Scootland

As you all know who read this blog regularly, I have great friends. The ones who I want to introduce you to in this post are my buddies Tat & Is. Tat is a writer who Ricardo & I met while she was studying creative writing at the UEA and Is is her partner. They are one hell of a special pair.When Richard was ill, Tat would send the most wonderful letters with pictures and poems and sparkling stars that fell out as soon as you opened the heart covered envelopes. There was one in particular that I put up next to the bed so Richard could see it as soon as he woke in the mornings. It was a huge full colour picture of Desmond Tutu beaming out of the page in his vibrant purple cassock with his hands opening toward you in a heartfelt blessing. It made you feel good to just look at it.
They offered to have me come & stay with them in Scotland over Christmas and New year. I was thrilled. I felt exhausted with the lead up to Christmas and looked forward to taking some time out from worrying about everything as well as pushing the giant boulder of grief uphill. I would maybe knit a bit and read some books and sleep too.
I got much more than I bargained for.... Tat plays the fiddle and Isra plays the guitar, their friend Will brought her ukelele too. They had all gone to enormous trouble and gave me a stocking full of heartfelt gifts that spoke of me and of Scotland, with a special porridge stirrer called a spurtle, the Tin tin book 'The black island', that's set in Scotland, a book about the Broons family, some Tablet! a pencil & eraser with musical notes for choir, a book about Charles Rennie Makintosh, and the most gorgeous soap from Purdies of Argyll. Not for one minute did I feel far away from family or sad at missing my best buddy. Is had rented a holiday cottage which was small but perfectly formed on the banks of Loch Awe at a place called Dalavich and we had an absolute ball, playing cards, knitting, walking, eating, sleeping, laughing fit to burst, playing more cards and singing, even though it rained non stop the whole time we were there and we barely saw daylight.
One of the books I'd taken with me to read was Witchlight by Susan Fletcher and is one of the best books I've ever read. Part of the story is set in Glencoe. Here's what the Guardian said about it ..........‘Corrag's descriptions combine the oblique originality of a child with the precision and control of a poet…the novel is crowded with images stunning in their freshness and simplicity…there are moments when the sheer beauty of the prose takes one's breath away…it is a novel of extraordinary beauty and quiet power that is impossible, having read it, not to look at the world anew'.
I wished with all my heart that the girls would pick up on my longing to go to Glencoe and to read the book...and....they did. They decided we would make the pilgrimage and Is read the book all the way as we passed through a more and more amazing landscape.
Richard had been bowled over by Glencoe when he went there in the 1980's and reckoned you could here the sounds of sword & sheild clashing in that mighty Glen.
Will said it was like a car wash for the soul. I've never seen such an amazing landscape nor so much rain. Every tiny dip in the mountains was racing with white water.

Here is a poem Tat sent me that captures it completely.
Title: Glencoe
Author: G. K. Chesterton

The star-crowned cliffs seem hinged upon the sky,
The clouds are floating rags across them curled,
They open to us like the gates of God
Cloven in the last great wall of all the world.

I looked, and saw the valley of my soul
Where naked crests fight to achieve the skies,
Where no grain grows nor wine, no fruitful thing,
Only big words and starry blasphemies.

But you have clothed with mercy like a moss
The barren violence of its primal wars,
Sterile although they be and void of rule,
You know my shapeless crags have Wed the stars.

How shall I thank you, O courageous heart.
That of this wasteful world you had no fear;
But bade it blossom in clear faith and sent
Your fair flower-feeding rivers: even as here

The peat burns brimming from their cups of stone
Glow brown and blood-red down the vast decline
As if Christ stood on yonder clouded peak
And turned its thousand waters into wine.

So let's raise a glass and toast these incredible friends and their hearts so full of passion, music and the mysteryof life.

SNOW

It has been snowing an amazing amount here in the UK. Here are a few pictures to show you that it's real. This is the view out our window early this morand the apple tree outside our back door.
I've been house bound for a week and a half with a truly dreadful cold and have been going slightly Shack Wacky so I rugged up nice and warm and stepped out into a magic land this afternoon. Everywhere is like Narnia. Everywhere beautiful.

Warm weather and Imam bayildi

For the last few days it's been amazingly warm around these parts. My bike rides in the morning have been magical. The animal and insect world all come alive at this time of year and I usually see something interesting most mornings. Yesterday morning there were three big deer dancing across the road through the mist. Usually there is a hare that runs beside me near the happy-hens-farm and my friends the skylarks who sing non stop every day in West Harling, one on either side of the road make me wonder when do they ever eat? This morning there was a snake squashed on the road with its pink ribbon of guts stretching a good meter across the road.
It's been warm enough to eat outside for the last three nights and we lapse into silence as we watch the swallows swooping and screeing as they practice their acrobatics high above us in the warm air. Last night I had some time to cook as bell ringing had been canceled and decided I would lash out time wise and make one of my favourite meals...Imam Bayildi. It's one of those recipes that seems to be more than just the sum of it's parts. It translates as 'The priest fainted or swooned' no wonder.Here's the recipe from the Waitrose sight and a real beauty. Worth all the effort. Great with falafels and Humus b'tahini.

Imam Bayildi

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

2 sprigs fresh mint, chopped
100g natural yogurt
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tsp harissa paste (optional)
1 tbsp currants, soaked in 3 tbsp boiling water for 30 minutes
1 pinch cumin
½ tsp ground allspice
8 tomatoes, 6 peeled and chopped, 2 sliced
4 cloves garlic, peeled, crushed and chopped
4 onions, peeled and thinly sliced
6 tbsp olive oil
2 large bulbous aubergines (about 350g each)

Method

1. Slice off 1cm of the bulbous end of each aubergine and 6–8cm of the stalk end. Cut the middle into 4 fattish slices. Slash the flesh of the aubergine slices in a criss-cross pattern, salt liberally and press into the flesh. Drain on a rack for 30 minutes, turning occasionally. Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4.
2. Meanwhile, heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a pan and add the onions. When they are soft, add the garlic, tomatoes, spices and currants (including the water), and harissa, if using. Let the mixture stew, stirring regularly, for 40 minutes, until thick. Leave to cool.
3. Rinse the aubergine slices, squeeze out excess water and pat dry. Peel all the end bits (removing the stalk), then quarter the 2 larger pieces length ways. Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a heavy pan, add the aubergine slices and tuck in the peeled bits. Colour lightly, then place in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes or so, turning over once or twice, till soft.
4. Chop the peeled bits and add to the stew with ¾ of the parsley. Press down the flesh of the slices with a spoon and fill with the tomato mixture until domed. Put in a baking dish, put a slice of tomato on each, spoon over the remaining olive oil and season.
5. Pour a few tbsp of water into the dish and bake for 30 minutes, until the tomatoes have blistered. Scatter the rest of the parsley over the top and serve with a bowl of yogurt with mint and cayenne pepper stirred in (not authentic, but delicious).

Sunshine on the soles of your feet

It's no wonder 'The English' are obsessed by the weather. When it's sunny it's so spectacular. It's been a week and a half of Crap weather and today was back to beautiful.
I went to visit my friend Kate today. She's kind of a recent friend and I've never been to her house before. She had asked me for lunch and when I looked up her address on Google maps it came up as being in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere. Guess what, that's exactly what it's like. She and her brother share two tiny semi-detached cottages down a bumpy track with no sight of any other buildings. There was washing drying in the sun, caesar salad with lettuce and radishes out of the garden,and elderflower cordial on cushions in the back garden. It was almost too hot to sit out there but we soldiered manfully on.

Butley Priory birthday

It was my birthday on Thursday; a rather auspicious one and it turned out to be an absolute beauty. Look what came through the door from my amazing sister. If I could have flowers every day, I'd have peonies in every single colour. They even smell, I didn't realise.
Here, bury your nose in this. Pinkness incarnate.
There was chocolate cake made by Clarries fair hands at 8am with pains au chocolat and Zebedee.
Then on Friday afternoon after a LOT of excitement we set off for a romantic weekend away in Suffolk to Butley Priory. Secluded, magical and so romantic. My darling Ricardo had booked the pink room. Please, if you are envious of the star that is Ricado, we are working on having him cloned; you can put your orders in here if you like.
There was a bottle of champagne in the room when we got there with 6 red roses. (I'd forgotten it was our 6 year anniversary as well). He had organised a masseuse to come to the room too. It's been soooo long since I had a massage that I'd forgotten how good it can be, I hope she managed to get the dribble out of the pillow!
The weather was unbelievably glorious. Waking up in the 7ft bed with the only sound being a bluetit feeding it's babies outside the window was heaven....only to be out done by hearing a nightingale when we came back from dinner at 11.15 pm on Friday night. I've wanted to hear one ever since I came to this green and pleasant land.
Look at that cloudless sky.
There was a grand piano too, here's Ricardo playing it.
There was a beautiful view out this window
If you click on the picture you'll be able to see a swing in the trees off to the right. Honestly it was heaven on a stick. Complete with cute dog too called Lilly.
We went for a really long walk along overgrown footpaths smelling of Hawthorn blossom, over Burrow hill across the river Butley (thanks to the volunteer ferry man) and on to Orford for lunch at the Jolly sailor Inn. The sunny weather made it the most idyllic walk. Has there ever been a Bank holiday weekend like it?
How's this for a picnic spot?
On our way back home after the most relaxing weekend we dropped in to the tiny village of Kelsale where Richard grew up and a lot of Ludbrook's are buried. The Church has this beautiful Arts and Crafts period Lych gate.Richard's Grandmother was buried here but it was hard to find her plot as she'd been denied a headstone on account of being a deserted wife! We found where we thought she was and gave her the roses to say thankyou.

Big Day Out

From the sublime to the ..... sublime.
It's been the most amazing weather here. Rarely do we get a Spring like this, it's been warm all week. The air is scented with lilac and cow parsley.
Yesterday I took the day off with my buddy Sheila Macdonald and we went to Cambridge for a "Jolly" as Sheila says in her lovely Scottish accent.
We found our way to Granchester and found paradise at the Orchard tea garden. Often these places of renown are not as good in the flesh as you had imagined but not yesterday.As I took this photo a sweet old guy shuffled out of my view apologising profusely. We asked if he would join us for a cup of tea and Paul from Michigan proceeded to tell us his life story. We flopped on the sun on our deck chairs as a blackbird pecked around us at the crumbs from my Victoria sponge.
The weather has been so warm & still that the blossom has hardly fallen from the trees.If you can get there, take the dominos and GO.
Is there anywhere else in the world where you'd see a bloke in a boater (that's not in a jazz band) walking past wisteria like this?