Look! It's a red one

Look! It's a red one, as a red squirrel dashed across the road as we neared our destination. Looking for a week of country peace, this was a good start. We have come to stay in deepest Galloway, no noise except for birds, bees and cows. No technology, except for an iPad and a camera, but, as there is minimal internet those don't really count. Oh, and for noise I should have added in the gentle clicking of needles and the scraping of a knife tidying up plastic model kit pieces.

 

 

This was yesterday, not the 1950's. The road entrance was slightly blocked, by a herd of cows that weren't at all fazed by a large, black car. William actually had to get out of the car and shoo them away.

 

Prior to getting here we went to Culzean Castle were they were doing a reanactment day, Bruce's men to Vietnam. Some military vehicles were shot to add to Williams reference library, and I was shot by him while doing so! Someone actually recognised the camo I was wearing, Swiss Alpenflage, turned out he was ex Swiss army himself. Best camo ever for photo stuff, masses of built in pockets, and most people don't even realise it is real, plenty of odd stares, but not the same as when wearing British army stuff.

Plenty of flowers here and today as I was sitting quietly knitting a hare hopped up beside me and sat watching me while I watched him (or her). A smallish one, so I think this years crop. Didn't have a camera to hand. Lots of bees and insects as well.

 

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New Year, New Start

I think I am back at a place where I can write again. I need to record thing past and present, to contemplate, pause and understand. So ..... Let's start with the simple things. A new recipe:

Pear and Raspberry Loaf

Pear and Raspberry variant.

Pear and Cranberry Loaf.

This can probably be made with any mix of softish fruits, (photo above - pear and raspberry, rather on the tart side). Incredibly easy. Great the next day for breakfast, takes about 10 minutes to make.

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup fresh or dried cranberries
• 1 cup fresh or dried pears, diced
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten

Directions:

• 1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Use greased 5 x 9-inch loaf pan.


• 2. Put oats and milk in a bowl. If you are using dried pears put them in the bowl to soak and plump up before baking. Do leave for plenty of time at this stage.


• 3. Stir remaining ingredients into the soaked oat mixture. Mix together well and spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf pan.


• 4. Bake for 45 minutes, ( check after 35), until the top is golden and toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to
• cool completely.

What has changed? Really not a lot. We still live in the same place. I still work at the same place and I still knit, read and play inane games on an iPad.

Daughter number 1 has very nearly finished her clinical psychology training, and has a new job lined up for October in central Scotland. She will probably live in Glasgow. So, no more excuses for trips up to Lossiemouth. Of course, that doesn't mean we won't go. Still plenty of distillaries to visit, plenty of planes to watch and plenty of wool.

Last week we went up for 3 days,

• Visited Glen Grant Distillary - slightly disappointing tour although a interesting different shape of copper stills.
  
• Sat on the side of Duffus castle and watched planes. In between the roars beautifully peaceful, birdsong and wild meadows. Over the trip saw Tornados, Eurofighters, Hawks (both plane and bird varieties) and BAE164s (a smallish transport plane).
• Went to Knockando Woolmill, restored to full working order, and acquired some spun wool and a glorious tweed wrap in lovely autumn colours.
• Ate lots, the Bakehouse at Burghead did a lovely supper, pizzas and mushroom and venison stroganoff
• Ballindulloch Castle grounds not as good as expected, but an attractive duck pond sans ducks!

 

 

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Rainy days and Wool Shows

The following day at Harrogate the rain was absolutely torrential. We went for the indoor option, which meant the National Media Museum at Bradford.  Of course, as fate would have it, they did not have a photographic exhibition on at the time, but it was still fascinating. There was an exhibition on photography and equipment, old and new, cameras though time with added bits. There was an exhibition on animation, especially of children's stories, we saw a Wallace and Gromit set, a Wombles set and a Dalek. We also played with a lot of equipment, I read the news, then Jenny bore the camera!  I ran way from the Tellytubbies, and William waved at dolphins. Child's play, in the best sense. Food was good too.

The final holiday day we went to the British Wool Show at the Yorkshire Exhibition Showground. Lots of wool, well there would be, sheep as well, a very sheepy  smell, and plenty to buy. Poor William and Jenny, they spent most of the time in the cafe while I acquired a suitcase full of wool. It might have been worse, I took the precaution of working out what I needed (well, what I wanted) in advance, and  more or less stuck to that. We also splashed out on a wool downie. Magic. Very settling, keeps me warm and William cool.

Harrogate

Today we set off on the first part of our summer holidays. Three days in Harrogate with Jenny, staying at the Majestic Hotel. We spent the way down twittering, not the phone variety, but the old fashioned variety with me and William talking about nothing much to keep him   alert on the road. We recalled all the silly things that have happened to us on the A68. I remember almost being in a severe car accident when someone I was with (James), who was driving much too fast in his old MG baby sports car, spun around on the road. Shaken much, but no bruises. William and I also nearly hit a car when we were coming back from holiday one year, he ( the other car) was overtaking and didn't seem to notice the stream of traffic coming towards him. Then there was going around a corner to find a very large pig standing in the middle of the road, and the bridge being washed out with floods just as we crossed it, that was the same trip that William said "it's 15 degrees here, surely the temperature can't drop much, and it was snowing when we crossed Carter Bar.

We also had all the usual jokes about place names, Campton (races, do dah), Boon (Daniel) , Wallish Walls -most are repeats, but we usually manage to find another silly each time. Meanwhile Jenny just sat and slept. There was also the discussion about national emblems, if we are going to have a Scottish tree, what else? Do we already have a national bird, if not, how about the Grouse, it's short and stout, takes suicidal risks and already has a strong affiliation with alcohol.

On checking, (what would we do without the Internet?):

The Scotsman newspaper has run a poll on Scotland's National Bird, and the winner is .......

Golden Eagle

Runner up was Red Grouse

The full final result was

1 GOLDEN EAGLE

2 RED GROUSE

3 CAPERCAILLIE

4 OSPREY

5 PUFFIN

6 GANNET

7 SEA EAGLE

8 PEREGRINE FALCON

9 CRESTED TIT

10 PEEWIT

11 SCOTTISH CROSSBILL

12 PTARMIGAN

Red Grouse has thousands of votes discounted as a certain whisky blend encouraged the members of its e mail list to vote en masse.

I still think that would have been a more appropriate option, less grandiose, and more like a large proportion of the Scottish population.

The Majestic Hotel. An old spa hotel, full of memories of glorious days, but rather fun anyway.