The chair in the picture came from my Grandma’s house in Blackpool.  She was born in 1889 and lived to be 98, so even more than my father, she saw some serious changes in her life.  Lived through both world wars as an adult and saw powered flight, radio, films, television etc.  From the stagecoach […]

R is away on his travels again and missed my Mum’s birthday. She came over to Donich Lodge with my brother and J – this was actually a goodbye to the place as I don’t think they will be back before we move. We went to Bowmore Botanic Gardens in the afternoon.  My Mum can’t […]

I’ve been thinking there was something up with our tumble dryer for the last few weeks as it has been making an ominous squeaking noise indicative of failing bearings.  Today the drum suddenly just stopped turning (the heat was still running though so it wasn’t an electrical fault).  So in order to have to avoid […]

R saw this pinemarten outside his office window today.  How many places are there where you could see that?   Quite a big one as well – I estimate about the same size as Saphy.  Having said that – there is nothing to worry about pine martens and cats – the martens we have seen […]

Moving as we are to a huge Victorian house, we have a slight furniture problem.  We do have some lovely Victorian and Edwardian furniture of J’s which is currently in storage, but this is not by any manner of means enough to furnish a 7 bedroom house.  So what we are left with is:- Furniture […]

We went to see my Mum in Rhu for Easter.  My brother cooked lunch (a very Spanish take on lentil soup and chicken Basque) and then we did the egg painting that has become a bit of a tradition. R (as usual) completely refused to get into the swing of things and wouldn’t even have […]

Mark Twain (an author for whom I have a great deal of admiration) said this:[ “We had an abundance of mangoes, papaias and bananas here, but the pride of the islands, the most delicious fruit known to men, cherimoya, was not in season. It has a soft pulp, like a pawpaw, and is eaten with […]

R is always munching on Stoats health bars.  These are ok nutrionally but are expensive and always taste rather synthetic to me. So yesterday I made some of my own. 200g Quaker oats (from Cupar no less!) mixed with 150g mixed dried fruit and nuts and cinamon to taste.  Add 60g smooth peanut butter, 50g […]

The cats are naughty in different ways. Least naughty this week is Lucky (2 on the naughtiness scale) who has mooched for food and persistently slept on J’s bed. Second on the naughtiness scale with a 6 is Saphy who has brought in several prey items, one of which was eviserated in a very horrible […]

I’ve now been right through our attic starting to clear things up for our move.  It is amazing what you can collect in 11 years.  I will both compliment and condemn R by saying that there was much more stuff of his than there was of mine.  The condemnation is that like me he buys […]