Well that’s the birthday meal over with and it went down well with all five of us. Especially the Kinloch Castle Tomato Soup the recipe for which reached me in a convoluted way – via Peggy Ann’s Post, somewhere in the US but I’m not sure where exactly, maybe the Appalachians. Anyway thanks for the recipe Peggy, I’ll be making that soup regularly I’m sure. Don’t you just love the internet! Peggy is the only person I’ve ‘met’ who reads George MacDonald’s books, there don’t seem to be many of us about nowadays.
I haven’t had much time for watching TV at all but I did manage to watch all of The Young Victoria a couple of nights ago and I did enjoy it apart from the bit where Albert jumps in front of a bullet aimed at Victoria. There were quite a few attempts on Victoria’s life over the years but why add details which are just untrue. Then I saw that it had been written by Julian Fellowes, that man just can’t stop himself from embroidering history. Between Fellowes and Philippa Gregory the kids of Britain will be convinced of historical ‘facts’ which are just historical nonsense.
As usual the Christmas TV seems to be pretty dire. The one thing I hope to be able to watch is The Borrowers which is on on Boxing Day because I don’t think I’ve ever seen it from beginning to end, I loved the books by Mary Norton even although I didn’t read them until I was an adult.
Is there anything good on TV which you are looking forward to watching?
So glad you liked the soup! I live in Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh. Appalachia is a cultural region that covers many states. Click on the link if you want to read a little about it. I’m so glad to hear you love George MacDonald also! Your the first blogger I’ve come across that likes him too. I have 20 of his books. 4 of which are unedited. They are my treasures and such a joy to read! The rest are edited for today’s language and most of the brogue is removed. I would love to roam around old bookstores in Scotland and find ‘old’ copies of him.
The Borrowers is a sweet movie! Perfect for Christmas day. I won’t be able to watch too much TV today but tonight my favorite football team (Green Bay Packers) is playing so we will be watching that.
Merry Christmas!
Peggy,
I had no idea that Appalachia was such a vast area, all very interesting but so sad that the Scots/Irish fled from poverty and just found more of the same. You are way ahead of me George MacDonald wise as I only have At the Back of the North Wind, The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie and a biography by David S. Robb. His books aren’t easy to find here for some reason.
I’ve just realised that it’s a new film of The Borrowers with Stephen Fry so I hope it’s as good as the old one.
Dare I say it. We watched Downton Abbey. You just knew Mr Bates’ conviction was going to be commuted to a life sentence, but I didn’t think they’d get Mary and Matthew together in the Christmas special. Looking forward to the Borrowers tomorrow night too, but hope it’s as good as the TV series was. They were fairly true to the beloved books!
Glad all went well with the soup et al, and you had a good time.
Thanks for visiting my blog. It’s lovely to read your comments. I think we should meet up one of these days.
What say you?
Oh, meant to say – Julian and Philippa weren’t the first! What about Wullie Shakespeare and Macbeth?
Evee
I watched Downton too and was surprised they didn’t drag out the Mary-Matthew situation more, I quite enjoyed it, mainly for Maggie Smith.
I can get to Edinburgh just about any time, weather permitting, by bus or train and it seems like a good place to meet up. So, whenever you can fit it into your busy schedule!
Yes – Shakespeare and Macbeth, writers have always been at it I suppose but it’s so annoying and I bet you some kids do their history exams using DVDs as ‘homework’. They certainly do English exams that way – never having read the book, which can be quite dangerous, especially when they change the ending!
Merry Christmas (tho it’s likely to be well into Boxing day given the time diff.)
Still finding my way with the prime rib. This year’s was a tad overdone, but far better than last year’s. That one was so underdone it looked like a crime scene. But my Yorkshire pudding is a near masterpiece if I do say so myself.
Had a lovely ‘FaceTime’ call with the Scotland branch of our family on our new iPad2. Gotta love technology!! It’s nice enough to talk to kin at the holidays, but to see their lovely faces at the same time…delightful!
Special TV watching for us will be the 2011 Christmas episode of Dr Who. We watched several of the old ones on a BBCA retrospective this weekend.
I think we got points for getting our (12 y/o)grandson-to-be a sonic screwdriver for Christmas. Who knew Americans would be so up on a UK icon? Who? Who! Who else?
Pearl,
Merry Christmas to you all in Hawaii. We had turkey and ham and for once everything was fine, the goose breast last year split as it was so overdone. There’s nothing worse than meat oozing blood, it puts you right off eating. Lots of Brownie points for the Yorkshire pudding (ours were frozen) and for the sonic screwdriver. It doesn’t seem so long since we were tracking down Dr Who figures and Daleks but it must be over 15 years ago. I think all the Skype and whatnot is a Godsend for people living far from their loved ones, it must make everything so much better.