And Today...at last!

Garret...today ....and tomorrow!!

Swimming dog with stick and a friend

We will all soon (tomorrow) be saying goodbye to Pip the Pup who is being whisked off by Mum to a life of white stilettos and partying in Essex. We will all miss her but perhaps Lucy (seen here in Loch Fyne rescuing a drowning stick) the most of all, and the guinea pigs, Snuffles and Daisy the least of all (constant scrutiny and occasional frenzied attempts to dig into the run for a closer but definatly shorter relationship). We will count the days until our own holiday south to see her in October. Toby is off to Sutherland tomorrow for a week camping, getting smelly and a host of new midge and tick bites to show off. Garret and I have an exciting day planned for the girls to compensate them for missing this fest of fun....accompanying Garret to the osteopath for much needed back manipulation (required due to far too long spent hunched over the afore mentioned Harry Potter volume: - a wee topical jest there) and shopping at ASDA…Wow, what great parents we are!!!

Inveraray Highland Games

To the best at throwing the
sledgehammer - a large silver brooch.
To the next best - a set of patent
leather sword belts

Extract from a poster written in 1826
Today I think that the prizes are contained in small brown envelopes and are of the folding paper kind…shame really. We did have a weather eye tuned to the heavy events but mostly spent the day watching Toby competing in the 11-15s track and field events. He represented Claonairigh well, even valiantly taking part against all comers in the “locals” events. The girls were in the wee races…over in the flash of an eye as sweeties are held out to encourage participation.

Garret...today....and tomorrow and tomorrow.....

The week in pictures....

Aaah, an obvious flaw here, well two actually. One is that I appear not to be able to position the photos in any other way than straight up and down in a line vis a vi above and two, that I only took photos on two days out of the seven available to me.The first photo is a swimming pool birthday cake for Freya, now an aged 9yrs and in celebration of her excellent pool party. The rest are taken from Dun Na Cuaiche, the wee folly above Inveraray that we climbed to on Tuesday. The incentive to make it down again was an Ice Cream at the Edinburgh Woollen Mill....our feet fairly flew down. This was a girly trip as Toby is in Essex with Grandma, actually Doncaster by now on his way back to us tomorrow. The other highlight of the week was the highly entertaining "Shrek The Third" which we saw in Oban. I am ashamed to say that despite the great dialogue and fast action (plus the fantastic Eric Idol) I fell asleep for more than a few minutes and had to be nudged to prevent the cinematic surround sound developing into surround snore effects, at least I did not dribble. I was suffering from extreme fatigue due to an unaccustomed night out the night before.

Cucumber Sandwiches with the Queen

It’s a very sleepy household this morning as Toby and Rosie recover from a night camping on an Island on Loch Awe, they had to kayak there with all their belongings in barrels…apparently. We have not actually seen them yet as we got back last night from a day out after they had retired to bed. I am not sure what Freya’s excuse for a sleep in is, probably terminal tiredness from illicit under the covers reading. The desire to complete the Harry Potter series out weighs any fears that we may hold for her.
The photos are from a dinghy sailing course attended by those who wished to be drenched to the skin by constantly falling in a grey and wind buffeted Loch Fyne..and then at the end when the cold is just receding slightly from the outer extremities to concentrate on freezing just those innermost vital organs, jump voluntarily (that is the bit that seems to set the seal of their patently obvious insane tendencies) into the loch from the pier. Needless to say I was on the sidelines cheering them on from the comfort of my warm fleece…isn’t it great to be able to force your children into “enjoying” all the pursuits that you consider necessary for a fully rounded individual but that were never available when we were young and we seemed to do okay. Anyway back to our day out. We popped over to Holyrood to see The Queen for tea, we hung out, watched a bit of tennis together, munched on a few cucumber sarnies and watched the Royal company of Archers drilling around the place with their very… ummmm interesting hats. Actually, and you will be surprised when I tell you this we just went to a garden Party there along with a few other thousand people all wearing (well, the female ones anyway) hats of various levels of silliness to rival the Archers. There were plainly some folk there who had made a very big, and perhaps in some cases misguided effort and some who had equally as clearly made no effort at all. I can’t really talk though as after much angst and reality checking I decided to wear my “going away” dress, a goodly 16yrs old still with matching hat and shoes. The Queen looked okay though. There were actually some stunning people there impressivly decked out in fabulous outfits and/or uniforms looking so great in the glorious grounds and, amazingly sunshine.There was one fantasic chap in a uniform consisting of black blouson type jacket and knickerbokers with red trim and flashings, tartan red long socks and tartan waistcoaty thing...even the spooks were wondering what it represented.Having given up on being presented to The Queen I set out to spot a spook, not really very difficult and found one to stand next to...sad aren't I.One tip for anyone going in the future, pop into M and S before hand and fill up on sarnies as the tea is delicious but small….no limits on revisiting again….and again….and again….

PHOTOS Freya Jumping Rosie almost smiling