Highlandhearts

It was back to work for me this week and after having two weeks off it was hard on my back which has ached a lot.  I come home and rest in my favourite armchair which usually helps but I have found that even laying in bed at night I cannot get comfortable and wake up stiff as a board.  It takes me a while to bend in the morning but it probably doesn't help that I have put on a bit of weight over the hols so I have resolved to start dieting again on Monday.  I've said it now so will have to do it! I started my intermediate sewing classes this week and decided to try a shift top pattern that came free on a magazine.  I sent for the retro fabric from Ebay and luckily it arrived in time.  Although it was a nice evening by the time the class started at 7.30pm i felt tired and could easily not have bothered going out.  I have never tried to make clothing before or cut out a pattern and it took me the entire two hours to do it.  Thankfully it is a very easy pattern, suitable for

I had to have a good clean up after having a house full of people and i have to admit that apart from washing everyday the place only got hoovered once!  If you live in the country everything seems to get a lot more dirty and dusty i find and i filled the hoover cleaning the carpets today.  I decided it was a good time for a bit of a change around so i moved the furniture, swapping pieces from other rooms, changing throws and bits and pieces. My little heart rag rug is back in front of the fire, coal bucket, wood basket and paper bin are full ready to light a fire.  The weather has turned noticably colder in the evenings and early mornings and the t.v. was correct about snow falling on the high ground as a friend posted a pic of the Caingorms snow on the 19th August! This morning you can see we have sunshine outside, hurray!  One lot of washing already on the line and another of sheets and duvet covers on the go. My blankets are kept in the ottoman below the window and

The family have all gone now, it is horribly quiet here and i miss them so much.  I have been looking at some of the photos we have taken of our trips out.  I love this one of an alpaca at the petting farm, adults and children enjoyed feeding the animals! Lazy donkey! Terri X

The weather hasn't been great, i don't think we have had one day without it raining on and off. There is definately a nip in the air and the forcast has said snow Is expected on the high ground!  Really!  I am not ready for the change, its August!   The family are still here on their holidays and we have been making the most of our precious time all together.  We go out prepared for rain, in our waterproofs and boots and these pics show a trip to the village of Portmahomach. I took my footwear off as i was determined to have a paddle in the sea. The two youngest Grandsons loved being on the beach too. We headed off to walk to the lighthouse. It felt quite warm actually although the clouds were darkening.  We tried to walk the cliff path but it was hard work with a buggy on the stones. I got this far pushing it and watched as Son and Grandson went further on.  I was very content just to gaze around at the view and try to spy if there were any dolphins

The fields surrounding us are usually full of sheep but the lambs were separated from their mums earlier in the week.  They baaa'd at each other constantly day and night for about 48 hours before being taken off to the sheep sales which were held yesterday.  Now it is nice and quiet. Wouldn't it be nice if sheep were as colourful as these ones on my drink mat. There are 8 of us in the house at the moment, 4 adults and 4 children.  In a couple of days there will be another 2 adults so I will be catering for 10.  I have had to sit down and menu plan our meals  Breakfasts consist of cereals and toast and lunches are home made soups or a sandwich. I am doing a choice of two main meals each day and have tried to find meals that will please everyone in some way whilst catering for the finicky ones, the dieting ones, the non meat eaters and the meat eaters!  As you can imagine it took me a while and of course I am home making food to be as frugal as possible.   Today's dinner is a

I have had a couple of really exhausting days as on Friday my son and I drove 600 miles to pick up my daughter and Grandkids.  We set off at 3 o'clock in the morning as we wanted to get there before the commuter rush to finish work but the drive from Scots Corner on the A1 southwards was horrendous anyway with the sheer volume of traffic, roadworks and then the torrential downpours.  It took us 11 and a half hours to get there and we had a few problems with the car on the last hour of the journey. The first thing I did when we arrived at my daughters house was ring a garage and they took pity on me and agreed to look the car over first thing the next morning.  I got up at 6am Saturday morning as I had to get the car at the garage for 8am then walk back and wait for a phone call to hopefully pick it up again before they closed as they were only open half day.  I was worrying about how much it could cost too but to cut a long story short I ended up with two new rear tyres and a list

Hello! I'm back, not completely recovered but nearly there and I'd like to thank you guy's out there who sent me good wishes :-) We went out on our usual trip to do food shopping and we have passed by a car park sign on the main road hundreds of times but never stopped as its about 10 miles away from where we need to go.   There's the main road above.  As the parking area was below we never realised how lovely the views would be beneath. It was really warm in the sunshine and it was a spur of the moment thing to pull over this time The sign showed it was part of a nature reserve But also there was another little bridge leading to an old house We walked up to it but did not linger as it was clearly lived in but a plaque on the wall called it the sluice house.  It was a lovely secluded position to live in. Plenty of space to park up for a picnic. We will stop there with a flask another time. Terri X