August Offerings in Scottish Meanderings

I'm beginning to get annoyed that I'm having to go back and write about stuff that happened a whole month or more ago - thank goodness for photos on my phone because half the time I can't even remember what on earth happened! But actually I'm seeing that as a good sign in the sense that I must be wanting the writing to be more current so maybe I'm approaching the point where I can write in a slightly more up to date fashion. It's still hard to do an entry and I'm still not able to read any of you in any sort of regular way so I think it'll be a while before I'm at that stage yet. Maybe that can be a goal for next year though.

I did manage to read part of a book in August so was stoked about that - and I bought 2 new ones I've been wanting to read for a while in the hope that would kick start something - it's like my brain just won't accept I can't read like I used to and keeps urging me to try!

Which reminds me of a really good quote I read somewhere this month:

'We are like books.
Most people only see our cover;
the minority read only the introduction;
many people believe the critics.
Few will see our content.'

I liked that.

One of the highlights of August was going to a candlelit concert. I kept seeing them being advertised on Facebook and was curious - there seemed to be all different genres, Queen, Pink Floyd, Adele, Abba - but I couldn't figure out what they would be like without the vocals then I saw one for Ludovico Einaudi's (Italian classical music pianist) music and discovered it was being held at St. Machar's Cathedral, about 10 minutes' drive from my house so I bit the bullet and bought a ticket. There were only £30 ones left so I hesitated because that's a lot of money to lose if you're not well enough to go. And the reason I only bought a ticket for myself so that I didn't affect anyone else if that happened.

In hindsight I would have pushed the boat out and bought an even dearer seat but I'll get to that in a minute. As it turned out it wasn't a great day for it to happen because when I bought the ticket I didn't know the landscapers would be here that day which meant I had to get up early and I was also babysitting all 3 kids in the afternoon for a couple of hours. Plus not feeling well. The kids didn't go home until 6.45 and the concert started at 7.45 but that probably worked out quite well because it meant there was no time to stress about it - it just gave me enough time to tidy up, have a snack, get changed and get there.

The cathedral was really beautiful with gorgeous stained glass windows but when someone came on with a welcome spiel, she said there were over 2000 candles there altogether and I was surprised at that because from what I could see, it didn't look like a quarter of that amount. But then when the concert was finished, we were allowed to take photos/videos and I went down to the front and saw what she meant.

This is what I could see from my seat.


And this is what was down at the front.


It doesn't give you a flavour of how beautiful it actually was to be honest - there were clusters of candles at the sides of the aisles as well (surely must have been electronic candles??) but that's what I meant by the more expensive seats - if I'd known that's what it was like at the front I would have pushed the boat out and gone for the seats down there even though they were £45 - it would have made the experience much more evocative I think. I couldn't even see the piano or the pianist from where I was sitting!

A weird thing happened during it. There are several of Einaudi's pieces I used to love listening to but there's one in particular which used to make my spirit soar in the old days - Nuvole Bianche - and when the pianist played it my eyes began to fill up with tears. But I still felt just as grotty as I had all day! It was like my body was operating from memory and recognised the piece but I still wasn't able to feel the emotion/feeling to go with it - it was quite bizarre. But also a good sign - maybe things are starting to wake up inside at last.

I'm glad I pushed myself to go though and on the strength of that I've bought a ticket for one at Christmas called Moonlight Sonata which is another favourite piece but there are other well known classical pieces being played with it so that should be a good one. It's in a different location so I hope it's just as beautiful and I managed to get a discount for it so the ticket is costing £40 instead of £45 - every little helps!


The weather was quite nice in August and we had a sort of last hurrah of summer in the final two weeks which was lovely - part of that coincided with Nikki's two weeks' holidays from work we we had some nice days out and forays to the beach.

One place we went to which Nikki was greatly excited about was Husky Haven.


She was going to do this as a birthday present for me a year or two ago and at first I thought she was talking about some place where you could go on a sled with a troop of huskies or something and couldn't quite see the attraction or where this could possibly be happening. Then it turned out it was a place a guy had set up in Aberdeenshire which housed over 30 huskies and which had packages of kennel tours and different levels of runs. She'd gone out with her friend one day and absolutely loved it so was desperate for me to see it.

So out we went but I had a bad feeling about the place the day before and I couldn't shake it. It didn't dissipate once we got there either and the whole time I was there I was on edge and couldn't properly relax. I didn't like the set up - over 30 huskies chained up round a big yard in front of kennel cages, a dish of water beside each but still out in the sun (and it was a hot day that day) although half were in the shade and they rotated them every so often.

For an hour anyone could go up to them and talk to them/stroke them or brush their coats. Nikki made a beeline for her favourite dog from last time and the one beside her actually growled at her and got very close to her - my heart was in my mouth but nothing happened thank God.

The dog that's nuzzling into her is the one which growled.


It was interesting that none of the kids were that taken with the dogs either and in fact Ruari said he 'didn't like it'. The girls eventually went to talk to some of them as did I but like I say, I just couldn't fully relax - there was just something about the whole place that didn't ring true to me - I really hope I'm wrong.

Here's Lilah being brave.


Ruari was hilarious - he's a sociable wee guy and butted into a conversation these 2 men and a woman were having and yapped away to them for a good 20 minutes!


I have to say I was glad when we left. The dogs were all getting put into their kennels/cages at that point and I got the impression that was it for the day which upset me but I have no proof of that.


Kids are all fine. Well Lilah has come out in more spots similar to the other clusters but these ones are like a group of purple coloured spots on her legs so another mystery! They're not painful or causing her any distress though.

Lily is growing up. She'll be 11 next month and is still a tomboy in many ways but there are some feminine touches appearing. They both got their ears pierced a few months ago and she was wading through my earring collection when I was babysitting one day and loving the long ones! I would have given some of them away with her because I don't wear them all but The Mother objected😁


And Ruari is just Ruari. Cute and delightful.


Nikki is having pain in her stomach, back and right shoulder along with periods of nausea so is getting a referral for an MRI at some point. This has been going on for a while now so is concerning. She, of course, is convinced she's got pancreatic cancer and has been having conversations with me about who she wants to the kids to go to if the worst happens! Blood tests haven't revealed anything ominous so far though so we're hoping we'll get more insight after the MRI.


And yes the landscapers being here means that a base was finally built for the summer house!


There might even BE a summer house in place now but you'll have to wait for September's epistle to see that :)