The young and the old...

The young and the old never cease to amaze and delight.

On a recent car journey...

Emily: How far do we have to go? Is it 5 minutes?
Daddy: No, further than that.
Emily: Is it 6 minutes?
Daddy: No, much further than that.
Emily: Is it 19 minutes?
Daddy: No, even further than that. It's actually 200 minutes.
Emily: But I can't count that high.

Stepping out in the snowdrops at Gargunnock House

Then there was the 12 Days of Christmas...in February.

Videoclip: An unseasonal delight

And finally there was my mother. She never ceases to amaze.

Daddy: Mother...do you know what you are reading?

Grandma: I just wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

Never ceasing to amaze

God bless friends...

We are very blessed to have so many lovely people as good friends in our lives. And January this year has seen us catching up with lots of them for a few hours, days, nights or weekends of adventures at a time.

With our house alterations in full flow, hanging around a dusty house with minimalist facilities hasn’t been that appealing; so we have taken advantage of the situation and booked in weekends away, gate-crashed nights out, invited ourselves for lunches, dinners and drinks with all and sundry.

There was the ‘hillwalkers’ annual trip to Pitlochry, woodland explorers in Mugdoch, Craig’s 40th celebrations in Saddell, Tom’s 40th in Glasgow to name a few events that have kept us occupied. Then there was meals at various generous people’s houses, a few nights out and a number of other impromptu bits of excitement (including getting to wash my smalls at the neighbours).

All in all, it was a fantastic January, fun-packed and full of great memories. We really hope we never out-stayed our welcome with any of you or that our (well, mine) table manners didn’t put you off inviting us back. However, we’ll soon have a new kitchen, dining room, bathroom and spare room to repay all the favours we’ve racked up in January. So we expect to see you soon…bookings are now being taken for the after party.

Thanks to all who made it a really special time, and thanks for all the meals, drinks and sanctuary that you have provided us with…too many folk to name here but you know who you are and we owe you big time :-) !!

It's always the 70's in Pitlochry

 The 'Junior' Walk

 Giddy up old man

And yet more faces!

 

Happy 40th Birthday Craig!

 An authentic Burns supper

A January jog on Saddell beach

 The Ladies of the Manor

A frantic festive round up...

So apologies for the blogging backlog. Pre-xmas flashed by in a blur of coughs and colds and a whole heap of organisation for our house renovations which started early in January (more to come in future blogs).

So a frantic festive round up…

Early December saw me left in charge of Emily for the day whilst Mummy swanned off to a spa. The supreme being was coming down with a cold but we still managed to make the best of the start to the festive season with some balloon keepie-uppies, den building, dancing, musical statues, drawing, stop-go, colouring, tele-watching, truffle making, Christmas tree buying, sofa leaping, snoozing, curry eating at the neighbours and finally some Christmas lights switch on watching. Phew, what a day! I was exhausted, as was Emily thank goodness.

 Truffle making

 Sofa leaping

 Snoozing through Christmas tree buying

The Great Kirky Lights Switch On

Next up was an attempted surprise trip to celebrate my brother’s 50th birthday. Storm Desmond had other plans however and, after getting up ridiculously early to start my journey by train, I arrived back home some 11 hours later having progressed not much further south than Penrith. Best laid plans and all that…

Still to cheer myself up I decreed that the Christmas tree could be put up a week early and spent my Sunday bringing Christmas to Kirkintilloch.

 

 Train tracks or Rain tracks near Penrith?

Our first Christmas Tree in Kirky

And then the Southern Rookes appeared, with much hilarity and a lovely weekend had by all. My niece, Chloe, fresh back from her first term at Oxford was quick to pass on her new knowledge to Emily. And my brother, now fully in on his non-existent surprise birthday, was pleased that we’d managed to rearrange for February.

 Chloe taught her this!

 Frosty horse delight

 A gathering of Rookes round the tree

Cousinly fun

And then Christmas was upon us. As I said the last few days were full of frantic home improvement planning and trips round half of Scotland picking up things bought on Gumtree, as well as a pre-Xmas gathering of all Tanya's family.

My parents then arrived and we had a lovely family Xmas. I would say it was quiet, but between more house organisation, visits to and from friends and family, last minute Christmas prep, a highly excited supreme being and the chat from the Queen of the Rookes (my mother) – it was anything but. However it was lovely spending our first Christmas in our new home. All visitors welcome next year as we’ll have a new kitchen/dining room by then.

The Gedik, Gurney and Rooke gathering

 Very suspicious on Christmas Eve

 Happily unwrapping amid Christmas carnage

 I blame Chloe for all these faces

 Oldest and youngest Rookes

Final stop on the festive tour was North Berwick for Hogmanay. With my steak pie all cooked and plans for it to be traded in for Big John’s whisky – we were off. Big John had other plans though. Personally, I think getting yourself admitted to hospital to avoid eating my food and giving your whisky away is a bit excessive. But the Big Man is never one to do things by half and so off he toddled to get some peace and quiet in hospital (don’t worry – all is fine now). Still, before he went he managed to do the annual Loonie Dook (as did T and I), and we did get to see in the New Year with Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham providing their usual set of raucous party tunes (not). God knows what other events they’d have taken over if Scotland had become independent!

Happy New Year everyone!! May 2016 treat you well...

 Steak pie to welcome in the New Year

 A frosty dook this year

Post dook celebration

 Big monster John before his wee turn

 Supreme being having a sparkling good time

 

Merry Christmas...

Apologies for the recent dearth of blog posts...the build up to Xmas has overtaken me. Here's wishing you all a wonderful Christmas :-)...

A picture is worth a 1,000 words...

They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words. Never mind about 1,000, the one's below left Mummy and Daddy speechless...

 Mummy

Daddy

Well you can tell who's got the looks in the family (me obviously). And it looks like nursery is coming along just fine too. In fact we've gone craft-tastic in the house with the approach of Christmas. Well actually Daddy is satisfying 2 of his loves (being frugal and Christmas) by hand making decorations with his daughter. There's some quality designs coming out - the favourite of which has to be Emily's painted footprints, named 'Mistletoes', which will hang from the ceiling near the front door.

Pleased as punch with the Christmas wreaths

Fireworks were a bit hit and miss with Emily this year. All a bit loud apparently. She liked watching them but from the safety of the indoors. Not really the point but that's toddlers for you. So after a couple of failed attempts we decided to try something a bit different. Scotland has taken to lighting up its forests at this time of year, and, coupled with some atmospheric music and other special effects (not to mention fairies), it all adds up to quite a dramatic experience. And a very excited toddler.

Emily was really into this idea, so off we trekked to a farm not far from us for a woodland light experience. It was a brilliant hit and well worth the effort. Fairies were not spotted directly but their houses certainly were and Emily loved the whole thing. So much so that we couldn't get her to slow down and savour the moment! We were supposed to be meeting friends (Leanne and Chris and kids Ruaridh and Rhys) but they were running a bit late and all tactics to slow the supreme being down failed. "Come on Mummy Daddy" came the cry...and what could we do? Nothing but jog on. Normally we can't get her to go fast enough. Sod's law - our friends eventually caught up near the end as Emily started to run out of steam. Boy can she shift when the mood takes her though.

 One very excited Emily, complete with lanterns, about to set out

 Car park, itching to be off

 

 Fuelling up for a sprint round the lights

 Jogging to the woodland light fantastic

 Dumbfounded by it all as she starts to slow down

 Just one of many stunning light displays

 Family photo at the end...Emily knackered

Devil child

A new regime...

Emily's a big girl now...she's started nursery. It dawned on me that for the vast majority of time from now till she retires she's likely to have some sort of Monday to Friday routine. Oh how we tie ourselves down from a young age. And with her new routine comes an earlier bedtime, and even more shockingly (for Mummy particularly) is a 7.00am start every morning. No more lounging around for that pair :-).

 New uniform complete with dinner stains and pasta necklace

Day one ice cream reward

Her first week at nursery went really well. Day one was rewarded with ice cream which helped, but really the supreme being has taken to the change without any bother at all. So much so that Mummy has begun to question just how essential she is when after 3 years there is barely a wave goodbye at the nursery gates. I'm well used to my daughter's indifference to her silly old father but this behaviour may have come as somewhat of a shock to Mummy. Oh well, if nothing else it shows what a secure, resilient and happy daughter we have.

At the end of week one, we took a trip to Glencoe to experience the delights of the wilderness in the middle of a big storm. Actually, the weather wasn't too bad for at least a few hours so we did make it out for a walk for a few hours. We'd been invited up to stay with our Aussie friends, Jo and Glen, whose daughter Izzy and Emily get on really well. It was their first proper sleepover together so excitement was in the air. Not only that they went to the first club and partied till the early hours...well at least they did this toddler style. Still, i've now realised there is a secret cheesy quaver inside the supreme being just waiting to be unleashed. Time to dig out the glowsticks, whistles and white gloves and bring it on!

 One cheesy quaver

Two cheesy quavers

Videoclip: Glowstick cheezy quaver heaven

What's it all about?...

Emily is currently on a massive voyage of discovery with every other word generally being "Why?". Now, I'm sure every parent has been through the "why" stage with great hilarity, alongside a severe testing of their own knowledge and ability to explain the seemingly everyday things we take for granted to an eternally questionning toddler wanting to know what it's all about.

A recent example was when Emily wanted to know why things always fell down and not up. A very pertinant question and one that definitely required the full academic prowess of Daddy to answer. So up I step to the plate, and, after a brief explanation of gravity, I conclude with the question "So why do you think Daddy is on the ground and not on the ceiling?" A brief pause before the reply from the supreme being. "Because Daddy is short". Hmpf. Not quite what I had expected.

But, undeterred, I continued to explain how we lived on a huge, huge ball about 25,000 miles round which rotates at about 1,000 miles per hour. Because its so big it pulls us towards it. Emily's reply? "Silly Daddy" she said. I gave up.

New birthday swing from Grandma and Grandad :-)

This voyage of discovery is natural for any 3 year old. And Emily hit the big 3 years old on the 2nd November. We were trying to make sure that the supreme being wasn't overloaded with presents and our main present to her was a fruit tree. I obviously delighted in planting this with her, but to my surprise and further delight she declared it was her favourite present of the day. However she loved all the presents she did get from family and friends - so thank you all very much for your generosity. She is though most definitely her mother's daughter, and there was no holding back on two birthday cakes (one is surely never enough). So, candles blown out, presents opened, birthday party with friends and a visit from cousins, meant a successful and happy time was had by all.

Next stop? Nursery...Gulp.Let's hope that's as big a success.

Planting the birthday cherry tree

 Cake 1

 Cake 2