Tidying the shade tunnel, Christmas and a day in the City

My view driving to work every day, well when the weather is clear, dry and with a hint of sun,
which is not often lately

Despite the cold, wet and windy weather, we've been busy in the nursery and at Whitmuir. Back to work on Wednesday saw David working on the water supply to the tunnel and me working on the sales shade tunnel. On Thursday I started doing the cafe flowers, a seasonal mix of berries, evergreen, alder catkins and larch cones, hopefully they will provide some freshness to the tables and be a hit. It was a busy morning and good exercise walking round the farm foraging for material. Below is a photo of our white board with the jobs we want to do before spring, mad or motivated, we can't decide.

Our huge whiteboard in the office with our job list for the winter!

In the afternoon I carried on with cleaning out the sales shade tunnel. cutting everything back and re stocking with lots of new plants. It is such a satisfying job. The covered area is filling up with the plants that need potted and then put away in the shade stock area for next year. The evening consisted of eating chocolate and preparing stuff for the Winter Open day on the coming Saturday. I've even lost some weight and treated myself to some new clothes, not something I do often, so it was nice to buy some new tops in bright cheery colours for winter.

Working left to right, I love this kind of job when you can see what you've done

Finished, with the leaves lifted from the gravel too

All finished, plants all labelled and ready for spring

There was heavy snow forecast for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but it didn't materialise, thankfully, just a lot of rain! On Friday I spent the first hour finishing the shade tunnel before the rain got too heavy, that's another job off the list. I spent the rest of the day in the warm office preparing everything for our Christmas sales table tomorrow. After David and Pete came back with the Christmas tree for the cafe, David and I set up our sales table for the weekend. 

It's all looking Christmassy at Whitmuir

Our sales table in the Whitmuir building

I have to say it was nice to be in the warm all weekend manning my sales table, with posh coffee and company. You can see what's happening at Whitmuir for Christmas in my blog here. Though the place was customer quiet, we still made some sales. On Saturday evening the Edinburgh Larder were launching their Christmas menu and we decided to treat ourselves to dinner. David arrived to take me to dinner with flowers and chocolates in hand, awwww, he is the best.

Flowers from David

Dinner was very good and the jazz band were excellent, as was the wine! I had some sweet revenge on the marauding piglets that wrecked the nursery earlier in the year by having pork for my main course.

The cafe all ready for evening dinner

Sunday was spent manning my pop up shop at Whitmuir and Monday turned into our day out instead of Tuesday. We'd planned to go Christmas shopping in Edinburgh on Tuesday, but eldest son couldn't get a bus at the right time to get into Edinburgh on Monday morning. It made sense for us to go in on Monday and give him a lift. We've been spending some time in the city lately, we don't make as much of our beautiful capital city as we should, considering how close we live. We've been exploring new areas and visiting old favourites and Monday was a mix of both. The morning was damp, dull and drizzly but by lunch time the skies cleared and the sun came out. We had coffee and cake in John Lewis (fav), with one of us eating free with my John Lewis card voucher. We had a good rummage around the shop after and then headed along Princes street to the Christmas Market (fav), where we got some presents. I love going in at night to see the market and funfair, buts it's so busy, during the day was much more civilised. We wandered up to Victoria Terrace and The Grassmarket and the lovely unusual and independent shops there (fav).

Christmas comes to Edinburgh

We walked back down the Royal Mile, where they were putting up more lights for Christmas. I got some shots of some of the wee wynds that snake down from the Royal Mile, still with their towering tenements on either side and cobbles, they really are atmospheric and a reminder of times gone by. We stopped off for a mezze lunch with lovely breads, dips and chips, very nice and much enjoyed at Laila's Bistro (new). 

One of the many wynds that go off the Royal Mile

Lunch at Laila's Bistro, Cockburn Street

We then met back up with Ben and wandered through more of the Christmas Market before heading back to the car to retrieve and relieve the doglet. We decided since it was lovely weather and a hint of a nice sunset to walk up to Calton Hill, for my sins I've never been there, having lived near the city all my life, any hoo we fixed that on Monday as you can see in the photos below.

B&W on Calton Hill

A random dude posing on Calton Hill

Bracken the city dog

Sunset form Calton Hill, Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle from Calton Hill

St Gyles Cathedral, Edinburgh

After a lovely day out we had a relaxing evening trying some drambuie apple toddy warmed up, it was rather nice. Tuesday was domestic day, collecting a new gas bottle for the greenhouse heater and spending more than that in the hardware store in Biggar. I love it, it's a real treasure trove of household stuff. Sadly these shops are few and far behind these days, the least we can do is use them when we do have them. The house got cleaned, the greenhouses got tidied and watered and a pile of other wee tasks in between. I can't believe that's another week over, where are they going?

I hope you have a great week.

Drambuie apple toddy is rather nice

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