Spring has sprung...

...though there's still a bit of snow on the hills. It's also quite chilly still, so blooms, buds and blossoms are not yet in abundance; ditto the wild garlic, but soon. Easter has been and gone, school holidays been and almost gone. Walks, riverbanks, tree ring counting and a bit of sibling love and wrestling, some trees, mosses and 'helicopter skeletons' as Effie calls them....

Pretty and Pink

I'm not normally given to musing about pink stuff, gender specifics and all that - having avoided it most of my adult life and worn a muted palette of black, black and more black in terms of clothes and accessories and rigorously dressed my baby daughter in anything but pink - I couldn't help but notice how much pink there actually is around. Starting with the obvious, flowers at the Tree Shop - loads and all vibrant, Mother Nature at her girliest and finest especially when set against lush green backgrounds or with amazing yellow stamens:

And suddenly, I was seeing it everywhere:

in the Aquarium at LFO

Bobby's pants!!

Bike helmets

Skool bags & gym bags

Even on me and Ronnie next door!

Yikes! I'm wearing this!

Sadly, I didn't get a pic of Ronnie in his pink teeshirt, but he looked a fine specimen of a Scottish manhood thus disproving the myth that pink is for lassies only. However, It may be the end of the world as we know it!! I'm off to find my black jeans.....

My Faith in Humanity - Restored!

So, we were on Arran for a couple of days Youth Hosteling during the School Spring Break, myself, Bobby, Effie and Grandma who has bestowed the princely £10 on each of her darling grandchildren. The tenners are dutifully tucked away in pockets, with the instructions to put them in a 'safe place'.

Goat Fell in the sun

A couple of hours later after tea and a sandwich at the Lochranza Hotel and a chank around the tiny and beautiful beach at Dougarie Bay, Effie (5) announces that she has lost her ten pound note. Much furious searching in pockets, car floor, various bags proves fruitless. I ask Effs when was the last time she had the money, she's not sure, but we remember that it was in her bodywarmer pocket and she took that off at the hotel. Oh well, we resign ourselves to the fact that it's lost.

Dougarie Bay & the trouserless weans!

Fast forward a few hours and we toddle down from the Youth Hostel (very good, btw!) to the Lochranza Hotel for dinner. I tell Effie to go and look in the loo and check the garden for her tenner, while I order food and drinks. I ask the barman if anyone has handed in a ten pound note during the afternoon, but, no - a long shot really. I laugh and say if anyone does it belongs to Effs, who appears fleetingly to announce it wasn't in the loo. I joke with a couple at the bar that we have memorised the serial number so we can recognise the tenner if it ever turns up.

So, we demolish our dinner, the kids go outside to run around, Grandma for a fag and I ask for the bill. When the barman comes over with the bill, he hands me..... a ten pound note! "The Guy at the bar" he explains "felt sorry for the wee girl missing out on her holiday money". I am, frankly, astonished! However, the guy and his wife have since left so I cannot thank them. I ask the barman to pass on my profuse thanks as the couple are regulars and I leave the Hotel, stepping into the evening sun, my faith in humanity, restored.

Lucky wee lassie!

Whoever you were - I salute you and thank you from the bottom of my heart. You made a wee girls holiday - she was able to get her holiday sweeties and a lovely pottery seahorse for her bedroom! Thank you!!