SUMMER TRADEMARKS

July has been a wonderful month!  The fine weather continues with occasional rain showers to keep gardeners and farmers happy.

Grandma's Trademark: Margaret River (Australian) wine in the garden. I bought a case from Marks and Spencer last Christmas and would do it again if and when we drink this lot.  I haven't been using up the wine supply this summer as friends and family are not drinking for one reason or another (i.e. health usually).  That's OK... it'll keep.

Talk about drinking ... here is Iain feeding Baby Harriet a few week's ago.  She is absolutely no bother.  I suppose being the 3rd they make sure they yell when they are hungry.  I hear Baby George, third in line to the throne, and born 6 weeks after Harriet, "cries a lot".  Sounds like things are pretty normal!

Grandpa's Trademark: Is it the sailor home from the sea or the hunter home from the hill?  No Iain is back at the end of 2 weeks' lecturing to French students at Strathclyde.

Big sister Ishie is covering Alastair with the grass clippings from the park behind our house.  Great stuff ... hours of play!

Kids' Trademark: in the garden on the step where you have to leap over the fence to the park.

FIRST FAMILY PEAS

In the spring Ishie brought me a seed packet of peas.  I started them in a tray on the window ledge and then moved them outside to get bigger.  They sprouted extremely easily ... which is more than I can say for some other seeds I purchased.

We planted them out in April or early May.  There were dozens of plants and my neighbour reminded me recently that Ishie went about planting them "in families", i.e. groups of 3 or 4 about the garden in amongst the flowers.  And there they are above.  It is worth mentioning that Mairi was expecting in early June so the topic of "family" must have been in her mind at the time.

I picked the first harvest today.  They were big, plump and absolutely disease free.  Amazing!

I simply love shelling peas... could sit for hours doing this.  So here are some "families" on the place mat at the table while Iain cooks some chicken for dinner.

I cooked them (just for myself) in the microwave with a bit of mint from the garden.

The finished product.  The water from cooking tasted not only minty but quite sweet!

BALLANTRAE AND BRENNAN LEA

We were attending a funeral in Ayrshire this weekend and decided to stay on for an extra day.  Having had 3 weeks of solid sunshine the fields in Ayrshire are showing every shade of green to gold.

Always happy to "wing it" we found a lovely ol' fashioned B&B in Ballantrae and enjoyed exploring the area the next day.

Ballantrae Bridge with a shady riverside walk below.

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 BRENNAN LEA

Iain wanted to explore an area of geological interest which lies just north of Ballantrae.  The rocks indicate that tectonic plates have collided because lava from deep in the magma has come up to the surface as seen in the examples of "pillow lava".  Not having a photograph of an actual example of what it looks like (e.g. what colour is it?) we took a few photos just so further research could be undertaken.  Maybe he is standing on a bit of it?!

These 2 photos are simply markers on the landscape so if we make a return visit we can get back to where we were looking.

 

This cave is opposite, i.e. an easy feature in the coastal landscape.  There's a cairn opposite with information about a hermit who lived there until the 1970s.

GLASGOW GRANDCHILDREN UPDATE

Here are the latest photos:

Harriet, 6 weeks old

Alastair, 5 and a half years old

Ishbel, 6 and a half years old