December 2019 Christmas letter

It seems to come around so quickly. It happens, then before you know it, it’s about to happen again. We’re talking, of course, about Hearts’ record of defeats at Tynecastle over the last 12 months. The girls have been accompanying Craig on an alternating basis into Edinburgh to get some quality daddy-daughter time. It hasn’t been all bad, with a cup final and two semi-finals generating some extra excitement (of sorts).

The year started, or rather 2018 finished, with Eilidh becoming a mummy! Not a phrase that we expected to be writing this early in her life, but in this case, it’s because she’s a gerbil-mum! That Santa Claus has a lot to answer for!

Regular readers of this blog (if such a person exists) will know that January is the time when we celebrate Eilidh’s birthday (because that’s when it is). This year, reaching the grand old age of nine, Eilidh decided that she wanted to have a sleepover, and in a foolish moment, we agreed. We started by taking the group to Honeypot Creative Café, where they made bath bombs and painted pottery. Back at home, it was the usual pizza and film, before sending 7 girls off to bed for an early night. (Two of the three events in the previous sentence happened successfully.) By means of indulging in sophisticated surveillance techniques (listening outside the bedroom door), we were able to overhear plans being concocted to set phone alarms for 3am, at which point intervention was required and phones confiscated.

February started with Gwen and the girls going to the Strictly Live show in Glasgow, having received tickets for Christmas. It was the first time for both girls, and will be something they remember. Of course, with February being one of the coldest months of the year, it meant Craig had a compulsive urge to go camping. This year, the SubZero camp coincided with the arrival of Storm Erick, which meant that not only was everybody cold, but we sustained £800 worth of damage to tents! Fortunately we had insurance to cover it.

Later in the month, we headed to Ayrshire for the Church weekend away. We were staying a short distance away from the main group and decided to cycle to and from the main event each day, an idea which seemed reasonable enough looking at Google Maps, which accurately portrayed a simple enough journey but didn’t mention the steep hills or the driving rain which started on the first morning the second we left the house!

Into March, and Eilidh sat dance exams in modern jazz and tap. Or took dance exams at any rate – there wasn’t much sitting involved in it! A couple of weeks later, she got the results back saying that she’d passed both with flying colours (or distinction, to use the technical term)! Eilidh’s first Cub camp of the year came later that month, a fairly chilly and damp affair – but there were wetter and colder to come! But first, Iona’s birthday and Easter!

Iona also went to the Honeypot Creative Café with friends to have a science party to celebrate turning six, where they made slime (what else?!) and a volcano out of clay, baking soda, food colouring and vinegar. Another consequence of Iona being six is that she is now old enough for Beavers, which she duly started after the Easter holidays.

In a change to usual traditions, Easter started with a Christmas present – tickets for Disney on Ice in Glasgow. It was a great way to start the holiday, before we were joined at Sallachy by the Peplers. We were really lucky with the weather as well, to the extent that we needed to buy suncream for our trip to Landmark!

This photo was taken in Scotland!

After Easter, we entered a bit of a camping extravaganza, with Eilidh being invited on a sixer and seconder Cub camp (before actually being made a seconder), then the whole family going away camping in the Peak District with Gwen’s cousins, with some bank holiday weather more reminiscent of the Christmas holidays than the early May weekend! The next weekend, Craig was away on a hike and camp with the Explorers, before a rare weekend with nobody doing anything was followed by Eilidh going on the Cubs’ District camp. Another weekend off took us into June, when Craig had a rather soggy camp with the Explorers, which provided a stark contrast to the equivalent camp one year previous when we’d been enjoying a heatwave!

Cycling from Linlithgow
to the Falkirk Wheel

As summer began to make itself known (and then unknown again a bit too quickly for our liking), Iona took part in her gymnastics display show.

Well deserved ice cream
at the Falkirk Wheel

Craig had planned for the second half of the year to start with a veterans’ football tournament. However, due to not being able to get an old enough squad together, the nearly-forty-year-old found himself playing in the main tournament with the young whippersnappers!

Gwen and Eilidh chilling
on the canal in Ghent

With summery weather being scarce in the months which pass for summer in Scotland, we decided to take ourselves off on holiday to that well known sunspot – Belgium. Having decided to camp in Spain last year in the hope of some sunshine, we weren’t holding up too much hope. However, our arrival on the continent coincided with a European heatwave, and our tent became uninhabitable after 8am or before 10pm as it was so warm! On a couple of days, the temperature topped 40C, which we countered with going to a water park, and being in air-conditioned buildings in Brussels. We did a trial run of bringing chocolate home, but by the time we got it from the shop to the car, it had pretty much melted! A highlight for the girls was the Walibi theme park, which we think has provided Iona with some inspiration to grow a bit, as she was too short for some of the rides! We also  kayaked along a canal into Ghent, did a canal tour of Bruges, went to the Waterloo battlefield, and got lost cycling in an enchanted forest! On the way home, we had a sobering morning driving via some of the war memorials and museums in the Somme.

Back in the UK, we spent a few days in Lymington with Brenda and Roger. We enjoyed a paddle boarding session in the outdoor salt water swimming pool, did some cycling and chilling out in the New Forest (Craig’s enthusiasm for hammocks extends beyond the night-time camping), and went to the New Forest Show. On the way back north, we stopped off at the Slimbridge bird sanctuary to meet Auntie Lynne, James and Ethan.

We got back to Scotland just in time for Craig’s birthday, which wouldn’t normally get a mention, but then again, he doesn’t normally turn 40! He decided to have an action-packed day, so we spent the day at Foxlake Adventures, doing a low-ropes course (no harnesses, but the obstacles are over a pond!), wake boarding, and doing the “ringo” (an inflatable which we all lay on together and then got wheeched up the pond).  

After a day at the Fringe before the end of the school holidays, it was back into Scouting season! Craig had two consecutive weekends away, first with the Scouts in the Lake District and then locally with Explorers from West Lothian as they vied for selection to an international camp next year. The following weekend, Iona had her first “Nights Away” experience in Scouting with the Beaver Sleepover (which Craig also helped at).

Facing a September weekend with no camping, we took ourselves off to London for the long weekend to visit the Peplers. A highlight of that weekend was going to Legoland on the Sunday, which fueled the girls’ imagination! Iona, in fact, is now desperate to open up a Legoland in Scotland, and is busy working out all the practicalities; she has found a plot of land near Armadale and is sorting out who’s going to sell popcorn, who’ll work in the shop, and how she will design all the robotics it’s going to have!

There was time for Eilidh to go on a Cub camp at the end of September in Northumberland and for Craig to go on an expedition with the Explorers before we went up to Sallachy for the October week. It was lovely to be joined for the first weekend by Auntie Wendy.  We had a relaxing few days walking, cycling and kayaking, and somehow managed to avoid the worst of the rain – and even got enough sunshine in parts for Gwen and the girls to spend a couple of hours paddling up to their thighs! We ended the holiday week by going north to south – down to the Borders for a weekend with the Andrews and the Jenkins.

In November, Eilidh went on a sixer and seconder camp in her own right, having been made a seconder after the summer holidays. She came back even paler than usual, having been proud to have experienced the temperature drop to -2.5. Craig, having decided that he’d spent enough weekends with Scouts and Explorers for the year, decided instead to spend the weekend with other Scout leaders, running a training course.

As we wind down into winter, we we’ve been trying to get a bit into winter mode. Over the course of the year, Gwen has tried a little bit of ice skating (to the extent that she’s started joining in beginners lessons but still can’t skate!). This is no mean feat, given that she has only been on the ice a handful of times in her life, and the last time (around 10 years ago) ended up with a broken elbow! We’ve seen Frozen 2, been to the Christmas Market / rides in Edinburgh, and been to two Christmas concerts; it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

There’s still plenty to come this year though, with the excitement of Auntie Jenny’s wedding in between Christmas and New Year, and hopefully lots of time to see and play with Australian cousins.

Gwen has continued playing for Meadows Chamber Orchestra.and is also teaching Eilidh to play a little bit of the piano! She’s been enjoying regularly going to Bodypump and having a swim when it ties in with the girls’ activities.

Eilidh and Penny setting up camp

Some of Eilidh’s other highlights of the year include writing a book (as part of a challenge for Cubs) about a girl being made homeless– look out for it on Amazon! She also camped out in the garden with her best friend.

She finished playing the violin in the summer, but has taken up the Oboe and choir through School. She and Iona have also started “acro” class (acrobatic dancing), which looks even more energetic than their normal dancing. She was able to try out skiing through the school for a few weeks, and has just completed the “Learn to Swim” programme, to the extent that she’s now giving Gwen tips on swimming technique!

Iona is developing her swimming and moved up a level through the year. She also got the chance to do some fencing through the school, which she loved and was right up her street! She’s started learning the recorder at home, and is continually using her imagination to come up with schemes and grand plans! As well as Legoland Livingston, she’s expressed an interest in building a rocket at home, because otherwise it will be too expensive to go to the moon!

Craig would find loads to do in his spare time if he had any. He still manages to play a little football, and gets a short swim in while Iona’s in her lesson. His remaining exercise usually involves sprinting for the train, and he can frequently be seen running up George IV Bridge in Edinburgh at the end of the working day!

From all of us, we’d like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and prosperous New Year!

December 2018 Christmas letter

Wow, what a year 2018 has been! Snow when we didn’t expect it, lots of hot sunshine when we
didn’t expect it, and lots of rain (in Spain) when we didn’t expect it.

Eilidh’s 8th birthday in January saw us have a short party lunch in the house before taking a minibus-load of her friends to the local Scout campsite so that they could do crate climbing. Climbing up (attached to a harness) as they stacked milk crates on top of each other to make towers 10+ feet high was a new experience for most of them, which they seemed to enjoy.

Craig finished 2017 by taking on a new role in Scouting – as Explorer Scout Leader (14-18 year-olds), and stepped down to Assistant Scout Leader, on a once-a-month basis. The winter consequence of that change was that the annual overnight Brass Monkey camp in the local campsite was followed up the next weekend by the two night SubZero camp in very cold conditions just outside Glasgow.

With all this cold-weather camping and outside partying going on, Gwen was keeping herself busy doing concert rehearsals in cold church halls. One concert in January and two in February set the tone (if you’ll forgive the musical pun) for a year of performance for the female members of the family.

March saw the biennial dance show for the girls, with Iona making her stage debut and Eilidh not letting the occasion faze her; the Friday evening and Sunday matinee and evening shows meant a demanding schedule, which they coped with well and we were of course very proud of them.

With dancing performances out of the way, it was time to think about Iona’s birthday, which this year was on Palm Sunday. We had a party in our neighbouring Scout Hall on the Saturday, with a magician in attendance to wow the children. It was lovely to have the cousins Bronwen and Imogen there, as they, Eleanor and James joined us for the week leading up to Easter when we all retreated up to Sallachy on the Sunday afternoon until the Friday. That meant that Gwen celebrated her birthday up north, with a nice lunch in Plockton.


With birthday and Easter celebrations over and done with, a joint Cub and Scout camp on the outskirts of Edinburgh saw Craig and Eilidh disappear together. We were fortunate to get some lovely weather over the weekend, a precursor of things to come as it turned out (and as you’ll know, unless you spent the middle part of the year on Mars).

As the year progressed, we managed to find things to keep us busy (something we’ve never found difficult!). Craig embarked on some introductory mountain leader training, Gwen had a weekend away with friends in Lindisfarne, and Eilidh had another Cub camp. As spring was ending and summer began, Gwen had a couple of concerts, while the skills Eilidh picked up at her Saturday morning musical classes were demonstrated at a concert featuring her playing the violin and singing in the choir (but not at the same time!).

With World Cup fever striking the Browning household (it felt like all 32 nations must have been
supported for some reason at one point or another!), Craig felt he had to get away from all the
football and go camping with the Explorers!

As June gave way to July and temperatures increased, Gwen decided that the decidedly un-Scottish weather was insufficient for her, and so went to Bath for Lynne’s hen weekend. At points, the temperature there genuinely wasn’t that far off what you find in an actual bath, and air-conditioned buildings were the order of the day, if you could find any.

And so to our summer holiday, which was three weeks this year. A fantastic chance for a busy family to relax and recharge their batteries, you might think. You’d be wrong (or perhaps only get partial credit for your answer).

A case of very unfortunate timing led to an invitation to Gwen’s cousin’s wedding being received after we booked a ferry to Spain (and back again). With other commitments the other side of the holiday (of which more later), there was no scope for alterations in the plan, and our presence had to be substituted with a visit to the Gibsons’ the day before the big day; it was lovely to see a different branch of the family, albeit slightly sad to have to a miss a special occasion. The next day (after calling in to Buckfast Abbey and leaving without sampling the monks’ “tonic”), we found ourselves in Plymouth – a good job, as that was where our ferry was sailing from. The Plymouth-Santander sailing is about 22 hours, so it was like a mini-cruise, and the girls really enjoyed it.

We arrived in Spain to glorious sunshine, and drove the couple of hours along the north coast to our campsite on the Costa Verde (which means “Green Coast” in English). After getting the tent pitched, hanging the hammocks (we’ve all got one now!) and relaxing by the pool, we settled in for nine days of sunshine. Alas, the reason the Costa Verde got its name is due to the stunning greenery between the Picos de Europa mountains and the coast, but such vegetation requires not only sunshine but rain as well; lo and behold, this oh-so-important precipitation fell (at some times in Scottish quantities) on six of our nine days. Thanks to Gwen’s mild obsession with weather apps, were able to plan our days east and west along the coast to avoid the worst of what fell.

The Costa Verde has some very interesting history / prehistory. We explored a reconstruction of
cave painting, went fossil-hunting and stood in real dinosaur footprints. We had a couple of good
family cycles, and managed to spend some time at the beach and have a lot of giggles with a
bodyboard. Our final day in Spain was spent at the Guggenheim museum of modern art, before getting the ferry back from Bilbao to Plymouth. Sadly, the ferry’s swimming pool, which had been an attraction on the way over, had been drained and not refilled yet, as all the water was sloshing out on a rough sailing earlier in the week!

England’s south coast. Some nice places. Some very nice places. Some not-so-nice places. No decent roads linking them. The Spanish road network puts England’s to shame. The 3.5 hour drive from Plymouth to Gwen’s parents in Lymington would have been 2-2.5 hours for an equivalent distance along Spain’s north coast. Nevertheless, once there we were able to unload some camping and cycling gear, re-load the car with wedding finery, and head back west to Bath for Lynne’s wedding to James. With Gwen as a bridesmaid and the girls as flower girls, lots of forward planning had to be done to get dresses and kilt down to Lymington beforehand (in May!), in order for the logistics to work; there certainly wasn’t any spare room in our car! The wedding itself was lovely, but wow, it was genuinely too hot to go outside! Lynne and James make a very happy couple, and young Ethan buzzing around put a smile on everyone’s face.

The next day, we packed up our things, and headed back east to London, where we arrived in time for Imogen’s 5th birthday party (which was on Sunday 5th if you’re losing track of days, like we were!).

Her actual birthday was on the Monday, and the eight of us went to London Zoo for the day (nearly losing two of the girls in the lion enclosure!). Having had Imogen’s birthday on the Monday, it was time to celebrate Craig’s birthday on the Tuesday (told you it was a busy trip). We got six free tickets for the Tower of London courtesy of Craig’s work, which was enough for the four of us and the two cousins to go. At the end of the day, thanks to Eleanor who had looked after a bag of smarter clothes for Gwen and Craig, we nipped into the nearest department store for a quick change, said goodbye to the four girls, and had a night out to see the Thriller stage show.

The following day, it was back down to Lymington to swap our wedding clothes back for the camping equipment and bikes, and to spend a few days with Gwen’s parents. The Thursday of that week was our 10th wedding anniversary (I know – we find it hard to believe too!). We spent the afternoon at a beach near Bournemouth, before checking into a nice hotel (without kids, who’d gone back to Lymington) and meeting up with some of Gwen’s school friends for some early evening drinks, and then enjoyed a very nice local seafood meal.

On our way back up the road, we went via the Welsh border to see Gwen’s other cousins, before
staying the night in Wrexham, making Wales the fifth country of our holiday, after Scotland, England, Spain, and French territorial waters!

Having a later holiday than usual cut down our opportunities to see shows at the Fringe, but we did manage to squeeze in a few shows, both as a family and as an all-too-rare night out.  Craig had his summer camp with the Scouts in Northumberland in mid-August, while at the end of the month, the weekend of Eilidh’s Cub summer camp and Craig’s Explorer water-sports-based camp coincided, leaving Gwen and Iona the space to have a girlie weekend.  There was another important event during August – Iona started school! She’d been ready for it for a while, and has settled in very well.

After that, it was back to the stage, for Iona’s gymnastics show. Just one show this time, but she did very well. The senior gymnasts were doing flips from the top of human pyramids that literally made the audience gasp – some truly spectacular stuff!

There was still time In September for Craig to have another Scout camp, this time in Fife. Craig had been double-booked by the Scouts that weekend – he’d also been asked by West Lothian Scout District to run a campfire at the local campsite’s 60th anniversary celebrations on the Saturday afternoon. He picked the girls up from Gwen in Edinburgh at Saturday lunchtime, took them to the anniversary event in the afternoon, and then took them home for a babysitter to look after them and give them dinner while Gwen performed at a concert and he went back up to Fife; a busy weekend indeed!

The final quarter of the year has flown by for us (as we’re sure it has for everyone).

We were able to get up to Sallachy for the school holidays, and were joined by Buck and Catherine for the first weekend of it. On the Thursday, we came part-way down the road, stayed over in a hotel, and then continued down to Dumfries to spend a long weekend with the Andrews and Jenkins families.

November saw a final concert of the year for Gwen, as the year drew to a close.


Iona is still enjoying her dancing, gymnastics and swimming, and her Saturday morning music
classes; she’s looking forward to starting Beavers in April. Eilidh is enjoying Cubs, dancing and swimming. She stopped her Saturday morning violin classes but still goes to the choir, and Gwen has been teaching her some piano at home. She has just started learning the Oboe through school.
Gwen is now the longest-serving partner in her practice, and has been joined by some new permanent GPs to form a new team of five. Craig is still working at Mercer. Craig managed to snap up a children’s season ticket next to his seat at Tynecastle, and the girls take it in turns to have some special “Daddy-time” at the matches.

As always, if you ever find yourself passing through or near Livingston, please give us a shout. The Family Browning would like to wish all our friends and family a very Merry Christmas and every good wish for a happy and prosperous 2019!

December 2017 Christmas letter

So, December once again.  Our usual practice is to enter late-autumn with the intention of starting our newsletter in October or November, to avoid the busy period as Christmas approaches.  It never works out like that of course, but the intent has been there.  Not this year though; it’s been a very busy autumn – much like the rest of the year, in fact!

We saw in the New Year up at Sallachy with Judy and Russell.  The girls enjoyed staying up late (9-ish!) and both they and Shiel enjoyed bouncing around at a wee mini-ceilidh!  Craig attended his annual Brass Monkey camp with the Scouts, but they were left disappointed as the weather stayed uncharacteristically above freezing.  Meantime, Eilidh entered her usual birthday party season, which comes from having lots of friends with similar birthdays to hers.  This year, she had a seventh joint party with Harry (with whom she shares a birthday) at Jump Station, the local trampoline park.  She was literally bouncing that day.

Also, in January, Iona announced to us one afternoon that she wanted to ride her bike without stabilisers, having witnessed Eilidh master the challenge the previous summer.  Not wanting to lose the moment despite the setting winter sun, we set off on a short walk with the girls on their bikes, and Iona, despite being a bit shoogly and zigzagging all over the path, did indeed manage to stay upright and keep pedaling her bike!

Gwen's wee birthday cake!

February saw birthday party season continue for the girls, along with Gwen’s first concert of the year.  We also found time to enjoy a family trip to go swimming and ice-skating.  The girls are slowly building their confidence on the ice; Eilidh is now able to skate (after a fashion) without a penguin balancing aid, and Iona was complimented by one of the coaches for her desire to copy her sister and leave the penguin at the side of the rink.

Eilidh giving Iona a birthday hug!

Eilidh sat her first dance exam (for jazz) in March, and passed with distinction.  Her dance school were very good at making sure that all the girls were ready before they entered them for the exam, and told them that it was “just another dance”, so minimising any pressure.  Craig also took the older Scouts on a survival camp, where they had to build shelters and sleep outside in them in the (very) cold.  Whilst the Scouts bedded down in moss, Craig slept off the ground, trying out sleeping in a hammock and finding it a very comfortable experience.  Something odd happened during the course of the following week, with the weather temperature increasing by an uncharacteristic 18 degrees or so, meaning that Iona’s fourth birthday / party was bathed in lovely sunshine, and the kids spent the afternoon bouncing on the trampoline and bouncy castle while miraculously not injuring themselves or bringing up the birthday lunch!

Putting on an Easter show with the cousins

The Queen was nowhere to be seen

April was a significant point in Gwen’s life, being the month in which she has now lived more than half her life in Scotland.  To celebrate, we had haggis and whisky, and then flew down south to spend the week leading up to Easter staying with Brenda and Roger in the first half of the week, and then with Eleanor and James in London for Easter itself.  We had a lovely week, one of the highlights of which was going for a cycle in the New Forest with the girls.  We were very proud of Eilidh, who despite having only learned to fully ride her bike less than a year before, managed to cycle the 10km or so, which included both road and off-road portions.  Iona thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being on a “tag-along” on the back of Craig’s bike!  A quick Scout church parade later, and Eilidh was off on her first school camp – a single night away at Lowport Centre in Linlithgow, where she got to do canoeing and “Jungle Bash” (which we’re led to believe is an adventurous walk).

Have we been here before?  If only we'd kept a log...

The start of May saw a fine weekend for Craig to go camping with the Cubs and Scouts, while Eilidh and the Beavers joined in on the Saturday for a mini-camp experience.  May also saw Craig join a veterans’ football team – an acknowledgement of age catching up on him!  (It’s an over 35s team).  The games are only sporadic, and his debut ended with a heavy defeat and an own-goal to boot.  However, two subsequent games later in the year saw him score at the right end, firstly in a 9-8 defeat (!) and then in a 5-1 victory against a Hibs team (a good scoreline for any Hearts fan to be part of, even if it was as part of a notionally Livingston team).  May also stood out as the month in which Gwen and Craig deemed themselves ready to get their own bikes, following the successful Easter trial-run in the New Forest.

The end of the road

Eilidh in Tarzan-trail mode

Into June, and Eilidh took part in her first violin concert; she did very well, and we all went out for a celebratory dinner with Grandma and Grandpa.  A couple of practice cycles later, and we were ready to take our bikes on holiday with us.  It’s fair to say that our choice of holiday venue this was heavily influenced by a very generous Christmas 2016 gift: family membership of Historic Scotland.  With that in mind, we decided to stay in the country to make use of the gift, picking Orkney as our focal point (which had been on our “hit-list” for years), and driving (most of) the North Coast 500 tourist route.  We spent the first few days of the holiday in a rented cottage in Forres, and explored some of the North East, including a lovely day spent at the Landmark activity centre, which the kids loved (red squirrels, butterflies, roller coasters, water slides and tree-top trails).  From there, we spent the morning at Fort George and then drove up to John O’Groats, where we stayed in a nearby hotel, ready to catch the morning ferry across the Pentland Firth to Orkney.

Iona making sure this big standing stone stays standing

We really loved Orkney.  We camped in a quiet municipal-owned campsite in Birsay, but it was without a doubt the windiest place we’d ever camped.  We were a bit concerned that our tent might not last the week, and in fact one other couple on the campsite literally had their tent blown to bits!  We managed to escape with only one broken pole although we did suffer some water leakage due to some torrential rain which literally battered its way through the canvas!  Weather aside, Orkney was a fantastic place.  The archaeological sites captivated the imagination of all of us, and we had great fun exploring the tombs, standing stones and prehistoric villages.  The quiet roads were perfect for the girls to cycle on.  We were made to work hard though; whichever way we were cycling, the wind appeared to be against us!  We even had to pedal whilst going downhill at points as the wind was otherwise blowing us uphill!  Eilidh in particular did very well, and put in a massive amount of effort to make sure that we caught the last ferry back on our 17km island-cycle (which was by no means a given)!

Eilidh loves the beach!

Back on the mainland, (Scottish mainland, not Orcadian mainland), we continued on the North Coast 500, which we would recommend to anybody as a stunning drive.  It’s really interesting to see our beautiful country transpose from the forested east coast to the rugged north coast.  We stayed overnight in a “Hobbit house”-style wigwam part of the way down; the kids loved bunking down in the same place and at the same time as us!  The final few days of the summer holiday were spent at Sallachy, where we managed to explore further up the glen than had previously been possible thanks to our two-wheeled transport.  It should be noted that whilst we had a great time in the northernmost reaches of the country, the bikes didn’t appreciate being outside in the salty sea-air for the best part of two weeks, and required a good service / oiling on our return!

In fact, all the girls in our family love the beach!

August brought a hen weekend down south for Gwen, and the fun of the Edinburgh Festival.  Many shows were visited, from story-telling to children’s theatre, magic to comedy, and street performers watched and admired.  One show of special note was “At the Illusionist’s Table”, in which Craig and Gwen dined at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in the company of around 10 other people and a very good mind-reader, who did some amazing pieces.  One of his tricks involved accurately reading Craig’s mind, and it was therefore reassuring to get confirmation that Craig does actually have a mind to read!

Stopping to take in the view on the Isle of Rousay

August also saw Craig put to use his newly-acquired council minibus licence to take the Scouts away for the weekend at Lochgoilhead Activity Centre on the west coast for some water sports and other adventurous activities, before helping at the Beaver sleepover, which Eilidh attended and very much enjoyed.  It also gave Craig the chance to try out the hammock that Gwen gave him for his birthday.  It’s proving a popular gift, and the girls love getting in and having a wee swing in it!

Stirling Castle with London cousins

We welcomed the Peplers to Bankton Terrace in September, and took them to the very enjoyable Siege on the Forth day at our “local” castle (Blackness Castle), and to the more dominating Stirling Castle.  September brought the first of our “big” family celebrations, with a weekend down in the Lake District to visit Russell’s 70^th birthday.  It was lovely to have the Rouses over from Australia, and to see the antipodean cousins play with each other.  That was more than enough to fill the month, but we still found time for Gwen to go down south for a school friend’s wedding at the start of the month, and Craig to go  to Prague at the end of the month to celebrate a friend’s 40^th birthday.

October brought with it another Scout camp for Craig, before what we considered a very well-deserved October break in Sallachy, and weekend in Perthshire with two other families.

A walk in the Gruffalo wood with Australian cousins

Can't beat a wee conga on an autumn walk!

Then the year started to get busy.  Craig was asked by the Scout District to take over the running of an Explorer Scout Unit (for 14-18 year olds), which he started following the October week.  In the transition period between then and the year-end, he has remained as Scout leader, although he will drop down to one week a month following the Christmas holidays.

November was one of those months that seemed to pass really quickly, though there were no weekend events, which was certainly a blessing.  Scout activities, church activities, musical activities, birthday parties and football conspired to consume Saturdays and Sundays, and some weekday evenings in between, and ensured that December was upon us before we knew it.

And now we know it.  December is here, more than half going, and Christmas is rapidly approaching.  Gwen has had a weekend in London to celebrate Eleanor’s 40^th birthday.

Eilidh's had two years in Beavers

Eilidh has now finished Beavers, and will “swim up” to Cubs after Christmas.  Eilidh completed Beavers with an armful of badges, being appointed Lodge Leader, and achieving the Chief Scout’s Bronze Award, the highest award a Beaver can obtain.  During her two years, she has gained in confidence and we are very proud of the girl she is turning in to.  Her swimming has continued to progress, as has her violin playing, and she continues to enjoy dancing.

Iona, having been swimming every week with Craig whilst Eilidh was having her lessons and developing into a bit of a water-baby, started lessons herself in October.  She seems to be acquitting herself well, having been moved up a level already.  She still goes to gymnastics on Fridays, building on her climbing and balancing skills, and also enjoys dancing.  She's developing all the time and is now in her final year of nursery, and has a very cheeky sense of humour!

Gwen is still managing to fill her time with her work, and is still enjoying playing the violin (primarily with Meadows Chamber Orchestra, but also with various other ensembles from time to time).  She has also been dedicated in her development of gin tasting!

Craig is being kept from twiddling his thumbs by the Scouts / Explorers, and manages to find time to be exuberant / despondent as results dictate at Hearts’ home games, and taking part in the odd game of football where circumstances permit.

Merry Christmas! 

The whole of the Browning Family would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, with every best wish for 2018.  If you are in our vicinity, please get in touch and look us up – we’d love to see you.