Garden Jewels.

Lovely day with Mum and Dad today. We got up fairly early to make the most of the day, and I made us bacon and eggs for breakfast, followed by a taster of my home-made jams on toast. The boys (Dad and M)'s fave was the raspberry, but Mum and I preferred the gooseberry. We ate with the French doors wide open; it was lovely and warm even early on.

After breakfast was cleared, we took a donder to the beach (via Boots for me to drop off a roll of film) and walked all the way along from Tunnels to Fittie, all the while scanning for dolphins. We didn't see any, but it was a gorgeous day for a walk; warm with a light breeze. Mum loves being by the sea, I think they wish they lived a little closer to it - they're pretty much as far from the coast as you can be in Yorkshire.

M had stayed behind this morning to rip up half the decking in the garden to get to the drains (bad planning on the part of the garden-designers!) as water is draining really slowly at the moment. He had to use 30 metres of drain rods (that's 3 whole sets) to remove 4 massive blockages in the pipe. Gross. It's really lucky that he's able to work on things like this and we don't have to pay people to come in.

On our way home from the beach we picked up my film from Boots and some things from the Markies deli for lunch, and we set out the table in the garden and opened some wine. M had finished working so we had a really nice relaxing meal, then Mum and I decided to head to the Aberdeen Artists' Exhibition at the music hall for a wee look before it closed at 4pm. We met M's parents and Aunt and Uncle there and had a wee chat, and looked round the exhibits. There were some really good ones but I seem to only be drawn to the expensive stuff - there was a gorgeous stylised painting of a stag, but he was £2,250.

When we got back home, we set up the Scrabble board on the garden table and had a game which I somehow managed to win by about 4 points! Mum played far better than me; I think it's partly to do with luck. When we'd finished it was just about time to head off for our booking at the new(ish) Jamie Oliver restaurant in town. I was really excited to visit, but sadly we had quite an average meal - Mum's main was a bit boring and mine and Dad's was really heavy on the chilli; although M chose a rabbit ragu tagliatelle which was lovely. My pudding was rather amazing though! We drank local (kind of - Glaswegian) beer and Dad said the wine was nice; the prices were quite reasonable too, and the atmosphere of the place was nice.

We walked home enjoying the surprisingly mild evening, and watched a wee bit of TV before bed. It was just a flying visit for Mum and Dad and they're heading home tomorrow, but I've had a lovely weekend with them :o)