And More Snowdrops

Good Evening will have to be quick as we are not long back from a lovely day out.  In the bitter cold we ventured again to Scone (Scoon) Palace Estate to see if the Snowdrops had come out in the last couple of weeks.  The photos above are the results of our shiverings. The flowers were looking at their  best and the sun shone all day long.  We later crossed a hill range called the Sidlaws which extend from Perth to Dundee. The are not particularly high but do offer good views North and South.  After coffee and scones we headed back to Perth and did the weekly shopping in case of bad weather later in the week.  I will try to update my bird watching diary later in the week but have run out of time just now.  Goodnight and God Bless.

                                           Joan.

Snowdrops and more Snowdrops.

        Thanks to Di's Designs.

I have posted two pictures of the house round the corner from where I live that I call Snowdrop House.  Every year it has the most fabulous display of Snowdrops.  It is a very elderly lady that lives there and you can still see her out doing her own gardening. I have a great love of these tiny flowers I always think of my mum when I see them and that I always bought her a bunch for 6d what a bargain.  I don't have a lot of success in my own garden with them I always seem to loose them. I have now got them in a pot labelled so I know where they are.  I came up to do this entry at half past three this afternoon but as usual I got caught with the message that I had to do a full scan it took over an hour and a half and by the time it was finished I had to go an see about some food. It is always me that gets caught with this, next time I will wait till I do what I want to do . It has been bitterly cold here again but we did get out for a run in the car and did a bit of bird watching will write that up later as I would like to post pictures but file manager is not working for me tonight, so for now bye and God bless.

 

                                          Joan.

 

Friday.

One of D's Designs. Link in sidebar.

 

Lovely and sunny this morning after early morning rain but a bit windy but a lot better than yesterday.  Yesterday was a awful day the weather fitted the occasion perfectly.  I was at my friends funeral.  The local church was packed to overflowing a wonderful turnout. It was a lovely service but very very sad. My thought and prayers are with her family.

Stuart is off doing his painting and I have been trying out my new game, have been really enjoying the change as we do a lot of word games as your know, (Still on Bookworm well over 3 million now and still alive) so this Hexalot is very different. Think we may go for a wee run in the car after lunch today as we have not ventured far this week with all this cold weather we have all been having.  The Olympic games have come at a good time they have kept us interested. The skating last night was excellent and I think the Japanese girl deserved her win. Pity about the curling teams I felt the men had hard luck.  Hope they can still win the bronze medal.  The ladies team I thought they lacked confidence and you really need that in this game. Well better go now and do my magic half hour before Stu gets back still old fashioned that way I'm afraid.  Love

Hibiscus pictures that should have been with entry

This and that and a flower

         

Afternoon, I thought I would share the pictures above with you today I don't know if this is unusual or not but when I came down this morning my Hibiscus had flowered. I had noticed a bud on it a few days ago but hibiscus can be funny sometimes and the buds just drop off.  I have had this plant since last summer and it flowered for a long time out in the vestibule but as it got colder I brought it in and put it on the kitchen windowsill and this is my reward a flower in February.  I have had Hibiscus before but they never last very long so I am feeling very chuffed at this one.  Stuart has had a busy morning yet again filling the memory on the new phone he must be and expert now he has done this so many times. Ordered a new game at the weekend from EBay called Hexalot I know Joan on Stranny Days played this a while back and I have played the demo and I found it very good. Was disappointed it did not arrive today as we are not going out as it is very cold with a biting easterly wind, so it would have passed the afternoon.  We have decided to put on a video of Judge Deed the last part of this series so I will have to find out what happened. I know I'm older but I really really really like Martin Shaw. Oh well we can dream.lol.  Will go now and tidy up before we sit down to our program.  Love

                               

Spending too much.

          

 

                  

 

Hope you are all well on this sunny afternoon.  We have had quite a day.  My hearing aids have not been working very well this last week or two and Stuart has been having to suffer the TV too loud and also having to shout at me.  This morning I phoned Audiology  a PRI and was so surprised when the receptionist said they could see me today in fact it was only an hour and half later. So we got our skates on and drove up to Perth.  Was in and out in no time all sorted just needed some new tubing in each aid.  We then thought we would kill two birds with one stone and went round to the retail park to see about a new kettle and a new phone.  My new kettle lights up in the inside when it is on and whistles when its ready. We have just bought a normal cordless phone this time and we are using our old answering machine as it is so simple compared to the one that just broke down. Will have to wait to see if I can use it as it is digital but they don't tell you if its is hearing aid compatible and if it is not I will get a big whistle (more whistling). Not too worried about not being able to use the new phone as I can use the one in the kitchen.  The two handsets of the one that is broken work as a intercom system, one downstairs and one in the study so that's handy. This sounds a very complicated entry hope you can understand my ramblings.  After these two purchases we had a walk round PC World and there we bought a new MacAfee Security for the PC so that's me all spent up for a while. Well can't believe that its four fifteen already where has the day gone bet start of the dinner. Love to you all

             

 

 

Breakdowns

                    

Good Evening I sat down here at 8 o'clock and it has taken me 25 minutes to load the graphics I wanted to use. I know I am only on Silver broadband but that length of time is not acceptable.  It must be our weekend for things breaking down. On Friday evening Stuart had to make a phone call to verify his car insurance and we discovered our phone was out of order. After speaking to machinery for about 10 minutes this clever none person diverted all our call to Stuarts mobile.  The engineer called us yesterday afternoon and after a lots of plugging and unplugging it turned out it was our phone that was shorting the system.  That's the same phone I was ranting about a few weeks back, fortunately we have BT phone in the kitchen that we have had for years and that is OK so we will just have to use that till we go to town.  Next the electric kettle fused the power socket in the kitchen at teatime just as we were about to have coffee.  I have a spare in the shed but it is total darkness out there and we do now have power to the shed. I remembered I have a travel kettle in the kitchen cupboard so I rummaged about and found that so that is what we will have to us until tomorrow morning.  All in all what was to be a quiet weekend turned out to be very eventful after all.  Goodnight I'm off to watch Miss Marple and its Midsomer murder next Sunday. Lots of love and enjoy the rest of the evening. Love

 

                                                      

Yesterday and today.

                       

Good Afternoon, We had a lovely day out yesterday we wrapped warm in our duvet jackets and headed off for St Andrews. Now St Andrews is a lovely place on the coast and is normally very cold even in the summer days sometimes it can be cold, so we thought it was going to be so yesterday. When we got out the car I got my scarf and gloves on too and off we went to walk up to the town.  We could not believe it was so mild and here's us all wrapped up for the winter it just shows you 30 miles can make a difference. We had a lovely walk round and our 4 hours parking went in very quickly. On our run home we noticed that the countryside is beginning to look rather green and the Rooks were starting to gather at the rookeries round where we live so that always a good sign.  I read in the papers yesterday that 3 swallows were seen just south of Edinburgh which is about a month early for the south coast, never mind up here in Scotland (we don't usually have swallows till April), so maybe we are in for early Spring. Talking of the papers I was really disgusted today I bought a Daily Mirror not our usual as they were giving a Inspector Morse DVD free with it today, it was not till I looked at the headlines on the front page I got so annoyed. The main story of the day was that Chantelle had had here first date with Preston now there were 1500 poor souls killed in a mud slide in he Far East yesterday and you would have thought that was a bit more important than these would be celebs. Sorry to rant but I was really annoy at that.  I have been very sad since yesterday anyway as a close friend I used to work with died yesterday.  She had been fighting cancer for the last two year and had been making good progress but had been having a bad winter.  They took here into hospital on Tuesday and she died suddenly yesterday she was only 45 with  two children at uni. She was a single parent and worked so hard for them.  All the time she was having her treatment I never heard a word of complaint from her and she was always first to ask about Stuart. My heart goes out to her young family. I think that's about all I can say today to I wish you all a nice day. Love

                       

Car Service Wind and Rain

 

Afternoon J-land, its been a blustery day up here with showers mixed in, all of which came at the wrong time for us.  The car was booked in for its service today so we were out quite early for us these days.  After dropping the car of we accepted a run into town from the garage and the receptionist gave us their phone number so we could get picked up again if we wanted but we said we would probably walk back ha ha. We had a nice mosey around town bought one or two things a couple of coffee stops then we decided to start back to the garage just as we started walking in the direction of the garage the rain came on for the first time so we had to phone and get a lift back so no nice brisk walk back. By the time we got to Tesco to do the weekly shop the rain was off and the sun was out. We looked out of the window when we got to the checkout and low and behold it was lashing again that's twice. We drove home and by the time we arrived home some 18 miles later it was blowing a gale and pouring with rain so that three times today we have been caught and all this on my curly horrible new perm I paid a fortune for last week.

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Was going to do nice flowes to seperate the two halves but file managers playing up as usual. Was going to ask can any of you lovely people remember you mobile phone number we were asked for ours today Stuart has'nt a clue but I had mine written down in my diary as I can never recall phone numbers.It takes me all my time to remember my chip and pin.  Hope you all can remember your chip and pin as today is the start of chip and pin only in the stores and they seem to be very strick about it.  Will go now as it is teatime. Love        

 

                                     Joan.

Passing the time

             

Afternoon everybody Joan here, put that  in case you are getting these silly wireless alerts. Not a very nice Monday here in Scotland dull wet not raining a the moment and grey.  Have spent most of the morning watching the Winter Olympic Games.  Today starts the curling where we might just have a chance of a medal. The men beat the Italians this morning so they made a good start the ladies play this afternoon.  One of the thing about the other  the events is you can sit back and watch just for enjoyment as we don't really figure in many of them so you can support anyone you like. Watching the Biathlon ladies this morning I was supporting Russia and Belarus it makes a change and one of my favourites won a gold medal so I really enjoy that.  Skating tonight, will love that.  Will have to go now as I have some shopping to do.  Speak to you later

                           

                   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

                                   

Thank you all very much for trying to help me but it looks like we are all in the same boat.  Will just have to be a detective like everybody else.  Love Joan.

Can You Help Me

Good Morning I too have been getting these wireless alerts. Can anyone tell me how we are supposed to know who they are from. I have tried to click on to them but cannot get a link. Please help if you can. Love Joan.

Where is everybody today.

                                     

Good Afternoon, been sitting here for a while surfing the net etc. and it has just occurred to me that it is so quiet on here today and I was wondering where you all are today.  Since I sat down I have not had one alert or email and I thought AOL must be broken down altogether. It is not a nice day here at all we woke up to a slight covering of snow and now it is raining. and cold.  We were out for our usual coffee this morning but hurried back as we wanted to see the Biathlon event in the winter Olympics, it was very exiting and we really enjoyed it. Watched part of the opening ceremony last night but I always find these ceremonies a bit long drawn out I prefer the sport itself.  Don't think we will be out again today far to cold and miserable better off in the house keeping warm. Can't complain about being kept in this week as we have hardly been in at all. The music I am listening to is great its a AOL music station on the computer there are hundreds of stations to choose from something for everybody if you would like the link just email me and I will sent it to you.  I am going now as I want to try to do the last level of Mah-jong Quest, I only have 1 puzzle to go to finish the game wish me luck.  Hope I have not bored you all as I did not really have much to tell you today. Love

                                      

Have updated my Birdwatching Diary today. Have a look if you have time .                Love Joan.

               http://journals.aol.co.uk/jaymact1/JoansBirdwatchingDiary

Another picnic

Hello, what a busy week this has been I've hardly had time to draw breath. We were away on Monday to Scone Palace, Perth on Tuesday Ellen sitting from nursery on Wednesday and twitching birds on Thursday.  Today has been a beautiful day sunshine blue skies and bitter cold all in one.  We went away for a twitch up to Aberfeldy and surrounding area. The countryside was looking great for this time of year and the light was fantastic for photography.  Have posted some for you to see.  The day was not without mishap just as we were leaving Stuart was putting on a sweater and laid his glasses on the back of the settee. He did not realise he knocked them down and stood on them and broke one of the legs off completely, fortunately he has spares he can wear but is taking bad with two pairs after wearing varifocals for two years. We stopped of in Perth on the way home and put them in to the opticians for repair  they said it would take about a week. Yesterday we had Ellen for a while she has had a bad cold all week but was in high spirits while we had her. Will leave you now to look at my pictures enjoy. Love

                          

http://journals.aol.co.uk/jaymact1/JoansBirdwatchingDiary

Today Pictures

Here is a selection of photographs I have taken today and last summer at Scone Palace. Should have put them with todays entry but was running late earlier. Love Joan.

A nice day out.

                                       

Good afternoon, at long last we have managed to get our run out in the car to Scone palace.  It is a beautiful palace and the grounds are magnificent. It is of great historical importance to Scotland as it where we crowned our Kings and Queens before the Union.  The Stone of Destiny was kept here for 500 years.  1500 years ago it was the capital of the Pictish kingdom and the centre of the Ancient Celtic church.  It is now the home of the Earl and Countess of Mansfield. At the moment being winter the palace and grounds are only open on Friday.  So what were Stuart and doing up there on a Monday? What else bird watching there is a small flock of Hawfinches there and they are very rare. (will write about our trip in my bird watching journal later)  At this time of year the snowdrops are fantastic but we must have been early this year and they are not so far out as usual. I have taken pictures for you to see but it looks much better when the sun is shining in the summer and well worth a proper visit. The gardens are not to manicured and there is a arboretum with may special trees I think I have some pictures we took last summer I will put them in as well when I select today's out of the camera. The weather was not too good but it did break up a bit later in the day and the sun remember that nearly came out. Really enjoy getting out and about, will tell you of our trip later in my bird watching diary. Bye for now. Love

Six Nations Championship

                                                                              

Well done the Scottish Rugby Team

Scotland 20 France16

 

Bargain Basemant

              

Good Evening, this morning Stu and I went round to see if we could catch a glimpse of the Waxwings I mentioned in my bird watching journal yesterday but we were out of luck.  We then collected the newspapers and proceeded to our Garden centre coffee shop.  We had our usual, then had a look round to see what had come in this week.  All the tiny little pots of summer plants were in for rearing on the windowsill or in the greenhouse but at 99p each thought I would wait a bit.  We decided to have a look outside as the weather was nice and sunny the early morning fog had dispersed quickly while we were having our coffee. We had a lovely walk around and came upon a table with planters that had been reduced.  I have taken a picture to let you see what we bought for the large sum of £4.

What do you think do you think I got a bargain or not? The pots worked out at £1 each. The round pots are worth about 3 times that alone.  They are filled with Violas and I think they will flower again.  The other pots at the back are terracotta and they have ivy and a small tree and another plant I am not sure of. The total cost would have been £43-96p.  I really think we did well this morning even if we did not get to see the Waxwings.  AOL has been playing me up rotten this afternoon and this is my 3rd and final attempt at this, it's a good job I type in on Front Page and then paste and copy or I would be going spare by now.  Bye just now and hope you all have a pleasant evening. Love,

                           

Good morning I just cannot believe it is Friday again. Where has the week gone.  I thought that when we retired the time would slow down a bit but it just romps away from me. This morning being Friday Stuart is at art class and I have accomplished absolutely nothing, zilch. I am ashamed of this I should be getting on with things. It would not be so bad if I knew what I have spent the time doing but I haven't got a clue its 11-38am Stuart will be back in half and hour and I am going to have to get a move on and at least pretend that I have been busy. I am quite good at scurrying round used to do it a lot when I was younger and had a lot of friends come found in a morning for a chat. Will try to come back later and talk some sense.   Love 

Busy day.

                 

Good Evening very late tonight but have had such a busy day. Here I am sitting here with my lovely new reading specs not varifocals like I normally wear. Still love them but they are useless for the computer as your neck get so sore if you are on the PC for any length of time. I have tried all ways with the monitor flat on the desk up on books but nothing helped. tonight I had a lot of emails to get through and I have no pain at all and I am really pleased about that and I can see great.  I have been doing a spot of babysitting today for our grand daughter which is a very rare occasion as she has a nanny that picks her up from her school so we don't get a chance to have her all to ourselves for a wee while.  I think she enjoyed herself as much as we did.  Will have to go now as it is time for our supper (toast and coffee) and Desperate Housewives then bed exhausted but happy. Love