Tackling the Triffids

Summer has been such a whirl this year that I’ve ended up with a folder of drafts about the garden I didn’t find time to post. Now as summer crosses into autumn, I’m starting to tidy up the garden and tackling a few plants that have become triffids.

I had grown some teasels in the flower bed to try to attract gold finches to the garden (without success) and I’ve enjoyed watching them grow through the seasons from leafy rosettes in the ground to tall shoots with a hazy purple petals, and finally the spiky seed heads. Ladybirds and bees have absolutely loved the teasels, but they had become total thugs dominating the bed and pushing the other plants out. I pulled them out, and the roses are looking elegant and airy again, and hopefully the hardy geraniums will rebound next year.

The other triffid in the flower bed is the Crocosmia Lucifer, which always looks fabulous but never lasts very long, and has collapsed under it’s own weight. I’m considering digging it out, or at least thinning it.

And finally, our Victoria plum deserves a mention here too. We planted our plum tree in 2021, and it has spent the last few years growing and sprawling. This spring it was covered in white blossom, which grew into so many plums that several branches snapped under the weight, and I’ve had to prune it quite harshly to try to save it from further damage. I’ve also had to remove lots of fruit that had developed a fungal disease, though we have still harvested enough to make cakes and give to our neighbours after the kids informed us they don’t like plums.

We’ve spent so much time outside in the sunshine this summer, but it’s also been very busy and I’m hoping the next few months will be a bit slower and I’ll have time to start on some of our winter gardening projects. Have a lovely week! X

Summer Holidays

This is a big week for our family as our oldest daughter starts school tomorrow, and as the summer holidays draw to a close, I’m reminiscing about one of the highlights of the summer, our family holiday in July. This year we booked a caravan in St Andrews, which is not actually that far away from where we live, but further away than we’d take the kids for a day trip.

The caravan park we stayed at was beside the Fife Coastal Path meaning we were a short walk from East Sands beach. We had the most incredible view from the caravan, and I loved seeing the sun set over the iconic sites of the Cathedral and Castle ruins every evening, and the sun burning through the mist in the morning.

We spent a good bit of time exploring local sites and attraction from Craigtoun Country Park, which has lovely grounds to wander and adventure playparks but also a variety of paid activities from mini golf and go karts to tractor rides and mini train, and bouncy castles through the summer. We visited the Aquarium, which is small but packed full of interesting creatures including axolotl, meerkats and a colony of Humbolt penguins. We picked strawberries and cherries at Cairnie fruit farm, where the kids also enjoyed trampolines, sandpit, go-karts and slides.

We drove up to Dundee for a day trip to see the RSS Discovery museum and the V&A Dundee. We’d visited the Discovery once before and it’s absolutely fascinating learning about Scott and the brave explorers in the Antarctic, there were plenty of interactive parts for the kids too, though they were a bit less awed by it.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the V&A Dundee as I’ve only ever seen photos of the exterior, but it exceeded all my expectations. There were stem puzzles, games and blocks for kids to play with at the entrance, plus dress up areas upstairs, and there’s also a free exhibition of Palestinian embroidery (Tatreez) running from June 2025 to Spring 2026 to celebrate the 45th Anniversary of Dundee twinning with Nablus in the West Bank.

We spent a bit of time at the beach every day too, splashing in the waves, digging in the sand and building sandcastles. We also visited Jeanetta’s Gelateria almost every day for ice cream.

I don’t always feel we get the balance right between relaxation and activities, and as fun and exciting as our holidays are, it is always good to get home and settle back into our routines, but this was a really lovely break.

Have a lovely week. X

Summer of Sand and Sea

There’s been a slight crisp coldness sneaking into our mornings foreshadowing autumn, and after a very overcast and rainy summer, I’m ready for the change of season. Despite the weather, the highlight of my summer was our family holiday, when we returned to East Lothian again though a different caravan park this time around, right beside the seaside.

There’s something so wholesome and nostalgic about the simplicity of spending days at the beach paddling in the sea and filling our pockets full of shells then returning to a cosy caravan in the evening.

The weather was patchy with the best days on the days we arrived and departed, and mostly overcast with showers in between but it didn’t stop us from doing everything we had planned. We are none of us very good at relaxing and usually squeeze a lot of activities and sightseeing into our holidays, and this trip was no exception.

We enjoyed a morning in Edinburgh visiting the Camera Obscura and World of Illusions, which exceeded all expectations and was really fun with so many interactive displays that the kids loved. Our favourite parts were feeling (and bumping) our way through the mirror maze and the Vortex, which is an optical illusion with a bridge through a revolving tunnel that had us all clinging to the barrier convinced we were going to be tilted and turned upside down.

We also returned to one of the beautiful beaches we’d discovered on our holiday last year. Coldingham Bay is a beautiful beach with colourful beach huts and crashing waves favoured by surfers and bodyboarders. My husband and our oldest daughter went splashing in the waves while I built sandcastles for our youngest to smash. We all took a wander along the hill and found a rocky little shingle where the kids entertained themselves stacking pebbles, before returning to the main sandy beach for one last splash in the sea before heading home. It was definitely one of my favourite parts of our holiday.

As much as I love our little family holidays and look forward to so many more as our girls grow, after a few days living in close quarters in a caravan, it’s always good to return home to be reunited with our cat Mara who stayed home with my dad pet-sitting while we were away. Now we’re looking forward to autumn and another wee break away. X

A stroll along Seamill Beach

Though I’ve lived in the West of Scotland for most of my life (with the exception of four very happy years as an undergrad in Aberdeen), I’m still exploring my country and finding new places.

When we found ourselves with a free Saturday that also happened to be gloriously warm and sunny, we decided to have a day trip to the beach that a former colleague had mentioned. Seamill is a lovely sandy beach peppered with rocky outcrops on the Ayrshire coast with an impressive view of the Isle of Arran across the sea.

As the tide was receding when we arrived, our daughters had a little splash and paddle in the sea but we spent most of our time exploring the rock pools as they became accessible. My husband was in his element ankle deep in the water, lifting to rocks to see what he could find underneath, and I’m always delighted whenever he finds a starfish.

A trip to the beach for a picnic, a stroll along the shore and a paddle in the sea is always one of my favourite ways to spend a sunny day, and always appreciate finding another lovely beach to visit. Have a lovely week. X

Bittersweet Changing Seasons

Autumn is upon us once more, a transitional season that reminds me of the inevitability of change, and this year feels particularly bittersweet. At the end of July, my blog turned seven. I originally named my blog ‘Lovely and Grateful’ because I wanted it to record all the loveliness in my life that I’m grateful for and even the not-so-lovely parts that remind me not to take anything for granted, but I’m not sure if the name still fits. I’d love to know what you think in the comments.

There have been other milestones too, our youngest daughter started crawling at 7 months, then pulling herself up and crabwalking around furniture, she is just so desperate to join in with her big sister’s games and to see what we’re doing. We’ve had a fair few disrupted nights because of teething, but she has taken to weaning with great enthusiasm, willing to try anything and enjoying most of the same meals we eat (without the salt or stock). At nearly 10 months old, she’s still petite and cheerful, but curious and determined too. Over the last few months, we’ve been getting out to bookbug sessions at the local library and baby sensory, which we’ve both really enjoyed. As her first birthday draws near, I’m already feeling the nerves and guilt about returning to work but she’ll have her big sister to look out for her at nursery.

As for our oldest daughter, she is as boisterous and independent as ever but also surprises us with her caring and generous side. We’ve finally started getting to know the parents of our 3 year old’s nursery friends and have had a few playdates together, that we’ve all enjoyed and that I really felt we’d missed out on because of Covid19.

There has been a big change in the garden too, and I’m still getting used to the new view. When our new neighbours in the house attached to ours moved in they asked to replace the privet hedge that separates our gardens with a fence, we politely declined citing the wildlife such as nesting sparrows and hedgehogs passing through. Unfortunately, we’ve had to reconsider recently as they now have a dog that regularly strays into our garden, and he’s a large, reactive breed that scares our kids.

As it happens, I suspect the sparrows had already abandoned the hedge, and we haven’t seen any hedgehogs this year, but it does make me sad that we’re making our garden inaccessible to any that try to visit in the future, but we’ll find other ways of making the space wildlife friendly.

It’s been a summer full of family trips to beaches and playparks, our first family holiday together and lots of time in our garden, and I’m a little sad to say goodbye to the season. So many of the summer highlights have been the pure and simple joy of gardening and watching our daughters learn and grow, and the ordinary moments playing, dancing, reading stories, crafting and swimming together that is the fabric of our family life. As the weather cools and the nights draw in, we have a couple of autumnal light shows to look forward to, as well as our youngest daughter’s first birthday, and all the seasonal loveliness to be found in nature at this time of year. Have a lovely week. X

Wildlife Watch in the Garden

One of the highlights of the summer has been watching all the wildlife in our garden, particularly the front garden since we’ve added the pond.

I’d read worrying reports of a lack of insects across the UK leading to chicks starving, but I was so relieved to see our blue tit and sparrow fledglings in the garden in June. In previous years, the blue tits nested in a disused pipe on the side of our house and invariably at least one chick would either shuffle or be pushed off the edge, last year we lost three chicks from either the fall or dehydration before we could return them to the nest, so the birdbox has been a huge success in that regard.

It made my day when I spotted a pair of goldfinches bathing in our pond because we’ve never been able to coax them into our garden before. While chatting with a neighbour, I also spotted a bullfinch in her garden and I’m wondering if I can lure it to our garden just a couple of houses further up.

Many of our most interesting wildlife finds have been in the front garden, my husband spotted a lacewing for the first time and I spent half an hour watching a red damselfly flit around the pond. My husband was beside himself with excitement when he found grasshoppers in our fairly wild front garden, giving him the perfect excuse not to mow the grass for a while longer.

The Kilmarnock Willow was covered in aphids in early summer providing a feast for ladybird larvae, and we also spotted a very hungry and very fat green caterpillar crawling around. None of these insects are particularly rare or unusual but it’s wonderful to see our garden becoming a thriving habitat in an urban environment.

I know one little garden is not enough to stop the rapid decline of so many species across the UK, and I feel so out of sync with my friends and neighbours who are replacing their lawns with artificial grass or paving over front gardens to create driveways, yet I have to try, and I’ll keep trying to create a little safe haven for everything that finds its way here (especially if it eat slugs!). Have a lovely week. X

Sun, Sea and Sand on Holiday

When it was just the two of us, my husband and I used to love city breaks, but for our first proper holiday with the kids, we decided to have a different type of adventure in a caravan for a few nights on the East Coast of Scotland (we’ll save our more exotic destinations for when the girls are old enough to remember them). It was very reminiscent of camping and caravan holidays from my own childhood, and my husband’s too, before the era of cheap flights abroad. We’d toyed with an island break, but opted for somewhere that wouldn’t mean too long stuck in the car for the little ones but further away than we would travel for a daytrip.

My husband and I always like to explore on holiday, but with kids in tow we found a good balance between using the amenities at the caravan park like the playpark and swimming pool (which was a first for our 8 month old daughter but she was perfectly content floating in her inflatable seat), and travelling a bit further afield to visit beaches around East Lothian and the Borders. We were incredibly lucky with the weather and only had one evening stuck inside the caravan playing games of Animal Snap and Little Bug Bingo, reading stories and watching cartoons while the rain hammered on the roof.

The caravan park turned out to be a great base for exploring the area, and we found some lovely beaches from East Beach at Dunbar, and Yellowcraig with views of Bass Rock and Fidra Lighthouse in East Lothian to Coldingham Bay in the Borders that we enjoyed so much I’m hoping we can return some day.

Our oldest daughter was in her element exploring rock pools with her dad, splashing in the sea and digging in the sand; while our youngest daughter is a bit more cautious than her sister but happy enough digging her hands and feet in the sand and letting us dip her toes in the sea.

We ended our holiday with a wander around Dirleton Castle, originally built in the 1200s and remarkably still in tact. A few sections had been closed off to the public but still lots to explore for those willing to brave the remnants of medieval staircases, and there was a playpark just outside the castle walls too.

We squeezed a lot of fun in the sun, sea and sand into our first family holiday, and I’ll treasure the memories we’ve made together. Back at home on the rainy West Coast again, we’re happy to be reunited with our cat Mara, settling back into our routines and surrounded by all the comforts of home. Have a lovely week. X

Summer Scenes and Moments

Taking some time to reflect on some of the highlights of a lovely summer as the season draws to a close before we step into autumn.

We’re an outdoorsy family and have enjoyed lots of time outside in both sunshine and the rain, with a surprisingly fun showery day at Mugdock Country Park, wrapped up in waterproofs and wellies feeding ducks in the pond, splashing in puddles and wandering the forest trails.

We made another visit to our favourite beach, this time chasing the waves at high tide with our fearless daughter charging into the sea up to her waist.

We spent a very changeable day at the Kelpies that began with us appreciating the statues from every angle, then having ice cream and hot chocolate in the drizzle, before the sun came out again and we wandered along the canal path admiring the narrowboats, my husband and I reminiscing about a narrowboat holiday with friends several years ago and daydreaming about possible future family holidays.

There have been afternoons spend in the garden, keeping cool in the paddling pool with ice lollies or thick slices of chilled watermelon, or the little one foraging for strawberries and blueberries in our little food forest, or zooming around our cul-de-sac on her scooter and bike while we chat to our neighbours.

While playgroups and sensory have been off for summer, we’ve spent sunny mornings at the park, swinging, sliding, trampolining and chasing our shadows. Oddly, these morning visits to the park reminded me in an unexpectedly nostalgic way of my maternity leave during lockdown when the parks were all that was open to us. There was also an early morning visit to the skate park at Kelvingrove where the little one rode her balance bike up and down the ramps before the older skateboarders, roller skaters and biking kids arrived.

There was another visit to Five Sisters Zoo, this time with my husband’s family to celebrate a birthday. We spent most of our time shepherding three exuberant little cousins, but still managed to catch glimpses of the red panda in the treetops, beautiful newly arrived Cheetahs, and the rescued lions – which I only recently realised are male having misread the sign the first time I visited (they were castrated when very young and never grew manes). It’s seeing the animals – especially those that were rescued – so healthy and content that makes Five Sisters Zoo such a special place to visit and a zoo that I’m happy to support.

We also had a walk around Rouken Glen Park recently too, seeing the river and waterfalls a mere trickle of what they usually are, but the woods still lush and green. We are really lucky to have so many lovely places to explore nearby.

Even though we didn’t go away for a holiday this summer (we’re saving our annual leave and money for my maternity leave later this year) and the weather has swung from scorching heatwaves to thundery downpours, we’ve had a summer full of fun, laughter and made some lovely memories together. Have a lovely week. X

Sun, Sea and Starfish

SunSeaStarfish1

There have been a slightly disappointing number of cool, overcast and rainy days in our part of the country this summer, but there have also been some lovely days with clear blue skies and warm sunshine, and we recently took advantage of one such day to visit our favourite beach.

Croy Shore is not the closest beach to us, but it is lovely in any weather and every season, and always worth travelling the extra distance. Despite the nearby caravan park, the beach is rarely busy and we usually only have to share it with a few dog-walkers, the odd family picnicking and children building castles in the sand.

I have so many happy memories of time spent at this beach, from sharing a flask of hot coffee with my husband on a bracingly cold New Year’s Day walk, to relaxing strolls watching the sun set together in the weeks before our wedding, and picnicking with friends last summer.

Starfish 2017

Starfish 2017

We often walk south towards the castle perched on the cliff (that always reminds me of Manderley from Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca) but on this visit we decided to walk north towards the rocky outcrops so that my husband could explore the rock pools for starfish, crabs and sea urchins.

Carefully picking our way across the slippery rocks, it was lovely to pause and notice the salty tang in the air, the sound of the waves lapping against the beach, the sunlight sparkling on the water and a clear view of the Isle of Arran across the sea.

I feel very lucky to live in such a beautiful country and there have been many times over the years when the sight of towering, snow-capped mountains, the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves of wise, old trees or waves crashing against the shore have given me a sense of perspective and reminded me how transient most of my worries and stresses are.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a holiday, and though we’re hoping to have a few days away around our anniversary in the autumn, spending a leisurely day together meandering along our favourite beach was so refreshing and restorative. Have a lovely week.

Lovely and Grateful

Surviving on coffee and catnaps

Tag: summer