Wet day and girl things.

It`s peeing it down here today. I did think I would take Mairi to the allotment and she could pick blackcurrants while I did some weeding, but it looks like that`s out, alas. Pity, because there`s about 20 lbs of blackcurrants needing picked and it`s one of my least favourite jobs, because it involves bending down and that goes for my creaky old back. Oh well, perhaps I`ll take a stool up next week.

So it`s another day of home improvements. (Plus Tesco and laundry, but that goes without saying!) Yesterday I pulled the parts of the old single bed down from the attic to set it up in Mairi`s room. She was still sleeping in her old junior cot bed, and as she`s a tall girl it was a case of head at the headboard and toes curled up at the footboard. Too small... Anyway, she was extremely dubious about the "big" bed (she actually wants Duncan`s bunk beds) but fortunately I recalled that this bed was actually half of a set of bunks from my sister`s house, and the other half was still being slept in by Big Girl Cousin Nicola. Mairi adores both Big Girl Cousins, so that was fine by her, and she was totally happy when she found where Nicola had scratched her name into the varnish on the foorboard, lol.

Anyway, that`s now up in her room, after an interval of cursing when I discovered that Hubby had unplugged the charger for the electric screwdriver and it was flat. I don`t suffer from female incompetance when it comes to DIY, but I have a heavy dependence on power tools because of my small hands. BTW, why don`t they make power tools for folk with hands smaller than gorillas? I`d love a really good rechargable drill that I could hold with only one hand.

I`d repainted the section of Mairi`s wall too, where the old radiator had been removed, and the whole room is looking rather nice, though untidy. That`s our mission for today...tidying up, throwing out a few old things and getting her school uniform etc out to the front again for term starting on Monday. She`s also starting a new gymnastics class tomorrow morning, going for her rugby try-out tomorrow afternoon, swimming classes start again on Monday and ballet on Wednesday. Phew! I`d better get the piles of kit in order...and for Duncan, because he`s got just as many activities too.

Rugby for Mairi? Yes, why not? She`s been standing on the sideline watching Duncan play since she was a baby and she`s keen to have a go. There`s not many girls play at our local club but there are some, and mixed rugby is allowed up to the end of Primary 7 (age 12) under the SRU rules. She`s a big girl for her age, very strong and very fast, plus having a big brother like Duncan she`s pretty used to rough and tumble so I think she`ll do well. Also, starting at P2 (age 6) instead of the more normal P3 (age 7) means she`ll get a lot more time to find her feet, as P2 rugby is mostly just getting used to the ball handling and such. They don`t do full contact rugby at that age either...though I expect Mairi will quite enjoy the chance to legitimitely terrorise a few boys, lol.

Bah, back to domestic stuff, I suppose. All of this is made worse by the fact that 25 miles away the Broughton Gathering has just started, a big annual meeting of all the local spinning groups for chat, coffee, events, competitions and worst of all, shopping opportunities. I can`t go though because I have Mairi to look after here...I had foolishly neglected to mark this down on the calendar and before I knew it Hubby had booked this weekend off to go to Wales with Duncan, to see a friend. Humph. I`ve tried taking Mairi before to spinning events and though I know she`d manage for an hour if she had a quiet corner, some colouring books and a lot of snacks to keep her busy, it`s basically too fraught trying to keep an eye on her over several halls. And frankly, I`m not that keen on taking grumpy small kids to events where adults are trying to have a nice quiet peaceful relaxing day away from their own kids, you know? Not fair on anyone, including me.

I do regret the shopping opportunities though. So I have promised myself a couple of hours tidying up the stash this afternoon, to remind myself that I`ve got more gorgeous fibres and yarns waiting to be used than I can possibly cope with! Anyway, I need to find a couple of UFOs that I`m determined to finish this autumn and to see if there`s anything that really should go on ebay. Plus plan my next spinning project...I`ve got some lovely Gothland fibre somewhere, and some grey angora. I fancy a cardigan from that, I think....

Have a nice Saturday, folk.