Friday evening in November

It seemed so warm and cosy this evening, as I looked around the house. I felt very contented just being there.

A few last minute chocolate chip cookies (quite well done) cooling beside my Autumn candle, lit for dinner.



James playing a game in front of the fire. Robbie the dog sneaking in hoping to find a space on the hearth rug.


One of my favourite views - the conservatory and kitchen all bright, glowing and inviting. Picture taken on the way back from shutting the hens up for the night.
I love November :)

Ur ye haudin Hallow e'en?

Hallow e'en has always been a big event in our family. Not least because it was my Grandfather's birthday, and my Gran always made a Clootie Dumpling for the occasion. A clootie dumpling is a sweet fruit, spice and suet pudding, mixed up and tied in a floured and sugared cloth then steamed for several hours. The smell of the boiling cotton mixed with spices is one of my abiding childhood olfactory memories, along with the aroma of charred turnip wafting from the carved lanterns. Both can transport me instantly back to frosty dark nights going round the neighbours' houses 'guising'.

Guising (or going in disguise) goes back at least to medieval times, and probably longer. Originally it was a Hogmanay custom for adults who disguised themselves and there are reports of groups of 'Guisards' going around from house to house offering some entertainment in return for some hospitality. Of course Hallow e'en was originally the Celtic New Year's Eve, so there may be some connection there. In any case, as children we would go to houses where we knew there would be a welcome, and performed our poems, songs or joke telling in return for a tangerine and some nuts. As we called at each house in our homemade costumes, we would ask "Ur ye haudin Hallowe'en?" none of this "Trick or Treat" that we get now. And - we were expected to sing for our hallow e'en. On the rare occasion we are visited by guisers, I always invite them in to do their turn. Usually now it is some mumbled joke that we have heard several years in a row, but now and again there is the odd gem.

So, Hallow e'en for us this year meant introducing James to the customs. It is such good fun seeing these things through a child's eyes again. After breakfast he asked me if we could go now.
"Go where?" I asked
"To Halleen!" he replied impatiently.
As I put out peanuts( or monkey nuts as we call them) in a bowl I showed him how to crack them open, revealing the dark red nuts inside. He loved them, and soon the place was littered with shells.

Then I made some toffee apples

and James decided to make his own Hallow e'en concoction - chopped pork, 2 eggs (and the shells) some goats milk, a handful of suet, two apples and half a lemon. Yummmmm! He wanted to bake it and do you know? It smelt quite nice when it came out of the oven! I didn't try it though, and he had lost interest by then and moved on to something else :)


Later he put on his Bumble Bee outfit and we went to visit Gran, who is having a week of respite care in a Nursing Home. She enjoyed seeing him, and he enjoyed bouncing on her bed!



Back at home it is now my role to make the Hallow e'en dumpling. An onerous responsibility, especially when there are lots of expectant and hungry faces watching the great unwrapping. The hallmark of a really great dumpling, however, is the skin which is formed first of all by the flouring and sugaring of the cloot, and then careful drying in front of the fire. What's the verdict?



It's strange to think that my Grandfather was born 111 years ago tonight, in a coal miner's cottage just a few hundred yards from where I am sitting now. He died when I was 14, but we had such good times as I was growing up. I loved to help him in his garden and had my own plot outside his greenhouse. I learned so much even as a small child, that I still remember today, as I tend my own garden. He also had a love of Scottish history and legends, and told me stories and taught me songs that fired my imagination. he was such a great influence on my life, so Here's to you on your birthday Papa.

Here is my Gran's recipe for Clootie Dumpling - although I have adapted it a bit.

1lb plain flour
8oz currants
8 oz sultanas
8 oz raisins
8 oz suet
1 cup sugar (as this is an old recipe I assume the cup to be a teacup and not a cup measure)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp treacle (molasses) - warm it to make it easier to mix in
milk to mix to a soft but not runny mixture (about 7 fl oz,)

Mix all ingredients together (get your hands in about it)

Prepare your cloth - I use a muslin square, but any cotton will do - an old pillow case was my Gran's pudding cloth.
Scald the cloth in boiling water and wring out when you can handle it. I lift it out with a pair of tongs and let it drip until it is cool enough to touch.
Lay out flat and dredge with an even layer of flour and then sugar. (Very important step this!)

Tip your dumpling mixture on to the cloth and then tie up into a bundle with string.

Put a plate into the bottom of your big pan and put the pudding on top.
Almost cover the dumpling with boiling water and boil hard for 30 minutes
Continue simmering for 3 - 3.5 hours.

Lift out and put on a plate or I use a colander to let the excess water drain out. Open up and invert the dumpling on to a heatproof plate.
Carefully remove the cloth and you should see a nice white sheen on the surface of your beautiful dumpling That is the skin - the best bit!
Dry in front of the fire, turning occasionally for half and hour or so - or put in a low oven.

Serve with custard, or cream, or whatever you fancy.
Leftovers are great eaten cold the next day - or fried in butter even.

I was very pleased with this one. A bit wet at the top as I cut the string, but it dried out nicely and the skin was almost perfect. I may add a bit more spice next time, as I did feel it could have done with a bit more pep, but otherwise it was just delicious.

Maybes aye - maybes no

Although that quote is usually attributed to the great Kenny Dalglish (of whom I used to have a glow in the dark picture of pinned up on my bedroom wall), it sums up my mood today. Not huge earth changing decisions to make, but nevertheless I am torn.
I saw a link to this site on a blog I follow. It is called Nanorimo - National Novel Writing Month. The gist is that you have to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. I am seriously seriously tempted, but have not signed up yet. We are talking just under 2000 words a night here. I usually have approximately 2 - 2.5 hours of an evening to cram in all my hobbies. Usually I just manage to flop down in front of the laptop, read lots of blogs, post comments and follow links etc. Updating my own blogs (I actually have 4, but only 2 are active right now) is a masterclass in procrastination. On the odd occasion when I have committed myself to write a post on a particular subject on a certain day, I have reverted back to my university essay writing days. You can always tell by how shiny my kettle is.
Also, James always chooses those days to wake up at 5.30 a.m. and go non stop until 10 p.m. I shudder to imagine what I would look like after 30 days of that!
The organisers say that all you have to do is write 50,000 words and it will most likely be total rubbish - the point is to get writing - just keep your bum in the seat and do it. Everyone always says they have a book in the and will write it one day. This could be the one day. I even have a rough idea of a plot, but I have never done any creative writing since primary school, when my creativity was shut down by a couple of horrible teachers and school bullies. It might just be the thing to get me lay this ghost.
There is an inspiring story on the Nanorimo site from a US Marine, who completed the challenge last year while on active service in Iraq!! Oh I don't know. I am excited by the prospect, but I am not good at writing freely - I have edited this post at least twenty times already and sat for minutes at a time searching for just the right word. I may be too pedantic to do this, but as Johns says, I could do the 50,000 words and get them in by the finish date and then go back and rewrite - ho hum!
Just remembered that November is a busy birthday month - James and me - and we have John's nephew's wedding down in Hampshire at the end of the month, so that will be at least a week long trip as we fit in all the family we've not seen for a while A few days to decide though - it starts on November 1st. Do check it out.
More angst to follow. I don't know whether to make a Christmas cake or not. I was eying up the dried fruit in the organic farm shop today and thinking it was time. The trouble is that no-one really likes it, and John and I end up eating most of it. In fact, last summer I went to use my tartan cake tin and found the previous year's cake still wrapped up. It was fine - there was a fair bit of the old preservative in it, but by the time we finished it, it was time to make the next one, and I didn't have the stomach for it. It is a nice thing to do though, and I always feel quite Christmassy around this time. I just don't know...

Blog Action Day 09 - Climate Change

I'm feeling really quite pessimistic tonight. It has been so hard even getting any time to think abut what to write, never mind find a moment to sit down and actually do it. James has been up since 6.30 am, having been awake several times during the night - he is still up and full of beans after a pretty full day. I wonder if it is global warming that is causing it?
It has actually been an unseasonably warm day. We were at a local outdoor shopping village today and I was struck by the amount of bare arms on show. Children and babies in tee shirts, people sitting in the outside the cafes and on the benches enjoying the weather- it was more like August than the middle of October. Very pleasant, actually, and it is hard not to disagree with those who say we could do with a bit of climate change in Scotland. Apparently Nick Nairn, Scottish celebrity chef is looking forward to growing olives and lemons at his Trossachs cookery school, and and eminent retired professor of geology is excited by his prediction that the shores of Loch Ness will be the epicentre of the world's wine industry in around 80 years time (McIntosh 2008)
But that is really the problem. Here in the Occidental part of the Northern hemisphere,we think that the consequences of climate change will not be quite as devastating as they will in the developing world and some southern parts. We do not want to give up our current profligate lifestyle - multiple cars, appliances, package holidays - and now there is a chance that there might be some decent weather too - life is good! Yes, a few more gales and a bit of flooding here and there, but - hey - we are insured! Therefore no politician has ever advocated adopting the radical measures that will really, seriously, address the problem. There are no votes in austerity.
We need them to, though. My blog description says I am trying to live a simple life. For me that means being frugal - not wasting food, buying locally, not using air transport, using long life light bulbs, eating less meat, growing our own food as much as we can. A make do and mend attitude really. Having been born just over 15 years after the end of WWII, I was brought up with that kind of ethic. Many people do this much better than me and others yet aspire to it. What we need is help from our governments. We need our leaders to stand up and say -
"Enough of this reckless crazy consumerism! We will make it easier for you to do without cars - encourage the high streets to reopen and people to grow their own food. We will no longer allow supermarket companies to monopolise the food retail industry. We will stop being in the pay of companies with huge marketing departments that con you into thinking you can't live without their products. We will seriously help develop sustainable, workable energy systems that do not destroy our most precious land. We will...."
Well, I could go on and on with that list, but in essence, we need strong and radical leadership to help us do the work that needs to be done.
In 2050, my son James, and my grandson Finlay will be grown men in their 40s - more than likely with children of their own. Gordon Brown's boys will be the same age, as will Barack Obama's children. The charity Christian Aid has predicted that by that year, there will be at least 1 billion refugees as water shortages and crop failures force people to leave their homes. In addition there will be many more local conflicts and wars caused by access to resources. The scenario is frightening. what kind of world are we building for our children? A world full of fear - criminal gangs, looting and murdering over property or rights to water and food. What kind of water and food anyway? Catastrophic weather events will cause crop failures and interfere with the water supplies as it did in the floods of 2007 in England. For me it makes Bush and Blair's manufactured War on Terror pale into insignificance. Well - a bit of an exaggeration here - and especially for the young people being killed and injured in the current conflicts, but I just have this feeling that - terror - we ain't seen nothing yet!
I guess what I really want to hear from our World Leaders is " We will never stop working to make the world a safe and secure place for our children", and to actually start to make it happen. I will gladly follow them. Maybe I'll feel more optimistic if I get a better nights sleep.


Reference
McIntosh Alastair (2008) Hell and High Water: Climate change and the Human Condition Birlinn Edinburgh

Blog Action Day

So much going on.

This has been such a busy week, that I have not had time to update the blog. So - here is a whistle stop tour. This week has been all about...

Kenneth packing. Heading off to University.

A last snuggle up together.

Room for independence - middle window, blind half down - the place to be. Mum left her camera in the car, so no interior shots.

Lots of plums

and more plums. Lots of jam - more jam - bottling and 2 more trees to go!

Gorgeous grandson,

Picking up Mum and Dad from Edinburgh airport after 6 weeks in Canada.

Happy Birthday Kristine - 20!!!!

Comparing sun tans - Kristine and Dad!

James makes another birthday cake.

Have we forgotten anything Mum?

Oh yes - Kenneth came home for the weekend. Fresher's week is hard work!

Hope you have had a good week.

Skywatch - Home Skies

After a week of what seemed like constant grey, last night's sky looked quite promising. I dashed out and walked up and down the street reeling off various snaps, almost getting run over by my neighbour as she wheeled into her driveway to find me loitering there trying to get a better shot of that bird shaped cloud
Later we took a short walk to the construction site which is just at the end of our street (we are getting a new railway station and link to Glasgow and Edinburgh). I managed to catch the last of the sun as it set behind the JCBs. How romantic is that!
Please visit Skywatch Friday to see many more incredible skies from all around the world.

Decluttering

We have too much stuff in our house. I keep saying that the house is not big enough for a family of 5, but I know that if we could downsize the amount of unnecessary stuff we have then we would have room for another family! We always feel so much better when the house has been decluttered - you can sense the chi whizzing around, reaching places it has not been able to get to for so long. This state of lightness does not last too long, sadly. However hard we try - however many times we vow 'never to buy anything new unless we really need it, have thought about it for 3 days and have taken something to the charity shop to keep the balance' - stuff creeps back in.
No more! Things are changing. Over the next few weeks this house will be systematically decluttered. This is happening and I feel so much better knowing it. We are gong to sell some stuff at a car boot sale, ebay a couple of things, freecycle some and charity shop the majority of things.
To start of we have the help of the wonderful Kristine, who, apart from having the same name as my younger daughter, hosts Throwaway Thursday on her blog. the challenge is to grab a bin bag, set a timer for 30 minutes and throw clutter into the bag. Kristine (my daughter) and I took up this challenge today - focusing on clothes. We were absolutely ruthless - any item we found ourselves thinking - "well... I might wear that again..." had to be firmly thrown out. We were very pleased with ourselves and both bags are destined for the Salvation Army shop in the next town. I feel so light I might even fly there.

Relentless

I sat under the cherry tree for a few minutes tonight with my barleycup and my attention was attracted by a swarm of tiny insects flying around in a mad dance. As I watched them cavorting around I realised that I have been living at that pace for a few weeks now. The garden and greenhouse are claiming a lot of attention just now. K is sitting his Highers, hoping to get the grades he needs for university, James has been potty training, I have been attending the beekeeping classes twice a week, some work was being done to the driveway, and other family commitments are increasing. The gorgeous weather has also meant we are spending most of the day outside, but somehow the house seems more untidy - sand, dust and grass are carried in on bare feet, and household chores seem to mount up of their own accord, to be tackled quickly when small boys are eventually persuaded to have a bath and go to bed.
This hectic pace will calm down again - exams and beekeeping classes both finish this week, but other things will come in to replace them fairly soon. The insect's life is very short - just a few weeks, so they must dance while they can. I am grateful that I have time to take a few moments to reflect, before plunging back into the reel again.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Inspired by some of the beautiful blogs I follow, I have decided to improve my photography skills. I have been trying to adopt a different way of seeing things, rather than just mindlessly point and shoot,usually cutting heads off or including overflowing rubbish bins and passers by in my picture. I saw this meme on Sunnymama's blog and liked the idea of shadows. So here is my first offering. These are pictures of our ancient garage. We inherited it when we moved into the house and my husband reckons it dates from the 1930s, just after the house was built. It is constructed from - shock - horror - corrugated asbestos! We have been assured by asbestos experts that it is perfectly safe, so it is still here in it's red oxide glory.










Check out Shadow Shot Sunday for more shadow play.