Mummy did an amazing thing last Sunday, walking 26.2 miles in the Kiltwalk for the Scottish Association of Mental Health. She completed the walk in surprisingly good shape, with some sore legs and a slightly red nose, raising lots of money for a great cause in the process. Well done Mummy :-).
Daddy also did an amazing thing, managing to keep the supreme being entertained all by himself for over 12 hours. He didn't complete his task in such good shape though, as he was completely knackered by the end of it and raised no funds whatsoever. Well done Daddy :-).
Emily survived in probably the best shape - although too much sugar and pizza was consumed. To compensate she did manage to eat five pears back to back at one point! Daddy-daughter time was a day of indulgence with ice cream treats and a DVD all being part of the fun. More productive activity involved extending the veggie patch, planting sunflowers and making Mummy a lovely banner. It was clearly a success though as she collapsed into bed almost instantly asleep, having spent some of Daddy's money. Well done Emily :-).
Entertaining a supreme being is a full-time occupation. From the minute I get in from work and all weekend (except telly time), there's a lot of "Play with me Daddy." I'm certainly not complaining as I love it, but I am aching from playing with someone half my height who just loves to roll about the floor half the time. People keep telling me it's because I'm getting old. But that simply can't be true, as having a 3 year-old bundle of fun is guaranteed to keep you young.
Talking of young. Grandma and Grandad were visiting recently. Both of them over 80 years young and still just about managing to keep pace with Emily (albeit with some tactical snoozing every now and then). We were also blessed with some not bad weather, and the golden orb made some rare appearances, so we made the most of it and got out and about around the Campsie Hills.
Young and old still enjoying the seesaw
Great views from the local playpark
Back to the 70's - anyone remember Hex?
Mummy's been recently eagerly awaiting the arrival of lambs so that we can go to Wellsfield Farm Park and see some. She made me buy us a voucher a few weeks ago, and has been excitedly holding it waiting for the perfect moment. In the last few weeks we've been noticing lambs in the fields, and so, with the onset of good weather, she rapidly dragged us off to the Farm Park today.
Sometimes the clue clearly isn't in the title though. And sometimes Mummy's clearly not even looked at the clues at all. So, as I looked for directions to Wellsfield on the internet I also discovered that the Farm Park didn't have any lambs. In fact it didn't actually have any animals at all being somewhat more of a large kiddies playground. So I had to figure out how to break the news gently to Mummy in the car. She was a little disappointed, but Emily loved it and quickly forgot about any promises of lambs with an arriving cry of "Play with me Daddy"...
And so once again I'm now exhausted and aching. Still, it was another really lovely day :-).
Jump with me Daddy
Highlight was the bouncy pillow
Scream if you wanna go faster!
Life in the fast lane with Mummy at the wheel
Always work to be done in the garden - mini veggie patch commenced
Sunsets over our garden are living up to the memories of last year
Tanya really doesn't wear make up, and nor do I generally. We actively avoid TV with adverts, fashion magazines, princess stories and many other things that we don't consider strong female role models for the supreme being. So when Mummy was caught with lipstick on the other day and suggested that Emily might like to paint her toe nails like Mummy, why on earth did Emily start to quiver with excitement? It seems no matter how hard you try, boys like guns and fighting and girls like dolls and dressing up. I give up.
Anyway, before I knew it it had turned into a full blown make up session for ALL the family. Well, if you can't beat them then you have to join them...
Looking good
The terrible toes that started the matter
My beautiful princesses
Emily has been out enjoying her Easter break from nursery. She's been catching up with friends and having trips out everyday. Topping the bill (pun alert) has to be albatross mask making and being on a horse again!! She's a bundle of joy at the moment with such a zest for life that we struggle to keep up with her. That zest is particularly useful when it comes to chasing pigeons off the lawn I have attempted to re-seed. She's certainly determined I'll say that - a trait more from her mother than me.
Spot which one is the real albatross
Delighted to be back in the saddle
And some of the most exciting news at the moment is that we have lodgers in our Dutch nesting box. Over the past few days a pair of blue tits have been busily building a nest inside and so we are hoping to become surrogate parents to some blue tit chicks in the coming weeks. Emily's been pretty excited about the whole bird thing this year. She has taken to bird spotting with Daddy at the bird table, eagerly searching our bird book to find out what the birds are that come munching, whilst remembering that the only ones to chase away are our seed eating wood pigeons. I'm learning a thing or two myself which is nice, but I have to say my memory is barely half as good as a three year-old.
The supreme being has made a new discovery of sending and receiving. It all started with a bit of inquisitive questioning about the postal service, then before you know it she's strung it all together and has discovered that if you put things into the red box they turn up at other people's houses some days later.
And that was just the start. This innocent discovery is slowly turning into a full blown cottage industry. And at today's postage costs not a cheap one at that. Conversations now generally start with..."Daddy, let's do some drawing..." then before you know what's happened it's "And then I want to post all the pictures." It's costing a fortune.
From there Emily has also discovered texting, particularly huge chains of smilie faces. Obviously getting in early for an activity that she'll probably be doing with alarming regularity as she gets older...that's if texts still exist!
So watch out for a random text on your phone or a picture through your door soon...
Get your cash Daddy...I'm off to the postbox
Daddy, Mummy, Emily and the Hedgehog
Emily riding a horse
Yes - it's true. Emily got to live the dream over the Easter weekend by getting to ride a pony. She barely spoke for the next 15 minutes and just nodded and grinned at everything we said. It was wonderful to behold.
The Easter weekend passed with us just enjoying our locale, the garden, eating chocolate, Easter activities, and some quality time with friends. Final stop was the Woodland Explorers - which is a kind of unofficial outdoor playgroup where tiny children get to play with fire and sharp sticks. All under the watchful eye of us adults. In particular Viv is in charge (for the record a qualified outdoor teacher). Emily seriously idolises her. Anything Viv says goes. And Emily's always first up with her hand at anything Viv suggests. Mummy and Daddy could probably learn a thing or two in how to tame a 3 year old.
So what ever you got up to - I hope the Easter bunny was good to you and there was spring sunshine shining down on you :-)
Living the dream
Putting chocolate bananas on the fire
Stoking the Kelly Kettle under the watchful eye of the magical Viv
Spring has sprung in the West of Scotland in recent weeks, and along with that goes a whole new world of outdoor adventures. The supreme being has been discovering the joys of nature as everything starts to come back to life after the winter. We've spent a lot of time outdoors looking for new shoots and buds, planting seeds and young plants, and discussing all about baby animals and checking the nesting box from a distance. I have a dedicated assistant in the garden now and Emily helped plant nearly 60 plants the other day...I was seriously impressed by her attention span as I was expecting she might get bored after the first 2 or 3. We were out there for hours :-). In recent weeks we have seeded the wildflower meadow, planted lots of perennials in the cottage garden, and put lots of seeds into pots and watched them all start to come to life...
The gardening duo
Spring has sprung
Happily watering
What the garden might look like
But spring is not just about gardening. Recent weeks have also seen trips to museums, adventures in the play parks, the whole Gedik family visiting, and discovery of the world's largest chip...the latter being possibly the most exciting thing in a long time!
Major rumblings have been underway in the first few months of 2016 in the Rooke household. As you'll have heard in recent posts we've been very busy (and a little frazzled) doing some quite big alterations in our lovely new home.
We're all but there now - just some final light shades and blinds to top it all off. But I hope you can see from the photos below it's a really great job and we are all completely delighted. We set out to bring light and usage to the side of the house that we weren't really using and we now just can't stop living in it. We all just tear around the place bathed in sunlight (yes, there is some on the West Coast) and now regularly enjoy evening meals at the far end looking onto the garden. A brilliant success and a tribute to all the craftsmen that were involved. Most importantly though a massive thank you to David Scott, our friend and architect supremo, who gave us the inspiration for it all :-)
So please visit soon...there's now loads more usable space for everyone to enjoy...and we love having visitors.
Back in December I had been thwarted on a plan to surprise my brother for his 50th by a stormy lady named Abigail. But never one to be defeated by a spot of rain - I'd rearranged the whole shebang for February.
Dave and I have shared many adventures over the years but this was to be a true test of my nerve. Despite being an avid mountaineer I have in recent years developed a bit of a fear of heights. And, with that thought in my head, I contemplated that booking a trip up The Shard might not have been the most sensible of ideas - hindsight really is a wonderful thing. Still, (brotherly love and all that), my brother really wanted to go; so I swallowed my fear, grabbed a touch of dutch courage and tried my best to make it so.
A hearty breakfast for a hearty challenge
Destination Shard in sight
A not so hearty but equally meaty lunch (pork crackling and beef jerky)
Nerves of steel on the big fella
The Shard is a very impressive building. It's also a very long way up. 72 floors and nearly a third of kilometre vertically upwards. You also go up pretty quick. 6 metres per second or about the same time as my cranky lift at work does 5 floors. All fine so far though as we step out on the 68th floor...
Videoclip: Going up
It really is a long way up
Ice cool on the 68th
Stunning views over the dwarfed Canary Wharf
And then we went up to the 'half-outside' of the 72nd, and that was me done for I'm afraid to say. Waves of dizziness ensued but I tried to put a brave face on it. Dave's helpful 'look out there' comments really didn't help; nor did an attempt at a medicinal mulled wine. (Note to self: When feeling dizzy, drinking alcohol just makes you dizzier - hindsight really is etc etc).
So I retreated back to the safety of 68 but by this point my nerve was gone, and relief was clearly written all over my face when Dave suggested we head back down.
Back on solid ground, well ground anyway, Dave helpfully sent us spiraling to the bowels of the earth on the London Underground which further traumatised my sense of balance and direction. So that by the time we re-emerged at the O2 arena I was somewhat unsteady on my feet. Still, all things must pass, and ten minutes later I began to feel human again...just in time to head over the Thames by...wait for it...yes, gondola... Genius.
The rest of the day was a sensory whirlwind of London in full weekend swing. We had a lovely tour but I was relieved when we arrived at the evening's hostelry for a fine steak courtesy of Marco Pierre White's Steak and Alehouse. Mighty fine it was too. Then it was time to catch the end of the rugby, a bit more of a tour, and a couple of beers to top off a truly marvellous day.
Happy belated 50th Birthday big brother!!! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did...(or even just a touch more given my vertical challenge).
