Fingask Castle

took the family away for the October break at this lovely spot between Dundee and Perth near Rait. The castle belongs to the Thriepwood family and they have converted the stables into a few nice cottages to rent. The cottages are lovely and fully equipped. The one we stayed in was two bedrooms lovely bathroom upstairs and downstairs and open plan kitchen dining and lounge with big log burner. The lounge done out in red plaid and very cosy. I have two boys 12 and 15 and they appreciated the games room with table tennis, football and a good snooker table. The grounds are lovely with winding walks down the glen with hidden caves, springs dating back to pilgrim times and old wooden bridges lost in the reads. Very weel priced at 195 pounds for the cottage Monday to Friday.
This is a link to the castle website

Our High Streets

I went to Musselburgh yesterday and took a good walk up and down the high street of this lovely small town, set on the ocean near Edinburgh. But I have to despair about the deterioration of the high street. I would think at least 40% of the shops are charity, the full range from Oxfam to SPCA. This is followed closely by discount stores such as Poundland, a few banks and finally a scattering of what I would call real stores, a local butcher a fishmonger a good local bakery. Being a wealthy sort of seaside town there was also a fair number of coffee shops and restaurants. Musselburgh is fanmous for its racing, having a track that is internationally known for the quality of the horses and the delightful venue right on the ocean.

The Loyal Mouse

Robert Burns reportedely saw a field mouse nest destroyed by plowing and wrote the famous ode to a mouse which starts:
Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie,
O, what panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murd'ring pattle!

Until today I was sure he was correct. But the plowing is going on all around us of course as the season closes.This has driven field mice to try to enter the house for the winter. We set some traps and this morning my wife went into the utility room to wash clothes and saw a strange sight. A mouse had been caught by its paw in one of the traps, and another mouse spent the whole night gnawing the trap to free his friend or mate. The free mouse was so loyal and so brave that even when I moved the chair the trap was behind he refused to flee, looking me in the eye as if to say "do your worst, I will not abandon my friend!". My heart was touched so I contrived to catch them both in a plasic box and put them gently outside to run free again.
of course they will be back inside as soon as wink, but I couldna kill the poor wee things as Robbie may have said.

Mont Blanc - Don't Buy

The fraying caused strings of material to hang off the wallet, I cut most off but they can still be seen

When I retired my company gave me a Mont Blanc wallet. I was very proud of it. But over the less than 4 years I have owned it, the material on the cover a sort of curduroy has frayed alarmingly. The wallet can no longer be used as the material deteriorated into strings hanging off the wallet and looking unsightly. I wrote to Mont Blanc and explained and they asked me to send the wallet which I did.
I got a letter from Mont Blanc today which basically says " we are not able to help at all, but we will sell you another one for 92 pounds"
My advice to anyone thinking of buying a Mont Blanc pen or any other equipment is ...DON'T. This is the worse customer service I have encountered ever, there was not even an apology or an admission that the material was faulty.
I went out and bought a lovely Wenger wallet which is so obviously of better quality than the mont blanc, and half the cost, that I wonder why anyone ever buys their stuff.

2011 and our garden

It has been an odd year, starting out with much promise in those sunny early days of April and May through a rough cold and wet summer. Our runner beans which we had in abundance last year have only just started to crop, potatoes were good and broad beans spectacular. Peas were all eaten by rabbits which I refuse to shoot but they ate every one. We had good strawberries but awful bluberry and soft fruits such as raspberry. I tried brocollini but those shot off to flower, cabbages have not headed much and carrots are only just getting above 3 inches. We had very good onions and garlic, I have bunches hanging in the greenhosue, I succeeded with cucumbers this year and have a lot of tomotoes in the greenhouse but they are not ripening through lack of sun. Tomatoes in the garden were a disaster. I tried pak choy but it was eaten by slugs. Peppers were poor.

Beijing Beijing - Part 3

Today I received a nice letter from the restaurant who apparently give all customers a card and accrue their purchases to provide rewards paid in food....a great idea, you enjoy your food and you get more free if you return. I think this plus the overall quality of the food served must put Beijing Beijing in first place in the Borders for Chjinese food and in fact make them a contender for Edinburgh. Compared to any other Chinese restaurant within 20 miles they are outstanding.

Beijing Beijing part 2

link to restaurant

We tried Beijing again today as we really would like to find a good Chinese we can a) recommend and b) use regularly in the area. We can recommend Beijing and have listed it in our favourites on side bar.

We had fried rice, noodles, salt and pepper king prawns, BBQ pork, Chicken chop suey.

I can confirm that they can't cook fried rice, again its not bad but its not right.
The noodles were fine.
The salt and pepper prawns done schezuan style were tasty and moist. Not enough heat for us but we added their own chilli sauce which we bought last time.
Chicken chop suey was actually very tasty and the chicken moist and a good gravy.
The BBQ pork confirmed my fear that they don't really cook char sui. Now my idea of char sui is that you cut the pork in such a way that it hangs like a flower with pieces held together by a thin piece a bit like the picture.

it is then seasoned and roasted hung over coals.... when taken down and cut one gets very small pieces....whereas the Beijing one is like a piece of roast meat, so the char sui flavour does not penetrate.

However I am nit picking. Overall the food was tasty and we ate it all up. Although even my small son said , this is not egg fried rice, so its not just me. We will be back to sample their duck with pancakes! They are the best we have found so far.