Summer? You must be joking!

Who said it was summer? This past week must rank as one of the worst in the history of mid Junes in the area of Dunbar...
The nearby strawberry farm, which was supposed to open on May 31st by the Thistly Cross roundabout on the A1, is still unable to offer its customers the chance to pick their own strawberries. We know, as when we went in today, a sign on the run up to the car park informed us, " No sun, so no strawberries, but have an ice cream on us!" No thanks, as the past week's weather has been truly awful here. Mist, fog, low clouds, rain, and plenty more rain. I feel sorry for the owners, who must be praying that each new day brings them the long awaiting warm sunshine...and the revenue that they must surely need to keep them going.

Yesterday, when I took Sandy down to Eyemouth for his weekly swimming lesson, I could hardly drive above 45mph due to the haar and mist, not to mention heavy rain. But I suppose we should be thankful, as it's not as bad as it was last week in England, as this video from BBC news shows! Also yesterday, we were looking forward to heading off for the school fair, an annual fund-raising event that usually has lots of stalls out in the playground. This was due to take place directly after the Nursery class were leading the Dunbar parade, marching around the town at the end of the Civic Week. While we decided it was far too wet, it actually went ahead. Crazy!

Anyway, we did go to the School Fair, where Sandy had the chance to pose with a very striking bird of prey- a Red Tailed Hawk! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so this is a very poor quality picture, which we had to pay for. It wasn't dark, though you'd think it was taken at midnight!

I also took a picture of Sandy playing me a Battleship- a game he bought at the Fair!

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Woodpeckers in the garden...

Yes, we had some very interesting visitors to our back garden yesterday morning. Anna shouted me to come and look out the back window, and when I did, I saw we had first one, then two, then four woodpeckers sitting on the fence at the back of the garden. By the time Anna had got our camera ready to take some pictures, three of them had flown into the trees just behind, but one was still sitting there. It was certainly an usual sight for us all!
Also yesterday, we went to a barbeque organised for all the residents in our street. Unfortunately, the weather has been rather grey and cloudy all week, and so it wasn't the warmest BBQ we've been at, but nonetheless, it was good fun. Olivia certainly enjoyed the bouncy castle!

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Olga's wedding photos, and some from the garden here...

Anna's sister Olga was married in St Petersburg on Friday 25th May, the day that I was returning fom Benmore with my class. Although we were invited to be there, it proved impossible for both Anna or me to get time off work. Today however, Olga phoned us to let us know that a slideshow of pictures showing her and her new husband Nikolai were available for us all to see on the net. Anna was delighted to see them, as we all were, and so we have saved a few for here. It all seems to have gone very well- and it was nice for us all to see Kolya (Nikolai) for the first time! Sandy immediately asked when Olga will come to see us, so we have urged him to ask her personally the next time he speaks to her on the phone.
One of the pictures shows the group who attended the wedding, including Anna's mum and dad, although Aunt Lucia and Uncle Boris were not in the photo. Olga explained to Anna that Boris could not tear himself away from playing snooker to come to be photographed!!






Meanwhile, here, Sandy was intent on flying his toy helicopter that he won at the fair in Haddington yesterday. We had a go at launching it this morning, and took these photos of him and Olivia.

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