The routine of term is beginning to take hold. There was some amazing weather after the Royal Visit — we were perfectly all right up here, but there were fallen trees in Aberdeen and Fittie was up to its knees in sea-foam. I’ve known that happen up the coast, even unto a whole beach looking […]
Yesterday’s Royal Visit passed without disaster. The arrangement basically was that a sizeable mob of invitees were waiting in the library to greet the sovereign, while anyone who felt like rolling up could come and wave a flag along the route to the library, which is spacious. Sadly, as a very respectable turnout of […]
I like teaching, on the whole. I like my students. But the few days before the beginning of the autumn term are awful. Like bouncing gently on a high-diving board looking down at the water. Once term starts, you take it a week at a time and once immersed it is fine, but this is […]
No doubt about it. The year has turned. The leaves are still green, but the swallows have gone, and the wind has a cold edge. At least we have (touch wood) got this far without our annual water crisis, though the top field has been reaped. That’s something, anyway. The weather’s very changeable, the sort […]
I write with a frantically purring Miss Kit on my knee. She has not enjoyed her cat hotel, clearly, though she looks in the best of health, & apparently behaved quite well. The rest of us have had a lovely time. Further adventures in breadmaking were very successful. We went up to Sutherland yesterday to […]
We already knew that Cromarty is lovely, but we have had all kinds of new adventures. Our mobile phones have no signal, O the bliss. Short of a messenger with a forked stick, if anyone wants us ‘urgently’ (red exclamation mark) they are going to have to come and get us, which might help to […]
We are tootling off to Cromarty tomorrow with the Formerly Tropical Godparents. We are puzzling ourselves about packing the quite small car with four adults, a dog, luggage, and vegetables, but I’m sure it will all work out somehow. Miss Dog will go in the boot, on the smallest of her dog beds; those of […]
There is tense agricultural drama in progress. The barley has already stood too long, and the crows are feasting. Over the weekend, the huge combine was roaring all day and all night as Barnyards tried to get his crop in. Yesterday evening there was an unscheduled and intense downpour so the grain has got wet […]