Luca slept well last night - it was 8 am before he wandered through to our room. He says he feels a bit better and won't need to take any of the medicines that his Daddy gave us - they were both sniffling a bit yesterday and Luca cancelled his football practice.
Spotted our local red squirrel again this morning. It's been getting harder and harder to see him/her as the leaves in the trees have grown so much they now provide perfect camouflage. All the while I've been off work, and after that, when doing my morning exercise routine, we've been watching this particular squirrel who skips across the trees in front of our bedroom every morning between 7 am and 9 am. Surprised that Jo hasn't found a name for him/her yet - but she now wonders whether - and hopes that - there's more than one there.
My bad luck in having my golf cancelled this morning is Jo's good luck. She now gets to go to church without Luca and I get to babysit him for the next few hours.
Yesterday, after dropping off Gary at Aberdeen train station, we were heading back towards Banchory and were passing Duthie Park when we thought we might pop in and have a look. Strictly speaking it was Luca who suggested this, but we were happy to go along with it. It would give me a chance to look at the new bits of Duthie Park that we missed when we were there at Christmas with Kelly and Chris. It was also Jo's first visit there for more than a couple of decades - she was with her father when she was last there.
I definitely got a better impression this time around of the Restoration work that has been taking place at the park for the last couple of years. It was also a more pleasant day than December and we were able to spend time strolling around the whole park and get a better look at it.
First up was one of the new slides. Luca - cautious as ever - watched as other kids hurtled down. "Too fast" was his conclusion:
OK - let's try the big slide that's been there for ever. We know that one's safe - and slow:
Next was the ropes:
The Zip Slide looked like a bridge too far - Luca didn't fancy it, but was eventually persuaded to have a go by another boy who kept repeating to him "it's not scarey":
We visited the Winter Gardens and threw coins in the water and Luca made his wishes. A cafe stop for tea/coffee, scones, Fanta and Smarties - guess who had what? - then a wander round the rest of the park, starting with the Mound, which looks like something out of Teletubbies with its spiral walkway to the top, then steps up to the flagpole:
Here's Jo walking back down:
By about 1 pm we'd done a complete circuit of the park and it was time to move on. When we got near Banchory, I took a bit of a detour up one of my cycling routes past Tilquillie and eventually down at Knockburn Loch, where we stopped for a spot of lunch. It's a lovely peaceful spot, but seemingly little utilised. The cafe is open Fri-Sun but there was more staff than customers. Here's a selfie of me and Jo outside the conference centre/cafe:
Luca is now building Lego in his jammies - he says he's not getting dressed until Jo gets back from church.
Tomorrow it's golf for the Seniors at Deeside. Hope it's a better day than today.
Btw, that's my viewing figures for this blog over the 150,000 mark now.
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