Woollie Weekend

I've had a fabby weekend - spent in the company of many good friends. Saturday I was at a wedding in Edinburgh - it was scary when the best man said of the groom "I first met David 20 years ago".......has it really been that long......then we realised that it was 20 years since 5 of us lived together in Glasgow - a great year of fun and laughter and the cementing of lifelong friendships. The gang includes a friend I met when I was 3, another I met when I was 11 and university friends........partners and children.

I don't usually post photos of friends here without their permission - so sorry - but that's me in my wedding finery. Not the dress I mentioned in my last post, but the other one that I tried on last week - I sent my mum back to Glasgow to buy it for me (and took the stone coloured one back to the shop yesterday). I am happy with the decision - will definitely get a lot of wear out of this dress. As usual, my favourite shop COS came up trumps!

Today I managed a quick trip to Habitat - finally bought a couple of light fittings - haven't had any lightshades since I moved house last August.....now the bedrooms will have lightshades at least - still looking for the living room though - before I headed home to Dundee and an early dinner with friends - Greek style - (Marios parents and sister were visiting) - roast leg of lamb, fava dip - a recipe from Santorini and dolmades made by Marios' mum. Thanks guys!

I was excited having made a trip to Wait*rose on my way home (Edinburgh is the nearest branch of this upmarket supermarket chain) to find giant couscous! I have been trying to find a source of giant couscous ever since I first tasted a salad from Marks & Spen*cer  made with giant couscous, wheatberries and roast butternut squash and wanted to make my own. But giant (often called Lebanese) couscous is hard to find....imagine my delight when I found it in Wait*rose. 

Some Knitting

So instead of making my book pile smaller by actually reading one....I made it bigger by buying another....this time is was David Mitchell's "The Thousand Autumn's of Jacob de Zoet". Now I really must start reading again.

I have managed some knitting however - a prototype - a carrot hat for my friend at work's soon to be baby. I am onto the second style to see which one works better....

I hope you all have a lovely weekend! I started mine with an afternoon off work, in Glasgow (following a meeting) where I met a friend and bought a dress to wear to a wedding next weekend - now I am in a dilemma - the dress is a very pale grey/stone colour - do you think it is ok for a wedding? Not too close to white? I plan to wear it with a bright coloured cardigan and tights.

Tomorrow is knitting group at Twist in Newburgh and following a leisurely lunch with friends, a trip to the Saturday evening lecture at the University - this week it is the Ig Nobel Lecture - focusing on the 2010 Ig Nobel Prizes - prizes that focus on science that makes people laugh and then makes them think. The Engineering Award for 2010 went to a project that perfected a way of collecting whale snot using a mini helicopter; whilst the Physics prize went to research that showed that people slip and fall less often on wintry footpaths if they wear their socks over their shoes.....

Sunday I am off to Yu Spa at the Apex Hotel for a massage, swim and lunch - all in all sounds like a good weekend to me!

Books by my Bedside

I'm not really sure what I have been doing with my spare time (i.e. the at home time) because I sure as heck haven't been doing much crafting, house painting or tidying up. I haven't even been doing much reading.....I have an interesting pile of books beside my bed but just haven't the inclination to read them. Hope that it comes back soon!

1. Whisky Galore by Compton Mackenzie - a Scottish classic, based on the true story of a bunch of islanders during World War 2 who found a ship load of whisky (the water of life) washed up on shore and the hilarious lengths they go to to hide it from the authorities - since the island had run dry of the golden nectar!

2. My Life in France - the autobiography of Julia Child - Paris post war......food and my favourite city - what's not to like.

3. Norwegian Wood - I have had this Japanese contemporary classic by my bed for 2 years now - the film arrives at the DCA in April and I had hoped to read it before I saw the film.

4. The Kings Speech - seen the film, now I want to read the story behind the film.

5. Born to Run - the story of the Tarahumara Indians from Mexico who run ultra-marathons in bare feet and the benefits of the running barefoot- thanks to Beth for the recommendation - I think I am going to enjoy it.

6. The Hare with the Amber Eyes - the silent sleeper on the list....hard to publish, a growing success - the story of one family told through the history of a collection of Japanese netsuke, following it from Paris, France, through World War 2 (as a Jewish family) and back to Japan.

Weekend Work 2

This week I was away working in someone else's garden.....this was a garden owned by the National Trust for Scotland at Culzean Castle. This garden is 600 acres of beach, woodland and formal gardens....but luckily we didn't have to "do" the whole garden.

Our weekend plans consisted of 2 projects:

1. Rhododendron eradication (a never ending task to remove this invasive, non-native species). The eradication focuses on rhodendron ponticum, brought to the UK (along with a lot of other lovely, less invasive species of rhododendron) from the Iberian peninsula. Whilst it has pretty pink flowers, it has been shown to impact on the surrounding environment, reducing the number of earthworms, birds and ground growing plants. The removal process included slash and burn....followed by removal of the roots by tractors. We were only engaged in the first 2 stages.

Before we started

Mid-way in the process

2. Silt clearing - removing silt from the burn feeding the Swan Pond on the estate and then clearing leaves, mud, logs and the like from around the small islands in the pond....a smelly, wet, mucky job involving waders and a lot of squealing!

After the work - sorry it's blurry

Muck on side of burn

The estate itself is really beautiful. With its fantastical castle built in the 18th century for the Kennedy family, the Scottish Kennedy family, one of Scotland's oldest family's who could trace their connections back to Robert the Bruce. The neo-classical castle was designed by Robert Adam, who was the leading Scottish architect of his day, who had free reign to design the castle. This included a ruined arch as an entrance to the castle, ruins showing family history, even those these were built at the same time as the castle alongside formal walled gardens.

Today, the estate is a marvellous place to take a walk, through the deer park, down to the beach which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, through the woodlands, along the cliff path and into the walled gardens. The photos below weren't taken this weekend, (they were taken the last time we visited in July 2008), the weather, whilst dry, was grey and therefore not conducive to great light!

Culzean from the Gardens

Home Farm - where we stayed

Boardwalk to the Beach