The Daily Scoop

I've just returned (somewhat nervously) from dropping young Scoop and his sister, Dusty, off at the vets for their, er, 'procedures'.

Today is the day my cat becomes, hmm, how to put it? A little bit less of a man.

How sad for him. 

Something else I learned today was that there is special food for cats who are neutered.

Every day's a school day. 

I haven't posted any pictures of the kittens recently 

(which leaves me wondering: what do I post about? Oh yes, waterproof trousers. How embarrassing), 

so I thought I'd put up a few photos to chart their rise into adulthood.

Fingers crossed, everything will go swimmingly and I can collect the little man this afternoon.

Sniff, sniff.

It is very easy to be brave when you're protected by a glass door. 

Scoop in a hoop.
Couldn't resist.

Pretending to be brave on his first ever excursion outside.

They really like sleeping in baskets.
Preferably baskets of clean, ironed clothes.
Bully for them, bit of a bummer for me.

Getting super-excited about the Olympic Show-Jumping.
(That's my boy...)

Snooze.

I've been travelling a lot recently and I think that Scoop might be trying to tell me something...

Dusty the beautiful.

Just in case you noticed a difference in the picture quality (whatdoyoumean you haven't?), I have miraculously managed to get my computer, my big girl camera and my external hard drive to co-operate simultaneously.

Wonders never cease.

High Five for Friday!

I haven't done High Five for Friday for a couple of weeks, so here it goes:

1/ Driving back to England through the hills around Moffat

Loch Skeen

2/  Discovering a new bookshop near DPB's flat

3/ My cat sent me a text message...

Hmm, I guess I am now officially the weird cat lady.
It's quite strange how I'm ok with that...

4/ My big brother is in town and I got to spend the afternoon with him. 
He is possibly one of the coolest people I know.
He once stuck chewing gum in my hair and I had to have it cut out, thus leaving me with the worst hairdo ever.
I still love him, though.

5/ It's DPB's birthday this weekend. This means he's nearly as old as me.
Phew.

DPB in his preferred pose.
Don't be fooled by the air of relaxation - he's ready to spring into action at any moment
...

In no particular order.

Well, hello there!

Goodness, what a bad blogmother I have been, leaving this little part of the world wide web lost like nobody's bairn. 
Sorry. 
The trouble is, I'm having great difficulty in recalling what has kept me away from my little beloved... so it's lucky I spend half my life taking photos on my iPhone whilst thinking 'ooooh, must blog about that [insert random object here]'... and then I forget about it. 
Hey ho.
So, tomorrow I will get back in the flow with some totally random posts about my completely random life (yes, it is really time that I got a job), but for now I will dump all of my photos on you and you can judge for yourselves how exciting/ totally boring/ whyonearthdoesshethinkwe'dbeinterestedinthiscrap my life has been while I've been absent.
The only things that I can remember doing (in no particular order) are:
a/ getting a year older (not much effort required there)
b/ getting ridiculously spoilt by a certain Mr Awesome DPB
c/ nearly getting a job (but missing out in the final stage. Hmph.)
Actually, I say no particular order, but I had a birthday and got told I hadn't got the job on exactly the same day. So that was, like, super fun. 
Anyhow. 
Now for the phone dump.
You've been warned.

I was actually taking a picture of Little L's Playmobile because I thought it was cool.
Then I realised that the sneaky people in front of the pool were getting up to something highly inappropriate.
Get a room, people!

Mr Scoop is getting BIG.
He knows how to press keys on my laptop that make it do things I didn't realise it was capable of.
 This makes me quite proud and also quite bemused at the same time.
Also, he is now insured. Under the 'breed' section of the form it says: 'Scoop is a Black.'
Is it me, or does that just sound plain wrong?

My very small friend Anna K had a birthday and we got her a cool present (even if I do say so myself).

Top of picture: DPB's lunch.
Bottom of picture: My brunch.
It's a miracle I'm not the size of a heffalump.

The drawing room ceiling in our Edinburgh flat.
I love it.

Even East Coast trains are getting all patriotic.

I waved at Gesci as we went through York station...
No, she wasn't actually there, it was, you know, a symbolic gesture.
Part of the blogging sisterhood... (ok, I'll stop now).

National pride at Victoria Station (London).

The flat in Edinburgh is pretty much completely empty, but I was overjoyed to find that someone had forgotten to clear this beer out of the fridge.
Naturally, I had to take a picture of it.

Planning our trip to Paris.
[Squeaking with excitement].

I went to Brighton.
It rained.
Also, I discovered Hipstamatic.
Love.

Er, proof that I took a train to Brighton.
Right then...

The Royal Pavilion, Brighton.
They wouldn't let me in because I arrived at 5.03pm and last entry is 5pm.
It's lucky I don't get annoyed easily (er, not much)

A moody, sad photo of a lamppost to suit my sad mood.
Woe is (was) me.

Sign spotted in the Badger Bar, near Rydal, Lake District.

Found on the back of one of my birthday cards.

I GOT MY WELLIES!
DPB is the BEST.
Fact.

Erm, so, I think that's it for today.

It's good to be back.

High Five for Friday!

Another link up with Lauren over at From My Grey Desk...

What a great week it's been - it's almost too hard to choose a top 5, but I dug deep and came up with these:

1/ My baby brother's graduation was fab and was followed by a delicious meal at Restaurant Mark Greenaway.
YUM. 
I'll share more next week...

Ben's main course looked almost too good to eat...

2/ I got to see my parents for the first time in aaaaaaaaaaages. Hurrah!
My father visited a local auction house and got me this:

Can you guess what's inside?
That's another treat that awaits you for next week...

3/ Good news: I'm cat-sitting Scoop's brother, Billy
Bad news: They DON'T HAVE INTERNET ACCESS.
Makes me feel dizzy just typing that. Gulp.
Wee Billy looks a lot like his mother:

Ohmygoodness, it is HARD taking a picture of a black cat.

4/ You may or may not know that I have a thing for champagne, so I couldn't resist taking a picture of this sign I spotted on Broughton Street in Edinburgh:

5/ TWO out of my three babies pets had birthdays this week. 
F Sharp was 24 and Princess Poll was 11.  They got apples. They weren't that fussed.
Also, these photos prove that we have had ONE DAY'S SUNSHINE this week.
Hmmm.

Princess P showing off her Roman nose.

In human years she would be in her late 70's, I think.
An oldie but a fatty goodie.

So, that's about it: good food with my family, some sun (and horses), a cat, champagne, and a mysterious box. 
Standard week, really.

This weekend promises to be full of excitement, with Little L's pony day/ sleep-out-in-a-teepee birthday party, a trip to the Ceres Highland Games, and a screening of Ben's latest film project at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Makes me exhausted just thinking about it...

High Five for Friday!

Erm, it's Friday AGAIN.
How the devil did that come about so quickly? 

High Five for Friday!

1/ Yesterday's Highland show was rather soggy, but Buzzy Bee looked superbly handsome and behaved beautifully.

2/ Who can resist a sleepy kitten?

3/ My enthusiasm to run my own smallholding knows no bounds. 
DPB thought my latest bedtime reading was very interesting. At least, that's what I think he said.

4/ The beautiful (Olympic-themed) bracelet given to me by some of the children I look after:

Please ignore the various scars.
Outdoors-ish life = end of career as a hand model.

5/ Another recent present from one of the kids I've looked after. 
It's one of my most treasured possessions EVER:

Front

Back.
"To lexi, I am going to give you this picture because you really like it. love Fergus xxxx"

Have a great weekend!