Sure enough, the temperature dropped and the snow came. Unusually, it didn't turn immediately to slush, but rather lay deep and crisp and even across the city. There's a wee park at the end of our street with a decent slope that turned out to be ideal sledging for a five year old girl. Steep enough to get up a bit of speed, but not too long an with a nice flat runout. Throw in a bit of sunshine, and Holly had a whale of a time on more than one occasion. We also managed a trip to the snow-covered Botanics with Evie and the Dawsons, and I've thrown in a couple of snaps from my chilly morning bike rides to work.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Christmas 2.0
We had a re-run of Christmas chez Millar on the last day of 2009. All the Millars were present and correct, including Calum who tolerated Holly's enthusiastic affections with stoicism and good grace. Hogmanay, the highlight of the Scottish festive season (or so Unique Events would have you believe) saw Helen and I retiring early and listening to the proceedings on Radio 4. Rock and Roll, eh? The first few days of the new decade saw us settling back into life at home, playing with our Christmas pressies, and watching the increasingly snowy weather with some trepidation.
Post-Christmas Pottering
We had a few relaxed, pleasant days around Saffron Walden before returning to the frozen north. We had visits to the park, play dates with Holly's pal Honey, a stroll by the Cam at Grantchester followed by drinkies, and a trip to East Dulwich to catch up with Kirsty (and bump), Bea and Peter. All very nice.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Boxing Day
Oh no it isn't! It's the middle of January. But on Boxing Day we did head off to the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds to see Jack and the Beanstalk, a pantomime of the old school with singalongs, "behind you"s and terrible jokes. Holly loved it, Louis reacted more to the audience than the performance but was happy to laugh along.
Christmas Day
Merry Christmas! A new bike for Louis, Christmas fun & games, a ride around the car park and a visit to Rosie & Colin's swanky new house. And barely a month late too...
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Quivering With Antici...
...pation. Christmas eve, and after the rigours of our winter migration we started to get settled into festive life with Grandma Pat & Grandad John. The kids pottered in the garden and warmed up with hot chocolate.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Le Grand Depart
We had planned to set off for Englandshire after school finished at lunchtime on the Tuesday before Christmas. Unfortunately there was a fair bit of snow around, and the forecast was looking sketchy. We decided to wait until Wednesday, and spent some time on Tuesday afternoon pottering in the snow in the garden.
Wednesday morning, alas, brought four inches of snow which was still falling when we set off shortly after 6am. We reasoned that the main roads would be fine, but four miles and half an hour later we were stuck on the bypass behind a truck struggling up the hill through Wester Hailes.
After a while we had decided to head home, but a phone call to Grandad John reassured us that this was the worst we would encounter, and so we pressed on. Progress was slow, and we passed a pair of jacknifed trucks near Dunbar with a huge tailback of stationary traffic stuck behind them. There but for the grace of whoever went us.
Eventually, as we turned south rather than east, the snow thinned out, the sun rose, and we were on our way to Essex! The kids were incredibly calm and patient for all of the 9 hour journey, and we made it without further incident.
Wednesday morning, alas, brought four inches of snow which was still falling when we set off shortly after 6am. We reasoned that the main roads would be fine, but four miles and half an hour later we were stuck on the bypass behind a truck struggling up the hill through Wester Hailes.
After a while we had decided to head home, but a phone call to Grandad John reassured us that this was the worst we would encounter, and so we pressed on. Progress was slow, and we passed a pair of jacknifed trucks near Dunbar with a huge tailback of stationary traffic stuck behind them. There but for the grace of whoever went us.
Eventually, as we turned south rather than east, the snow thinned out, the sun rose, and we were on our way to Essex! The kids were incredibly calm and patient for all of the 9 hour journey, and we made it without further incident.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
The End (of Term) is Nigh
A small dump of snow in the last week of term, and we had Leo and Nate round for sledging and snowmen in the back garden. It was much more successful than our abortive sledging trip to Clermiston the previous day, when I broke the sledge, the kids got cold and Holly walked off the pitch in a strop. No pictures of that, needless to say. Holly also had her end-of-term "open class" at ballet, and we visited Edinburgh's Winter Wonderland in Princes Street Gardens for a ride on Santa's train and a wander round the attractions.
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Holly Millar - Photographer
Holly has just started her own blog, with pictures she has taken with her own digital camera and comments dictated to me. Read all about it:
http://hollymillar.blogspot.com/
http://hollymillar.blogspot.com/
Sunday, January 03, 2010
Sunday Papers
Happy New Year! A chilly - but not yet snowy - Sunday in mid December, way back in 2009. Louis and I popped into Davidsons Mains to get something for lunch and a newspaper. He had a jolly old time on the bike, I snapped away with the resurrected Fuji. Many many more to come.
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