here we are in mid-june, with midsummer's day looming, and the sun has (eventually) put in an appearance this afternoon. after almost a week of dreich, grey, drizzly weather we awoke this morning to a deluge. we must have had at least 2 inches of rain overnight. its sweltering today and the humidity makes it all the hotter.
i spent most of the day in fairest edinburgh. business was concluded over a civilised lunch meeting at one of my favourite french bistros in frederick street in the new town. it was so beautiful driving back to the borders along the A7, which is lush and verdant. the gala water - a tributary of the river tweed - is fairly bursting in places.
the scottish borders common riding season is in full swing. bloke, the lodger and i toddled along to the selkirk event last friday to watch the horse dominated revelry. common riding is descended from reiving (cattle rustling) and the events involve some quirky traditions. one of the most moving bits of the selkirk event is the 'casting of the colours', which involves an elaborate flag waving ritual and concludes with a commemoration of the battle of flodden in the 1300s. the proceedings are concluded with the standard bearer handing the selkirk flag back to the town provost "unsullied & untarnished". one presumes that any sullying or tarnishing would have been at the hands of sassenach invaders.
i'm pleased to report that the rabbit defences have not been breached. i can't say the same for the many, increasingly elaborate crow defences which have been constructed to deter the noisy, growing population of murderous raiders. the canny b*ggers are relentless in their quest to consume the garden bird food.
bloke most recently invested in a weapon of mass jackdaw destruction. a hydraulic powered sub-automatic water cannon (£9.99 from tesco), which had its maiden outing at 5h30 last saturday morning. it would be indecent to present the graphic detail here, and it was a supreme act of restraint to not record it on video for posterity. it was a comedy moment. if i told you that he insisted on sleeping with the window wide open, poised the gaudishly bright plastic weapon armed and loaded on the windowsill, and made me promise to wake him if he didn't hear them first thing, you get an idea of his determination. his spectacular leap from the bed was sufficient to reduce me to helpless giggling.
we have a couchsurfing couple arriving for one night in early july. they're imminently departing belgium for a 2 month european adventure, involving a camper van. they'll come bearing belgian chocolate and beer. they'll be warmly welcomed.
so, yesterday morning at 9h30 ticket booking opened for the edinburgh book festival. i'd planned the must-see events over the weekend, and was poised at the ready, determined not to miss some of my favourite authors speaking at charlotte square. a nail biting wait turned into a tense half hour as i attempted - unsuccessfully - to book both online and over the phone. my efforts were eventually rewarded. i'll be going to see amongst other richard dawkins, john pilger and peter godwin.
still on a literary theme; bbc4 broadcast an engaging documentary last night about the origins of robert louis stevenson's ideas for "jekyll & hyde". it was presented by ian rankin and showcased edinburgh to great effect, particularly auld edinburgh and hidden closes which stevenson used to frequent.
my pals emilia and alan know the family which lives in stevenson's house in heriot row, and have passed many sociable hours in it. felicitas - their friend and the current owner of the house - featured in the doccy, in her children's bedroom and the self same room which stevenson himself used. watching it made me realise how fortunate i am to be living in such close proximity to a magnificent city with such a rich history.
dad loved edinburgh when he came to the UK in 2000 and i am so thankful that he got to explore some of it. i'd like to think that if his soul is still floating about this earth that its one place he's still exploring. its secrets and alleyways will keep him busy for some time yet.
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
Saturday, 26 May 2007
meanwhile, back on the blogroll ...
l'il lesley & i had a girly lunch at the kingsknowes hotel a few weeks back & amongst the gossip unearthed a shared pal - the intrepid sailor; who happens to be a business associate of her hubby. i put that that less down to 6 degrees of separation and more down to the rhythm of the scottish borders. one can barely turn around without bumping into a familiar face.
as it happened, the bloke 'n i were scheduled to sup with the intrepid sailor that weekend, and were looking forward to some of the best steaks in the borders .... mmm.
the scottish election fiasco at the beginning of may dominated the scottish media, with tales about the warring politicos failing to agree on any matter. the "winning" party, if it could be called that, has formed a minority government. there are interesting times ahead for scotland.
the past few weeks have been busy, busy, busy. much of our free time has been spent in the garden, when the weather's been good. we've been recording the progress photographically. in fact, i've grabbed a half hour out while a grey cloud passes overhead.
i spotted the most beautiful spreading shrub in a garden in galashiels last weekend and drove folk mad enquiring about its identity. after much detective work, researching my gardening books and the hinterweb i eventually identified it as a specific hybrid of a ceonothus (californian lilac).
better still, on monday i found a website that sold them - for a paltry £5.95. the postage was another £5.95, which decided me to order another lovely and unusual specimen called enkianthus. both arrived within days of the order, in a tall, sturdy cardboard box. they're in the process of being relocated into their carefully prepared beds. there's also much weeding going on; a time consuming and labour intensive process which isn't entirely unpleasant. sitting patiently separating the little critters out of the beds gets one into a state of flow which is quite carthartic.
we've acquired a lodger in the spare bedroom - a young south african lad who's been working a dairy farm in nor'n ireland the past 6 months. he came to us via our good friends the spectors, who know his family in passing. he seems to have settled in well and got himself fixed up with a job on a livestock farm within a day, so he's chuffed.
this week's local weekly rag - the southern reporter - carried a story and full colour picture about the rabbit problem in our wee village. about three weeks ago, after a sustained campaign by the residents whose houses back onto the local playing field, the council eventually came to investigate the complaints and put up rabbit proof fencing. in the mornings and evenings up to a hundred rabbits can be observed on the field systematically nibbling everything edible and adding prodigiously to their number. they're rather bold, but when terrorised scatter to their extensive network of burrows under the residents gardens. the ground at the perimeter of the field has become quite unstable as a result and the news article amusingly warned forebodingly about the possibility of a young child being lost down a rabbit hole. ironically, not even a week after the rabbit proofing had been erected, whilst walking the dogs, my neighbour alistair and i
observed a number of them jumping over the fence into the gardens.
pet lamb's been rather taken the past week with her new mobile phone. this was part of a deal after she'd paid off a rather large debt to me. for running up the home phone bill - making lengthy calls to her mates on their mobiles. so, debt settled, we set about researching the current good deals and settled on an 18 month contract which includes 75 call minutes and 600 texts per month. i think even she may find it a little daunting trying to work her way through that volume. that said, i may in time report a case of repetitive strain injury to her texting thumb.
besides a zillion other nifty features the phone also has a really good built-in digital camera and music player. but, and best of all - it has free MSN live messenger. which means i may just have shifted her off my laptop. she has a history of trashing a computer annually. visiting dodgy websites and downloading debatable content in an effort to preen her many social networking profiles.
my mobile contract was also up for renewal, so i've taken the same deal as pet lamb. at least we can tell our phones apart; hers is black and mine's a lovely shade of pink. perhaps by the time the contract's up for renewal i'll have learned a tiny fraction of its many uses. i only just started texting about a year ago, and still do so very reluctantly. to me its a less efficient form of communication. very possibly because i've never quite mastered its black art - predictive texting. what i aim to text and what actually gets sent on text are very different, but i persist.
lady has today disembowelled one of 4 soft pink piggy toys. it was only a matter of time. the fact that they have remained as whole as they have for so long is something of a miracle. dizzy teases her mercilessly with them. when she does manage to rescue one from him its not without a fight. not a single one has yet escaped some form of disfigurement; chewed tails, ripped out eyes and nibbled off noses. even the lucky oirish one's shamrock has been rendered unrecognisable. it was this same spot she picked for the disembowelment.
that's it for a bit; off to catch up some of the documentary's we've taped in the past week. til later!
l'il lesley & i had a girly lunch at the kingsknowes hotel a few weeks back & amongst the gossip unearthed a shared pal - the intrepid sailor; who happens to be a business associate of her hubby. i put that that less down to 6 degrees of separation and more down to the rhythm of the scottish borders. one can barely turn around without bumping into a familiar face.
as it happened, the bloke 'n i were scheduled to sup with the intrepid sailor that weekend, and were looking forward to some of the best steaks in the borders .... mmm.
the scottish election fiasco at the beginning of may dominated the scottish media, with tales about the warring politicos failing to agree on any matter. the "winning" party, if it could be called that, has formed a minority government. there are interesting times ahead for scotland.
the past few weeks have been busy, busy, busy. much of our free time has been spent in the garden, when the weather's been good. we've been recording the progress photographically. in fact, i've grabbed a half hour out while a grey cloud passes overhead.
i spotted the most beautiful spreading shrub in a garden in galashiels last weekend and drove folk mad enquiring about its identity. after much detective work, researching my gardening books and the hinterweb i eventually identified it as a specific hybrid of a ceonothus (californian lilac).
better still, on monday i found a website that sold them - for a paltry £5.95. the postage was another £5.95, which decided me to order another lovely and unusual specimen called enkianthus. both arrived within days of the order, in a tall, sturdy cardboard box. they're in the process of being relocated into their carefully prepared beds. there's also much weeding going on; a time consuming and labour intensive process which isn't entirely unpleasant. sitting patiently separating the little critters out of the beds gets one into a state of flow which is quite carthartic.
we've acquired a lodger in the spare bedroom - a young south african lad who's been working a dairy farm in nor'n ireland the past 6 months. he came to us via our good friends the spectors, who know his family in passing. he seems to have settled in well and got himself fixed up with a job on a livestock farm within a day, so he's chuffed.
this week's local weekly rag - the southern reporter - carried a story and full colour picture about the rabbit problem in our wee village. about three weeks ago, after a sustained campaign by the residents whose houses back onto the local playing field, the council eventually came to investigate the complaints and put up rabbit proof fencing. in the mornings and evenings up to a hundred rabbits can be observed on the field systematically nibbling everything edible and adding prodigiously to their number. they're rather bold, but when terrorised scatter to their extensive network of burrows under the residents gardens. the ground at the perimeter of the field has become quite unstable as a result and the news article amusingly warned forebodingly about the possibility of a young child being lost down a rabbit hole. ironically, not even a week after the rabbit proofing had been erected, whilst walking the dogs, my neighbour alistair and i
observed a number of them jumping over the fence into the gardens.
pet lamb's been rather taken the past week with her new mobile phone. this was part of a deal after she'd paid off a rather large debt to me. for running up the home phone bill - making lengthy calls to her mates on their mobiles. so, debt settled, we set about researching the current good deals and settled on an 18 month contract which includes 75 call minutes and 600 texts per month. i think even she may find it a little daunting trying to work her way through that volume. that said, i may in time report a case of repetitive strain injury to her texting thumb.
besides a zillion other nifty features the phone also has a really good built-in digital camera and music player. but, and best of all - it has free MSN live messenger. which means i may just have shifted her off my laptop. she has a history of trashing a computer annually. visiting dodgy websites and downloading debatable content in an effort to preen her many social networking profiles.
my mobile contract was also up for renewal, so i've taken the same deal as pet lamb. at least we can tell our phones apart; hers is black and mine's a lovely shade of pink. perhaps by the time the contract's up for renewal i'll have learned a tiny fraction of its many uses. i only just started texting about a year ago, and still do so very reluctantly. to me its a less efficient form of communication. very possibly because i've never quite mastered its black art - predictive texting. what i aim to text and what actually gets sent on text are very different, but i persist.
lady has today disembowelled one of 4 soft pink piggy toys. it was only a matter of time. the fact that they have remained as whole as they have for so long is something of a miracle. dizzy teases her mercilessly with them. when she does manage to rescue one from him its not without a fight. not a single one has yet escaped some form of disfigurement; chewed tails, ripped out eyes and nibbled off noses. even the lucky oirish one's shamrock has been rendered unrecognisable. it was this same spot she picked for the disembowelment.
that's it for a bit; off to catch up some of the documentary's we've taped in the past week. til later!
Wednesday, 9 May 2007
the stow life - May 2007
its been more than a year since i threatened to dabble with a blog of my own, just like zillions of other lost souls who've stumbled into the blogosphere. i've been brainwashed into the belief that its a more efficient way of publishing the mundane minutiae of my life to family and friends than e-mail. which i neglect. for all the usual reasons: i spend my working day shuffling e-mails about corporate mail servers and the drag of having to manage so much blinking spam that navigates its wily way through supposedly sophisticated filters before i even get to my inbox.
if i can suss this blogging thing i may just be able to lassoo some other bits of content dotted about the web and keep them corralled together. things like digital photos, video and social network stuff. so, here goes. i'm about to unleash my latent writing talents on the hinterweb.
if i can suss this blogging thing i may just be able to lassoo some other bits of content dotted about the web and keep them corralled together. things like digital photos, video and social network stuff. so, here goes. i'm about to unleash my latent writing talents on the hinterweb.
Thursday, 26 April 2007
the stow life - april 2007
Hello and a general update from Stow, as British Summertime heralds longer days and my energy levels kick into fast forward.
Its such a lovely time of year. I was awed this morning on my drive to work by the green-ness of the Borders which resulted from just one night of rain, after an uncharacteristically long dry spell.
The garden at Mill Court - in which we've invested much time and energy since late February, owing to the mild winter - has literally sprouted overnight. I noticed while washing dishes last night a bud on the mock orange outside the kitchen window, and the same poor shrub I thought I'd obliterated in a fit of overzealous pruning, had grown 2 inches within a little over 24 hours. The rain has resurrected all manner of green, sprouting life in every available bit of soil. Including weeds.
Not only has my pruning been overzealous, I think I've made a rod for my own back in my enthusiasm to propagate seedlings. The experiment has been very successful and consequently lazy weekends and restful evenings will be sacrificed to "pricking" out the fruits of this labour for some time to come and re-planting them in the garden. Maybe we'll get an opportunity to relax and take in the garden at leisure during the summer ... not bl**dy likely!
Callan has been poorly with a very bad cold and cough since last Sunday. She's been sensibly taking it easy, staying indoors, resting as much as possible and dosing herself with vitamin C and decongestants to relieve the symptoms. She went to school on Tuesday to sit her Modern Studies exam and will do the same for her Music exam tomorrow.
Poor lamb, by last night she'd developed a chronic case of cabin fever, and Jack Nicholson's character in The Shining sprang to mind, so I supported her impassioned bid to get out of the house for a few hours today. I think we've averted a domestic incident with a brief outing into Galashiels this afternoon to natter with a few of her pals. She's never been one to ham up illness, and in the past its been a battle to get her take time off school to recover, so when she said on Monday morning she wasn't feeling well enough to go to school I had no doubts about her taking time off. Her mood this week is best described as chastened; its as though the lippy teen has taken a rain check. I have no doubt she'll be back. Soon.
Phil's house sale is underway and he plans to move into Mill Court as soon as its completed in the next month or two. In the meantime he continues to commute by train from Manchester every Friday and back again on Monday mornings. I am soooo looking forward to the end of this weekly ordeal. He's not yet sure what he wants to do to earn a bean or two when he moves to Scotland. He's toying with the idea of freelancing in the same or a related field as his current work - graphic design and copywriting, or alternately doing something completely different. He's not decided yet.
My working life is very busy and stimulating. I took a change of direction last year, to specialise more in business analysis, after having concentrated in the previous year on governance and compliance. However, this past year has been somewhat dominated by public sector procurement, after I (naively) volunteered to do what turned out to be a fairly significant piece of compliance work late in 2005. Har, har, so much for good intentions. After completing that single piece of work I was plastered with the "procurement expert" label. More like "instant expert", that of the most dangerous kind. Anyone who has worked in the public sector will know that procurement is a rather dull, albeit essential function. Think lawyers, contracts and service level agreements.
We have been fortunate to have enjoyed the company of many people at Mill Court this past year through amongst other the Couchsurfing project. It has been very rewarding to experience different cultures and social customs and also share a diverse range of philosophies and ways of life. I look forward to these bouts of hospitality in lieu of the travel I'll not manage to do in this lifetime, for lack of time off work or funds. Its the next best thing to experiencing a foreight destinations first hand, with the benefit of home comforts. Stow's proximity to Edinburgh has always been a drawcard for visitors and 2007 is likely to be just as socially busy as last year.
I'll end off with doggy news. The two mongrel scourges suffer terribly from too much love and attention. We took them on a six mile adventure up and along Lauder Moor two weekends ago. Dizzy did his usual recce of the burn and through the heather, as always well out of earshot. He spectacularly muddied himself, and only narrowly escaped a bath because of his summer cut. He loves a good roll in fox poo, he does. Fortunately we were all spared this appalling stink on this occasion. Lady, at the advanced age of 11 doggy years ambitiously soldiered 200 odd metres up a sheer embankment after a hare. She toiled a little the last 175 metres and it took some while for her to gather her composure. I'm pleased to report the hare's life wasn't endangered at any stage of the chase.
Its such a lovely time of year. I was awed this morning on my drive to work by the green-ness of the Borders which resulted from just one night of rain, after an uncharacteristically long dry spell.
The garden at Mill Court - in which we've invested much time and energy since late February, owing to the mild winter - has literally sprouted overnight. I noticed while washing dishes last night a bud on the mock orange outside the kitchen window, and the same poor shrub I thought I'd obliterated in a fit of overzealous pruning, had grown 2 inches within a little over 24 hours. The rain has resurrected all manner of green, sprouting life in every available bit of soil. Including weeds.
Not only has my pruning been overzealous, I think I've made a rod for my own back in my enthusiasm to propagate seedlings. The experiment has been very successful and consequently lazy weekends and restful evenings will be sacrificed to "pricking" out the fruits of this labour for some time to come and re-planting them in the garden. Maybe we'll get an opportunity to relax and take in the garden at leisure during the summer ... not bl**dy likely!
Callan has been poorly with a very bad cold and cough since last Sunday. She's been sensibly taking it easy, staying indoors, resting as much as possible and dosing herself with vitamin C and decongestants to relieve the symptoms. She went to school on Tuesday to sit her Modern Studies exam and will do the same for her Music exam tomorrow.
Poor lamb, by last night she'd developed a chronic case of cabin fever, and Jack Nicholson's character in The Shining sprang to mind, so I supported her impassioned bid to get out of the house for a few hours today. I think we've averted a domestic incident with a brief outing into Galashiels this afternoon to natter with a few of her pals. She's never been one to ham up illness, and in the past its been a battle to get her take time off school to recover, so when she said on Monday morning she wasn't feeling well enough to go to school I had no doubts about her taking time off. Her mood this week is best described as chastened; its as though the lippy teen has taken a rain check. I have no doubt she'll be back. Soon.
Phil's house sale is underway and he plans to move into Mill Court as soon as its completed in the next month or two. In the meantime he continues to commute by train from Manchester every Friday and back again on Monday mornings. I am soooo looking forward to the end of this weekly ordeal. He's not yet sure what he wants to do to earn a bean or two when he moves to Scotland. He's toying with the idea of freelancing in the same or a related field as his current work - graphic design and copywriting, or alternately doing something completely different. He's not decided yet.
My working life is very busy and stimulating. I took a change of direction last year, to specialise more in business analysis, after having concentrated in the previous year on governance and compliance. However, this past year has been somewhat dominated by public sector procurement, after I (naively) volunteered to do what turned out to be a fairly significant piece of compliance work late in 2005. Har, har, so much for good intentions. After completing that single piece of work I was plastered with the "procurement expert" label. More like "instant expert", that of the most dangerous kind. Anyone who has worked in the public sector will know that procurement is a rather dull, albeit essential function. Think lawyers, contracts and service level agreements.
We have been fortunate to have enjoyed the company of many people at Mill Court this past year through amongst other the Couchsurfing project. It has been very rewarding to experience different cultures and social customs and also share a diverse range of philosophies and ways of life. I look forward to these bouts of hospitality in lieu of the travel I'll not manage to do in this lifetime, for lack of time off work or funds. Its the next best thing to experiencing a foreight destinations first hand, with the benefit of home comforts. Stow's proximity to Edinburgh has always been a drawcard for visitors and 2007 is likely to be just as socially busy as last year.
I'll end off with doggy news. The two mongrel scourges suffer terribly from too much love and attention. We took them on a six mile adventure up and along Lauder Moor two weekends ago. Dizzy did his usual recce of the burn and through the heather, as always well out of earshot. He spectacularly muddied himself, and only narrowly escaped a bath because of his summer cut. He loves a good roll in fox poo, he does. Fortunately we were all spared this appalling stink on this occasion. Lady, at the advanced age of 11 doggy years ambitiously soldiered 200 odd metres up a sheer embankment after a hare. She toiled a little the last 175 metres and it took some while for her to gather her composure. I'm pleased to report the hare's life wasn't endangered at any stage of the chase.
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