Things I'm loving Friday ♥

Time to join in with my favourite linky again.

Here are my things I'm loving this week, with a bit of a vintage theme.



Firstly, my new tiered cake stand.

I loved the colours of the cake stand, and it matches perfectly with my granny's china, which my mum brought me down recently.

I think the colours of this set match the cake stand particularly well.

But I love all the different sets, and how they match each other too even though they are different.

I'm also loving this sign that I picked up in a shop when I was home at my parents.

I haven't hung it up yet, but I'm hoping to have it just as you come in the front door.




Finally I'm loving home grown produce.

Enough berries from the garden to make a yummy mixed berry cheesecake.

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Brògan Ùr aig Daibhidh

Look at that.

Tonight's post starts with a language lesson. 

Just in time for the schools returning.

So, pronounciation first, is 'brogan oor egg Da-ee-vee'.

The meanings of the words:

brògan - shoes (singular shoe would be bròg)

Ùr - new

aig - literally means 'belonging to' 

Daibhidh - David

I thought that by explaining it this way would show you how sentence structure is made up in Gaelic.

You might also have noticed, both here and in previous Gaelic word of the days, that the 'v' sound in Gaelic is made by combining either 'mh' or 'bh'. There is no letter 'v' in the Gaelic alphabet. Or J, K, Q, W, X, Y, Z!

Now, onto those brògan of Daibhidh's.

(If there is a Gaelic version of the children's name, then that is what they are known as by the teachers at the school, and so David's school friends all call him Daibhidh. My boys attend a Gaelic Medium school where they are taught using Gaelic as the first language. I wrote a bit more about it here, for any newer followers who may have missed that.)

ANYWAY, the brògan.

Here they are.

At first glance they are quite a cute pair of Kicker's boots.

Now, what is our boys' biggest love? (Apart from their Mamaidh, that is!)

Yes, that's right, LEGO.

That's a Lego Police Landrover on the back of that foot above..........

.........and a Lego Police Man and Motorbike on the back of the other one!

Not only that, but there are lights that flash in the soles!

He just loves his brògan ùr.

And just to finish off, here are the boys ready for the first day back to school this morning.

James has just started his last year at Primary school, and the P7s have a special red school jumper.

Alasdair still has another 3 years before he joins them at school, but he grabbed his bag this morning too when he saw the other boys with theirs!

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A trip to the Transport Museum

Here are a few photos from a trip we took last week.

We headed west, to Glasgow, to visit the Museum of Transport in it's new home by the river.

Trains, trams, buses, motorbikes, boats, more trains, more cars......

It really is a little boy's dream day out.

Alasdair recognised Postman Pat's van, even with the old style livery....

....and the other boys recognised Professor Z, one of the baddies from Cars 2 (which we also saw last week - excellent film, by the way!)

I liked the sense of humour whoever set up this display of a South African steam train had...

But it's not just transport in the new museum. 

There were a few fabulous dresses from the 50s on display.

And to top things off, there was a display of some old toys.

I don't imagine that big Stormtrooper above ever belonged to anyone, but I had the dark haired Sindy doll in the photo below, only my one had a pink tutu.

Back in the days when I loved my Sindys, I loathed all things Star Wars.

I didn't imagine then, that one day my life would be full of all things Star Wars!

Gaelic word of the day:

deideag (jay-jag) - toy

there should be a grave accent on the e, but it's not playing ball tonight, ironically!

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Some new little friends.

Remember Patch, David's special teddy he chose for his last birthday?

Well. Alasdair has recently taken quite a shine to him.

David has been generous enough to let Alasdair play with him sometimes, but he is still very much David's best teddy.

At the weekend we were doing a spot of shopping when we passed the Build-a-Bear shop and saw they had a really good offer on just now. Buy one little friend, get another one half price.

There was no question what teddy Alasdair wanted. He chose the exact same one as Patch.

And called him Patch too!

He was so cute as he stood in line, waiting to have his teddy stuffed.

Then so proud walking out of the shop carrying the big box.

Calum was also able to get a bear, or a monkey actually, called Mikey.

Although we now have two Patch's in the house, they do actually look a bit different. It helps that David's one is currently wearing a rather cool soldier outfit too!

James has also been joining in the fun with the new friends, by writing little comic book stories for Alasdair and Patch to read together. Or for him to read to Alasdair and Patch.

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Chats in the Farmhouse Porch

Today I've joined up with this linky via my friend Caroline's blog, The Joyful Keeper.

Carloine is a bloggy friend who I also know in real life, although we haven't actually seen each other since we were about 15. We had lost touch and how we got back in touch is really worthy of a whole blog post of it's own! 

In a nutshell though, we were both looking for a UK group of the Good Morning Girls at the beginning of this year and the two of us plus another Irish girl set up a wee group, which then grew to include some more girls (from the US, Canada, Ireland and a few other Scots).

When we set up the group we hadn't realised we knew each other, as we were both married with different names and living in different places from where we once knew each other. When everyone in the group began telling a wee bit about themselves we realised we knew each other from way back.

Call it coincidence if you like, but I prefer to use the word providence. Our GMG group has been such a blessing, but again, that is worthy of another post!

So, onto the questions.

1. What colour was your first car?

It was a maroon coloured Peugot 306. We bought it a few months after we were married and I loved that car.  We lived in a tenement flat in Edinburgh at the time, so parking it anywhere near the flat was a nightmare though! We had it for about 3/4 years before trading it in for a bigger model once son no.2 was on the way.

2. Do you dance or sing when you are by yourself?

Sing, yes. Dance, absolutely no! I don't really dance. I'm just not really a dancie kind of a girl. But singing, yes I love to sing.

3. What were your favourite and least favourite subjects at school?

My favourite was definitely music. I always loved music and it was the one subject where I was really good. I was Little Miss Average in everything else - not particularly bad but then not outstanding either. Music was where I had a natural ability. I was a little shy though, and I wish I had some of the confidence I do now back then. That's not to say I'm overflowing with it now, however!

My worst subject? Maths maybe, or Physics. I liked my maths teacher even though I hated the subject so that helped. Physics I just detested but I sat through it as I had notions of trying to be a doctor for a while. Or a physiotherapist. I soon realised that music was where my heart lay.

4. What was the last dinner you made?

Tonight's dinner was chicken fajitas (see recipe tab), followed by fresh strawberries & ice cream in oyster wafers ( I may have to explain what these oysters are to my non-UK friends but not tonight, I've said enough already!

5. Please finish this: "I feel naked without ---------------------." (Now, you know there's someone out there who will answer "clothes". See. I caught you! :)

Well, nice and simple, I wouldn't leave the house without my wedding ring. Although I do wear makeup sometimes, I am happy enough to leave the house without it on. I'm blessed with good skin and dark eyelashes which I know is a help in this!

To check out other answers or to join in then go to Everyday Ruralty. I would recommend joining in, as it's good fun and I love to see everyone elses answers!

Oh and a Gaelic word of the day (which I have been forgetting recently)

caraid (caraj) - friend

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The Rainbow Sun

Yesterday was a typical Scottish summer's day.

No, not the wet kind.

It was warm and sunny, but with the odd cloud here and there just to remind you where you were.

After dinner the boys were outside playing with their friends from next door, when one of them came running inside asking for the camera.

'Come quick, mum, you need to see the rainbow sun!'

The what?

'There's a rainbow round the sun!'

The clouds had rolled in a but more by now, and they were right. There was a sort of rainbow around the sun. You could still see the sun through the evening clouds, and around that there seemed to be a faint rainbow shining.

I've never seen that before. 

There was no rain in the area, like you would normally have with a 'proper' rainbow, but obviously the sun was shining through the vapour in the clouds and the reflection was causing the rainbow.

Does anyone have any better meteorogical knowledge than I do and know what it's proper name is?

Whatever it is called, it was quite beautiful.

Psalm 19 verse 1

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Holiday Club

Last week we were busy, busy, busy with the children's holiday club at church, which ran every morning, Monday to Friday.

We aren't a particularly big church, but there were a group of about a dozen of us who each had a different part to play in the running of the club.

We had around 25 children attending every day. Some of these were our own children from the church, others were friends from another church but some were from the local community who had no church connection at all, which was wonderful.

The week was called Mission Rescue and had a secret agent theme. The children learned all about Moses and his mission to rescue God's people from the Egyptians.

As well as the Bible studies, the children learned some songs, played some games....

.....cracked some codes, made some crafts and had a fun time!

Since I was organising the crafts, it meant that part of each afternoon or evening was spent preparing for the next day, hence the business of the week!

Crafty highlights were:

~ making bricks out of playdough and building pyramids (I had a vat of playdough bubbling on the cooker the night before that!)

~ and making pizzas (the connection to the Moses story being the special flat bread they had at the Passover!)

On top of the crafts and leading a little group for the Bible study (my group was the only one with more boys than girls in it - story of my life!), I also had the fun of playing the bad agent in the drama. Totally out of character you understand. One girl did say I made a good baddie, although my sweet boys told me that I was too nice to be a baddie!

The boys had a really good week, as did their cousins, and all the other children seemed to enjoy themselves too. 

Now that it's over, we are praying that everyone would remember what was learned and take it to heart.

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The Wedding Wall and Family Photos

Following on from our wedding photos the other day, I thought I'd share these photos I took last week at my parents'.

The wall at the staircase is where they have the family wedding photos displayed.

The oldest photo there is of my grandparents' wedding (my dad's parents) in 1953.

Then there is my parents' wedding, in 1976.

Our wedding, in 1998.

The 'something old' that I wore, was my mother's veil. 

The right hand photo is me and my two brothers. My youngest brother was 18 months old.

My brother's wedding, in 2001.

This time the left hand photo is of me and my brothers.

And here is the most recent photo of me and my brothers together, taken last summer with our boys in it too. It hangs in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs.

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More woodworking projects..

After the success of building a den at my parents' house last week, the boys had plans for some wood they found in the shed at the weekend.

Whilst I took the opportunity to clean out the kitchen cupboards while they were in their empty post-holiday state, and before I did the shopping to fill them up again, the boys and daddy set to work.

They needed a saw, a drill, a sander, and some other odds and ends.

And here are the finished results.

Firstly they wanted to demonstrate their Roman 'Tortoise' defensive position.

And here they are with their own shields. 

James and Calum made the two Captain America ones, David made the big Roman one. David found his shield too heavy to carry though and so Calum gave him his smaller one and took the bigger one instead.

Now I just need to get them working on those three loose planks in the back fence behind them!

Oh, and thanks for the lovely Congratulations messages on our Anniversary too. Did anyone notice that I was wearing my wedding pearls in the up-to-date photo too? I forgot to mention that. They were my wedding present from my husband and are still probably my most favourite piece of jewellery he has given me.

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♥ 13 years ♥

31st July 1998

31st July 2011

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