Good morning from cloudy and cool East Lothian. We hadn’t been out, apart from for shopping, this week, so decided to head west and investigate Bo’ness and Linlithgow, neither of which we had been to before. It stayed dry while we were in Bo’ness so we had a pleasant wander along the main streets and visited the small but well-stocked bookshop. I like to support independent bookshops so always buy something - preferably for someone else as I have quite a large number of books already 😀. The rain had started by the time we got to Linlithgow so we dived into the first cafe we came to, for a bowl of soup and a sandwich. We were entertained listening to the banter between the staff and a couple who came in just after us who were obviously regulars. I had hoped for a walk along the canal but it was too wet for enjoyment so we just walked through the town, enjoying the sense of history evoked by the buildings and many old passages or ‘wynds’. I had forgotten that there is also a bookshop here! “Far From the Madding Crowd” is on two floors and is absolutely packed with books. I concentrated on the basement where there are children’s books and bought Julia Donaldson and Victoria Sandøy’s beautiful “The Oak Tree” for the youngest GDs.
I ‘waved’ to you, *Grandmabatty” as I know Polmont is not far from where we were.
Unfortunately, the campervan, which had been sending us urgent messages about needing Adblue, was no happier when it was filled up and was showing a warning saying that the exhaust filter was full. It is supposed to clean automatically while the van is being driven. After much perusing of the handbook we drove home with the warning light still showing and today DH spent the morning phoning round garages for help. None had available slots so he tried the breakdown service and they said the automatic cleaning needs high revs to work so DH is now driving in a lowish gear along the A1 😬
I made a Guinness chocolate cake which is residing at DD’s waiting for me to go round and make the frosting for it.
I note that several of the Scottish grans are childminding during the teachers’ strike. We have seen several grandparents here with school age children who must have been sent over from the west as the schools here are not affected this time. I hope the schoolwork is going better today for Stilllearning’s GCs 😂
Have the best day you can, according to your circumstances and strength to those struggling.