Bladesmithing

We booked a bladesmithing course for Gerry’s 70th, which was in September, and this morning James accompanied him to it. We had to be there bright and early. We met Gerry and Christine at the workshop, which was in a small street in Maryhill. The owner was a gruff but pleasant person who immediately started kitting James and Gerry out in leather aprons and goggles. Christine and I then went over to the David Lloyd club in her car, where we had a delightful morning in the swimming pool and spa. We met the boys for lunch at the West Brewery and they proudly showed us the sgian dubhs that they had made - they were very impressive, with very sharp blades set into wooden handles. They told us all about the process and both seemed to have enjoyed the experience very much. We had an excellent lunch together, the only slight issue being that it was rather cool in the restaurant and lots of people were wearing their jackets and one was even wearing a woolly hat! But the food was very good in a hearty Germanic way and James and Gerry had some beer to slake their thirst after their hard work in the forge. 

Dinner party and Sunday lunch

We had Michael, Lil, Steven and Hilary round for dinner on Saturday evening. I decided to use my Ottolenghi Simple cookbook for the first time, and made two dishes that turned out very well. The first course was butternut squash, saffron and orange soup, topped with pumpkin seeds toasted with chopped red chillies and maple syrup. It’s the first time I have used rose harissa in a recipe. It was really good if I say so myself; the flavours went so well together. Then we had haddock cooked in a tomato chilli sauce, drizzled with a tahini sauce. The fish broke up a bit when I served it but it was still tasty. It was nice to cook something different from my usual repertoire, although I was slow to finish my preparation and was rushing to get changed just before our guests arrived. A very pleasant and friendly evening ensued.

After my Saturday cooking it was very nice indeed to go to Heather and Ewan’s for Sunday lunch, where we had a delicious meal. It was great to catch up with them and we had a cosy afternoon chatting. When we got home we were too full to have dinner so we just had some toast while we watched the start of the Amazon adaptation of the Wheel of Time, based on the Robert Jordan books that James has read. I haven’t read them but I’m enjoying the television series so far. It’s a bit reminiscent of Game of Thrones in its setting in a fantasy medieval kingdom, and the characters are interesting. 

Storm Arwen

It has been very windy for the past few days, as Storm Arwen has crossed the country. So windy that the letterbox on the front door was rattling, something that I haven’t heard it do before. And last night when we opened one of the bedroom windows as usual, we had to close it because the wind was gusting right into the room! 

James’ new furniture for his study was installed this week. The two joiners really went at it and completed it in two days, they didn’t even stop for a tea or coffee despite many offers from me. There are still a few bits to be finished off because some parts were missing, but we’re nearly there. 

We went to a new restaurant on Monday with Gordon; the Partick Duck Club, which had been recommended to me by Philippa. It was really nice for our meet up, very friendly and the food was great. We had a good chat and made some exciting theatre and concert plans.

Cat and I went into town to shop for cutlery on Thursday (she bought a lovely set) and then we had dinner together and watched our old favourite “Queer Eye” while Ally and James were at the football. Marjory had let me know that word had gone round the Rangers fans that they should wear something orange to welcome their new Dutch manager, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, so Ally and James wore orange beanie hats!

Ally and Cat left yesterday morning, Cat by train and Ally by hired van with Iain, who helped him to load and unload at either end of the journey. They messaged later to let us know of their safe arrival, I’m so excited for them. 

The cats have a trying journey

We left Ullapool on Sunday after a Walking Club weekend in Newtonmore for James, and a delightful quiet weekend in the cottage for me and the kitties. Tom continued to be very relaxed and went outside to explore two or three times a day, however Flora refused to go outside at all. I don’t know what it is that has spooked her; perhaps it’s because the weather continued windy (but that doesn’t bother her at home) or maybe the smell of the sea and the local vegetation is too alien for her? 

James came back to Ullapool to collect us on Sunday morning, we packed the car and closed up the cottage. The cats were very unhappy on the journey down to Glasgow, worse than in the way up. Tom cried for a lot of the time in his creaky little voice, and Flora did a poo and vomited (again), poor wee thing. I cleaned it up as best I could and they spent the rest of the journey crouched at the opposite end of the cat carrier from where the poo had been. 

However when we arrived home both cats were visibly delighted, running around the house and garden. Flora was jumping in and out of the cat flap happily and later she came to sit on my knee and purred loudly.

We were delighted to find that both Ally and Cat are back in Cambuslang for the week; they were at a wedding in Scotland at the weekend and are staying here because James and Ally are going to the football on Thursday. And then on Friday they will travel down to London to move into their brand new flat on City Island. So since it was Sunday we all had a curry and exchanged stories about what we have all been up to. 

Wind and gutters

It’s blowing a hoolie outside the cottage here in Ullapool but it’s nice and snug inside! We have been enjoying our enforced time indoors, spending time with the kitties, reading, chatting and going for short walks when the weather allows. 

Today James decided that he wanted to clear the gutters at the back of the house because they were full of leaves. I suspect that a large part of his enthusiasm for this task was because he has just taken delivery of a new super duper folding ladder, so he wanted to test it out. So out we went into the wind and I held the bottom of the ladder while James climbed up and scooped out the leaves into a bucket. It was raining, but it was so windy that the rain was blown away most of the time and hardly fell on us. We moved the ladder along the back of the house until the gutter was all clear; when we reached the living room window Tom was very surprised to see us and the ladder outside! 

Flora refuses to leave the house at all now, but Tom is very happy to slope off into the wind, especially in the evening. He doesn’t venture too far, but does leave the garden and goes down the path a bit, which is quite brave. Hopefully Flora will be more interested in going outside when the weather is less wild, for the moment there’s no point in trying to persuade her because she just runs back into the house and I don’t want to put her off going outside completely! 

From Ullapool to Edinburgh

This morning James and I strolled into the village to post Christmas presents to Jamie. It was an absolutely beautiful day with blue skies, and the loch was flat calm. We walked out on to the pier and watch a young seagull pecking valiantly at a starfish, which looked rather tough and unappetising. We also saw a seagull dropping a mussel onto the concrete of the pier to crack its shell open. While it was feasting on its snack another young seagull came loping up hopefully but the adult wasn’t interested in sharing!

Back at the cottage we refreshed the cats’ litter tray and piled up their food ready for 24 hours without us, and we set off for Edinburgh to the Marillion Concert. Like many of the concerts that we booked in 2020 we have no choice of when the rescheduled concert will pop up in late 2021 or in 2022. Some we will have to miss due to other plans, but James was very keen to go to Marillion, so we have travelled to Edinburgh, we’re staying overnight in a Premier Inn, and we will travel back to the cottage and the kitties tomorrow morning. James thought that he had booked the Premier Inn at Edinburgh airport so we drove there, but when we tried to check in we found out that in fact he had booked the Edinburgh Park Premier Inn which is three miles further along at South Gyle. It turned out to be even better because we could get the tram from right outside it, in to the City Centre! And that’s what we did; we had a tasty dinner at Topolabamba (again!) and then arrived at the Usher Hall. And now we are in our seats, very near the front and also very near some giant speakers (I have made myself some rudimentary ear plugs out of a torn up paper hanky) waiting for the concert to start. The guy sitting in front of us has seen Marillion many times and had flown from New York for this concert. Apparently he goes to Marillion conventions - they seem to have a very dedicated fan base. The couple beside him have flown from Belfast. 

* Update at 11 p.m. on the tram back to Edinburgh Park. The concert was excellent even though I recognised barely any of the songs! It seems that my knowledge of Marillion’s albums is sadly out of date. But the band were great, led by the charismatic Steve Hogarth, and the songs were good. My favourite of course was their final encore, one of their early songs, Heart of Lothian. 

Rainbow over Loch Dubh

Our next door neighbour Anne came round for coffee yesterday afternoon and amidst our other chat we were quizzing her on local walks. She recommended the “Dams Walk” which I had vaguely heard of, but had no idea of how to access it. Anne described how to get there; it’s between Ardmair and Strathcanaird. So this morning we set off to find it, taking with us a flask of tea. 

It was a fine morning, dry and quite sunny, which was great because when we arrived at the lower dam, we had great views over towards Cul Beag and Stac Pollaidh. We hadn’t been able to find a suitable parking space at the bottom of the hill or on the way up, so to my delight we drove almost all the way to the top before finding an area wide enough to park. James was visibly disappointed because there is nothing he likes better than slogging up a hill. However he soon cheered up when he saw the paths leading up to and around the dams, one of which is called Loch Dubh. We had a lovely walk and found a nice spot for our cup of tea. The clouds started to roll in and we were treated to another rainbow, of which we have seen several this week. 

We had wondered whether there would be a way to walk over towards Loch Achall and Ullapool Hill; the map shows that the path ends at the upper dam and doesn’t resume until near the recycling centre, so we didn’t know what the terrain in between would be like. We could see once we got there that it looked fairly walkable, so James extended his walk all the way to Ullapool Hill and then home, which pleased him mightily, while I headed back to the car and drove home. 

It’s another good place to take our visitors walking and picnicking next summer. 

COP26 continues

As I write, COP26 is still going on in Glasgow, even though it should have finished several hours ago. No formal agreement has been reached. Apparently the delegates are still wrangling over the details of how to limit the rise of global temperatures to less than 1.5 degrees C (we are already at 1.1 degrees since pre-industrial times) and hopefully there will be some sort of agreement by the end of the weekend. But finance for developing countries is an issue, as is the phasing out of coal. 

Over the last fortnight of COP26 there has been a feeling that this is a real chance to make a difference; if the 1.5 degrees limit isn’t met, climate change will be devastating for large swathes of the globe. 

Glasgow has also been full of demonstrations, with the unusual situation that the protestors have the same aim as the people that they are demonstrating against. However they don’t trust the official delegates, with their complex and often conflicting national loyalties, to get the job done. Last Saturday several of our friends were among 100,000 protestors who marched through the streets of Glasgow to George Square in torrential rain. They have certainly raised the profile of the climate summit even higher, and helped to put pressure on world leaders. 

In my usual fashion I don’t know what to think. It has to be a positive thing that climate change is being taken so seriously. But getting to a meaningful agreement and then sticking to it sounds like a massive task. Let’s hope that the delegates currently sequestered in the SECC succeed in their efforts. 

Armistice Day

The cats are still reluctant to go outdoors here in Ullapool so this morning I sat outside for a while reading my book, in order to show them that it’s not so scary. Tom came out straight away and has been roaming around the outside of the cottage. Flora was less keen, but she has now come outside and sat beside me, and has even gone down the steps a short way, miaowing all the way which shows she’s not very happy. I have temporarily closed the door so that she can’t dash back inside, and she is sniffing and staring around so she is showing some interest in the outdoors.

Anyway as I was sitting here I heard the church bell tolling at 11 o’clock, which reminded me that it’s Armistice Day. I looked out at the Loch and thought about James’ great-uncle Hugh, and my Grandpa and my Dad and all the other Scottish soldiers who fought in wars not of their own making, to protect our country. The birds were singing in the trees and ducks were quacking in the pond and I could hear the river rushing over the stones, so it certainly wasn’t a silent moment of reflection, but it did feel peaceful and good to be thinking of them outdoors in this beautiful place. 

The Pie Run

Today we headed to Lochinver to buy pies (of course) from Lochinver Larder. We bought pies for this evening’s dinner and also a selection of pies to freeze for future dinners. We usually just buy savoury ones, but today we treated ourselves to two “toffee apple” pies which I look forward to tasting. The village was very quiet with restaurants and cafés all shut today, although the An Cala café still opens from Thursdays to Sundays during the winter. I absolutely love Lochinver but I’m glad that our cottage is in Ullapool where there are quite a few restaurants and pubs that open year round. Luckily for James the Lochinver Chandlery and Hardware store was open for a quick browse, it’s one of his favourite shops - Alison and I once lost Hugh and James in there for some time! It’s not even that big but they just disappeared among the shelves! Hugh later suggested that James visit Highland Industrial Supplies (HIS) in Inverness which is so big that it has several buildings. James was overwhelmed with excitement when he went to HIS, quickly buying a hatchet and a log basket as well as other unidentifiable tools which he felt were essential for the maintenance of the cottage. 

When we were in the area we went for a walk around some wee lochans near the River Inver; it’s an easy walk but very beautiful. The weather couldn’t make up its mind between sunshine and showers and hence we were treated to a rather lovely rainbow. 

Forest Walk

We’re having a lovely time at the cottage even though the weather continues fairly wild. James has kept the fire ablaze which is very cosy. The cats have settled in well indoors but Flora doesn’t want to go outdoors at all! This may have something to do with the weather because today the wind was blowing straight towards the front door of the cottage, but she’s also very nervous about the new surroundings. She went out briefly on the first day, but yesterday she was peeking out of the door when a lady with a bright blue jacket and bag came walking down the lane at a brisk pace. Flora got a fright and turned tail and dashed back into the cottage and has refused to go back outside ever since. It’s so unlike her to be - literally - such a scaredy-cat! And today Tom, who had been going out regularly for at least an hour at a time, didn’t want to go outside either. I’m not sure if it’s because of the wind or if he is reacting to Flora’s nervous behaviour. Well, I suppose it’s all very strange for them. 

Today we went for a walk in the forest at Inverlael and weee treated to sunshine, showers, dark clouds, crepuscular rays, and pale blue skies. It was a good walk and the path was covered in clover, although it was somewhat boggy in places and our trail shoes got rather damp. We went higher than we have before and we could see far up the valley towards Corrieshalloch Gorge. There was not a soul there except us, it was really peaceful. We had French toast for a late lunch in the Ceilidh Place and then back to the cottage to see the kitties. It’s so nice to have them here with us. 

Tom and Flora arrive in Ullapool

We have long planned to bring Tom and Flora to Ullapool with us for our longer trips. However with Ally and Cat and Davie kindly being our live-in cat-sitters for the past nineteen or so months, it seemed silly to uproot the cats when they could just as easily stay at home. Ally and Cat have now moved to London so the time has come for Tom and Flora to make the journey with us. 

We do have very nice back-up cat sitters; our niece Lucy and Tina who lives next door. But I prefer not to leave the cats at home without us for more than a week; if something (heaven forbid) were to happen to them, there would be no one in the house to deal with it. We will need to find a new cattery for when we go abroad; we used to use an excellent one but the owners have retired and it has closed. 

And anyway we miss Tom and Flora when we’re away, so if we’re going to Ullapool for two or three weeks, we want them to be with us. 

We tried to make the journey yesterday as relaxing as possible for them. We bought a new, larger cat carrier with a fleece liner, and set off mid-morning when they usually go for a sleep. Alas the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley. The cats stayed awake for the whole four hour journey although they did lie down after a while. Flora then did a poo, either through nerves or maybe she just really needed it; this necessitated a stop in a lay-by for a quick clean up. Then just as we approached Ullapool she was sick - poor wee soul. Tom seemed fine but whenever I turned round to look at him he would open his mouth in his strange silent miaow, so I knew that he wasn’t happy. 

When we arrived at the cottage they were absolutely amazed; they explored the house and Tom in particular stared out of the windows. He just couldn’t believe that the view was not of his own garden. They were both hungry and had a big feed. They seemed quite settled in the living room with us during the evening. It was very windy and rainy outside so we decided to wait until today to let them go outside; we had brought a litter tray with us. 

But then we had the most disturbed night ever! The cats ran up and down the stairs, jumped on and off the bed, Flora miaowed loudly and Tom climbed into the cupboards and knocked things about. They slept for a while but woke at five in the morning for more boisterous behaviour including Flora scratching the carpet on the stairs and Tom trying to open the door to the spare room. Meanwhile heavy rain battered the window and gale force winds raged around the cottage, probably the wildest weather that we have had here so far. In the morning the cats were very relaxed but James and I were quite exhausted! 

Catching up with a friend

EK Book club at Elaine’s last night was hilarious. Everyone was on good form and we had a really good laugh. Inevitably there was quite a lot of school talk, which still interests me, and it sounds like schools are having very difficult time just now regarding staffing and pupil assessments and behaviour. Pupils have missed so much school over the last couple of years that many have never learned properly how to study or what behaviour is expected in a secondary school. These stories were told in a very entertaining manner but were actually quite horrifying and the situation sounds extremely stressful for teachers. It’s all going to have huge repercussions for further education and the workplace. Conversations that I have had recently have also made me realise that Covid has and will continue to have a huge effect on people’s physical and mental health. Physically there is “long Covid” and also delays in treatment of surgeries and non-covid illnesses. From the perspective of mental health, many people have been bereaved without being able to spend time with their family members or friends before they died, or have been isolated during the lockdowns, and that’s just a couple of examples. I feel that our lives have changed so much.

I met up with Philippa today for morning coffee which was a very special occasion; we haven’t seen each other for about four years. This has been partly because Philippa lives in Austin, Texas, and a couple of years can go by without us seeing each other. However the longer gap has been due to Covid and all the associated travel bans. We have of course been in touch during that time but it’s not the same as a face to face meet up.

We sat down with our coffees and started chatting, and it immediately felt as if we had seen each other only five minutes before! Philippa’s and my children are similar ages; in fact Jamie and Blair were born only one day apart and Philippa and I met when we took them to a toddlers’ gym class in Clarkston called “Tumbletots” in 1991. We got chatting and the rest is history! Many pleasant afternoons were spent at each others’ houses with the children all running about happily. There have been many times when we have supported each other by talking through life’s challenges. We caught up on each other’s news and hopefully will be able to meet again next spring when Philippa comes to Glasgow for three months. 

November Miscellany

Here we are back home and it’s November already! We had a very pleasant lunch with Heather and Ewan at The Grove on Sunday and another enjoyable lunch with Marjory and Forrest at Vin18 on Monday. And on Monday evening we went to see OMD at the O2. When we were setting off I felt a bit unenthusiastic because I knew that we would be standing (at concerts I prefer to have a seat even if I’m dancing, because it gives me the opportunity for a rest if I want one) However the concert was so good that I didn’t really mind and we had a great time. They played all the old favourites including my own personal favourite “Pandora’s Box” It occurred to me that I may have been to more OMD concerts than any other bands, partly because I really like them and partly because they come to Glasgow quite often.

Our main task this week is to clear out James’ study ready for its refurbishment at the end of the month. It has to be completely empty and the wallpaper stripped off. That means finding temporary storage around the rest of the house for the bookcases, many, many books, filing cabinet, computer, printer, and lots more. James has done the vast majority of the work and I have helped him. The room certainly looks bigger without all the clutter. 

Today I have embarked on a long overdue course of dental treatment, which was originally planned before Covid. Our dentist wants to replace my very old metal fillings with shiny new white fillings; apparently the old fillings are deteriorating and this could eventually result in loss of teeth which needless to say, I do not want. I felt nervous at first but he’s a very good dentist and the first two teeth were drilled and refilled in less than an hour. I can’t remember how many more fillings need sorted, but I have a couple of chipped teeth which also need attention and I think that I have another three appointments scheduled. 

When I got home I had a relaxing bath before tea while James kindly took delivery of the Sainsbury’s shopping.