize that he had gone a bit too deep resulting in soaked feet. It was quite funny when we got up to the promenade and he had to empty his wellies out, but thankfully he ‘splodged’ home without his socks quite happily and even sang too. What a trooper!

weBLOGging

I read somewhere yesterday that 2006 is the ‘Year of the Blog’.

Personally l’m not surprised by this as most of my family are online and quite active in the ‘blogosphere’. Irony is that now we seem to know more about each other than ever before!

Personally l think blogging has many good points as well as also being a creative outlet for tinkering around with graphics.

Who would have imagined 20 years ago you could sit in your own room and share thoughts and events with people from almost any part of the globe.

Of all the IT innovations the ‘blog’ has virtues. People are actually sitting down and being creative with language – something l thought was a dying art with texting as its death knell. People have become diarists – recording their lives and feelings unashamedly. They read the writings of others – contribute to others work and learn of other peoples experiences. Gardens, holidays, birthdays, poetry – you name it and it gets blogged up – and if it is sometimes a bit self-indulgent – so what – the feel good factor is worth it. It’s a really good place – a public refuge - to moan and shout about work, relationships, failures, frustrations and the downright dross aspects of life.

Somehow there is a feeling of satisfaction from airing your life in public – a sense of belonging to something more than our own four walls. Good therapy even if we are fast becoming nosy parkers on an industrial scale. Me - I’m off to iron the new lace curtains I’ve had made for my screen.

Sunshine after the rain

Blast those Bugs!

Every year l am plagued with them ~ thousands of tiny aggravating Aphids! They cover my Roses, Geraniums, Euphorbia etc., and so, once again l am getting ready to fight back (the ‘all natural’ way of course).

l have heard that planting Marigolds nearby the roses will attract the Aphids away, however in my garden Marigolds don’t last ~ a feast for the slugs instead which is another ongoing battle ~ don’t ask about last years Delphiniums!

I have heard that there are homemade solutions using ingredients like washing up liquid, vinegar and garlic, so that’s what l am going to try ~ a little worried however that it will be a matter of spraying every single day.

Perhaps l shall buy in some Ladybirds to populate the garden but they’re a bit expensive. The use of neem oil is only a once a week dose but it’s hard to get my hands on the stuff where l live, and so off l go in search of the perfect solution.

Reign in your kids!

I have used a reign/harness on all three of my children and they are certainly non-the worse for it. I have had a few not so nice looks and comments over the years but on the whole most people could see the sense in using them. I did try a wrist harness on my four year old months back and found myself in a shop for a few seconds trailing the cord ~ Sam had wriggled out of it and was browsing around ~ arrgh! Imagine if that had happened near a busy high street!

I have heard the argument, that it is ‘inhumane’ to use this apparatus on a child but would only agree with that if there were any detrimental affects upon a child’s psyche ~ personally my mother used the harness on me 30+ years ago and apart from my consistent night terrors and mutterings of “can l go now?’, I’m fine. Smile. With the harness your toddler can feel independent ~ they are finally out of the pram and getting exercise too!

The point of these reigns are not to pull, hurt, embarrass or restrict your children in any way but to keep them safe from harm. There are more things that could go wrong without the harness. Only a few pounds and worth every penny ~ children are too precious.

Boiler Troubles

Cold water instead of hot ~ that’s it in a nutshell! Turned the temp. control button up to full this morning in the hopes of a bath but it only gave me a few ungracious splutters of lukewarm. Oh well l thought, once l get in it will come up a little more ~ to only 3 inches! My bath scene was like a film remake of a floundering fish at the bottom of a bucket ~ much flipping and flapping ~ thank goodness l was alone. No matter which way l turned l could hardly rinse off and was still so lathered up afterwards that l had to blindly grope for the shower head in order to rinse! I should have just taken a shower in the first place but l really miss having a good soak. I must give the boiler guy a shout.

Esther & Betty

…and in the sweetness of friendship let there be

laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

For in the dew of little things the heart finds

its morning and is refreshed.

...Kahlil Gibran

For two women who have shown me how friendship should really be ~ how lucky they are ~ a friendship already spanning 45+ years!

...did Sam wish for a dog?

Meet Alvin, my youngest sister's dog ~ now he's cute but l'd be worried for him in our busy home ~ serious issues with my oldest son's feet ~ size 13!

Perhaps it is time for Sam to get his own wee dog. We had Callum, a fantastic Border Collie but he was extremely active and needed lots of walking. I like dad's Border Terrier ~ great personality and needs less exercise, hmm.. My brother is the dog expert so shall ask him.