Remember, Remember the 5th of November...

The weather here has taken a sharp turn towards winter.

The last few mornings we have woken to our first frosts and the air is decidedly chillier!

In my head I always associate Bonfire Night with the onset of winter anyway, so it seems fitting that the weather really has changed this weekend.

For Bonfire Night my brother, sister in law and their three boys came round .

We had some dinner together before walking along to see the local fireworks display.

We have gone to see the fireworks together for quite a few years now, but the last couple of years we almost didn't go because the weather was so wet.

This year it was perfect fireworks weather.

Clear, starry skies and just the right amount of chill in the air.

Alasdair wasn't too sure what to make of the fireworks at first. As long as he was held close he was brave enough though and he couldn't keep his eyes off them.

When the fireworks were finished we came back to our house where the boys had some fun with sparklers.

 I had bought a few packs and my sister in law had also bought a few packs, so we ended up with 50 sparklers! Still with 7 boys, and a few grown ups wanting a wee shot, it didn't take us too long to go through them all!

Does everyone remember the poem from their school days?

'Remember, remember the 5th of November,

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason, why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot!'

And just to finish off:

The story is doing the rounds of Facebook today of the Fireworks Display that was held in the little town of Oban. 

Due to some technical hitch, all of the fireworks were set off at once!

 Oban is the town where my husband was brought up so we had a good laugh about this and the technical ability of Oban-ers! Or rather, I may have teased him a little about it. Just a little.

You can watch the display here. It's like a fireworks display on steroids or something!

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The empty Mayo jar...

I saw the following story on Facebook earlier this week and had to share it.

It pretty much sums up what I think about life and priorities.

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle,

When 24 Hours in a day is not enough,

Remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.  When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.  He then asked the students, if the jar was full.  They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.  He then asked The students again if the jar was full.. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.  He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’

The professor then produced Two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents Into the jar, effectively filling the Empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

‘Now,’ said the professor, As the laughter subsided, ’I want you to recognize that This jar represents your life.  The golf balls are the important things – family, children, health, Friends, and Favorite passions things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, house, and car.

The sand is everything else, the small stuff.

‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ He continued, there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

So…

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.  Play with your children.  Take time to get medical checkups.

There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.

‘Take care of the golf balls first – The things that really matter.  Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.’

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled. ’I'm glad you asked’.

It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.’

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Handmade Gift Exchange

Tonight I saw this on Facebook and thought it was such a lovely idea that I checked out the website and then promptly signed up!

It's being hosted by Linda of Craftaholics Anonymous.

There will be two exchanges, one for those based in the US and another for those of us who are 'International'.

It sounds like a really fun way to get to know another fellow crafter and I can't wait to find out who I'm paired up with!

Check out the link above if you want to take part too.

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Something fun for a Tuesday

I bought this sheet music the other day because the boys love the theme, and James is keen to learn it on the trombone.

The shop didn't have a trombone version so I just bought the piano version, I'll write out a trombone version from this.

Everyone loves this tune so I hope it makes you smile :0)

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A weekend trip

Technically it wasn't really a weekend trip as we were only away for about 30 hours.

My husband had a speaking engagement in Banchory, Aberdeenshire on Sunday morning and so we all went up as a family on Saturday afternoon.

The journey only takes about 2.5 hours but the people we were staying with were not due to be in until about 7pm and so we had a leisurely drive up the East Coast, stopping a few times along the way.

First stop was for tea and scones, just beyond Perth.

Second stop was for...um....well it was another tea room, in Arbroath now, although this time we went for the hot chocolate.

Yes, it was as good as it looks!

After our refreshments, we braved the elements and went to the harbour. There was a strong wind blowing and the waves were crashing over the harbour wall.

The boys started off watching from a safe distance.

Which wasn't really safe enough, as the wind blew the remaining spray pretty far.

So we retreated to the car, and got a bit closer to the waves.

Then we meandered our way up the coast a bit more until we reached Stonehaven, where we stopped for dinner from the fish and chip shop. No-one actually had fish though. We had haggis, steak pie and sausages with chips. Well, not all of them, but different people had different things.

We had our little picnic in the car as it was dark by now and the weather was as above!

We were nice and cosy though.

In Banchory we were staying with a lovely couple who my husband has known since his days studying in Aberdeen.

Sunday was a beautiful day, quite unlike the one before, and Alasdair found this little car in the garden.

Calum and David had a sneaky wee shot on the trampoline before church...

'Let me see mum!'

...and James sat inside, trying out his new sketch pad and pencils.

My husband was speaking at a church about the work the charity he works for does in Aberdeenshire for the homeless. The church had designated yesterday, Compassion Sunday.

They were a really lovely, welcoming congregation.

We spent the afternoon at the house of my husband's best man before heading back down the road again. Of course it would have made a bit more sense for daddy to stay up in Aberdeen as he was heading back up there this morning to work, but he wanted to spend what was left of the weekend with us as he normally does. After dropping the older boys at school this morning, he was on his usual train north again.

On our way home yesterday evening, Calum was very excited when we drove through Dundee and passed the ship that Scott of the Antarctic sailed on.

It's a dreadful photo, as we were only driving past and this was the closest we could get to it. It's on our to-do list for days out to go back and see it properly.

A busy 30 hours, but fun ones.

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Things I'm Loving...

There hasn't been much chance for loving anything this week but the boys' fancy dress costumes.

And I have to say that I really do love them.

The costumes.

And the boys.

And the boys love the costumes too.

So, here they are...

....a group of super heroes to strike fear into any baddie.....

They were at their Boys Brigade party tonight, and my sweet little Thor won first prize!

Have you ever seen a cuter super hero?

Oh, and you should have seen the state of the shower after Hulk was in it tonight!!

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My Creative Space

I have a couple of crochet projects on the go just now (when do I not?!) but this week they have been put to one side while I work on the boys' costumes for their fancy dress party at Boy's Brigade this Friday.

The boys themselves all decided that they wanted to dress up with a co-ordinating theme, and so they chose Marvel heroes.

James has chosen to go as Captain America (of course), Calum as the Hulk and David as Thor.

Captain America is almost done, I just need to sew up his gloves.

Here he is so far, with the rather proud wearer.

He said to me tonight, 'I love it, I didn't think it would look this good.' 

I'm pretty sure that he didn't mean that he thought my efforts would be woeful at first, but what he meant was that he knew it would be good, just not this good. 

Pretty sure.

I'm particularly pleased with the boots.

Tomorrows task is to make another pair of these, in a different colour, for my little Thor.

Here was our inspiration for Captain America.

I also need to check if we have any green face paint for Hulk, source some green tights for him, make Thor's boots, finish Thor's tunic, add some blonde hair (yellow wool) to Thor's helmet, finish Captain America's gloves....

Deep breath......

Linking up with lots of other inspiring creativity at My Creative Space and also at The Train to Crazy.

And don't worry, I'll be sure to let you all see the end results! 

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Storms and Promises

In the typical way that we Brits are obsessed with the weather, the last few days when I've seen people and they have asked about our holiday to Lewis last week, they have asked what the weather was like.

My reply has always been that the weather was stormy and that we didn't mind, as no-one goes to Lewis in October for the weather. In fact, no-one goes to Lewis in the summer for the weather either! Or anywhere else in Scotland, for that matter.

Anyway.

Although the weather was rough, I did get these lovely rainbow shots.

They were taken from the front seat of my mum's car (she was driving, don't worry) as we drove in to James' singing competition.

I do love rainbows, and all that they promise.

I love the brightness of the colours in this next one, and the focus on the rain on the window.

In each of the photos you can see the second rainbow quite clearly too.

Genesis 9: 12-17

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James' Mod Song

As you know, last week we were at the National Mod. If you didn't know, then see this post here.

The solo singing competition took place on a really stormy day. By the time we got back home at lunchtime the wind was so strong you could hardly stand up.

Needless to say, my granny didn't venture out to hear James sing!

Instead, we took the song to her, and I took this video of James there, since there is no filming or photography allowed in the competitions.

He doesn't sing the full song here, and sings it at a lower pitch than he would normally do if he had been given the starting note, plus he has the added distraction of his 2 year old brother playing with his lorries at the fireside, but other than that you get a good representation of the song!!

The song is called Eilean Beag Donn a Chuain (el-an bek down a choo-an) - Little Brown Island in the Sea, a lament about the Island of Lewis.

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Things I'm loving...

I'll keep it brief tonight, as we are just back from our holiday at my parents' so there is plenty more I should be doing other than blogging!


There is nothing worse than waking up on the day you are due to leave the island (or travel to the island) and hearing a gale blowing outside. 3 hours on that boat in that sea in a gale is not fun. Thankfully, my dad assured us that the shipping forecast had said the gale would die down by lunchtime.

It did, and although there was some swell left, the first of my things I'm thankful for this week is relatively calm crossings, both over to the island last week and then home again this week.


So, after a week with family I would have to say that what I was loving most was time with family.

Most of my family still live on the island so we don't get to see them very often.

Here are me and the boys with my granny. She is 87 and has 9 great-grandchildren.

Our other big thing we loved this week.

Remember back in the summer in another Things I'm loving post, I told you all about the band we were all loving?

Manran, a new Gaelic band.

The post is here.

Well, walking down the main street in Stornoway last week we bumped into the singer/guitarist/accordianist from the band!

He was so friendly and chatted to the boys about various things, asking James all about his Mod appearance too.

We got this photo of him with the older boys, and it really was the highlight of their holiday.

You can see how chuffed they were!

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