It has been a bit quiet at ‘Pining’ this week, mainly because I at last started to paint the living room walls. They were white which I thought was kind of cold looking, now they’ve been transformed to ‘old gold’ well that’s what it says on the paint tin. The only problem is that now it seems much darker in that room. Well what could I expect I hear you say – yes anything is going to seem darker than white, and it is the room which we only really use for sitting watching TV in the winter time, so cosy was what I was going for really, instead of the snow blindness which the white walls were giving me.
The main reason for painting though was to get it done before having a carpet laid in there. At the moment there’s laminate on the floor, put there by the previous owners, all very practical I suppose, especially if you have small children as they did. But laminate with a concrete floor underneath is bloomin’ cold in the winter, I couldn’t believe how cold my feet got as soon as I wasn’t standing on the rug. I also hate that clicky clacky sound that everything makes on laminate, especially footsteps and if you drop something like a TV remote – it sounds like a gun going off!
So I’ll be glad to get back to old fashioned carpeting in there, very soon. Not as soon as I had hoped though because tomorrow the gas man cometh – again. He was here to give the boiler its annual service last month and since then it doesn’t seem to have worked properly and now it has packed in all together, so no heating or hot water today, or last night either. Thankfully we took out a service care package otherwise no doubt it would have cost us a fortune to get it fixed.
Otherwise it has been a good day today, gorgeous weather after three days of bucketing rain. We had lunch at South Queensferry, The Hawes Inn again, very nice. We were there with my sister and her husband, our treat as they’ve been celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this week – not many people reach that goal nowadays.
Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of them. Everyone else seems to be obsessed with photographing everything but I find that I hardly ever take any of people now, I think because we never bother to get any printed out. We have loads of photo albums of the old days, then they all just come to a standstill with no photos of family as they age. I should rectify that and go through the computer files choosing photos to have printed out. Have your photo albums come to a standstill post digital cameras, or are you more organised than I am?
Sounds like fun! I’m always in the mood for a delicious meal. I’ll have to look up if you posted a photo of the inn previously.
Oh, don’t get me started on photos. I have a wonderful new camera, I’m so embarrassed to say, and I don’t know how to use it. I need to settle down and go online and read the d___d, the dear manual. I must do that. Or this little treasure of a camera will not do what I bought it to do for me. I love to take close-ups of wildlife and plantlife. I cannot stand my procrastination on this, but I must admit, I’ve been overwhelmed. So, I know I’m not alone in this new camera dilemma. But I need to get over it and push ahead.
Also, to be perfectly truthful, when it comes to close family moments, I think I realize, as I’ve gotten older, that taking photos can sometimes interfere or even interrupt the close, in-touch family moments. So that lots of times I hold back, and savor, and try to make an indelible memory of the event in my brain rather than in the camera.
Best to you today! Judith
Just a silly thought– but I got to thinking that if, after all that STARK WHITE things are seeming more quiet color-wise, perhaps a slight change in lighting might make the room warmer for your cozy, evening television sharing times. I’ve experimented with this and it can make all the difference. J.
Judith,
When we looked at this house we felt it was like suffering sensory deprivation as everything was black and white and there was nothing on any walls, so some colour was definitely needed. In the UK/Europe we have to have awful energy saving light bulbs nowadays and sometimes it’s like being in a cave, the lighting is so bad, or it’s that awful eyeball burning bright white LED lights. I’m quite happy with the living room – which is mainly used in the winter – now that I have things on the walls and the curtains back up, just need to get a cosy carpet now.
Judith,
I haven’t taken photos or done a post about The Hawes Inn but it is quite historic. It features in RL Stevenson’s Kidnapped – I think the location was used in the 1950s film too. They have an RLS room with photos from it on the wall. I am still a bit of a Luddite, mainly because I’m too lazy to sit down and work out how to do things online. I keep saying I’ll learn how to do things but never do, I’m still stuck on basic! I agree with you about cameras getting in the way, nowadays people seem to be unable to look at anything, except through a lense of some sort, very strange, and why do people go out together and then ignore each other, finding their phones so fascinating?! http://www.vintageinn.co.uk/content/vintage-inn/en/restaurants/scotland-northern-ireland/thehawesinnsouthqueensferry
I’m something of the family photographer – making albums for each of our holiday trips. When we’re with the kids, I make a copy for them as well. I journal as well, so the albums make a nice remembrance of where we were and what we did. I’ve been accused of “hiding behind my camera” but IMHO, that’s just bollocks. I get to enjoy those precious moments again and again as I wander the pages of our albums. They were a godsend for Mom for many years into her decline. She always told us to make good memories. Now I better understand what she meant – and make lots of them because you never know which ones you get to keep.
Pearl,
That’s so true and it makes me think that I really must go through digital photos and print them out – and take more photos of everyone. Thanks for that.
I do agree with you about people and their phones, though. Every minute I spend with my California kids and grandkids they each are on a phone or tablet or laptop. Don’t rightly know why I bother to travel all that way to be ignored. Fortunately my family in Scotland has a lot more discipline – as well as just plain good manners. Smart phones have their place, and I’m lost without one, but it’s not in my hand every minute of every day.