nethybridge - part1

i've said part one cos im sure ill want to upload some photos when i get home. we're having a great time up here. so far ive seen lots of red squirrels, a baby deer, a bat, osprey and her chicks, a woodpecker, lots of other birds that i dont know.
Cara has finally tired herself out after days of running constantly.
we climbed a hill yesterday - Tom Thumper. its less than 600m but it was a mountain to me. i just loved being in the wild with no-one around and views of mountains. We've been for some great forrest walks round nethy which have been good fun apart from the midgeys - i hope the bites clear away before Hazels wedding! i have counted 16 on my face alone. Havent counted the ones on my bottom... stupid hipsters!
Hoping to go up to Muir of ord and beyond tomorrow to visit my aunt cathie and uncle willie and also to see Giles my old flatmate who has relocated to the same village!
Anyway I best get back to ... well doing nothing really :-)

hazel's hen party

oh yeah - forgot to post about hazels hen party last monday. I am not allowed to post any photos :-( but it was a good day and i have pretty nails to prove it.

crossover to nethybridge

just been at crossover festival - will blog some more on it when i get my photos off the camera.
if you know anyone in nethybridge or the surrounding distict you may wish to warn them... cos we're on our way! their peaceful country life is about to be disturbed. I'm in the middle of packing the speakers for the ipod and jamie's packed his guitar so it wont be a quiet fortnight. I'm really excited - its so good to be in such a beautiful place with so little to do except walk and enjoy :-) I'm looking forward to taking some pics too. Unfortunately i probably wont be able to blog much as we wont have broadband and it takes ages to upload on dialup. I'm sure you will cope in the meantime!
it has been really sunny here for the past few weeks and Im hoping it will last for the next fortnight!! we are taking the tent with us so if tis good weather we may even do some camping.

Liston and Anna playin with ice-cream spoons - yeah it was hot enough to eat ice-cream!

down at the bottom of the garden...

we have a monstrosity of a garden. every year we decide to cut back the nettles and stickywilly (seriously that has to have a more technical name!). Last year when it came time to harvest the weeds low and behold there was a brand new lawnmower - like a sarcastic gift from the ned-gods. It soon became apparent that we would have to let the police know and so, after explaining the impracticalities of me pushing the lawnmower to the nearest police station or storing it in our first floor flat, they came to pick it up. Not long after a young gentlemen passing by came to the fence and questioned "hey u.. what u done wi' my lawnmower" - after several minutes of claiming he was storing it there for his mum (?!) we told him he could get it back off the police. Refusing to call the police and tell them we'd made a mistake or to give him the £50 he demanded, he uttered the classic line "choried (scots for stolen) or no its mine". err actually son stealing means taking something that isnt yours!! you just gotta love neds :-)
anyway as we hacked our way through the weeds like trepid explorers we had little idea what we were about to discover in the very same place...


who would have thought it - harry the hamster died - and was burried in our garden. Gather yourselves together people... it was his time. "But who is harry the hamster?" i hear you ask... and a very good question too. i have no idea! but whoever's pet he was they saw fit to burry him in a pile of nettles so they mustnt have liked him very much. the flowers they had laid hadnt withered so it must have been in the past week. How bizarre... and very minging! RIP... not likely with Cara about.

Mad Cows

this is "globetrotter" near my work - as taken on my mobile phone

Edinburgh is taking part in this bringing art to the streets project. Practically everywhere you look there is a cow staring back at you. Its called the cow parade and the idea is that over 100 cows are designed and painted by locals, visitors etc and then sold for charity. Splendid.... or mad?? Jamie thinks it stupid but i have a kind of excitment when i see a new one i hadnt noticed before. Theyre definately good for the tourists. I'm just impressed that only one has been knicked so far! (found again missing a leg :-( what were they doing ?). So what do you think ...art ???