I said in my last blog that I am now officially old. I had a lovely 65th birthday and managed to visit our family in Kent on the following day when granddaughter Catherine presented me with her special gift - a painting on canvas that she'd done completely unaided.
I was delighted with this gift.
And it now takes pride of place in my office.
My only detecting session as an OAP produced this small Medieval coin - a Henry VI annulet issue penny minted in Calais.
The Indian summer meant we were still enjoying our coffees in shirtsleeves outside the Dancing Goat in early October.
It wasn't quite shirtsleeves weather but we still had some sunny days when we picked up my mum in Southport and drove her to St Andrews for a week in the caravan. Here she is at the Old Course. Still looking great at 92 and managing to walk long distances too. She needed to be able to walk a fair way when we took her to Dundee to see the new V & A museum. There's not much parking nearby but she managed the walk well.
The museum is architecturally fabulous - a galleon sitting on the banks of the Tay
This is just a small example of the wonderful Scottish design on show.
Another great place to visit in Dundee is the Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre. There's an excellent cafe, always an interesting exhibition or two and the cinema screens are small but very comfortable.
We all enjoyed a magnificent performance from Glenn Close in The Wife
We went to see First Man at Cineworld for the big screen effects. Another very good movie.
Whenever we walk around St Andrews there's always a new view to take in and I loved this light in one of the university quads or lawns.
I mentioned getting the eBay bug again in my last blog. Spurred on by the reasonable success of my first three sales for some time, I've been looking for a few more pieces.
This lovely little Chinese dish turned up for a few pounds at the St Andrews antiques fair. It's Chinese Export Porcelain in an Imari palette and dates to the Kangxi period c1740
We paid a visit to the excellent Fraser Gallery where we've bought some super paintings in the past. They were holding an exhibition of one of our favourite artists David Mackie Cook and we were very tempted to buy this lovely oil for when we re-decorate our lounge. We haven't finalised the colour scheme for the lounge yet so, after a lot of umming and ahhing we passed this time.
Mum went home on the train and shortly afterwards the St Andrews family returned from a break in France. It's always a joy to spend time with our grandchildren.
Rose passed another milestone and can now ride her pushbike unaided.
Rose spent a day in Edinburgh with her mum so we looked after Melody for a few hours.
Like all kids she loves playing in fallen autumn leaves.
And a visit to the Museum cafe went down very well.
On Saturday we took the family to this. What a delightful show.
After the show we had a visit to the castle. It's a fascinating ruin and full of reminders of the horrors of life in the times that coins like the one above were in circulation. The castle has a very colourful and quite gruesome history.
But it's still good for a day out
The views are spectacular
I remember taking Sarah's photo only a few hundred yards away from here when she was nineteen and I left her in St Andrews for her first term in university. Almost twenty years later she's still there.
The girls had a great time exploring. Here are a few photos.
