Letting go.........

Tomorrow morning No.2 pride and joy goes to Italy with his football team to play in the Valtellina Cup.
He is so excited, and so am I .......but I'm worried too.
I really want him to go and have the experience, I know that playing football in Italy against teams from all over the world is a thrilling idea to him, I know there are 17 adults going to supervise the 15 kids, I know he is confident, independant and capable and that he has no worries at all about going without me....but I still worry.
He's only 13 years old. I'm always there to look after him (or his dad is).
But not this time.

But then that's our job as a parent isn't it?.....to prepare them to leap into the big wide (and sometimes dangerous) world without us. And to gradually let go when they're ready.
If he didn't want to go I would be even more worried.

Here they are with their new strips for the tournament sponsored by a local Italian Restaurant.

Mine is the tall one with the curly hair at the back!

Ready to go!

Photohunt - hanging

The Night Skye

The last of my Skye pictures.
We had so many lovely sunsets, I could bore you with photos for weeks, but here's a few of my favourites....

When the music stops,,,,,,,

A  little while ago, I decided it would be a good idea to make some changes to which rooms were used for what purpose in my house. No, I haven't decided to shower in the living room or make one of the kids sleep in the bath - that would be silly.
The plan was (and still is) to move No.1 pride and joy into the downstairs, medium sized bedroom, which is currently used as a study/computer room, then move No. 2 into the large bedroom upstairs that No1 currently occupies, and use the tiny bedroom that No.2 vacates as the study - do you follow?
(I'm not moving as I love my room and it has some essential extras!!)

So, in order to put this plan in motion, all the rooms involved had to be thoroughly tidied and cleaned ....aaaaarrrrggghhhh.
Phase 1 was completed before my trip to Skye. With the help of the kids, both of their rooms were gutted and a total of 7 black bags of "stuff" redistributed to tip or charity shop. In retrospect maybe a flame thrower would have been more efficient!
Anyway.......Phase 2 starts today. This morning I must tackle the study. It feels like saying "this morning I will start my ascent of K2".
I hope I survive.......................

Skye lights

The ever changing weather during our week in Skye had the advantage of producing many interesting light conditions.

Summer Holiday Part 2

Skye was beautiful......

sometimes sunny.......

frequently wet......

with some fantastic sunsets....

but more of those later.......

Photohunt - triangle

Better late than never - A rooftop in Dubrovnic, Croatia.

Photohunt - Free

We saw this sign when we stopped the car to take some pictures on the way home from a weekend at Applecross!

Another piece in the puzzle

A research team from Dundee University have discovered a new protein which is involved in repairing DNA.
The story below is taken from the BBC website:


"They have discovered a protein, known as FAN1, which plays a vital role in maintaining healthy DNA.
Researchers described the protein as "molecular scissors" which repair damaged DNA in human cells.
This could help to prevent mutations which eventually lead to cancer.
Dr John Rouse, who is heading the team behind the discovery, said a major problem with DNA is that it is regularly damaged.
He said: "If DNA damage is not fixed quickly then these instructions are changed and the result is mutations - undesirable changes in DNA - that can cause the cell to become abnormal."
The team found that during the natural DNA repair process, DNA 'flaps' are produced that need to be trimmed if the repair is to be completed.
These leftover pieces of DNA can get in the way during the repair process so must be removed.
FAN1 carries out this task, acting as "molecular scissors", said Dr Rouse.

An amazing discovery which could have wide reaching implications.
The BBC, not surprisingly, focus on the possible implications for cancer research.
But it's important to realise that these benefits could be many, many years off.

Summer Holiday part 1

Well, that's the first installment of summer holiday over, and a great success it was too.
We played tennis and badminton (several times and my arm still aches), snooker (and boy was I rubbish at that!!) and pool. We swam and played on flumes and river rapids (not real ones...just in the swimming pool), the kids tried paddleboarding for the first time, and we all braved the High Ropes course (I was petrified, the boys loved it).

I am lucky enough to have 2 holidays in the summer, one with the kids and one without (when they go on holiday with their Dad for a week) so I let them chose where we go (within reason of course). I think they made an excellent choice this year.

Happy kids = Happy mum.

Next stop Skye :-)

Photohunt - Open