Bad Influence

They say that a picture paints a thousand words. Well here are a couple of thousand for you...



We went to see Auntie Carol and Uncle Dave last weekend while we were up north. It was a great day so we spent it outside and Uncle Dave corrupted me with a bow and arrow (I was careful not to bow and arrow anyone) and a ride on his motorbike. I've requested a leather jacket for Christmas.

I also played for a wee bit on their hill. Yes, it's another Auntie with a hill in her garden (remember Auntie Vikki has one too) but Auntie Carol's is more of a mountain in comparison. It's wild and has a cliff and trees too (which a few arrows were almost lost in). The grass is long on the hill and it was a lot of fun to walk in it and have it tickle my face. I was playing in it, making a nest and I wanted Auntie Carol to come play with me. Strangely, she didn't, even with this invitation: "I'm making a nest for you. A big nest. For your big bottom."

Painting The Town Gold

On Saturday, after sending Mummy away with the bike so that I could walk back to Granny and Grandpa's we passed the Gynack Gardens. They are looking particularly good just now with a lot of flowers in bloom. There were also a few people painting the fence there. When we headed out earlier there had been a couple of guys from the council painting, now they were being helped by some locals too. We stopped to watch for a bit and the nice man offered to let me do some painting. So here is a picture of me painting the fence at the Gynack Gardens.



It's a black metal fence with a flower design throughout. The flowers were being painted gold and this is what I helped with. So now Granny can tell everyone that her grandson helped paint that lovely fence!

I would have done more but I really was tired from the long cycle. After this we headed back to Granny and Grandpa's but I was too tired to walk and Daddy had to carry me the long way up the hill to their house.

It was then lunch time and we were going out to the lovely Rowan Tree Hotel. Unsuprisingly I fell asleep on the way. Then I couldn't be woken again! I slept on the comfy sofa there while the others had a delicious lunch. Mummy managed to wake me just before they finished so I had some of Mummy's pasta and some of Daddy's fish and chips. And of course I did manage some ice cream!

Rose-tinted spectacles

Daddy always says I'm a true optimist! This is a picture of me playing Ludo with Gran a few weeks ago. I'm much funnier than watching Mummy lose anyway.

More Cycling

We went to see Granny and Grandpa at the end of last week. On Saturday morning I wanted to go visit my friends Charlie and Ellie but we couldn't so Granny suggested we take my Puky along the cycle path between Kingussie and Newtonmore. We drove down to the cycle path and ended up going almost all the way to Newtonmore before finding a place suitable to stop and get out.

I started cycling along the cycle path. It was a good path and I was able to build up a nice speed. Nice enough that Daddy had to really run to keep up with me! After about half a mile Mummy and Daddy decided it would be better if Mummy went back and got the car. They'd thought I'd just go a few hundred yards and come back but I was having too much fun and after all, we were heading back to Kingussie anyway, why would I turn and go back?


We met Mummy further up but I still wasn't finished. I kept going all the way to Kingussie! Then Daddy put the bike in the car and sent Mummy home because I wanted to walk back to Granny and Grandpa's. It was a good trip. Mummy reckons I cycled and walked about 3 miles. It sure did tire me out though - more on that next time.

Captain Heidcase

You'll never guess what I was doing on Saturday. Actually, if you guessed "pretending to be a knight" you'd be right and given the recent history of this blog that's probably what you guessed. But it wasn't the usual fighting Daddy with a toy wooden sword at an old ruined castle somewhere! This time it was beating up some grown-up baddies in real suits of armour with a toy foam sword. And I captained a large army of under-sixes. King Robert the Bruce made me captain and asked my name. I guess he misheard me because I spoke very loudly and clearly into the microphone but he still christened me Captain Heidcase.



We had gone to the Bruce Festival at Dunfermline Glen. I've been bothering Daddy about seeing real Knights for a few days now especially since he told me about a friend of his who dresses up in real armour and gets involved in real fights with real swords. Daddy didn't know about the Bruce Festival so when Gran told him about it he had to take me.

The first thing we saw was the jousting. It was Scotland versus England and in the morning the English Knight won by one point. That was a shame as the Scotland guy is so far unbeaten on Scottish soil. These were proper jousters, it wasn't a show and this did matter. You can find out a little more about these guys, their history and experience here. Toby Capwell is the Scottish guy and William West is the English guy. Hopefully Toby did better in the afternoon and retained his record - we had to leave as the heavy rain came on.

On the way home we stopped in at Auntie Vikki's for a cup of milk and some cheese and I watched Over the Hedge while the old people had a chat. Uncle Ian's telly's really cool because to get the DVD to pause and play again you just clap your hands twice. I spent a while doing that as well. I think Daddy should get a telly like that.

To straighten socks...

Mummy: "Sit on your b'hookey."
Edan: "Why did you say it in French?"

Fence painting

Mummy was in hospital last week for a wee operation. In order to give her peace, Daddy figured it would be a good idea to paint the fence. The fence badly needed painted and it would keep him and me busy for a few hours and out of Mummy's way while she got better. You can see us here about a third of the way in.



Except that photo is completely staged and I'm posing under duress. I had agreed with Daddy that painting the fence was a good idea and would be a lot of fun. But after one spar (and saturating two paint-brushes - that was fun!) it turned out that painting the fence was boring. So I went and bothered Mummy and left Daddy to finish it. He made quite a good job though.