the running wave

We started our day by walking the wee girl along to her kindergarten.  She trotted along happily, holding her big cousin's hand, and we played a game of 'I spy with my little eye something coloured .....'  For very small children this version makes a very good substitute for 'something beginning with ...'! Then into Melbourne's city centre, to hit the shops, followed by a trip down Hosier Lane, one of Melbourne's most famous graffiti sites.

In Edinburgh at 9 am on Easter Monday morning, and by 7 pm, local time, on Tuesday my eldest granddaughter and I have journeyed to Melbourne, passing a few good skyscapes on the way. Leaving the UK coming in to Abu Dhabi and approaching Melbourne. Here's the reception committee in Abu Dhabi airport. And one of the main reasons for the trip - bringing two cousins together again for three weeks.  Here they are, little and large, on a trip to the play park this afternoon!  They had several go's on everything formed the letters of the alphabet with sticks,   and generally chilled out. And while they were doing that, I found a gum tree with rather colourful bark.

Happy Easter My eldest granddaughter and I are off to Australia early tomorrow morning.  We are going to visit my youngest granddaughter, in Melbourne, to give the two cousins some time together.  We are super-excited to be making this trip, and as well as seeing much missed friends and family, I am looking forward to finding some good photos for the running wave.   In the meantime, I hope you and your families have a very peaceful and Happy Easter, being mindful of what we are celebrating, and, hopefully, also enjoying satisfying amounts of chocolate.

Tilly thoroughly enjoyed her birthday walk yesterday.  Someone had been kind enough to go before us, and mark out a route.   We weren't quite sure where it was leading us, but we allowed ourselves to be directed for a while, before heading for home, past these pretty pink blossoms.  Perfect for a birthday girl!

Tilly and I started an early morning walk under the watchful eye of this handsome group of deer. They did not move a muscle as we passed by, and then decided that it would probably be a good idea to bound off and melt away into the woodland behind them. We walked on, and around one of our favourite fields, which looks south to Traprain Law and the Lammermuirs beyond.   The deer had already passed this way!

I know you shouldn't give a girl's age away, but I don't think Tilly will mind you knowing that she is nine years old today.  We are just off for a good walk, to celebrate.  

Last Saturday, we visited Hauser & Wirth, the extremely sophisticated art gallery in the heart of the Somerset countryside.  It is an interesting place, although a bit random in such a rural setting. The current exhibition appealed to me rather more than I thought it would.  You can read more about it here,  http://www.hauserwirthsomerset.com/exhibitions/invisible-reality-20160212 , although I have to say I can't make head or tail of this synopsis - far too intellectual!  Basically, it was a series of quirky ways of making use of old aluminium cooking pots and pans.  But then I love to cook, and I enjoyed seeing the old frying pans, balti dishes, preserving pans, North African tea and coffee pots etc, even though some of them had been completely flattened and compressed into a series of rectangular pieces to hang on the wall!  I couldn't help thinking about all the meals which had been cooked in those pans, and how many mouths they had fed in their wo...