Best Big Birthday ever!

I can’t believe that I’m 60! How lucky I am to have reached this age! And what a lovely day I have had so far. It had snowed overnight so I woke to gorgeous wintry scenes with snow quite far down the hills opposite the cottage; I really like it when it snows on my birthday because there was a lot of snow on the day that I was born. After breakfast I was planning a quiet day while the young folk were talking about going up Ullapool Hill, when Cat turned to me and said, “You could come with us?”

I haven’t been taking much (any!) exercise since I broke my arm; it has been very painful so not conducive to striding out anywhere. However when Cat suggested that I accompany them I suddenly realised that this was exactly what I should do on my 60th. So, with a little trepidation, I set off up the hill. My gorgeous girls Cat and Chanel walked at my slower pace, claiming that it suited them too, and chatted to me the whole way. Davie & James took a longer route, and met us near the top. It was a really pleasant walk, and I was so glad that I did it, it felt like a very positive start to my next decade. The views at the top were pleasingly monochrome with snow capping the hills as far as the eye could see. 

Cat had ordered a birthday cake for me with a photo of me with my four boys on it! She had then decorated it further with chocolate icing. It was absolutely delicious and everyone sang Happy Birthday to me. What a great day! 

Blowing a hoolie

Well here we are back in Ullapool and the weather is absolutely horrible; very wet and windy. James and I drove up yesterday afternoon with the cats and switched on the heating and lit the fire to warm up the cottage. This morning we did a food shopping at Tesco for the next few days; we are going to spend the end of 2022 and the start of 2023 here with Ally, Cat, Davie and Chanel. From there we walked down to the front to look at the progress of the construction work there, at which point the rain became even heavier and we scuttled to the shelter of the Bothy café for lunch. When we turned the corner from West Shore Street into West Lane the wind blew the rain hard right into our faces. It was very cosy in The Bothy and our table was right beside the wood-burning stove. Now we’re back in the cottage where James has lit the fire.

Update in evening: Davie and Chanel have arrived safely in Ullapool despite snow falling heavily around Aviemore and lying on the road between Inverness and Ullapool. 

Sticky toffee puddings

Ally and Cat had planned to go hill-walking today, however the weather was absolutely appalling; heavy rain battering down relentlessly. This meant that they were available to join us for an early dinner at ours with Christine and Gerry, which was very pleasant, but it was a pity that they didn’t get to spend the bank holiday outdoors as they had wished. Davie was unwell and spent the whole day in bed, possibly with the flu. I checked in on him and brought him drinks and lemsips, he wasn’t hungry at all, and I felt worried about him. 

All of the three courses that we made for dinner turned out well. James made carrot and coriander soup to start, and I had made a venison casserole which seemed to go down well with the boys; Cat, Christine and I had a mushroom stew with crème fraîche and paprika. However the pièce de resistance was the dessert of sticky toffee puddings. It’s a long time since I have made these and they turned out very well if I say so myself! I had worried that they looked rather dark but they were delicious, as was the sauce that was poured over them. I kept one aside for Chanel when she returns from Warrington because it’s her favourite dessert. Good food and good conversation made it a very happy afternoon and evening. 

Boxing Day with the Rennies

James, Ally, Davie and I travelled through to Abigail and Graeme’s today for Boxing Day lunch. Today would have been my lovely Uncle Bill’s 83rd birthday had he not died in October. If he had lived to be 83 he would have lived a longer life than both of his parents as well as all of his siblings, however his mother (my grandmother) was slightly older than him when she died. I will always remember Bill’s distinctive and very pleasant voice; his speech often punctuated with a little laugh on the intake of breath. We all missed him at the lunch, and he was mentioned often throughout the meal, but it was still a very upbeat, happy afternoon. As well as Abigail and Graeme, Katy, Janie and Julie were there. Robert should have been there but is unwell, in fact he was in hospital last week. It was good for Ally and Davie to spend time with some of the Rennie side of the family in a small group to get to know them better, because they usually see them in a cast of thousands at larger family occasions. I was proud of both of them, they were charming and polite. Julie (who is a physiotherapist) warned me that I have been doing too much with my broken wrist and said that I should wear my wrist support more. I have been lifting and carrying casserole dishes and trays of food and drink a great deal over Christmas; James would have done this for me if I had asked, but he was also busy serving and carrying food, so rather than wait for him I would just do it myself, which with hindsight was foolish: my wrist is now sorer than it was when the cast was taken off. I have resolved to be more careful.

Abigail’s house is warm and inviting, which is just as well because it was cold and dreich outside, and a convivial family lunch was an excellent way to spend the afternoon. 

Christmas Festivities

Merry Christmas from Casa Anderson. We have had a really lovely day, all about family and tradition. Santa did indeed visit us and left presents for James and I as well as the young ones. We opened them under the tree and then dashed around to get ready in time for Forrest, Marjory, Jenny, Neil and Lucy arriving for our Christmas morning meet up. We had champagne and sausage rolls (both meat and veggie!) and then Christmas cake and coffee and we all chatted and exchanged yet more gifts. I reflected on how lucky we are to be safe and warm on Christmas morning. 

We watched the King’s Speech at 3 p.m. it gave me a pang to hear God Save the King instead of the Queen. Charles made a good job of his first Christmas address as monarch; he kept it short and sweet, and he broadcast it from St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. After raising our glasses to the King it was time for dinner. Christmas dinner went very well, there were no culinary disasters and Ally, Davie and Chanel were very complimentary about the meal. We had a rest before dessert, and then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the lounge, playing board games and generally relaxing. I didn’t play the first one, Betrayal in the House on the Hill, because it’s quite complicated. However I was persuaded to join in Codenames, which was great fun and very lively, we had a such a good laugh. 

However someone wasn’t all that happy; our Flora. She is a creature of routine and was most dissatisfied that we were in the lounge instead of the living room. Tom wasn’t bothered at all and came and went as he pleased all day, but Flora did a bit of shouting and when Ally took her to the utility room to see if she wanted food, she asked to get into the living room and was most annoyed when Ally returned to the lounge. She’s a funny wee creature. And so another Christmas is over. We felt the absence of our parents, and we also missed our Jamie (who is having a sunny seaside Christmas with the Appletons in Waiheke Island), however it has been a really great day, both fun and relaxing.

Elf and Cooking

Ally and Davie went to the butchers at 10 a.m. to collect the turkey that we had ordered, as well as gravy, two kinds of stuffing, and chipolata sausages. Ordering the turkey from our local butcher is a Christmas tradition of Grandma’s, and going down to the butcher’s at the beginning of December to order the turkey reminds me of her. I miss her especially at this time of year. 

We went into town for a bite to eat before going to see Elf at the St Enoch Centre Vue cinema. I haven’t been there before because it’s fairly new, and it’s very smart with recliner seats. Andrew came along too, after lunch with Ally, and after the film we went to Sloan’s for drinks. We were lucky to get a nice wee table where we all chatted. Andrew was telling me that he has recently finished reading “A la Recherche du Temps Perdu” and I look forward to discussing it with him. Andrew and I share a love for Russian writers too; I think that he likes Chekhov best, as do I, but I’m developing a taste for Turgenev. 

Home from town we got down to some serious preparation. James stuffed and sewed up the turkey, and made the sherry trifle (to Grandma’s recipe of course.) Chanel made some lovely ginger biscuits in the shape of Christmas jumpers which we decorated later, and I made sticky toffee puddings which turned out a bit messy but tasted good. Ally made a steak dinner and we ate it while watching quiz shows on television. 

The young ones laid out their stockings at bedtime, and hopefully Santa will remember to visit Casa Anderson during the night! 

The Burrell

I have only been to the Burrell once since it reopened earlier this year, and it’s many years since Davie has been. Chanel has never visited it. So it seemed like a good venue for a wee pre-Christmas outing. And indeed it was, it’s an interesting collection of miscellaneous artefacts that caught William Burrell’s fancy on his travels, although James rather harshly refers to it as a jumble sale! We started off with a light lunch in the café, and then went for a wander around the galleries, chatting and using the interactive games which were good fun. There was a particularly lovely tapestry which I hadn’t noticed before, embroidered with a field of flowers among which lurked dragons and griffins and a creature with a dragon’s body and a chicken’s head which is called a “cockatrice.”

Then it was time to do the last of the Christmas food shopping; I went to both Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer’s at Kingsgate to get the last few items I needed for Christmas dinner, and also some venison for a casserole that I made later, for the Reid’s’ lunch on the 27th. Both shops were busy but not unreasonably so, and I felt quite efficient as I drove home in the happy knowledge that all of my festive errands are done.