NOVEMBER COLOURS

We had a lovely dinner party with old friends from our wedding of 50 years ago.   At the last minute I decided to make some gluhwein (gluvine).  I tried some pre-made 'mulled wine'. The first, which was Marks and Spencer, was so sweet I decanted it back into the bottle for another day when I need a sugar boost. 

I am rather partial to Fitou wine so I simply poured a bottle of that in the pan. Ilona added sliced mandarin oranges and I threw in some almonds à la Christina Bell. Excellent!

I said to John MacLeod when his and my glass kept needing to be refilled:  "There's a terrible problem of evaporation in this part of the West of Scotland!" to which he quickly replied " Yes, it goes up into the atmosphere and comes back down as rain!"  Ha, ha!  I liked that! 

When planning our dinner I couldn't resist an impulse purchase of a (small) bottle of Mateus Rosé wine.  As we served this at our wedding in 1967 in Drumchork Hotel in Aultbea I just wanted a trip down memory lane.  Indeed, we all recalled that how this wine was the absolute height of sophistication in the 60s!

However I read on Wikipedia:

The Mateus brand has declined. In the UK in 2002 the wine was re-packaged and relaunched in a deliberate ploy to capitalise on 1970s nostalgia, although the wine itself had already been made less sweet and slightly more sparkling, in response to modern popular preference for slightly drier wine.

I tasted it: absolutely no flavour nor sparkle. Thumbs down. (However I still like the shape of the bottle!) 

These flowers have been on the window ledge in the cold 'garden' room for 3 weeks.  They were part of a large bouquet I was given at our final Bearsden Young Fiddlers Concert November 4th. The early morning November light on them today was lovely.

 These are the colours of the above photo that I wanted to capture.

An example of early morning light is best demonstrated in this painting by Norwegian artist Johan Christian Clausen Dahl

Ilona brought a lovely selection of her own preserves plus her own willow tray that she grew and wove. Also included was genuine Isle of Skye sea salt which is made using a polytunnel as a 'room' for production.

We received lovely cards and bottles of wine.  One card came from 'John'.  It turned out we have a secret admirer in the form of the young man who helps our next door neighbour with her garden.  If he had signed his last name I would have picked up my error of thinking it was from 'oor ain John' (who I thanked by mistake!)

Which reminds me Christmas is coming. Every year we always get one... always just one... card which is signed 'Mary' or whatever.  After much scratching of heads we always conclude: we simply do not know who it is!

WHAT MEN DO IN SHEDS

Sheds seem to be the 'in thing' these days.  I have known writer's huts, potting sheds and cottages (even!) called 'sheds' but nowadays things have been taken to a much higher level.

Take this fellow: Phil Sisson in his Glasgow shed making  Raindrops on Roses, a Belgian Wit style beer, brewed with rose petals. He has recently won a prize in which he stated "It is just fantastic to have been able to impress the judges with my own creation. I originally brewed the beer as a present for my wife's birthday and my daughter chose the musical-themed name, so it is a truly family affair."

[Source: http://www.thornbridgebrewery.co.uk/news.php]

This week an arrangement of poppies has been set up at the Milngavie centotaph. At first it was the large splash of red that caught my eye but on closer inspection I had a double-take; they were all knitted!

 And some of the contributors were ... a local 'Men's Shed'!

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WINE WINDFALL

Good things come not in small packages but in a carrier bag from a lovely neighbour ringing our front doorbell!  

My neighbour, Gillian, was clearing out her cupboards and came across some wine that had been there for a few years.  Not being wine drinkers, would I like it?

I think this calls for (another) wine-tasting party.  The one we held 2 years ago in May for our Big Birthdays was such a success that I fancy repeating the event with the same friends and family who are up for a bit of sampling.  I am still in touch with the people who were in a wine-tasting class some years ago - time to give them a call!

 May is one of the best months in Scotland.  While we wait in these long winter nights (well ... not quite so long now as we have turned the corner with the Winter Solstice) here is a photo I took this week of a hellibore flower out by the washing line.   Yes, wet, wet, wet but gives colour as I stand over it hanging out the clothes.  (Also I am aware that everything is green ... no ice, no snow ... with green tips of bulbs starting to show.)

A (CANADIAN) PROUSTIAN MOMENT

I must share with you my discovery yesterday when I paid a visit to the Whole Foods store in Giffnock. 

Having grown up on an orchard farm in British Columbia this is what was grown and picked for shipment abroad …. MacIntosh apples!   Oh, the smell of them when I walked into the main entrance yesterday was a real ‘Proustian Moment’!

Can't you just smell them?!!!

They were piled up on a big pallet at the entrance.  I could have been in Kelowna or Edmonton mall ... the place had the same feel about it.  Furthermore... things just got better and better.  I came across Canadian wheat (i.e. strong, 'winter' wheat).  Now maybe that is what is used by the mills in the UK but this was bagged as the photos below illustrate.

And believe it or not they even had some Oregon wine on the shelf.  Of course, I couldn't leave the store without buying a bottle.  (Actually I had gone in for walnuts as they are the absolute best you can get anywhere ... but they were out of stock.)

So I tough it out as I sit with my iPad, the Whole Foods catalogue and the rest of my brown paper bag of apple!  

WORLD PIPE BAND CHAMPIONSHIPS 2014

Iain and I spent a day at the 2014 World Piping Championships.  We were very kindly given VIP tickets which meant we could watch under cover in a rather nice tent.  We met and chatted with some pleasant folk all of whom have an input to the championships in one way or another.

 Flowers in the table of the hospitality tent.  Lovely food and excellent coffee enjoyed by all.

 Iain is admiring the craftsmanship of the makers of bag pipes, in this example, drone pipes. 

This display of chanters has one new, unusual one: in the centre the chanter has been made such that it is not straight up and down, i.e. it is angled.... a new innovation, it would appear.

 St Laurence O'Toole, Eire

  Bagad Cap Caval Pipe Band,  Pipe Major Hervé le Floc'h, France

 Drum sticks for larger drums.

 Roll out the barrel ....

Practice area

 Tuning up

 Tuning up - lots of technological kit involved

LIGHT A CANDLE FOR THE DARKNESS

It's a night for sitting in front of the fire. In fact we've had a few nights like this lately as the weather is now turning distinctly colder.  We've had several nights of frost this past week.

I'm reading Alexander McCall Smith's book "Sunshine on Scotland Street" which is the perfect fireside read with a glass of wine and my feet up.

We enjoyed a bottle of wine several weeks ago to help send off friends who were heading off for a 3 week cruise to Antarctica. This bottle of French wine "Latitude 45" was given to us by French friends who visited us in August.  The candle holders are 2 little glass boats that hold tea-lights.  I bought them in Helensburgh a few years ago.

Our fireplace is a wood burning Aga brand which sits on a plinth Iain erected and covered with  Caithness slabs left over from the garden "sit-ootery" that he and Duncan created.

It's getting dark now earlier and earlier.  What does one do with candles found languishing in the cupboard but light them and place them in the window?

The black wooden candlesticks are ones Iain brought back from Malawii in the 1970s and the brass ones are my  mother's.  She gave them to me some years ago stating "Here ... you have these as you polish things; I don't!"  The lighthouse is a wooden ornament that sits on my bedroom window ledge.  I just like it.

A cup of tea is so much better if it can be kept hot ... and where better?  We recently replaced 6 of our everyday mugs (china ... I insist on this) with new ones all having a bird theme.  Here is the pheasant one.  (Replacing them was A Good Move ... must tackle a few more things that are looking distinctly past their sell-by-date, so to speak.)

This mug is on the coffee table alongside a gift from a Swedish friend, Christine.  It is the Orrefors glass candle holder which she gave us some years ago when she and Inger and Helga were visiting from Stockholm.

Yesterday I bought this candle at the Norwegian Society's Julebazar or Christmas fare in which Inger assists in the sale of crafts and Norwegian food.  It was hand made by Ragne who also knitted the lovely mitts I purchased last year (shown here.)

THE TWO FIGS, GLASGOW: CHILL OUT - THAW OUT

Mairi introduced me to this restaurant in Glasgow a few weeks ago when we met up near the Western Infirmay on Byres Road, Glasgow.

I went there today giving myself a "Sunday" at Monday lunchtime in order to catch up and re-group.  The desk-top publishing work I do for a yachting organisation is now off to the printers. That is the Spring issue completed.

For lunch my habit is to order Soup of the Day and "you choose the sandwich or wrap or whatever to go with it".  I  have a social handicap: I eat anything.

This was the result: a lovely bowl of Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup with a wrap of hot veggies and other stuff - just what I needed to get warm and eat someone else's cooking.           

Again ... when I order wine like this for lunch I always say "Your house red."  Again this single glass that I had (don't know the grape) was at room temperature, i.e. not freezing cold out of the back store room, and quite lifted my spirits (oops ... sorry for the pun) as I gazed upon the REAL daffs in the little glass vase sitting mid-table. Heaven in a glass ... well ... actually two glasses.

And this is the wallpaper - lovely.  Fig leaves, fig fruit with a wasp painted sitting on one of them. Fig. 2 lettering painted above it - clever!

The place simply ticked all the boxes (particularly the really basic ones like hygiene and food flavour and temperature):

Ladies washroom: spotless
Kitchen: clean and tidy
Ambience: The fireplace had a real fire in the grate under the big fire surround
Basic or Extras?: Local newspapers to hand
Service: existed and was appropriate for the occasion
Value for money:  Excellent - Lunch £5.00 for soup and sandwich. 

The Two Figs
5 and 9 Byres Road
Glasgow, G11 5RD
Phone: 0141 334 7277

Website: www.thetwofigs.co.uk

POMEGRANATES - EASY PEASY

Our first stop after we arrived in Vancouver was The Whole Food Store on on West 8th Avenue.

My eyes were out on stocks! All that wonderful produce ranging from British Columbia Delicious apples (which I used to take in my school lunch box every day) through to citrus fruit and avocados from USA ... and enormous, juicy mangoes from Australia!

But the pick of the bunch had to be these pomegranates which were the size of grapefruit!

We had Peter and Irene to dinner and my idea was to buy some BC wine and have the pomegrantes in a fruit salad for dessert.  The wine was Killer Cab which I bought (a) for the funky label and (b) because it was described (in small print) as an "Urban Wine" and was based, according to the label, in New Westminster, B.C.  Don't ask me about the wine: it was red and rough.  Enough said. (I am still puzzled by what an "urban" wine is; it seems the grapes are from California. What's all this "B.C. wine" then?)

I shall move on ... to the absolute pièce de résistance: pomegrantes!

Iain made the main course; I did the dessert.  In the manner of Addressing to the Haggis I simply had to demonstrate how to get the seeds out of a pomegranate!

Nigella Lawson demonstrates on a YouTube video how amazingly simple it all is: you simply cut the fruit in  half, take a rolling pin (or piece of firewood if you don't have one) and strike it sharply causing the fleshy, juicy seeds to fly out into the bowl you have handy to receive them.

Voilà! That's is all there is to it!  (Watch they don't fly out on to your guest seated next to you, the one wearing the creamy white Dior jumpsuit..!)

Nothing for it, but I had to go and buy another one which we had on chocolate ice-cream New Year's Eve ... and for those who partake, a Scotch Malt Whisky Society dram!

THE BEST THING ABOUT EDINBURGH

Now that the other commitments have finally been met it is time to turn my thinking toward Christmas.

A few things are on the critical path: a visit to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in Edinburgh in order to purchase some seriously good one-off cask strength whisky as presents for one or two folk.

I am a member so it is my pleasure to take people to the club room in Leith where there is lunch which can be ordered while one tries out some of the bottles on offer. 

Time to catch up with Inger! She has now retired so is free to be a Lady Who Lunches with the rest of us.  (Don't put too much emphasis on the "lady" bit ... but never mind!)

We stayed for several hours in the club room (converted from an old bonded wharehouse some years ago).   The weather was dry (unlike Glasgow) but oh my goodness ... are the streets of Edinburgh in a mess as they tear them up - block after block after block - to lay the lines for the trams that are to be installed.  There are diggers everywhere and transport in the centre is simply not possible.  It means looping around back streets to go anywhere.  It has been going on for several years and, really, it's getting worse!

So we had a lovely day with Inger as Iain joined us later in the day.   She hasn't changed a bit but ... oh my ... another thing that has not changed:

What is the best thing about Edinburgh?  It is (still!) the Glasgow train!

POST DENTAL VISIT: RINSE PLEASE!

I hate dentists.  Well, that is not strictly true ... I have nothing against dentists but I hate going to the dentist!  I have spent many years in a dentist's chair and it never gets any easier.  If I have an appointment, as I did today, for a regular check-up - no big deal, I know - I simply write off the rest of the day.

Today was no exception.  I am not in extremis, I am not suffering any pain or discomfort, I am simply "out of gas" i.e. I feel done-in, good for nothing but sitting slumped in a chair with my head in my hands. Over the years (many years!) I have tried to figure out why I am so gutted.  Dunno!  In the end I just ride it out.

So ... to that end, when Maggie said we should meet up I suggested coming to my house so that I could partake of some wine and not have to drive afterwards.  We cracked open a bottle and sat out in the garden.  (If the truth be told I opened it before she arrived as my need was greater, I reckoned.)

However, it turned out to be the first anniversary of her son's wedding and so ... recalling that peonies were the order of the day one year ago ... we picked some from the garden and toasted the happy couple.                      

The bottle we were sampling was one I got from Sainsbury's this week. It was my favourte: Fitou.  It happened to be low in price. I can see why; it was a bit Acid over Fruit in taste but  ... what the heck ... it did the business as a Pick-me-up! I ended up having a lovely swally with Maggie and completely recovered.

DOG-GONE GOOD WINE

When visiting Salmon Arm between Christmas and New Year we were treated to visit to a couple of wineries in the Shuswap area.

This photo of Salmon Arm is down at the bird feeding area adjacent to the wharf and CPR railway tracks.

A similar view more to the right, i.e. from Don and Carol's house looking toward Mt Bastion on Shusway Lake with the wharf being on the left out of the photo.

Don drove us all to Granite Creek Winery (website here) in Tappen for a visit and a chance to buy some bottles.

Despite being mid-winter they were open for business and very welcoming. We spent an enjoyable hour hearing the story of the resident golden retriever's encounter with a cougar. (There is a photo of this dog on their website.)

While being the most northerly winery ... on the continent? ... (Latitude of Tappen is 50° 46′ 59″) located in the Shuswap which is adjacent to the Okanagan Valley (north end) in British Columbia, they also have become a source of interest because of this dog's adventure.

He went missing one day and despite searches for him he came back 4 days later injured with a missing ear (if I remember the story correctly) and teeth marks about him. He survived and is bounding about the place ... much to our amazement!