In five years time.............

Amy at Over at our Place set a challenge to "This week, if you are game, grab your camera and take five photos (that might be the hard part ;-)) of things that you know won't be around in another five years time."

Here are mine:

1.  I'm really hoping that Samuel will be at university, enjoying himself (but studying hard).

2.  I'd love a bigger craft space/room.

3.  A new kitchen.  It's the only room left to do.

4.  After 5 years already, I'm hoping that all the renovations are finished. I'm tired of holes in the floor!

5.  A new garden....preferably in the country attached to a nice 3 bedroom cottage/bungalow.

Why don't you have a go and see what you come up with.

A to Z

The lovely Heather over at Heather Scraps listed her A to Z so I thought I'd have a go too :0)

A. Age: 44

B. Bed size: double

C. Chore that you hate: De-greasing the kitchen

D. Dogs:  One black lab who chews his own feet (all the time) and it getting on in years.

E. Essential start to your day:  A shower

F. Favourite colour:  Lime green

G. Gold or Silver: silver

H. Height: 5' 6 ish

I. Instruments you play:  Are you having a laugh?

J. Job title:  Jack of all trades master of none

K. Kids:  14 year old boy with hormones on the way!!

L. Live:  Moray, Scotland

M. Mother's name:  Margaret

N. Nicknames:  None that I know of!!

O. Overnight hospital stays:  Once when having my son.

P. Pet peeve:  Dirty clothes on the floor.  No excuse when there are two washing baskets in the house.

Q. Quote from a movie: “The truth?  You can’t handle the truth”

R. Right or left handed: right

S. Siblings:  1 brother, 1 sister

T. Time you wake up: 0600.  “What does the 0 stand for?  Oh My God it’s early”.   Sorry that was another movie quote!

U. Underwear:  At all times!!

V. Vegetable you hate: Sprouts.  They are the Devils vegetable.  DH makes me eat one at Christmas just say I’ve had at least one a year!!

W. What makes you run late:  Getting a 14 year old boy, with no sense of urgency, ready for school

X. X-Rays you've had:  Chest x-ray to check for TB when I was 11.  (We’d not been back from Hong Kong very long and every man and his dog out there had TB!!), elbow, and recently a mammogram.

Y. Yummy food that you make:   Cakes, cakes and more cakes.

Z. Zoo animal:  It has to be the Giraffe.  There is just something about them that appeals to me and I always make sure I see them when we go to a zoo.  I also have two wooden ones on my fireplace that Santa left last Christmas.  Seems like I must have been a good girl after all!!  :0)

Shimelle's Sketch of the Week

I haven't done any scrapping for ages but my sister Ruth posted yesterday that she had done Shimelle's Sketch of the Week and I thought I'd give it a go too.
I used some photos of the flowers John bought me this week "Just Because"and some papers that I've had so long I don't even know where I got them from (probably a Scrapagogo kit last year).  They are called Knave of Hearts - DoubleTake - Tell Your Story.  The felt buttons are also very old but suited the colours perfectly.
I think I may have the scrapping bug back so watch out for more LOs in the coming weeks.

Sad news

This little fella was sitting quiet happily in my porch when I got home the other day.  Tweeting away for his Mum and Dad while sat on Moss's bed.  He and one of his/her siblings had fledged and the other 6 were still in the bird box.
Unfortunately we think that Mum and Dad had abandoned the nest as the very next day we had 4 dead babies.  3 in the box and one in the garden.  We had to bury them properly so we got an old egg box and put them in there, before....yes you've guessed it......putting them in the wheelie bin!!!
Then while putting the bins out last night we found another dead baby under the bin.  I am just hoping that the other 3 managed to survive.  Fingers crossed.

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The babies - What a difference a week makes

Gordon Castle Highland Games

Today was the first Highland Games at Gordon Castle for many years.  It was also my very first Highland Games.  I've been to Game Fairs in the past but they have mostly been sporting ones.
The weather was gorgeous on the walk down but as the day went on the rain came and the wind got up.

If I'm honest I only went to see the neighbours house up close and I have to say I was a little disappointed.  I thought the gardens would have been lovely and colourful with fish in the pond but no flowers and no fish!!

There was lots to see and plenty to look at in the main arena although for next year they should sort out who's commentating....the guy doing the Highland Games or the one doing the Falconry as at one point they were both speaking at the same time and you couldn't hear either of them!!

There was Tossing the Caber.....

and the Pipes and Drums of the Dufftown Pipe Band and the Elgin Pipe band.......

The Hammer Throw......

The 56lb Weight over the Bar......

The Fochabers Fiddlers..............

and Highland Dancing..........

the crowds waiting for the Tug of War and the Games to begin...........

and a wee deer who's job it is to stand at the entry to the East Garden.

It was a great day and except for the weather being so up and down it was a good day out.  Hopefully next year it will be a lot warmer :0)

Pirates of the Caribbean 4

Jack Sparrow and Barbossa embark on a quest to find the elusive fountain of youth, only to discover that Blackbeard and his daughter are after it too. 

It wasn't the same without the old crew but enjoyable all the same.  And what's not to like about Johnny Depp?

A watery day

It's been a day of water today.  Not only due to the fact that is has tried to rain on and off all day but because this morning we took Moss up to Ordiquish farm and along through the woods to the River Spey.

Where he went for a swim under the watchful eye of his Dad before trudging the few miles back home.

Then this afternoon we took Samuel to the Glen of Rothes Trout Fishery where he practiced his casting.  The first hour he didn't catch a thing (but then neither did his dad) but then as soon as his Dad went to get some more flies he managed to cast and catch a Rainbow Trout in about a minute.  We did laugh as neither of us had a clue what to do next so after I struggled to get the net set up we managed to get the fish into the net and landed it on the bank.  Then we had to try and get the hook out.  Well that fish was a slippery little sucker and wouldn't stop wriggling.  After a minute I managed to get the hook out and we put him back in the water only for him to lean to one side and not move!!!  "We've killed it" says Samuel!!  "I bloody hope not" says me "as we're supposed to do catch and release!!!"

Thankfully a few minutes later it regained it's strength and swam as far away as he could get.  Hopefully not stupid enough to get caught again today!!

I wasn't until John came back and looked at the slip of paper he'd got when we arrived that he realised it said that we could take one fish home :0)

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Apple blossom

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A little late with this one!!

Moss on Spey bay beach

New Babies

I've been keeping an eye on the bird box for the last few days as both Mr & Mrs C have been in and out like Yo Yos.  Today I thought I'd take a sneaky look and see if the eggs had hatched and they had.
I only had a quick look at first as Mrs C was still on the nest but later I popped back with the camera and took a quick snap.  I think I can count 8 but it's very crowed in there so maybe there are 9 and I just can't see the last one.
The nest is amazing.  It fills the box but the actual bit the babies are in is only about 2 inches across and the babies are about 1.5cm big.  They're going to get very squashed in there real soon.

Project Life

Well that's another two weeks that have just flown by.  Not the most interesting weeks this year but I was still able to fill the two pages in my album, which I have to say is a lovely lime green D-ring cloth album by American Crafts I bought over at Sarah's Cards.

So the first week was work, planting some bedding plants, keeping and eye on Mrs Coal Tit sitting on her 9 eggs and tying to get my crochet to go together without too many holes!!

Followed by the Royal Wedding and some lovely weather which was hot enough to sit out in the garden and play scrabble.

Week 2 started with the news about Bin Laden.  Enough said on that subject.  Then there was buying a new car, watching Band of Brothers (one of the best TV shows ever made), changing my working hours and having a fish supper.

Followed by a cracking photo of the Iris by the pond which believe it or not was taken on a mobile phone!!.  Thursday meant I was voting at 07.40am before work and I was still not the first one in!! The Diet picture speaks for itself as does the one of the washing and the ironing which seems to feature every week!!!

I wonder what this week will bring?

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Scrabble anyone?  John and I spent an hour or so in the garden this afternoon playing Scrabble.  The sun was out, there was a glass of wine and there was peace and quiet.             

I lost!!

Lovely to look at

Rape Seed - Lovely to look at but a nightmare for hayfever sufferers.