In honour of my Scottish roots I thought about making a Burns Supper tonight for dinner (haggis, neeps and tatties) but due to the lack of haggises in Illinois (there are no mountains for them to run around), and my unwillingness to pay $10 plus delivery for a tin of haggis from Amazon, we’re having lasagna instead.
True fact: Haggis only run round the mountainside in an anti-clockwise direction, therefore they have 2 legs on one side shorter than the other two. That’s how you catch them. Chase them clockwise round the mountain and they fall off. It’s a well known fact in Scotland. Ask The Google. Ignore the Wiki answer though and read the others. YW.
So the traditional Rabbie Burns poem that we read tonight is called ‘To a Haggis‘ but I’ve made my own version called ‘To a Lasagna‘….
Fair fa’ yer honest sonsie face, Great Chieftain o’ the pasta race.’
That’s as far as I got. It’s a work in progress.
Tomatoes. Absolutely nothing to do with Burns Night, haggis or even lasagna (except it’s an ingredient) but I didn’t have a photograph to match the blog post.
Anyway enjoy some traditional Scottish music brought into the 21st Century by Paolo Nutini.
This week’s theme of silence has left me with an earworm to “The Sound of Silence”… the Disturbed version though.
As for a photo to match the theme – this is a portrait I took a couple of years ago and is still one of my favourites. He’s actually a pretty smiley guy but I asked him to look melancholy and despairing which he happily did. Listening to the lyrics from The Sound of Silence just seems to fit with this portrait. What do you think?
How fortuitous that this week’s photography challenge came in my email the same day I got an message from STV (a Scottish Television Channel) asking my permission to use one of my photographs in a programme about doors. Yes, sounds rivetting, doesn’t it? But it’s still nice to be appreciated, even if it is only watched by 50 or 60 people in the country.
A nicely weathered door
Newmilns Keep is a fortified tower and the oldest building in the town – built in the 16th century c1530. It was in the possession of John Campbell of Newmilns, who was summoned to appear before King James IV as one of the Lollards of Kyle. In 1685 it was being used as a barracks for dragoons and a prison for Covenanters when it was attacked by local men who succeeded in freeing 8 prisoners. It has been used as a grain store, a doocot, a band hall and a beer cellar and is now a private residence. Weathered
How goes it in the land of Blog? I have missed all your lovely blogs lately but hopefully I’ll do better now (sounds like my school report card – Alba could do better!) I’m definitely going to go back to the Weekly Photo Challenge and hoping to blog in-between as well. No New Year resolutions for me this year though, they just get broken… although last year I did manage to log into MyFitnessPal every single day. Every. Single. Day. Are you impressed? I’m not saying I actually lost any weight, plus some days I might only have logged my breakfast, but I did it, and still am. I’m currently at 375 days in a row. Go me!! This year I just intend to eat healthily, work out a couple of times a week (I’m just back in from my first cycle ride in months today and even though it was a close-run thing, I didn’t puke up my lunchtime lentil soup. It was touch and go for a moment, but I didn’t disgrace myself. I do have jelly legs now, but stomach is fine) plus keep working away. I would love to say I could make enough money for my husband to retire, but that isn’t going to happen. Not that I want him hanging around the house God forbid, but he can go get a less stressful job as a golf-course greenkeeper, tiling bathrooms or raising chickens (all things he’d be pretty good at but won’t make us rich).
Anyway as this is supposed to be a photography blog here’s a few pics from my Ne’erday celebrations and a short trip we had to Chicago to meet up with 4 Scottish friends who came over to the US to celebrate one of their birthdays. Unfortunately the birthday boy got stopped at the US Immigration in Dublin and got questioned so long him and his wife missed the flight (thanks Immigration!) but they manged to get here the next day in time for the train back down to my house. They’ll laugh about it eventually….
We made up for it on Hogmanay with a party night at a local hotel and loads of fun, laughter, (bad) singing and good food (when I wasn’t cooking anyway). Christmas was also good – spending time with my wee family, Skyping or FaceTiming my extended family and of course eating far too much (that would have been one of my breakfast only days on MyFitnessPal)
I hope you all had a lovely festive season and are raring to go in 2018. Cheers everyone!
Hogmanay ShenanigansKinda ironic this was the view from my hotel window seeing as one of my friends wasn’t allowed through US Immigration!Chicago at nightCelebrations
Alba1047 