Aint nobody here but us [frozen] chickens...............

A funny old week here, my daughter birthday, but she's away (that's my favourite photo of her age 4, dressed in her own unique way, blowing me a kiss, on way to a gardening open day and now age 15! wow I remember that photo like it was yesterday!), we've had family visitors too and gone from full on house to empty nest, in the space of 5 days, freezing weather, as I type my nose is cold and I'm wearing a jumper and a fleece! The 24th of July and its 11 degrees with wind speed of 27 mph and gusting at nearly 40 mph! Bah, so much for summer, we've been out exploring in hats and scarves and jumpers and fleeces. We've also been doing some indoor exploring, where we found a lovely painted butterfly -  so that cheered me up, the cellist loves butterflies, so it also reminded me of her!

The weather on the other hand, did NOT claim to be so cheery - the met office told me:

Sun 24 Jul - Orkney Weather

Time Weather Temp Wind Visibility Dir Speed Gust

1300 13 °C NNW 27 mph 37 mph Very Good

1600 12 °C NNW 24 mph 36 mph Good

1900 11 °C NNW 22 mph 36 mph Good

2200 11 °C NNW 19 mph 30 mph Moderate

Although on Monday it will be a bit warmer................ nearly 14 degree not really very warm, but better!

Mon 25 Jul

0700 11 °C NNW 15 mph 25 mph Good

1000 12 °C NNW 15 mph Very Good

1300 13 °C NNW 16 mph Very Good

1600 14 °C NNW 17 mph Very Good

1900 13 °C NW 14 mph 24 mph Very Good

Bah!

However, can't grumble too much, its also been full of visiting tall ships and lots of elderflower coridal being made as our elderflowers are flowering like crazy at the moment, a great recipe here from a kind fellow blogger, thank you! And, I got to go to a garden with the lovely purple cut leaved elder - very pretty, more about that later..............

The beginning of the week was full of vibrant life and visitors, and a wonderful energetic toddler, driving on the mower (the tiddler called it a tractor, who am I to argue?), vigorously collecting eggs (we didn't break many!) and  alot of walking and exploring, both indoors (at a play place, full of shiny balls and fun) and also outdoors, including  wearing wellies, spashing in puddles and at the beach after fish and chips for tea!

I don't have many photos of these, as, um, I was very busy, um, driving tractors and making silly noises and splashing and silly stuff as an Aunty, its my duty to splash and do silly stuff and beep beep when driving the tractor, for no real reason up the drive and down again. OK, we did need to give the mower a drive to keep it running (right?!) and to get a bit wet at the beach, and OK it was cold, but at the beach, splashing is compulsary, right?

This week was also the15th birthday for the absent cellist who's 1000's of miles away in France, Happy birthday to my favourite girl, we'll make you a cake when home, 2 week in France gone, 4 week to go til they come home (not that I'm counting you understand)! Yay! Being a single parent sometimes means you miss out on many birthdays and often many christmas's too, it sucks but then again, I get all the everyday good bits too, and they do need time with their other family. I do miss them though! Happy Birthday girlie, more adventures again soon when you're home xx

Age 5, waving in the Orkney sunshine.....and now age nearly 15 on a trip to Hoy.

Now, all the visitors went home yesterday on to empty life for a few days with folk away home and new folk arriving on Monday night. But, I'll keep busy with a house to tidy up again and chores to do. Its very, very cold, if the garden wasn't in leaf, I'd swear it was November, bbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

And, of course at the end of the week, the news of a very horrible tragedy for our near neighbours and close friends in Norway, what a horrible thing to happen, I thought the way Sian thoughtfully put up a few words  here was very poingnant. Thank you to her for that, I've lit a candle too and am thinking of those poor folk in Norway.

Wonder what the next week will bring, hopefully more peace in the world and perhaps, selfishly a little more warmth here!