Sunshine and Swagger

It was my husband's birthday last week, so we treated ourselves to a trip to visit Arran, the largest island in the Firth of Clyde. Despite growing up within striking distance of the island I had never actually visited it before so was looking forward to exploring a new to me destination.

Visiting Scottish islands in March can be a bit hit and miss weather wise but we were lucky to experience a glorious couple of days surrounded by sunshine and stunning scenery as you can see.

The mountains in the North of the island are known as the "Sleeping Warrior" as they are said to resemble a warrior lying on his back with his arms crossed over his chest. They certainly don't look like it from the photo and angle above, but maybe I can see a head and chest in the photo below.

Of course that could also be down to the power of suggestion :)

No powers of suggestion needed to spot the sheep in this photo though, aren't they the quirkiest bollards you have ever seen?

Clearly quirky is part of the island culture.

These cottages at Catacol, known as the Twelve Apostles, were built for local landworkers who were being driven from the land and encouraged to become fishermen. Each of the cottages has their own distinct window style. The idea was that if a wife wanted to signal her husband out on the fishing boat she could place a candle in the window and because of the different window shapes the husbands would know which of them was being signalled! I never read anywhere how successful that scheme was :)

Talking of success, however, I am pleased to report that our second trip of the week North of the Border was equally rewarding.

The swagger of the kilts, such as this, at Murrayfield to watch the annual Six Nations rugby match between Scotland and France was much improved by an impressive Scotland victory.

The beret wearing fans amongst us didn't have so much to cheer about by the end of the afternoon, although it didn't appear to dampen their spirits too much :)

Next up a trip to Dublin and the hope of a long awaited away win, keeping my fingers crossed!

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Once a piecer, always a piecer!

On our recent trips to Wales for the Rugby World Cup games I discovered that even in the middle of a horde of rugby fans there is always something patchwork related to be found :)

Aren't these patchwork tweed caps great?

There were a couple of stalls selling gorgeous Donegal tweeds at the Festival of Quilts show, I was wishing that I had bought some of it when I saw those caps!

Just outside Cardiff Central station I came across this painted building. Naturally I spent a while standing looking at it wondering if it would be possible to piece :)

Clearly I am obsessed!

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Spicing it up!

When my daughter-in-law was here recently we treated ourselves to a cookery demonstration with lunch at The Secret Ingredient 

I had attended one of Judy's demonstrations last year with a friend so knew to expect a very slick demonstration and a delicious lunch, and we were not disappointed! The theme of the demonstration was All Things Spice, so we were both looking forward to seeing some New to Us spices in action to add to our current recipe repertoire.

As a pescetarian my d-i-l was particularly keen to see and taste the Creole Fish Stew and it was delicious. It tastes as good as it looks!

Indeed, all of the dishes that were demonstrated that day were so tasty that we both decided to cook them all ourselves for our husbands and in-laws that weekend :)

So, although it took us a lot longer than the 90 minutes that Judy and Christine demonstrated the dishes in, as well as the Creole Fish Stew we managed to produce

a hearty Moroccan spicy chickpea soup.

I got to use a definitely New to Me ingredient in the Smoky Chicken Mole with green rice

as well as finding another use for some of those nigella seeds that have been lurking at the back of my spice cupboard.

Naan breads, handmade in minutes (who knew?) and butternut squash in sweet tamarind masala completed the savoury part of the meal.

We still found room for a slice of the Cardamom, Pistachio and Rose Petal cake accompanied by some fresh pineapple with red chilli and mascarpone though :)
 

It was a brilliant day out and even better to find that the recipes all worked just as well at home for us as they had in the demonstration.

Next week I am going back with a friend to the "Getting ahead for Christmas" demo, so I am looking forward to adding a whole new host of recipes to my arsenal!

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A touch of French style

Life here has taken on a very French focus recently.

First up we spent a couple of weeks indulging our love of French food and wine in the glorious SW of France.

Baked cheese with honey and Parma Ham for starters anyone?

Or, if dessert is more your thing, how about not one but three variations on a theme?

 

Rosemary, Sage and Thyme Creme Brulees that were every bit as delicious as they sound!

Of course, surroundings like these just add to that whole French ambiance.

 

There was a completely different ambiance in my next French foray, to the Style is Eternal exhibition celebrating the genius of Yves St Laurent at the Bowes Museum 

It was wonderful to see up close beautiful (and completely beyond my budget!) outfits such as 

this stunning patchwork evening dress

 or this amazing beaded dress. I am not sure how practical this one is but I love it all the same :)

Of course it wouldn't be a YSL retrospective without an example of that most iconic of YSL creations - the tuxedo!

The exhibition is apparently the first ever of YSL's work in the UK, and it is on for another week or so, so if you find yourself in the North East with some time to spare I would definitely recommend a visit. 

My final dose of French style was much less rarefied than the hallowed environs of high fashion. Here's a clue.

We travelled to Cardiff for the Ireland v France match in the Rugby World Cup. Whilst the males in the family watched from the wonderful arena of the Millennium Stadium, the females enjoyed the game in the more genteel environs of a Sparkling Afternoon Tea at St David's Hotel in Cardiff Bay. 

En-route to the hotel we came across this example of French style that perhaps prove there is an exception to every rule :)

 Still at least he wasn't wearing an inflated rubber glove on his head as a coxcomb like one fan we came across!

Thanks to the result on Sunday, I get to visit Cardiff again next week and sample some Argentinian style next :)

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Locked

One of the highlights of our recent river cruise from Moscow to St Petersburg, was negotiating the 17 locks required to complete the journey.

Given that this was the size of our ship getting through the locks was no cinch!

Add in the fact that we negotiated several of them during the night, the ship's captain certainly earned his keep.

Not too much room for manoeuver here :)

 

or here!

The locks were too deep for ships to be tied up to the top when the water levels were changing, so they were tied to these sidewinders, which rolled up or down depending upon the water levels.

The locks we passed through were constructed between 1939 and 1964, by the use of forced labour, so the human cost of these grand structures was high.

Landscapes like these did not lend themselves to an easy escape.

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A Russian feast for the eyes

When we travelled around the Baltics during our stint there one of my favourite occupations was visiting the Russian Orthodox Church in any town we visited. They were always so colourful inside and out.  On a sunny day the golden-domed churches were especially dazzling!

So, as you can imagine, I was really looking forward to having the opportunity to see some particularly stunning examples on our recent trip to Russia. I wasn't disappointed!

Here are some of the highlights :

This rather sombre, black-domed church is in a town called Uglich, which was our first port of call after leaving Moscow.

This much more flamboyant blue-domed church, the splendidly named Church of Dimitry of the Spilled Blood, is, however, the main reason for visiting Uglich. The Dimitry in question was the son of Czar Ivan the Terrible, who didn't have the best of luck with his offspring. He killed his eldest son and heir himself during an argument by hitting him over the head with a staff, Dimitry's throat was cut when he was ten and another child fell in the river and drowned whilst very young. Mind you Ivan had six wives so he was doing his best to keep the line going despite the misfortune befalling several of his children :) It didn't work though, as his eventual heir wasn't up to the task and was the last of the line!

The Churches in Uglich both had the most common onion-style dome but this church overlooking Moscow has the older, less common helmet shaped dome.

These fabulous, golden domes are on one of the three Churches situated within  the grounds of the Kremlin in Moscow. Each church was apparently either for hatching, matching or dispatching the Czars!

These silver domes are actually wooden and apparently can also look green or gold depending upon the way that the light is hitting them. They are the top of a beautiful wooden church that is currently being restored on the island of Kizhi.

You can see where the Church is being restored better here. The island is now an open-air ethnographic museum and other wooden structures have now been brought there for preservation.

Of course I couldn't finish this post without including a mention for the most outrageously over the top Churches of them all :)

The Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood in St Petersburg, a riot of blue, yellow and green tiles

and St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.

Aren't they just the most riotous collection of colours you will ever see, and a feast of quilting inspiration to boot :)

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A different daily commute

For those of you who regularly travel by Metro or Underground, I thought you might like a glimpse of some of the amazing Metro stations that we visited recently in Moscow. We were very proud of ourselves for managing to negotiate the network on our own, as all the Cyrillic language station signs took a bit of deciphering. However, it wasn't until we took a guided tour of the Metro stations in the evening that we realised just how stunning some of the stations are.


The Ploschad Revolyutsii station is the stop nearest Red Square, so it is probably not surprising that it is one of the most beautiful.

The platforms were decorated with 76 bronze statues like the one above, and even included 4 bronze hunting dogs whose noses supposedly needed to be rubbed for luck!

 Clearly lots of Moscow commuters think they need some luck :)

My favourite station was the Kiyevskaya Station, which is the underground station for the railway line from Moscow to Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine.

The Metro stations on the first line built in 1935 were intended to be seen as "people's palaces" and the Kiyevskaya Station certainly lives up to the billing.

The Ukraine was Russia's bread basket so the station is decorated with wonderful plaster mouldings of wheat sheaves as you can see above, and frescoes depicting life in the Ukraine.

I thought at first these ladies were sewing but alas not :)


The lighting in some of the stations was another highlight,

 Check out the platform lighting at Novoslobodskaya Station

and the chandeliers at Komsomolskaya Station. I felt that I should be in a cocktail dress and evening gloves :)

Wouldn't this make a wonderful quilting pattern?

This one just made me think of Discworld!

Apparently the Moscow Metro system is the busiest metro system outside of Asia and the world's busiest by daily users, but every station that we visited was absolutely spotless so you would never have guessed. If you ever get the opportunity to visit some of the beautiful stations on the Moscow Metro, then I highly recommend that you take it. We will definitely be going back!

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