Thank you

Good evening, just popped in to say thank you for all your good wishes on Friday we had a lovely day a great meal the steak melted in your mouth and the movie was just fine so all in all a good day.
It is very cold here today windy and it is now dark although it is only just after four. We were a St Andrews yesterday for a wander got a great bargain of Patricia Cornwell's very latest book The Scarpetta Factor in hardback from a charity book shop for £2 50, it only came out last month so that made my day, oh I do like a hardback book, better not fall asleep with it in my hands it would make an awful thump on the floor.
That's all I have for today so till next time take care. Love

Joan.

50 Years Together.

Friday 13th November 1959.

Good Morning, today is a very special day for Stuart and me. It is not our wedding anniversary, but it is 50 years to the day that we first met up again. We were at a cycling club end of season supper dance in Dundee where we both lived and worked. I have told the story before of how I met Stuart, my first of work when I was 15 and we were introduced at a bus stop, all very proper in these days and I knew he was the one, he did not and it took nearly 2 years for him to find that out. We always look on Friday the 13th as a lucky day for us and it has cropped up many times in our lives.

I had a lovely card today from Stuart with a poem he wrote himself and it was really beautiful but he would kill me if I wrote it down in my journal but take my word it was lovely.

It have put a photograph of us that was take last year at a wedding. I don't like having my picture taken at all and very seldom show one on here but thought today I should. Some of these days I will take time and scan a picture of what we looked like all those years ago.

Planning a grand meal tonight and maybe treat ourselves to a movie, Box Office on Sky are showing the latest Dan Brown movie Angels and Demons and we fancy that. So maybe a little drink, we both like Whisky Macs, and some nibbles and we will be all set.

Am off for my flue jab tomorrow just the normal one for me Stuart is waiting to be called for his Swine Flu jab but as yet no word. Till next time have a great weekend and take care. Love

Autumn in Scotland.

 

Good Morning, I thought I had better post these photographs now before winter really gets settled in.It has been cold and frosty this week and we have had some rain too but it is very cold or is it just me feeling it more this year.

Some of the pictures I am posting are from Dundee Botanic gardens really enjoyed this visit it the first time we have been at this time of year so it made a grand change unfortunately the rain came soon after we arrived so the light was not great but the pictures are not too bad.

 

 

the next group were taken around Loch Earn and Loch Lubnaig about a month ago the day we I say my dragon.

Think that's about it for just now and I hope you enjoyed seeing them.  Take care Love,

                                      

                     Joan.

To Old To Know Right From Wrong.

For many years I have had the strange notion that I would love to sit on a jury, its probably because of watching and reading too many thrillers but it is something I have always fancied doing. Yesterday at long last the letter came from the Sheriff's Office saying I had been selected to serve on a upcoming jury. Along with the letter was a little form to fill in. That was then I discovered that officialdom has waited too long to ask me to serve, as you have to be under 65 years old, so unfortunately I have missed my chance and am not happy about it at all. I know in the USA people of my age are used a jurists, think of all the money that would be saved if some of the good and true we made up of retirees we would not have to claim for lack of earnings just travel expenses. I suppose that would be too sensible for the country. I am really annoyed at this, not only because it was something I have wanted to do but I feel it is age discrimination and that is supposed to be against the law. End of rant for today. Take care. Till next time.

Love Joan.

Thinking of Days Gone By

Last Friday Stuart did not have an art class and as the sun was shining from a cloudless October sky we thought we would have one of our grand days out. We set of for Crieff and coffee and scones at the visitors centre where we had a quick read of the papers sitting at a sunny window with our drinks. We then headed to Loch Earn and this is what got me thinking of day gone by. When I was a little girl my parents had a motor bike and sidecar and we toured a great deal in it. One of the runs we used to take was to this loch in fact it was where I had my very first holiday when my Dad got home from the war in so it must have been 1946 by my reckoning. On our runs and holidays there we always stopped to see 'The St Fillians Dragon'. It is a hand painted very large rock that has been painted to look like a dragon. As a child I was terrified of the dragon from the roadside and one day I was taken over the field and the railway line to see it up close to show me there was nothing to be afraid of. Even up close I was not convinced it was not real. We could not get a picture of it on Friday as there is no parking all along the road. I do have a picture of myself and my Mum and Dad standing under it but I cannot put my hand on it just now. I have however found one or two on Wikepedia to let you see what I am talking about. Unfortunately I cannot get the pictures to download on here so if you click the link you will see my dragon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Fillans_Dragon

I don't know what it is just now but I am in a remembering mood, Stuart must be sick listening to me. I have been gifted with the great memory and can recall the slightest detail about things, sometimes it's a good thing other times you don't want to remember.

This entry has been done over a couple of days this week, since I started it I have been to the optician had a dreadful appointment that took 2 hours, waiting 25 minutes to be seen had the test choose my frames saw the 'Optical Assistant' to get all the measurements done which took ages then he went and got another 'Optical Assistant' and she did it all over again to check his work, by the time we got out of there I was 'up to high doh and past it. What a dreadful morning we had. Reading this you will now know I am not the most patient person in the world.

I think that's about it for now will let you know how the new specs are when I pick them up on Monday, fingers crossed I will be able to see out of them after all this carry on. Take care till next time. Love

Good Morning.

Good Morning, one thing I love about this time of year is looking at  the way everybody uses graphics for the season and for Halloween they are all super. Halloween seems to be a bigger occasion on the US side of the pond than it is here although it is getting bigger every year.

There has not been a lot happening here since my last entry now let me think .....

I  broke my spectacles last week so they are stuck together with sticky tape. Made a good job of that and you don't see it too much.  Have an appointment next week with the optician as it was time for a new pair fortunately.

Stuart has been beavering away with his artwork, we were out on Monday and collected a few bits and pieces from the hedgerows, berries and the like to give him something to paint over the next few weeks.

I have been learning to play Canasta on line and am getting there thanks to Jeannette but still have a way to go.  I am sure  some of the people online have been playing for years and years. Still it is something to pass the time now the nights are creeping in and the TV is so bad most nights.

The county side is starting to put on its Autumn coat of many colours, it still has a way to go as we have not had a bad frost to help it along.

The Greylag and Pink footed Geese are back with us after the breeding season in the Arctic the skies are just full of them just now it is special to see them.  Some of them will continue South but a few thousand will stay all winter unless the our loch freezes over as that is where they spend the night brrrrrrrrrrr.

Think that about all the happenings from my neck of the woods for now so till next time. Take Care Love Joan

Good Morning.

 

Good Morning, I noticed I have not written a word in my journal for too long and thought I should say something even though there is not that much to say.  There are so many journals and blogs disappearing just now I don't want to be another one.

At last I can report new cooker installed looking good and working great. We also had to have a new boiler for our heating system installed as our old one was condemned by the heating engineers, we knew it was coming but you do put these big jobs off don't you. Now we need to decorate the kitchen and plaster up the holes in the wall.  Not too big a job! We hope to start next week all going well.

At last we are having some dry weather after a very wet July and August it is a lot cooler but at least it is dry and we can get laundry dry on the line and get the grass cut.

Our granddaughter was on a school trip last week and she was telling us that they were pretending to be evacuees . The went to a farm about 70 miles away complete with labels on there coats and were told all about the children during WW2. She seemed to really have a good time although they were not allowed to touch the animals because of this Salmonella outbreak these type of places are having just now.

Stuart is doing well and able to walk me off my feet so his operation seems to have been a great success. I am very please to see him coming in after a  walk and not in great pain.

I think that's  about it for now will try not to be so long away next time.   Take care. Love