Well hey. Here I am still in the land of the living 10 yrs since my last post and life has moved on dramatically! Wowser we can now claim to be the generation that is post-covid. A world pandemic which was admittedly very scary stuff when it hit! I recall my youngest (who is now a very grown up 20![how did that happen?]) asking me at the very start of covid if this would turn into a pandemic mum? and I hastened to reassure her na of course not! having just read the WHO headlines saying no it wouldn't be a pandemic. How wrong they were! lockdowns not allowed to leave houses except for hourly walks only urgent shopping allowed. Very frightening! But hey i have missed out on 10 years My 2 babies are now grownnups having succeeded in their educational endeavours with flying colours. one can drive (I never get to see my car!) one about to sit their test imminently. So i may as well forget driving my car ever again! The eldest has just bought a flat with their partner so will be flying the nest (and boy will that be hard on me!!! 😭) But in amongst all that life has gone on with all the usual trials and tribulations of family life. But i am still here. Fighting the good fight. Mebbe not always winning. But surviving to fight another day mebbe slightly bloodied and bruised but still standing! Getting new windowz and doors installed next week which will hopefully help with energy bills this winter in view of the ever rising costs due to gawd awful government and economic crisis thanx to Brexit and Covid but let's not go there!!! 😝🙄 Lets move on. Looking forward to our trip to Islay come October. Toi many years since I've been to Islay (something like 5 years) and I'm needing my islay fix. In saying that. Even in the time i haven't been over the island has changed. New whisky distilleries have opened up (no complaints there!) and also a rum distillery has now opened. Very intrigued! As is my youngest! Gonna be a very expensive trip this time let me tell u! Well i better sign off here and stop procrastinating. Which is my middle name as u know! I better go and hang the washing out! Will keep u posted about my new windows and doorz! Next instalment coming soon Remember to stop and smell the roses! 🌹 Ttfn

I'm baack!!:-P

hiya folks no i havent fallen off the edge of the planet hey im sorry i havent been around for 2 years i guess life really has got a way of intruding but here i am again to bore u with the mundanity of my life. Well that's October week over. Back to school. My eldest has just informed me that I have to run him to the local park at 6.30 in the am so he can go for a training run with some of his running club mates at 6.45. Now I am up and dressed at that time on a school day, but I am normally on auto-pilot for half an hour until OH leaves for work and I have to start the day by making packed lunches and getting the kids up and now he wants me to be properly awake at that time.!!! Monday am: Well here I am, I managed to get him to the park and sat and waited for half an hour while he and his mates ran round the park in the cold and dark - what fun!! They are all packed off to school and I am now just starting to feel human! Admittedly when run fanatic left for school, he admitted he wasn't quite sure of his whereabouts - he was kinda running on autopilot!! having got up an hour earlier than normal, ran round the park, came home, breakfasted and showered and left for school in a kinda daze! he's gonna be knacked tonite!! Here's hoping this gets old quickly with him!!! Well my baking forays having taken new steps recently - I tried out, for the first time ever making a Key Lime Pie desert - not quite the pukka USA recipe, but worked for me - and it was actually surprisingly good - mixed reaction from the family - OH enjoyed - at least he didn't spit it out!, wee one - na she didn't like it, but RF yeah he agreed it was OK! So a thumbs up basically, and another one I can add to my repertoire. Also tried out chocolate scones for the first time ever - saw them mentioned on Twitter - basic advertising folks! - and having never even heard of or seen chocolate scones, researched them and decided ok I'd give them a whirl - turned out surprisingly ok - a totally new territory for me and quite strange to get used to the taste of - never having contemplated chocolate and scones together - but yeah tasted ok, I think next time tho, I will tweak the recipe a bit to reduce the amount of cocoa powder - bit strong for my taste but now I know the receipe I will feel happier tweaking it around a bit. A 60/40 success from my tasters - the wee one luvs them and surprisingly RF who doesn't like normal scones snaffled about 4 of them and said please mum make some more! My OH not so excited but not total thumbs down. Next adventure is the Christmas Cake - which I have to make kiddie friendly and not so large - since OH says he doesn't want his birthday cake come April to be Xmas Cake with 51 candles!! oh so witty - just for that I reckon I have to save a piece for April!! (hopefully we WON'T still be eating it by then!!!) So onwards and upwards and apologies to all those traditional Xmas cake bakers out there while I try and tweak the recipe a bit! Guess what I'm doing next weekend - has to wait til then cos I need OH muscles to mix it! (something he's very good at at the best of times!) Will keep you posted next week on my (natural)baking success! Til then - if you can't be good - be careful!

Red Shoes

Hiya folksies - yes I am still out here in cyberspace.  I know I don't chat enuf.  Life seems to run past me at a rate of knots these days and I can't run fast enuf to keep up.
Well here we are - exactly 2 months to Xmas day. 
My news - don't really know where to start, so I'll just jump in at the middle and see where it takes me.  I went out today and bought myself my first pair of docs.  (Dr. Martins) - not the real deal, obvs. since they are about £70.00, but still and all Docs. they are - and what colour - nice shiny red.  And no I am not 2 years old - 2 years and a bit maybe, but I can't resist red shoes.  So what if my husband walks 3 yrds in front of me, my daughter will stand by me and my son doesn't walk these days, run mebbe, but walk not.
My eldest (son) just turned 13 last week and is now taller than me.  Sports coming out his *** - did a 2 mile cross country last week, without even breaking a sweat!.  School football team, sprinter, badminton, athletics.  Not what I envisaged 13 years ago, I have to say, but luv the boy to pieces.
My girly - Brownie Hallowe'en party tonite, school Hallowe'en party tomorrow nite. Trick or treating next week - almost catching up with me in height too! Not to mention she knows best.  Where would I be without them.
Cold today - talk of snow next week and -10 temps.  Come on here, its only October!!!  Well my feet will be nice and cozy in my red docs. even if himself won't walk down the street with me.!!
As my eldest says, YOLO - {(You Only Live Once) to the unitiated!}
When I have more time early next week, I will ramble some more - must go now, as ever too much to do - too little time.
TTFN
RED SHOES wahay!!!

Spring & sorry

Has is really be just under a year since I last blogged. Sorry peeps.

Life just kinda ran away with me last year and only now are we returning to normal service.

Hey its SPRING - I just love the freshness and new promise of spring - warmth, bright colourful flowers, buds on the trees and dreams of a long hot summer - well one can dream huh?

Well where to begin? My eldest is at Secondary as you all know and luving it - its a cakewalk for him - I worried that it might be hard work and kinda scary - who am I kidding - proud isn't the word where he is concerned - top marks in this, top marks in that, A team in the school football team, scoring X amount of goals, running track times - yeah yeah, so he beats S2's. Just can't help but luving him.

My little one - hey mum I want to do street dance - check out this move - fair blew me away yesterday and confidence by the bucket. Luv her to bits. So jealous of her long legs and gorgeous hair - its just as well she's mine!

Kids gotta luv them.

Hey I got a new washing machine for free sort of - the old one was knackered - parts obsolete and cause we were paying a maintenance agreement, so no call out or parts charges, we get a new for old machine - and this one is mega - 7kg drum - enormous. Even I can't overload this. And quiet! - I have to keep checking its on!!! To say I luv it might seem a bit excessive! And hooray, my OH finally decided at the weekend to lay the kitchen floor for me after XXX months of living with bare floorboards - looks great - shame about the units, but hey we can't have everything.

Plumber coming to fix my knackered toilet tomorrow.
Life moves on apace.

Kids off for Spring break in 2 weeks - can't wait to not have to drag myself out of bed at 6.00 a.m. every morning for 2 whole weeks - bliss.

And I have my summer holiday booked to look forward to - admittedly just in good old Blighty and not abroad as we originally planned - but hey its a holiday so whats not to luv.

Can't help smiling - but don't want to jinx things just happy cos its Spring at last.

Will try and be it bit more blog concious over the next few weeks if there is anybody out there who actually reads my ravings.

So Happy First Day of Spring everybody and keep smiling.
Lol :)

School Prom !! Help!!

Hiya peeps. Long time no speak. Well we have finally reached the culmination of 7 years of primary - the school prom is tonite. I have promised to be on my best behaviour and no tears will issue from my fisog. The limo has been hired, all the smart clothes and shoes bought and now we just wait til 7.00 p.m. Well I say all the smart clothes - he has decided to tell me at 8.00 a.m this morning that he wants a jacket to wear now too - not just the waistcoat that he was adamant that was all he wished to wear for about 3 months since we first started discussing this and trying to convince him that the pair of black leather shoes are not too big!!! - simply because he has lived in trainers for the past 3 years!! But as I say - hopefully will manage to get him a jacket today and I promise I will not cry when I see my baby all dressed up smart like a grown-up!!!
He can't wait to get to secondary school after having been at his induction days - needless to say tho there is a list as long as my arm as to what he must have for secondary!! Oh to return to the simple days of primary. This is the next big step in his life - he will be walking to and from school - be home before me, some days, - when I have to pick the wee one up from primary which finishes later than secondary on 2 days out of 5. It seems like just yesterday I was buying his uniform for primary one and his little SpiderMan Lunchbox and he looked so brave heading out into this big new world!! Time passes too quickly!!!
Summer - where is it??? - We are coming up to the summer solstice next week, and I am still waiting for the long hot nites when you can't bear to have any covers on the bed. I have bought all these wee skimpy tops and flip flops - chance to wear them yet - ha ha.
Skools out next Friday for 7 long weeks - maybe the summer is waiting til then?!!
Next birthday coming up is for my little girl - and what does she want - a mobile fone! - how times have changed - growing up too fast in this life.
Hubby on the mend after his major op. itching to get back to being the boss, but still tiring easily.
Will my life ever settle down into mundanity again?
My sunflowers and lettuces aren't event getting a chance to sprout properly yet - still making a valiant effort, but struggling - this time last year I had a bounty of lettuce and fruit coming on - still waiting!!
Sorry today is a kind of mixed up posting - bit like my head just now.

Surprises

Life is never simple in this household. Sure knows how to play you a blinder. My better half is in hospital having had an operation earlier this week, but doing well and itching to get home already!. Need to get new shower installed, before he comes home - this will hopefully be done at the weekend so it will be up and running for his return. Fence between me and my neighbours has blown down and needs to be removed - part of it stil standing - neighbour is going away on holiday at weekend so my better half has given my son the go ahead to kick his football at the fence so it gets knocked into the neighbours garden for him to get rid of (as we offloaded the rest of it to the dump after the winter storms!) and other half won't be fit on his return from hospital to remove it! - so fencer can renew fence, without us having to pay for him to remove old one! - hope you got all that, kind of confused order.
My son is going to the local High School, after all the heart-searching about putting in a placement request for the further away high school, which I did for him against my better judgement - the reply comes in saying he is getting in to local High School - 15 mins walk away - my heart was in my mouth at the prospect of telling him - and guess what, when I tell him - he is pleased!!! - he has been hoping that his placement request would be denied, apparently, for the last 2 months, (but didn't want to say after all the fuss he made about getting me to put in the placement request!) - decided he wanted to go to the local school after all! - well he got his wish - and thankfully, all his friends are going to the local school too - they all got knock-backs for their placement requests too - so everybody is happy - a lot of grief over nothing way back in January after all!!
Well, what did we make of the Royal Wedding - personally, I thought she was gorgeous - I don't care what anybody says, I loved her dress - so entrancing yet understated. As for Wills - he may not be the handsomest, he is definitely a Windsor - but I think he has got his mothers sense of humour, a bit on the cheeky side - not quite so staid as his father. I think when his time comes, he will make a good King and his bride has been well chosen. They will lead us well through the 21st Century.
Summer seems to be just around the corner - had cracking weather for the last couple of weeks and my garden has appreciated it - I now seem to have a Horse Chestnut tree growing down beside my raspberries at the bottom of the garden - must have dropped one of the kids conkers, which we religiously collect every autumn, down next to my raspberry canes and it has decided to take root - I will leave it and see what comes of it - quite novel to see! I also seem to have managed to root some brambles too - yee hah - I sneekily stole a branch from my neighbours overhang a couple of years ago and planted it next to the raspberries too. Nothing came of it last year and I reckoned cos it wasn't a proper cutting it wasn't going to take - but it would appear to have taken this year and hopefully come the autumn, I will have an abundance of brambles too. So my garden is quite fecund at present after the evil long term winter we had - so good to see everything growing and bringing life and eventual harvest to my garden - my potted sunflowers and sweet peas have started to sprout gleefully, along with my peas, carrots and lettuces and my strawberry plants are also showing new life - so here's hoping I shall have an abundance of home grown fruit and veg to see me through the next few months and into the autumn.
Never know whats round the corner do we, maybe best that way.
Well I guess the housework won't go away, so best get to it.
laters peeps

Surprising Finds

I am not a great gourmet or foody, but I do know what I enjoy.
Normally, when it comes to Farmers Markets, I tend to run round them with a quick dismissive glance at the stalls and think over-priced but not really worth the time. Well I have proved myself wrong!
At the weekend, purely because it was in a very handy local position, we went to a Farmers Market at the Avenue Shopping Centre, on Sunday morning and boy, am I glad I did. The usual eclectic gathering of stalls, but not horribly busy, so we had a chance to browse.
Firstly, Cedar Cottage Country Foods - where we spent £20 on fresh meat - but boy is it worth it - simple foods like smoked Ayrshire bacon, square slice (Lorne) sausage and link sausage flavoured with leeks - and every one of them delicious and what real fresh meat should taste like.
Next stop - now this one I have to say is quite off the wall, but blew me away - Home Ground Coffee Ltd. - now I do enjoy a good cup of coffee, usally quite strong - tried a couple of samples of this guys coffee - not your usual blends that you find in supermarkets, but different beans that he sources and grinds himself - the one I bought, Nicaraguan - quite strong but my oh my - sent me to a happy place - couldn't help smiling when I was drinking it, and boy the buzz it gave me - dare I say it - better than chocolate!!! A very nice coffee that is well worth savouring.
And last but not least, again I do quite enjoy strong flavours, but not overwhelming and here Inverlochy Cheese have won me over - the Lazy Ploughman - cos I do enjoy a cheddar ploughmans when we are out for a pub lunch - mature cheddar cheese, so creamy and milky it transports you to heavenly delight - with a sweet pickle mixed into it. Oh delicious. Bought only the one small truckle - wish I'd bought more cos the Farmers Market doesn't return for another 4 weeks and the cheese is almost finished!
Just goes to show - you can't judge a book by its cover. And I will be returning to support these traders and possibly more, on their return to the Farmers Market in 4 weeks time.
If you have a local farmers market and get a chance to try any or all of the above, I highly recommend them. My simple advice today - support the small home traders or we will lose them. Fresh is best for sure.
Sorry to wax so lyrical. Rant over for today.
Laters peeps.