My Month In Numbers : April

As my eldest son approaches his 16th birthday he received his National Insurance Number through the post - how to make me feel old. He has just started his standard grades at the end of the month and has so far sat just the 1.

I finally got my 1 1/2 stone award at Slimming World - it is still slow going but at least it is going in the right direction (most of the time!!)

I managed to read a total of 7 books, 2 of which were autobiographies for a change.

I am still walking and today I discovered that Endomondo adds all your activities together for the month and gives you your months overall performance - when it is written dow it looks quite impressive:

31.89 miles walked
4365 calories burned
I walked a total of 12 hours, 31 minutes and 32 seconds.

I wonder how many photos I took during my 6 walks??? Next month I will have to count how many scones were consumed at the end of the walks but I do know I only visited 1 pub this month for some mid walk refreshment!!!

One of my many photos of some of the beautiful places I have walked this month.

   Pop over and say hello to Julie and see everyone elses Month In Numbers.

It's Monday. What Are You Reading?

Welcome to It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I am almost at the end of The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood. This was the UKS monthly book club choice a few months ago. Shame on me as I picked the books that month and it's taken me this long to get round to reading it!

A bit of a slow burner at first but one which leaves you wanting more. What is the secret that the 2 main characters hold? You get snippets throughout the book - and you just know it's not going to be good.

One summer morning, three little girls meet for the first time. By the end of the day, two will be charged with murder.

Twenty-five years later, journalist Kirsty Lindsay is reporting on a series of sickening attacks on young female tourists in a seaside town when her investigation leads her to interview funfair cleaner Amber Gordon. For Kirsty and Amber, it's the first time they've seen each other since that dark day when they were just children. But with new lives - and families - to protect, will they really be able to keep their wicked secret hidden?

How does your garden grow?

Our garden is finally bursting back into life and there is some colour out there.

I have a brand new phone and have been faffing about with it and downloading apps (something I couldn't do with my crappy old Windows phone) This one is called Instaplace - I would have preferred an action shot but my target was unwilling!

The Forsythia is flowering:

Grape Hyacinths which remind me of my Nan as she always had them in her garden:

The Snowdrops have finally flowered:

My flowering currant - is flowering:

The Snake's Head Fritillary is gorgeous:

But best of all - we have rhubarb:

Small Tete a Tete daffodills:

Skywatch Friday

Another walk in whiskey country last weekend - a circular walk of 12 miles starting and finishing in Craigellachie.

This was the view from our picnic spot looking back over the town of Dufftown.

We didn't realise our walk took us to the Keith to Dufftown railway station which is an 11 mile journey between the two towns and is run by very enthusiastic volunteers (in fact the train driver was Mrs Neal who was one of the boys classroom assistants when they were at primary school!) There were a couple of trains in the station and one of the volunteers chatted to us about the railway and its rolling stock. I loved this train because it looks as though it has got a face - the yellow markings are called "speed whiskers!"

But the best bit was the tea rooms which were housed in an old railway carriage - and provided us with tea and scones for our onward journey.

My walking companions for the day.

A lone tree.

When we reached Aberlour we stopped for refreshments in The Mash Tun. I had a half of real ale but the pub is famous for its Glenfarclas Family Cask Collection - 46 single cask whiskies for each year from 1952 to 1997. they are available to buy by the shot and for my year of 1967 it was just of £65 for a shot!!

I seem to have a bit of a thing for taking photos of the signposts along our walks.

We kept a wide berth of this chap just outside Aberlour - but he looked so miserable he did make me laugh - but very obliging of him to stand by his sign for a photo!

We finished back at the car in Craigallachie which was parked close to Thomas Telfords bridge built between 1812 and 1814.

Pop over to the Skywatch blog to see more skies from around the world.

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Nothing much!

In fact the only crafting I have done since last Wednesday is make a birthday card for my nephew.

But I do have this months order from my Stampers 10 SU group -  a dinky little scalloped circle punch and a pot of wood effect buttons. Plus after a tip off from Erika I now have 3 6x6 American Crafts pads from TK Maxx for the sum of £2.99 each!

Please pop iver to The Stamping Ground where hopefully everyone else has been up to more than me!

Happy Birthday

It was my nephews birthday yesterday and he was 2 years old.

This was the card I made using the March/April About A boy kit from S J Crafts.

Just a shame he won't have got his sticky little hands on it as it only went in the post yesterday - oops.

It's Monday. What Are You Reading?

Welcome to It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

For a complete change of pace I am reading The Accidental Naturalist by Ben Fogle. I read his previous book The Accidental Adventurer and thoroughly enjoyed it - and I am hoping this is up to the same standard.

I do like Ben on the TV and he has a new 64 part series starting this week called New Lives In The Wild.

For as long as he can remember, Ben Fogle has been surrounded by creatures great and small. As a young boy his best friends were Liberty and Lexington, the family dogs. Then there was Milly the puma-sized cat, Jaws the goldfish and three very 'charismatic' parrots, not to mention a whole host of weird and wonderful animals that came through the doors of his father's veterinary practice.

Then came Inca, Ben's adorable black Labrador, who changed his life. Since first melting the nation's heart on Castaway, the duo have been inseparable. With Inca's help, Ben was soon charming worms and tickling trout on Countryfile, minding the big cats on Animal Park and fronting the BBC's coverage of Crufts.

Ben's passion for wildlife has taken him all over the world, from the plains of Africa to the sea ice of Antarctica. He has played with penguins, been chased by bull elephant seals and tapirs, and helped operate on a cheetah. He has given mud packs to rhinos, bathed with elephants and risked life and limb diving with Nile crocodiles, all the while campaigning tirelessly for conservation, the environment and animal welfare.

Hair-raising, heart-breaking and wildly entertaining, The Accidental Naturalist tells the extraordinary true stories of Ben's amazing encounters with animals and how they changed his life.

Pop over to The Book Journey and see what everyone else is reading today.

Skywatch Friday

Blue skies and snow - what better view while sitting on a picnic bench in the glorious Crown Estate in Glenlivet.

We really went out into the wilds on Sunday down to Glenlivet - but were rewarded by stunning views, sunshine and a delicious scone at The Glenlivet Distillery.

We set off under grey skies with a touch of drizzle - so hat, scarf and gloves were the order of the day.

There was plenty of snow on top of the hills. We met a farmer moving his sheep who told us we wouldn't have been able to have done the same walk the previous weekend as the fields were covered in at least a foot of snow!!

But it soon warmed up - the sun came out and the gloves and scarf came off - and we enjoyed blue skies

Plenty of opportunities for sheep photos - the lamb at the bottom was a really new one (probably less than an hour old) as she/he still had its umbilical cord attached.

We also saw hares, Roe deer including a stag and quite surprisingly plenty of toads or frogs and squillions of tadpoles. I have been told it is mating season and the noise the frogs or toads made was really loud - but as soon as you got close the went silent and stayed perfectly still. We also heard grouse - but even with a pair of binoculars we didn't actually see one.

This is what you call a traffic jam up here!

And the beautiful Packhorse Bridge at Bridgend of Livet. .

Our final stop was at The Glenlivet Distillery - we didn't have time for a tour but enjoyed scones and a latte in the cafe. This fabulous piece of work is made up of whiskey bottles in the foyer of the distillerty

We had a wonderful day and will be going back again soon
Please pop over to the Skywatch blog to see more skies from around the world.

WOYWW 202

On my desk today is a kit from SJ Crafts which features Echo Park What A Boy papers - and the cutest wood veneer cameras and some enamel dots.

I have some photos from when the boys cousins visited a few years ago and feature smaller boys armed with swords doing what all boys of a certain ago do - fight!! These papers will be perfect.

I also have a birthday card to make for my nephew who will be 2 very shortly. I was so tempted not to bother as I could probably count on one hand the number of birthday cards my boys have had from their uncle - and seeing as how they will be 16 and 13 this year that is a fair few missed birthdays. But it probably wouldn't be worth the grief I would get from certain quarters!

Also on my desk is another orthodontist appointment for youngest son - but there is light at the end of the tunnel as he  has been told it should come off within the next few months. He only had less than 12 months ago so he is very pleased with that bit of news. I also have a letter about a school library book that eldest son has "misplaced". I will not be paying the £5.99 to replace it as it can be purchased online for less than half of that.

My craft room had to have an unexpected dust this week following the amazing dust storms we have had over the past few days. Even with the windows and vents all closed everything is covered in a layer of dark brown dust. This was the view from my craft room window.

Please pop over and say hello to Julia and see what everyone else is up to today.

High days and holidays

I had a few days off last week at the end of the boys school holidays - and somehow I managed to make 3 days off feel like a week. Maybe it was because the sun was shining and I managed to get out and about and get loads done - tidied the garden, cleaning the windows, car washing and off course I managed to get my boots on and go out for a walk or two.

My first day off was lovely so after the chore that is grocery shopping (and a near heart attack at the till) I headed off round a local small loch called Millbuies.

I was very lucky in that the first thing I saw was a red squirrel. I love the home made Heath Robinson style bird feeder made out of an old shopping basket!

Here are some more sights from my walk.

I am keeping track of my walks using Endomondo on my phone and this was a very short walk of just 1.98 miles and I burned off 258 calories.