Guid Nychburris

I took Mae to see the "Riding of the Marches" on Saturday. Before we came to Dumfries, I only had a vague idea of what that meant but it seems common in most towns around here and in the Scottish Borders. It involves riding around the town boundaries on horses and usually some kind of symbolic pairing of a couple of lucky young people. In Dumfries you have the Cornet and the Lass and the Queen of the South and it all comes under the auspices of some kind of society called the "Guid Nychburris" (Think drunken young farmers rather than anything as sinister as the Masonic Lodge).

Apparently the "Riding of the Marches" goes back to mediaeval times when its purpose was to dissuade any greedy local landowners from encroaching on the town boundaries and I'm only guessing that the Cornet, Lass and Queen of the South has something to do with fertility. Whether this is the fertility of the land or the population, I couldn't say as nobody says much about it.

Anyway here's some pictures (they are not very good as we met up with Liza, Mae's Child minder who made me nervous by telling the story of when when her sister's horse (minus her sister) came galloping along the footpath we were standing on, so I had one eye looking through the camera, one eye on the horses and an arm around Mae. I'm no expert but I think some may have been already under the influence judging by the whooping and yelling.)

G.

PS. Happy Birthday Sharon

Solstice Sucks

Most of you would think that I mean the winter solstice: living so far north we have very short days. But NON! I mean the summer solstice.

You would think that longer days are great but I can't sleep! It's light until about 1:30 am, then dawn at about 3:30. It's crazy, but it's awful crazy.

Here's Friday nite in our garden after 10 p.m. (No flash!!)

But we are all trying to make the most of the bad situation; Geoff and Mae watched the Riding of the Marches, which is some old tradition in this area- where loads of horses mark out the borders of the towns. They watched the gallop at Kingholm while I was at New Lanark celebrating a friend getting older (see Sharon's blog for photos- good day!!). I was slightly nervous about the gallop as I have heard there has been various mishaps (human and equine) in the past. Alas, they survived!

I am also looking forward to the summer with Mae. It's funny, I don't have many early memories- they start at about Mae's age. One of my earliest? Playing in water sprinklers with my pals- how odd to see my daughter doing it now!!!

Thingy

I am so not ready for this......:

Mae met a little girl yesterday, from the bottom of the next street over, which is just across the road and over the path. She wanted Mae to play with her but it was late so I said come over tomorrow.

At dinner time tonight she came to the door (Geoff answered) and asked: 'Can thingy come over to play at my house?'

So after dinner I walked her over and she (Erin) was nowhere to be found. Her dad didn't seem worried about this. He said he would tell her when she came home. Erin is 6.

So Erin comes to collect Mae and Geoff walks them over. He told Erin that Mae needs to be back in half and hour.

Geoff and I sit in the front garden (one eye on Erin's house in case of fire) until half six, when I wandered over. They weren't in the back garden so I knocked the door and Erin's mum said that she was walking Mae back.

I walked back home, panicking, as they were nowhere to be seen. Geoff went one way and I went back to their road, where Mae and Erin are strolling with ice creams. Mae said she had met all of Erin's friends and they were having a waterballoon fight but she didn't get wet.

I need to lie down now......

Survey question:

This happened in a distance (from one front door to the other) of about 275 feet. Would you let your four year old do this?

ugh

just sobering up after a night on the tiles with the girls from work last night. It was Carer's Week ( pic of me in the paper- that's twice in the paper in two years. I am officially a Doonhamer.) and we had a Body Shop party to cap the week.
Nobody believed me when I told them Nova Scotia was scent free. Once again I am getting a reputation at work for being a bit of a weirdo.
At 10:30 everyone had left so between that time and 1:15 we drank like fish- I can no longer keep up but I tried with 5 large glasses of wine. They kept going. I tripped three times on the way home and dropped my mobile twice.
But I survived to live another day.
Father's Day. Give me strength.

Patriot Games

Okay, the war in Iraq is probably illegal. But does that stop us from welcoming home the Royal Scottish Regiment? Hell, no- they follow their orders. Plus, Mae is a huge fan of pipes and drums so we just HAD to make our way to the homecoming parade.

Most of you know me to be an unsentimental bitch- but you would change your minds if you attended a parade with me. Yes, the pipes make my eyes well up, but I shed a tear at ANY parade. The first parade we took Mae to, I cried. Like really, at the stupid handmade floats of the Rotary Club and the Womans Rural. I have no idea why. I would cry at the parade in Disney World. And not at the cynical, corporate horror of it all- it just makes me weep. There you are, my soft spot.

Oh my goodness. This one's for Bruno.

Entreprenurialism at it's best. This is the kind of thing I would like to have thought of. Although I am not sure it would have been MY thing (maybe Bethanne's....?), this one is going to take off.



Have a glass of HOTmilk.