Flamin' June

Well, it's June now but you'd hardly know it. Barring a couple of short exceptions, May and June, which are normally better weather months in Scotland, have been very disappointing so far - and there's only another 10 days or so until Midsummer.

We've had the light nights of course - there's only a few hours of darkness at this time of year. On the plus side we've finally had some much-needed rain but it's come in fits and starts - some of the showers have been heavy enough to force drain covers up and cause holes in the road surfaces.

There have also been a few freak, localised hailstorms - play was briefly suspended at the Old Course at St. Andrews, which was completely white for an hour or so - and Luca showed us his photos and videos of similar in Oldmeldrum where he works.

On medical matters, my new knee is still not 100% but I have managed to have 4 or 5 games of golf recently, so that's at least a bit of progress. After a long lay-off, I feel like I'm having to re-learn how to play golf - I seem to have no muscle memory at all.

On the dental front I have to undergo more surgery next month before my new implant can be fully installed - and the temporary tooth has now fallen out twice so I'm back to my "toothless" grin.

My previous blog showed the initial work done on our front room fireplace prior to the installation of the wood burner. Here's how it progressed:

We discovered that our chimney(s) were not centred with the wall so there was a bit of on the day decision making before the work could proceed. The exciting part was when the cherrypicker arrived, taking two of the men up on to our roof:

It's now over to us - a bit of paint required and we have to decide whether to get a new fire-safe fireplace or mantlepiece. Additionally, a heat powered fan, external and fireside log holders, logs, kindling, firelighters, shovel, ash caddy etc etc.

The work was completed in 3 days - 2 days less than they'd allowed for. They finished on the Wednesday - just in time as we had a planned all-day power outage the day after.

The following week saw our golfers' monthly beer night at Ian Dring's:

Two days after that we were out for dinner again with Leslie and Anne Mason - for the first time since the Derbar closed last October. It used to be a regular monthly thing - with 3 couples - but, sadly Johanne's Parkinson's is now keeping her housebound so she and Colin can no longer join us. We went to the Saffron Garden for dinner - different from the Derbar, but acceptable.

Our regular walking group went on our first walk this year - a fairly gentle one up to the former hamlet of Auchtavan which used to be a regular place for the former Queen Mother to visit - although I couldn't exactly picture her walking up the hill - the Royal Landrovers would have been busy then. We had beers afterwards at the Invercauld Mews in nearby Braemar:

I was back at Braemar a week later - golfing this time - coolish but thankfully dry. On the return to Banchory, however, the temperature steadily increased to a sunny 20 C, so Jo, Ross and I popped round to the Tor-na-Coille and had a couple of early evening drinks in their garden:

Walking past the Episcopal church a couple of days later, I was impressed by their colourful garden:

Later this year it's the 10th anniversary of River Dee Radio so we had a planning meeting on Monday to discuss a celebratory event. The following night was a CAMRA branch meeting, held at the delightful New Inn in Aberchirder - known locally as "Foggie" (short for Foggieloan). It's a brewpub with a wide range of ales, 5 of them on at all times. Excellent pies and pizza - and it was traditional music night when musicians from all over descend on the inn.

Logistics were tricky however - Aberchirder is very rural - over an hour north of Banchory with no realistic bus or rail services. How would I get there - and back? I finally came up with a plan which involved Ross driving me over to Inverurie where I would get picked up by a fellow CAMRA member who would act as designated driver that evening and would take me back to Inverurie later on.

Jo made a late decision to join Ross and wait for me at Gary's house. They ended up going out for a meal with Gary and Luca, so all good in the end.

Talking of CAMRA, it's our local branch's 50th anniversary later this year and we're getting a local brewery to produce a commemorative brew for the occasion. I'll be co-ordinating this with Dave at Braemar Brewing.

We're very pleased to see that our newest great grand-daughter Kennedy seems to be faring well. She certainly looks very happy in this photo:

To finish, somebody posted one of our class photos on our old school's Facebook page recently. Can you spot me?: