Jam making

My friend Pete invited me brambling or blackberrying with him today. We went down by the river and picked a load of blackberries. I got stung and cut and had to disturb a few spiders but I came back with around 300g of fruit! 

I decided to make apple and blackberry jam. Below you can see the blackberries being heated in a pan. 

Here's a picture of the actual jam bubbling away. I think I'm getting the hang of jam making, after making marmalade and chilli jam this year. 

I ended up with 4 jars with free blackberries and £1 worth of cooking apples and £1.50 for sugar. What a bargain! 

Catch up

Well I got to Ipswich fine and we had a great event. Since then I've been busy at work and at home. Last weekend I helped my parents look after my nieces. There's a photo below of the cakes my nieces baked with me and decorated.

I'm not feeling too well this weekend but managed to sort through a load of my clothes. I've lost a stone in the last few months so decided to sort through what fits me now and what is too big. I'm glad I sorted through my clothes, but it took a long while!

More travelling

I've travelled over 5000 miles (like the Proclaimers) since Easter for work. Working on a transport campaign you'd expect that really. Today I'm off to what will probably be my last bus event of the summer. I'm imposing a travel ban on myself for the next few weeks!

I've been to Taunton and Weymouth in the South West and Leeds in the north Norwich in the east and lots of places in between. I've not managed to get to the North East yet but hope to before the end of the year.

So today I'm off to Ipswich somewhere I've never visited before so I'm looking forward to it. I'll put some photos of today's exploits on here later. It's a gorgeous day, it always is when I have an event organised!

Butterfly

I really am going to try to blog more. It's dawned on me that I can use my commuting time each day to blog. If I don't feel like blogging about anything I've done that day then I'll pick a photo I've taken and blog about that.

I took this photo of a butterfly on bank holiday Monday in our garden. I had to stop Kasumi cat from pouncing on it. So the photo was taken whilst restraining one feisty little cat. For that reason alone I'm very proud of it.

I love butterflies and have a tattoo of a blue butterfly on my arm. I am also terrified of butterflies and moths if they fly near me. It's an irrational fear. But it's partly because of this fear that I like to watch them and photograph them. I am a lot better now at not freaking out if a butterfly flies on to me. Moths frighten me most because they fly at you in the dark and I'm less likely to see them.

I'm nothing if not contrary about most things!

I think this butterfly is a small tortoiseshell. At first I thought it was a painted lady but it has too much orange on it. I spotted it first through the living room window. I took a photo from indoors so I could then zoom in and see if it really was a butterfly and not a trick of my eyes. Digital cameras have made my life a lot easier when it comes to seeing stuff. Once I established it was a butterfly I sneaked up on it in the garden. It was on my verbena plant which has done brilliantly since I potted it in a big patio pot.

I was especially pleased to get a butterfly that wasn't white! The cabbage whites are the easiest for me to spot but not the most colourful! I know I must miss hundreds of butterflies when I'm out with my camera so it means a lot when one lands in my garden and I actually see it!

I love the fact that by taking photos of butterflies like this I can then zoom in and see their markings clearly their antenna, furry bodies, eyes and even their proboscis, things I'd never be able to see otherwise!

You can see the original of this and other photos on my Flickr page: http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/happysalmon/

Doon Hill and the fairies

On Thursday we took a walk up Doon Hill which is a modest hill just outside Aberfoyle. It has a spooky history associated with it and a reputation of being a place frequented by the fairies. The story goes that Robert Kirk a 17th Century minster in Aberfoyle wrote a book collecting together folk tales about the fairies. He was said to be a 7th son with the gift of second sight himself. One night he climbed Doon Hill (pictured below) to commune with the little people. 

That night he dropped dead on the hill. A few days later as the village gathered for his funeral his spirit appeared to them at the grave yard. His ghost explained that he wasn't really dead but his book about the fairy folk had angered the fairies so much they had spirited away his soul to the fairy kingdom and left behind his body. 

They say that his soul is still trapped in the gateway to the fairy realm in the large tree on the top of Doon Hill pictured below. 

Since Kirk's day the site has been associated with a more positive side to the fairy folk and has become a fairy well or clootie well where people hang rags and ribbons with wishes written on them to be granted by the fairy folk. As you can see in the picture above many of the trees are festooned. Someone has placed bells and chimes in the branches which jingle in the breeze. 

It was a very peaceful spot indeed. But my favourite picture of the day is the one below. 

We came across this happy pig on our way up to the hill, not far from the Rev Kirk's now ruined church. The seen of the pig munching happily under the blossomed tree seemed utterly timeless to me. 

Scotland again

Having not written on my blog for months, it strikes me that I only write it when in Scotland at the moment! Any way here are some random thoughts about the journey to Scotland and holiday so far.

We had a fantastic journey up to the Trossachs as the sun was shining and the traffic light. I was thinking about American road trips as we drove through the more rugged countryside. Most of England is too soft and leafy to be epic in a road trip kind of way. Plus our motorway service stations are rather sad and dreary unlike the Hollywood versions of American road side diners that are strangely sleazy but mysterious. But the A66 has a rugged scenery that was set to Jason's Dire Straits section of our play list. Although Jase wasn't impressed by the small portion of Cumbria we drove through declaring it a desolate hole! I have to say the bare fells did resemble the wastes of Mordor!

The farm cottage we are staying in is gorgeous with a beautiful semi woodland garden full of ferns and sleepy flowers. The house is white with a grey slate roof populated by tiny chirping birds. Inside there are stone floors, a big kitchen, wood burning stoves and heavy curtained windows with cushion strewn window seats. Our bedroom has a 4 poster and chaise long.

Aberfoyle is nestled against forested hills and the winding river forth. There are pubs, 2 butchers, a woollen centre and tourist shops.

Just down the road from our cottage is the Rob Roy hotel, which resembles the Cross Roads Motel. I mention it because there are many reviews of it on Trip Advisor, some bad some good. One particular review describes it as being the kind of place Jack Reacher would stay at! This over imaginative review really made me laugh but I now keep thinking the place is full of spies and private investigators. To be honest it looks more like the kind of place frequents by Norman Bates (a bit harsh) or Benny from Cross Roads.

Edinburgh 2013

Edinburgh 2013, a set on Flickr.

I had a great time in Edinburgh this week even though I was by myself. I can definitely recommend the botanic gardens and I was very lucky that it was very sunny on the morning I went there.

The Viking exhibition was good and the whole of the National Museum of Scotland is excellent.

I ate a lot of great food including at the Broughton Deli.

I ended up coming home with a bag full of meat which we used some of this morning for breakfast!

Journey to Edinburgh

Today I've had one of the weirdest train journeys ever. I was travelling to Edinburgh from Peterborough Getting on the train was a bit of a palaver as the tea trolley was in the way! So a few of us had to wait in the vestibule area whilst the trolley trundled along the carriage towards us As we waited a young lad, about 18 or 19 I'd say, asked me what the next stop was. "York" I said. He looked crestfallen. " I needed to get off at Peterborough" he said.
"Oh dear it's about an hour and a bit journey to York" I explained.
He went off hunting for a train crew member. Later he sat next to me and kept glancing at his watch until 125 miles and an hour 20 minutes later when we arrived at York & he hurriedly got off.

Not long after leaving York I got up to go to the loo. Two young lads (I'd guess 14 or 15) asked me where the train was going. "Edinburgh" I replied. Their faces dropped. Oh no I thought not again! "Where did you want to be going?" I asked. "Leeds" they replied in unison. I said "You'll have to get off at Darlington. It's not far. " What is it with lost teenagers today?!

After these two incidents I bumped into a man speaking such slurred and broad Glaswegian I could only make out every other word he uttered. He seemed to be dressed as a pirate - matador (red sash, flouncy shirt, black hat, tight black trousers, funny little jacket) Every part of his skin that I could see, apart from his face, was tattooed. Funny little tattoos as well. Weird geometric shapes and patterns. The bull fighting pirate had left his mobile phone in the loo he said and darted in to get it before it got stolen.

The weirdness continued tonight as I ate at a very quiet but pleasant Japanese restaurant behind my hotel. The food was fine but at about 7pm the Japanese staff all left & were replaced by European staff including a Scottish chef!

Here's a photo I took from the train of the sea near Berwick and a fantastically placed house!

Sent from my iPod

Bouquet

Bouquet , a set on Flickr.

Here are some photos I took today of some flowers