Summer time

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Actually writing this in a dreich October and pretending it was posted in August, but looking at these sunny pics it seems so long ago already!

At the beginning of August we took J along to his first ever festival - Belladrum, near Inverness. On the morning we left he'd developed a horrible stinky cold, poor wee man, felt a bit mean dragging him along to spend a weekend in a field (albeit in our lovely van) but, well, we did anyway! And he held up brilliantly, bless him!

We took the van and the big tent which gave us lots of room to stretch out in, and randomly parked up next to a man from the islands, who knew Nana & Grandpa and had been talking to them just that week! Small world!

Having a baby at a festival makes a lot of difference. For one thing you can't both go to watch the late night bands, you have to take turns. Then of course you spend a lot of time in the kids area watching puppets and meeting people in silly costumes! Getting them to sleep when three vans away are partying hard into the small hours is just horrible, and enough to make us pack up and leave early on the Saturday night instead of facing another night like the Friday.

But it was just so much fun and great for J to experience so many different things that he'd never normally get to see in our little corner of Scotland. He saw his first play. He took part in a freeform percussion workshop, banging away on a giant drum, he sat listening to windchimes and pan pipes in the hippy tents in the 'heilan fields'. He was given some herbal cough syrup for his sore throat. He met cows, pink policemen, dancers, fire-eaters and bears. He saw live bands on the big stage, and when he wouldn't leave his protective headphones on we went off to see some gentle guitar playing in the woods. Quite a lot for a little mind to take in before bed!

Finally, it has to be said, one of the best things about having a baby at a festival is that you also have a pram which becomes a covert booze smuggling vehicle, thus avoiding the usual overpriced and undersized drinks on offer inside the fence! Hooray! :-)

I've also added some random other pics from August. We spent a lot of time in the garden in August, the fruit was a lot later this year as it's been so cold and wet, but when it came it tasted wonderful and J got used to just running around outside helping himself to handfuls!

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Photos

We love the co-op!
They gave us lashings of free champagne and nibbles at an exclusive members' reception - ladidah!

Shame about the seating
DFS just doesn't get this far north!

Jamie's highlight of the festival
A cow in wellies and sunglasses

I know you're not real cows
Meeting some of the colourful characters

In the saddle
J loves whizzing round town, perched on his special bike seat.