A Catch Up

It's been a busy month. My husband returned home from tour and it's so nice to have him home. The first weekend back we had planned the GREAT APPLE-PICKING day. Collecting apples to turn them into cider! All apple-related pics courtesy of Pete. 

The lower apples were easy to reach. But it was so tantalising to see the higher apples and not be able to reach them. In the end we had a ladder, a mop and a football to try to knock the apples out of the tree. I think the football is still in the tree.

Shaking the tree was a great method to make the apples drop. The kids helped enthusiastically at the first tree. By the second tree they were already getting distracted and sitting on the quad bike instead while the adults gathered, and not long after that they headed off to watch Star Wars and left the adults to it entirely.

The apple press caused much excitement, along with the macerator (not pictured). Boys' toys. It is beautiful though. I love the green.

We collected so many apples. We started at 1.30pm and Hagos and I were still next door at our neighbours' house at midnight! We were so exhausted.

The apple press in action. 

I love this photo of the boys together. Some people ate the apples as we went from tree to tree :)

And a completely unrelated photo from Lynsey's birthday dinner last night at Viva Mexico on Coburn Street. Last year there was a sombrero that she put on and looked very fetching. This year the sombrero was nowhere to be seen (cutbacks, perhaps?) so Lynsey used her placemat instead.

I still have five jumpers at various stages of being knitted/finished off. I wanted to finish them all at the same time and then do a post entitled 'Jumper Tetris'. That's seeming less likely! 

Also in the past month my sister moved house. I went down to Dumfries to help clean the new place one day. It brought back memories of moving from Norfolk to Scotland. Such a major operation!

Today is Whitmuir for coffee and cake. Then tomorrow we're celebrating bonfire night early. I like fireworks but hope there aren't too many that go 'bang'. I don't want the animals (wild or domesticated) to be scared. I like fireworks that fizz gently and turn different colours. And sparklers. I like this time of year.