Actual birthday

Thank you for all the good wishes for my birthday. They were mainly posted on a blip dated 16 September, which is not my birthday, but since the blip itself was back blipped on 17 September and so the comments were posted on my birthday, which is 17 September, that is all fine. This is my "birthday blip", but it isn't being posted until 18 September, which is well after my birthday, and - moreover - well after the conclusion of my birthday weekend (which was what mattered to me). I hope that is completely clear.

Having had a splendid Saturday, I enjoyed a superlative Sunday. More swimming, but at the usual time of 10am. We were a large group of 14, and although the car park was busy with a few camper vans as well as other swimmers and the usual dog walkers, it was not overfull, so we all managed to park. The weather behaved. Having worried that Mr A would be too cold standing on the beach, by the time we got back in the car he was complaining (as always....) about having been too warm wearing his thick coat. Honestly, you can never keep that man happy with the advice you give him!

I didn't take the photos at the beach, as I was planning on a bit of garden blipping. Unfortunately, the rain came on quite quickly after we returned so although I managed one or two pictures in the sun, the majority were taken with full cloud cover and some drizzle. Oh well. So instead of a planned sunny collage, I've just blipped one of the plants I got from Corry Croft nursery when I visited with neatwithice and W at the end of July. It's Eurybia divercata, or white wood aster, and as expected it is doing well in a fairly dark position up against a stone wall and in almost perpetual shade. I love the delicate white flowers.

For the record, the garden is fine. A bit weedy, although I managed to clear a fair number of those on Friday. No more weeding over the weekend, either because we were rushing around, or because when we weren't rushing around it was dull, cold and damp.

As to the Festival, we went to listen to Jennifer Morag Henderson talking about her book reframing Highland history of the late 16th and early 17th centuries around Jean Gordon, whose first husband was the Earl of Bothwell. Yet another fascinating history book we would both love to read (given time...). We sat next to P, who is one of the swimmers. It's always funny to see people out of context.

We came back to the house for a while, ate some dinner, and then headed out again to listen to an all female saxophone quartet Four on Sax. They played some quite serious stuff in the first half and then warmed the audience up with some real crowd pleasing stuff in the second half, which to be honest I rather preferred. A rousing way to end the day. More swimmers were there as well, although it was they who recognised me and spoke to me, rather than the other way around.

Both of today's events were in the beautiful surroundings of the Collegiate Church, which makes for a lovely concert / book festival venue. The Festival carries on on Monday (it's a bank holiday for most in Scotland), but not for me. I need to get back to work before we drive back to Edinburgh in the evening.