no time for tea, but a bit of mulled wine would be nice

Well, Christmas has come and gone, and the wind has stayed. We are in for some stinking hot weather this weekend, which just happens to be the end of 2011. Christmas Day was fairly hot, but we managed. Laird Peter made some mulled wine which the family tasted at lunch and it rocked our socks somewhat. I managed to drop not only a jar of Cranberry Sauce on my sister's tiled floor, but a jar of Redcurrant jelly as well (one rolled out of the cooler bag after the other). Fortunately the apple sauce didn't follow.
Lunch was lovely and we finished off with my elder sister's famous Christmas pudding.

It was fabulous to give and receive presents - including the ones from Santa - all the giggles and jokes and lovely surprise, all good for the soul. We watched several Christmas specials from the UK and that made us very sooky and keen to return. Scotland is high on the list, of course, particularly our little plot of land in Glencoe Wood.

And I must add, Happy New Year to all Lairds, Lords and Ladies, and the good folk at www.highlandtitles.com
The picture at the top is from the Skye ferry. Nice and cold. Wish we were there.

a celebratory cup of tea

Today is quite chilly. A bit unusual for this time of year. It is Australia, and it is summer.
We've shared afternoon tea this afternoon with graduating students from our Skene Street Specialist School. Only another week after this one and it's Christmas!
I've let myself get a bit wistful this afternoon, thinking of Christmas, and the one we had 2008/2009 in Cumbria. It was really chilly, and was fantastic.
That led me to Scotland, and I've found pics from our time there. A few today of Lady C keeping warm in a variety of ways.
Pictures tell stories.

coffee for two

Yesterday we had our brunch on our own for a change. Saturday mornings of late have been happy occasions with family, full of laughter and craziness. However, we don't mind being on our own either.
The weather is still unseasonably cold, and we have the heater on! Time for a wee drink, we have decided. On Friday I was in Ballarat, and near the end of the day a work friend dragged me away from my computer, drove me to her home in the lovely forest, got changed into her carolling clothes and drove back into the centre of Ballarat for an hour of carol singing. Much nicer to stand listening to carollers in the sunshine, than hanging around work until time for the train home. We had enough time for coffee and cake before she drove me to the station. A lovely end to the week, so here's to the spirit of friendship, Anna.
Christmas isn't far away now, and we had a small sense of that today when our mailman arrived at the front door with his little daughter. The sweet little girl handed over my parcel and asked could she pick a flower. Of course! She eventually chose a pale pink geranium to take home to her Mum.
That's the best parcel delivery I've had yet!
Now it's time for dinner.

long time between cups of tea

I am still about. It's been busy with marking assignments (all of them long ones) and having a migraine that didn't want to go away. So here I am, hanging out for a cuppa, and it's cold and windy outside.
You wouldn't think that it is the first day of summer...
I now have a lovely little Christmas pack from www.highlandtitles.com for being an early bird blogger. The pack included a cool pen with 'Lady of Glencoe' inscribed in gold. There are other treasures too - a little Glencoe crest pin - very nice.
My big news of the week is that I won $200 worth of fuel from a local raffle! Whoo-hoo! Fuel is so expensive, so this is very welcome. Thanks must go to Laird Peter for purchasing the winning ticket.

Here's the Glencoe crest:

Ah, double latte here I come

Two double lattes today, in fact. Most of the morning out and about, doing weekly grocery shopping and hoping to have our usual d-latte at Georgie's Cafe. Best coffee ever. A day of ups and downs, sad news and good news. Nice to be doing a bit of Christmas shopping and thinking about our friends in the UK. And sparing a thought for our little plots in Glencoe Wood. Someone we spoke to yesterday chortled at the size of our land in Scotland. Hey, it's better than none, and it's big enough to camp on, eh? I must say I think purchasing a square foot is a little extreme, even though I understand the concept of having many buyers of plots in this beautiful location. Worth a look at www.highlandtitles.com

But we want to be able to at least sit on ours - together. Scotland is too far away at the moment. We have friends who are grieving, loved ones who are unwell, and all life is very precious. We're thinking of all those who are touched by illness. Our highlight today was judging a local Christmas Tree Decoration/drawings competition and having the pleasure of looking at so many gorgeous works from kids all the way from kinder to grade 6. We love kids' sense of humour, and their imagination.

Harking back to the matter of having land in Scotland, in this country there is an opportunity for landowners to put a covenant on their land for all sorts of conservation reasons.
I've just had a look at this site: http://www.scenicrim.qld.gov.au/environment/propertyconservation.shtml
And here's a now familiar sign seen on properties all over Australia:

Ah, a cuppa tea!

We did our relay stint this morning at 7am - there had been thunderstorms overnight so we took our gortex raincoats. It hadn't rained a lot in Ararat, but at one point the oval was cleared of walkers because of the lightning. Carrying an aluminium baton, mmm. After 6 laps of said oval, we observed the sky was getting rather black. Our last 4 laps were in heavy rain, so legs were very wet but top halves dry, and we still enjoyed it. The Cancer Council organisers, however, felt that it was too wet for people to continue, so we brought the baton home and shuffled inside to hear the thank-yous and awards. Over $13.500 was raised so that will help the Cancer Council employ more nurses on their helpline.
It's a great cause. Most people know at least one person with cancer, so our walk was as much a vigil as anything. We're definitely in for next year, and will do the overnight walk, lit with candles and heralded in with a lone piper. Oh, gosh, that's reminded me of Scotland again (it's never far from our thoughts) and our wee blocks of land in Glencoe Wood. I think I've managed to grab another pic or two from www.highlandtitles.com or www.lairdoflochaber.com

Relay for life starts tonight

Tonight the Cancer Council's Relay for Life starts, and in the morning (early) Laird Peter and I will join our Skene Street Specialist School team in Ararat. We are slotted in to walk from 7am until 8.30. There has been some turbulent weather today - quite hot (mid-30s) and thunderstorms - and some rain.
Here's a bit of information about the Relay in Australia:
Relay For Life began in Australia in 1999, when the Victorian community of Murrumbeena raised over $75,000 for Cancer Council. Relay For Life is now run in every state and territory and raises over $14 million each year for the cancer fight.

So, this is the first time we're involved with Relay for Life. So many people we know and love have been affected by cancer. Check them out at: www.relayforlife.org.au

This is the Relay for Life slogan:
Celebrate Remember Fight Back!

Rosie makes a nice cup of tea

The Honey and coconut cake with caramel icing went down very well this morning. Everyone enjoyed it and eventually we said our goodbyes to each other with a promise of staying in touch. Lovely students all. Three pieces were left, so I brought them home for Laird Peter. On our way to Ballarat this morning, we stopped off at a cute little coffee bar in Beaufort and grabbed a nice latte. And this afternoon, at work, in our staffroom, Rosie made me a cup of tea. Others had wanted me to go for a coffee earlier, but I was too too busy, so Rosie's offer was delightful.

Late night cake-making for tomorrow's morning tea

Tomorrow is the last class I have with my writing students in Ballarat. Time for them to hand in assignments, receive results and say farewells. I promised a cake, so tonight I am waiting (impatiently) for my cake to cool so I can ice it. Mind you, said cake has to travel to Ballarat with me in the back of a car, so it will have to be sturdy (ever heard of a sturdy cake?). It is a Honey coconut cake with caramel icing - mmm - and now it's time to ice it so I'm going. I'll leave his Lairdship the washing-up. Or maybe Pandora will do it (not likely).

Monk pear tea and the promise of rain

Mmm, the promise of rain is slight, and just to tempt us it rained while we were having dinner for all of 30 seconds. Bah humbug! Now I'm thinking a cup of Monk Pear tea (made by T2) would be lovely as I am reminded that Christmas is not that far away. Gosh. My big sister wants to meet for a coffee (not tea) tomorrow to discuss Christmas dinner. Gee! Over brunch/breakfast on Saturday various discussions led to the consumption of Haggis - Laird Peter's eyes widened at its mention - he is, of course a fan, and while others at the table made noises of distaste, my husband glowed with remembrance of his first Haggis in a lovely little place called Gargunnock, just out of Stirling. He loved it so much. He had his next Haggis in Edinburgh, at a fascinating little pub called The World's End. This pub is built onto the old city wall and is at the 'bottom' end of the Royal Mile. Laird Peter had his Haggis with neaps and tatties and a whisky sauce (yum) and I had smoked haddock fish cakes (haddock is just yummy) and all washed down with St Andrews ale. More about Haggis another day. Now, where's that cup of tea, Pandora?

springtime is beautiful

More pics of our garden in springtime.

Losing my tea

Oh, a busy day at work, going slightly crazy at the number of assignments sitting on my desk, forgetting to have a cuppa. Wishing I was in Scotland, moseying through Glencoe Wood.

Here's a lovely picture. This is our garden, taken during last year's springtime, but it's bursting again now with colour.







And here's another pic from www.highlandtitles.com

too wet for tea outside

It is pouring at the moment. We've had thunderstorms this evening and one almighty one yesterday at 2.15am. In the last downpour an hour ago we had 11mm in about ten minutes. The radar shows an incredible swathe moving across the state, so we're in for it! There are still rumblings about so I won't be blogging for long.

I should be drinking tea outside

Today is glorious - not too hot, a gentle breeze and the lovely accompaniment of birds chittering in the garden. No dogs barking, no lawnmowers - oh, damn, one in the distance - and no screeching hoons driving about.
I've been looking at pics of Glencoe Wood, and reading about the native fauna and flora again.
It does look beautiful.

My Mum and Dad would have loved this. Both parents were artists, and Mum loved nothing more than a dappled pathway, disappearing through a forest (or wood) and there was always an expectation in her paintings of paths that there was something very special just up - around the corner.
We are surrounded by my parents' artwork. More about them another day.

Tea for two

I'm not going to write what I was going to write. Ha! Too many serious things happening today, including news about the deaths of Australian servicemen in Afghanistan. Thoughts about Glencoe can wait. Ah, but what a beautiful place to go to, sometime soon...

All Hallows Eve, I believe

In Australia it is the evening of October 31. I refuse to call this eve Halloween. I do not wish to cut holes in pumpkins, nor do I want to dress up as anything ghoulish. Mind you, my husband is playing a game in which plenty of characters are running around going 'awwwr' or 'ggerrrr', so that's ghoulish enough for me. I could wear my (his) black Heroes IV dragon t-shirt. Or I could go and consult Pandora on the matter. We've been working on a new skirt piece, and it's very colourful. A picture will appear sometime soon.
I was going to write about red squirrels tonight. The red squirrel is endangered, and we didn't see any during our time in Scotland. We saw plenty of grey squirrels in Oxford and in London though.
I just went looking for information on the red squirrel and found this quote from http://www.red-squirrels.org.uk/index.asp

‘The 132 years since the introduction of the American grey squirrel has seen the rapid demise of our native red. Scotland in now home to over 75% of the entire UK red squirrel population. We are their best and last chance’.

This website is the Red Squirrels in South Scotland Society (RSSS).  The red squirrel population has been decimated by Squirrelpox, a viruscarried by the introduced grey squirrel (which are unaffected by the virus). Here's a lovely pic I found over at http://www.prlog.org/10598445-wildlife-and-nature-based-tourism-benefits-scotlands-economy.html

I was reminded of all this last time I read about the native fauna found in Glencoe Wood via the wonderful www.highlandtitles.com website.

Well, I'm also reminded about our own Tasmanian Devil which has almost been wiped out in Tasmania in recent times. It's not as cute and cuddly looking as this little red fellow, but is in acute crisis right now, a large proportion of the population suffering from Devil Facial Tumour Disease.

Read more about this at http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_are_Tasmanian_Devils_endangered

Now I might go and find Pandora, show her some pictures of Tasmanian Devils, and I shall return my thoughts to Scotland, Glencoe Wood, and our little plot of land.

A time for some pictures

After our last cup of tea, Pandora left some of her skirts behind

Winter is back and I'm drinking Milo

I was never this cold in Scotland! Today there's been a gusty southerly and the temperature has dropped back to Winter levels. It's nearly November and we should be having mild weather. Looking longingly at pics online of the Scottish highlands. There are lovely pics of Glencoe Wood on the www.highlandtitles.com website. Oh, to be there now, drinking tea, or even better, a lovely Scottish single malt whisky, sitting in front of a tent on our small chunk of land. The closest we've been to Glencoe Wood is Fort William. We were in Scotland in 2008-2009, and we travelled by train from Edinburgh to Fort William, then the train trip to Mallaig, planning to catch the ferry to Skye. What a gorgeous train trip! There weren't many travellers on that train, and we had a bit of a guided tour by a holidaying bus driver who knew the countryside really well. Our ferry to Skye first had to do a 6-hour trip around the Small Isles, and as it was a glorious blue-sky but freezing cold day, who could refuse that? And late in the afternoon the ferry returned to Mallaig then took us over to Skye. We fell in love, of course. Perhaps we'd already been in love with Skye. We were there a few days, went on a car tour all over the island, but the highlight was going for a car trip with our B&B hosts 'out the back' of Sleat, and the scenery and the company was splendid. All too soon we had to leave, but with a promise of returning to see our new friends and their wonderful island. Sigh. I'd go back tomorrow.

Where's all the rain gone?

The weekend is almost over and it hasn't rained much. Plenty of clouds about but nothing happening.
Last night I had a good look at the Scottish Woodland Alliance at www.lairdswood.org.uk - and here's a quote from their home page: "A major funding pledge from Lochaber Highland Estates (CI) Ltd will enable up to 1,000 hectares of new woodland to be created in Scotland over the next ten years. The SWA vision is based on a 200 year timescale to benefit future generations as the trees mature over this century and beyond."
In Australia there are many areas of forest, and particularly old forest, which are or have been under threat for some time. What we Aussies didn't realise is how little ancient forest is left in Scotland. 1%!
I have a lot more to read and have long finished my tea, so I'm off.

My first cup of tea

Pandora and I have been acquainted for some time. She has been in my creative life and activity since the early 1990s. Today we share a cup of tea to celebrate my recent metamorphosis into Lady Catherine, proud landowner, along with my husband, Laird Peter, of a lovely, but very small chunk of land in our beloved Scotland. Laird Peter subscribes to Scotland Magazine, and one day he noted on their homepage (on their website) a very small ad for highlandtitles.com in which they advertised their involvement in the Scottish Woodland Alliance project to restore the Caledonian Forest, and namely, Glencoe Wood.
Laird Peter was overjoyed when I responded enthusiastically to the prospect of purchasing a lot each of 100 square feet. What a wonderful conservation idea! The Highland Titles packages arrived at our door, and so chuffed were we to know that we have helped, in a very small way, to protect and restore a very important piece of Scotland and its future. Family and friends, while amused at our titles, know full well how serious we are about this project. Laird Peter has since found a wonderful aerial picture of the Wood on google earth, and we can hardly wait to visit the place and stand on our very own land.
So, I heartily recommend this wonderful cause to all. We live in Australia, have been to Scotland once, and have Scottish ancestry, of which we are very proud.
http://www.highlandtitles.com is well worth a visit.
Now for that celebratory cup of tea.