An Expensive Hobby This

Actually are there any cheap hobbies?  On the back of my addiction to cross stitch I now have my art to deal with.   Much as I could spend hundreds of £ each week...erm I mean month...on watercolour tubes, quality paper, pastels and the like I just simply can't.

And the addiction has spread to the younger generation who have learned, as I have, you buy cheap then you buy (at least) twice!  I may have to start selling the finished article!  Someone might like them.

There is nothing quite as satisfying as seeing a fresh sheet of paper - unless it's completing a cross stitch project!

Don't Mind If I Do

Chocolate & Banana Loaf from the Primrose Bakety book - yes please thankyouverymuch.

How Mumma gets her groove back. Piece by piece.

Food On The Mind

Watching any form of the Masterchef programmes when your repertoire has evaporated into nothingness (yet another joyful side-effect of CFS) is not a good idea sometimes.  Usually I can't be bothered with food, I just don't have an appetite any more and perversely this is not reflected in my waistline.

Today, however, I'm as ravenous as a werewolf.  Seeing the delicious things being made, I possibly could try but I'd rather someone made it for me.

One more thing I miss.  Bad timing means that while the boys are going through constant growth spurts and eat like gannets I'm not doing as much as I want to.  If I could I'd make a huge banana loaf, yum.  Ah see how annoying it is!

This is one I prepared earlier, a few years earlier, but they always look the same, and never last long.  Grubs up.

In readiness for getting back to normal I have a Pinterest board full of ideas I'd like to try.  Won't someone send me a taster before I lose the hunger!

So, it's still January then...

This month seems never ending but at last, Friday introduces February.  As it goes this hasn't been a particularly depressing endless grey month.  Instead we had quite a few sunny if cold days, no snow - much to the chagrin of Eldest - so instead we had to import snow from the nearby town of Falkirk.

We went in to the cinema to see Les Miserable (sob sob poor Gavroche!) and came out to see our little car with a cosy, snow blanket.  Much joy was had with an impromptu snow fight which caused a lot of bewilderment amongst passing drivers in the car park as old ladies such as I am are not meant to be firing well aimed snowballs at their sons.  Yah boo sucks to that!

I realise this mundane post focusses too much on the British obsession of weather and I do not wear a British mantle easily so we'll just say Scottish are as obsessed too.  And with better reason as, unlike this year, we usually get a boot in the rear from it during winter.  I miss the snow.  Plus the boys major disappointment at *no* *snow* *days*!

As well as cinema day, last Friday was Burns night when the kind of people Robert Burns himself parodied heavily in his work hold feasts of haggis to celebrate the great man, no sense of irony at all.  This is one of my favourites and perfectly encapsulates everything I think of politicians although it was originally (I believe) aimed at those Scottish Lords who handed Scotland to an arranged marriage with England.

Such A Parcel Of Rogues In A Nation

Fareweel to a' our Scottish fame, 
Fareweel our ancient glory; 
Fareweel ev'n to the Scottish name, 
Sae fam'd in martial story. 
Now Sark rins over Solway sands, 
An' Tweed rins to the ocean, 
To mark where England's province stands- 
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation! 

What force or guile could not subdue, 
Thro' many warlike ages, 
Is wrought now by a coward few, 
For hireling traitor's wages. 
The English stell we could disdain, 
Secure in valour's station; 
But English gold has been our bane- 
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation! 

O would, or I had seen the day 
That Treason thus could sell us, 
My auld grey head had lien in clay, 
Wi' Bruce and loyal Wallace! 
But pith and power, till my last hour, 
I'll mak this declaration; 
We're bought and sold for English gold- 
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!

Red Sky In Morning

Shepherd's warning.

No sooner had I imparted these words of wisdom but eldest piped up:

Does that mean SNOW?

Ah, bless he's been waiting since November for the promised white stuff.  Most of the UK is coated in it.  Alas we have mere frost and, as every child knows schools don't close for ice.

Still the view from our back door was awfully pretty. Dusting of icing sugar frost tinted bubblegum pink.

OMG It's Fulla Stars

A jolly good purchase with 3 (very) amateur astronomers in the house,  yes I include myself in thst although my interest lies primarily in gazing awe inspired by the brilliance of what lies above.

I am terrible at remembering the name of anything beyond Orion but after reading up on the boys' books I was desperate to be able to spot more.

So here is the handy answer.  Plus it swivels to show what can be seen at different times and seasons.

Tonight the sky is sharp with frost that bites and the sky is clear of cloud and full of stars. 

And We're Off...

...2013 has begun, we're already running to catch up!

Crikey!

Enough with the exclamation marks before I use up my quota for the year.  Two days in, it hasn't been an auspicious start but then again this is January, not the best of months for happy thoughts.

Wish it would bloody snow though.  Poor Eldest has been holding out for snow over the past few weeks and apart from a brief dalliance there has been nothing but rain.  2012 was the wettest year ever - 2013, who knows!

This can be a boring post to start with as I'm sure something will get me going before too long.

Eleven Plus

This was the state of things eleven years ago.

A total of 10.4 lbs of baby, four weeks early (thank you pre-eclampsia for sticking me in hospital during the busiest of times!)  Actually, if we're going to be particularly specific this photo was taken the day after so I should be writing this tomorrow but as the boys' birthday is today...oh shush you idiot!

At this point they were fresh out of SCBU hence the odd skin tone and funny lip colour.  They were the biggest babies in there and that is saying something.  I wasn't happy until I had them in the goldfish bowl cot beside me and here they were.

Hindsight is a great thing.  Had I known then I'd probably have decided to become a single parent rather than continue with a marriage to someone who was still at that point pulling the wool over my bleary eyes.  These two tiny babies showed up and my life felt worth something.

Now they are all limbs and big feet, awkward in their growing bodies and expanding minds.  There is so much to learn I can only hope I have done a good enough job.

Good Yule!

Hamster style.

Holy Crap!

Like a re-enactment from Lord of The Rings this eagle mistook a Montreal baby for a Hobbit - which all things considering is not a difficult mistake to make.

Lucky for baby he was either too heavy or the eagle didn't much fancy unwrapping his next meal.

I think I have truly seen everything now!

This Is 41

...and it doesn't feel that bad at all.

(Note:  Next year I get the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything.  Yippee!)

Linlithgow Today

Has a carpet of frost and a loch made of icing sugar.

Hugs Make It Better

Snuggled up on couch, cuddles from the pooch who decides to also hug my feet.  See, the cats *never* do this!

This Is The Sucky Thing About T'internet

Many moons ago (in real terms about 10/11 years) I came up with what I thought was a witty take on an internet nickname.  It incorporated both my nationality in the form of ripping off and changing the name of a famous film that had come out a few years earlier.  I had made a joke at the time that if the protagonist had been female they could have called the film this.

No, I'm not saying it out loud because if anyone does read this and then Google it - well I don't want to involve myself in an online spat...look let me explain further.

So I signed up for Twitter several years ago (2009) and did nothing with it but I had used this nickname and not the moniker I had adopted in the intervening years.  TwoIfBySea; taken from my time living north of Boston and the fact that I now had twins.  Quite clever I thought in a smug yet woolly brained way (like I said, I'd had twins, recently, well you try and think straight!)

You may, or probably may not, have noticed the change in my Twitter name recently.

Turns out someone else thought of this witty take too and they look much more professional and polished that scruffy old me.  I feel strangely and ridiculously sad that I have to kind of give up on the old nickname, the new "old nickname" person doesn't look the type to take kindly to who used it first.

Ach there is more to life to worry about but it does feel sucky.

And yes, today, 1212121212121212 ya ya.

Yeah, so this happened

http://m.cbsnews.com/storysynopsis.rbml?pageType=scitech&url=http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57558567/asteroid-passes-inside-moons-orbit-buzzes-earth/&catid=57558567

While enjoying the Geminid meteor showers this big bugger nearly made the Mayans think they'd got their dates wrong.

And was it discovered only on Sunday?  Truthfully that is a wee bit close!

The Most Tenacious Thing In This World...

Is the little cold that simply won't go away.

This Town Was A Little Bit Famous This Week

Except they keep saying the Chanel Metiers d'Art show took place in Edinburgh.

http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2012/12/05/chanel-scotland-show-at-linlithgow-palace---vogue-verdict

Hmmn, not quite.  After a couple of weeks of driving locals crazy with curiosity this Tuesday evening saw the show take place within Palace walls.  Indeed the Palace has been verboten for the past few weeks as preparations were made.

"There is going to be a huge glass dome built to fend off the weather."

"Brangelina and George Clooney and the Beckhams are coming!"

"They can't stop us taking dogs for a walk on the Peel!"

Just a few things to be heard around town many times.

The boys were convinced this "Chanel" person was missing out by not getting them to give a personal tour of the Palace.  They being Palace Guides and all, dressing up in 16th century garb and learning three pages of script has to pay off at some time.  As I picked them up from chess club, in the freezing air, clumps of well-wrapped, excited girls were heading towards the Palace desperate to catch a glimpse of someone famous *in their own town*.

In the end there seemed to be a lot of tents pop up in the Peel (park) area and no dome, instead a rather lovely walkway that seemed completely in keeping of the era and atmosphere of the place.  I don't know if any of the supposed A-list guests bothered to make their way to this part of the world.

Yes, our town isn't as glamorous as Paris or London but we have a certain something that cannot be denied!

Ok, so new phone and new capabilities...hopefully! If (and it's a big if) I''ve done this right then I should be able to blog on the go. At the moment I'm just trying to get my sausage fingers to type what I actually want!

Oh damn, it all came out wrong!  Righto, back to the stupid class!

This Hamster is Smarter Than Most People I Know

He disappears causing much anguish to eldest boy for about five minutes.  Then he remembers to sit Dragonborn's home on the floor with the door open.

Smart animals (four legged and two) always come home if you provide a home that is safe and comfortable and happy.  And filled with sawdust, peanuts and toilet roll tunnels.  Apart from the last part I think there is a message in there for all of us.

There is room in my pouch for just one more, ok maybe five.

WANT!!!!

Dear God but there is only so much cute a human can handle.  No wait...

Just got cuter!