Life is a rollercoaster.....

The other day, I bumped into an acquaintance that I hadn't seen for a while and they asked me if I'd been away anywhere on holiday this year. I quickly replied 'no, I haven't had the time'! She said 'but I thought you were retired now?' I said I was but that didn't mean I have all the time in the world to do with as I please! The tendency is for other folks to assume that your time needs to be 'policed' just in case you were to fall into the trap of enjoying yourself too much. Add into the mix, a geriatric mother, two chronically ill sisters and a whole heap of grandchildren (well 3 actually but that's a heap to me*) and one wonders where one had the time to ever go to work! Anyhow, this is how I've been passing my 'free' time this summer and dare I say, enjoying myself while I was at it!

The Big Blue Top rolled into a town near me to host the little spin-off festival of the Edinburgh Fringe and I was particularly good to myself this year, having booked a couple of tickets to go and spend...

Mr. Adam Frost, he of Gardener's World fame and winner of many gold  medals at Chelsea Flower Show. He gave a very interesting talk and answered many questions with a great deal of humour and I particularly loved the fact that his first subjects on the agenda were his two grandmothers, one who he called 'Scruffy Nan' and the other 'Tidy Nan'! It was clear that he held both in very high esteem, especially when it came to spending time away from his abusive father. His introduction to gardening came via his grandfathers' allotments and the rest, as they say......! I came away from the talk floating and feeling a little bit in love with Mr. Frost!

Then two days later, off we go to the Big Blue Top once again, this time to see...

the incomparable Mr. Patrick Grant. I nearly didn't make it on time because of lack of parking slots but luckily the long queue of silver-haired admirers  made sure I had time to spare! When he came on stage, he apologised to the 3 men in the audience in case they had been dragged along against their will! Again, he gave a very interesting talk, mostly promoting his clothing company (all of the gear he was sporting, including the brown woollen socks he was oddly wearing with his Birkenstocks, was made either in Wales or Lancashire, where he moved his company to after the first lockdown).  His clothes are expensive to the ordinary punter but he said it's better to invest £100 on one good pair of jeans which will last for an immeasurable amount of time, knowing exactly where and how they were made, than spend £10 ten times over a year on a few unethically sourced and badly produced pairs. Easy for him to say, I suppose but I've been buying second-hand clothing since the early '70's and still do so I think I've made a healthy contribution to saving our planet and will continue to do so ad infinitum. Patrick (we're on first name terms now!) only mentioned The Sewing Bee momentarily at his Q&A session at the end of the talk. It was quite clear from the beginning that he was NOT there to talk exclusively about the programme!Again, as with Adam, rousing applause at the closing of the talk from their very appreciative audiences. No book signing from Patrick but I was rather bemused by the piles of boxes filled with Adam's new book. His sponsors were obviously optimistic that they'd all sell on the day! 

Being the skinflint skint pensioner that I am, I ordered my copy from the library! Sorry Adam!

The weather held fast for the whole 10 days of the festival. It was nice to wander round visiting the various stalls that had opened up shop for the duration and the food and drink traders were doing brisk business. Nice to see folks enjoying the sunshine and good festival vibes although some people got a bit carried away at the Sister Sledge concert two nights later and carried off one of the flags! Don't think it was Patrick who'd mentioned he was attending!

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to bag myself a ticket to see Miss Elkie Brooks a couple of nights later, despite putting my name on the waiting list. Perhaps she'll come and sing for us next year, fingers crossed. The last time I saw her in concert was in Edinburgh in 1977! She came on for her encore and sang the most beautiful Jewish hymn. I've never forgotten about that. 

In the quest to become an old and grey hedonist, the fun in the sun continued ......how very dare I ....but that's for next time!

Bye for now and thanks for reading if you got this far! Means a lot.

💕

*I love my grandchildren more than life itself so it's never a chore to see them. In fact, it's a great honour that they want to spend time with me and by the way, I'm definitely 'Scruffy Nana'!