My Corner Of Scotland

2012-01-30T10:30:00.000-08:00

Well, for the first time ever I drove an automatic car this afternoon. We picked up our new car this morning, then after lunch we decided to go somewhere quiet so that I could get behind the wheel. With our previous car I would always check I was in neutral gear before switching on the engine, so what did I do this afternoon even though it was already switched on? Yep I checked I was in neutral duh.
Everyone tells me it is so easy to drive an automatic, well let's see eh?
But it is a nice car to drive, just so different to what I am used to. So watch this space. :-)

2012-01-28T08:15:00.000-08:00

Our older daughter, SIL and middle 2 little granddaughters are up for a wedding today of the granddaughters aunty. We were not at the wedding but we went along to see our granddaughters at the church. We would have been going to the evening reception tonight but as we have a B&B guest in we are unable to go.

Our granddaughters are the 2 youngest ones you can see here in the ivory dresses.

A cold day, but it was dry and no snow or high winds so that was a very big plus for a January wedding.

I lost count of how many grown up bridesmaids there were but theses are a few of them.

A lovely shade of purple for them, our granddaughters were carrying see through heart shaped bags with purple and ivory large petals inside, lovely and unusual, and purple head bands in their hair, they have on ivory tights with flowers on them and ivory shoes WITH HEELS. Only low stubby type heels but to them they are heels, lol bless.

And the piper warming up before the wedding party arrived.

oooops two photograhs the same! Our older daughter and son in law before they left our house for the wedding. SIL in a lovely smart black tartan kilt.

What a journey!

2012-01-26T11:39:00.000-08:00

We were up in Glasgow again this afternoon (I will tell you why next week) :-) no snow up there when we left...............................but.................... this is what it was like about 15 minutes from Glasgow. Mind you it is a high area but still scarey to have to travel through this weather.

Can you see the dark shape in the distance in front of us? that is a lorry travelling very carefully and steady in the snow, but a few minutes earlier he had skidded, we were behind him but luckily further back as we skidded as well, we were driving slow as well.

Then idiots in 2 lorries and a car over took us going too fast! throwing up snow and slush as they zoomed past, absolute idiots.

Once we got to South Ayrshire we saw green fields, although it was coming down as sleet, it was almost as if we had come through two different countries. On listening to the radio whilst cooking later on in the afternoon I heard the traffic reports for the area we had travelled along still bad with snow.

We have just had a heavy fall of hail this evening here, the road is white. Roll on spring.

Fire !

2012-01-15T10:57:00.000-08:00

No not a rocket, but a telescope. A clear night so hubby thought he would go out into the back garden and have a look at the sky. He said his binoculars were better. lol

Tried a new setting on my camera, mind you I have had this camera 2 years + now and only now getting around to find out what the different switches do, this photograph is one with a first time trying the night time setting.

Ps........... Who recognises the jacket?........ I know any American visitors to my blog more than likely will know it :-)

Ok, concentrate Ann!

2012-01-14T12:20:00.000-08:00

The new washing machine and dishwasher arrived late this afternoon. I think when we bought this house 7 1/2 years ago, the previous owners had put in a new washer and dishwasher to spruce up the kitchen. After 7 years the lettering on the front of the dishwasher had worn away, so putting 2 and 2 together they must have just put them in otherwise it would have worn away with them using the appliances ........ then again maybe they didn't use them!

Anyway as the seal was going on both of them, we decided to splash out on 2 new appliances. But wine is open and I don't think I would concentrate on reading the manuals tonight!

Mind you, we pressed a button accidentally on the dishwasher and it started up!! and this was before the guys were even out of the driveway! So we checked the booklet and after a couple of false starts it stopped and drained. THEN we took the bits of packaging out that was still inside whist it was running!

I don't like manuals, I need them to read along the lines of....... Press 1 and then A. Then press 2 and then B........ If it is too technical then my eyes glaze over!

Is it possible?

2012-01-13T08:42:00.000-08:00

If I take a photograph with my iPad can I put it onto my blog using my iPad? I have no idea how that works, I have put this posting on with my ipad. I manage photos from my laptop to my blog but I cannot see how to put them on from my iPad.
Any techies out there?
Thanks

New to me!

2012-01-11T13:22:00.000-08:00

Up until last night I had never heard of "Tablescapes". But as I have been hopping about from blog to blog these past couple of nights I landed at a blog and discovered Tablescapes!
All I can say is WOW, they are beautiful. I don't have the room for storing all the dishes etc used, but it is lovely to go and browse these blogs. Maybe I will still give it a try though.
Off for another search. :-)

On our lounge wall tonight.

2012-01-10T10:39:00.000-08:00

This is the photograph of a beautiful butterfly that found it's way into our lounge this evening and landed on the wall. But it's 10 January for goodness sake! lol it is now safely outside and flew away. two photographs the same..........! I must have hiccupped!

Decluttering

2012-01-08T04:26:00.000-08:00

Doesn't it feel good to declutter? Since we came back from our older daughters' at New Year we, have done a lot. Part of the loft, a big cupboard, kitchen drawers cleared and decluttered.

One of the charity shops did well yesterday as we took a boot load to Age Concern in the town. More looked out for another charity shop this week sometime.

Then I sat and watched a number of episodes of Pan Am on BBC2 that I had recorded before Christmas, what a good programme, set in the mid 1960's it certainly showed how air travel has changed. I loved the way the air hostesses (they were referred to as that in the series)walked through the airport with their white gloves on and their Pan Am bags over the crook of their arms, so elegant.

We are off out for a belated New Year lunch at my cousins house today , they invite us each New Years day for dinner as they come to us for christmas day. But as we were in England for New Year this year, they have asked us over today.
Nice to have a meal cooked for you, isn't it?

Another geocaching challenge completed

2012-01-05T08:53:00.000-08:00

After the 102 mph gales here in Scotland plus the rain!! I finally managed to complete this Geocache challenge of a sunset close to home. We went down in the car to the beach, boy were there a lot a debris on the road and beach, which is normally so very clean and tidy, but it was mostly seaweed which was up on the road and sticks. Quite a few folk out walking on the sand and prom making the most of a cold dry although breezy day something we haven't seen much of these past couple of weeks, the wind was still quite strong on the prom as the waves were rolling in big, although the tide was out. I had to position myself against a lifebelt box to steady my hand and camera. This is one I took of the sun setting over the water, still a bit of cloud about as you can see, but they thankfully moved fast to allow me to take a sunset photo.

Help please.

2011-12-29T09:39:00.000-08:00

I notice that the title on the top new posts is the same colour as the background of my blog, I have been all over the blog and cannot see how to change the colour of the title. Not the colour of name of my blog though. Any help out there please? Many thanks

6856 miles of a travelled tin of pumpkin!

2011-12-29T07:41:00.000-08:00

For some unknown reason this tin made two pies this time, although it is a long time since I have made pumpkin pie. Anyway this is for New Year and I will put the other into the freezer for another time.

We are watching two guys on the roof of a bungalow across from us, now...................... we have gale force winds here again today plus rain and they are up on a roof!!!! it is 15.35 and pitch dark! How can they see for a start. I keep glancing across the road to see if they are still there, they do not look like they are tied on. Oh well I suppose they know what they are doing, but I certainly wouldn't want to go up there. Oh roll on the good weather, even if it was frosty and dry I don't mind, but the high winds and rain is so so depressing. :-(

A too active mind!

2011-12-27T20:10:00.000-08:00

It's "silly o'clock" here !!!!!

I treated myself to an iPad in Singapore on our 4 night stay enroute back home to Scotland after our wonderful holiday in Australia recently. So I am sat here at 3.40am blogging!

I know nothing of horses other than I like them along with dogs, so I have this morning, travelled the length of the UK and overseas via the world of blogging. Where shall I go next? Back to my bed really. If it wasn't so early in the day I would make a start on the pumpkin pie I want to bake to take down with us for New Year to our daughters'.

Now tinned pumpkin! I have been known to bring 6........ Yes 6 tins of the stuff back with us from Wisconsin, mind you this was a few years ago now, and guess who had their cases "chosen"to be searched at the airport? At least it gave the security lady a laugh at Minneapolis airport!

I have searched the shops here in the UK for tinned pumpkin over the years with no luck, I even emailed Libby's at one point to see if they did sell it and I had just missed it in the shops, but no, they don't sell it here, we can get fresh pumpkin but I couldn't be bothered faffing with that I liked the easy option.

I thought I would look in Australia, but no joy in the shops there, yes they have tinned pumpkin soup but that wasn't what I was looking for, but I did buy Gladwrap in the supermarket .............. we noticed on Masterchef Australia it being used a lot! Oh I need to get out more lol!.......and we manged to have our holiday in OZ without mentioning Masterchef as we didn't know who had won until we caught up with the recordings once back home.
Whilst we were in Singapore sat having a snack at lunch time we had noticed the nice little supermarket next door in the shopping mall, ahhhhhhhhh I say to hubby I wonder if they stock it. In we go, yes there it was was, Libby's tinned pumpkin, huge tins plus the normal size I have only ever seen before...........result!
So I bought just the 2 tins as I didn't want "funny " comments from hubby, so I will treasure the one tin after I (fingers crossed) have made the pie later today. I will start looking again for it over here, without resorting to buying it over the Internet and paying silly money!

Okay I need sleep!

If I don't get back to blog land before the year ends, I would like to wish all who come to visit my blog, including my horsey friends in blog land, a very happy, safe and peaceful 2012xX

wow oh wow

2011-12-15T11:18:00.000-08:00

We have had a fantastic holiday in Australia, we got home yesterday, I am flagging a little now, but I am trying to keep awake.

As it was a special year for us (Ruby anniversay/hubby retired) we decided to spoil ourselves and go Business Class which was lovely and comfortable, with chauffeur driven car to pick us up from our house and back home plus at each of our arrivals at each airport with the exception of Melbourne as family picked us up.

But when we checked in for our Melbourne/Singapore flight they upgraded us to First Class! WOW and double WOW. My jaw almost dropped to the floor as I got such a surprise when the young check-in woman announced we had been upgraded, I almost had to drag hubby off of the plane at Singapore.

Truly a wonderful experience. We flew Emirates direct from Glasgow to Dubai, after a couple of nights there we flew to Sydney for 4 nights. Then to Uluru/Ayers Rock for 2 nights, where we had dinner outside under the stars near Uluru one night. We walked a good bit around the rock and touched it. We saw the sun come up over Uluru and then the sun setting at it, to watch the rock change colour was beautiful. Truly magical. Then to Melbourne for a week with hubby's sister and husband, we all took a trip to Philip Island where we stayed overnight and that evening we sat on the beach watching the penguins come home to feed their chicks which was lovely. Then home via Singapore, where we stayed 4 nights.

We manged to go geocaching throughout the holiday finding caches and completing challenges, and met a couple of fellow cachers in Sydney and Melbourne. The photograph of me with Uluru in the background is a challenge. All in all a lovely holiday.

Home to the garden fence down in the storm and there must have been a power cut through the storm (s) as the fridge freezer had defrosted the food within it. We thought the freezer had broken at first but noticed a clock we hadn't switched off, flashing.

No decorations or tree up yet, so that will be tomorrow I think. I had to get myself organised before we left, writing cards and stamped for someone to post for us. Most of the gifts bought beforehand, just a couple to get. So now it is back to "auld clothes and porridge" but wonderful to have done what we have, over the past 3 weeks.

Highland toffee (or cattle)

2011-11-06T07:16:00.000-08:00

We were out sharp this morning as we decided to geocache in the village a few miles from us. Found all 3 so that was good, it helps my numbers.
Then home for a coffee and a walk along the river Ayr to look at and photograph some Highland cattle that we had noticed a couple of weeks ago as we drove passed. I haven't seen them in this area before although there are some in a field on the A77 a few miles from us.
They were all lying down enjoying the sunshine. They looked as if they had stepped off of a bar of McGowans Highland Toffee, although I think I read that this ( the Highland Toffee) will no longer be made in UK or is it going overseas!! I don't know, but such a shame, I remember this toffee from my childhood, my fillings will testify to that!

Anyway, the sun was out the leaves are changing colour so it was a lovely walk along by the river to visit the cattle.

Seasons

2011-11-04T09:23:00.000-07:00

The seasons are changing. I have just been outside dead heading 2 standard roses we have, they still have plenty of buds on them waiting to open. One of the gifts we were given in the summer for our Ruby Anniversay was an indoor rose plant, I expected it to die away once it had finished flowering, but no instead it has given off more roses, one which opened this week and there is another bud waiting to open.
I deadheaded some of the garden roses in the border and noticed one of them has the most beautiful palepink/white flower on it and more buds on the other plants! this is November 4 for goodness sake :-)
but I am not complaining.
We took a trip to Edinburgh yesterday, we got off of the bus in the city and we both wished we had taken our sunglasses with us as it was so sunny.
It was lovely to see folk sitting outside drinking their coffees and enjoying the sunshine, after all it is November! We walked a good bit of the city, managing to find a couple of geocaches, one which was right at the side of the castle, and then a walk along to another with a challenge completed as well.
By night time once we were home my legs were very sore with all of the walking, but good fun all the same.

One challenge was at the Camera Obscura on the Royal Mile where the mirrors turn you into strange shapes, this is one of the ones I took of myself!!!!! very spooky. The strange item on the ground must have been a bag belonging to a lady sat on the wall behind me because it certainly wasn't there when I took the photograph otherwise being me I would have tripped over it!.

The hatches are battened down.

2011-10-06T05:52:00.000-07:00

Heavy rain yesterday and very dark.
Then thunder and lightening early hours this am
More of above again at 8am

A bit of sun yehhhhhh
But not for long :-(
Very very windy as this is apparently the tail end of another hurrican from the USA!
Please can we have the tail end of their sun?

Here ends the shipping/weather forecast from Ayr :-(

ps Hubby just been on laptop for BBC weather for this area for Friday.............sun.........!

Paul O'Grady :-) again!

2011-10-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

He has just read out another email from me on his show tonight. :-)
Do I need to get out more?

After building the hedgehog cottage.......

2011-10-01T04:30:00.000-07:00

I am now off to build an.................................. ark !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All of you "Down south" please do not post that you are having the heatwave, BBQ's and sunbathing!!!!!!! :-( :-( :-(

We had torrential rain overnight (or so hubby said)

Went in to town for bits and pieces and our coffee, sat at the window in Cafe Nero and watched the monsoon weather.

The road is flooded just along from us, the road dips and the two puddles (!) on either side meet!

I remember a couple of years back when I was walking our Border Collie we had then, the road was flooded and a car with 2 men it in it were laughing and headed for the puddle just in front of us, but I read his mind !!!!! and waited.......the so and so wanted to soak us. If he had I would have reported him as it would have been intentional.

Under the railway bridge in town it is always flooded or at least big puddles at the side when it rains, hubby managed to get through but I had to wait back until the lights changed so I could run through, if the drivers had taken their time going under the bridge then folk would not get soaked.

At least it seems to have eased off to a steady downpour now :-(

A day indoors so we are going to tidy the loft out, now I wonder if the plans for the ark are in there?

Chez Hedgehog Cottage

2011-09-26T05:47:00.000-07:00

One of the blogs I like to visit is Bernard over at monkey-organ.blogspot.com He has a cute video that I think you would like to look at, of hedgehogs in his garden. Now I like a challenge and I hold my hand up to say that yes I have copied Bernard and made a hedgehog house out of off cuts of wood left over from the decking that we are re-vamping. These bits were just lying there so hubby said "on you go and make one" so I did, I did have help along the way but I used the power tools, that was fun :-) and an hour later we have a little house for the hedgehog we sometimes see on our lawn at the side of the house, so I will place it under the trees against a wall and it should be snug there........but then again it may not want to hibernate there!! oh well we will see.

You can see in the background the decking we are working on, I am going to power wash all the lengths of wood before they go down they are just lying loose on the base at the moment, I did start some last week but the motor packed in on the washer grrrrrr so that is at a standstill until Wednesday when we go and get another one, as Wednesday is "old folks day" at B&Q and we will get a 10% discount for the over 60's :-) I suppose thats some consolation for being over 60 !

And on the subject of age! I sent off for a new Be-Ro recipe book a couple of weeks ago, it arrived this morning and before I opened it up, as I knew what was in there I asked hubby if he remembered the Be-ro book his mum would have used all those years ago, "Errrrrr no" said he. Well I can remember the one my mum used. I opened up the envelope and lo and behold on the back cover is a photo of the very same picture I was thinking of, it's in the bottom right of the photograph. Gosh that takes me back. This new one is edition number 41, I like the "splashes and marks" on the cover but I don't think you can make then out on the photograph. Oh you can see the ring mark(s) after all, I have just had a closer look at the photograph :-)

From this......To this

2011-09-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

Started off as small plain wooden coathangers, I padded them with wadding, and using remnents of material I covered them and added trim to the top which you can only just about make out in the photograph. As the handles do not come off I had to cover the seam at the top with the trim.
These are for our little grand neice in Australia.

Paul O'Grady

2011-09-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

I emailed Paul's radio 2 show about 3 weeks ago, he wasn't on last Sunday due to the concert in the park live..........................but guess what??????
Yes he read out my email, so if you go on to iplayer for radio 2 and the Paul O'Grady show you will hear it, it is in about 20 minutes or so, his show starts at 5pm and he read it out at about 5.20. I couldn't remember what I had emailed in about beforehad and said to hubby I wonder what I wrote about!!!! I think it is called an "age thing" :-( I really enjoy his Sunday show, music is played that isn't usually on the other shows and he is funny, plenty of laughs.
Anyway if you fancy doing so have a listen! go on make my day :-)

Hurrican Katia

2011-09-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

We are getting the tail end of Hurricane Katia, as are other parts of Britain. And she is a beep beep nuisance!!!! Yesterday we had high winds but not much rain, just the odd spit or two. She is certainly making up for it today! very high winds and rain and when it rains it does come down very heavy.

Our house is next to a field which belongs to the council. A few very old trees are on the edge of the field, one with a very large hole in it which has been like since before we moved here 7 years ago, you can just about make out the hole in the tree behind our wall.

This is a very large branch which has come off of one of the trees this morning or maybe through the night, we placed a metre stick on the ground to show the size of the branch, you can just make out a snapped off part of the branch above the metre stick on the left. The branch is full of leaves and some size! hubby has emailed a photograph in with his email to the local council today saying these trees really need checking.

God bless

2011-09-11T03:41:00.000-07:00

God bless all who perished in 9/11 xxxxxxxxxxxx

Tourists

2011-09-09T07:27:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful day yesterday, the sun was out and quite warm so we decided to venture out to Brig O Doon at Alloway in Ayr and play at being tourists, so armed with a camera off we went with our younger daughter sil and little granddaughter.

First stop was Brig O Doon over the river Doon, which is a beautiful area, lovely gardens and a Heritage Centre. We stood on the bridge famed by Robert Burns.

This is a plaque on the wall of the brig and made to look like a book, although these two photographs were taken seperatly as the sun was shining on the metal "book pages".

This view is taken from the Brig O'Doon.

And another where I have moved slighly over. Look at those beautiful gardens.

Alloway church just a 2 minute walk from the brig.

A tiny ruined church with an old cemetry where Robert Burns parents are buried.

Tae A Moose, (mouse) One of Robert Burns poems, along Poets Path.

We thought the mouse had a gastric band on ;-) but it is newly sown grass.

And then a short walk along to Burns cottage. I didn't manage to get a photograph of the cottage from the other side of the road as cars were going by and folk walking in front of the cottage.

Decking

2011-09-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

As you can see in one of the photographs in my previous posting of the retirement party, we have decking in our back garden........or should I say we did have, as now it is dismantled, it was far too high and I have never liked it. So now as hubby is retired, we decided to take it apart.

We started off with one idea before dismantiling it, but then when we looked (or rather I looked at it and had the idea) we decided on putting it back, why does hubby groan when I say "I have an idea" lol .............ah........... but not as it was. This time it will be much lower and smaller with more space behind it for growing more vegetables. Along the side where there is a narrow path we will lift that, and plant fruit trees as there are already 2 Bramley and a plum tree further down.
Trees will go where the compose maker (green box) is on the right hand side and the compose maker will be moved.
The decking will be back about 5 large lengths of wood back from the step (which is also away) and just the height of the former lower step.
Looks a mess just now, but hey you can't make an omlette without....etc
We had a trip to the cowp (tip) yesterday, yes hubby knows how to treat me :-) so all the wood and the radiator is now away. All the support planks were lifted yesterday and today ready to be put back again, only lower. If we can get this done before the winter and dig over the soil behind the decking then that will let the elements to the soil until the spring hopefully.

And surprise surprise tonight someone came to the door for B&B so I have 3 in for tonight, and there was me thinking the season was over, if I don't look for guests then guests turn up :-)

Good party

2011-08-29T08:04:00.000-07:00

Everything went well on Saturday for hubby's retirement party at our house.

He had no idea he was getting a new set of golf clubs.

Our younger daughter (Morvyn) made a cake, he is a Refresher fan so they are around the cake..

I managed to get a photograph of myself with our two daughters. Karyn is on the right of the photograph and Morvyn on the left, with me in the middle. The photo at the bottom is of my hubby, then Scott (married to Karyn parents of Caitlin & Zoe) and Craig on the right (married to Morvyn parents of Emma)

The weather kept fine, the men actually ended up standing outside in the back garden talking and drinking and generally putting the world to rights!

Then we drifted outside and watched our younger granddaughter Emma at 2 1/2 jumping over a skipping rope as we wriggled it on the ground.

We had bought 2 scooters so they can be left here for our two older granddaughters Caitlin (10) and little sister Zoe (6) to play with whenever they are up here from England, so they enjoyed being outside with them. Our 2 good friends came over from Troon with their little grandson of almost 3yrs (a prior babysitting stint) he played on the toy tractor we have here and seemed to enjoy himself, they left late afternoon to get their grandson back to his parents. All in all a very enjoyable afternoon/evening.

The next morning our daughters/hubbies/granddaughters and us, all invaded Caffe Nero in town for our coffees and hot chocolate, which made a nice end to the celebrations. Bill has his last day at work tomorrow (Tuesday) then he is being taken out to lunch with his colleagues on Wednesday. Then the two of us are out for lunch on Thursday.
And so another chapter ends and a new one begins!!! Where did those years go?

buttercream iced cupcakes

2011-08-26T08:17:00.000-07:00

As our older daughter, SIL and family are travelling up from England this weekend, we have arranged a party at our house to celebrate my husbands retirement on Tuesday of next week. After 44 years in the insurance business he is putting down his pen/switching off his works computer. Our younger daughter, her husband and little girl are coming as well, along with other family members and a some friends of ours. So today I have been in the kitchen most of the day, making chilli, a pavlova, chicken is out defrosting to cook another dish tonight, then the drumsticks and the rest can be done tomorrow morning, our younger daughter is making a cake and bringing other things with her, it is harder for our daughter in England to make and bring something whilst travelling up by road. Hopefully our daughters and their families will stay over on Saturday night, this will be the first time we have all slept under the same roof since the girls got married. Our older daughter and her husband are staying with our SIL's sister and family but will stay here Saturday. should be fun at breakfast time :-) we haven't seen our older little granddaughters and our daughter and husband since January.

buttercream topping.

Brad Pitt's car !

2011-08-18T06:28:00.000-07:00

Our daughter sent me a lot of photographs she has taken this morning in Glasgow when she went down to stalk.....no sorry ...........watch Brad Pitt.

This is his car, she was standing close by with her little daughter in her pram when they went by, they waved!

Then they went along to watch the filming in George Square, .........but little Emma (2 1/2) was starting to be frightened of the firing of the guns, so they left. lots of nice photographs our daughter has sent to us.
PS she knows I have posted this pic, I got her permission lol
In her other photographs you can see all the American traffic signs up which is strange to look at with it being Glasgow (UK) :-) So long as they remember to take them down after they are finished :-) as could cause a bit of confusion lol

Brad & Angelina

2011-08-17T11:08:00.000-07:00

Brad Pitt is filming in Glasgow.

Apparently they are staying in Ayrshire.

Are they staying with me?

Sorry I am sworn to secrecy.

Corrr those 6 kiddies make a heck of a noise in our back garden......ooooooops cat out the bag!

11 short of a bakers dozen!

2011-08-16T07:03:00.000-07:00

Woke to drizzly rain this morning which was on for most of the morning,

Earlier on this afternoon we had brilliant blue skies after the rain and the sun was out, a little bird taking a bath in the bird bath. I had to stay in anyway as the student was still here, he leaves tomorrow morning back to the Shetlands, I was telling him this morning that he is my furthest flung Scottish visitor lol. So far the furthest foreign guest has been South Korea.

Anyway I decided to put the bread machine on to make another loaf, then went online to youtube to find another recipe I had seen earlier in the month of a quick and easy handmade loaf, so this is the result. The one on the left is the machine one and the wonky one is the handmade loaf. I really didn't think the wonky one would rise before it went into the oven as we do not have an airing cupboard in this house which we did have in our old house and was handy to use for bread rising, usually upstairs in the loft bedroom it is very very warm when the sun is out, it wasn't out today! but as I had had the bread machine on our small kitchen was warm and it did rise nicely before going into the oven. the wonky on is taller looking than in the pic.

Then the drizzly rain came back on! seems to be dry just now.

UPDATE Having just cut the wonky one, it tastes nice but I prefer the one in the machine. I will try the handmade one again sometime and use slightly less salt than the recipe states, just a tad less. hubby just emailed to say Brad Pitt is filming in Glasgow.
ANOTHER UPDATE Photograph of the wonky loaf when sliced.

dah da

2011-08-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

Mary had a little lamb,
Some trifle and some prunes
A glass of pop, a piece of cake
And then some macaroons

It made the watching waiters grin
To see her eating so
And when they carried Mary out
Her face was white as snow

dah da

Spanish now ;-)

2011-08-06T12:53:00.000-07:00

Well "my man" in the uniform left early this morning for his flight(s)back home, hubby took him to the airport. We have been up since silly o'clock but at least I had the room turned around early, then into town for our morning coffee (early).

Now tonight we have a Spanish couple in which is lovely. We have had lots of foreign guests this year, whereas last year it was mostly Brits.
We worked in the garden off and on this afternoon, then the heavens opened and watered the garden for us! luckily I had most of the washing dried outside and had pressed it this afternoon which was great, I like to be upto date with the laundry as best I can. Fingers crossed the sun is out tomorrow for more washing.

Cut out the middle man ;-)

2011-08-05T01:42:00.000-07:00

As I sat having my coffee outside in the garden watching the bees flying from flower to flower collecting the nectar, I began to wonder hmmmmmmmm.
now, they fly into our garden (other gardens are available)into the flowers to collect the nectar, fly away to the hive, the honey is made, eventually it then goes into the shops, we go to the shops and what do I do? buy it back as I go through a lot of it................
Now if I could just get the bees to drop off a jar every now and again....... ;-)

Ailsa Craig Ayrshire

2011-08-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

In the distance you can see Ailsa Craig and to the left in the distance is Culzean Castle which is a beautiful place to visit with lovely gardens, all overlooking the sea. Eisenhower during WW2 had an apartment here.
You can see part of a road at the base of my photo this is known locally as "Electric Brae" or Croy Brae.
If you are driving down this hill you can take your foot of the pedal, go into neutral gear and the car will eventually stop on the hill, then it will very very slowing start to back up the hill, again you do not need to have your feet on any pedals, if you pour water onto the road then it will trickle uphill, again very slowing but definately going up hill. Cyclist have an easy time peddling up the hill.
There is a layby to pull in to for you to read the notice about this effect of the hill.
We have taken many folk out to this area over the years to let them experience the effect of the hill.

A man in a uniform! ;-)

2011-08-02T06:34:00.000-07:00

Ok I am probably old enough to be his mother...........no wait, make that an older sister ! right!!

We have an airline pilot staying this week for B&B, this is a first for us having a pilot stay. He is Italian, and flies for Ryanir so he came in to Prestwick late last night, it will be like this all week for him. He is back at the airport later this afternoon so I have offered to take him there in the car, it's only about 10 minutes away. He is off to Rome then back tonight, do you think I could stowaway?

UPDATE
Dropped "my" pilot off at the airport, or rather just at the bus stop outside and a couple of minutes walk to the entrance. He asked on the way to the airport if I would be willing to make up a salad for him to take onboard (he said he wouldn't mind if I said no, he said he would pay)
I popped into the supermarket on the way back from picking up hubby from work, and stocked up on bags of salads and pasta's etc, plus I had cooked chicken breasts tonight for our dinner, there are some left over so it will be sliced and put in with a salad for tomorrow for him to take. Now I just to think what I could put it into to make it easy for him to eat from, as hubby said.................it says a lot for Ryanair food if he asked me to make some up. Otherwise he would have to make do with a sandwich! How could I refuse, I just couldn't.

Glorious sunshine

2011-07-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

After giving blood this morning, all I have done is potter about! the weather is beautiful and as I cannot take too much sun (I love sunshine though) I thought I would just stay in the shade or indoors. I have put the strawberry runners into pots, and once they take I will snip them off of the main plant which is now about 3 years old so time to replace it. I put the strawberry plant under the car port at the beginning of the summer which is against a south facing wall and being open at both ends means they are getting air but still sunshine through the roof. The strawberries have been cleaner and free from slugs being there so the one in the garden will be lifted as the slugs have thoroughly enjoyed any strawberries that were on the plant! I know I could have put straw down around the outdoor plant to keep them clean but I didn't. I have a couple of pepper plants under the car port to see if they will get on better than in the greenhouse which does not get the sun in the afternoon and this was the only place the greenhouse could go. no tomatoes this year from the greenhouse as we were away on holiday end of May beginning June there was no one to water them, so it is empty now. I have pulled up some of the carrots I am growing in a pot, again under the car port so we will have them with tonights dinner, they are so sweet and tender, this was a trial so hopefully I will plant more next year. The painting is a work of art painted by our little granddaughter of 2 1/2 yrs. Bless. And then there is the table which is under the carport, so we sit here a lot, it looks shaded but it isn;t really, I found it too hot so that is why the umbrella is up. Next door neighbours can't see in because of the screen, our back door is to the side just before the table, so it is like an extra room. :-)

The fruits of our labour!

2011-07-24T11:58:00.000-07:00

The 2 apple trees have produced these apples this year, last year there were about 4 which was enough to make an apple crumble. This year even better, plus when I went out to water the back garden after picking these ones I noticed 2 still on the tree. This will make a couple of small apple crumbles, and then they will go in the freezer. This is the first summer for the plumb tree we planted last year, no fruit which we didn't expect, but hopefully next year there will be some fruit from it. We bought more lavender this morning and I noticed the garden centre had more geraniums even lower priced than Friday when I bought 4 trays of 6 for £2 each, today they were £1 for 6, all they needed was a good watering, a snip off of the lower leaves that were withered and then out in to the garden, so that was my bargain for today. Lots of little shoots at the base of the plants so hopefully they will flourish.

A wedding

2011-07-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

My cousins were guests at their friend's wedding in the next town this afternoon, so I went along to have a nose(y). What a beautiful day for a wedding, the sun was out, no clouds to speak of and it was really warm watching from the sidelines. Now, I just LOVE hats and I was hoping the mother of the bride would NOT be wearing a fasinator (I am not a fan of them) every other female guest was wearing a

fasinator in some shape or form. I stood there thinking to myself "I like that outfit" or "I don't like that fasinator" But thankfully when the MOTB stepped from the car (looking beautiful) along with the bridesmaids, she was wearing a beautiful hat, hooray. I think I counted maybe 3-4 hats, all the rest were fasinators. The men were wearing tails which is not all that common in Scotland as it is usually the kilt, a few of the younger men did have on the kilt which looked so smart as well. As I went back to the church to see them come out after the ceremony I did notice 2 other cars go by with ribbons on them, so quite a few weddings in the area today. My "little" twin cousins in the photograph before the went in to the church, yes I know they are wearing fasinators.
When we lived in Troon a few years back, I went along to see the golfer Colin Montgomery attend a wedding in the town. The bride was marrying a guy from the Bahamas, or the bride may have been from the Bahamas I can't remember,but wow the men did look smart in their Burmuda shorts and black knee high socks, it looked so different but very smart.
That was my day, then a BBQ with hubby tonight. The sun is still out and lovely and bright. Supposed to be even better tomorrow, but we will wait and see!

Pics taken from the window.

2011-07-21T13:37:00.000-07:00

Lazy I know! but I took these from inside the house, this is the single gate (obviously) leading out on to the main road, this lavender hasn't been cut back in a few years so it has grown over the small wall we have leading down to the gate, but it smells lovely when you brush past it. I think this year I will trim it back a bit, I like the wild look of it so that is why I didn't cut it right back. A couple of years ago I cut some of the lavender and dried it, it is still in a vase. I may do some more this year. The other photograph is part of the garden to the right of the gate.

Can you spot it?

2011-07-20T11:56:00.000-07:00

Way way at the back and looking small in this photograph compared to my previous photo of the plant holder, I am still looking for a plant pot bigger than the one the geranium is in at the moment, the ones we have are either too small or too tall and blue! but then it would be patriotic I suppose. Well what a surprise last night! B&B business is very very quiet this year, but hey last night a very nice couple arrived from Sweden for one night, then lo and behold tonight a lady came to the door just before dinner so she is here with her friend for one night and guess where they are from ? yep Sweden. Now I like the Ikea paper napkins and as I am running low, should I have asked them to bring some from Sweden ;-) ? just a thought lol

At last managed to get a photograph on!

2011-07-19T07:16:00.000-07:00

We bought this yesterday at a reclamation place, I sanded it down and painted it white and today I have painted the top part in brick red the same that was used on the under part of our house, I have just given it another coat so hopefully that is it ready once dry. I plan on putting a small plant pot on the top and adding a red geranium and then standing it on the patio in the back garden. I bought two nice bright red geraniums in Dobbies this morning.
Many thanks to Sue and Foody for their advise on getting the photograph on, I tried umpteen times yesteray then gave up. Thank you girls. :-) PS it only stands 30" tall but looks huge in the pic!

now! ??????

2011-07-18T11:12:00.001-07:00

Why can't I get a photograph to upload on to my blog? It tells me it has done it, I am not doing anything different.

Empty nest syndrome!

2011-07-15T05:22:00.000-07:00

The last of the chicks has left the nest in the conifer today...............awwwwww I will miss peeping in to see them.

Huge baby chicks now

2011-07-11T09:41:00.000-07:00

Mum is busy feeding them (or is it dad?) hopping about the grass, I peeped in to have a quick look to see how they are getting on, the chicks are BIG what a difference in them, beaks wide open, wee souls.
Then walking back along the river this morning after our coffee, a mum and her tiny ducklings swimming along in a line, at least 8 ducklings, so long as they stay at 8 ! hopefully no larger birds come along and take any :-(

babies!!!!!!

2011-07-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

I peeped into a conifer in our garden that has a nest in it, and found it has four lovely turquoise eggs, this was a few days ago. We were not sure if it was an old nest or not, so decided to leave the conifer alone (we were about to trim it when i thought i should check it first) I have been carefully looking in the tree most days and the eggs were still the same, but this afternoon I looked in and one had hatched, a tiny chick wriggling about in the nest. So I will keep an eye on it and hope the rest hatch safely and the babies eventually fly the nest, fingers crossed they will be ok. But I know nature will see to it one way or another. i can hear a bird chirping about that area so hopefully that is mum looking after her baby (s)

26 June 1971

2011-06-26T00:05:00.000-07:00

Not bad going to say we met on a blind date.

And 40 years later in Skagway, Alaska. June 2011

Da Daaaaa!

2011-06-17T04:25:00.000-07:00

I have spent this morning decorating the cake for our Ruby anniversary a week on Sunday. I made everything on it except the bead decoration in the middle. The red sugar paste was already coloured, I bought a nice little Gerba cutter for the flowers which is so easy to use, they are 3D in real life but don't look it in the photographs. I crimped the top edges of the cake and the fondant on the icing board, which you cannot really see in the photographs. Okay if you look really close up there are a few imperfections but then again I am not a cake decorater but it is something I would love to learn to do properly, maybe sometime I will see if there are evening classes. Pouring with rain here in Ayr, we had hail stones late yesterday afternoon, I thought it said June on the calendar!!! I think I will bake as it is rotten weather.

Jet Lagged

2011-06-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

We arrived home Thursday morning from our holiday to Vancouver and our Alaskan cruise. 3 nights in Vancouver, then on the cruise ship for 7 nights which was lovely and relaxing. The ship sailed very close to the glacier in Glacier Bay which was amazing we could see parts of the glacier sliding in to the water as we watched. Back to Vancouver for 2 nights. Then on the Rocky Mou

ntaineer train to Kamploops for an overnight stay in an hotel and then back on the train where we saw Bald eagles on their nests high up on the telegraph poles, plus Ospreys on their nests (we have Ospreys in the highlands)a Coyete trotting across a field, Moose,I missed the bear :-(
Whenever anything was spotted out the windows we had to shout what it was, by the time I got to that side of the window we had passed it. We were disappointed in the Rocky trip, ok they looked after us great on the train and it was very well organised but the part where we had to keep stopping to let a goods train pass with 300+ wagons was frustrating, we were on the train far too long, the views were lovely but the same as Scotland in the Highlands. But we have done it so will always remember the long long long train journey. Off the train in Galgary where we stayed for one night before flying home.

The brave proud boys and girls of......

2011-05-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

The Royal Highland Fusiliers 2nd Battalion were given a roaring cheer as they returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. They marched through Ayr yesterday

.
Well done lads and girls, so pleased you are home safe.

They beach was looking great as well this is looking towards The

Heads of Ayr.

My little corner of the royal wedding

2011-04-28T12:12:00.000-07:00

I haven't seen anyone else with flags up about here, a few shops in the next town have. So I thought I would put up a couple in the window, one is the Saltire and then a Union Jack on either side.

My collection

2011-04-14T11:51:00.000-07:00

I bought a large box of quality white card stock last year, in white. It will last me years! as there are hundreds of A4 sheets so that will keep me out of mischief for a while! I made the boxes from the cardstock that is in my previous postings, those boxes will contain birthday cards for my twin girl cousins who celebrate a 50th BD next month. I decided to make them gift bags with the idea of putting in bits and bobs, as in a little pamper bag for each of them.
Then I thought I would make a few thank you cards for them, and as I didn't have small enough envelopes I managed to make those as well. It's great the info you find on Youtube!

I made them both a necklace last year so I put those to one side and they will get them for their BD's. So far everything they are getting is made by me! hmmmmmmmmm
Then last night I sat and made tiny Easter cards for each of the little granddaughters. Today as hubby was at the golf course I decided to make some little notelets, I am pleased with the way they have turned out.

I got on better with someone elses husband!!!!!!

2011-04-02T12:30:00.000-07:00

At dancing that is..................................
We had a voucher to use from a Christmas present, now.......... I know Bill and I are not compatible when ballroom dancing, as we went for lessons when one of our daughters got married almost 15 years ago,lol

We had to use up the voucher, so up we went to Glasgow this afternoon.
We had a laugh if nothing else. The teacher got us to change partners a couple of times........ I got on great with one guy lol doing fancy turns etc :-)
Bill was ok he said until we had to dance to music! it put him off he said lol

Then a geocache was found in the sunshine after the lesson. So thats 124 geocaches found to date. When we got home our next door neighbour had kindly taken in flowers for me from our eldest daughter for Mothers Day tomorrow. Off to watch Boardwalk Empire on Sky in a little while, I don't usually watch this kind of programme......too violent in parts (I close my eyes) .......but good all the same, all about prohibtion.
Happy Mothers Day to all mums for tomorrow. x

huh why?

2011-03-29T13:19:00.000-07:00

I wonder why the wedding card did not show up in the previous post?

2xBD cards + 1 wedding card + 3 boxes

2011-03-29T13:17:00.000-07:00

Ok third time of trying this post! 2 BD cards for my twin cousins for May,as the flowers would crush in an envelope I decided to make boxes. I found the instructions months ago on the web, they were easy to follow and have turned out great. I decided to make a box for the wedding card.
I lined the base of the boxes to compliment the cards. The pink one is looking a bit orange in the photograph but it is really a lovely shade of deep pink. Until I can suss out how to transfer the copyright programme over from the other laptop to this one, I have had to use acetate for now.
I managed to find wired ribbon in town this morning, albeit organza I really was looking for polyester, to make roses, I had a try this afternoon with the organza and if I say so myself they have turned out not too bad, more like rosebuds than full blown roses as in my book. I want them for our anniversary cake, I will get more ribbon and make a few more and see what design I come up for the cake.
I used a christmas cake recipe so I will feed it every so often over the next 2/3 months with rum. Lets see if 3 photographs appear in this post as so far only 2 were on it the first couple of tries.

A trio of photographs

2011-03-26T10:41:00.000-07:00

My olive tree that I stand out under the car port through the day facing south then it comes in late afternoon. I got this as a BD present from my two daughters and their husbands and little girls. I have never had an olive tree so I am hoping I can continue to keep it. There are now lots of new pale green shoots/leaves appearing. Once all risk of frost is away hopefully it will sit out in the back garden until the winter. Then another photo is of the chicken pie I made from the Jamie Oliver book I got in my christmas stocking, it was lovely, the big flask you see behind the pie contains the Easiyo yogurt which was being made that day, I make it all the time.
The other photograph is of the fruit steeping in white rum so that later on, maybe Monday evening, to be made into a cake for our wedding anniversary in June. It has had some more rum added to it today. I bought a lovely baking book the other day, one of the cakes in it is one I would like to make for our Ruby. I am on the lookout for red wired ribbon, non in a material shop this morning, but will try another shop next week, I want to make flowers with it.

Fingers crossed.

On radio 2

2011-03-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

I have been sending in a 3 word text for a number of weeks now to radio 2 for my geocaching finds to the Simon Mayo show, (they ask you to send
in any 3 word texts) So tonight I decided to send in the text "found 118 geocachers" well my mobile rang about half an hour later! it was one of the telephone operators from the show asking me to be on the "talking" 3 word text. you could have knocked me down with a feather lol when he rang me back and before I was put on hold he asked me to be "exuberant" when I said the 3 word text.
Now this is Ann......me...... Mrs D......... I can do that lol as my family and friend will testify and I did!!!!!........whilst I was on hold I was texting my two daughters to get radio 2 on and NOW lol
I have had a 3 word text read out in November but this was a first for me to read it out on the show........... But the strange thing is I said to my husband after I sent in the text "I wonder if they will ring me"
good fun. Oh and I had to explain what Geocaching was lol

NZ/Japan

2011-03-12T04:38:00.000-08:00

We Brits moan about the British weather, we must be the only nation who can make a conversation about the weather.

But oh we are so so lucky when you look what has happened in Australia with the floods, New Zealand with an earth quake and now Japan, not to mention other countries.
I know we do have floods here, but oh those poor poor folk who have all been swept away in the tsunami.

We were in Hawaii a few years ago, our hotel looked out on to the ocean, one day we sat on our balcony watching the waves crashing in over the wall of the gardens as a storm sent the sea water over on to the main road as well, which they had had to close. Once home a few months later, the tsunami hit Sri Lanka, we have often referred back to us sitting on the balcony and the sea crashing over that wall ! We heard on the radio today that the latest tsunami hit Hawaii as well! god bless the victims.

Sambucco

2011-03-09T12:43:00.000-08:00

A glass of wine in a wine bar first.
Then along to a nice restaurant for a meal of spiced pepper soup, cajun chicken, more wine ( a bottle between 2 hic)then a liquour of a sambucco, more hic, oh yum and double yum..................... taxi home, on the Maltesers now. And beautiful gifts and cards. Well your birthday only comes around once a year!!!
Where did the last year go?? why do I feel tired? hmmmmmmmmm

The simmering pot

2011-03-04T09:15:00.000-08:00

These are my efforts from yesterday. A wholemeal loaf with poppy seeds from the bread machine. Pancakes as I had eggs to use up, a fruit crumble with apples, brambles and a couple of yellow plumbs that were taking forever to soften (why do we think it's a good idea to buy them out of season!) so they were stoned and popped in with the rest of the fruit, this is the crumble minus the crumble at that point.
And the pot simmering away on the hob........................hmmmmmmmm......

................. lol it contains my oven gloves which I decided to boil in a pan to sterilise them......should I served them with chips or potatoes?

This is new to me

2011-02-28T11:00:00.000-08:00

We went into out normal coffee shop this morning and often meet the same folk, well today was no exeption, but we did learn of this brilliant idea from a man.
Now maybe you have already heard of it or may even take part in it. I have registered tonight. It is called BookCrossing.com The idea is you register a book with them, you put a label in with the code they give you online, then you leave the book on seat outside in a town or at an airport/train/bus station or in a coffee shop, anywhere where it would be picked up. Someone would (hopefully) pick it up and read it they can go online at the www address on the label to say they have the book, they in turn when finished with it can leave it somewhere. I hope I have explained this clearly. Anyway I am going to have a go, you can then follow your books journey online. It is something like Travel Bugs in geocaching, if you see one in a cache you can if you wish take it and move it to another cache, you also put online that you have it or have placed it elswhere. I am a sucker for this type of thing lol

out all afternoon

2011-02-19T12:32:00.000-08:00

We went along to a local area where it is mile upon mile of walks around the river Ayr in a beautiful estate. Once a very large house, but now it is used as offices I believe. Anyway off we went on our meander, we were geocaching! now there's a surprise, I drag poor hubby off to do this every afternoon at a weekend, but it is fun, we get fresh air and this evening my face is tingling with all of the excerise, and I am hungry lol all this fresh air........ we have had dinner ......but thank goodness there is NO chocolate in the house !! but we are on the wine !!
We met umpteen folk with their dogs, oh how I wish we still had our BC, we met a lady with 6 yes 6 ! I had to go across and talk to her as one looked so like Hana, only younger, we stood talking about BC's for a while they were all lovely dogs although all males. We are thinking of maybe getting a rescue BC hopefully a female, but first we hope to have our holiday and then maybe think seriously of another dog. At least it wouldn't look so bad if we had a dog with us and us nipping in and out of bushes and trees!
We found one cache, then the next was a first for us, we had to find the clue which in turn had a co-ordinate on it which took us to the next, which again had the co-ords on it to take us to the 3rd part, but as it was by now almost 3.45 we thought they may shut the gates and we wouldn't be able to get the car out lol so hopefully we will return tomorrow to (fingers crosses) to find the final part of the puzzle.
It is fun to get home and log the finds on the site and then see someone else has found it before/after you on the same day, we have yet to run in to someone else geocaching when we are out. Then as we drove home I knew of one that was in a layby so I didn't even need my GPS switched on as I had the clue,got that but goodness knows what the cars wizzing past must have thought i was up to. well at least i am getting out lol

Ok you might not see them in your bakers!

2011-02-18T07:15:00.000-08:00

I had made a wholemeal loaf this morning in the bread machine, we woke up to the lovely aroma of fresh baking bread, then when I came back from town this morning I put the machine back on to have another try at baking rolls, the machine does all the hard work and the first proving, then it is down to me!! ok they didn't rise like they should have for their second time (I miss my old airing cupboard for this)the rolls were upstairs with the heater on it was really warm up there but still they didn't do what they were supposed to do, afterwards I baked them having first glazed them and sprinkled poppy seeds on the top, they sound hollow underneat so thats good and look ok smell nice........wonder what they will taste like!

Update......... The top left one tasted lovely ! phewwww

WOYWW

2011-02-16T13:00:00.000-08:00

This is my desk tonight, well one of them, now that the lap top is down stairs the computer desk in my craft area is now also used for crafting!
2 birthday cards for female twin cousins who celebrate their 50th BD in May,one of the cards was supposed to be an easel card but I turned it around and changed my mind!
In Glasgow today and managed another finds of 3 caches, I am soooooo into geocaching, keeping me fit (hopefully) we were up and down very steep streets in the city. Here in Ayr we climb up and down embankments, climb over fallen trees, styles fences so lots of walking and exercise.

Baking afternoon

2011-02-11T07:12:00.000-08:00

A bakers dozen of shortbread biscuits
A small apple and bramble crumble
And 2 batches of dropped scones (pancakes)

Tea/coffee anyone? :-)

Culture !

2011-02-09T12:27:00.000-08:00

oh these bus passes are great. We were up to Glasgow for free, on the bus from Ayr, Bill is semi retired so we are making the most of our free passes on the buses. Today we went went up and had a good look around Kelvingrove Gallery, you could spend the day there as there is so much to see. So a day of culture, last week it was another gallery, plus another find of a cache ;-) I took my GPS up with me today as I thought I/we could try for a cache or two in the city, we managed one which was an easy one but still it is another to add to my finds, 76 now ooooooooh hooooo. I am the one who is so interested in this sport, hubby just keeps the peace and tags along, he comes in handy when I cannot reach a cache. Now I know there is one in the grounds of the supermarket we go to sometimes,so maybe just maybe tomorrow when we go food shopping we might find this one.
As we got off of the bus outside the gallery we noticed lots of police officers on motor bikes, then they stopped the traffic, so of course we had to wait and see who it was, hmmmmm the limo went by with outriders of police on motor bikes plus other cars and we haven't a clue who was in the limo, we peered in as they went by, but we are still non the wiser.........
The bottom photograph is of Rennie Mackintosh's work. I really like his design,such a shame he only become famous after his death. Oh and did you know it was a Scot from Paisley, Scotland who invented the "chip and pin" that we all use today, no we didn't either until today.

Green Bay Packers

2011-02-06T09:10:00.000-08:00

As Green Bay Packers are playing today I thought I would put this on my blog. Hubby bought this years ago in MN USA. At least no one else in Ayr will have one. And I can spot him a mile off!

extreme sport !

2011-02-05T11:10:00.000-08:00

The rain came on this afternoon, now there's a surprise! but off we went geocaching, back to Auchincrieve again,there are a good number of caches there and a lovely place to walk,we have lived in Ayr for over 6 years now and 25 years down the road in Troon, but we have never been here before, this sport (yes it is classified as sport) is taking us out and about to places we haven't seen before.
Hiking boots on with old trousers, hood up on the old jacket and walking up country lanes through mud and puddles. Actually had to climb over a farm gate in the middle of the foot path (it was a right of way) to get to our destination.
Ahhhhhhh spotted the place mentioned, but how to get to the woods on the other side of the jaggy hedge? hubby ventures off to find a gate.........but me the impatient one, decides to just clamber through a gap and down into a ditch! hanging onto a tree I made it up the other side. How glamorous this is! (see photo!!!!!!!) but good excercise.
What is under that stone? yes, its the cache. Whistling to OH that i had found it , he was still making his way the long way round (wimp).
Now I wonder what the two girls riding by on their horses must have thought seeing us on the edge of the woods, I am still waiting for someone to put their hand on my shoulder at some point in my geocaching and say "Madam WHAT are you doing"? only to look up and see the long hand of the law hmmmmmm "Well officer" !!!!! So we got that one, off to another which we couldn't find, then on to one along by the river, yesssssss got it. Some clever containers out there in geocaching land. Someone had really thought this one out.

I collected a Travel Bug from the first cache so that is home with us, the owner wants to see photographs of places it has gone, it seems to have originated in USA in 2008. I plan on taking it to town tomorrow morning with us for our morning coffee and take a photograph to put up on the geocaching site, then place it in another cache somewhere .......... ;-)

Hmmmmmmm

2011-02-04T13:37:00.000-08:00

Not a lot going on in the past couple of days..................the weather!!! ugh gales, rain, gales, rain. No geocaching either because of the weather, so it had to be housework hmmmmmmmm, well that made a change !
But I have a few co-ords lined up in my GPS for tomorrow (fingers crossed)
I did try one in town the other day in a small park that we have driven by a number of times and didn't know it was even there, what a lovely little park,with a beautiful walled garden to one side, so quiet and lovely.
The tree coverage were making the co-ords jump all about so I think I nearly managed to inspect every tree with no luck. hubby isn't in to geocaching like me but does come out with me, when i said i was going to try the park one his reply was "Oh are you not going to wait for me" he was working that day (semi retired)so maybe he IS a secret geocacher after all.
In the park I met a lot of lovely dogs having their walks, we still miss our Hana so much, she would have loved all this hunting for "treasure", i only started this after she went to doggie heaven, it gets me out and we find places we never knew about. Maybe one day we will get another dog i have started looking, but we will have a holiday first, then maybe think about it.

Yesterday and today

2011-01-23T12:58:00.000-08:00

A quick scoot to Troon to pick up a pre ordered birthday cake for our youngest granddaughter's birthday party in Glasgow, got the co-ords for a quick cache in the town, lots of fog about so that hid us from folk passing by as to what we were up to! once that was done it was on to Glasgow through the fog with a stop at Silverburn for a coffee (we were too early for the party venue)
Met up with our older daughter and SIL and two little granddaughters from England who came up especially for the party, so it was lovely to see them all as we hadn't seen them since beginning of December.
Today we got 3 geocaches which took us to places we had never been before. So this is the monument to William Wallace at Auchincruive, we didn't even know this monuement was here, we are learning about our surrounding countryside and its rich history, as we go about geocaching.
Tomorrow a trip up to Glasgow, hmmmmmmmm did I sneak a few co-ords into my GPS for up there?......you bet I did.

Exciting

2011-01-19T12:58:00.000-08:00

We have booked a holiday yehhhhhh. Spent enough on the house for now!
As it is our ruby anniversary this year!!!!!! how can that have happened so fast!!!!!!??????? hubby wants to check the marriage certifcate for a get out clause! cheek
we have booked 3 nights in Vancouver, then a 7 night cruise to Alaska, back to Vancouver for 2 nights then the train through the Rockies with an overnight stay at an hotel in Kamloop then on to Calgary with an overnight stay before home to Scotland. oooooooooooooooh
The diet starts NOW!!!

49 and counting

2011-01-14T04:44:00.000-08:00

I am up at 49 finds so far as from yesterday afternoon. For the 50th one I hope to go to one that I need to look for in the dark, I know where it is and it has caused much hilarity among Geocachers when I have read their log ins on the site. There is no way I would attempt this one on my own in broad daylight...........someone else with me ! then yes I would. So as there is no parking nearby hubby will need to drop me off (there is no way he would stay he does have his street cred to think of!) then pick me up, hopefully once I have signed the log.
These two photographs show you the type of containers I/other geocachers look for, the black one is tiny and magnetic it is still in its packaging at the moment, the stainless steel one can be clipped onto a dog's collar and flashes or it could just be used for a tiny cache. Now let me explain here that I don't need to go searching the local dogs for the collar one!! this is actually an LED tag for a dog collar and flashes in the dark, if not used as a collar tag then it can be used as a cache container. Inside the black one is a tiny tiny rolled up log to be signed, the other one could have the battery taken out and a rolled up log paper inserted. The coin in the photographs is a one pence coin to let you see the size of the caches.
When I looked for my first few caches I was told to look for large ones to start off with.......... errrrr easier said than done! as Ayr seems to have an abundance of tiny caches so my first few, in fact most of my finds have been this size. It does make a nice change to find a box though as they usually contain little "treasures" nothing of value, so if we take something out then we put something in. If there is a TB (travel bug) which is like the USA dog tags in a cache then you can take it and move it on to the next cache, I brought one up from England that wanted to travel around Scotland only so I placed it in a cache in Ayr. I am hoping to hid my first geocach soon, just waiting for it to be reviewed and hopefully allowed. Keep your fingers crossed for me lol

UPDATE TONIGHT LOL My very first hidden cache was accepted tonight yehhhhh. As soon as the email came through I dashed outside to put it in its place. Its in our back garden but geocachers do not come in to get it it is accessible from outside the wall. I saw a car outside tonight and jokingly said "Wonder if that is a geocacher" lol and it WAS! I went through to our bedroom and could see the torches in the field behind us, so thats the first folk to sign the log book in the container. Need think of other places to hid the above containers.

5 today

2011-01-09T10:16:00.000-08:00

On a roll this weekend with geocaching, found one in Ayr after our morning coffee in town, a lovely sunny hunt along by the river Ayr, now the morning container was very very tiny, much smaller than the one yesterday

. Goodness knows what folk must think when they see us or other Geocachers doing the same. Then after lunch we went to Troon and managed to find 4, one of them I had already tried myself twice before with no luck, but I take OH with me and we find it. Lots and lots of muggles (folk) out and about on the beach so I had to hunt without looking too suspicious whilst Bill took photographs of the sea. It must look bad lol with us darting in and out of bushes looking for the cache as the next ones were in the woods, but we found those as well. So that was 6 found over the weekend. This photograph was taken after the last find of the day my 46th, I knelt down so that there aren't any clues as to where it was taken as I have posted this one on the Geo site and don't want to spoil the fun for other geocachers by giving away visual clues.

41st Geocaching find.

2011-01-08T07:59:00.000-08:00

Well we have snow, it started last night and was still going strong at 1am this morning. I thought I would be able to go out and about this weekend hunting for more caches. But we decided this afternoon to wrap up and take a walk and see if I could find this one, we walked across the golf course as no chance of golfers being out due to the snow. So the snow made it nice and quiet for us to look, only took us a few minutes and I have to admit Bill found this one, I did look there but not close enough. This is the type of thing I look for (I do need to get out more!!) the container is in my left hand and my GPS in the other, there is a tiny rolled up log book in the shiny container which I signed and dated, then I log it on the site when I get home to prove I found it. This IS a small container and there are a lot of the little blighters in the town and surrounding area. The containers can be this small and believe it or not we have found smaller ones, the largest we have found was a box approximatley 18"x18" and we had to go back twice before we found that one ! At the moment there are 1,268,483 in the world.........so I have a good few to find yet! We got home before the sleet/snow started, the river Ayr is minus it's coat of ice,although the ice

slabs are still along the edge of the river. The snow is back on I see, bit fat flakes! and I am wanting to go to the next town tomorrow for more geo hunts. Oh and can I just add? the can of lager you see in the hedge was already there! I thought at least hubby would have made sure that wasn't in the photograph!

running free

2011-01-03T07:22:00.000-08:00

From the road going over the bridge the river is running free but the ice is piled up on the riverbank. Now how did that happen? to look at it you would think someone had gone along the river in a boat with a scoop and piled it up on the bank. At least the traffic should now run free on the road and no rubber neckers slowing down to a standstill and causing the traffic behind them to slow down and cause a traffic backlog. The police have an area at the side of the road cordoned off as folk were using it to park in, then risk their lives crossing the road to look at the river! this is a very busy road the main road to Glasgow.
Just back from a very blustery walk along Prestwick prom as I had a geocaching cache to find, got it, along with another one 10 minutes earlier at another part in Prestwick. It was great to get back to the shelter of the car, so so cold and the sea very choppy.

At the weir

2011-01-02T09:16:00.000-08:00

In town this morning for our morning coffee and as we park near the river in the car park we thought we would have a look and see what the river is doing in that spot........ well other than tumbling over the weir on its way down to the sea.......nothing, no ice in that area at all, which is so different to upstream.
The ice formation is a mile or so up stream towards where we live. We keep looking to see how far the ice has travelled, we didn;t go along the river walk today but yesterday it was moving downstream ever so slightly. We can just imagine what will happen if and when the ice hits the weir! the damage it could do if it picks up speed down to the sea,I just hope small boats are well out of the way. We are to have below freezing tempertures tonight but not too far below. Hopefully the ice is moving slowly in parts and we don't have a sudden rush of ice slabs downstream!

Hogmanay walk

2010-12-31T07:56:00.000-08:00

Another walk along by the river, lots of folk about looking at the it, it is sloooooooooooooowly thawing and moving downstream to the sea. Along at the bridge it is stacked even higher,and would you believe parents were allowing their children to climb the barrier beneath the bridge to allow them to sit on large portions of the ice! how stupid, all it would take is another ice slab to hit the one they were on and!! well..........
Although the ice looked heavy and stacked up and not moving in that area, it is still moving underneath. That is the main A77 road going over the bridge in the photographs, no wonder they are keeping an eye on the structure. PS that is a garden gnome from the garden who just happened to join me in my walk!!! that hat !!

Boxing Day

2010-12-27T08:01:00.000-08:00

We went a walk along the side of the river Ayr yesterday, the river is still frozen, although in parts it has thawed. This was one of the photographs taken yesterday, I had my small digital camera with me rather than my SLR,but I managed to zoom in to the stacked up ice on the other side of the river. We crossed the bridge this morning by car and looking down to the river it has thawed very very slightly, apparently the structual engineers are keeping an eye on the bridge because of the backup of ice at the base. This is the main road so if they closed this road/bridge the traffic in the town would be awful. Hopefully the ice will melt slowly, I would hate to think of these huge (and they are huge) sliding down the river to the sea. Where all this ice has formed is at a bend in the river,absolutely unbelievable as further downstream although frozen over in parts it is nowhere near like it is upstream.
Last night a huge helicopter with all its lights on was hovering over the river, we could see and hear it from our house, I went in to the back garden to watch this huge piece of machinery in the sky, we were wondering if it was searching the river as it flew about in that area for a while.

At last!

2010-12-21T11:43:00.000-08:00

Well that got my little old brain going,thanks Sandra I seem to have the replies showing now :-) funny how a sip of wine and i did it!!
So shall I just sit here with a straw and grab the bottle from hubby and solve any other problems I may find with my blog?

ok what have I done wrong

2010-12-21T03:12:00.000-08:00

i decided to change my blog a little bit last night,I got so much of it done but now I cannot see any postings that folk have left when they have visited my blog, can anyone help me please to rectify it.
Thank you for any help.....................oh but how will I see your reply I have just realised hmmmmmmmm?
Ok! when I just checked this posting on my blog I can see where any replies will go but as for the other postings further down! I cannot see them.hellllllllllllp
and my list of blogs I follow is missing but there if I hover over it........grrrr
back again I think I have made the text colour too light wonder if that is it although i didn;t change the colour I left it as it was previously, cannot see where to change the font colour........gordon bennett dipstick sat here! apologies to any Gordon Bennets out there lol

Saturday 18 December

2010-12-18T09:38:00.000-08:00

Well the family are not coming up from Leicestershire this weekend after all due to the weather. We did see then a couple of weeks ago though when we were down, they were coming up for a few days before christmas but would have gone home for Christmas. I took these photographs this afternoon when we went out in the snow for a walk along by the river, it is even more stunning to look at this weekend! the local secondary school is set up high overlooking the river. Folk were out with their sledges riding down the steep slope at the back of the school, well away from the river I add ! We have had snow overnight and large flakes this afternoon, I thought we might have missed it in this part of GB !

Underfloor heating

2010-12-17T11:27:00.000-08:00

As we had it put in the new shower room, it has spoilt us :-) so we got the men back to put it into the guest bedroom ensuite, so if you stay for B&B with us in the winter you should have warm tooties :-) They have just the grouting on the new floor tiles to do, then put the sanitary ware back in and the electrician to connect the switch. So hopefully by Tuesday it should be all done, we never expected to have that done! but we decided to spoil ourselves.

Finally iced the Christmas cake!

2010-12-16T07:36:00.000-08:00

This year instead of using roll out fondant I decided to make royal icing for the first time in years. I used dried egg whites this time and must say I am impressed with the dried whites. I just needed to whisk it in more but this was the first time of using it, but it looks ok and tastes once in the icing sugar just the same as a fresh egg, I cheated and did a semi rough icing and stuck on little polar bears/christmas trees/penguins I had bought. So thats 2010 christmas cake :-)

and another

2010-12-12T10:23:00.001-08:00

This one was at the side of the river.

Ice with your drinks then !

2010-12-12T10:09:00.000-08:00

After the higher temperatures on Friday through the day which thawed our small amount of snow the temperatures plumeted that night and these photographs are the result. The river at the town end and upstream passed the stepping stones is flowing,but the area inbetween is what what it looks like in these photographs for about a mile is frozen into broken pieces of ice in fact they are slabs some up to 6 inches thick and the size of paving slabs,. Everyone was out today walking along by the river to take in the amazing sight, I have never seen the river like this, truly amazing to look at. I hope my photographs give you an idea of what it looks like, I took a load when we went out for a walk after lunch today,

yehhhhhhh 6

2010-12-03T08:06:00.000-08:00

We are in Leicestershire visiting our older daugher, SIL and little granddaughters. Karyn and I went out this morning then after lunch geocaching,. She took me to ones she had already found but I found them for myself so that fair pushes up my numbers, so we found 6 today,
A bit of snow about here, but not as bad as some places. We stayed at Gretna Green on Wednesday night when it snowed heavy then stopped after half an hour, white there as well.
We did a virtual geocache then had to give up on another one due to snow lying about.
Baby sitting tonight whilst daughter and SIL go to a Sister sisters concert.

Done

2010-11-23T10:54:00.000-08:00

Ok the guys left this afternoon, oh It is good to have the heating on and the back door closed!
They will be back as we are still waiting on the towel rail and the cupboard for under the wash hand basin, this cupboard sits up off of the floor so will be easy to clean under, the underfloor heating has been on........hmmmmm toasty
I will paint later on but at the moment full of the cold so no way do I feel up to painting, there is only a small part to be painted, altogether it took them 15 week days. We are very pleased with it.

Hope they uplift this soon!

2010-11-20T06:20:00.000-08:00

We were hoping the skip would be uplifted today but so far it is still outside the house. I will be glad to see this gone as it worries me being there. The bath went on top of the skip yesterday so all ready to be gone!
Hopefully they will have the shower room finished on Monday. Still waiting on the cupboard under the wash hand basin arriving, but it is all useable but we have just closed the door over the room until it is finished proper!. The wet area screen has still to go in and the towel heater rail on. Even though there is underfloor heating we still needed somewhere to put the towels didn't fancy leaving them on the floor to dry !
All still to be cleaned down once the grouting is dry.
the plumber said to me lol if I like it now wait until it is all cleaned.

Christmas cake

2010-11-14T11:41:00.000-08:00

It is a couple of years or so since I have made a Christmas cake. I decided this year to make one albeit a smaller one to I normally make.

I have just looked at it after it has been maturing for a few weeks. I don't normally leave the fruit to soak in the "booze" for as long as I did this year, but hey we can get drunk on a slice in the festive season !
This is it, I wrapped it in parchment paper then tin foil, you can see bits of the moist cake that has marked parts of the paper.

It smells lovely AND I resisted the temptation to add more liquor to it, I feel it is moist enough.

Just wondering........

2010-11-12T04:56:00.000-08:00

I am thinking.........will I need to get the duster out after it is finished!!! ???

Ok they have made a start!

2010-11-03T10:04:00.000-07:00

Ripping off the old tiles. It will look nice, it will look nice, it will look nice..........really it will!!

Here we go!

2010-11-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

The bathroom guys arrive tomorrow to revamp our main bathroom. I have been taking photographs tonight so have the "before" on the laptop and hopefully within a month we should have a new sparkly shiny "posh" bathroom. Doing away with the bath, we never used it anyway except for the over the bath shower. So a wet area is going in that spot. We have tried to seal off our bedroom which is at the back of the house and a half step to the bathroom, with sheets of polythene, so that is tacked in place. We have moved in to the room that we use for the B&B which has an en suite, ooooooh a larger room which is nice.
So, no dusting or hoovering for a while, but I am sure it will be worth it in the end.
Watch this space! ..........................ooooh oooooh forgot to say.....under floor heating.

Purple Potatoes

2010-10-24T13:37:00.000-07:00

We bought them on Friday and had them today with our dinner, funny to look at on the plate but taste just the same as normal ones. Supposed to be good antioxidants.
Yes, would buy them again.
Oh and found 3 caches today, so that is 7 over the weekend, so that puts me into double figures. So funny this afternoon, the two of us crawling under a large fallen tree looking for the cache. This morning the trail took us along a beautiful walk along the river Doon where we had never been before. We watched canoeists on the way back along the river bank, then stood on the bridge watching a lovely Border Collie round up the sheep in a field.

6 caches so far

2010-10-21T13:04:00.000-07:00

We took a quick run to a place nearby this morning as I wanted to try a new cache that someone had hidden just recently, I went myself yesterday but no luck, I tried not to look too suspicious as the Asda buses and cars went by but no pedestrians except for one man picking up litter and another man who walked by. thank goodness i had some hedges to shield me from the car park!! what folk must have thought i was up to if they could see me, mind you i did look up to see a man sitting in his car facing where I was, oooooooooops so I just stood and looked at my gps for a while until they drove away. Do you think i am on every CCTV camera in the town ?
Anyway the run back there this morning was fruitful and at the last moment I noticed what I was searching for, to think I ran my hand along there yesterday but obviously not far enough along.
Anyway that is 6 so far, it is such good fun even though you do get funny looks at times. We were searching bushes in a local park last weekend and a lady passing by with her husband and dogs asked what we were doing but she was winding us up as she had heard of the sport, we had a laugh standing talking.

Re: post below

2010-10-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

Someone has just called in to give us a car for tomorrow so we can hopefully collect ours. We only met this man and his wife through going in to Cafe Nero each Saturday and Sunday for our coffee, he has restored our faith in human kindness. so kind of him.
Needless to say we have put his car way way down the bottom of our driveway just now!!

I just want to say a big thank you

2010-10-17T06:32:00.000-07:00

to the "swine" and that is a polite word for me to use on here.
A neighbour came across first thing this morning to tell us that our rear window to our new car had been broken. We don't know what they used as no brick or stone in the car, so must have been a long pole/stick, the car was in the driveway and behind closed gates, they must have reached over with whatever they used,the alarm went off last night and Bill went out to see and switch it off, we didn't look at the back of the car!
So a great big thank you to whoever it was, someone cannot see other folk with nice things they have worked for, I am sure this person's day will come! I know it is only a window but it is the inconvenience as we have no car now as it is in a town a few miles away to be fixed tomorrow, so well done whoever you are!!!!!! you must be very very proud of yourself. (Rant over for now)

yessssssss

2010-10-16T13:53:00.000-07:00

Found my first cache proper this afternoon.
Just about to go home when i said to hubby lets look once more, i put my hand behind the low wall where we were so sure it was and BINGO it was there......................so I was able to log in my find. Also found another before that one but I did get a big hint from someone who had found it so had a good idea where to look, although me being me I thought he meant the other end of the field, hubby and I lurking about in bushes etc lol thank goodness no one about! couldn't find what we were looking for, then decided to look in the one at the other end and there it was................................you would have thought i had found a kings ransom lol

Lovely smell in the house

2010-10-13T11:43:00.001-07:00

The christmas cake is baking just now.
The sprouts will go on a low simmer any day!

How many out of 3 caches did I find?

2010-10-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

A BIG fat ZERO !!

As we were having two new radiators installed today, hubby stayed in and i went out with my new toy. I searched and searched with no luck, (but found 2 new golf balls) thank goodness folk couldn't see where I was! right down at the rivers edge, but I didn't find the cache.
I went back home after missing 5 ! calls from hubby on my phone, I think he thought I had fallen into the river!
The men had finshed so I made them rolls and sausage for their lunch before they left. We tidied up a bit then decided to go in to Ayr to see if I could find another cache this time with the help of hubby, well there were 2 that we know of in town and guess what? we didn't find them either, we had decided to go along to M&S for their "Dine in for 2 for £10" huh they didn't have any? didn't see the signs in store or the remains of any so maybe they didn't do that this week, so we decided on fish suppers for tonight, saves cooking and we were able to get the house back to normal.
Tomorrow is coffee time in Ayr (we didn't make this mornings) so plan on trying to find one cache at least tomorrow (one of which we tried today to find), so that I can say I found one lol

It's arrived yehhhhhh

2010-10-08T12:05:00.000-07:00

I haven;t a clue how a GPS works but I will learn.........oh so i tell myself!
Between help from a Geocaching website where kind folk have help and my hubby, it seems to be ready for the off.

But I need to wait until tomorrow hopefully i will get out. Having 2 new radiators fitted tomorrow so a good excuse for me to go out, i always seem to be in when things are done in the house as hubby at work, so he can stay in and i will go out.
He is now semi retired as from Monday past. How did this part of our lives arrive so fast????

I will keep you informed as to how I get on finding caches.