Beach Hike

Prepare yourself for some beauuuuutiful pictures :-)

We set off this morning and did a few miles westwards along the beach. Had a really good laugh along the way, discussions ranging from designing our ideal house, surviving a zombie attack, general self defence, strategies for our Ben Nevis climb, how weird our accents are (apparently when I say 'house' it sounds like 'arse', which caused a great deal of hilarity, and although A was born and has always lived in Scotland she has no trace of a Scottish accent). We also played various word games, and generally monkeyed about.

Blue skies when we set off

Sky getting greyer

View across the Moray Firth

Poppies

Tree corpse

Dramatic sky on the way back

We stopped at a little cafe by the harbour for lunch, where I had the most delicious lentil soup.

Later on we had writing group at our house, I always get really nervous about leading the group, but all went well (I think!) And this evening A cooked tea for us (veggie sausage sandwiches and salad - pretty good) and (after a small amount of prompting) she has done the washing up! What a star :-)

Garbage in the car

That's what we were listening to the other day - Garbage and Version 2.0 - hadn't listened to these for ages, years probably, but thought A might like them. She gave them an 8 out of 10. She seems to be enjoying more guitar based music now she's learning to play.

Skating is going really well, she's enjoying the social side as well as learning new skills. A bought her own skates on Friday:


Life is busy as ever, hence the two week gap in blog posts!! We are both enjoying the pace though, I certainly feel like I'm benefitting from the increase in physical activity.
We've also found time to get out for walks on our beach in the sunshine :-)

I've found another online maths curriculum that looks promising, A has nearly finished the one she's been using for the past year, and the new one looks more in line with the level she's at now, so we'll probably give it a go soon.

This coming week we'll have a bit of breathing space as most of the clubs are not on due to school holidays. But A does have one exciting activity on Tuesday - an audition with Youth Music Theatre. We heard about it through our HE group email list, and A was dead keen for me to book her a place. I think it will be a great experience for her.

And here is a photo of the fabulous pink hair!!!!

Happy New Year!!!

Hello! Yes - I am still here!!!

We had a very relaxing time over xmas and new year - so relaxed I couldn't even be arsed to blog. But I am back now and don't plan to leave it so long in between posts again!

This was what we saw on our xmas day walk along the beach
And this is A glued to her beloved iPod (xmas present)

Well, the new year has brought a regime change round here. For the past few weeks I had often found myself lying awake at 3am in a state of panic. Its over a year since I became self employed, and although I've had a few pieces published I have very little money coming in. I know I can do better than this, and I know that to a large extent it is a lack of confidence holding me back.
The only answer I can come up with is to push myself more - I just have to go ahead with things, no matter how scared/uncomfortable/inadequate I feel.

I have been thinking a lot about this, and have lots of good ideas and new approaches to try, but I know that what I really need, what will make a huge difference, is structure.
I need to structure and organise my working time much better, and as a consequence of this, I need to structure and organise our HE time more too. I've been reluctant to do this before. In an ideal world - ie no money worries and being able to devote all my time to HE - learning would be much more fluid and relaxed. But back here in the real world I have to work, and as I'm fast realising - I have to work much, much harder!

Sooooo, we have discussed, drawn up plans, have some goals in sight, and are both feeling quite positive about it all. We're not moving into complete schooly-formal HE territory (that would be disastrous for us), just planning ahead what we want to cover, and on what days we will do certain things. I feel I need to stop the amount of 'drifting about' we both do, and we both need a bit more focus. Wish us luck please, we may need it!!!

And here are some random cuddling parsnips I got in my vegbox, I just thought they were too cute not to share :-)

sunshine, and more jam

There's been lots of this lately:

which for us means more of this:

we do love our beach (I may have mentioned this before a few times!!!), especially now the schools are back and there's hardly anyone on it :o)

Friday we had a 'beach art' session suggested by A, followed by chips at the cafe (also suggested by A!). Saturday A's mate came round for the day, so we all headed off again - me armed with a magazine this time as I knew I would be surplus to requirements! All good though, I had a lovely lazy time reading and sunbathing while the girls were off paddling and doing whatever it is they do (I wanted to write 'playing' there, but it seems wrong now they are so grown up. They do still 'play' but I don't think they would call it that).

Sunday was a bit windier, so we stayed home. I had another blackcurrant jam-making session with my HUGE new pan, very successful :o) think I'm going to experiment with some other fruits next.

Today A is feeling a bit under the weather so has stayed in bed :o( not like her at all, she hardly ever gets ill. So our plans for the day have all gone out the window. I'm at a bit of a loss for what to do - Mondays are usually busy for us with lots of 'educational stuff' going on. I think because we don't have anything else going on on Mondays - no clubs or regular activities - we often really get stuck into what we're doing at home - projects or new interests. Mondays are actually my favourite day of the week because of this.

However, I'm not feeling that great myself - managed to slip on the stairs last night, ending up in a heap at the bottom - so I'm feeling a bit sore at the moment, maybe a quiet, restful day would be a good idea for both of us.

hello! hello! hello!

Its good to be back! Not that we didn't enjoy our holiday - we had a great time - but we arrived home yesterday morning to glorious sunshine, and it felt like the right place to be :o)

Bit of a quick photo catch up then:

Our lodge and all our bikes at Centre Parcs (Whinfell Forest)

First time at CP - loved it! Loads for us all to do, and although it was the busiest time of the year it didn't feel too crowded. Not cheap though!!

The kids did loads of activities, some together and some not, here are a few that A enjoyed:

Pony trekking

Archery

CSI (!)

We also did roller blading, badminton and pottery painting, and the boys got up to some more daring stuff like laser quest and quad biking. I enjoyed a bit of nordic walking, and a spa evening with my Mum - loved those steam rooms. And of course, there was plenty of swimming, unfortunately this resulted in A's blue streaks turning a weird kind of purpley-grey colour, but she wasn't too bothered. All in all, a fantastic week, AND we were all still talking to each other by the end of it!

>After that it was on down to my brother's for a bit of chill out time, and visiting a few relatives. I did a lot of reading, got through Robert Harris's Rome books - Imperium and Lustrum, and also finally got round to reading The_Wasp_Factory by Iain Banks. It was recommended to me years ago by a friend who said "its definitely your kind of book", not sure how to take that now I've read it, but I suppose she was right, as I did enjoy it.

>Next up was the big family wedding that A had been preparing for for about the last six months, very exciting! It was a fab day, and I felt surprisingly moved seeing my little cousin get hitched.

False nails were required for the occasion - very grown up

A having a boogie with the bride

Then after a few more days with my brother and his family, we boarded the Caledonian Sleeper and came home. First thing we did was head down to the beach and have a paddle :o))

Monday evening at the beach - photos

Happy Day

No book-learnin going on here today - had a wonderful long walk in the sunshine, then a huge clearout of our bedrooms, including some furniture shifting. Feels like we have new rooms.
I've done some online Christmas shopping this evening, and have ordered in far too much chocolate (vegan_store is a very dangerous site!)*. Also some books and stocking fillers.
*just had an email informing me that the postal charge for our area is £11.99 instead of £4.95 for the rest of the UK - extortionate! How can they justify that? Wont be ordering from them again!!

Here are a few pics from our day:

More from Rogart break

A couple more from Carn Liath:

The bone collectors: we found some very

interesting specimens along the beach

Spotted this gorgeous family of seals, there were loads more

following and watching us from the sea

the beach at Dornoch

The Red Sea

This was the colour of the sea when we went down the other day. Now, I know that this is due in some way to the heavy rain and the peat being washed down from the mountains (or something like that) but I still kept looking for shark fins, and had to restrain myself from dragging A away from the water. It just looked so gruesome.

It didn't seem to bother A in the least.

We spent some time on the beach sketching with chalks:

This is the view we were sketching:

We've been having a very relaxed time lately, since the school holidays started here. I didn't think it would make so much of a difference to us, but things have really slowed down. I'm quite enjoying it, but I think A has been a bit fed up at times as most of her friends seem to be away. During term time she has regular weekly get-togethers with a couple of them, and these haven't been happening. Still, things will change soon enough as her cousins arrive next week, and just before that we are going away for a couple of nights with my friend and her two boys, we are staying in a hostel made up of railway carriages.

I recently bought A this dictaphone as I had talked about getting her one ages ago. She's had a great time with it, and its certainly helped with all the criminal investigations that go on here - now she can record all the interviews. I wish I could download some of them as they are truly hilarious. Apart from interviews with suspects, she has been recording herself singing and reciting poetry, as well as making up some of her own.

A renewed interest in Italian was sparked today (we had intended to make learning Italian one of our projects together, but found it really hard, I think its something best done in a group, certainly for A). A is off to her grandparents for the night tomorrow, and wanted to impress Nonno with a couple of phrases, so we got the books out and got online to this site, and she worked out exactly what she wanted to say, then wrote it down for herself in a way she understands for pronounciation. I'm sure Nonno will encourage her with this, I've always been a bit wary of asking him to 'teach' her Italian, knowing how A generally responds to being 'taught' anything! And I would hate for their relationship - which is based on fun, mischief, and winding up Nonna - to be affected by a different dynamic. I think what we really need to do is just go to Italy, I'm sure we'd pick it up in no time. I know that when I went on a school exchange trip to France I learnt more in two weeks than I had in the previous two years of lessons at school. Better start saving now!