Our Rescue Puppy

Earlier this year, in March, we brought our rescue puppy home from Dogs Trust. He is a Lurcher, and we named him Thumper after the rabbit in Disney's Bambi because of his long legs. He had been a stray at only four months, unloved and without a home or shelter in the freezing snows, the poor baby. We first saw him in his cage at the dog rescue centre, where they were looking after him very nicely. He had a little room mate 'Paul', another puppy who was also looking for a home. The cage was big with an inside room for them to sleep in and an outside play area with lots of toys and blankets to play with and chew. Even after having been thrown away and abandoned this little boy was still so happy and loving and playful. He won our hearts in an instant.

We brought him home and showed him as much love as we could, he was a little nervous and overwhelmed by all the new sights and sounds. He sat on his little bed and looked around him as if mystified by it all. He didn't now how to climb stairs or go down them and for the first day or two we had to carry him to the garden to allow him to pee. That's if we caught him in time, as he had no house training so there were lots of accidents!  The first night he slept with me on the sofa as he didn't want to be left alone and I swear that once the light was switched off and all was quiet that little puppy burst into tears, just like a child might. He sobbed in a way I have never heard a dog cry before. I think he was so overwhelmed and missing his little roommate Paul who he had bonded with after two weeks in the pound and then another two weeks in the rescue shelter. My heart broke for him. I cuddled him and made him feel as safe as I could but only time would allow for him to feel safe and at home.

But what a beautiful, sweet natured boy he was. We couldn't have asked for a more loving and gentle boy. He learned quickly that the best things in life are cuddles and getting as close as he can to whoever is sitting on the sofa and resting his head on their lap. He learned how to chew everything including shoes, books, wallets, credit cards and even an electric wire (close call!). He learned how to ride in the car with us, sitting nicely on his bed, although by the look on his face I don't think its his favourite thing!

  He learned very quickly how to make himself at home and get comfy

It wouldn't be too much to say he was spoiled rotten!

With all this snoozing, he kept growing

and growing

into the most beautiful boy!


And he's still growing!!

Have you ever given a rescue dog a home? I'd love to hear your stories.

A Typical Sunday

Today has been, for me, a typical Sunday in some ways and in others, not. As my other half often works on a Sunday I am usually on my own. It's a quiet day where I catch up on things that I haven't managed to get done in the past week; a little paperwork, a little housework and some tidying up perhaps, a phone call to a friend, then preparing a nice meal for his arrival home in the evening. I like these days.  I felt slightly melancholic today however. Yesterday had been a sad day as I attended the funeral of a young boy. Witnessing the grief of his parents and family was in its own way exhausting, trying to hold your own emotions together, knowing there is nothing really that can take away pain like that. Only time. And even then it will always be with them. He was thirteen. His coffin had been painted in beautiful blues and greys depicting a seascape. It looked lovely and fitting for a young life, instead of the sombre polished wooden coffins we normally see.  There is at times so much sadness in this life that for me it's important to really appreciate the beauty there also is. I like to celebrate, highlight, and really take part in the joyous things around us, I think it can help and give us something to hold onto when those overwhelming times in life do come around.

So, this morning I had my usual lovely walk with the Furbaby. The woods are slowly turning away from the vibrant greens of summer to the rich autumn colours and the leaves are falling. There was a warm blustery breeze, a teasing reminder of the summer just past, a soft air that swirled and twisted through the trees making them creak. It's one of my favourite sounds.  We walked towards Stockbridge and then headed back where Furbaby came upon one of his best friends and they had a race and a play.

 I found some mushrooms. I think they are so pretty and so expressive of this time of year when the warm dampness brings them out.

Back home, it's meal preparation time in the kitchen listening to Radio 4. Tonight we're having poached chicken in a cream and tarragon sauce with pasta and vanilla sponge covered in chocolate ganache for pudding, although it's not technically a pudding :-)  We're not fussy that way.

Furbaby is tired after two nice walks and catching up with friends and he's settled now on the sofa ready for a snooze until suppertime. What a life! 

 

Summers End

Summer has been good to us here in Edinburgh this year. It's been hot, sunny and glorious for the most part, when it's often a disappointing grey and damp wash out with the odd warm day. Not this year! I've even been able to wear summer dresses and shoes! Usually they can hang in the wardrobe hoping for an outing but the weather dictates it's jeans and boots as usual. And a wee jacket just to keep off the chill! This summer has been a long awaited change.

But although the warm weather has lingered and been kind there is now that hint of coolness in the air. The brambles are out and apples are dropping from the trees. My neighbour popped over with a bag of the prettiest soft green and pink apples this week and we decided to make a Tart Tatin and an Eve's pudding. There is no nicer smell in the kitchen than caramel bubbling on the stove gently cooking slices of apples before the whole lot is covered in pastry and popped in the oven for 30 minutes. We ate slices of it with cream and then had a portion of Eve's pudding when it came out of the oven a little while later. What a lovely way to spend an afternoon!

With autumn drawing in I am anticipating the cool, crisp days and pulling on warm jumpers, kicking up leaves, cooking up pies and bringing puddings from the oven ready for a slosh of custard to be poured over the top. I do love the changing seasons and I enjoy the different things that each one brings.

If you fancy a treat and have a spare hour, here is a lovely recipe for Eve's Pudding. It's a simple but delicious traditional pudding with apple at the bottom of the dish, covered in cake mix and baked for 30+ minutes. Pour over cream or custard. 

Eve's Pudding 

2 large cooking apples

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons water

2oz butter

2 tablespoons caster sugar

Topping

4oz butter

4oz sugar

4oz self raising flour

2 eggs

1 tablespoon water   

Heat the oven to 180 C. Prepare the apples by peeling, coring and chopping roughly. Place in a saucepan with the lemon and water and cook briskly for 5 minutes. Add the 2oz butter and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Mix to a nice cream. (You can leave the apples chunky but I prefer a creamy apple base). 

Now make the topping. Place all the ingredients in a bowl (they should all be room temperature for ease) and mix until you have a creamy cake mix (don't mix too long or it will flatten and not rise so well). 

Place the apples at the bottom of a greased gratin dish and spoon the cake mix over the rop. Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes (until the cake mix is cooked - keep checking as this can vary from oven to oven. If you have a fierce oven watch it doesn't brown too much on top before cooking in the middle - turn the oven down a little and extend the cooking time instead)

Look how the pinkness of the apples came through when they were baked!  So pretty.

    

      

A Scottish Farm

It's well into August now and I haven't written a thing about..............The Edinburgh Festival!! Shocking! But as is often the case when you live somewhere special you take the special things for granted. It has been known for some Edinburghans to actually avoid all the fuss of the festival. Well, I didn't go that far, it just so happened that we'd planned a break away at my parents farm for the first week or so of August. It's a beautiful place, a little bit magical, and unchanged in a way that makes you feel history hasn't left, but is still lingering around. You can feel it in the old stone buildings and in the fields and the trees. The stone walls (dry stane dykes) make pretty green parcels across the land. But perhaps only pictures can tell its story.......
 
The farm house is a traditional Scottish but n ben. Small and cosy with the thickest walls and smallest attic bedrooms. There is nearly always a fire burning inside the house, even in summer, because the walls keep the rooms so cool. Only on the hottest days is it not lit.

The farm land is pretty and pastural in summer, but it's a harsh place in winter.

  My Dad has an old tractor that he'll never change. It does whatever he asks of it.

We picked raspberries to make raspberry jam

Someone we know had a ball running wild in the fields

 We went to the local and famous Alternative Games in New Galloway

and enjoyed the vintage cars

and the Sheep Throwing Competition

  And after a busy day there are nice places back at the farm for a cosy snooze

It truly is a magical place.

   

Sunday Summer Rain

The weather has turned! Well, it couldn't last and we did have a great run of beautiful perfect summer weather. We've been able to sit outside for breakfast eating pancakes with Nutella and drinking tea under a warm morning sun. We've had suppers under the trees as the sun faded behind the Edinburgh roofs. But all this heat was turning the lawns yellow and drying out the flower beds. It felt like those long ago summers from childhood, running barefoot on the grass and paddling in cold stoney waters.......

And then the storms came and with them the rain. The thunder was terrific and the lightening a little bit too close! Luckily our very sensitive and gentle lurcher Fur Baby didn't seem to mind at all - not what we expected from such a shrinking violet! But he took it all in his stride - although he did object strongly to being taken out in the rain (quick dashes for a pee!).

Today, it was cooler and darker in the house as the clouds were heavy. So I felt the need for a bit of cosy whilst listening to the rain outside.

With candles in the sittingroom

A gooey chocolate cake for afternoon tea

Then more candles in the evening........with a good thriller on television, sitting in my pj's on the sofa.

And another slice of cake with a final cup of tea. That's what weekends are for, whatever the weather :-)

 
How did you enjoy your weekend?

    

French Linen

One of my favourite things in life is anything old, curious and with a (sadly forgotten) history. I have loved poking about in antique shops and bric a brac stalls since I was very young. When I was about ten I bought two small antiquarian books bound in leather; one in brown calfs skin and the other bound in black with ornate gold finishings. The first was printed in London in 1820 and was titled 'Lady Montagu's Letters' and the other an Edinburgh print of Goldsmith's 'Vicar of Wakefield'. I confess they are both very dry reading but I like them nonetheless and they sit ever present on the desk in the sittingroom. They've been with me all these years.

Last year, my french mother-in-law gave me a beautiful gift. Very kindly she passed to me a pile of original vintage linen tea towels. They are beautiful to touch and to look at.

I use them every day in the kitchen and every time I pick them up I do so with a sense of the family they came from. They have travelled from a farmhouse in the green Loire Valley in France to the elegant city of Edinburgh, but they are as much treasured now as they would have been by my beau's Grandmother when she was a girl. She has embroidered her initials on the corner of some of them..... AA. Alice Audenot. What a lovely name.

Alice passed them to her daughter who in turn has passed their care on to me. I love them and treasure them and they are part of my daily routine preparing food for the family, washing and drying dishes, and hanging out with the laundry......just as they've always been through the years, first with Alice, then Elene and now me.

I never knew a washing line could look so pretty :-)

Alice was over 100 years old when she died just a few years ago. I wish I had met her but sadly I didn't get the chance. I would have liked to have asked about her days in the kitchen, what food she prepared, where she bought her linen, and about life on the pretty farm all those years ago.

 

A View of Edinburgh

Edinburgh is stunning, that we know. So I've put together some beautiful pictures which may inspire you to visit if you haven't already.  Some are familiar sights and some are the hidden places off the beaten track that as a tourist aren't so easy to find.

A view from Princes Street up to the Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle beyond.

Princes Street Gardens looking up to The Balmoral Hotel

If you arrive by train your destination is Waverley Station, right in the centre of town.

The view of Edinburgh from the Castle

Edinburgh Castle from a distance

 The Palace of Holyrood

Historic Architecture at Dean Village

 Stockbridge Market

 A lovely quaint street

 

Restaurant on St Stephen Street, Stockbridge 

 Modern Flats built in a traditional style

A 'close' between streets