Seasons

Sunshine

It was sunny this morning and I retraced some of Saturday’s steps.

This rose had unfurled

the anemones seemed happier

and the May* was definitely out.

The lambs had left their shelter

and this guy looked contented.

Here’s that peony, even blousier than before

There was even a breeze to keep the midges at bay.

Though that didn’t stop DogS picking up a tick snootering in the long grass.

When I got home, I put out the washing (MrS removed the tick)

And brought it in again**.

When the rain came back.

Until tomorrow

Marina xx

*I did cast a clout

**it was dry

The changing seasons

So I’m now 23 days into my #EveryDayinMay challenge to myself. And Spring is moving towards summer. Here are some photos I took around the beginning of the month

And now some taken on walk today.

First I noticed these Hawthorn or “May” blossoms.

Do you know the saying “Ne’er cast a clout ’til May is out”? There’s often debate, disagreement even, over its meaning.

Is it referring to the month or the flower?

And what is a “clout” or “cloot”?

Well in Scotland a “cloot” is a cloth, and can be used as word for vest. As in don’t stop wearing your vest until. ..

Well until when?

Until the 1st of May, or when the Hawthorn blooms?

Or perhaps the end of May? With May being “out” meaning over?

And then my mother used to say the same thing. In Wales. Where we didn’t use the word “clout” in the same way. Although it was usually a warning not to go out without a coat.

And walking along I noticed the blossom wasn’t even at the same stage everywhere.

So: “Don’t take off your vest/coat/make any rash decisions that it’s summer, until it’s May/May is over/Hawthorn starts to bloom/is in full bloom.

Is that clear now?

this tree was absolutely covered in blossom

But everywhere I walked there were signs of summer, bluebells going over and being replaced by campion.

Wild roses starting to bloom.

Ditches are filling up with irises and umbellifers,

anemones and peonies blooming in gardens.*

the trees in fare in full leaf and bloom.

Those lambs getting bigger. And wiser.

No room for these guys though.

“just turn your back on it, and it’ll go away.

All topped off with beautiful summer weather**

Until tomorrow

Marina xx

*mine are still in bud and getting battered by the wind

**winds of 50+mph and a temperature of 9.9 degrees centigrade

Oh, and there are still plenty of rabbits, they were just a bit too quick to catch on camera

Towns that smell of chocolate*

To be honest I think I’ve only ever been to the one, although both Edinburgh, my home of nearly thirty years, and Carlisle, smell of biscuits.**

The chocolatey town? Oloron Ste Marie in the south of France, where we visited the Lindt factory. Actually that’s a bit misleading, I don’t think you can take factory tours. What you can do is visit the FACTORY SHOP.

chocolate similar to that available

A bit of a disclaimer, that bar of chocolate was not bought in Oloron. I mean really what were you expecting? That I’d saved a bar of chocolate for over six months? I think I do quite well giving it up for the six weeks of Lent.

And I wrote about what happened to my virtuous plans of avoidance yesterday.

The pretty bag on the other hand is genuine. You can buy Lindor boules in a huge variety of flavours. More than shown in that link. Arrayed as a massive Pick’n’Mix. And then there were the boxes of chocolates, bars of all sizes, bags of rejected misshapes, and end of line flavours that didn’t fly. I really was quite good, several boxes of chocolates and most of the pick and mix came home with us. And a fair quantity of that made its way to others as a gift. But I did enjoy a “lucky dip” into the misshapes as we travelled about.

There’s a lot more to Oloron than chocolate. It’s a pretty place to wander around with its two mountain rivers or “gaves” which merge to form the “Gave d’Oloron”.

this is the Gave d’Aspe

And the church of Sainte Marie d’Oloron is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and well worth a visit when that’s possible.

It’s also one of the few places where traditional French berets are made. We found them in this beautiful traditional shop, Souviron Palas.

I decided against a beret but we found some good Christmas presents there.

The weather wasn’t so great on the day of our visit to Oloron-Ste-Marie, but we did enjoy some Autumn sunshine while we were in the area. And glimpses of the Pyrenees.

A demain

Marina xx

*It really did

**Edinburgh’s Sighthill district is home to Burton’s biscuits and the smell of shortbread often fills the air. In Carlisle the scent is Carr’s water biscuits

Exploring festivals abroad

Not the musical variety, in fact I don’t think I’ve ever been to one of those home or away. There were Glasgow’s Big Day concerts in 1990, somehow I got into the then Copthorne hotel to watch the George Square gig and then went down to Glasgow Green in the evening (that was the time Sheena Easton got booed* for her Mid Atlantic twang); and I was at the Nelson Mandela Tribute concert at Wembley the same year, but the full mud and music experience? No. The festivals I mean are the holiday ones, Christmas, New Year, Twelfth Night, Thanksgiving. The latter one first, but far from traditionally when two of MrS’s American colleagues invited us to celebrate it with them in Curacao, instead of turkey we ate curry.

the beach in Curacao

Then in 2016 while we were in the throes of building works we sought out some Christmas sunshine in Lanzarote

Festive cactus in Arrecife

And last year we welcomed the arrival of the Kings in Tenerife

waiting for The Kings

This year we spent New Year or Saint Sylvestre in France.

Of course there were still signs of Christmas

and portents of L’Epiphanie

But the main event was New Year.

Restaurants offered festival menus

This is ours from Augusto Chez Laurent

Here are those puds

and yes they all contained lobster butter!

But it seemed lots of people would be enjoying seafood platters at home

hard at work at the fishmarket

Midnight and the arrival of 2019 was a low key affair. We headed to the Mairie

to watch the clock.

But missed the crowds you’d see in Scotland

It was a little livelier at the casino

where we could hear a party. But we just enjoyed the lights and headed back to our hotel.

Where we might* have had a kiss under the mistletoe**

of course we couldn’t fit under it here

Best wishes for 2019 and Happy New Year to anyone celebrating it tonight.

Marina xx

*and worse

**we did

***”gui” in French it appeared in the shops on New Year’s Eve

PS Almost back home I became “King” of the day when I found the bean in our pie

…walks with a little brown dog

I may have written this before but there are few things that can’t be brightened up by a little brown dog. Recently two much loved local dogs have died; I’ll miss seeing them about, though nowhere near as much as their people will and it’s made me specially glad to have B around.

Part of the joy of walking with a dog is the pleasure they seem to get from their surroundings. B meanders from side to side, on “zombie pawtrol” as it’s known by her Twitter pals. I think she mostly “sees” through her nose but mine is a little further from the sniffs so I decided to look in the more conventional way.

It was a grey, drizzly morning which may accentuate the smells, it can bring sparkle to things you might overlook.

raindrops on spiderwebs

and on whiskers of kittens (well caterpillars)

There was an advertising campaign last year or so with the strapline “Be more dog”. I can’t remember what the product was but it’s not a bad way to be.

from little burns mighty oak trees grow (hmm, maybe that’s not the saying)

and here’s one which grew earlier

Autumn leaves fall, all things pass; sometimes I’m happy, sometimes I’m not. Sometimes I fret. But sometimes I can find my inner dog.

And who could resist that smile?

Marina x

Catching Up

Yikes! It’s been two months since I posted here, and that was a repost of a blog I follow. It’s not that I haven’t been doing anything, I’ve had a couple of trips to Edinburgh, one to Glasgow, an overnight stay Clydeside and a visit to friends in Angus.

St Cyrus beach

I’ve had brunches and lunches*, and supper at MasterStarke’s.

Cat sat and dog walked.

Slept in hotel beds and on couches.

DogStarke, hotel inspector**

Enjoyed sun, snow and the bits in between.

Read two and two thirds of the Neapolitan Novels, one Anne Enright and an Inspector Montalbano. Watched back to back Gilmore Girls.

Chose Trainspotting2, enjoyed a musical, directed a play.

Packed boxes, unpacked boxes. Packed them back up again. Picked bathroom fittings.

Put daffs in a vase, looked up through the blossom.

Spent evenings surfing not blogging. Spent tonight blogging not working.

Well, you’ve got to start somewhere.

Marina x

* Brunch at Montpelier’s, Edinburgh, lunch The Honours, Edinburgh

** DogStarke inspecting duties at Novotel, Edinburgh Centre

getting back online

A few days away,

so many posts to catch up on,

and some of my own to write.

Autumn seems to be giving way to Winter.

Frost,

fog,

and lighting the fire.

All the while taking time to play

Back soon.

Marina x

Sunny Monday mornings

We have had the most gorgeous Autumn so far. I live in Argyll which is in the west of Scotland, it’s a beautiful area but often wet. Our prevailing wind is from the west so it scoops up moisture from the Atlantic Ocean and releases it as rain over us. Well, that’s what usually happens. This year we’ve been enjoying north winds, colder but dryer, giving us a fine show of Autumn colour from our trees.

It’s also meant really lovely walks, which is great because walking is my favourite sort of exercise.

Funnily enough it’s something which can be easier in the city. I could identify with Carrie Bradshaw* when she claimed “…shopping is my cardio”. A day trawling around the shops soon ramps up the step count. Although when I lived in the city I had to commute to work, by car, so walks were too often relegated to the weekend. (MrS had retired and was at home, so he could do the honours with Dogstarke). But on a non work day pretty much anything I needed was within walking distance.

It’s not the same here. Our shop is a walkable distance but a round trip is five miles so any urgent visit is made by car. Mind you, the pub is a lot closer….

Open space is a little different too. We have to respect that it’s not just there for our enjoyment. It’s a working landscape.

But on mornings like today there’s nothing quite like a walk along the hill.

It’s beautiful even when it rains, but for now I’m enjoying the sun.

Marina x

*from HBO “Sex and the City”

Walking beside Loch Lomond

Today it’s wet and windy so I’m hunkered down at home, wrapped up in warm woolies with DogS curled up on her bed nearby.

Yesterday was completely different, it was one those gorgeous, crisp Autumn days.

We travelled south for a family visit and on the way stopped off to stretch our legs. A friend had recommended parking at Firkin Point beside Loch Lomond.

The path goes along the route of the old A82, in places we could see the cats eyes and white lines, in others, more alarmingly, where the road had collapsed into the water. The road now runs parallel at a slightly higher level above the loch.

It was a lovely walk, traffic free so DogS could search out the sniffs at her own pace, and the path is good so it didn’t matter that we were wearing our city shoes.

DogS sampled the water too.

We’d had our refreshments earlier at our favourite stop off in Inveraray*

looking hopeful at her namesake cafe

So everyone was happy. Well almost! If you’re thinking of making a stop be warned, the lavatories are closed until March 2017; we couldn’t wait that long so made a quick visit to Luss, where thankfully the facilities were open**.

And then it was off into the city.

Until next time.

Marina x

*Brambles of Inveraray, great breakfasts, lunches and baking. Dog friendly.

** 30p charge, there is a change machine.