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Showing posts from July, 2012

The Olympics

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This was one of those views that made my jaw drop. 
That is the ferry coming in from Ireland that you can see in front of Arran.
Now, has anyone been watching the Olympics.   I haven't watched the telly for such an extended time for so long.  I'm getting really into it.  I never would have thought I would have enjoyed it so much.
Right from the opening ceremony which I thought was wonderful. Those wonderful children choirs from Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales, not forgetting that very funny Mr Bean scene and also James Bond with the Queen, and the great final of lighting the huge torch. 
I've enjoyed it all!

And the sport - I've seen the cycling, swimming, diving, rowing, gymnastics.   Phew the list goes on!!!  And some of these events are soooo  exciting. The woman's cycling, for instance, had me on the edge of my seat cheering them on.  Great stuff!!!!!! I have to take my hat off to all of these athletes - they are so dedicated and they look as if they are having fun.�…
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Colourful Fields

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Ok, here is another couple of shots from one of my cycle rides the other day.   I just love all of the different colours in these fields.  I drive by these scenes in my car and although I do enjoy it I don't really appreciate just how lovely the scenery really is.   I suppose this is just another benefit to getting out on my bike :)



Talking about being out on my bike - I went out again last night for an hour.   It was quite breezy and made the going just that wee bit harder.  I managed though - pat's self on head, lol. However when we got home and we were going up the path beside our house I turned to tell  Karen that I was stopping so that she wouldn't go into the back of me.  You can just tell where this story is going can't you :)) Well I put my brake on and the back wheel came up and I couldn't control my bike,  it was wobbling about with me on it - I was trying really hard to be in charge but the bike got the better of me and the next thing I knew I am on the ground …
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Friday Greenery

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Our wee town is famed for some of it's many golf courses.   In fact the Open Golf is being played here in 2016 (I think that is the correct year!)  and was also held here about 10 years ago.   Laura, my eldest daughter, was still in secondary school at the time and along with a few of her school mates got the opportunity to go to work there and help out at it, I think she got the job of litter picker - and she got paid for it :)    She got to see a lot of  the golfers playing  and I'm sure she will remember it for a long time to come.
Anyway this is a shot of that very golf course - Royal Troon.  You can see the sea and that is the Heads of Ayr in the distance.
I thought I'd share this picture with
Fiona at Raindrops and Daisys link up
Green Day
If you want to see some more glorious green pictures you should go and visit her blog. 
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The Smiley Face Query

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I just love seeing unusual plant life - or at least they are unusual to me!!
When I was out on my bike last night - I'm beginning to really enjoy saying that:) - I saw these rather different leaves. There wasn't very many of them and there were no flowers on the plant. Does anybody know what they are?  



Now, even I know this is a rose but isn't it a beautiful one. A perfect specimen if you ask me.
Sharing today with Deb with

On a different note - you know when I put :)) after a sentence, well I think that is a big smiley face. But Danny was reading my blog the other day and he said "why do you put smiley faces with a double chins on your blog?"   What!!! Now I'm hoping I'm right with my interpretation with big smiley face and it's not a double chin.  Please prove me right someone.
On that note: :))) (tee hee)
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I Love My Bike

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Well, I've got my bike back from the shop after having it's wheels fixed and I've been out two nights in a row. 
And, I'm LOVING it!!!
Last night we (Karen and I) were out for an hour - we were quite tired by the time we got home and my legs were just a wee bitty shaky!!  I really enjoyed it though.
Tonight we were out again and only for 45 minutes and again we had a great cycle. 
Here is my bike.  Debbie - I took your advice and got a basket for it, what a great buy that was - it is so useful. My rain jacket and camera safely stashed in there and can you see - my bike is  purple  :)) I took this picture - that is the Marine Hotel (the one where Karen works) with Arran in the background. 
I'm hoping to get out again tomorrow - who thought I would get so much pleasure from cycling. Certainly not me
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Blogging Sisters

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I was given this lovely blogger award yesterday.   Sisterhood of  the World Bloggers Award.  Don't you think it is a really cool name for an award?
It was very kindly nominated to  me by Dianna from These Days of Mine.  Dianna has a lovely blog where she talks about all sorts of different things and is always interesting. She also takes a very fine sunset/sunrise picture. :)  You should go and pay her a visit and you will see just what I mean!!!
Now on to the (what I find) difficult part. Finding 7 interesting (?) things about me!!! Mmmmmm,  I'll be back in a moment when I have thought of something, lol.
Well, I don't know if this is interesting or not but here goes!!!
1.  Last night my girls told me they thought I was a bit ditzy - and Danny  agreed with them (what a cheek).  I think they were joking - I hope they were joking!!! :)
2.  I love flowers - and especially taking pictures of them (but you probably know that already)
3.  I have two daughters going to university after the …
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Some Flowers

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I fancied having some lovely flowers in the house, so I went to our local supermarket and bought some. Some freesias and some stocks.   I can't even begin to tell you how lovely the smell from them is.  And the best thing is they only cost me £6.00 - not bad eh!!!!
Now, if you now me by now you will know that this means only one thing - I just have to get my camera out :))   I really like taking pictures of flowers  - I'm not sure why maybe it's because they are so pretty.
Anyway here are my offerings.
Not the best pictures ever but the flowers sure look nice. 
I thought I'd share them with   Lisa at Macro Monday
Today has been another wet day - it's pouring with rain - again!!!! That is all that we are getting - every day.  I'm really sorry to moan about it when lots of you are struggling with droughts and very high temperatures and I'll try not moan anymore :) I went to take my bike to the repair man in town and he was shut - aargh.   He is only open 3 days a week - I…
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List Making and some Wild Flowers

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I've got a notion that I'd like to make some jam or something. My girls got me a jam making kit for my birthday last year and I've still not used it. Shocking right!!!! So hopefully I'm going to get around to it this year. In fact that is on my list of things to do when I am on holiday. I really fancy making some lemon curd too - but there is only going to be me that eats it, maybe I'd better not make that then. I'd just be torturing myself :))
Talking about lists of things I want to do on holiday - I've got a lot of things planned. Places to go, shopping to do (don't tell Danny!!!), crafts that I'd like to try. I'm just wondering if two weeks will be long enough!!!
Anyway tonight Karen and I went for a wee walk.  It was just starting to rain so we didn't want to go too far just in case. But as it turns out the rain stopped. I was marvelling at the wonderful wild flowers there are out there all different kinds and colours. Here's a selection …
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Friday Greenery

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Well it's the time of week again when I have t0 say - yay it's Friday :))  I will be finished work today by 6pm and then there are two whole days before I go back.  It is a lovely feeling. :)
Even better, in two weeks I stop for my 2 weeks annual summer leave.  Not that we are going anywhere but we will probably do a few day trips. I am fair looking forward to it and it can't come quick enough.  
Well with it being Friday it means it is also Green Day  at Raindrops and Daisys.  So here is my offering for today.

And it's also time of the week for Weekend Reflectionsso sharing this one there:))


I also spotted this old car (I've no idea what it is) but I really liked it, and I love the colour too. It's not a great picture because it is a big zoom but I wanted to put it up.  We don't see that many vintage cars around here - and I think this one is a cracker!!!
As some of you may know, I am trying to lose a bit of weight and get healthier.  Well I'm pleased to say th…
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Tree Lined Pathways

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When we visited Eglinton Country Park at the weekend I remembered a tree lined pathway which I had seen and taken a picture of way back in March.  
It was very bare and quite wintry looking.   Here is that picture.

Just look at the difference 4 or 5 months can make!!

It is so pretty.
I LOVE tree lined pathways. 
There is just something so magical about them (I think anyway).
I've decided I'm going to do some pictures of different places at different seasons of the year.
 So I'll come back here in the autumn - you just know how lovely it will look with all of those browns, yellows and oranges in those leaves. 
I will just have to try and remember to post the picture!!!
Sharing today with   Deb on 


NB. on the car issues we are having. Danny was out again last night in the rain (not quite as heavy as the night before).  
It's not quite as simple a job as I thought. But hopefully it will be finished tonight.  I don't envy him at all working out there in the rain - but the garage is…
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The Car And It's Leaking Radiator

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Karen discovered these seeds and decided to grow them to see what they looked like.
They are called Black Dragon Coleus - with a name like that you really would want to see what they would like don't you think.
Anyway here it is - it is quite unusual.




Really pretty leaves, I'm not sure if it will flower, we will have to see!!!

We are having car troubles at the moment - cars are great when they work but a real pain in the rear when they don't.  
Our Audi (an old car) has sprung a leak in it's radiator.  So on Saturday Danny decided he was going to fix it.  First of all he had to take the front bumper off - much easier said than done. It wasn't just a case of unscrewing it but maneuvering it and a lot of  pushing and pulling to unclip it.  It took a long time to get it off but he did manage it -well done Dan :))
The next stage was to get the leaking radiator out - another problem  - the bolt was locked tight and wouldn't budge so he had to break it eeeek.   I had to go to…
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The Headless (and legless) Statue

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Yesterday we paid a visit to Eglinton Country Park near Irvine. We were there in February this year - I did a couple of posts on it, you can see the posts I did here and here if you like. While we were wandering around yesterday we found this statue and I just had to go and take a closer look. 



I did think it was quite strange that there were no heads on either of them and that one of them had a leg missing. 
Well, thereis a bit of a story to this statue.  I found out about it on google - isn't google a wonderful thing ?
The inscription on it says "ye maunna tramp on the Scotch thistle laddie" (maunna meaning mustn't). The statue is of an old man, and a young boy who has stood on a thistle, the old man is trying to take the thistle out of the boys foot. The statue was commissioned around 1888 by the Kelvingrove International exhibition by Paisley soap manufacturer Isdale and McCallum to advertise their Thistle soap. The statue sat on their factory's roof …
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Serendipity

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I was out for a run in the car with Karen last night just to see what we could see. We decided to go to Irvine beach which is just about 5 miles up the road.  There wasn't very much exciting happening there, but on our way back we passed the Irvine harbour.  
Well when I saw the reflections in the water I just had to  STOP  and get out of the car. 
I was gobsmacked at how lovely it looked.
It was just as well I had decided to take my camera with me. 
So I took a couple of pictures just to show you.


I think it was a case of being in the right place at the right time.  Isn't that what they call serendipity!!!
It definitely made my night. 
I think I might just go out again tomorrow night - just to see what I can see :)) 
Sharing these with  Nancy

and James with Weekend Reflection
Have a lovely Sunday.
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Green Day

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Phew - well all I can say is thank goodness it's friday. I've had quite a busy week, with all the extra hours at work and trying to fit everything else in  too. I've not even been able to spend as much time on my blog and visiting yours.  So tonight I'm here for a wee while but I'm feeling a tad tired so I may even try and go to my bed early. That is something I very rarely manage to do. 
With all that said I wanted to get my post up for Fiona at raindrops and daisys  link up called  Green Day .



I have to say this about having a lot of rain, everything is looking lovely and green and healthy. We have had a couple of quite nice days which is lovely.   Hopefully I'll even get chance to go out this weekend and get some pictures taken.  
Hope you have had a more exciting week than I have!!!
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Wild Flowers

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Today has been the first sunny, dry day in what feels like ages.  So, when I got home from work I decided I must cut our jungle, I mean grass :))   It was honestly getting to look just like a jungle.   The only trouble is that our strimmer isn't working so the grass is nice and tidy but the edges leave a lot to be desired.  Hopefully we will have a dry day at the weekend and I can tidy that up too.
This evening, after dinner, Karen and I decided to go out. We went along to the beach to see what I could take some pictures of. I have no pictures left on my camera and really needed to remedy that.



There were plenty of the usual lovely wildflowers out there like the daisies and clover but there were a couple that I really didn't recognise.  For example look at that last picture - what on earth is that???
I've not got much more to report from this week.  I'm doing lots of extra hours at work to cover for people being on holiday, so I've not got a lot of free time to do anything…
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Concrete Jungle

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These are most definitely not the prettiest pictures I've every posted but I thought I'd put them up anyway :))


These were taken yesterday when Dan and I were in Glasgow.   We were underneath the Kingston Bridge. Dan had parked the car and left me there while he went to pick up something for his woodwork. Not the nicest car park I've ever been in(he takes me to the most romantic places, NOT) lol.  
I quite liked how all the pillars go off into the distance - it appealed the the novice photographer in me :)  What I didn't like was the noise of the traffic up above me on the bridge. They must have been going over a ramp or something -bdump bdump was the noise it was making - and it was very busy.   A bit unnerving let me tell you. That I'm afraid was about the most exciting thing about my weekend - apart from the tennis of course :)
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Wimbledon And Some Strawberries

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Since it has been a fortnight of Wimbledon I thought I put up a picture to commemorate it.  Well I didn't have strawberries and cream but I thought this might do instead!!!  Who can resist a chocolate covered strawberry?  Not me :)))

Phew, well that's Wimbledon Tennis over for another year.  It's murder when you want to watch a really good final and things like making the dinnerget in the way.  
I thought at the beginning of the Federer and Murray game that Scottish Andy Murray might actually be able to pull a win off.  But Federer, true to form, ran away with it.   I felt really sorry for Andy at the end of it all he really was quite emotional, but never mind Andy there is always next year.  And I have to say full marks to Roger Federer he played a brilliant game and really deserved his win.
I have always loved watching tennis.  I remember being a teenager when players like Bjorn Bork, Jimmy McInroe, Boris Becker, to name but a few, were playing.   I used to spend the fortni…
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Mmmm Watermelon

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Here we are, Friday again.  I'm not sure which is my favourite day Friday or Saturday.  Is it Friday because that is the last day of the working week or Saturday because it is all mine :)  Mmmm - I'll need to think about that one. 
What do you think?
Anyway Friday is Green Day at raindropsanddaisys and I was wondering what I could shoot for it.
I was rummaging in my cupboard and fridge when I spotted a delicious watermelon, some green grapes and some strawberries.   Perfect!!!   Green with a splash of red.

You see there is some method in my madness - now I can have a bit of each for my lunch!!! 
You should think of popping over to Fiona's blog and see what other green goodness is there and maybe you will want to take part.

Also sharing with Mira at Crisp Photoworks

Another great blog full of hints and tips and beautiful pictures.

 Here's to a great Friday everybody.  :))
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