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.