Wednesday 16 August 2017

To The Fringe And Back

It's been another busy week. Last Wednesday we drove to St Andrews again to spend some time with the family before the children went back to school. We had a further incentive to visit as Paul and his family were holidaying in Scotland presenting us with the very rare opportunity to see all four grandchildren in the same place at the same time.


For once, this summer, the weather was kind and on Thursday we took the whole family (minus Duncan who had to work) to Cairnie Fruit Farm near Cupar. I know that a visit to a fruit farm doesn't sound much but it's a great place for kids with plenty of play activities and an enormous maize maze. I think Sarah enjoys the huge inflatable bouncy pillow more than the children enjoy it.


Marion with all four grandchildren on a trampoline. 


Paul had a go too.


You can't go to a fruit farm without picking some fruit so Teddy helped Marion with the strawberries. It was very reminiscent of the days when Sarah used to join us picking strawberries at the PYO farm near Southport.

After a very good meal of sushi at Kazoku in St Andrews it was time to say goodbye to Paul and Josephine. 


We were up at the crack of dawn on Friday when we caught an early train from Leuchars to Edinburgh. It's a couple of years since we last visited The Fringe but it is as lively as ever with scores of wannabe stars trying to sell you their shows, lots of street artistes performing and a generally exciting buzz about the whole place. There were loads of shows that we would have liked to see but we were in Edinburgh for the kids and we'll have to go back next year for the adult stuff.


Our first show was Mavis Sparkle put on by M6 productions of Rochdale. It's a one person show involving the wonderful cleaner Mavis and her dreams of seeing the aurora borealis. It was extremely gentle and magically charming and we all loved it.  


After the gentle Mavis, we had a few slices of pizza for lunch before moving on to the next entertainment. Our afternoon show was provided by Arrr We Nearly There Yet - a pirate themed hour of slapstick and highly acrobatic high jinks on the high seas. Some of the acrobatics were amazing, some of the juggling was not quite so amazing and, sitting on the front row while heavy knives were flying about made the afternoon a little more hair raising than we expected. I had a bet with Melody that her balloon sword would not make it back to the station intact - it didn't.


We were back in St Andrews on Saturday. Marion and Sarah went shopping while I had a relaxing time. It's a wonderful place and I don't think I'll ever tire of it.

On Sunday we drove back to Framlingham - we don't half pile up the miles. After a day of washing, ironing and tidying up at home, we had a bit of spare time yesterday so I had a few hours out with the detector. I didn't find a great deal but something interesting always turns up. 


I haven't been able to identify this lead item yet. It seems to be some sort of seal. It makes a simple pattern when pushed into Blu-Tak but I have no idea how old it is. It's quite crude so probably has some age to it.



My other interesting find was this tiny half penny from the reign of Henry VIII - a nice find and quite a rare coin.

If you've followed this blog for some time you'll know that, a couple of years ago, my mum modelled for a photographer who was a friend of one of her Spanish grandchildren. He takes stock photos and sells them online. Mum turns up quite frequently in the most unexpected places and my sister often sends me links and photographs. Here's Mum's latest appearance.  


Not her favourite.

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