Vera Macdonald

Here’s Linda’s back garden in Inverurie. She has to dig her way out daily and won’t be able to use her car till spring!

What are these lumps?

I thought about taking up painting in my ‘downtime’ but maybe not chairs! If you look closely you will see the patches and some of you might be thinking ’she didn’t sand that properly’ and ’she should have given it a second coat’ - and yes, you’re right. But a couple of arty pals saw it and liked the paint effect, so that’s how I’m leaving it!

Yes, but is it art?

As (Gavin and) Stacy would say, or abundant if you prefer. The MacCauleys (Emma’s parents) are very hospitable and it was wonderfully full of food, drink and good company, so what more could you ask for? Here’s a sampler to give you the picture.

What a beautifully dressed table

This is a bottle of 'Costapacket' - want some?

Lush decorations in the hall

You just can't have too much tartan

That’s it, then, the tree’s up and ready. We had some heavy snow showers today but wet stuff so not lying at all. I’m feeling the strain of all the marking I’ve been doing - or was it the tiramisu at 10pm last night at the work’s meal out.

It was so badly publicised that I might have missed it, but I had such a good time in St Andrew’s Square yesterday. There was music, break-dancing, cookery displays and a procession of the most weird and amazing art cars - or moving sculptures I would call them. So here’s a selection of what I saw, maybe not so clear as my night vision camera doesn’t seem to be quite as good as the BBC’s.

Colourful, but what is it?

A whiter shade of Christmas

And now we’ll try a little video for those homesick for the old country and who think they’re riding a bike! That’s not a bike - this is a bike!!

I went up north for my Uncle Jimmy’s 86th birthday on 3 September. Here are three of the ‘golden oldies’ enjoying a wee sherry.

Here's tae ye, Jimmy

And here’s a shot of the birtdhay lunch.

And note the favourite cardi makes an appearance

I went with a bit of a sore throat and came back with the worst head cold ever! I couldn’t speak at all for days and now have what could be described as a deep, husky voice. Not good for the classroom next Tuesday when I have 6 hours teaching, so I’m doped up on everything I can think of. Still I’m definitely on the mend.

On Friday we went to St Andrews with 7 teachers and 150 students - and came back with 7 teachers and 150 students. The weather wasn’t too bad compared to the last couple of weeks and we didn’t actually get wet, so that was a bonus. We came back via Anstruther to the famous fish and chip shop. They have been voted best chippie in Scotland about 5 times. So here’s the sea view and the flowers!

What a grey day

Bonnie flowers

Yes, it’s festival time and as well as doubling the population, the works for the new tram are still causing chaos in the city centre and so the buses are totally unreliable and it’s impossible to go anywhere by car either. I’ve been to a couple of shows but that’s all. However I had a stroll down the High Street on Sunday and here’s some of what I saw - it’s just how it should be, isn’t it?

This must be art

Now this next guy is from Perth and before he did this trick with the board of nails, he asked someone to throw an apple at the nails just to show they really are sharp. But his first big trick was sword-swallowing - it looked real enough to me, so much so I couldn’t take a photo, it was a bit aargh!

And the guy on top weighed 16 st - that's about 100kg

Got quite a few comments about the cardi so thought I’d share the pic.

Nice cardi and good choice of specs