Saturday 25 December 2021

Christmas 2021- Lemons

Another disrupted Christmas – Covid 19 Omicron. Managed to see everyone in dribs and drabs. Most original present – fresh Spanish lemons.



Wednesday 15 December 2021

Tree 2021

Took the time last year to wind up the lights carefully, clever me.



Tuesday 14 December 2021

Winter Garden

Viburnum bodnantense Pink Dawn particularly fragrant just now.



Tuesday 30 November 2021

Tom Prentice’s Wake

At The Outhouse, Edinburgh, 28th November 2021

Eulogy by Andrew Randall, little speech by me. Projection compiled by Leora Brook, music compiled by me. Classical pieces by Tom’s erstwhile colleagues.

Sad fun.

Tom Prentice 20.8.59 - 21.10.20






Wednesday 10 November 2021

Good Day in Morpeth

Went to see Mary and Gerry on the new Lumo service, complete success. Lunch at the Cook and Barker, won’t need to eat for 48 hrs.



Wednesday 3 November 2021

Tuesday 2 November 2021

OMD

OMD tonight at the Usher Hall, really good, played all of their hit singles really well, and they can both still sing tunefully.

Special guest: Fraser Mills (!) down from Inverness

Co-starring Bill Wait who gave us a lift home








Friday 22 October 2021

Lumo to Morpeth

New train service, Edinburgh to Morpeth direct for £9.80 return which includes seat reservations. It will be good while it lasts! Off on 10/11.



Sunday 17 October 2021

Crab-Apple 2021

5 1/2 lb from the Golden Hornet. Greenish tinge to the liquid but went pink on boiling. Phew.



Wednesday 6 October 2021

Crab-Apple Harvest 6th October

5 1/2 lbs, (2.5kg) this year, should get a dozen jars of jelly. Time will tell.



Thursday 30 September 2021

Saturday 14 August 2021

Gig 52

Fringe By The Sea Saturday 14th August 2021.

Lighthouse Stage, North Berwick.












This was special, we had been invited to play at Fringe By The Sea 2020 after Gig 51, but alas CoVid intervened. However, the invitation still stood, so we played in the Harbour Lighthouse Tent, 400 watchers. Windy but sunny day, a great memory. Two slots with an interval:

Setlist pt. 1 Pictures Of Biggles, Tamagotchi Girl, Cool, Eleanor, Exit Plan, Freiburg (CH) ‘98, The g Factor, It’s Abnormal, Mouse In Love.

Setlist pt.2 Death Makes You Feel Like A Man, Watching Waters Rise, Waterboy Blues, (We Were) Always On Our Own, Standing In For Love, No-one Wants You Watching, Red Star, The Science Of Survival, Selling The Party. Encore: A Physical Husband.

Soundman: Andy. Weirdly blustery sound on stage, but OK in front apparently. Wobbly PA needed sorting during Pt.2 but didn’t cause any delay.

Tense before soundcheck, had left music stand struts in boot of the car which was parked 10 minutes away up the hill.

Very well received, no-one left after Pt.1. Many CDs gone. Families impressed. Rehearsals paid off, stamina improved.

https://www.fringebythesea.com/dancing-mice/




Monday 9 August 2021

Memory Lane

Visited WGH last week, went to old DSN1, my second housejob , sadly looked grim and brought back memories of a pretty strange time, viz: being told to phone ex-KIng Constantine of the Hellenes to get him to authorise the rapid transfer through customs of a neurosurgical electrode from New York to Edinburgh, and to arrange for it to be sped up from Heathrow with a police escort.



Wednesday 28 July 2021

Four Years

…since I worked. Don’t miss it one bit, wish I’d retired sooner. Slightly nostalgic about Harrogate etc. No; on second thoughts, not.



 

Monday 5 July 2021

Pundit with Taste

COVID-19 pundit on BBC this morning, nice surprise to see a copy of Eroded by Dancing Mice on her shelves.



Sunday 27 June 2021

Negroni Sbagliato

Jane’s birthday yesterday, did lunch today, with firework candles and Negroni Sbagliato, which went down a treat.






Monday 31 May 2021

Craigmount Afternoon

Baby Angus up for the Bank Holiday, pleasant afternoon at Natalie and Dave’s, although a little tense every time Angus threw a car in the rill.



Memory of Cars

Martin has my cars from 55 years ago, I remember these seven.



Wednesday 26 May 2021

Lateral Flow Test

First lateral flow Covid-19 test, for studio rehearsals.








Negative…Phew!

Tuesday 4 May 2021

Tom Prentice

20/8/59 – 21/10/20

Ceremony today down at the Water of Leith beside Gt Junction St Bridge; Andrew, Leora, Ian, John McTeirnan, Gary and ? to scatter Tom’s ashes. Lots of memories, sadness and laughter as would be expected. RIP.



Thursday 15 April 2021

Night Phlox

Each side of the front door, strong pong. Zaluzianskya ovata.




Thursday 8 April 2021

Leora and Andrew

Up sorting things in Earlston ( alas!), came to lunch ( hooray!)      .




Friday 19 March 2021

Monday 15 February 2021

A Difficult One

This proved really tricky with many similar pieces. Looks good done though, and made me realise just how good Lowry was with colours.



Friday 22 January 2021

Pulse Oximeter

Good news and bad news. Marathon athlete’s pulserate and asthmatic’s O2 sat. 98% after a few deep breaths phew. Imagine if I took exercise.



Pickle

First attempt at pickling onion.



Snow at Midnight

Gone mid-morning.



Monday 18 January 2021