Sallys 70th

Sharon wanted me to blog some of the Reid pics from our family get together for my mums 70th - so here's a selection

Here's the ladies living it up at Loch Muick (sis-in-laws Sandra+Beth, big sis SJ, nieces Fiona and Natasha, and toothless Ailsa)

Big Bro Harry doing what he knows best to do...

Grandma as always giving sage advice for the Greek palate

Don't you just love all the family help at get togethers!

Isn't it amazing how grandparents can really connect with small grandchildren (love-in with Claire, Elmo and Granda)

The famous four (my siblings I mean)

The cousins getting to know each other better (Claire called Natasha - Tasha, and Fiona - Ona)

Recipe Requests

Stop panicking Mom, stop panicking. No, we are not turning vegetarian. Every time we visit you, we will, as usual, greedily and happily gobble up all the pork chops and sausages and chicken and fish you deliciously serve up. We are just going to try to eat less meat so, faithful readers of Sheep Bring Bread, please send your favourite recipe/veggie meal/idea,etc. Reach out to your veggie friends and neighbours and get them to contribute. We'll let you know how we like it, and we will be passing all ideas on to a few other friends who are trying the same thing (you know who you are, and you will thank me).

This Ole House

We are off to try and sort out a few things with the ole house: letting agent, estate agent, gardening, furniture, cleaning, etc, (Boo) just en route to spending a nice few days with the Cranmer/Marks on their Langley estate!!! (Yay). Happy Valentines and Chinese new year when it comes.

Surprise!!

This was Grandma snapped by her son and daughter-in-law when she discovered them hiding in the closet. All her children and their wives/husband/ a sprinkling of grandchildren came to Scotland for a surprise 70th birthday weekend.

And here she is nobly wearing the paper birthday crown and badge made by a couple of those grandchildren. Happy 70s Sally.

If Dana the Fab Photographer can do it, so can I.

Publish a blog post without a photo, that is. The noonday Canon has gone. Instead of buying 2 new cameras, however, we'll be spending that money on a plumber to sort out the leaking radiators. So, our blog may be image-less for some time. Again, apologies to Laura. There really are fewer pictures and videos of her than of the other girls, despite the fact that she's the cutest.

Not much news. I went Monday night to a fiddle and foottapping workshop run by members of le Vent du Nord, a Quebecois band who are in town this week. I could hardly concentrate because as soon as I heard his lovely accent (I rarely hear Quebecois accents as you can imagine), all I kept thinking was, "Tout le monde ont un vieux poptart quelquepart dans l'armoire", and chuckling to myself.

In other cross-Atlantic musical news, Kate Rusby is doing a tour of Canada, Montreal westward. I recommend all my blog readers in Calgary should go see her, she is enchanting.

And, on a musical theme, I am becoming a BBC Radio 2 listener for 2 reasons. The first is, when my parents were here, Mom listened to it a lot and I realised it isn't too bad. And secondly, our 18 year old ghettoblaster no longer receives Radio 4, and Radio scotland only very badly, but Radio 2 comes in loud and clear, and it's nice having a bit of music in the morning. And the cd player doesn't work and I'm tired of all my tapes. I've heard there's something out there called an ipod, but we really are Luddites in this household. Whatever happened to good old 8 tracks? Or gramaphones for that matter???