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!