Category Archives: Family

A Blast from the Past – A Scottish Soldier

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Scottish soldier

It’s a while since I did a Blast from the Past and this one isn’t as old as they usually are, the photo above dates from 1965 I think, and it’s of my eldest brother. My mother took the photo, as you can see she didn’t manage to get his feet in it!

John was about 18 years old in this photo and he’s in full Highland dress. In fact he was on his way to being part of the guard for the Queen’s visit to Dumbarton, where she was officially opening the town’s new County Buildings. There is a photo somewhere of the Queen inspecting the guards and it was taken just as she was walking towards my brother, so she is right next to him. It was taken by the local newspaper’s photographer and my mother had it framed and it sat on top of her display cabinet for years, but it has gone AWOL at the moment.

I was only about 6 years old at the time but I can remember the excitement quite clearly. My brother was in the Territorial Army which is the equivalent of the US National Guard I think, and they had all been given this very splendid dress uniform to wear for the occasion. However they were warned not to put anything in any of their pockets or even in the sporran. I suppose those in command didn’t want any unsightly lumps appearing in the pockets.

The upshot of that was that when my brother got back home after the ceremony he was locked out as everybody was either at work or at school. He used his initiative and went around to the back of the house where he managed to push the top sash of the kitchen window down and climbed in that way.

Unfortunately someone in one of the houses which you can see behind him saw him climbing in and phoned the police to report a burglary! Honestly how daft can you get – as if anyone would break into a house in a full Highland kit.

Anyway the cops duly appeared and my brother had a hard time convincing them that he was a legitimate member of the household. When the rest of the family heard about it we thought it was hilarious.

One other thing which sticks in my mind was that according to my brother they were ordered not to wear any underpants under their kilt -and they were inspected before being allowed to go on parade. Did they have to lift their kilts up I wondered!! No, apparently someone had to go along the lines with a gadget like a car wing mirror on a stick and poked it under the kilts, just to check that they had all obeyed orders and were properly dressed kilted Scotsmen. He swears that it is true but I’ve never been too sure about believing it!

McNulty the cat

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McNulty + cushion

I’m not in any hurry to become a granny, as some women often are, which is just as well because McNulty the cat which belongs to my youngest son and his partner is as close as we get to having a grandchild!

I’m not really a cat person myself and McNulty isn’t really a people person, he won’t sit on your lap, you have to feel honoured if he sits beside you on a sofa.

Anyway, when the large cat cushion appeared on his sofa McNulty had a staring contest with it, that’s one he was never going to win, but at some point McN decided that that cat was no threat to him and he’s now quite happy to sit beside the cushion.

We have no idea what McN had been up to while we went out to visit a garden centre, but he came back with very muddy paws and was absolutely shattered. He didn’t even get up to see us out as he normally does, in a very gentlemanly way. Mind you I think he is just making sure that we do indeed leave the premises and he doesn’t have to put up with those interlopers any more!

Christmas 2014

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Well the build up to Christmas seems to go on forever, in the UK anyway, and then it’s all over in a flash. I hope you all had an enjoyable time even if you were being a bit ‘bah humbugish’ and preferring to ‘coorie doon’ until it was all over with.

Here in ‘pining’ land it is of course Jack’s birthday on Christmas Eve, something which in a better regulated land would not be possible as it’s just all too much! Luckily Jack decided that he was going to do his special birthday meal himself this year, so I don’t feel quite as exhausted as I usually do about now. I did bake him a cake though, just a plain chocolate marble cake. No candles at all as he says he has given up counting and they would be a hazard to health and safety anyway – apart from that I can’t find the candles and holders – they’ve gone AWOL since the house move. I suppose I should have replenished my supply.

J's cake

It was a very nice cake although it didn’t look great.

New House

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Here are just a few photos which Jack took of the inside of our new house just before all our ‘stuff’ was unloaded into it, making it into a complete mess.

This is the sun room, which is the room which sold the place to us really. It’s better than a conservatory as it has a proper roof so is well insulated and it is original to the house, hasn’t been added on to it, and crucially also has central heating in it, which is more than can be said for all the conservatories which we looked at. The sun room is off the dining room. I suppose it’s a strange name for it but with all those windows it’s nice and light in there, even on a grey Scottish day.

The photo below was taken from just inside the front door, it’s the hall and stairs, and you can just see a bit of the dining room. It’s all very different from the old place, smaller rooms and very modern, but it was time for a change and hopefully a more comfortable way of life.

And the photo below is obviously of the kitchen.

I wish it looked like that now!

Planet Joan and family stuff

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I’ve been busy with family and house stuff and so I’ve had a wee bit of a blogging break, but I’ve just found time to hop over to a great new blog on the block, Joan has been a keen follower of many blogs and at last she has decided to start one of her own, Planet Joan – I love that name. I’m sure that Planet Joan will be a favourite place for lots of people to visit, do yourself a favour and have a keek!

On Sunday we had the opposite of a house warming party, a house cooling one. Well it wasn’t really a party, it was just the family here for their Sunday dinner, but it was the last time that we’ll all sit around the table in this house as we’ll be moving elsewhere in early April after 26 years of living in Kirkcaldy. It’s the end of an era and quite sad in some ways as the house is full of memories, Gordon was just 6 months old and Duncan was two years old when we moved here, but we have lots of photos to look back on. Remember the days when you used to actually get photos developed!

On Monday we had to hang around the house waiting for two removal companies to come and give us estimates for moving us all of about 5 miles, yes I’m still going to be Pining for the West as we have ended up buying another house in Fife (the east). After looking at houses from Pitlochry to the Borders and finding nothing close to suitable we had to start looking in Fife. There’s hardly anything on the market at the moment, unless you want to live by a huge river, fierce looking burn, the North Sea, a flood plain or you don’t mind having no garden at all, just concrete or mono block. Anyway, I think we’ll like the new place but you never know until you move in. We’ll just have to like it because I couldn’t face another move, I’m sure.

Both removal companies rang up after they should have been here and re-scheduled the time as they were running late! Anyway the upshot is that as I feared – we have so much ‘stuff’ that we will need one very large lorry and another one not so big. We have got rid of a lot of things but obviously not enough. I’m now worried about the weight of all our old and very solid furniture damaging our new house. But really, I wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t worrying about something!

Chocolate and Almond Cake

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cake 1

This is the most recent birthday cake which I baked for our October Birthday Boy. It’s a chocolate and almond cake, the topping is just melted plain chocolate mixed with white chocolate. I hoped the effect would be sort of marbled but it didn’t quite work out like that, never mind, it tasted good.

sliced cake

Above is a very messy looking photo of the cake sliced, it has a chocolate buttercream filling. The cake is supposed to look like this, light in colour with the flecks of melted grated chocolate in it.

This is Gordon, the birthday boy just after blowing out his one candle, his beard is a new feature.

cake + Birthday boy

I can hardly believe it but there are a few people in my family who aren’t big cake fans, given the choice they would opt for something savoury instead, but this cake went down well with them because it isn’t too sweet. It’s a Delia Smith recipe.

Moist Chocolate and Almond Cake

Preheat your oven to gas mark 7 (425F) (220C) before turning it down to gas mark 3 when you put the cake in the oven.

4 oz (110g) butter
4oz (110g) unsweetened (or plain) chocolate, grated
6 oz (175g) caster/superfine sugar
6 tablespoons milk
4 size 1 egg yolks
4 size 1 egg whites
4 oz (110g) ground almonds
6 oz (175g) self-raising flour

Method:

Grease and line an 8 inch cake tin.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat the egg yolks together and add a bit at a time to the butter and sugar mixture, beating well after each addition. Next lightly fold in the ground almonds, grated chocolate and milk, using a large metal spoon.

Now whisk the egg whites together in a large bowl until they reach the soft peak stage. Carefully fold them into the rest of the mixture. Lastly add the flour, again folding it in carefully.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin, level it off and place it into the centre of the oven at gas mark 3 (325 F) (170 C) and bake for about 1 hour or until the centre of the cake is springy when lightly touched.

Allow the cake to stand in the tin for 5 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool.

Decorate to your own taste. I split the cake in half and filled it with chocolate buttercream, covered the sides with buttercream too, then covered the top with melted chocolate.

New Arrivals

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A couple of months ago I mentioned that we were expecting an addition to our extended family, and not long after Victor arrived safely I got a card with the news that I have a new great-niece in the Netherlands. That one was a complete surprise to me, and strangely enough it’s another V, for Valerie this time. Honestly, after never having any Vs in the family before I’m half expecting a third one to turn up now. Anyway, after years and years of never visiting the kids department of any stores, I found myself back in them and having the problem of what to choose.

The trouble is that there are so many gorgeous dinky wee things around for babies and youngsters but as often happens it was Marks and Spencer which came up trumps. If you have a look at their new collection you’ll see what I mean. I’m especially partial to dungarees for boys, I just can’t resist them. Anyway, I eventually made my choices (too much) and even got the cards and wrapping paper. Job done.

As I had two boys myself I missed out on buying girls clothes and you might not believe it but the only time I’ve ever felt the need of a daughter was years ago when I saw a particularly pretty dress in – yes, it was Marks and Spencer again.

I must admit that I was one of those soppy mums who held on to things as reminders of my wee ones, not so much memory boxes as memory suitcases, just small ones mind you. It’s normal to keep their first shoes and their fancy shawls but I also couldn’t part with so many other things and as I’ve actively been trying to get rid of ‘stuff’ recently (we’re empty nesters and are hoping to downsize soon) I had a look at my stash of memories. I still have favourite babygros, dungarees, sun hats, winter pom-pom hats and teeny wee mits and of course definitely not forgetting their first matinee jackets and the most gorgeous multiple tartan patchwork shirt which belonged to my youngest when he was three years old. They still smell of baby, in a good way. Oh and I had forgotten that I had kept their first snowsuits. So sweet, especially when I think that my two are great big hulking men now.

I wonder if any of my recent purchases will end up in memory stashes, they’re certainly cute enough.

Soup, Words and Doughballs

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We have a family birthday on Christmas Eve and I always cook a meal at home rather than going out to a restaurant because they’re always busy with works’ nights out at the moment, so I spend a lot of time in the kitchen around now. There really ought to be a law against people giving birth around Christmas time!

So I’ve been thinking about what to have for the birthday meal and as we’re all keen soup people I’ve decided to give Kinloch Castle Tomato Soup a go after seeing the recipe over at Peggy Ann’s Post. Have a look at her recipes here. It sounds tasty and should look nice and festive.

If you look at the Newfoundland Soup recipe above that one you’ll see a recipe for soup which I’m fairly certain originated from a Scottish soup because that’s the sort of soup that I make all the time – winter and summer. (What summer?! I hear you say.)

Mind you I don’t often put dough balls/dumplings in my soup, I tend to keep those for winter warmer stews. But you’ll see that the dough balls in Newfoundland have the name ‘dough boys’. That’s quaint and interesting I thought, and then a couple of days later I found myself having a bit of a smile to myself because it had come into my head that it’s one of those wonderful transatlantic mistranslations that happen over the years.

Obviously it was originally dough buoys! I think that in America those floating markers in the sea are pronounced boo-ies or something like that. But in English – bouy is pronounced boy and obviously dough balls/dumplings do behave like buoys in the sea as they bob about and float on the surface of the stew or soup. I think it was Winston Churchill who said: Two nations divided by a common language. Well I was always told that he said it anyway. Whatever, I’ll be thinking of them as dough boys now!

My husband tells me doughboys was a nickname given to US soldiers in World War 1. (He’s interested in that sort of thing.) Apparently it dates from an even earlier US war. Who knows what the origin was? But I like to think of them as markers in a sea of stew or soup.

If you watch the film of Annie Proulx’s novel The Shipping Forecast you can see that there still is Scottish influence in Newfoundland where they are keen consumers of Tunnock’s Tea Cakes and Snowballs. It shows up in the book too, lots of Scots seem to have gone there at some point and stayed, probably coming from Scotland helps you withstand the terrible weather they have there.

Anyway, if you haven’t already visited Peggy Ann’s Post why not hop over now! Her most recent recipe is for pizzelles, which I’ve never even heard of!

Another Birthday!!

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To be precise, it’s now 16 minutes past my 52nd birthday as it was on Sunday. I’ve been so busy I couldn’t get around to blogging until now. We celebrated by going out for a meal last week, a joint celebration because Laura and I have our birthdays so close together.

Today we started off by going for a walk around a local park and then the family turned up and as it was Sunday I spent about half of the day in the kitchen, not that I’m complaining because I love having everyone back home again and sitting around the table. So it was just a traditional family Sunday roast dinner, however, I’m now shattered and I’m going to be having a lazy day tomorrow with my feet up and my nose in a book.

I just can’t believe that another year has gone past so quickly, it doesn’t seem possible!

Just Some Ice-Cream

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We all went out for a meal on Friday night to celebrate Laura’s birthday, well it was really a joint celebration as my birthday comes a wee bit later on in the month. We all enjoyed the meal that we had when we visited the Dil’se in Dundee for our last family celebration so we took ourselves off there again. It’s an Indian/Bangladeshi restaurant and it’s always busy, which is a good sign.

I have to admit that I’m a bit of a curry coward so I usually have a korma but this time I thought I’d plump for something different and I had a chicken chasni, which was daring for me, but I enjoyed it. Unfortunately we were all so busy getting stuck into the feast that I forgot to take any photographs.

We were all feeling fairly stuffed but determined to find space for some pudding. Ice cream doesn’t take up much room I thought. Everybody else had fresh mango or kulfi but I fancied some pineapple and this is what I got!

Pineapple boat

It was larger than all of the other puddings put together, which was a bit embarrassing. But I tackled it – womanfully – and despite the fact that there must have been a whole banana in it as well as half of a pineapple and mango, lots of ice cream, cream and chocolate, I did just about manage it all! I had to leave three wee bits of fruit, just to be polite. I am now quite a bit heavier than I was last week!