Curiosities

All sorts of little bits of burgeoning tree

have been falling on to parked cars on 25th Street (and every other street for that matter)...

... forming a sort of yellow confetti which looks specially good if the car has recently been polished.

The weather is much warmer and this Brooklyn inhabitant has exactly the right idea.

His cushion is lodged where the air conditioner will later be, from whence

 he can survey all that surrounds him.

Very warm last evening with mist in the air. The sort of day when
 the Empire State Building has its top stories removed.

Ah! the joys of blogging! Such a good way to meet people from all over the world.

Yesterday a lovely little envelope arrived from Isobel Bella Bheag in Scotland who makes the

most beautiful handmade cards. Her recent blog posts have been about a visit to

the islands off the coast of Scotland where they make tweed. A very different world indeed.

Medieval Malarkey in Edinburgh

Greetings foul and rotting carbuncles of flea ridden fleshpots!

Tis I the Grail Master! Ruler of all things Grail and Quest like.....

Oops sorry, erm still in medieval taskmaster mode from ye olde times (the other weekend). Yonder weekend was my younger sister's hen weekend, a weekend of dressing up like chickens or a weekend of frivolity and mischief, before one gets married. As the sister (Heather) would have ideally liked a medieval wedding, but the husband to be said no (no fucking way), so a medieval hen weekend was the joyful compromise.That meant costumes and some stuff to do that was, kind of, sort of, Medieval (ish).

Where does one look to when one needs some comedic medievalish inspiration? Only one place of course! The mighty python - Monty Python , well Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Special Edition) to be exact.



After watching that and few other clips a million or so times, I had a plan! Twas time to send the sister on a quest for her own Holy Grail.......

I formulated some questions, then I came up with some rather special names for all the medieval ladies that were playing along, Heather was this delightful character...

Dearest Heather....
Thou artless Foul wretch
Forgive this crazy pig of Widnes. A gossiper of rioters and a feeler of wretchs.
Heather you are henceforth
Princess Isadora Frigginoff, Ruler of Farnworth and the small city of Fannyshockingham

My personal favourite was Lady Amanita Ceeurpeenis formerly Dampnow from Littlepiddle. As someone pointed out, yes I may have too much time on my hands in the wee hours of the morn..

This is a google map I created, of all the places we either visited, were part of the quest and/or wanted to visit. Alas couldn't fit all in. Also included some pubs and foodie places that sounded rather good, so will have to go back and sample them.

View Heather Holy Grail Quest in a larger map

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Choo choo!

The thought has crossed my mind that new visitors to site will happen across this blog and see the post below. What on earth will they think about the golden appendage? Thoughts of disgust,fear and jealousy no doubt will cross their mind. So I will do a lovely post on choo choo trains to distract them from their dark thoughts.

Well a lot of you seem to like the train station shot from Wednesday and have asked to see more. It seems as though some of you haven't paid attention to my Christmas posts, were I told you I went on the Santa Express and saw Santa! Obviously that wasn't quite enough information for those over the age of five.

The steam train was located in a place called Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands, where it operates on special occasions such as Christmas. They even do a Witch and Wizards run, after all this is Harry Potter country.
The sisters and I, all share a fascination with Steam trains as the Grandad and Dad are big fans of all things steam. So we kidnapped some children to make it look more legitimate that big folks were going on the Santa Express.
It is a lovely run surrounded by mountains and countryside, it had to stop a few times because it was running out of steam and the water supply had frozen. The people working on the train, dispensing out the toys to the children where great fun and I would highly recommend it to anyone who happens to be in that neck of the woods.

The photos were taken before, during and after the journey. My head was stuck out the window in one of the shots.

Wordless Wednesday

Welcome to 2008

As the monument clock struck twelve, 2008 arrived! Heather and I left the pub to bring in the new year in the lovely but freezing fresh air.
As we didn't head to the pub till elevenish so most folks were a drink or ten ahead of us, but it was a nice atmosphere and the bagpipes got you going. I have filmed the lad playing the bagpipes, so when I get home I will post it up, you can hear the bagpipes and see my sister pulling faces whilst trying to get on film. She loves being in photographs and is certainly not camera shy, chalk and cheese is the way most folks describe us.
A few drinks later and it was half three, time for home. It was definitely nicer spending New Years Eve up here in Scotland with my sister, than anything I had planned to do at home. Although there was a distinct lack of sexy highlanders with or without a kilt.

On the first day of this new year I slept in and then mooched about until it was time to head down to the harbour to see the bonfire and firework display. Before the fireworks started the bagpipers played some rousing tunes as they walked towards the harbour, it was lovely to hear. The fireworks were nowt special but it was a lovely setting beside the sea. Taking photographs of fireworks is bloody tricky, so here are the ones that turned out the best.

After the fireworks were finished it was time to head home for a haggis supper, which was lovely. I have had haggis quite a few times now and have become quite partial to it. Its the perfect stodgy food when you have had a stroll in the fresh air and are a little hungover from the night before.

So Happy New Year to all my blog buddies, old and new! I hope you all had a good time and that 2008 will be great year for you.

Christmas time in Scotland

Seasons Greetings from freezing Brora, here are a few shots from my stay so far. Thats a reindeer in case you didn't know, I can't confirm whether its one of Santa's though. Heather my sister happily posed with Santa after our Santa Express train ride. I am not sure if he was happy when she felt his sack.