Autumn is turning to winter but there is still some colour in the trees and the occasional sunny day provides a bit of autumnal sparkle.  I continue to feel fortunate to live in a pretty (but not prettified) part of Gloucestershire and we enjoyed showing it off a bit while some friends stayed with us at the end of October.  When the sun is low as it is now, the Cotswold stone of the houses glows beautifully and the crispening leaves on the trees glimmer in the breeze.

I am well behind on the bedding down of the garden and allotment for winter.  I have made some progress but, when the weather has been nice, I’ve tended to take the opportunity to go for local walks.  When the weather has been cold and wet, I’ve stayed close to the heating in our kitchen.  I feel that, as I get older, I feel the cold more than I did.

Our First Grandchild (FG) doesn’t seem to feel the cold anywhere near so much!  He is thriving up in Edinburgh.  We visited Edinburgh recently to celebrate his second birthday and his parents’ first wedding anniversary.  They have a lovely flat and, now there is a wood-burner in the lounge, a very cosy spot for the evenings.  FG can now lark about before bedtime in his nightwear – or just his nappy – without me feeling chilly by proxy. 

We stayed in Edinburgh for longer than usual but hopefully avoided overburdening the working parents by staying a couple of nights in a hotel rather than with them.  FG seemed to enjoy having two more people to order about especially once his birthday brought more toys for us all to play with. 

He also liked his usual trip with us to the Royal Botanic Garden, where we collected different colours and sizes of leaf.  It’s a wonderful, free resource regardless of the time of year.

On the actual day of his birthday, we all joined him on an extended visit to the National Museum of Scotland where he joyfully rushed from exhibit to exhibit.  It’s a great place for kids.

We had other lovely family outings in brilliant sunshine to Saughton Park, which had an interesting history and a goldfish pond which fascinated FG, and to Lauriston Castle gardens with its great views across the Firth of Forth.  Much to Jane’s satisfaction, each visit involved a café stop.  This is something that, when we are alone together, she finds hard to persuade me to indulge in.  With FG, it’s another little opportunity to watch him develop.

It was convenient that we had our car, could get around easily with everyone, and that ES and his partner had some time off work so they could enjoy their anniversary and birthday fully.

Jane and I also went off on our own for perusal of Stockbridge’s shops (Jane) and walks by the Water of Leith (me).  The Water of Leith was gushing more than usual following the recent storms which made the riverside walk somehow even more pleasurable than usual, especially as the sun was shining.

We also managed to slide off for an hour in Spry, our favourite wine bar, and for a set of very tasty, innovative small lunch plates at Noto where Eldest Son (ES) and his partner had celebrated their anniversary a couple of nights before.

While FG and his parents went off to a birthday party of one of FG’s contemporaries in south Edinburgh, Jane and I took advantage of more sunny weather to climb Blackford Hill.  This afforded great views north of Arthur’s Seat and the city and I had a bit of an internal psychic glow knowing that this was where ES had proposed marriage.  

^{Views North From Blackford Hill}

In between the anniversary and birthday festivities, and as the weather deteriorated, Jane and I visited the newly opened half of the National Gallery of Scotland.  This great new space doubles the size of the gallery and has some excellent works including many by the Glasgow Boys and the less renowned Glasgow Girls.

In a slight overdoing of cultural experience for one day, we also visited Dovecot Studios to see an exhibition called ‘Scottish Women Artists: Challenging 250 Years of Perception’.  This too had art by the Glasgow Girls.  I thought the exhibition was a bit uneven but particularly liked the works by Joan Eardley and a few others. 

While we were in Edinburgh, ES’s partner cooked us lovely meals and we had great toast-laden breakfasts (Archipelago Bakery sells outstanding bread) plus a couple of substantial delivery meals from local food outlets.  Fortunately, this visit, we met ES’s partner’s parents again and we all tucked into an Indian spread while sharing FG-stories.  

FG’s birthday cake was a delightful mum-made ‘hedgehog cake’ with chocolate buttons for spines (he loved the candle blowing out process and the chocolate).  Later, his birthday dinner was a shared set of delivered pizzas.  Meals delivered to the door are rare treats for me; we don’t have them at home since the choice is limited and the distances feel too great.  I put on weight in Edinburgh but it was well worth it.

It’s a long way to Edinburgh and back in our car (though we again had no real problems with charging it up as we travelled).  But we love Edinburgh.  Jane and I know that had ES not met someone from there who wanted to settle in the city, we would not have had such an opportunity to get to know Edinburgh so well.  There is so much more to see there and we look forward to another trip for ES and his partners’ birthdays early next year.