Oh dear.

I think Dolores is having a bad day.

Random weekend stuff

I have absolutely no coherent train of thought to share with you today.  The strain of juggling the complex morning routine made necessary by 4 people sharing one bathroom (and one of said people having VERY strong views upon the timing of morning activities) has left little brain power to spare.  So all I have is photos and random musings.

This cairn was built by my husband and Second Born, by the beach near Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island.  I thought it was really rather cool  - it looks like it is about to waddle off into the distance as soon as our backs are turned.  Other people also thought it rather splendid - a father was spotted photographing his sons through the "legs" as we left in search of lunch.  It took all of our self control not to run back and shout "We made that!!!"

This is the light fitting in our living room at The Corbies.  I have absolutely no reason for showing you this, other than that I really like it.  The individual shades look like medieval bronze Cornettos.

This sign I spotted on the door of a cubicle in a public toilet.  The toilet in question was  in the bar of quite a nice hotel where we stopped for lunch on the drive up to Skye a couple of months ago.  I took a photo because I was puzzled:  Who takes their used teabags with them into a hotel public toilet to dispose of them?  And why?

And that, as we say in Scotland, is me for now.

Oh the horror

We have an interesting take on garden design going on at the moment.  Our front garden currently contains grass (in dire need of a good mowing), a half-alive and half-dead hedge, some very confused daffodils who currently think it is autumn 2013 and a toilet.  And a sink.  And some bits of shower cabinet.  In fact, practically everything that used to constitute our en suite shower room is now in our garden.  Very classy it looks, too.  We should really take the wheels off our W reg Astra and stick it up on bricks, just to complete the effect.  (There is in fact actual moss happily growing on the window seals of the Astra which makes it a garden feature already in my book.)

Thankfully, Fraser The Gentleman Plumber and his trusty sidekick are working hard to instal a shiny new shower room for us and that should be ready in about, ooh, two weeks or so.  But in the meantime? 

We are having to share a bathroom with the boys. 

*shudder*

(And yes, I know, being reduced to one bathroom between four can hardly be called a hardship.  Nonetheless, there is no getting away from the fact that, much as I love my children, I can't wait to not have to share showering facilities with them.  Doubtless they feel the same, judging by the eye-rolling going on every time I point out that the cardboard centres of toilet rolls do not climb into bins unassisted.)

Hurrah!

Delighted to see Laura being fired from The Apprentice tonight.  She uses "myself" when she means "me" and she repeatedly talks about "working smart".  Both capital offences in my book.

There is regulation in the Borders.......

..........but it's a relaxed sort of regulation.

In other news, the swallows have returned from their winter in south Africa to their nest sites in our pigsty.  It is lovely to have them back, even if we are being deafened by the unattached males advertising the prime real estate they have found and divebombed by the females checking out the premises on offer.  And as if to prove that old saying that "one swallow does not make a summer", we were treated this weekend to sunny weather hot enough for me to sustain sunburn to my scalp, quickly followed by hail and driving rain with temperatures down to 3degrees.  Never  a dull moment.

It's just like winning the lottery

There was a raffle at the village hall last weekend in aid of hall funds, with prizes donated by local worthies.  We did not in fact win a prize, but Second Born expressed such admiration of the prize won by one of our neighbours that he kindly donated it to us.

People can be so kind.

She has taken up residence in our bathroom.  The boys have named her Dolores. I believe they are plotting to accessorise her with Action Man helmets and weaponry.