Lmst

Making memories, daddy-daughter lunch and time together

I was back in River Town today. After the difficulties of reaching you 2 weeks ago, because of the rail strikes, I looked for various backups but ultimately I just had to be lucky that the drivers would turn up this morning.

At 7:45am I got up and checked travel planner, all they could advise is that services may be disrupted because of the strikes. I got ready, excited to see you, but with the horrible feeling that if the journey wasn’t possible, I’d have to box up the disappointment.

This time last year

It’s astonishing how much can change in a year. I hadn’t realised that your mum was executing her plan to get me out of your life and minimise my role as your father.

Today in River Town

I arrived after 2 trains and a rail replacement bus. I was hot and tired but of course got energy from giving you a kiss. You greeted me with ‘daddy’ and have become much more chatty. I love hearing your voice.

We walked to the centre and played in the park while the time passed and we could go to our daddy daughter lunch date. Lots of families enjoy going to Nando’s and I wanted a fun atmosphere which the staff provided – some of the chain restaurants may not be the most classy but they tend to cater for little ones very well and having arrived just before the lunch rush, the staff were attentive.

After lunch the weather was confusing and you seemed a bit restless so I wanted to get out and about and give you the chance to sleep in your buggy. I walked towards the canal and zig zagged across the adjacent parks. We went past happy families enjoying their day. It was exhausting to go from chilly to hot weather and the pain seeing your attention on kids with their families.

My favourite part today was when you had woken up and we played on the grass with you sitting on me occasionally, snuggling your head on my chest. I dream of when we will nap together, where you will be secure and loved.

Being together makes me happyI crave the smell of your little bean

Upcoming father’s day

Our second father’s day is coming up. I don’t feel like a real father to be honest. I take my responsibility for you extremely seriously but up till now I feel like an annoyance, just bothering your routine, when you’d rather be at home with your toys.

I hope we’ll share lovely father’s days in the future. Maybe just lunch at a Sunnyland restaurant or the pub with mates.

I’m always thinking about you sweetheart.

Listen through the podcast

https://open.spotify.com/episode/42u3Wai6gQCQQOZNTfjCeK?si=HLnSSmkGTPyd2RLM6anneQ

#changes #coparenting #daddyDaughterDate #daddyTime #daughter #dayOut #dayTogether #family #familyBonding #father #FatherSDay #myGirl #railStrikes #timeTogether #toddler

A toddler stands proudly in a green field

A smiling toddler walking outdoors on green grass

A man with a beard and sunglasses taking a selfie with a toddler

27/05/2025 - A sunny day at St Cyrus nature reserve. The dunes between the cliffs and the beach are a wonderful place for wild flowers, birds and bugs. We saw peregrine, osprey and kestrel flying high. Raven and fulmars on the cliffs. Lots of little birds like whitethroat, stonechat and sedge warbler in the dunes. Just a lovely day taken slow.

A few snaps of some lovely bugs we meet on our way round.

Cinnabar moth
7 spot ladybird larva
Bracken sawfly

#Insects #DayOut

Photo of the old graveyard in St Cyrus nature reserve. Cliffs to the left, dunes and sea to the right. This is a quiet place to sit and also really good for wild flowers.

The lovely cinnabar moth in the grass. Black and red colouring. Its red is amazing when it flies.

To my dying day, no one will ever convince me this grey bug turns into a wonderful 7 spot ladybird! It's a bit creepy looking.

26/05/2025 - A day spent dodging the rain that never really came. Morning walk up Den of Dun near Montrose. Then a visit to one of my favourite gardens, Pitmuies Gardens near Forfar in Angus. This place is just magical. A quiet sit amongst flowers and trees, happy me today.

#DayOut

Photo of Fox-and-cubs. I love these orange flowers so much. There's a bee on the front one.

Big pink poppies in the formal gardens at Pitmuies. There were so many bees here!

Photo looking up to big trees at Pitmuies gardens. Mainly beech. It's not the biggest of places but just perfect for a quiet slow day spent looking at trees, flowers and bees. The walled gardens are wow, so beautiful. The walk through the big trees around a loch is so good too. Great selection of old trees. Redwoods, oak and my favourite sweet chestnuts to name just a few. Well worth a visit if you are around these parts.

24/05/2025 - A sunny visit to Brechin Walled Garden and Tearoom today. What an oasis of calm this place is. The flowers are nice, the trees are wonderful. The cedar of lebanon in the middle has to be seen! Maples and dawn redwoods looked just lovely in the sunshine. A place to sit and daydream.

#DayOut #Trees #WildFlowers

I love car parks for wild flowers. We had a good start before even getting in the walled garden. Photo of a pink flower of Cut-leaved Crane's-bill. Car park also had plenty vetch, speedwell and a Thyme-leaved Sandwort which I don't think I've seen before. Rough ground is ace for wild flowers.

View down one of the paths in Brechin walled garden. A few rhododendron still in flower and lots of colourful flowers I didn't know but were very nice to see and smell. Big trees beyond. The tall one is a giant sequoia.

One of us walking under and past the branches of a mighty cedar of lebanon. What a tree!

One of us walking down a tree and flower lined path. Getting a little lost in the sunshine and shade. A place not to rush.

20/05/2025 - Another sunny day out looking for big trees and little flowers and bugs. We spent the day at the River Findhorn, south of Forres in Moray.

#DayOut #Trees #WildFlowers

Photo is of two big trees by the River Findhorn. The taller one on the right is the tallest measured Sitka Spruce in Britain at just over 65m (also making it one of the tallest of any tree in Britain). On the left is a Douglas Fir at only just 60m tall!

We spent most of the day at Logie Steading. Looking for bugs in their lovely gardens and wild flowers in the woods. Pick of the bugs today was a huge Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk-moth, top bug!. Photo is looking over the lawn to impressive Logie House and trees beyond.

Near the big trees the River Findhorn flows through narrow rocks. The place is called Randolph's Leap. The water looks low from the lack of rain in recent weeks.

Not the best of photos but I think this was a new wild flower for me today. It's a wood speedwell. Small pinkish flower with stalked green leaves.

19/05/2025 - 8 hrs spent doing this today. 12 miles of doing not much of nothing, just walking, looking for wild flowers and chatting rubbish to each other.

#DayOut

Mrs Spaceways strolling along a pebble beach that stretches for miles. Quiet here today. Nice and sunny by afternoon.

Monopoly Lifesize is Monopoly with some escape room elements.
Loved the escape rooms, but Monopoly still Meh
#boardgames #dayout

02/05/2025 - A nice day out to Haddo House in Aberdeenshire. An interesting stately home completed in 1732. The garden was a quiet place to sit and have our butties. Some lovely big trees in the grounds including a wonderful veteran beech tree. Not the best day for wild flowers but a nice surprise finding American Speedwell (Veronica peregrina) in the chuckies on the driveway.

#DayOut #WildFlowers #Trees

Photo looking over the gardens to Haddo House. There are 3 giant sequoias on the right. Roughly 30m tall. The tree on the left was planted by Queen Victoria and the one on the right by Prince Albert, both in 1857. The middle tree though not much smaller is a good 50 years younger.

Tiny white flower of American Speedwell (Veronica peregrina)? in the chuckies on the driveway.

Pink/red flowers of Spotted Dead-nettle.

A wonderful veteran beech tree. Said to be the largest beech tree in north east Scotland. Height 24.5m, truck diameter 2.1m and a canopy spread of 45.5m! No I didn't measure it, I just read the handy sign :-)

26/04/2025 - A lovely visit to the Isle of May. I love a boat trip. The weather was kind. The birds were wonderful. It was a long day out but worth it.

#DayOut #BoatTrip

View of the Isle of May from the boat. 1.5km by 0.5km island off the Fife coast. Stevenson lighthouse at the top (Just over 50m above the sea).

The boat we took from Anstruther in Fife at the island pier. Lot of folk on the boat trip today but didn't seem busy once on the island. You can find your own space.

High sea cliffs on the island. All the usual birds, guillemots, razorbills, shags and wonderful kittiwakes. I guess though most folk come to see the puffins.

Close up photo of the many white flowers of Sea Campion. The island was covered in them.

19/04/2025 - We were heading for a hill but the first stop was so nice we stayed. A slow stroll in Aberdeenshire, looking at lovely stuff. Saw my first swallow this year. Tall trees, nice bugs and wonderful flowers and fungi.

Pick of the day was Tongues of Fire (last photo). A really interesting fungus. Here on its primary host, Juniper. It releases spores from its orange spore tubes, which ride the wind to find its secondary host, Hawthorn, then back to Juniper.

#Fungi #Bugs #Trees #DayOut

A new dawn - Photo of this year's new green leaves of a dawn redwood. Maybe my favourite leaf.

A view from where we were sitting in a quiet walled garden. It's good for bugs here. Trees behind but the photo is one of tulips, mainly reds and yellows. I'm not normally that big on tulips but these did look very nice in the sunshine and the bees were liking them too.

Photo of a red-breasted carrion beetle on a wall in sunshine. Black with an orange section behind its head.

Tongues of Fire fungus on its primary host, Juniper. Its spore tubes look like many orange tongues. It's just ace!

#SteamTrain #DayOut

A view out of the carriage looking down the steam train with green banking at the side.

A picture of a man and a woman smiling. They are sat in a train carriage . The seats are patterned red and orange and the carriage is partly wooden.

06/04/2025 - A sunny day out to the city looking at trees. We visited the James Hutton Institute arboretum. It's not big but has a really fine selection of trees. It's home to the tallest tree in Aberdeen, a Sitka Spruce standing at 44 m.

#DayOut #Trees

View of James Hutton Institute arboretum, lots of trees! Aberdeen city's tallest tree, a Sitka Spruce standing at 44 m, is on the left with a Giant Sequoia to the right. Sandwiched between them is a much smaller Japanese Red Cedar.

Photo of a Dawn Redwood. Unlike the other redwoods, this one loses its leaves.

Looking up the big trunk of a Noble Fir.

05/04/2025 - A sunny day out looking at stuff. We saw some great big things but it's the little things I always love best.

A few snaps of some things that made me smile.

Early mining bee - Seemed happy on its dandelion.
A female larch cone - I love these.
Holly leaf miner - Nice patterns on the leaf.
Furry Dronefly - I'm a bee honest!

#DayOut #Nature #Bees #Insects #Trees

Early mining bee - Seemed happy on its dandelion. It was liking the early spring pollen.

A new female red larch cone on a branch with a tree lined track beyond.

Holly leaf miner on a holly leaf. A small fly with larvae causing a red patch on the leaf.

Furry Dronefly on a tree, it looks a bit like a bee.

Forge Mill Needle Museum, in Redditch, is not a large museum, but it is full of interest, and the staff and volunteers were delightful. I can recommend it.

Bring walking shoes and time, if that appeals, there is also a two hour self guided walk around the water meadow and associated archaeology, which I wasn't able to fit in.

#MuseumVisit #DayOut

Sign on a wall reads:
Welcome to
ForgeMill Needle Museum
and
Bordesley Abbey Visitor Centre

The former mooring point of the Queens of the Canals at the Craigmarloch Basin on the Forth and Clyde Canal, some 25km east of Glasgow. In 1893, a steamer by the name of the Fairy Queen started offering day trips along the canal between Port Dundas in Glasgow and Craigmarloch.

Cont./

#glasgow #forthandclydecanal #glasgowhistory #craigmarloch #canalhistory #dayout

A decaying dock on a canal with an old rusted mooring ring set into the ground.

28/03/2025 - Day off work. We took the bus out and had a lovely sunny walk back. It took forever as we kept stopping to look at good stuff, trees, wild flowers, bees and bugs. It was a fine walk and much needed.

#DayOut #Trees