Another Year Vanishes

I can't believe that over a year has passed since Duncan rushed Sarah to Dundee on a Saturday teatime and arrived with ten minutes to spare before this little girl arrived on the scene. But yesterday was her first birthday and twelve months have passed in the blink of an eye.

We joined the family along with Duncan's parents Jack and Muriel and his sister Katriona and nephew Blake yesterday at the grand Fairmont St Andrews hotel for afternoon tea to celebrate Melody's birthday. We had a surfeit of cakes which left us more than full for the long drive back to Suffolk at the end of the afternoon.

Sarah is the busiest of busy mums with her Yoga instructing, maths tutoring, and parenting but she still found time to bake this lovely building block cake for Melody.

Melody is growing into quite a little character and it was good to get to know her a little better during our two weeks in Scotland.

And big sister Rose who had  great time at The Fairmont playing with her cousin Blake is really starting to enjoy her company. I suspect that the two are going to be great friends when they grow up.

I'll finish today with a photo for Rose to prove that we genuinely couldn't see her when she was hiding in the ball pool.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Give Me Your Tomorrow

by John Brassey

Giveaway ends October 10, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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Treasure In The Attic

You may be aware of that BBC programme Cash In The Attic where antiques experts visit someone's family home and rummage through all their stuff to see if there's anything they can sell at auction to fund an exotic holiday or a Golden Wedding celebration; after the auction there's usually enough for a night at a Travel Lodge or perhaps a couple of bottles of Cava and some Iceland sausage rolls. 


With our move potentially imminent we haven't invited the BBC around but we've been carrying on with our own attic clear out and our lovely guest bedroom is stuffed full of boxes and things from our past while we try to get our hoard down to a manageable size. I spent the whole of yesterday - from eight in the morning until after six p.m shredding paperwork - stuff from when we were working, all my old eBay records that are no longer needed by the taxman and lots of Marion's mum's records. The shredder kept overheating so I had to wait for it to cool down but I have to give credit to Fellowes (the shredder makers) as their very cheap machine coped with what ended up as ten black bin liners full of shredded paper.


While I was busy shredding, Marion carried on with box emptying and she certainly came up with some wonderful treasures.

If only our boys in blue knew what a thief looked like. According to a very young Paul they often look the same with a round head, mark over eyes and hands with dots on. They are also fat and have long? legs.

Sarah was a poet 
"The Colours Of The World"


The greens of the trees and the grass down low
Blue of the sky up high
With the yellow of the sun
Let the world become    a sphere of colour
Countryside has all the colours
And you and I shall be happy.


Not bad for a six year old.

I don't think Paul has ever sent me a card that was anything but interesting but I liked the sentiments of this up with guns and down with flowers card that has me (I assume) firmly caught in the crosshairs. 

Sarah's literary career continued apace and she even found time for a booklet of reviews of work by "this author".

Pop Up Pirate may have seen better days but he still works and has to be one of the best toys ever.

Marion wanted me to cull my large collection of antique reference books so I took a few down to the charity shop. I'm relieved to say that I didn't take this shelf as I checked out some values on the internet and came across this.

You won't be able to read it all but those three volumes to the left in my photo are the same books as in this auction lot. I will follow the sale on 19th June with interest as the estimate is US$2,500 to US$3,000. So, along with our children's treasures, perhaps there really is some cash in the attic.