The joy of finishing a sentence...

Oh dear, it appears that September is running away with me in the same way August did! Note to self: Must try harder on the blog front…

The off-road crew

Anyway the whirlwind continues and it’s become hard to get a minute to yourself. Or finish a sentence for that matter…A regular conversation in our house just now would go something like this:

Daddy: Am I free to go out on Saturday night?
Emily: Mummy – can you help me please?
Daddy: Emily, I was talking first.
Mummy: Yes Emily, Daddy was talking first.
Niomi: MUUUMMMMMY…
Mummy: I’m in the kitchen.
Daddy: So, can I go out on Saturday?
Mummy’s phone: Bing!
Mummy now distracted by new phone message
Emily: Mummy – can you help me please?
Mummy: Sorry Daddy, what did you say?
Niomi: MUUUMMMMY…
Daddy: Mummy’s in the kitchen, Niomi. Can I help?
Emily: Why can’t you help me Daddy?
Daddy: I can Emily, but I was talking to Mummy about something...

Etc etc. You can see where this goes. You never get to complete a sentence anymore. It takes hours for any small progress to be made and days to hold a full conversation. Small wonder the blog has been a little sidelined…

Still we’ve not been idle. We’ve been to Crieff Hydro for a lovely weekend with the Gediks, and had many days out round East Dunbartonshire. There’s been a lot of cycling going on all over the place - the girls have been phenomenal on their bikes – cycling for two plus hours at a time, off-road as well as on. Swimming is now on the agenda - as is Rainbows. I’ve been up and down to Birmingham as my Mum’s been in hospital but now back home.

And in between times there’s been the final harvest of the year as we start to wind the garden down for winter. Although it has to be said the bizarre year of weather has meant that things are still flowering happily as we approach October. The girls are also delighted with their bunk beds, although I'm not sure it means they sleep for any longer. And to top it all off nicely – we’ve undertaken a big revamp of our lounge. So, with wood-burning stove installed we’re now ready for the Scottish winter and hopefully a little bit more time to finish those all important sentences round a cosy fire.

 The joy of bunk beds

 One way to get a sentence finished

 Spot the odd one out?

Indoor swimming

Still blooming

Pumpkin harvest

 Cycle-tastic 

Home fires are now a-burning

Scotland's got talent...

Eek! Where did August go?

For us it's been a whirlwind of  circus, festivals and championships - or a combination of all of them at the same time. From the sublime to the bizarre, we've been experiencing a talent-tastic August. It's been so hectic, I've not had much time to write the blog and looking back at it all I clearly haven't manged to take many photos. But here goes...a whistlestop August tour...

First up came Zippo's Circus - a first for both our girls but on the back of their new found love of The Greatest Showman it was one they both delighted in. Then there was a festie re-enactment with camping in the garden in the pouring rain. Then there was Glasgow's European Championships and Festival with loads of sports and other top notch entertainment all over Glasgow. Then it was the turn of the Merchant City Festival before the Edinburgh Fringe, and finally the Kirkintilloch Canal Festival. Wow! I've never seen so much talent, or been to so many large scale events, in such a short space of time.

There's been jugglers, acrobats, trapeze artists; street theatre, dance and drumming; stunt bikes, road bikes and unicycles. Its been a miscellany of top talent of all varieties, shapes and sizes. We've oo'ed, ahh'ed and applauded like never before. The girls have copied, mimicked and performed. We've been entertained by the best - and seen the best that Scotland, and the world, has to offer. August has surely been a month of talent.

 Welcome to the European Championships (Niomi has gone camera shy)

Unicorns are all the rage this summer

 Did I mention the unicorns?

Free craft was a big hit

 Campfire turned nearly housefire

Videoclip: The Bizarre

Cousins - from the oldest to the youngest

Supersized...

Maybe it's the exceptional weather we’re having but somehow everything seems to have grown and got really big, either that or we’ve all shrunk. Whatever, wherever we go at the moment the world seems to be a bit supersized.

Beach fun

We’re just back from a long weekend in Dumfries and Galloway in the van – Sands of Luce to be precise. The weather was fine and the vista massive as Sands of Luce stretch for miles and miles. Undaunted by the scale of it all the kids spent much time on the beach which was 20 yds from the van (so close to hand they regularly went in pyjamas), looking like tiny dots on the horizon. Then there was the monstrous plants at the Logan Botanical Gardens and the huge avenues of trees and 2 acre lily pond in the 75 acre grounds at Castle Kennedy, which are all well worth a visit. And then we returned to a garden which seemed to be erupting into a supersized existence. Sunflowers that must be 7ft high, pumpkins growing left, right and centre – enough for our own pumpkin festival, and then throw into the mix some lettuces, rocket and spinach that looks like it’s straight out of Mr McGregor’s garden and an apple tree creaking under the weight of its apples, and we’ve got a vegetable patch that’s truly blossoming with nature’s bounty. The world’s definitely gone large just now, and that's helping us love this summer that never ends 😎

Happiness is flying a kite in your pyjamas

 More beach fun

And yet more beach fun

Videoclip: Welcome to Castle Kennedy

2 acres of lilypads

Giant plants

It really was a very large pond

Tree climbing

Giant sunflowers

The beach...

The gorgeous North Berwick

In 20 years I’ve never had a completely successful beach holiday in Scotland. The beach in Scotland is generally a place which requires your inner Boy Scout; you need to be well prepared with thermals, windbreaks, waterproofs, plan b’s, escape routes etc. Last year in North Berwick we barely made the beach once, and that entailed a rather hasty windswept and sandy barbecue.

But this year was different. This year we did them all – Yellowcraigs, West and East North Berwick, Canty Bay, Seacliffs (x2) and Tyninghame. That’s pretty much all the major ones covered form Dirleton to Dunbar. Fantastic! We slapped on the factor 50 and picnicked on the beach without sand in the sandwiches. We dipped our toes, paddles and buckets in the North Sea as we jumped over waves, investigated rockpools, and kayaked round the bay. We built fires (for fun not cold) as we wildcamped by the beach. The kids cried with delight rather than cold. We even occasionally needed to escape the beach for a change of scene – unheard of! And on top of all that we dined like kings of the coast with a plethora of seafood. We did it! We had a proper beach holiday in Scotland 😊.

Thanks to the Gurney’s for letting us stay. The cats survived, just not sure they loved having us as much as they were ‘loved’ by our daughters 😊.

Watching the boats

Beach town cool

Hands up for the beach

Journey to the beach

Sunset at wild camp

Wild campers

Camo-van playing hide and seek



Rockpool discovery

Seacliff - best beach ever?

Sand angels

Beach running 1

Beach running 2

Beach running 3

Paddle time 1

Paddle time 2

 

Eventually the sun had to set
 

Cats, bikes and the shows...

Niomi loves the Gurney's cats. Possibly a little too much. It seems that generally as she appears they seem to disappear. "Where cats go?" she cries hopefully. "I don't know" I untruthfully reply, whilst thinking that they're probably hiding a long way away. I never thought you could have too much love for something but now I know. Still her talking's coming along - even if it is talking to the cats.

Videoclip: Cat Pesterer

The weather's been incredible in the last few weeks. We've had blazing sun, torrential downpours and some really windy days. Our annual bbq and the Kirky gala ended in spectacular storms with crazy lightning across the sky. The girls have been on fine form though and we've had a trip to North Berwick which involved much cycling, and some wonderful end of term shows. Niomi did us proud in her end of year nursery show and Emily more than equalled her in the drama. Both involved some seriously energetic dancing. And now it's time for the summer holidays to begin. The weather is currently as good as anyone can remember, so lets hope that continues for the rest of the summer. Let the madness begin. Good luck Mummy, I'm off to work...

 Niomi

 Emily

Prepared for rain and sunshine

 Cycling cousins I

 Cycling cousins II

 Cycling cousins III

Cycling cousins IV

Videoclip: The Shows