Mother's Day post

It's Mother's Day in the UK today - Jo got a "Slabb" of chocolate from Carole, who, thoughtfully added a lolly for me so I wouldn't feel left out! That's Mother's Day sorted, but what can we do for Jo's big birthday next Saturday? Two years ago, for my 70th, we went on an extravagant, extended holiday, which included a circumlocution of the globe and a cruise, but there's no chance of replicating that this time - we can't even do a short Staycation yet. In fact, we were due to have an overnight at the Hotel du Vin, St. Andrews at the start of this month, but obviously that had to be cancelled - as did our trip to Oban and Mull later this month - plus afternoon tea at Craigellachie. All of these were Itison deals, so they have been cancelled and our account is now in credit. Hopefully we'll be able to do these trips later on. All we can do just now is get out for regular walks - thankfully the weather's been kind to us, as witnessed by this shot of Jo at the former Inchmarlo golf course:

Gary's got a new (to him) car so he returned Jo's car last Saturday whilst delivering a chocolate cake to me for my birthday. We got to see Gary, Carole and Luca in the flesh for the first time in ages - albeit briefly. Of course, Jo's car's M.o.T. was out of date so I've booked it in for this and servicing this coming Friday, which I've since realised is the same day as the start of the Great British Beer Festival Winter (our beers for this arrived a few days ago). Coincidentally, my car was booked in for a product recall and MoT on 1st March, which meant heading in to Aberdeen, so I took the opportunity to take my bike with me and cycled round Aberdeen on what was a beautifully sunny day. I headed over to Nigg Bay first of all to check on progress on the major new harbour project. From there, round the main harbour, Footdee, coffee at Inversnecky, along the beach and out to Brig o' Balgownie again:

That was Monday. On Tuesday, I had my first game of golf this year, with the course finally open after two months of being under ice and snow. Wednesday, of course, was Cade and Audrey's wedding which we were unable to attend in person, but we got some live video and lots of photos as well, which was some compensation. That same day, I had my appointment for blood tests as part of my annual review. I've since been asked to do them again in 6 weeks' time as one of the results (kidney) was (just) outwith the recommended parameters. On Friday that week, we had arranged a Sicilian wine and cheese Zoom session, which we set up in the study/studio/office:

There were Italian meats and olives to nibble on as well, but the biggest hits with us were the white wine (which we've since bought more of) and the olive oil, which really surprised us at how nice it was. Spring feels like it's here already - certainly everywhere on our walks we increasingly notice crocuses, snowdrops and even daffodils are beginning to bloom:

One other, not so nice effect of the onset of better weather and longer days is the return of the gulls. The last two years when we returned from Australia, we found seagulls had invaded Arbor Court and set up nests for their young. This year we had the chance of taking some pre-emptive action before they were properly settled in:

Initial results of these bird scarers were pretty good but we notice the gulls are back again - perhaps not so many and not so close this time, but they're definitely around. It's not as noisy as before but we've had our first "dumps" on our cars as they fly overhead. What are they doing here anyway? I got a birthday box of food from the Milton, courtesy of Lucy:

That kept us going for a few days! Dawn sent us another photo of Avery - apparently it was Ellis who did her hair this day!:

Jo and I took another short drive to Crathes to go for a walk on Thursday and I took this slightly unusual view of the castle through the gardens:

Saturday (yesterday) is sports day for me - football, golf and rugby - and Mary day for Jo. The sisters' online chats often last 4-5 hours! As well as watching the sport in my "den", I took the opportunity for another indoor Wahoo cycle and chose Oregon again - Cow Creek this time:

I've now completed 4 of my new memory shows, which are currently available as podcasts which I provide for the Forget-Me-Not Club in Banchory, but one of my old school pals has also sent it to his local Dementia Support group in Dunblane. So far, I've done this week in 1971, 1963, 1981 and now 1990. I get through a lot of stuff in this 30 minute show - TV, radio, sport, music, books, film and local, national and international events. Here's the link for the 1990 show if anyone would like to listen - https://www.mixcloud.com/River_Dee_Radio/that-was-the-week-that-was-4-we-10-march-1990/