Elizabeth came 1st in her dance competition on Sunday in the intermediate 14 years and over category. This is the second intermediate competition she’s won and also the second competition she’s ever won. She never won any when she was in beginners and only ever managed one 2nd overall in novice. It’s a reflection of ..read more

Elizabeth got her first ever 1st overall trophy today in the intermediate section of a highland dance competition. She came 1st and 2nd in every dance taking 1st overall. She was absolutely thrilled. The trophy is massive and by far the biggest and heaviest one she’s ever got. I’m still having weekly highland dance lessons ..read more

For the past two years around the time of Remembrance Day, Elizabeth has competed in the Forfar Highland Dancing competition. We make a weekend of it and spend a couple of nights in Angus and that’s what we did this weekend for the 3rd year running. The competition is always on a Sunday and takes ..read more

Elizabeth has had a hugely busy couple of weeks. Last week she performed in the Leading Lights production of Sister Act at the Arts Centre. She auditioned earlier in the year and although she didn’t get a main part she still had an important role in the chorus as one of the nuns. She loved ..read more

There’s lots happening at the moment but the big news is grandad is visiting which is fantastic. Daniel is keen to catch up to grandad’s height and he’s getting close! Daniel is still growing and grew almost 1cm just in the last month so he may yet make it. Yesterday was the last day of school for the children and students in the high school were invited to perform for the final assembly. Elizabeth volunteered to dance and she did the Blue Bonnets. I asked her whether she felt nervous before dancing in front of the entire high school assembly and she said a little bit but not as much as when ..read more

Daniel participated in The Kilt Walk this weekend to raise money for Charlie House, a local charity that supports children in the north east of Scotland with life-threatening of life-limiting conditions. He raised £258 and walked from Aberdeen to Banchory which is almost 19 miles. He had blisters at the end of the day but nothing worse than that. We weren’t allowed to wave him off because we’re embarrassing to him now so instead all I got was this photo before he left. Elizabeth danced at a church for their summer fair. She performed three dances. This one is the Barracks Johnny. And we have ..read more

Elizabeth performed the opening dance for her school’s international festival last night. This is the Highland Laddie which is danced to the tune of the same name and is a renowned regimental march. Indeed the dance steps were apparently choreographed by soldiers in the first world war ..read more

What’s been happening lately? It was my birthday yesterday and I spent much of it at a highland dance competition with Elizabeth. She got third place overall which was a wonderful birthday present as there’s nothing better than seeing your child happy. The last two competitions she entered she came away with nothing so I was naturally worried about possible disappointment. Her trophy is so old it has names going back to 1992. The way it works is you get it engraved with your own child’s name and in a year when they hold the competition again you return it for the next person. There’s barely a ..read more

Lots has been happening here. Last Saturday was the European piping championships in Duthie Park which saw some 150 pipe bands playing. It was very loud and our brains continued playing bagpipe music long after they’d finished. There was also highland dancing, lots of activities, and a dinosaur trail in the winter gardens. I do love a good pipe band but with so many of them all playing different things simultaneously I was glad for some quiet at the end of the day. Here’s 6 seconds of music. Elizabeth was looking fabulous in her national outfit. I loved the dinosaurs in the winter gardens ..read more

Where did the weekend go? It’s nearly November and autumn is in full bloom. I wish I’d taken some photos today as Aberdeen is looking very pretty in its autumn clothes. My tomatoes are just about dead but there are still a few fruits ripening. Two weekends ago I picked this from the greenhouse. And Ben picked a heap of apples from the ground on one of his walks. It’s apple season! I turned them into a blackberry crumble using the last of the wild blackberries. It’s nice to have some overlap between apple season and blackberry season so we can combine the two. Elizabeth’s highland dance kilt ..read more