Om nom.

Pretty much every day around 230-245, lunch begins to wear off, & your humble narrators start daydreaming about tea-time snacks.  Occasionally this sort of shenanigans results:

Treacle tart,

Treacle tart,

How I hold you close to my heart.

When I crave a cup of tea,

It’s treacle tart I want to see.

Pecan pie, pecan pie,

You’re the apple of my eye;

Your gooey filling & buttery crust

Are for me a source of lust;

With each bite, I dread the last,

Someone, bring me more! & fast!

Crunchie, O, my magic bar,

You are my lovely chocolate star!

With sticky crispy honeycomb,

Would it be wrong to take you home?

I’d treat you nice, & only nibble,

I’d be polite, I wouldn’t dribble!

O Crunchiekins, my magic bar,

Come live with me & be my star!

Although my heart belongs to Fi,

A fact I’ll ne’er repine,

Pecan pie holds my belly’s key,

To that she must resign.

Scotland wknd, part IV: Nessie & the Lake District

Greetings.

It feels like I've been typing up this trip forever, so excuse me if it feels like I've glossed over the final leg of our vacation.  Here goes.

Sunday morning came with Fortune's smile: Fi & I weren't feeling too 'delicate', as they say in these parts, so we decided to drive up to Urquhart Castle, a ruin on the shore of Loch Ness.  I'll admit I was apprehensive about this idea at first; a 4-hour round-trip seemed somewhat ambitious.  In retrospect, though, I'm so glad we went.  This early in spring, much of the winter snow on the mountains hadn't yet melted, so the drive up to Inverness through the Cairngorms turned out some of the wknd's most picturesque scenery.

Admittedly, I ripped off this pic from Wikipedia.  Cut me some slack--I was driving.

  This is more or less exactly how it looked out our car windows, though.

You'll be interested to know that it was on this jaunt I had my first legitimate experience behind the wheel of a British car, motoring down the left side of the road!  Technically, I tried a bit on the military road below Hadrian's wall, just enough to get my feet wet, but I drove the entire round-trip on Sunday.  It was very exciting--scary & very foreign-feeling at first, but I got used to it after awhile.  The only times I felt like I was about to screw up were when no other cars were on the road to remind me where I needed to be.  MBK +1.

Urquhart (pronounced Urk-at) Castle was very cool.  It's a medieval fortress of the first degree, strategically placed so well that pretty much every military mind in the area since 1300 has tried to occupy or destroy it.

Can you find Nessie??

Toward the end of the 17th century, the Williamites finally succeeded in wrecking Urquhart to unibhabitability, so posterity was left with the fortification in its above state, preserved, sort of, for our enjoyment.  Situated in the hills on a NW bank of Loch Ness, the castle headland offers a spectacular backdrop, so Fi & I snapped this:

Not bad for a 10-second timer & no tripod!

That afternoon we headed back down to Pitlochry & capped off the day with a curry.  As tends to result from a meal of that ilk, Sunday evening found us too fat to get up to much else beyond hotel TV & early bedtimes.  Monday morning consisted of packing up the room & bidding goodbye to our giant room & king-size bed.  We breakfasted one last time at Craigatin, loaded the car, & started making our way back to England.

In order to break up the drive home, Fi suggested we stop in the Lake District to see an ancient (3200 BC!) stone circle there:

Beware bongo-playing hippies.

Castlerigg Stone Circle proved a beautiful pit-stop.  Though the monument itself doesn't consist of much, some 20 or 30 massive boulders arranged in a circle, the surrounding area is extremely impressive.  Castlerigg sits atop a plateau surrounded by gorgeous, green valleys & vaulting peaks, one of which, Helvellyn, is the tallest in the Eastern Fells.  Great place.

I'm afraid there's not much to narrate beyond that point.  Following Castlerigg, daylight was burning fast, so we booked it home post-haste.  All told, it was an unforgettable trip, & I'm so glad we went.  Special thanks to my special lady for all her preparation & hard work along the way.  108x

That's all, folks!

Scotland wknd, part III: Pitlochry & Blair Castle

As I said before, we made it into Pitlochry Friday evening around 800, just in time to have dinner before the restaurants closed up.  Pitlochry is the city that sleeps.  The nearest eats were a place called the Auld Smiddy Inn.  Being that it was my first night in Scotland, I felt obliged to try some of the local fare: Haggis, neeps, & tatties, served up with a wee dram.  This was my first experience with the much-maligned haggis, & I'm here to tell you, it's totally delicious.  Now having acquainted myself with the various recipes, I'm prepared to take it on faith that many haggises are not, in fact, delicious, but I can unreservedly recommend the one I ate at the Auld Smiddy.

For those of you who don't know, haggis is a preparation of sheep's offal (liver, lungs, & heart), onions, oatmeal, spices, & salt, all lovingly packed into an animal stomach (or sometimes a casing) & simmered for a couple of hours.  Its reputation as a tasty dish is not what I would call favorable.  I suspect this is owing at least in part to its mish-mash texture & the whole offal-stomach thing.  Philosophically speaking, though, haggis not much different from sausage &, therefore, deserves your love.  Neeps, on the other hand, are repugnant.  Neep is short for turnip (tur-neep?), & I have yet to taste one that inspired me to want a second.  I'm not even convinced they're worthwhile as a filler.  Tatties means taters, i.e. potatoes (boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew!), & lastly, 'wee dram' is a euphemism for a shot of whiskey, & whiskey in Scotland ain't bad.

Saturday consisted entirely of FMMC wedding to-dos.  As I mentioned before, the ceremony took place at the historic Blair Castle, which was spectacular in pretty much every way.  Most of the photos I tried to take didn't come out on account of the light being less than optimal, but I did manage one or two:

Disney, eat your heart out.

The castle's interior was equally cool.  Its halls & corridors were bedecked in dark wood paneling & arms of all kinds.  The reception area had been outfitted like a 19th century hunter's lodge with wide timber beams lining the vaulted ceiling & rows upon rows of antlers & tunics hung on the walls:

Pass the mead.

The ceremony went off without a hitch, & everyone looked beautiful.  Here's a shot of the bride & groom during a rare moment away from the crowds.  At the moment they're honeymooning through Italy:

Congrats, FMMC!

Okay, time for dinner, so I'll leave off there.  The last part of our trip (Loch Ness!) I'll write up as soon as I get a chance.

 

Scotland wknd, part II: Northumberland

So.. where did I leave off?

Oh!  Turns out Fi had cleverly snapped a few iPhone photos of our Chapelburn breakfast.  How delicious does this look??

It's fine if you're jealous.

K, more Hadrian's Wall..  Fi & I drove from Chapelburn down the military road to a place called Once Brewed, where we stopped briefly at the Twice Brewed Inn for some refreshments.  Afterward, we headed up a turn off for Steel Rigg, navigating a narrow, winding road that terminates in a car park (Amer: parking lot).  From there, it's a short walk to the wall itself, which is paralleled by a small, but pronounced footpath.  Following the wall, we trekked up & down some fairly substantial hills, the tops of which allowed for some fantastic views of the countryside.  Roughly halfway down the trail to Sycamore Gap, we encountered this Milecastle:

 Castle Nick

The Milecastles served as micro-forts, spaced at intervals along the wall.  As you can see, much of this one's foundation remains, which made for an impressive view coming over the hill.  Continuing onward, we eventually happened upon Sycamore Gap, the famous location from Robin Hood, which these last 20 years have left more or less unchanged:

You're not playing by the rules, boy.

Fi & I had great fun shutterbugging here, but just up the way was another extremely picturesque spot, a rocky outcropping which dropped off abruptly at a tall, steep cliff.  At the foot of the precipice, hundreds of feet below, spans Crag Lough:

We really enjoyed this hike.  Though Sycamore Gap tends to get a lot of tourist traffic, we didn't see too many other people along the way.  As you can see from the pix, weather was ideal too.  I couldn't have asked for a better day!

Upon getting back at the car & cramming down a few PB&Js, we struck out again toward Scotland to finish the rest of our journey to Perthshire, finally arriving in Pitlochry around 8 or so that evening.  Fi had booked us a room in B&B there called Craigatin House, another delightful place, indicative, I'm sure, of all the hard work she put into researching our accommodation for this trip. 

It's getting late, so I'll write more about the wedding & Scotland in another post. 

Gute Nacht!

Scotland wknd, part I: Cumbria

Hello, hello!

I've now visited 2 countries in the U.K.!

Fi & I drove up to Scotland this past wknd for FMMC's wedding, & the trip went famously.  I tried to photodocument as much as possible, so here's the first of a few posts on what we did:


Thursday afternoon, we left work around lunchtime & picked up our rental car, a 2011 Vauxhall Corsa featuring a mammoth, 1.2 liter engine.  After packing up as quickly as possible & girding ourselves for the journey ahead, we struck out up the M6 for Cumbria, where we'd booked an overnight stay at Chapelburn B&B.

 Upon our arriving late Thursday evening, the landlord provided us with some local Geltsdale brews & a couple of seats by the fire, a welcome bit of hospitality. Friday Morning we awoke to frost on the ground as well as on our bedroom windows, which looked out on a picket fence & rolling green hills.

Matt, the B&B proprietor, welcomed us downstairs with an appetizer of coffee, homemade granola, & fresh-baked bread with local jam, marmalade, & natural honey.  After that came the main course of eggs over-easy, slab-cut back bacon, cumberland sausage (!), & sauteed mushrooms, a typical English breakfast refined by supremely good ingredients.  It was so delicious, in fact, that I didn't even think about snapping a picture 'til long after I'd gobbled up the last morsel.  Instead, here are some daffodils:

Post-bfast, Fi & I headed out for a short hike around the area, following a river through the forest, then winding back down through a sheep farm. 

The sheep are lambing at the moment, so we got to see lots of wobbly babies huddling around their moms.  In fact, there were sheep everywhere.  England is full of sheep.

Upon returning from that first ramble, we drove out in the car toward some prominent sections of Hadrian's Wall, a 2nd-century Roman fortification that spans the entire width of Britain.  Many people believe it was intended to the keep out the Picts, 'uncivilized', indigenous tribes who lived in the north.  Another opinion suggests that the fortification was simply a means of channeling north-south travelers through checkpoints in order to make records & collect tolls.  Regardless, much of the wall remains intact to some degree.  Some parts of it are barely noticeable, more like a big, grassy berm than a man-made structure, but others have survived the years remarkably well, with occasional sections still peaking 6-8 feet in height. 

Bedtime for now, but more to come in a subsequent post!

Let the Sausaging begin!

Greetings from Oxford, everyone, & welcome to our blog!  Don't you like the name?  There's actually a variety of sausage here called the Oxford.  I attempted to purchase one a few weeks back, but was stymied by a supply shortage at M. Feller Son & Daughter in the Covered Market.  I couldn't very well leave empty-handed, so I accepted a couple of Cumberland Sausages as a consolation prize, which fried up nicely with some onions, bell peppers, & a bottle of Old Peculier. 

Tubular, meaty goodness

Unlike the Cumberland Sausage, the original Oxford Sausage did not come in casing.  The ground meat, breadcrumbs, & herbs were molded into a link by hand, then carefully fried to keep the shape intact.  In my research & shopping around, I've seen a number of cased versions for sale, but most recipes out there instruct the traditional technique.  Perhaps I should try whipping up some for myself?

Meanwhile, FLM has introduced me to a delicious vegetarian link from Cauldron.  My experiences with veggie 'meats' before now were not overwhelmingly positive, so I approached Cauldron's Linconshire sausages with a measure of reserve.  It was all for nought.  The Lincolnshire sausages are delectable.  Whether they're available in America or not, I don't know, but for any of you looking to reduce your pork intake (perish the thought!), keep an eye out.  These are best consumed with a slop of Colman's Mustard, which is England's take on wasabi paste.

the British Uncle Sam, who's called Hooray Henry

Have you noticed that each of the aforementioned sausages is named after an English place?  I wonder if every region of this country boasts its own banger?  More on that at a later date.  

Fi & I are headed to Scotland this wknd for Fiona and Matt's (henceforth to be referred to as FMMC) wedding at Blair Castle.  We've rented a miniature European car, which we'll pick up this afternoon and drive to Carlisle, where we're lodging tonight.  Just outside Carlisle stands Hadrian's Wall, a Roman rampart that spans the width of the island, formerly a dividing line between England & Scotland.  You'll recognize this part from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves: 

Is there no sun in this cursed country?!

After we've had a stomp around the wall tomorrow morning, Fi & I'll finish the drive up to Pitlochry, where we're booked for the remainder of the wknd.  Cumulatively, the journey shouldn't amount to more than 8-9 hours, easily manageable in one stretch, but I'm pretty excited about pit-stopping for a hike.

Happy St. Patty's Day!