"Black Cat With 29 Miniature Pumpkins".

Yes, they`re real, I grew them. We did have thirty (from only two plants) but one has been given away already. We sent most of them into Mairi`s primary one class to use as part of the Halloween display.

And doesn`t Theo make a great vampire-type cat?

Have a nice Halloween, folks.

The view from my window....

This is the current view from the window in front of my desk..



Beautiful, isn`t it? Not! The whole house is encased in this, three floors high. It`s like being inside a cage, especially when you practically have to tunnel through to reach the front or back door. And how much work has been done so far?

Yup, zero. We`ve got the scaffolding, but no actual work as yet. On Site meeting tomorrow though. Wish me luck......

The scaffolding cometh...

The builders arrived at 8am today. Were we expecting them? Nope. I was having a shower while thinking about the kittens...they were booked into the vets to be neutered today. So when the doorbell rang I thought it was the postman.

Was I prepared? Nope. I had pretty well decided that this just wasn`t going to happen this side of Christmas, which would have been a total PITB because I would then have had to make Christmas lunch for all my nearest and dearest. Now I can rely on my kitchen being mostly in the nearest skip on Christmas day, yeah! There is a silver lining in every cloud...now we can go out to eat or inflict ourselves on someone else.

Downside of course is that I have slowed down slightly in my dejunking efforts to the point of coming to a total standstill. So the house is not ready for an invasion of builders. Fortunately they don`t need interior access for a whileand now that they`re here I feel remotivated. Tommorow I`ll dejunk for Scotland, belive me.

Today? Well, last day of school half term so I did what every sane woman would do the day the builders arrive for a ten week stay....I took the kittens to the vet, then took the kids out for the morning and lunch. We went to Dynamic Earth which was really interesting, even for a five year old. Lots to see and do. Now we`re home waiting for the pick-up call from the vet. Poor little cats. Seems a bit unfair to remove all choice of reproduction from another living creature in a way. But it would have been a very bad idea to have a brother/sister pair of unneutered cats in the house, so off to the vet they went.

Kids go back to school Tomorrow.

Apologies...

Good Gawd, is it really four weeks since I updated this blog??? My apologies!!!!!

What have I been doing? Well, many things, but no, the building work hasn`t started yet, alas. We are waiting on one single piece of paper, the permit for the scaffolding to be erected. We live on a main traffic artery, you see, and our scaffolding may have an impact on the traffic flow. We will get the permit, but not sure when. And of course, we`re getting close to the point where we may not have time to complete the work by Christmas. And building companies don`t like leaving scaffolding unattended for two weeks of holiday time. There is always the possibility some drunk might decide to climb it, fall off, break his neck and the builders would get sued, you see. Or us! So there`s a growing chance that the repair start date may be put back to January......*sigh*

Watch this space.

As to the rest, well, life goes on as usual. I turned forty-eight last week and young Miss Mairi turns five next week. We`ve had two parties already...her big bash at the trampoline centre for her schoolfriends. Fourteen little girls dressed up as fairies and princesses bouncing around and pretending to fly, lol. Very cute! No pix though, because they`re not all my kids and I don`t want to post pix of other kids here without parental permission, sorry. We also had a small family party last week, for my, Mairi`s and Duncan`s birthdays. (Duncan turned ten last month.) They didn`t mind sharing this party but they didn`t want to share a cake, so I made two, one for him and one for her. Kids are weird about this sort of thing, no?

And on the knitting and spinning front? Well, I am back for the new sessions of both the Edinburgh and Haddington spinners Guilds, and I have been working on finishing up a lot of small projects. Plus I finished Mairi`s jumper, nearly done another pair of socks and am looking for a nice pattern for the peacock yarn I spun up over the summer. No, no pictures just yet. Weather and light have been foul here as we settle into the long greyness of the Scottish winter.

Half term next week...already! We`ve got a few things planned for outings, so I may get some pictures then. We`ll see.