The second week of our holiday started a change in the temperature for colder more November-like weather, rain and threats of snow. There were also dramatic changes in America but I'm sure we've all read, seen and heard more than enough about it, so I won't dwell on it here. The wet colder days have been spent working in the house, cooking, baking, tidying, cleaning and sorting. Not much of a holiday you may think, but it helps clear my mind and help me feel more on top of things.
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I've been cleaning and tidying and sorting out on wet days, including
cleaning everything in my dresser, it's nice to re-connect with my collections
I haven't had time to enjoy for ages |
There's not much gardening news these days, everything is disappearing under a carpet of leaves both at home and at the nursery. Until after the New Year it will all lie untouched then I will start the big tidy up in time for spring. The tunnels and greenhouses get watered when needed, usually once a week and I must must must get bulbs planted!
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| I even managed to make perfect meringues |
The Quirky Bird Gardener is now on instagram and you can follow me through the link at the bottom of this post. Look forward to seeing you there.
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| Wintery morning, the field behind the house, you can't quite see the snow stuck in the furrows |
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| Making chicken, leek and cider pie for dinner |
On Thursday David and I headed in to Edinburgh for the afternoon, we are so lucky to stay only 40 minutes from our beautiful capital city. We took the bus in again, it's so much cheaper than parking and without the hassle of trying to find a space. We wandered up the Royal Mile, exploring the wee courtyards and closes behind, who knew there were so many interesting hidden places there, and great for photography too! I've never really taken the time to explore behind the scenes, as it were. We're going to come back in on a better weather day, it was a bit too gray for photos. From there we headed down to Princes Street for coffee, cake and some shopping, even ending up doing some Christmas shopping. For dinner we met up with David's daughter Becky and her boyfriend, it was good to catch up at last and we enjoyed some sushi overlooking the castle.
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| So many interesting closes running off the Royal Mile |
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| Sometimes the entrances are more interesting than the closes themselves |
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| The closes really lend themselves to black and white photography |
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| Great planting for a shady stairway |
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| The Writer's Museum behind the Royal Mile |
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| Courtyards and Closes |
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| Us outside the Camera obscura |
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| The roof garden of the National Museum of Scotland |
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| Ramsey Gardens, just below the Castle |
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| A wee treat in Jenners |
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| A cheeky chap in Princes Street gardens |
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| Sunset reflections |
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| Edinburgh Castle in the sunset |
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| Christmas is coming |
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| Sir Walter Scott |
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| Looking over Waverley Station roof |
On Friday we headed west to another great city, Glasgow. We've been talking for a while of going through and visiting David's old student haunts from when he studied at Glasgow University in the 1980's. The university building are diverse, spanning many decades and architectural styles but the main building in the Victorian gothic style are stunning. We spent a while wandering about and visited the Huntarian Museum, drinking coffee, enjoying the autumn colours in the grounds and exploring an old book shop David used to frequent, Voltaire and Rousseau. This amazing place tucked away down an alley holds a HUGE collection of academic books, fiction, reference and rare editions. As you can see in the photo blow the books are stacked everywhere! Finally we met up with my middle son Jamie for dinner. It was great to catch up with him over some good food and cocktails.
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| The Main buildings of Glasgow University |
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| The big Beech tree helps soften the architecture |
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| Exibits in the Hunterian Museum |
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| Inside the Museum |
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| Looking Outwards |
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| Arches and doors |
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| Always a great area to Photograph |
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| David lost in books, Voltaire and Rousseau Glasgow |
The weekend arrived, although with our crazy lifestyle and topsy turvy working week we don't really have a weekend and when we're on holiday it's so easy to lose track of what day it is. On Saturday I did the cafe flowers at Whitmuir and then we went to collect the greenhouse we'd been offered for the nursery. It needs some work on the wooden frame but we got it free so we are really excited to get it. The plan is to put it in the sales area for indoor and tender plants and make it a bit of a feature too. Watch this space as they say. Fortunately the weather stayed dry and David very cleverly got it all to the nursery with not one broken pane of glass.
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| This week's cafe flowers |
Sunday was a murky cold day and ideal for being indoors catching up at home. I tidied and watered the greenhouse, watered the chickens (ok I filled their water bowl) and put away the garden hoses for winter. The rest of the day was spent keeping warm in the kitchen doing some baking, cooking and Christmas preparation as you can see below. I can't believe it's that time already, can you? Now that the mincemeat and cake are made they can marinate for the next few weeks until needed. This is just the start of my christmas traditions.
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| Aeonium magnificum in the greenhouse |
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| The fruit and brandy for the christmas cake which will marinate overnight |
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| Ingredients for the mincemeat |
Monday was more of the same, house cleaning and putting the rest of the Christmas cake ingredients together with the soaked fruit and into the oven for a few hours. The smell of spices, citrus fruits and then baking cake were wonderful. I packed the mincemeat into kilner jars where it will marinate for a few weeks until I make the mincemeat pies. I'm enjoying doing my ingredient photos for instagram, it's become a bit of a thing, lol.
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| Packing the mincmeat into kilner jars |
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| Ingredients for the christmas cake |
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| Ingredients for Sticky meatloaf which we had for dinner on Monday evening |
Tuesday and my last day off and while David was off flying Bracken and I headed off to do a walk I've wanted to do for a while. You can read about our hill walk up to the Covenantor's grave in the Pentlands here
A Walk to the Covenantor's grave in The Pentlands
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