Shhh! Stop Typing So Loudly!

Yesterday was my birthday.  I turned 50.  In honour of the occasion, we had a party out here at the house.

The theme was loosely based around a Mexican fiesta. I bought some party things . . .

Please note my attention to detail.  I have two skull bracelets (Dia de los Muertos) and a couple of Our Lady of Guadalupe bracelets.

The Man of the Place took up the slack in the beer (cervesa) department.  This pile of beer was stacked at the kitchen door.

The weather was lovely the day BEFORE the party.  The day of the party (Saturday) I woke to lovely blue skies . . . . which gradually got darker and by the time 2 o'clock came around it was heaving with rain.  We had puddles where there had never been puddles before.

Ah, never mind.  If we didn't do things because it was raining . . . . we'd never do stuff.

I could not have managed to have this big party if I had not had help.  I got extra chairs and a gas barbecue from Isobella and Michael (friends in the village)  The gazebo -pictured above - was from my dive buddy, Jean.  My son Sean made cocktails - the source of maternal squiffiness - and grilled stuff.  The new daughter-in-law made tray after tray of sandwiches.



My really great neighbours showed up - who are the best neighbours in the history of EVER - and a large number of  friends and my newly married son and his wife were there.  It is great when different sections of your life converge.  Neighbours and village friends were having conversations with my diving pals.
I will confess that I did get pretty squiffy by the wee small hours of the morning.  I took myself off to bed at about 2.



Then it was properly morning.  I was the first up and surveyed the damage. . . .

It wasn't all that bad actually. . . .

I there didn't seem to be any permanent damage and nothing important was broken.  

When we first started tidying up, there looked to be no beer left.  It was said that the beer locusts had infested the place . . . I did find a few stray bottles in the fridge but not much else.  All the food and most of the drink was gone.

We had a couple extra guests in the morning.  

This is where the super fabulous Man of the Place came into his own. He made tea, coffee and pancakes for everybody during the hangover, tidying up phase of the party.
So.  That's me at 50 now.  I feel just exactly the same as I did when I was in my 20's.  The body has changed a bit . . . but not significantly.

The Only Good Thing

The only nice thing that has come about since the death of our cat is that the local bird life has come back.
The number of blackbirds hopping around on the lawn bounced back immediately.  There is always a bird hopping around on the grass now.  Lots of thrushes and blackbirds have returned.

Swallow nest in the beams of the tool shed

The swallows are happy.  One of the old nest sites - in our tool shed has been revitalised.  Just this spring Julio caught and killed a swallow.  I found him later sitting on the tool bench waiting to ambush his next victim.   These days the swallows are shooting in and out of the open door of the tool shed with what can only be described as joyful abandon.

One got confused and came in the house today.  All the doors are open as we enjoy a rare dry and warm summer day. I grabbed the bird as it seemed to be in full panic mode in the window and released it back out the same door it came in.

the best nest shot I could manage - 4 eggs

There isn't an easy way to see what stage the nests are in the tool shed.  I know the parents are swooping in and out many times a day but  I haven't heard any baby peeps yet.  I stuck my camera up into the small space and clicked the shutter.  It turns out that there are four white eggs with pretty brown speckles on them.  They are on top of the soft feathers the parent birds prepared earlier. 

I hope this brood is successful!

Paying The Piper

Over the past year or so a few things have started to change.  I reported that the first gray hair showed up.   That wasn't a big deal really.  Some people get those when they are in their twenties . . . I always state that I don't get gray hair, I give them!  Not many more have come forward since that first one.  So that's okay then.  I'm sure they'll show up in their own time.

I developed plantar fasciitis - Okay - Loose some weight, stop going barefoot and do little stretching movements before getting up each day.  The stop going barefoot thing has been harder than anything else.  I love going barefoot - but it turns out that it is hard on my aging feet.

A few months ago a spot appeared in the middle of my right cheek.  I thought it was just a patch of dry skin. It peeled off in one big chunk.  I didn't think anything of it . . . until the patch returned and peeled off again . . . . and again.  This little dry but pink spot on my cheek just go away.  Did I mention that it is right in the middle of my face?   I have many acquaintances who work as GPs here in the area.  Each one I asked about it said it was a solar keratosis.  

They are mostly benign .. .but about 1 in 20 tend to go bad (cancerous) so I have to watch it.  I also have to keep a sharper eye on all of my freckles and moles.  All those summers at the pool and in the corn fields plus years of topping up my tan have taken their toll.  I don't get much sun exposure now, but the damage has already been done.   

All the years of getting sunburned and not wearing sunscreen are catching up with me.  I never thought I'd have to deal with stuff like this but some of these summer-in-the-sun-chickens are coming home to roost.   Good thing I have lived in Scotland for the bulk of the last twenty years.  It is hardly ever sunny here.  I'm much better about wearing a hat outside and I am now a sunscreen person. When looking on line at solar keratosis, most information says that they show up in patients over the age of 50.  Well, I can tell you now that this one is a little early!  Not freakishly premature but early.  I've got about 12 days left.

The Big Day

Then after all the preparation and excitement, the day of the wedding arrived.

What was particularly nice about it was that there were no big hiccups.  Everything went smoothly.  If anything didn't go smoothly, nobody really cared.  The big stuff was taken care of.  Nobody had to sweat the little stuff.

The bride was there

The groom was there

Guests were piped in

Family showed up

Friends showed up

There was cake

There was dancing

There was love.

It was a spectacular day.

The new bride is a delightful addition to our family as I know my son is a welcome addition to theirs.

The Day Before the Wedding

I wanted to get up to Peebles in the morning on Thursday.  My eldest son and his wife had flown in from Chicago the day before and I was desperate to see them.  I still had to finish icing the wedding cake, get the dog to the kennel and pack a suitcase.  I wanted to have it iced on Wednesday but then . . . I found I was baking a whole new tier instead of icing it.

I also want to mention that it is pouring down with rain too.  The weather forecast for the entire week was rain rain rain.  By noon I was starting to feel wound up.  The groom had called The Man of the Place at work asking where everybody was.  He seemed to be surprised that my husband was at work and that I was still at home. . . . .This call had increased my anxiety levels.  I wanted to be on the road!

So - in the end.  The lovely lovely woman who runs the kennel in the village took mercy on me and actually collected Polly for me.  I finished the cake and got it into boxes in the car.  I got a suitcase packed and all of the junk you need for a wedding, got George and his bags into the car and I was on the road at 1 in the afternoon - with wet hair.

Peebles is only an hour and 20 minutes from our place.  I dropped George off on Peebles High Street.  He was meeting his brothers at the kilt hire place to collect his kilt and jacket.  Though I wanted to come in I had to get the cake to the hotel so I couldn't stop and say hello . . .  That was VERY frustrating.  I wanted to see my eldest son . . . I was so near him, but had no time.

Off to The Barony Castle Hotel.  I was greeted in the car park by my eldest son's wife and the bride to be.  What happy timing!  They helped me get the cake into the hotel and that task was then out of my hands.  I was still in jeans and an old shirt smeared with cream cheese frosting.   

I joined them at the hotel bar.  They had proper drinks and I had coffee (still had driving to do).  We had a rare bit of actual sun for a few minutes.

I went from the hotel back into Peebles and finally saw my boy!  I will tell you now that I wept.  I haven't seen Ian in far too long.  I almost didn't let him out of my sight for the rest of the evening.  My nose stings a little thinking about it.

Because he lives in Chicago now, having all three of my sons together is a rare and treasured thing.  I didn't let them out of my sight for the rest of the evening.

We all had dinner together.  Then I left them to go and do their last minute preparations and have some "brother time" and I went off to find a bed.  

Wedding Preparations!

I have three sons.  The eldest has already been married for a number of years.  He is 29 and lives in Chicago with his beautiful wife.  Son number two is 28 and is getting married on Friday here in Scotland!

I am fizzing with excitement!  My boy is marrying a beautiful, smart, strong and lively woman.  She fits right into this family already.  It isn't often that all three of my boys are together in one place.  That happens this week.  On the day of the wedding they'll all be in kilts!  

The happy couple asked me a while ago if I would make "the cake".  I am not a professional baker, but I do love to make cakes.  It turns out that my son and his bride don't like traditional fruitcake.  They like my carrot cake and as that is what they like, would I make it.  I was so flattered.  Of course I'll make it for them.

Just as soon as I said I would, I wondered what I had agreed to.   I can bake with my eyes closed so I have no worries in that department but I want it to look pretty!  I don't want it ending up on cakewrecks.com.   In fact, I can't look at that site without my heart sinking just a little.   I'll just make the traditional icing for carrot cake, cream cheese icing and make it as smooth as my non-professional hands can make it.  We'll get it on the stand, a ribbon goes around each tier and we're done.  Once it is cut, nobody cares.  I have actually had ingredients donated for this cake.  My friend Helen gave me eggs from her hens.  

Last night, I started baking.  I guess I should have planned better.  I ended up taking over the entire kitchen and The Man of the Place and our youngest had to have cold pasta salad left over from yesterday for dinner. They aren't dead this morning so I'll have to make certain that they're fed properly tonight.  

Our only other job is to dress nicely and show up.

The Man of the Place bought a new suit for the occasion and I bought a new dress. 

I also have a new hat.  To be revealed to the public on the day.  

Goodbye Julio

This post was inevitable.  We live on a quiet-ish road and our family cats have always been outdoor cats.  This means that if they don't learn about cars, they will get hit by one.

Julio seemed to have more sense than other cats and would get out of the way of the cars and gravel trucks that come up and down the road.  One time is all it takes.

He was the most sociable cat we ever had.

He was a very people oriented cat.  He had to be where his people were.  He had to see what you were doing.  It was almost like he was checking to see if you were doing things properly.

When we went away on family holidays, we usually had the neighbours come in and feed him.  This actually traumatised our friendly cat. It wasn't enough contact for him.  I don't think he even liked it when we went to work.  We took to sending him to a cat hotel when we went away.  It was an expense we could have done without, but we didn't want him to be upset.

We are already missing this cat terribly but it seems that the local wildlife will not miss him.  He was the apex predator in the area.  Migratory songbirds, stoats (pictured above) and field voles are now safe. He even caught a bat or two.  It does seem that there were many more birds in the garden this morning . . . .  

I get that accidents happen.  Cats are hit by cars all the time.  After finding his body we knew that he had died instantly (slight comfort there).  It was the cowardly way his remains were thrown over the stone wall afterwards that upset us.   The person who did that didn't come up to tell us what had happened.  We had to make the discovery on our own.

His body is now under the cedar tree in our own pet cemetery.  We miss you darling boy.

He is Still Rockin! (so am I)

A while ago I posted a blog entry about a concert that I never got to attend.   Bruce Springsteen in the early early 80s.   Thirty one years later, he is still cranking out the music and I was able to go!

June 21st - summer solstice - at The Stadium of Light in Sunderland.  The Man of the Place got tickets and knowing my history with The Boss, I got the other ticket.   I haven't been to a concert in a stadium for a long time - Rolling Stones in Miami in '88 or '89.

After work we headed over to Sunderland.  It is a trip we do often but usually for football.  This was the first non-football event The Man of the Place has ever attended at the stadium.

A former work colleague and friend of mine opened up a tea room a few months ago, Serendipity - Tea and Trinkets.  I have been wanting to come in to see her and visit the shop since it opened and this was a perfect opportunity to do that.  June is awesome - and it was her birthday.

Beautiful Junie

It is great to keep in touch with the really cool people whose paths cross yours through the years.  We only worked together for just over a year.  That was about 13 years ago. We've kept up the friendship.

The Boss - club sandwich

She's a big fan of music and had a big Bruce Springsteen themed day going on in the shop.  I had a "The Boss" club sandwich.  It was huge and I actually couldn't finish it.

I did manage to find room for a cupcake.


It was pouring with rain as we drove across to Sunderland and raining while we walked to her shop, so I skipped the promotional beer or Thunder Road cocktail in favour of tea.

Our damp view of the stage

We then made our merry way across the bridge to the stadium  - only about a 10 minute walk from the shop.  We staked out our place down in front.  It wasn't WAY in front but it was pretty close.

Sunderland fans attend a non-football event

Naturally we tried to avoid standing behind tall people, but they always seem to find us.  A guy in a pale baseball cap stood right in front of me - I had to hold my camera above his head  to get a shot. 

I took a few photos during the show.  I wasn't impressed with what I was getting so I gave up.  I'd rather just watch the show than try to view it through the lens of a camera.

Here are some of my efforts:

And this one

It was quite tempting to take photos of the big screen rather than Bruce himself.   I thought that was silly. If I can't get a good shot of the actual person, I'll just give up and get some better photos from some other source.

This is the crowd on the way out of the stadium.  It was much worse than game days.  On days when there is a home game - there are park and ride buses that help filter the thousands away and coaches that have designated areas.  As it was, most people came in private cars.

The rain eased up just as the show started and kept away until we were in the car on the way home.  I was VERY glad to get back to the car.  I didn't realise until we got to the stadium that our tickets were down in front and not in the seats.  Oops.  I wore the wrong shoes.  I wore cute boots with a heel.  They were not good for standing for hours.  On the way back to the car, I stopped to take them off .  It wasn't much better at that point and I put them back on.  My feet were throbbing when I got into bed later.  

I will say this much.  I didn't actually notice my feet were hurting during the show.  I was transported!  Such a good show.  I felt like I was 18 all over again.  Thanks Bruce.