Best Butcher in the Borders

I hesitated to write this one as there are several good butchers. But over 4 years trying them all the list of top five goes to J C Douglas of St Boswells, Learmonts of Jedburgh, Purvis in Duns, Bairds in Melrose and our own butcher Donaldson in Earlston. A honorable mention to Shaws of Lauder who are a bit out of my area, but are a good butcher indeed. Both Kelso are a bit pricey for me, although the one by the bridge is better.

Of these I have to say J C Douglas in St Boswells is the king. They are not the friendliest or the least expensive (that honour goes to Earlston) but their sausages, and the quality of the cuts of meats, and choices of top meat is better than anyone else. Now there pies suck frankly and Learmont in Jedburgh has everyone beat with pies.

LINK TO J C Douglas

Cobbles Inn - Continues to offer fine food

Took the family to Cobbles Inn in Kelso last week for Sunday lunch and was very pleased with the meal indeed. Oh yes there were one or two things that caught our critical eye, the broccoli and cauliflower cheese was overcooked, they served an odd purple cabbage cooked in some Indian spice that didn't work at all. But these minor problems were lost in the finest pork loin I have had for years, the nicest cooked sea bass my wife has had, and our boys superb fresh haddock cooked perfectly with huge hand cut chips. Service was excellent and the atmosphere very nice with the light wood and clean lines. Well done Cobbles!!

Burt Hotel Melrose - A Disappointment

I have popped into Burts for a coffee now and again on a cold winters day and maybe I had over rated them in my mind and over praised them at home based on that experience. But I had been impressed by this old quality hotel in the heart of my favorite Borders town. I took my family their for lunch today and I am sorry to say they went down a few notches indeed!

All started off well. We arrived and had a bottle of Beaujolais and although I thought that the Brushcetta was really just an ordinary garlic bread, the olives were nice and I was in a good mood.  That was until after 45 minutes we were still there waiting for our meal while EVERY other table in the place, some of whom came in 25 minutes after us were served. Something was clearly wrong as waitresses walked past us with averted eyes, but no one spoke.

Just as I got up to leave extremely angry by now, the food arrived and as I am being critical it needs talking through. My meal was the house roast sirloin with trimmings. The menu urged one to be aware it would be medium rare....it was overdone. The gravy came from I know not where but certainly not from the meat, it tasted like burnt syrup and was awful. The potatoes and vegetables (beans and broccoli)  were perfectly cooked but unfortunately covered in dark brown syrup. The meat was not tender, whether this is Baird the butchers fault or the hotel I do not know.

My wife chose duck which came overdone and dry and the sauce was not up to anyone's standards. One son had roast chicken and said it was lovely, but I guess by then he was actually scared I would stand up and make a fuss. The other son chose pork and noodles. Well what a strange meal he got, the pork was tender and tasty but the boodles were overcooked and stuck together and looked frankly disgusting. Strange but I saw someone else with noodles and they were much nicer looking.

So what happened? was it as my wife suspects that Burts prefer locals? The locals next to us clearly felt sorry for us and got their meal in less than 10 minutes....or was it some kitchen catastrophe which they were too embarrassed to admit? I will never know as I certainly will not be going there again and spending 96 pounds of good money on a poor lunch. I mentioned my disappointment to the lady at the bar when I paid and her response was "oh that's too bad".  Oh and by the way they let the fire go out on a chilly day!

Scottish Pepper Sauce

My wife is from Trinidad, and we lived there for many years. She has an old family recipe for hot pepper sauce and we have decided to go beyond family and bottle it for sale at farmers markets etc. The link between Scotland and the Caribbean is strong. Many braw Scottish lads went to serve in the military and manage plantations. In fact it was a military hat (see below) the Tam O'Shanter that inspired the name of the worlds most famous hot pepper the "Scotch Bonnet".

Seen from the side. the large floppy hat with a pompom on top looks just like a scotch bonnet pepper, or at least enough like it to make locals give it the name. Our web site for this new venture is here LINK TO WEB

A Visit to Jersey and secret cows

Took our family to Jersey for a week and thoroughly enjoyed this tiny gem of an island perched off the coast of France. We flew from Glasgow airport of Esyjet and I have to say the whole expoerience was very good from parking to flying. We stayed in the Radisson Blue hotel whoch was all we expected, a good hotel with a super health spa and locate right on the ocean but a walk into St Helier. We loved the island, tiny winding lanes and the smell of flowers everywhere even in October. But we failed to find any of these famous Jersey cows, in fact we looked assiduously and still failed. We began in the family to call them secret cows, maybe the Jersey people hide them from visitors? Anyway here is one.

A World of Walkers

I think many oif us wish we could walk a lot more than we do. What holds us back is our bodies ability and our inability to devote the training time to overcome that inability. In South America Incas and Aztecs would run and walk 50 miles a day for a week to deliver news without thought. The human body can do it evidence the growth of Marathons. But for most of us its a dream. Now along comes robolegs the lates of a series of  bionic develoipments that I think will change humanity. Sophie Morgan shown below has been in a wheelchair for years since a car accident damaged her spine. She can now walk. The legs as show cost about $90,000. Within 5 years that could be $1500 and you could choose between Nike legs and Converse legs.

Once this happens I think dramatic changes are possible, why cars in towns and cities? See the hills and valleys of the world  (incuding mountains and hills) covered in middle aged and elderly people who can now walk 20-30 miles a day without any problem as their robo assist legs do most of the work, translating feeble twitches to giant leaps. My dream has been to walk the Pennine way, its 300+ miles and at 66 I can't do it now, but I could with robolegs. Rock on I say and I'll be buying the Nike thank you.!

Finally an App that I found useful - Marathon

Everyone seems to get so excited that Apple has x thousand apps while google has y thousand. But to be frank I've looked at them and mostly they are all junk. My son likes the one that shoots a gun for example and makes realistic sounds. Not for me.

But this week I found an app called Marathon that really helps. It uses GPS to track your walks and the results are spectacular. Not only does it track miles or kilometers walked but it also tracks the walk in terms of speed at each point and height climbed, which is very interesting and adds to the experience of the walk. You can save walks and compare say the same walk done today with when you did it last week and see if you improved. Now this is all with the free part. if you invest a modest amount you can get actual maps of your walks and send them top your web site or friends.

This is a useful app. The first I've found. WEBSITE OF MARATHON