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

Picking Strawberries at Craigie's Farm

What a glorious day we had here - the sun shone so brightly and the breeze was warm. We don't often get days like this even in summer so we really make the most of them and spend as much time outside as possible. After a lovely walk in the morning with the Fur boy we headed out to Craigie's Farm to pick strawberries. The view from the farm is wonderful, looking across to the Firth of Forth

There are my two boys heading off to find strawberries!

I sat at 'Ambers Canine Cafe' with the Fur boy, enjoying the sun.

And then a walk in the woods nearby. It was cool and fresh feeling and there wasn't another soul around, just me and the dog under the green canopy. Bliss.

After an ice cream with the boys we headed back home to enjoy the spoils, with more ice cream!

Craigie's Farm is a lovely place to visit with children, or with a friend for a coffee. The cafe is full of gorgeous food and fresh vegetables and fruit to buy, as well as all the usual goodies you find in a great farm shop. It's only a few minutes drive out of the city but the surrounding countryside makes you feel you have driven for hours to get far away.

http://www.craigies.co.uk/   

A Walk to Stockbridge

Today, after the wind and cloud of yesterday, the sun shone again. It was a little breezy too but it was a gentle warm breeze. Perfect for a walk!

So instead of my usual walk to the waterfall ad back with the Fur Boy, I continued on to Stockbridge. Along the way there were some pretty sights to see, even though they are familiar to me, they still delight.

A rose outside someone's door

And when I turned the corner there were lovely historic buildings.

And over a wall, a secret garden

And then the New Town starts to rise above the trees.

I went to buy my bread in a local cheese shop called Mellis - it's quite famous in Edinburgh. It's full of the most delicious cheese and breads and hams and tasty things in jars.

Then the walk back home for lunch. I had some soup which I had made yesterday at lunchtime to use some spinach up. It's actually a recipe for Pea and Lettuce Soup but I used the spinach and it tastes just as good. I confess I am a thrower inner when it comes to some cooking, especially soups. I don't really use measurements.....

Pea and Lettuce Soup

Half a bag of frozen garden peas (about 4 cupped hands full)
1 garden lettuce (or a pot full of spinach - it reduces to nothing once cooked)
Pint and a half of chicken stock
Splash of sherry
Teaspoon of sugar 
Cup of single cream
A good size nob of butter

Melt the butter in a good size soup pot, then add the peas to sweat and cook a little in the warm butter for 5 minutes. Then add the lettuce, torn into pieces, and let that sweat for a few minutes. Then add the stock, the teaspoon of sugar and let it cook for about 15 to 20 minutes gently on the hob. Then add the splash of sherry, just enough to flavour it but not overwhelm the taste. Then the cream and a little salt and pepper. Once it's cooked a little whizz it to a smooth glossy green and then enjoy with lovely bread.

   
http://mellischeese.net/

Summer Steamed Pudding and Custard

Yes, it's summer here in Edinburgh, but that means lovely sunny days followed by damp windy ones which can get chilly. Sooooo for me that's just an excuse to put on a wee fire in the sittingroom and boil up a steamed pudding. With custard of course. I love traditional food like stews and pies and puddings! I blame it on being brought up on a farm in the middle of nowhere with no central heating or double glazing - you kept warm by getting as close to the fire as you could, and meaty pies and lovely puddings kept you going while you mucked out the byre. I still have the calluses on my hands!  

So yes, it is summer, kind of. But in Scotland there is such a variety of weather here that you can still have something comforting and yummy on a chilly evening. Personally I don't need much of an excuse....

The recipe is easy

4oz self raising flour
4oz sugar
4oz butter or margarine
2 eggs
A little water
Vanilla Essence (if you have some)
A couple of pudding spoons of jam (I used raspberry)

Custard to serve!

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl as if making a cake, using a little tepid water to give a nice dropping consistency. Butter a heatproof bowl or steam pudding basin (which will have a lid). Spoon the jam into the bottom of the bowl and add the pudding mixture on top. If using an ordinary pudding bowl then you'll need to make a 'lid' for your steamed pudding by tying on a circle of greaseproof paper with string across the top of the bowl - tying the string around the lip of the bowl just below the top. This can be tricky and it might be easier if you have a pal to help you while you tie a knot in the string. If you have a pudding steamer then you just need to put the lid on. Then lower your pudding bowl into a pot of boiling water, not letting it be any higher than two thirds up the bowl or the water might leak into the top of your pudding. Boil gently for 2 to 3 hours, remembering not to let the water boil dry!!!!

Below is my pudding steamer with a lid, already in the pot.

 And after 2 and a half hours it's ready.

 
Add some custard

Yum!

A few steps outside.....

This is my Edinburgh, a few steps outside my front door. I walk here every day with my dog. I live right in town, not on the outskirts of the city or a few miles out. This is Edinburgh.....

Green and lush

Damp and cloudy

With secrets

But always showing you where you really are, just in case you start to forget. Its architecture comes out to shine.

We settle in

And so we began to make a home in our new flat. The beige walls were transformed by Farrow and Ball chalky paints, which I love! We used a pale grey/blue (Skylight) in the sittingroom to make the most of the light from the large bay window and that makes it such a bright room. At night it turns into a cosy haven.

The dark hall was painted a moody grey (Lamproom Grey) turning it into a gallery for our art work, with a soft glow from a table lamp at night turning the space dark and mysterious. 

And the small bedroom was painted a soft pretty blue (Borrowed Light) for the little one,

and we chose a glorious rich burgundy for the main bedroom.

We bought furniture from charity shops, and some pieces from Ikea, and grown up furniture from posher shops. We mixed it all up and gave the space our own feel. And it never felt anything other than home.


How do you make your house a home?

http://www.farrow-ball.com/

I had a dream....

Some years ago I bought my first flat (apartment) in Edinburgh. It was in a run down area full of first time buyers living side by side with druggies and alcoholics. There were 'the originals' living there too; the old couples who had moved in years earlier to start up home and raise their families and who had stayed, now living out their retirement in the same home they had started out life together in.

My flat was small but bright and airy and looked out onto the local play park where children screamed and cried on summer nights and drinkers gathered in the darkening hours to laugh and argue and swear, leaving their beer cans for the children to trip over the next day.  Once behind my front door I was safe and happy. I cooked and baked and listened to music and over the years I decorated that small space as I liked, making it a pretty and comfortable home. But I yearned for something more..........

Edinburgh is a beautiful city. It has some of the world's best architecture, it has beautiful parks, wonderful museums and great restaurants and cafes. It has the old and the new, sitting side by side; one town gracious and elegant, the other older, mysterious, quaint. Both can charm its visitors and residents alike. My little flat in the run down side of town didn't feel like this Edinburgh even if it was just a short bus ride away. And so I had a dream, that one day I would live in the pretty side of town, the Edinburgh that the tourists knew and that other Edinburgh residents took for granted.

And when the time came, when love had arrived, we went looking for our new home together. We knew what we wanted, and after some months of hunting, we found it. It was an early Victorian flat, hidden behind the main street, with only a few steps from the front door to the Water of Leith. Every window looked out to broad leaf trees, through wobbly old glass in the original casement windows. There was a big bay window in the sittingroom and the original fireplace for cosy fires in winter.

The grounds surrounding the flat were beautiful. Grassy lawns sheltered by trees, with flower beds full of cottage garden blooms - fox gloves, roses, and petunias and daisies. There was cow parsley and ivy growing in the shady edges beside the hedges.

It was perfect and we bought it. And so the dream began.