Here, there and everywhere

Since the middle of March I have been here, there and everywhere - really and truly I haven't had a weekend at home since early March.  It has been wonderful but makes keeping on top of things at home a little trickier.  Hence my poor wee blog has been neglected.  The demise, hopefully temporary, of our PC last week hasn't helped me get back either.

But here I am (with a rather restricted set of photos since most have been saved to the PC and not this laptop which I have to wrestle from John - he does a fair bit of working from home in the evenings).

In the middle of March I had a trip to Northumberland, near to Alnwick, for my cousin Nat's hen weekend.  Lots of lovely girls, food, wine and chatting plus a very fresh and breezy beach walk on the Sunday morning (which has inspired me to enter this race for next summer* - Nat has run it more than once, and while she is a much more committed runner than me I'd like to prove to myself that I can do some of the things my wee cousin can - this is more than a little tongue in cheek since she is several inches taller than me but she will always be my baby cousin despite looking down on me!).

Katie** - 7 months

The peapod carrier was very useful

The following weekend saw me and the children set off on a much anticipated trip to see my parents in their winter home in South Africa. They follow the very sensible example set by swallows - heading south once the northern hemisphere nights start drawing in.  While I completely understand their love of South Africa it must be said that we do miss them a lot when they are away.  But then we do get the odd, very generous, bonus like trips to visit them - and we wouldn't want to deprive them of the pleasure of our company!

South Africa's Wild Coast

So I took the children out of school a week early and flew to George to join them.  Our last family visit was almost three years ago but they all, except Katie for obvious reasons, remembered it well and were very excited (Islay actually went out last year too but mum and dad took her and my niece themselves).  Despite the excitement and very long journey - three flights and over 24 hours door to door - they were all extremely good and we arrived tired but raring to go.  John*** wasn't able to take so much time off, sadly, but joined us a week later.  The three weeks flew by with beaches, swimming pools, birdwatching, walking, national parks, dune surfing, canoeing, fishing and lots of fun being with Grannie and Grandy.  We were well and truly spoiled.

Just a few days after we arrived home we all made the trip to Northumberland for Nat's wedding.  This was another much anticipated event not least because Islay was a bridesmaid.  She made a very beautiful, and smiley, bridesmaid.  It was so much fun seeing Nat, even more beautiful and smiley, marrying the lovely Andrew and great to spend time with lots of family too.  

Sewaholic Lonsdale Dress made with Nani Iro double gauze 

Twirly niece and Islay

Frowning Katie in this dress, with Grandy (too cold for bloomers and sunhat!)

And this weekend I had a 24 hour trip away with friends to Aberfeldy in Perthshire.  It is one of my favourite parts of Scotland (but actually I love many different areas) and we had fun chilling out, walking, drinking and eating.  The hostel wasn't the best I've ever been in but perfectly fine and with such good company it didn't really matter where we stayed.

And now?  I'm really looking forward to next weekend when I'll be in my own bed for the whole weekend (by that I mean I'll be in my bed at night-time, not all day too).  We have lots to do but none of it involves staying away overnight which I'm quite thankful for!

* my friend V is a personal trainer and I know she uses the somewhat sneaky technique of 'helping' people commit to their targets by getting them to tell people what they are aiming for - it is much harder to back down once you have said out-loud what you plan to do........so I'm employing a bit of her methodology on myself to make it harder for me to back down!  
** Katie, you are a star, putting up with your mummy disappearing for 24 hours and being prepared to take some milk from a bottle with hardly a blink - thankyou!
*** John, you are a star too, thanks so much for my trips away.  I do appreciate it and you really must get Stuart pinned down to organise your walking weekend away