I've got horses...

I've got horses in my tummy!

We were at the 20 week scan today, all's well! Poppy seemed a little more interested than the last time (more detail?)... anyway, we celebrate by going to see Megamind in 3d, so it's a bit of a long day, and late home.. which gives us the chance to watch a little of "Eragon", whilst we eat our supper in front of the TV... Poppy then grabs my mouse and pretends to scan her own tummy, and we pretend that the pictures on the TV are the scan pictures! (my goodness! she's full of trees, witches, swords, rivers, dragons...)

You can have crow's...

You can have crow's blood for your breakfast Daddy

Poppy's thinking about what we can all have for food to start the day. "toast" for her... I wonder what an avian black pudding would taste like...

Can we make a Robin decoration...

Can we make a Robin decoration out of a dead bird?

Merry Christmas folks. Something along the lines of "we can get link to kill a robin, and we can turn it into a decoration"... I couldn't hear after a while, I was horrified. Well... laughing with tears rolling down my cheeks.

It's not a polar bear neck...

It's not a polar bear neck top, it's a piggy neck top, as it's pink!

Cold today... more snow, fantastic... so, we wrap up warm! We recommend a Polo Neck top... don't you love how kids can mis-hear words.

The cousin of the caterpillar...

The cousin of the caterpillar, is the maggot

Another beautifully random quote from Poppy, when we were driving in to Aberdeen today... it's snowing, cars going slow, piles of the white stuff everywhere, and Poppy's thinking about caterpillars... amazing.

is that zombie horse...

is that zombie horse a good one or a bad one?

Poppy and I have an apres tea time mosh to some "zombie music, dad" (carcass, "reek of putrefaction") ... she wants to know if Jeff Walker has two eyes?... so we take a peek at the album artwork (careful those of you with a weak disposition!) and oh, there are zombie horses on the back.

now, you are the sand...

now, you are the sand, I ... I be the Storm, no, you be the dewback, and I be the sand

Sand... man, that is! I'm on my knees again today, do this, do that, Melissa, watch this, do this... I just go "mwooooahhhh" and get on with it.

Ooh! My sandwich has...

Ooh! My sandwich has blood, guts, eyes and... And... Dust in it!

grimmmmm! There's a mix of horror, realism, Hugh fernley whittingstall and Phillip Pullman in Poppy's odd observation about her salmon sandwich today... Worried? Me?.... Call the poooooliiiiiceeeee... A rubber nipple salesman once heard.

They're coming out the ground...

They're coming out the ground like tatties!

It's the lowest tide of the month today (in Ord, Skye) - and the coral island is even more accessible, but we see a sand spit being exposed, with hundreds of "spooties" scooting water into the air. I start digging (a futile exercise in getting a razor clam from above)... but, I start to uncover heaps of clams - amazing sized clams, the size of Poppy's fist... I'm scooping sand siddeways, and found three razor clams this way! Needless to say, I pigged out, and took about 2kgs of Clams (hardly a dent in the 3 small patches I dug up)... what a score! So, I've put them in a bucket of clean sea water, and they are happily spitting out the grit... I did snaffle a few for tea, a smidge gritty, but boy oh boy were they tasty.



garlic, onions, chilli, olive oil, S&P, oregano, tomato puree, pasata, spaghetti, a hillock of free clams from Ord. NOM NOM.

I don't like...

I don't like the winkle's stained glass windows

Oh, the joys of living on a beach, free food! I collected a few winkles from the rock pools, when the tide is well out, all the big ones like to hang around there, It's a bonanza! Taking them back to the Chalet to boil up for a wee snack (and removing the two hermit crabs that I accidentally scooped up for the ride), I boil them with some garlic... so simple, so tasty.. one of the by-products of a winkle-fest, are the little flaps they have to seal in the water when the tide goes out, poppy, seemed to think they were stained glass windows. I just hope the snails "saw the light" just before I dropped them into boiling water... must have stolen from star fish, or cheated on their wife with a rag worm...sinners!

Rock hopper...

Rock hopper Popper

first full day in Skye, amazing , blustery but sunny and fantastic. Poppy is all over the rocks on the beach, loving it! Only down side, not one single bite or catch fishing today... Stll enjoyed watching the wildlife like cormorants, white throated divers, diving ducks, gannets, sea otters, seals... Nabbed some chanterelles from the woods today too. I could get used to this.

watch out for the...

watch out for the cat jobbies in the grass!

We've had a spate o jobbies in the back garden. something's going to get a size 10 up its jaxie....



If only.

I'm not a chicken any more...

I'm not a chicken any more, I'm a lion!

Poppy started back at pre-school today, hooking up with the homies after chillaxin' over the "summer". Anyway, last year, she had a hen on her badge... but not this year, oh no!

"I am not Poppy, I am R2D2" - what a way to be woken up!

I want a...

I want a cloned beef pasty!

What is the problem with everyone? (well...omnivores)... This rubbish story about "cloned beef" in the "food chain"... how many people actually know what they are talking about when discussing "cloning"... sadly (as always) the media has seemed to brainwash everyone into thinking "Frankenstein" (yes... his monster... yeah yeah, tell that to the morons too). Cloned doesn't mean "genetically modified" - it's not like a randy mutant bull will escape and wildly seed millions of cows, creating a possible future nightmare (unlike GM crops getting out into the wild and messing things up, that is a worry!)... It's a bunch of genes being continued...

the things people should be looking at are - Animal Welfare (or good husbandry)...

"Scientists Shouldn't Mess with God's Work"... leave it. Let's not get me started on that rubbish.

Read the new scientist, it's better than the bible.

ok?...OK. As Bill Hicks would say.

I don't know if you are interested....

I don't know if you are interested, but there's an Osprey flying above your van!

Parked outside Inverurie's 'home base', Gabi runs in to get some paint n sheeit for Claypots (it's the weekend! we're always at Claypots!) - I'm in the car with Poppy, and look up... there's a massive Osprey, with a fish in its talons! interesting to see the gulls take a wide berth of this amazing bird! I shout over to the two guys in the burger van (and one customer), and they run out of the van and look up... they were amazed too!... I just hope the burger didn't burn...

this isn't a photo of the Osprey, but one from http://www.fs.fed.us

It's a satisfying sound...

It's a satisfying sound, hearing a fly pop

We headed to Claypots today, for a mega paintathon... seems that the hot now cold weather has brought all the fat bluebottles out... well, in an empty house with holes in the bathroom dorma, they must flood in, as there were HUNDREDS of them, all slowly buzzing / flying / walking all over the windows... we were SCOOPING them out to freedom... but this was taking too long (!)... so a more brutal method was employed... which worked. We now have several piles of flat fat flies... nasty.

My favourite bit in the stir fry is...

My favourite bit in the stir fry is the asparagus, the noodles, the carrots, the prawns and the cat

"steady Pops! It's not that authentic!"... Poppy was listing all her favourite things in tonight's dinner, as the cat walked past her... interesting to see how little minds are easily distracted!

Link had one...

Link had one delighted eye!

We've been out at the fantastic Gray's Degree show from 3 - 7 pm - so we treat ourselves to Fish n Chips...mmmm... Poppy pings a flake to Link (our cat) and declares this. I think she had two, actually...

No dogs are allowed to...

No dogs are allowed to bark in here! Shush!

We were at the vets today... Link has stress (?!) and is going bald on her tummy and arm pits... not as bad as it sounds (£20 for the 5 min consultation to say "don't worry about it"...cheers!) Anyyyyway... Poppy was defending Link's poor ears from a noisy, yappy brown Lab... not sure what its owner thought of that!

my god that bull has...

my god that bull has tiny nipples!

... right next to its massive balls. Claypots again, Mr Bull is frisky today... two cows getting his special attention... I can't help but notice the tackle on show, not 5 meters away. A fascinating chance to see what's what on the usually distant bull in a field...

I didn't have my camera, so here's a funny photo of a man with a bulls horn in his bottom.