Not those hats again!

Anne came to take Archie out for the day, lucky boy, and so JR took me for a walk along the road instead. I was terrified of tripping on a bit of higgledy pavement, which our city specialises in. But I managed.

After that I had to have a big lie down and do my (horizontal) exercises on the sofa and my eyes may have closed for a few moments.

Uncle A came for a visit. He's been up in Aberdeenshire contacting old relatives and visiting familiar places. A little anecdote deserves repeating:

His cousins spoke the Doric*, and so he and his sister couldn't understand them much of the time. The brother declared that someone they knew had died, to which the sister replied, in a singsong Doric accent,

'Fan diddy dee?'

Which sounded, to the young Uncle A, like a most inappropriate 'Fiddly-de-dee!'

But she actually she was enquiring, 'When did he die?'

The phrase, 'Fan diddy dee' rightly entered into family folklore.

Bailey and Rufus came over for tea with their mums. Anne was invited to, but couldn't stay when she brought Archie home. It was my birthday request meal - salmon salad, but this was no ordinary salmon salad, it was a JR hot smoked salmon salad. I'd like to put a photo in as an extra - it was spectacular - but my iPad rather annoyingly refuses to let me now.

I suddenly had the bright idea of a reprise shot of dogs in birthday hats on the bench. What a laugh! As soon as Bailey spotted the hats, she flatly refused to come near us, Archie and Rufus posed dutifully for ages while Bailey was chased around the garden. (Note my hand clamped on her collar lest she made a getaway).

The little bit of hat elastic round my chins really sets them off, don't you think... In fact, it looks like I've had cosmetic surgery and it hasn't quite been the success I'd hoped for.


* Doric, the popular name for Mid Northern Scots or Northeast Scots, refers to the Scots language as spoken in the northeast.