I drove down the M74/M6 on Friday, possibly not long after some worthy had declared the new stretch of motorway open that finally joins the M74 /M6 to Carlisle.
http://news.careerstructure.com/article/view/north-west/18914345/m6-extension-opens-between-carlisle-and-guards-mill/
I’ve been slowly, slowly negotiating the roadwork’s there for several years as the new bridge was built and the road widened. I know lots of people believe more roads encourage more cars, and that’s probably true, but as a motorist I think safety is crucial and there is no doubt that the old road was not safe. To say nothing of a ridiculous anomaly between major cities.
http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/5069.aspx
What I noticed, was that the roadside has been planted with squillions of trees/bushes and that generally, it all looks neat, tidy and new. There are also some signs from the contractor proudly boasting that one million hours were worked safely. I imagine that is something to boast about, especially as these people are working in all weathers and with muckle big machines – so well done them.
Unfortunately, on the return journey, my car was not distracted by the speed and efficiency of this new stretch and still drove itself into the Gretna shopping outlet where its owner had lunch in between spending money. And just to prove that although I am utterly Bah Humbug! I completed part one of the compulsory pressie fest seeking. Now I just have to remember who I bought what for in the heap of bags cluttering up my hallway.
At least there is an absolute treat in store this evening at the book group pot-luck xmas dinner. I’ve prepared bean + nut roast with tomato + red onion roasted in balsamic vinegar and olive oil with rosemary (picked fresh from Sig Other's garden first thing this morning), with roast pumpkin.
Yes, it is all a bit ‘roasty’ but it means I can carry it ‘artfully’ arranged in one dish to go into the oven and (hopefully) this won’t spill out over the car in transit. The treat, is of course, that everyone makes far too much food, especially puddings and we all get to try different things. I usually find it rather intimidating as everyone else is such great cooks.
Fantasy Art Auction
I recently went to a fantasy art auction where the displayed prints and originals were of dragons, fairies, space ships, stars, moons, dragons and various other dragons – just in case dragons of all shapes, sizes, wing design and colours were missed out.
Some times I give in to artly desires and purchase an item at such events. This year, I realised a long held aspiration, to own an Anne Sudworth. Or at least, a print. Her originals are too large for my walls and now out of reach of my pocket.
Anne Sudworth is a delightful, wonderfully dressed, softly spoken woman with an engaging smile who is ready to tell you the story of how she painted her subjects. Speaking to her on this occasion, she described painting Whitby Abbey which looks remote, windswept and otherworldly. I gather that is how it was for her going to paint out there.
I bought a print called ‘The Goblin Tree’, pictured below:
Some times I give in to artly desires and purchase an item at such events. This year, I realised a long held aspiration, to own an Anne Sudworth. Or at least, a print. Her originals are too large for my walls and now out of reach of my pocket.
Anne Sudworth is a delightful, wonderfully dressed, softly spoken woman with an engaging smile who is ready to tell you the story of how she painted her subjects. Speaking to her on this occasion, she described painting Whitby Abbey which looks remote, windswept and otherworldly. I gather that is how it was for her going to paint out there.
I bought a print called ‘The Goblin Tree’, pictured below:
The image is a bit weird as (quite naturally) these are protected and not to be downloaded from her website, but I thought I'd try!
Sig other was with me and strongly hinted his impending disapproval if I bought anything dragonly. Damn cheek, when I next turned round he was bidding on a print from an artist whose name I can’t recall, with pink dragons on it!
Here is the link to her website where the gallery pages show her work.
http://www.annesudworth.co.uk/enter.html
Frost
Taken yesterday at midday in Fife, where the frost was as thick on the ground, the trees and on my car as it had been when I first looked out the window at 7.30am. I don't know how low the temperature went, but it felt pretty damn cold all day.At least the sun was out and afforded great views of the hills to the sides of the A90 as I drove back from an overnight stay after a Thanksgiving dinner with my friends D and M, accompanied by G.
Thanks all, for a lovely time.
There would have been more pics, but my camera is seriously misbehaving. I'm not sure what to do to sort it as I'm not keen on buying a new one, but I suspect that the price of getting it fixed is more than it is worth. I hate this throwaway culture!
North eastern curries
Veggie food is still hit or miss in the Aberdeenshire area. Most small hotels and pub food caters primarily for decaying dead stuff consumers. (Put the emphasis on the words in that sentence any way you wish).
Plentiful venison, game, rare breed pigs and assorted brown shapes drenched in gravy but no respect paid to vegetables. Predictably poor choice of veggie burger, macaroni cheese, and in a completely non-ironic throwback to the 70’s, cheese and peach salad. That last offered in an establishment boasting a vast range of fish, game and other abattoir products.
Mercifully, the fates have located some terrific Indian restaurants in the area. Of all the odd places, Peterhead has one of the best Indian restaurants I’ve ever been in. Their vegetarian Thalli seemed to be served in a steel container nearly a meter wide – an exaggeration, it just felt like the most intimidating amount of food ever placed in front of me. Over an hour of steady munching interspersed with pauses for air, made hardly a dent in the food mountain. Reluctantly submitting to the inevitable, more was left than eaten. I mourn those leftovers yet.
Huntly has if anything, an even better, if less fancy, Indian restaurant. The food is so full of flavour and just all round yumminess, but again comes in improbably hearty portions. The price is in inverse proportion to the portion size. Overcome with greediness, and in order to taste their veggie Samber and the bindi baji as a side dish, along with rice and a chapatti, there was little hope of getting more than half way through.
This run of scrummy Indian food comes to a full stop in Fraserburgh. For somewhere that claimed to have won an award, I was left pondering exactly what the award was for.
The standard of food and the prices in Indian restaurants in Edinburgh is dire, or at least the one’s I’ve tried recently; with the honourable exception of the two veggie ones. On the other hand, perhaps it is just as well that the local take-aways’ nasty habit of adding sweetcorn to their veggie dishes saves me developing a worse curry addiction. Thankfully, I often go to the "curry mile" in Manchester where there is almost infinite choice of regions and cuisines. It will take many more visits before I have sampled them all!
http://www.restaurantsofmanchester.com/rusholme.htm
Plentiful venison, game, rare breed pigs and assorted brown shapes drenched in gravy but no respect paid to vegetables. Predictably poor choice of veggie burger, macaroni cheese, and in a completely non-ironic throwback to the 70’s, cheese and peach salad. That last offered in an establishment boasting a vast range of fish, game and other abattoir products.
Mercifully, the fates have located some terrific Indian restaurants in the area. Of all the odd places, Peterhead has one of the best Indian restaurants I’ve ever been in. Their vegetarian Thalli seemed to be served in a steel container nearly a meter wide – an exaggeration, it just felt like the most intimidating amount of food ever placed in front of me. Over an hour of steady munching interspersed with pauses for air, made hardly a dent in the food mountain. Reluctantly submitting to the inevitable, more was left than eaten. I mourn those leftovers yet.
Huntly has if anything, an even better, if less fancy, Indian restaurant. The food is so full of flavour and just all round yumminess, but again comes in improbably hearty portions. The price is in inverse proportion to the portion size. Overcome with greediness, and in order to taste their veggie Samber and the bindi baji as a side dish, along with rice and a chapatti, there was little hope of getting more than half way through.
This run of scrummy Indian food comes to a full stop in Fraserburgh. For somewhere that claimed to have won an award, I was left pondering exactly what the award was for.
The standard of food and the prices in Indian restaurants in Edinburgh is dire, or at least the one’s I’ve tried recently; with the honourable exception of the two veggie ones. On the other hand, perhaps it is just as well that the local take-aways’ nasty habit of adding sweetcorn to their veggie dishes saves me developing a worse curry addiction. Thankfully, I often go to the "curry mile" in Manchester where there is almost infinite choice of regions and cuisines. It will take many more visits before I have sampled them all!
http://www.restaurantsofmanchester.com/rusholme.htm
Aberdeenshire visit
Before winter sets in completely, I decided to travel north to Aberdeenshire for two or three days. I really like this part of the country. The scenery is varied between hills and coast as well as the winding Spey Valley. Previous visits have seen me do the castle trail and the delights of family attractions when my daughter was wee and could enjoy the parks in Aberdeen and the fun of Storybook Glen.
http://www.storybookglenaberdeen.co.uk/aboutus.html
I came up to Huntly during the summer and returned via Glenshee to admire the scenery and in the passing saw a red squirrel run across in front of me - the first time I've seen one! On this occasion, I decided that as last weekend these roads were cut off by snow, it was best not to risk it. I stuck to the main roads and drove that right angled road up through Perth, Dundee, and at Aberdeen turn right out to Huntly.
Huntly itself is an attractive wee town with some interesting shops the like of which are only found in towns but not in cities. I nearly bought a kitchen table and chairs, but remembered in time that nothing of that size will fit in my new car.
This area has some really good B&B’s. I stayed with Doreen who “only takes clean people.” Not sure how she makes that judgement by the voice on the phone booking it, but I was allowed to have a room. Her large Victorian house is comfortable, warm and appears as neat and tidy as if it has just been unwrapped. But, Doreen has a minor vice. She has a weakness for frills and ribbons and crystal.
http://www.storybookglenaberdeen.co.uk/aboutus.html
I came up to Huntly during the summer and returned via Glenshee to admire the scenery and in the passing saw a red squirrel run across in front of me - the first time I've seen one! On this occasion, I decided that as last weekend these roads were cut off by snow, it was best not to risk it. I stuck to the main roads and drove that right angled road up through Perth, Dundee, and at Aberdeen turn right out to Huntly.
Huntly itself is an attractive wee town with some interesting shops the like of which are only found in towns but not in cities. I nearly bought a kitchen table and chairs, but remembered in time that nothing of that size will fit in my new car.
This area has some really good B&B’s. I stayed with Doreen who “only takes clean people.” Not sure how she makes that judgement by the voice on the phone booking it, but I was allowed to have a room. Her large Victorian house is comfortable, warm and appears as neat and tidy as if it has just been unwrapped. But, Doreen has a minor vice. She has a weakness for frills and ribbons and crystal.
The above graced the ensuite. Such objects were a fixture of a 60’s childhood, but not seen since. Has Doreen captured all such sub-antique objects because whole generations have grown up without seeing a frilly doll with a toilet roll under its skirt? The theme continued in the wardrobe with sumptuously padded and frilled coat hangers, and complimented with the frilled tissue box cover.
Attention to detail is a feature of breakfast. The poached eggs were precision cooked and the butter cut up in regimented squares. My only complaint, and this goes wherever I stay, the coffee needs to be stronger.
Deans Shortbread factory is a must see. Started by Helen Deans in 1975 it has grown into a fair sized family business in Huntly. The factory shop is a source of goodies and a reasonable priced way of trying out new flavours of shortbread, (I’m trying not to gorge myself on their butterscotch flavour as I type). A local person mentioned their bags of shortbread crumbs which when sprinkled over fruit make a luxurious crumble, but there were none available when I popped in.
http://www.deans.co.uk/index.html
Forth views
Some photos I took yesterday standing in a laybye overlooking the River Forth and the bridges. It was sunny when I drew up in the car, but the sun got shy and disappeared when I took out my camera.
The hills have a little snow on them, but mostly this far south, we missed the beginning of winter.
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