Time doesn’t half fly sometimes. They say it’s when you’re having fun but, although the last week or so has been great fun at times, I think most days fly by whether they are fun-filled or not!

A week and half a go, it was Shrove Tuesday and, having marked the day in the usual way with one too many chocolate pancakes (not my fault Pete could only manage one & I was brought up to hate wastefulness! 🤣🤣) I decided that I wasn’t going to give anything up for lent, but start doing something I haven’t felt much like doing for sometime instead… getting more exercise! So, I have signed up for one of these online fitness programmes and, having exercised for 30 minutes every day for the past five days, I am already feeling the benefits in my muscles 😅 & am ready for a day off which is good timing as we are spending most of today in the car – more on that below! The good news is that my back, hips & knees all seem to be coping at the moment as I am taking it slightly easy to start with…

We really enjoyed the three day visit from Louise, Lee, Aedan & Niamh – 18-21 Feb. Having them stay for an extra night due to it being half term, was really nice and meant that it felt a bit more chilled at times although, of course, still tiring! We are so used to it being just the two of us most of the time, having a youngster and three additional adults in the house can definitely be a bit tiring when you’re not used to it but, that said, we love seeing them and have plenty of time to recover once they have left! 😊

Family visits are definitely not as mad as they might have once been… none of us drink anymore so, although Pete might have a glass of wine, the days of copious amounts of alcohol being enjoyed have gone out the window (I miss them days sometimes but do not miss the hangovers!).

Nowadays, visits tend to rotate around lazy mornings, late breakfasts, walks, a trip out & a bit of telly! I hope none of the kids (young or old!) don’t find it too boring! As I say, we enjoyed the visit very much!

On one of these days, we had a nice drive around, showing off the countryside that surrounds us to Lee & Aedan as this was their first visit… we had a short stop at the Hermitage Castle (that’s the 3rd or 4th time we’ve been up there but never has it been open! It’s only open from Easter to September so one day we will hopefully get to go in it! 🤣)… before following the road through amazing hills & countryside where we spotted a herd of red deer (which we thought were wild but, on looking more closely at the photo, noticed we’re all tagged), up to the A7 about 8 miles north of Langholm where we stopped for coffee & cake at the Whitshiels Cafe.

After refreshments, we drove back home over the tops, taking in the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve so our Niamh could see the wild goats! Luckily, we saw more goats than we have ever seen before…

The MacDiarmid Memorial (above, top left photo) is an “open book” sculptured memorial to the poet Hugh MacDiarmid who was apparently a co-founder of the Scottish National Party. The memorial is situated on the twisty Langholm to Newcastleton Road, at the brow of Whita Hill just outside Langholm where the fella was brought up and is now buried. The memorial depicts themes from MacDiarmid’s works.

After the kids left on Saturday 21st and a bit of a clear up, we watched Ireland run England ragged in the rugby (boo!) and the Curling Olympic final (Silver medal – yay!).

This week has been a little hectic with a flying visit to see Mum which was nice because she remembered my name… twice (❤️😊❤️)! It was also sad as it was announced the morning I went down, that the Care Manager of Mum’s place lost her own battle with cancer last Sunday (😢❤️😢)…

I stayed a few hours and then headed home, trying to beat the darkness as you cannot see the potholes in the dark! On the way back, the blumming new car took poorly just as I got to Carlisle… it just lost the power of acceleration. Fortunately, I was able to nurse it home and today, the local garage man has confirmed the turbo thingymajig has gone (grrrr!)…

This week, I have also had a haircut and, the big news, have only gone and got myself a blumming job! Well, not a full time job but, having seen an advert in the window of the little home care business just round the corner from us in the village, asking for staff, I thought perhaps I could help out on an “as and when” / bank basis… so today I had an informal interview and will start my shadow shifts week commencing 9th March if the checks go through ok! There’s a turn up for the books! I wasn’t looking for work but thought it might be a good way of meeting a few more people in the village which will be nice!

And today, we are heading off on our first little holiday since Pete’s diagnosis! We are going 175 miles North to the East Coast of Scotland near to Fraserburgh – it’s a 5 hour drive so I best get on! More on this next week… hasta luego amigos!