The Dangers of Dieting

At this time of year, we along with a lot of folk are trying to shift a few extra pounds - let's call them Kg, they don't mean the same and the numbers are smaller - but I have a warning for you, dieting, my fellow bloggers, is DANGEROUS.

So, here in Sotland we do of course celebrate the Bard Robbie Burns on 25th January with Haggis, neeps and tatties. The best haggis have to be hunted down with special preparation including the traditional tea, tattie scone and shortbread before setting out after the beast. So, there I am, doing the traditional tea and tattie scone quite happy counting it as lunch when the shortbread course came. "No, I won't have that, I'm watching my weight." I said. Big mistake. Being fairly new to the game we decided to go for a coastal dwelling haggis as they're (supposedly) easier to catch. We set out, and it wasn't long before we found our quarry. I crept nearer keeping directly behind it (haggis can't see behind them) and just as I stretched out my hand to grab it a twig snapped under my foot alarming the haggis which leapt away to the safety of the sea. The tide was out and it had a way to go but try as I might, I had no energy to overcome the beast and it escaped to the waves before I could grasp it. All I was left with was a mouthful of sand and salt water.

Be warned, bloggers, don't skimp on the shortbread, sand just ain't the same.

Why Highland Madness?

Well, The Highlands is where we live and those of you who have an experience of the autistic world will know the madness (mostly in a good way!) that that precipitates. It's not an accident I chose a piccy of a rainbow for the title - it reflects nicely the many colours of life in our house. By the way, that's not an original analogy, I pinched it from Jackie Jackson author of "Multi-coloured Mayhem" and mum to best-selling author Luke. It is however an original photo taken at the end of our nearest road.

Anyway, to begin at the beginning, we arrived in summer 2005 in time to get the girls settled in their new school for the start of the new year and it will never cease to amaze me how well they took it all - new home, new everything. That's not to say we didn't have more than a few "incidents" like Bear escaping in her pj's running over the fields at 9oclock at night (thankfully it's still light up here at that time) and flooding the bathroom on more occasions than I care to remember.

2006 was the Year of Containment as locks appeared on doors, fortress fencing went up and tap tops disappeared. It was also the Year of Don't Relax for a Second as Bear found her way round our defences to continue her reign of chaos.

2007 saw us realising we really could do this market gardening thing and we learned how to plough, rotovate, cultivate preparing the ground for a range of veggies. Unfortunately we couldn't have chosen a worse year to start. As the rains came down and the weeds grew up our efforts were all in vain as water rose up around the top of our potato ridges for days at a time. A few strawberries and a couple of bags of tatties was all we could harvest. But it was a small and perfectly formed harvest which we all enjoyed!

This year we have already been busy errecting a poly tunnel to extend our growing season. This will be followed shortly by a small barn to house our tractor and growing collection of attachments. This year, if it ever stops raining, will be a good year.

A New Blog is Born

So, here i am at the keyboard, typing at my very own blog. Hi Blog buddies!! I have taken the plunge after much nagging - sorry - encouragement from my good blog-buddy Steph. (Check her out at http://www.manicmommy.blogspot.com/ )

What to write? What to share? Should I worry about the blog-boggeymen out there? Come to think of it, will anyone actually read this? All questions I have been pondering for a wee while now, but, today's the day to take the plunge. My diet's going well, my visit to the hairdresser yesterday was not a disaster and things in general are looking up. So, as you are reading this please leave a comment and say "Hi!"