Last night we patronised a Restaurant, our favourite one in foie gras land. It's owned by a guy who once won the "best sommelier in the world" competition and serves some very nice, and not particularly expensive wines.
For health reasons they were serving everyone on the terrace but since that's the nicest place to sit anyway we were more than happy. Cod tartare, grilled duck breast and lemon / strawberry entremet. My menu was served with all local Gaillac wines. The really fun bit is that they don't tell you straight away what the wine is and you have to guess.
Tonight's dinner was a monument to good ingredients simply cooked. Sole Meunière, griddled baby courgette and new potatoes, with a bottle of Petit Manseng (Waitrose's range of unusual varietals, totally worth seeking out).
Pasta bake here, but we also had redcurrant scones. We have had an amazing crop of redcurrants this year - another pound went into the freezer yesterday, plus the Quinie made scones.
I used to recite the lion and Albert to my sons with a Lancashire accent (helped by having Lancastrian parents, I can’t usually imitate accents on purpose only accidentally).
The patio is now completely cleared and neat and ready to put back into service as an eating venue if the sun starts shining again.
Yoga on Zoom this morning, not really in the mood. And then some reading.
Wet and cloudy here in the East Midlands where we're spending a few days with my MiL. Today I'm off to Nottingham (one of my favourite cities) to meet up with a friend for a social distanced coffee.
The Guardian culture pages are full these days of articles lamenting the absence of the Edinburgh Fringe, waxing lyrical about the magic of balmy evenings in some open-air venue, heady with laughter and a-buzz with camaraderie.
Looking out on a frankly typical August morning - dull, chilly and raining steadily - I think we're seeing (highly) selective memory.
Anticipated highlights of the day - grocery delivery; cleaning the kitchen and bathroom; vacuuming. If the fun gets too intense, a bit of knitting.
I was forbidden from reciting Albert by a Mancunian colleague who did not approve of doing accents. I tried a choice of RP or our local Estuary, and they didn't work. It seems a shame to lose such things because of cultural appropriation.
My family tends to have birthdays in clusters, and yesterday it was No. 1 nephew's 40th. Nearly all of us met up at the Balerno Inn for a late lunch (I had very nice chicken and mushroom pasta), and then a few came back to S's house for more wine, a Chinese takeaway for supper and a rather silly board game called Cranium.
There was far more wine consumed than was good for any of us (I'm glad I had the wit to take a couple of paracetamol and a big drink of water before going to bed); I understand my nephew is feeling rather fragile today ...
The weather is on the far side of dreich today, so there's not much chance of amblage.
I love family board games - some of my favourite times.
Not So Little Sir Echo has decided he doesn’t want to do his number twos in the spending pen or the garden (probably something to do with his Big Boy operation and being sensitive Down There, but he hasn’t told me.)
So I’m walking him early morning instead of after breakfast. I must say it’s rather pleasant. No training walks until ten days after the op, just sniffy normal-dog lead walks.
Yesterday I had to send a photo of his swimming trunks area to the vet - no in person follow ups unless there’s a problem. I won’t treat you to a link. 🤣🐾🤣
Lovely micro-break in glorious mid-Wales: Powis Castle gardens, Welshpool & Llanfair railway, scenic drive round Llyn Clywedog, Newtown Textile Museum, plus an excellent night in a really good B&B and home mostly on B roads through countryside. Weather alternated between sunshine with fluffy clouds and torrential downpours, sometimes within 10 minutes!
Llanfair railway with That Station Sign - Llanfair PG et cetera?
I've had a very interesting day. I went to my brother's, and he and I went to look at a couple of flats in Dunfermline (where you can get more flat for your money than Edinburgh).
The first one was quite cute, but really too quirky for me - the kitchen was microscopic, and the layout was positively bizarre.
The second, though, was really nice, and I think might be The One - it had almost everything I want, and very little that I don't - so I think I'm going to put in an offer.
Birthplace of Andrew Carnegie and has benefitted from that immensely: it has the wonderful Pittencrieff Park, which he bought for the town remembering that when it was a private estate he was barred from entering.
It is also the birthplace of yours truly! (though we moved before I was a year old - but often went back as I had grandparents nearby).
The downside of Dunfermline is that it has become commuter-belt for Edinburgh. If you get a job in the capital, @Piglet, don't try driving the rush hour traffic: use the train!
Hope the house hunt works out piglet.
Still dull here, both the weather and work. The garden is looking good though so I might potter there. I’ve bought a fuschia in Waitrose this morning that needs to be planted.
Hope the flat buying proceeds smoothly. I guess the Scottish system means that once an offer is accepted you are committed, unlike the English system.
We are shortly heading off home after a few days with mother in law. Lovely in some ways, but so hard in others as she really needs more help than we could provide.
... It is also the birthplace of yours truly! (though we moved before I was a year old ...
I feel like that about Inverness - I was born there, but only stayed until I was a couple of months old and could come out of hospital (I was v. small and complicated).
The downside of Dunfermline is that it has become commuter-belt for Edinburgh. If you get a job in the capital, @Piglet, don't try driving the rush hour traffic: use the train!
I sort of understood that, but I doubt very much that I'd be able to afford a car unless I get a really well-paid job. There's a bus stop right outside the front door, and the railway station is only half a mile away, so while I'm not a natural commuter*, it might not be too bad.
* There's not much I can do about it though, unless I can find a job in Dunfermline - there's no way I can afford anything bigger than a shoebox in Edinburgh.
BT, the Welshpool and Llanfair railway is very pleasant - although I’m biased as we have a family connection with it.
Yes, I knew you knew it. Herself was very pleased to be riding in a Hungarian carriage (like one we never did get to ride in in Hungary itself some years ago, and now its line has closed); and we loved "The Countess" loco in its gleaming green.
Surely most dog owners would take the animals out twice a day, anyway? Not necessarily for an hour at a time, I concede!
Re the forts (Three-For-The-Price-Of-One?), the dogs could go round and round - clockwise in the morning, anticlockwise in the evening, so as to maintain their legs at equal lengths...
I've had a very interesting day. I went to my brother's, and he and I went to look at a couple of flats in Dunfermline (where you can get more flat for your money than Edinburgh).
The first one was quite cute, but really too quirky for me - the kitchen was microscopic, and the layout was positively bizarre.
The second, though, was really nice, and I think might be The One - it had almost everything I want, and very little that I don't - so I think I'm going to put in an offer.
Good luck, Piglet. The first place we owned was an upstairs flat in a small village close to Dunfermline, still a couthy place back then. We paid just over £5,000 in 1974 when it was already in busy commuter territory, and I see it's on the market again for £150,000. They've fixed it up a bit (it's almost unrecognisable), but that's quite breathtaking. It was a good house, and better built than anything we've had since.
My young cousin commutes from Dunfermline to her job in Edinburgh by public transport, and seems to find it convenient. We've travelled all the way by train, and also by driving to the end of the tramline near the airport and riding in.
I'm going back to have a second look tomorrow with my brother and s-i-l; my sister was supposed to come too, but she's got something else on (I should have checked with her before making arrangements ... ).
I've got an application in for a job at the school where my niece teaches music, and she reckons it would be a fairly easy commute from Dunfermline.
GCSE results went very well for younger son and he has just completed enrolment for sixth form (selective here, but he should be accepted into his top choice with his grades).
His music technology grade appears to be missing (I suspect the school forgot to include it in his results as it was an extracurricular national certificate he studied after school) but that won’t affect his overall profile.
Now the excitement has settled I might be able to get some work done. Just off for a walk.
It is a course organised by the school music dept for the GCSE cohort in year 10; my eldest did it too. It’s a great course and has limited selective places. I expect as it is not in the general school profile they missed it out in the report due to the chaos this year. We’ve emailed the school to have it sent out.
Their school was really great for interesting courses, my eldest did an extracurricular GCSE in Astronomy in his third year. And their ordinary options include things like BTec engineering.
We are back in Paris after a long, hot journey. Captain Pyjamas is now too big to go to sleep on the train, which made it feel even longer
It's been so hot here that quite a few of our plants didn't survive, even with the automatic watering thing but we did have a nice crop of tomatoes waiting for us.
Son wanted to celebrate his grades with Japanese food but Deliveroo was down all afternoon. Finally ordered a feast 15 minutes ago but it is taking over an hour to get here! We’ll eat out in the garden as it is sunny again.
Battered Delphiums sounds like something you get from the fish n'chip shop...
Take your Delphiums into a number of Scottish chippies and they'll be happy to oblige (I believe the general rule is that they'll deep fry anything so long as you eat it there and then).
I'm sitting in the study looking out the window and something that looks alarmingly like sleet is falling at a great rate of knots.
This makes me a very unchuffed piglet: I've got to go into Edinburgh on the bus in an hour or two as my brother and s-i-l are taking me back to have another look at the flat in Dunfermline, and getting rained on is not something I relish.
Glad to hear you got home safely, La Vie - I should imagine travelling in extreme heat with a toddler isn't much fun!
Update: the rain seems to have (temporarily) stopped.
Battered Delphiums sounds like something you get from the fish n'chip shop...
Take your Delphiums into a number of Scottish chippies and they'll be happy to oblige (I believe the general rule is that they'll deep fry anything so long as you eat it there and then).
Is that how the Deep-Fried Mars Bar came about?
I wonder what they might say if I took a bar of Fruit and Nut CHOCOLATE into my local chippy (which is, of course, not in Scotland) and asked them to deep fry it...
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For health reasons they were serving everyone on the terrace but since that's the nicest place to sit anyway we were more than happy. Cod tartare, grilled duck breast and lemon / strawberry entremet. My menu was served with all local Gaillac wines. The really fun bit is that they don't tell you straight away what the wine is and you have to guess.
It's by far the best eatery in these parts.
The patio is now completely cleared and neat and ready to put back into service as an eating venue if the sun starts shining again.
Yoga on Zoom this morning, not really in the mood. And then some reading.
Looking out on a frankly typical August morning - dull, chilly and raining steadily - I think we're seeing (highly) selective memory.
Anticipated highlights of the day - grocery delivery; cleaning the kitchen and bathroom; vacuuming. If the fun gets too intense, a bit of knitting.
There was far more wine consumed than was good for any of us (I'm glad I had the wit to take a couple of paracetamol and a big drink of water before going to bed); I understand my nephew is feeling rather fragile today ...
The weather is on the far side of dreich today, so there's not much chance of amblage.
I’m sure I’ve got it somewhere and the largest Ferijenet is now the right age for it...
Not So Little Sir Echo has decided he doesn’t want to do his number twos in the spending pen or the garden (probably something to do with his Big Boy operation and being sensitive Down There, but he hasn’t told me.)
So I’m walking him early morning instead of after breakfast. I must say it’s rather pleasant. No training walks until ten days after the op, just sniffy normal-dog lead walks.
Yesterday I had to send a photo of his swimming trunks area to the vet - no in person follow ups unless there’s a problem. I won’t treat you to a link. 🤣🐾🤣
I've had a very interesting day. I went to my brother's, and he and I went to look at a couple of flats in Dunfermline (where you can get more flat for your money than Edinburgh).
The first one was quite cute, but really too quirky for me - the kitchen was microscopic, and the layout was positively bizarre.
The second, though, was really nice, and I think might be The One - it had almost everything I want, and very little that I don't - so I think I'm going to put in an offer.
That actually sounds really good!
It is also the birthplace of yours truly! (though we moved before I was a year old - but often went back as I had grandparents nearby).
The downside of Dunfermline is that it has become commuter-belt for Edinburgh. If you get a job in the capital, @Piglet, don't try driving the rush hour traffic: use the train!
Still dull here, both the weather and work. The garden is looking good though so I might potter there. I’ve bought a fuschia in Waitrose this morning that needs to be planted.
We are shortly heading off home after a few days with mother in law. Lovely in some ways, but so hard in others as she really needs more help than we could provide.
I feel like that about Inverness - I was born there, but only stayed until I was a couple of months old and could come out of hospital (I was v. small and complicated). I sort of understood that, but I doubt very much that I'd be able to afford a car unless I get a really well-paid job. There's a bus stop right outside the front door, and the railway station is only half a mile away, so while I'm not a natural commuter*, it might not be too bad.
* There's not much I can do about it though, unless I can find a job in Dunfermline - there's no way I can afford anything bigger than a shoebox in Edinburgh.
Have you seen the article on German dog walking law? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-53839286
Re the forts (Three-For-The-Price-Of-One?), the dogs could go round and round - clockwise in the morning, anticlockwise in the evening, so as to maintain their legs at equal lengths...
Good luck, Piglet. The first place we owned was an upstairs flat in a small village close to Dunfermline, still a couthy place back then. We paid just over £5,000 in 1974 when it was already in busy commuter territory, and I see it's on the market again for £150,000. They've fixed it up a bit (it's almost unrecognisable), but that's quite breathtaking. It was a good house, and better built than anything we've had since.
I've got an application in for a job at the school where my niece teaches music, and she reckons it would be a fairly easy commute from Dunfermline.
Not that I'm likely to get the job though ...
Now the excitement has settled I might be able to get some work done. Just off for a walk.
Their school was really great for interesting courses, my eldest did an extracurricular GCSE in Astronomy in his third year. And their ordinary options include things like BTec engineering.
It's been so hot here that quite a few of our plants didn't survive, even with the automatic watering thing but we did have a nice crop of tomatoes waiting for us.
Windy day!
My delphiums have taken a battering.
The result of Storm Ellen, I presume? We have gales forecast for tomorrow...
Or like the name of a Punk band!
Take your Delphiums into a number of Scottish chippies and they'll be happy to oblige (I believe the general rule is that they'll deep fry anything so long as you eat it there and then).
This makes me a very unchuffed piglet: I've got to go into Edinburgh on the bus in an hour or two as my brother and s-i-l are taking me back to have another look at the flat in Dunfermline, and getting rained on is not something I relish.
Glad to hear you got home safely, La Vie - I should imagine travelling in extreme heat with a toddler isn't much fun!
Update: the rain seems to have (temporarily) stopped.
I blame Tr*mp.
Or Joh*son.
Is that how the Deep-Fried Mars Bar came about?
I wonder what they might say if I took a bar of Fruit and Nut CHOCOLATE into my local chippy (which is, of course, not in Scotland) and asked them to deep fry it...