My littlest and I took Jeannie up to Castle Fraser this morning for a walk around one of our regular trails.

The familiar route was enhanced, not only by the company, but also by the countless numbers of dragon and damselflies in all their striking azure blue and deep pink glory which flitted and darted all around us.

It was the perfect setting for a walk and a catch up and my littlest enjoyed crawling around and investigating trees, birds and the wind.

After a walk along the road to the kilted frog for lunch, a walk home again and a quick turn around to pick up the eldest one from school, followed by an even quicker turn around to walk back along to the station for ice creams and hot chocolate and a farewell and then back home again I was pretty much exhausted.

My lovely mother in law arrived off the free bus while the eldest was watching tv, the middle one was at his pals, the littlest was crawling around the garden and I was sunbathing on the trampoline. She kindly oversaw baths and bedtime stories while I collected one child and dropped off another, cleaned the kitchen, emptied the school bags and headed to bed.