O Caledonia! stern and wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child!
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood,
Land of my sires! what mortal hand
Can e’er untie the filial band
That knits me thy rugged strand!
(The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Sir Walter Scott)
After dancing (easier routine today) and Italian we launched into a Burn’s/Scotland appreciation day. Studied Tam O Shanter and listened to Malcolm Arnold’s music on this CD, which provided nice backing for our supper too. Davie read A Red Red rose, (also listened to song version), I read To A Mouse and the kids chose favoured bits from Tam. I went first and was followed by what I took to be a stunned, possibly horrified silence. Charlotte reassured me – “no mum, were just in awe” 
Dug out my Granny’s crystal decanter, which has lived in cupboards for years – how silly…
Cranachan recipe can be found here and you can buy vegan haggis here
This was the only Scottish thing we could find for a tablecloth. Sadly both Scottish flags have become rather racist symbols in Scotland now, a sort of ‘go back home, English people’ thing – we do not share these sentiments and use it in it’s traditional, Scotland-loving sense
and we finished with Auld Lang Syne on the treble recorder 
The Artists Way: A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self - an intensely powerful and synchronistic way of clearing blocks, old psychological patterns and dysfunctions of the past. Get doing your morning pages, they're amazing!
fabulous guide to foraging in Britain.
amazing Russian books these: spirituality; growing; living naturally; raising children with love and respect; quite magical. Release any preconceived ideas of how life should be (or books) and create your space of love!
A very well researched novel which, alongside Picoult's usual 'heading to a trial' plot, explores many facets of and perspectives on Asperger's Syndrome. The potential and common effects of AS on siblings is especially well documented here. As gripping and informative a book as 
a great storehouse of food growing knowledge from Dirty Nails :)
"Girls just wanna have... wanna have fun...", and we still are :)
