What If?

 

This was in July 1939, shortly before the Second War started.  The girl  Kathleen Maxwell wasn't 'about 20'; she was sixteen and three-quarters and she was my mother, Katy.  This was probably one of the few times in her life when she would have been happy that people thought she looked a lot older than she was.

But what if she hadn't been rescued?  I was not born until 1943! 

Black Sea Cruise

 

This is the route our ship will be taking on our journey to the Ukraine and Istanbul in April.

Hooray For eBay

I bought one or two small things on eBay always using the Buy It Now button, never by bidding.  When we were on Skye, something happened to Marion's camera and a lot of dirt got inside the lens.  Not only can it not be cleaned off but it shows up as big splodges right in the middle of every photo taken.  I emailed a Glasgow repair company and they said it was very difficult to dismantle these small cameras and they thought it would cost £60-70 to do a repair.

I checked the price of a new camera on Amazon and they are still quite expensive.  Next, I had a look at eBay and by an amazing co-incidence there was one only ... identical in every way and brand new ... and the auction was ending in 24 hours.  I put in a bid and won.  It was a third of the cost of a new one!

The package only arrived this afternoon in the post because the lady that was selling it could not get out her house for two days to drive to the Post Office because of the snow.

Fire And Ice

Have a look at these pictures of a fire being put out in Chicago.  I found them on the BBC website.

Spring's Nearly Here

If you look closely, there are tiny buds everywhere.

These catkins up on Skye are ready to come into bloom in a few days

Giant Highlander

That's the way Marion likes them: Tall, strong and as thick as six short planks of wood.

This Is Not A Happy Bunny

 

These bunnies are on display in the Hyndland chemist shop

The Road To The Isles

It takes about five hours to drive to Elgol from Glasgow.  I've outlined the island of Skye in red because the gap between it and the mainland is tiny.  You used to have to get a ferry boat to take your car over to Skye until they built a huge bridge you can just drive over.  Skye is huge - it's about the size of a small country, really.  There aren't many roads so a lot of the island is a wilderness that can only be reached by boat.

Going North

 

The road to Skye takes you through Glencoe which is 90 miles north of Glasgow.  This is a panorama made from four photographs stitched together.  People come from all over the world to climb these mountains.  The biggest hazard is the weather which can change very quickly.  Today (Saturday) four climbers died in an avalanche and one is in hospital with bad head injuries.

The next photos are from another stop we made on the way there.  Somebody had made a tiny snowman and sat him on the information panel.  While we were photographing him, the snowman fell to the ground like Humpty Dumpty and we couldn't put him back together again.

Back To Skye

 

On Tuesday we will be driving back up to the island of Skye and staying in one of the thatched cottages.  They are called Mary's Cottages in the village of Elgol.  We found them the last time we were there.  The weather was awful and Marion was unwell last time but we were so impressed by Elgol that we decided to go back when the days are a bit longer and the weather better.  We'll be staying there until Friday.  There is no mobile phone signal so we will have to rely on a very slow internet connection to keep in touch.  You can get in touch in an emergency by phoning Mary herself at 01471 866 275

Pizza Night

We'd arranged for Urszula and Percy to come for pizza on Friday night.  Then we decided to invite James & Caroline Steel who live further up the road.  Later, we added Dany to the guest list.  Marion decided she would make her own pizzas, rather than serve M&S ones.  I suggested buying pizza bases and went to Tesco and got some.  She made a half-size test pizza last night and we agreed the Tesco base was rubbish.  Nothing for it but to make our own.  This morning we got out the bread making machine and set it to work to make some bread dough and made another small test pizza with home-made sauce.  It was brilliant!

Our quiet evening had turned into a dinner for seven.  I don't know how she did it but Marion managed to serve three huge pizzas straight out the oven all at the same time.  Everyone was most impressed.  For dessert we had Xmas cake with strawberries and cream. They must have really enjoyed themselves because they didn't go home until one o'clock in the morning.  That's why I am writing this at 2 a.m.

Goodnight all.

Surprise Packet

On Thursday the postman gave me a card saying there was an item for me at the collection office.  It had the wrong postage on it and I would have to pay £1.50  in order to get it.  I assumed it was the black bag I'd ordered from Amazon for Jess so I drove over to Broomhill parcel depot and paid the money .... only to discover that it was just a piece of junk mail!  Luckily I got back  home in time for the postman to give me the large packet with the black bag in it ... think how annoying it would have been if I had found a card saying it couldn't be delivered because I was out getting the letter I did not want.

Blackbird

Trying out one of my old telephoto lenses today in the back garden 

Rosslyn Chapel

Rosslyn Chapel

In the crypt ... KING OF TERRORS

There was a break in the weather today so, on a whim, we drove through to Edinburgh and on to the world-famous Rosslyn Chapel.   Don't try and read everything about it .... the first paragraph gives you an idea of what it is about.  In was an interesting ruin with 30,000 visitors a year until 2006 and when they used it for the film 'The Da Vinci Code'.  Suddenly they were overwhelmed with 160,000 visitors!  And it's been like that ever since.

In reality, it is a pretty small old church with a curious history going back 500 years.  Is it interesting? As a lesson in human stupidity and gullibility ... Yes.

Back To Skool

Everyone's back at school!  Marion went off to Art School with a whole load of her work in her portfolio.  First day back they all had to select their best work from last term and present it to the class.  She's soaking in her bath right now because standing all day long makes her feet hurt.

I went to Ikea and bought new frying pans with the £20 gift voucher we got when we bought our Xmas tree. They were doing an 'Eat the furniture' deal today ... you kept your till receipt from the restaurant and however much it was got taken off any item of furniture you bought.  Very clever,

1st January 2013

All our best wishes for a very happy new year!

It was meant to be a quiet evening  Lynn & Jon had to cancel so that left five guests.  Dany arrived with her daughter Ruth so that made it six.  By the time we got to the desserts, four more people arrived so we had twelve crowded round the dining table.  Later on, Jeff & Jane Jay arrived so that made it fourteen.  No chance of an early night!  We were lucky to get to bed by 3:30am.