Perhaps there are Rats and/or Foxes in urban Edinburgh? I'm not casting nasturtiums, but such beasties are common in towns these days.
'Why, Sergeant, the fifty of us are just going out to clear the neighbourhood of vermin, so we're fortifying ourselves with this fine five-course meal, with wine, beforehand!'.
Perhaps there are Rats and/or Foxes in urban Edinburgh? I'm not casting nasturtiums, but such beasties are common in towns these days.
'Why, Sergeant, the fifty of us are just going out to clear the neighbourhood of vermin, so we're fortifying ourselves with this fine five-course meal, with wine, beforehand!'.
'O I see, Sir! Go ahead, and good hunting!'
Well there are certainly urban foxes & rats in Glasgow. Central belt however, so no wine....
Perhaps there are Rats and/or Foxes in urban Edinburgh? I'm not casting nasturtiums, but such beasties are common in towns these days.
'Why, Sergeant, the fifty of us are just going out to clear the neighbourhood of vermin, so we're fortifying ourselves with this fine five-course meal, with wine, beforehand!'.
'O I see, Sir! Go ahead, and good hunting!'
Well there are certainly urban foxes & rats in Glasgow. Central belt however, so no wine....
Buckie is technically wine, isn't it? Got to get properly tanked up to deal with those wee ratty scunners.
Perhaps there are Rats and/or Foxes in urban Edinburgh? I'm not casting nasturtiums, but such beasties are common in towns these days.
'Why, Sergeant, the fifty of us are just going out to clear the neighbourhood of vermin, so we're fortifying ourselves with this fine five-course meal, with wine, beforehand!'.
'O I see, Sir! Go ahead, and good hunting!'
Well there are certainly urban foxes & rats in Glasgow. Central belt however, so no wine....
Well, I meant more in the sense that licensed premises are closed, therefore a fine five-course meal with wine was orff. Though presumably you can have your fine five-course meal at an unlicensed establishment, then open the wine you bought at the offie/supermarket.....
I was envisaging a private gathering, in a private house, the WINE having indeed been bought at the offie/supermarket...and the Polis having been summoned by jealous neighbours...
I see what you mean, @kingsfold - it does look rather bleak, doesn't it?
Mind you, one of my nephews is a painter and decorator ...
Are we expecting the current rules to last indefinitely, or was it designed to be a "short, sharp shock" tactic that might start to work within a few weeks?
Yes, a short sharp shock for the new restrictions. But that wont be long enough to see if they have had an impact...
And I'm afraid the visiting one is not one of the new restrictions, so not time-limited. It is tough for single people. I think that's one reason it's mainly single people who are coming to the prayer services I run, despite the drawbacks of no music (except Mr Cats paying the organ beforehand) and masks etc. It is somewhere to see people, apart from the Coop.
Apparently someone in the village has worked out how we can do Hallowe'en this year.
The idea is that people will put out lanterns / other decorations in their gardens or decorate their windows. Then parents will fill up a bag of sweets etc and go round the streets with their children. Every time the child spots a decorated house, the parent transfers a sweetie from their bag to the child's bag.
I have (for the first time ever) acquired a pumpkin. My sister was out to a pumpkin farm yesterday with her grandson (the adorable Archie), and brought home a medium-sized pumpkin which she gave to me as she's avoiding carbs at the moment and couldn't use it for culinary purposes.
Now trying to decide what I'm going to do with it - I expect it'll come with me to the flat, and I'll either put it on the doorstep as a decoration, à la Over The Pond, or make soup or risotto with it.
SOUP is the best idea. May The Great Pumpkin forgive me (if I had a pumpkin patch, it would be Extremely Sincere*).
(But what do you put with it, given that a pumpkin IMHO is rather tasteless in itself?)
*from Peanuts: Linus: "Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He's gotta pick this one. He's got to. I don't see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there's not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see."
I think spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, maybe allspice, might be the way to go. And home-made bread (which I'll be making as soon as I'm settled in). There was a bloke on This Morning yesterday doing both SOUP and risotto with roasted pumpkin (he said you had to roast it to give it any flavour at all), and both recipes looked nice.
I don't even know if I've got a knife that's (a) long enough; or (b) sturdy enough to cut through a pumpkin ...
You may be right. I'm not sure if I've got one or not - there may have been a small one in the toolbox (which I'm fairly sure was packed with my Stuff*), but I can't remember.
* I'm honestly not sure why I packed the toolbox - I barely know one end of a screwdriver from the other ...
Or the ridiculous American apology for an *entertainment* could just be cancelled altogether.
Bah humbug.
(singed)
Ebenezer B F Scrooge
Queen Victoria loved the celebration of Hallowe'en at Balmoral. I think she would be startled to hear it described as "American" Where do you suppose the Americans got the idea from?
Or the ridiculous American apology for an *entertainment* could just be cancelled altogether.
Bah humbug.
(singed)
Ebenezer B F Scrooge
Queen Victoria loved the celebration of Hallowe'en at Balmoral. I think she would be startled to hear it described as "American" Where do you suppose the Americans got the idea from?
Goodness knows. Walt Bl**dy Disney?
Seriously, I know it's derived from All Saints'/All Souls'-tide, but the rampant commercialism of Halloween does seem to emanate from across the Pond.
The rather simpler form you've described sounds good, though - hopefully the weather will co-operate!
I believe that in this case "trick or treat" originated in Scotland, got exported to the US by migrants, the manufacturers of sweets and plastic tat got their paws on it as a sales opportunity over there and re-exported it back here.
Though we still don’t call it “Trick or treat” it has always been guizing. But the habit of playing tricks on Halloween certainly is a venerable one in these parts.
Now trying to decide what I'm going to do with it - I expect it'll come with me to the flat, and I'll either put it on the doorstep as a decoration, à la Over The Pond, or make soup or risotto with it.
The best use for a pumpkin is to carefully scoop out the insides and discard, leaving you to make a tasty soup or risotto containing no trace of pumpkin at all.
Although if you have access to children of appropriate age then launching pumpkins from a trebuchet can be quite fun.
I believe that in this case "trick or treat" originated in Scotland, got exported to the US by migrants, the manufacturers of sweets and plastic tat got their paws on it as a sales opportunity over there and re-exported it back here.
Ah - I see.
It's the hideous plastic tat that annoys me most, I think, along with the use of orange and black as liturgical colours.
I have a trebuchet, but fear it's too small for even a squash much less a pumpkin.
I often make what's basically a thick lentil soup (with appropriate spices) as a base for assorted curries. A thick pumpkin soup may do the trick as well, experimenting will be a treat for me.
I have done that Alan and it certainly works. Thick butternut squash soup is now a base for all kinds of curries and dhals. I roast a whole squash and put appropriate amounts in freezer bags for using as and when. I'm no kind of cook but finding this was a very happy accident!
Now trying to decide what I'm going to do with it - I expect it'll come with me to the flat, and I'll either put it on the doorstep as a decoration, à la Over The Pond, or make soup or risotto with it.
The best use for a pumpkin is to carefully scoop out the insides and discard, leaving you to make a tasty soup or risotto containing no trace of pumpkin at all.
Yes, that sums up my feelings pretty well. Pumpkin is vile.
I can't stand pumpkin pie, no matter how well spiced up it is, but we had a lot of filling left over from the recent pie, and it went into a chick pea curry, which, I may modestly say, was one of the best I've ever made. You'd never know there was pumpkin in it. (I haven't tried a Marmite curry yet).
To change the subject. This morning I officiated at an open air wedding in Glencoe. The wind howled and blew out the umbrellas, which were no use against the horizontal rain. It was fairly early in the day, but, as I had warned them, we would have had to do the deed at dawn to avoid the walkers. And the happily besotted couple had chosen a flat bit (i,e, a bog) just off he path to the hidden valley. Yet to get even that far the path was a running burn and there were two water hazards to be leapt over, or over bride and the groom’s Granny had to be carried! I confidently expect to see it become a meme or something, as many unofficial pictures were taken, and it was so bad as to be hysterically funny.
I am now happily drying off. But it was nice to see Glencoe again: I hadn’t been there for a while. (That’s not my parish, but I know the bride’s mother, who was not present as all the bride’s family are stuck in Australia, their home.) There is snow on the hilltops.
Comments
O the Larks to be had, in inventing all the various disguises!
I'll get me deerstalker.
Can't quite see that one working in urban Edinburgh. Linlithgow... well you've got the loch for water fowl....
'Why, Sergeant, the fifty of us are just going out to clear the neighbourhood of vermin, so we're fortifying ourselves with this fine five-course meal, with wine, beforehand!'.
'O I see, Sir! Go ahead, and good hunting!'
Well there are certainly urban foxes & rats in Glasgow. Central belt however, so no wine....
Buckie is technically wine, isn't it? Got to get properly tanked up to deal with those wee ratty scunners.
O well - McEwan's lager? Or Irn-Bru*?
(*which, BTW, I rather like - my Scottish ancestry, I suppose)
Well, I meant more in the sense that licensed premises are closed, therefore a fine five-course meal with wine was orff. Though presumably you can have your fine five-course meal at an unlicensed establishment, then open the wine you bought at the offie/supermarket.....
I was envisaging a private gathering, in a private house, the WINE having indeed been bought at the offie/supermarket...and the Polis having been summoned by jealous neighbours...
Mind you, one of my nephews is a painter and decorator ...
Are we expecting the current rules to last indefinitely, or was it designed to be a "short, sharp shock" tactic that might start to work within a few weeks?
https://bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-53166816
And I'm afraid the visiting one is not one of the new restrictions, so not time-limited. It is tough for single people. I think that's one reason it's mainly single people who are coming to the prayer services I run, despite the drawbacks of no music (except Mr Cats paying the organ beforehand) and masks etc. It is somewhere to see people, apart from the Coop.
Which three racing drivers are named after places in Scotland?
Stirling Moss, Lewis Hamilton and Ayr-Town Centre.
Aye, but the first two are named after two of them, the last only one.
Well, actually it was part chuckle, part groan, but still ...
The idea is that people will put out lanterns / other decorations in their gardens or decorate their windows. Then parents will fill up a bag of sweets etc and go round the streets with their children. Every time the child spots a decorated house, the parent transfers a sweetie from their bag to the child's bag.
No mixing of households whatsoever!
Bah humbug.
(singed)
Ebenezer B F Scrooge
(Shome mishtake shurely? Ed.)
Now trying to decide what I'm going to do with it - I expect it'll come with me to the flat, and I'll either put it on the doorstep as a decoration, à la Over The Pond, or make soup or risotto with it.
(But what do you put with it, given that a pumpkin IMHO is rather tasteless in itself?)
*from Peanuts:
Linus: "Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He's gotta pick this one. He's got to. I don't see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there's not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see."
I don't even know if I've got a knife that's (a) long enough; or (b) sturdy enough to cut through a pumpkin ...
* I'm honestly not sure why I packed the toolbox - I barely know one end of a screwdriver from the other ...
Queen Victoria loved the celebration of Hallowe'en at Balmoral. I think she would be startled to hear it described as "American" Where do you suppose the Americans got the idea from?
A bread knife is basically a saw masquerading as a kitchen utensil. Very useful for cutting turf, I have discovered.
Goodness knows. Walt Bl**dy Disney?
Seriously, I know it's derived from All Saints'/All Souls'-tide, but the rampant commercialism of Halloween does seem to emanate from across the Pond.
The rather simpler form you've described sounds good, though - hopefully the weather will co-operate!
The best use for a pumpkin is to carefully scoop out the insides and discard, leaving you to make a tasty soup or risotto containing no trace of pumpkin at all.
Although if you have access to children of appropriate age then launching pumpkins from a trebuchet can be quite fun.
Ah - I see.
It's the hideous plastic tat that annoys me most, I think, along with the use of orange and black as liturgical colours.
I am a Bad Person, I know.
I often make what's basically a thick lentil soup (with appropriate spices) as a base for assorted curries. A thick pumpkin soup may do the trick as well, experimenting will be a treat for me.
Yes, that sums up my feelings pretty well. Pumpkin is vile.
I am now happily drying off. But it was nice to see Glencoe again: I hadn’t been there for a while. (That’s not my parish, but I know the bride’s mother, who was not present as all the bride’s family are stuck in Australia, their home.) There is snow on the hilltops.