Houston we have a problem...

This morning I had a very nice man come to talk about us installing a wood burning stove.

What we have here is oil burning central heating/hot water and back up electric fires.


That thing underneath the t.v. is the back up electric fire in the sitting room and is neither use nor ornament.


And that is on the chimney breast.  As is the t.v.  Which has to be moved.

The man, Dave, waved at the window, but I dont want it there.

And I do not want it here.


So it will probably be to the left of the fireplace, which means I have to find room for the bookcase/current ornament display area.  Hmm. Problem.

Once he had gone I made the most of the beautiful weather today and went into the garden.


Lots of pots to be filled.

My sensory garden to be created with new Lavender plants and a Rosemary.

The cherry trees are all blossoming.

And I finished my ancient farm machinery picture,

But I still need to work out the logistics in the sitting room.....

Fridays Fine Knitting.

A gansey is the name given to the traditional hand-knitted pullover worn by fishermen fishing for herring off the costs of Britain, particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The garments are supremely practical for the purpose – more flexible than a jacket, but robust enough to keep out wind and light spray; knitted by the womenfolk, often elaborately patterned, it is easy to imagine why these jerseys became so popular throughout the industry.

Knitted on the finest needles.  No way I would attempt this!

Ethel, featured on Landward, 7p.m. on BBC 2 in Scotland, knitting a Gansey.  Her first was knitted after she married,  Ethel was a herring girl.

And some old herring girls with their knitting.

Ethel is now passing on her skills to the primary school children in Fraserburgh schools.

Thursdays Thunder.

Our Postie delivered a card today.  Inside which was this.

And written inside was this.

What can I say?


Well I could say, "Now you are free, your body under a tree."


But I won't. (although I just did,)


Now does anyone remember my placing my 'art' in the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses?

I got a text message today to say ONE HAS BEEN SOLD!!!!  I am an artist.


No idea which one was sold.


But I have a few replacements all ready....


So - that was the thunder, and to be fair, the lightening was from my lovely vets.

Wednesdays Witterings.

Yesterday, along with all the traumas, the Dawn Patroller and I went for our eyes testing.

He is fine.  Think positive.  One of my eyes is better (?) but the other is worse.  So new glasses for me.  But its a buy one get one free.  Even with all this new technology so you can see your new glasses on your face before you select its still very confusing, so I go with what the 12 year old glasses technician tells me.  The sun glasses I look very much like Ronnie Corbett.

The main pair, well, you will just have to wait and see (ha) as I will, as I cannot for the life of me remember what the 12 year old glasses technician chose.  But I think they are purple.  And as Practising wearing purple is one of my favourite poems.  Well now.

As it was then lunch time we decided to be naughty and have a Macdonalds.  Hmm.  Quarter pound cheese burger looked to be about 2 ounces and didnt have any cheese on.  Plus we were sat in a howling gale as the drive through bit wasnt working so there was a constant stream of staff going out with drive thru orders and coming back in again.  The gherkin was as good as I remember it.

Then it was B&Q - make the most of our trips to Peterhead we do - not one thing on my list did they have.  But I still managed to spend too much.

So digging a hole in the pouring rain was quite a relief for the DP, and him with a cold poor thing, but at least the hole wasnt for him.

This morning was art class and we started on our 'old farm machinery', which didnt go down well with the majority of the students, but they were getting to grips, or ploughs, or rotavators by the end of the session.

The highlight of my day was that one of the more professional and experienced members of the group gave me a present.  And this is it.

I made him sign it, it'll be worth a bit when he's dead.

Tuesdays Termination.

Now be warned and look away now if you are of a sensitive disposition.  I deal with tragedy with laughter. When my Father was carried up the church steps in his coffin and the bearers tripped, my brother and I howled with laughter as our Dad would have just howled with laughter along with us.


 So here goes.


Puzzle and I went off to the vets this morning.  

As we entered the radio was swiftly turned down a notch or three in volume and the receptionist, in a hushed voice, told me to sit away from everyone else.  Well I wasnt going to sit next to this lot, with a cat, was I?


Whilst this lots owners were eyeing me up and trying to see what was in the box and why the whispers from the receptionist, I was then called in to one of the consulting rooms.  Fully expecting to see the inside of a funeral parlour, and indeed I was asked to sit down and handed a box of tissues.

"Monica will be with you soon."  


So I sat there and Puzzle peered at me through the perspex door on his cat box.  


While I gave the top right hand corner of the room a fierce glare.  


Eventually in came the vet.  In a very low voice she assured me I had made the right decision.  


GET ON WITH IT. 

Then she went off to get a nurse to hold him.  Didnt think I could cope.  Please? 

In came the nurse, 


"Its his back legs you have to watch out for,"  I said.  


Off the nurse went returning with a huge bath towel.


Most of the movements were done on tippy toe. 


Indeed I was awaiting the angelic choir by  this time.

Well - I was proud of him.  Despite losing most of his body weight, struggling to breathe, he really showed them what for.  Ha.


And then he slept.  And then all the pain and suffering was gone.


Its taken all day, in between downpours, to get him under the sod.  With the first of our new spinney of trees on top.


The DP forgot to take his collar off.  I told him, in a few years time you'll have the metal detectors round thinking they have struck gold.  What with magnets to get in the cat door and bells to scare off potential prey.


But the Rowan tree looks good.  Keeping away the witches, with my familiar beneath.

Monday's Meanderings.

Last night's sunset in the land of the big sky.

As the earth has tilted, as it does, the sunset is back where I consider it belongs.  It also means we have to give some serious consideration to the patio/decking to be put outside the dining room patio door so that we can sit outside with our glasses of wine. and count the pennies.




This plant was a gift from the SIL.  The instruction label said it can withstand a few degrees of frost, so I put it in a pot, as you NEVER KNOW, it might be minus 14 tonight.

The pot to its left has lily bulbs.  Yes I did say I had liberated all the lily bulbs, but there were an awful lot of them, so the smaller ones got put in the pot.

We have a fair few tulips which I am pleased with, as our previous home had none when we moved in and we were still only on single blooms when we left.

The above is one of two Rogersii that I brought with us from the previous home.  Both have survived and are thriving.  My previous blog readers and current ones will be yawning by now as I am SO PROUD of this plant I do go on and on about it.  Wait till you see the spike it sends up.  The reason I am so proud is that it aint supposed to grow up here and it was purchased, well the original one, from the 'Dead Plant please give tlc'  stand at the garden centre.


The house is called Cherry Cottage.  (I will eventually get around to using Christines translation into Gaelic as it annoys me the name is so twee and not Scottish at all.)
And yes we do have a fair few cherry trees.  Of which some are at their best.  And some are yet to come.

Blogs should be honest.  I always appreciate fellow bloggers who have the guts to say just what they feel.  Life isnt always cherry blossom and tulips.  Or wine and dandelions.

Puzzle had his trip to the vets this morning.  Two options.  More invasive surgery, the lump is growing inwards, not easy to operate in the throat, and then what?  So we have gone for the other option and he is currently doing what he enjoys - being outside - under the hedge, until tomorrow when he will be under a tree.


A-men to Mondays meanderings.

Visitors!

My life used to be full of visitors, coming in, going out.  As a bed and breakfast provider that is what you did.  Nowadays since we retired, visitors are either friends or relations, with the emphasis being on the latter.

Currently we have the Dawn Patroller's sister.  Not only can she drink me under the table, but she is a better photographer than the DP.  Indeed she has a qualification to prove it.  So they set off this morning to see who got the best picture.

They saw swans.

About 500 seals at the Ythan Estuary.

A Hairy Coo with an attitude problem.

And a long tailed duck. (rare).


The photographs above are courtesy of the DP.  As to add to my SILs many qualifications, she is also an artist.  So she gets to paint her own photographs. Huh.


And to add insult to injury she is a better artist than me.


So lets just see if this once I can drink her under the table.