SHORTBREAD FOR BURNS NIGHT

Auntie Mary in Salmon Arm gave me these cookie molds at Christmastime.  They are made of pottery: one is a wheat sheaf and the other is holly leaves.

The only cookie mold I have ever had was a 9 inch wooden circle with a Scotch thistle carving but it has long gone into that Black Hole that exists when moving house.

So I decided to substitute a wheaf sheaf for a Scotch thistle when making shortbread for the Burns Supper at Mairi and John's this past week.

Mary also gave me my mother's (i.e. her sister) shortbread recipe which is this:

GRANDMA BOOTH'S SHORTBREAD

3 cups of flour             (16 oz)

3/4 cup butter               (6 oz)

1 cup light brown sugar     (8 oz)

Pinch of salt

It is not what might be called "traditional shortbread" (for Scotland) which is this, out of the Glasgow Dough School book, i.e. Glasgow Cookery Book, John Smith, 1970:

GLASGOW DOUGH SCHOOL SHORTBREAD

8 oz flour            (doubled is 16 oz)

 4 oz butter             (doubled is 8 oz)

2 oz sugar          (doubled is 4 oz)

 

Bake til golden brown being careful not to burn if dough has been rolled thinly.

Shortbread for afters: the whisky is Scotch Malt Whisky Society Liqueur (Macallan's based) of some years ago; the china (Wedgewood Belle Fleur) is a wedding present from Iseabai and the liqueur (or sherry) glass was a present from Norman Tennant to be used as a vase for flowers.

GRANDMA'S BRAG BOOK: JANUARY 2013

The number of grandchildren is increasing!  At our age it is wonderful to have 'arrivals' in our life to replace the 'departures'!  There are now 3 with Mairi expecting another baby in June.

Here is Iain David MacLeod, called Indy, who is 16 months in this photo taken at Christmastime in Vancouver. He features elsewhere in this blog.  Mum and Dad, Dawn and Alastair are finding they have a budding mountaineer on their hands as he now is the age when he has to climb up on to everything.  I think he looks mostly like Grandpa Dave.

Mairi and John have 2 children and are expecting a third in early June.  So, with the aid of modern technology in the form of an ultra-sound scan image, here is the line-up:

 Alastair at nearly 5 years old.

Ishbel at 6 years old

 

 Baby Albiston at 20 weeks: this is the time fetal abnormalities are looked for, e.g. cleft lip, spina bifida, heart anomalies.  All is well.  No.... I do not know the sex.

The blue blanket was Mairi's "blanky" which she dragged around until age of 2 years old.  It was crotcheted by Iseabail and the ribbon is a third or fourth replacement of the original.

MILLAU VIADUCT: CHILDREN'S BOOK

A gift to us last year was this lovely book "Discovering the Millau Viaduct" by Patricia Vergne Rochès and Tony Rochan "in close collaboration with Michel Virlogeux The Structural Engineer who designed the Millau Viaduct."  Details in footnote.

Michel and his wife Hélène visited us last year in order to go sailing on the West Coast of Scotland.  They met our grandchildren and sent us this children's book about the building of this bridge.

Alastair (nearly 5 years old) pulled it off the shelf in the kitchen this week and he and Ishbel (6 years old) were enjoying having a look at it.

Alastair liked this page best especially the red drawing of a line of cars (traffic jam in the Millau Valley).

Isbel is a good reader and now sounds out all the words.

But look at this: after we had read the book together (with some heavy editing by Grandma) they dumped out the box of Lego and made a construction of pier supports for a bridge like they had been reading about in the book!

Full marks Monsieur Virolgeux and your 2 authors!  

And, for what it is worth,  the statistics for the number of hits for this website always - yes, month after month -  record my posting on the Millau Viaduct ... actually it was about Michel, "Le Concepteur" . The most popular by far is this post of June 2008  here   and to lesser extent here in a post of May 2010).

Oh ... and this is it!

_______________________________________________________________

Discovering the Millau Viaduct, This one is in English, i.e. ISBN 978-2-9531888-2-9.

A la découverte du viaduc de Millau, 10 Euros, as seen on their website   www.editionslavachequilit.com

SNOW IN SALMON ARM

This is the last in the series of photos of our trip to Canada for the 2012 Christmas and New Year season.  These are the photos of our trip to Salmon Arm (Shuswap area of British (Columbia) at New Year.  The weather was lovely but very cold.  The Greyhound bus drivers did a first rate job in their drive up (in snow and he had to tape down a flapping outside panel using duck tape) and back again to Vancouver (in snow - re-routed due to accident on highway to Kamloops).  

 

 Look closely to see engine at the front of this train with its huge snowplow blade.  (iPhone photo)

 

I took this picture through the window of the moving bus. It is a lovely wooden church at Monte Lake.  Don't know the name - weather was poor so not great photo but to me it was quite charming.  (Mental note: must go back and find it another time....)