The return of the House Martins...

I've been watching the skies around Dunbar for several weeks now, awaiting the return of these wonderful wee birds from Africa. We ourselves have a nest under the eaves built by House Martins. This morning, on the way to work, as I passed through Haddington, I saw several House Martins swooping around above the buildings in the town. Then at lunchtime in Gifford, I spotted a couple again. And back home this evening, they were here too! Remarkable that East Lothian's contingent all seem to have arrived at the same time!

I am a little surprised that they have taken until the last day of April to arrive here again though, as in previous years, they have often appeared around the third week of the month. However, they're back, safely, and I'm happy!

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A different way to learn...

Sandy with his picture of some dandelions..


Sandy, blowing the seeds out of a dandelion!


In front of what will soon be the new Asda supermarket...


"Space shuttle to Houston, over. Just landed on a rock cake. Very hard ground, but also very tasty!" (Sandy's rock cakes...)


Olivia, learning that painting can be a messy business...


The clean-up operation begins...

I haven't had much time over the past week or so to post anything, as it's been very busy at school and Anna has been hogging the computer somewhat, in order to prepare for her driving test part 1- the theory test, which she sat today, and passed very convincingly- Well done Anna!!
I did wonder how she was going to do it, as Anna seems to learn things in a very different way to me. She was reading the Highway Code up until last night- and only completed reading it right through yesterday! However, she was reading it very slowly, and was obviously committing the contents to memory very successfully! If that had been me, I'd have had to read it through many times, in order for it to stick in my mind! I must be stupid then...!
The weather is still very dry, and I heard on the news yesterday that April 2007 will be the warmest EVER in the UK. It'll most likely also be the driest, as we have hardly had any rain at all throughout the month.

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Olivia at Granny's!

Taken by my mum at her house.

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East Links Family Park...

Two days before going back to school, we spent the day at the nearby East Links Family Park. It has grown over the past few years from a small farm based visitor park, with some sheep and cattle and goats, to a much larger and extremely popular attraction, with lots and lots of things for children to do over the course of a day really. There are now many diverse types of animals, everything from Highland cattle, to deer and llamas. As well as the aniaml attractions, there's a great cafe and plenty of things like trampolines and go-karts as well as different park areas, all designed to keep the children from getting bored.
We loved seeing and holding the baby chicks, ducklings and rabbits. There were goat kids bouncing and jumping around, which Sandy and Olivia both had great fun with.

Sandy on the go-karts at East Links.


Waiting for the train to depart, for the trip around the park...


A couple of friendly residents!


Feeding one of the deer.


Olivia is very interested in the chick!

Amazingly, the weather was again beautiful! Today, Tuesday- the day before I go back to work, there has been a shower of rain. This is the first rain we have had over the last two and a half weeks! For April in Scotland, that's an incredible statistic. On Sunday evening, when I went down to Newcastle to watch the speedway there, it was 22C at 6pm! No wonder there were loads of folk sitting outside pubs eating their evening meals...

The photos here were taken not with our usual Sony camera, but with my Motorola phone. For a 1 Megapixel camera, they're not too bad...

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Round up of the last few days..

Anna with Kay and Sharon.


At Gavin's.


Anna with Olivia.


At the train station, waiting to head off to Newcastle.


In Newcastle.


Sandy and friend Beth at the shows.

We've been busy!
On Tuesday,we went out to Linlithgow, to see Gavin and Kay, with their family. Ross and Sharon, complete with the kids were also there, so it was a busy house. We had a lovely afternoon there, with many laughs. Thanks to Kay for the excellent spread of food!
On Thursday, it was Newcastle by train, where we shopped and ate in Pizza Hut. Sandy and Olivia especially enjoyed the food.
Then on Thursday evening, Sandy and I went to the shows. The pictures show Sandy having a great time there.

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Scottish Seabird Centre, North Berwick.

This morning, we headed off to the Scottish Seabird Centre at North Berwick. We hadn't been downstairs there to see the whole centre for a year or so, and Sandy and Olivia had great fun watching the birds on the Bass Rock, doing rubbings of birds and animals and observing all the wildlife generally.









After a really fun morning, Anna drove us back via the Knowes Farm Shop near East Linton, where we bought the most delicious home-made beetroot soup. Once again, it's been a warm day- and the good holiday weather seems set to continue through the week.

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Easter Holiday Week...What weather!

It's the end of the first week of the Easter holidays, and what a week it's been, weather wise! Sunshine every day, non-stop! More significantly though, the temperatures have been well above the average maximum for early April, which is around 9C. On Wednesday, our weather station recorded a top temperature in the shade in our back garden of 20.9C, which is very warm for this time of the year. Needless to say, we were out most of the day enjoying it all! Thursday was warm too, with the temperature hitting 18C. Every other day has been well above average, usually around the 13-15C mark. And...it's set to continue until at least Thursday of this coming week too. The school children are having a ball.

Sandy and Olivia relax in the kitchen...


Sandy's seals!


In the back garden, in the sunshine.


Our girl, with her Finnish headgear!


Sandy, about to head into Eyemouth pool for his swimming lesson.


"I'd better water the plants, mum, as it's been very dry this week!"


"Now for my next trick- washing the dishes!"


Olivia, decorating her hard-boiled egg on Easter Sunday.


The finished products...




Anna was working till Thursday, but she is now off for two weeks. This week, we have quite a few things planned to keep us busy, visiting friends, going for a train journey, heading off to East Links Family Park, Butterfly World and perhaps going shopping too. Happy Easter!

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Round and about...

Today, as it was sunny, we drove off to the hills, to see a field of Highland cattle close to Gifford, where I work. I had been fiddling around with my camera, so in the end, the photos I had hoped to take didn't really come out the way I had wanted them to- silly me! Anyway, we got a couple of half-decent pictures, then moved on towards Gifford, where Anna drove us onto the Haddington road. We stopped at the top of the Cockles hill, next to a field where many years ago, I used to cycle to from Haddington to collect frogspawn. Nowadays, the pond has long since been filled in, but there were some lambs, so Sandy and I rushed off to get a look at them. I also took a couple of photos of some daffodils.
We headed home via Haddington, and this afternoon relaxed around the house.

Highland cattle at Tanderlane Farm, near Garvald.


Sandy and me, close to Gifford.


Lambs, near Gifford.


Daffodils, close to Gifford.

Today was interesting, as I was using two different cameras, our usual Sony Cybershot, the photos of which are above, and also my new phone camera for the first time, whose photos are below. Of course, a phone camera can't be expected to produce as good quality pictures as a dedicated digital camera, but nonetheless, I think the pictures below are of a reasonably good quality. At least it means we have another way to get some interesting results...

Sandy at Tanderlane Farm.


The same daffodils, this time using the mobile phone camera!


Sandy and me again, where we stopped to see the lambs and daffodils.


Olivia, in the park.

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