Address to a haggis

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o the puddin'-race! Aboon them a' ye tak your place, Painch, tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye worthy o' a grace As lang's my arm. The groaning trencher there ye fill, Your hurdies like a distant hill, Your pin wad help to mend a mill In time o need, While thro your pores the dews distil Like amber bead. His knife see rustic Labour dight, An cut you up wi ready slight, Trenching your gushing entrails bright, Like onie ditch; And then, O what a glorious sight, Warm-reekin, rich! Then, horn for horn, they stretch an strive: Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive, Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve Are bent like drums; The auld Guidman, maist like to rive, 'Bethankit' hums. Is there that owre his French ragout, Or olio that wad staw a sow, Or fricassee wad mak her spew Wi perfect scunner, Looks down wi sneering, scornfu view On sic a dinner? Poor devil! see him owre his trash, As feckless as a wither'd rash, His spindle shank a guid whip-lash, His nieve a nit; Thro bloody flood or field to dash, O how unfit! But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed, The trembling earth resounds his tread, Clap in his walie nieve a blade, He'll make it whissle; An legs an arms, an heads will sned, Like taps o thrissle. Ye Pow'rs, wha mak mankind your care, And dish them out their bill o fare, Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware That jaups in luggies: But, if ye wish her gratefu prayer, Gie her a Haggis

Friday funny

With apologies to Carly Simon

Facebook parody on You're so vain............. You logged on to your Facebook page Like you were logging on to your life; Your glass was full, your brain on hold, You were ready for angst and strife.......... You had one eye on your messages As you watched your newsfeed roll, And all your 'friends'  said that they would all love you, Like all your  photos, and You're so vain, you probably think this post is about you You're so vain! I'll bet you think this post is about you Don't you? Don't you? You saw the pics of the dinners and kilts, The kitties and old ones of me, Then you found the meme I posted up on my wall, And took it personalleeeeee...................... Your eyes they rolled and you swore a bit As the likes they grew and grew...................... You made a face, with  some rather choice language, Rather choice language, and You're so vain, you probably think this post is about you You're so vain! I'll bet you think this post is about you Don't you? Don't you? Well I hear you're mighty pissed off at me, It would come to a bitter end; You were running me down to all your mates, Were going to hit 'unfriend'! Now you're where you should be all the time, And that's nowhere on my list............... So I hit the zap and sent you off through the ether, Off through the ether, and You're so vain, you probably think this post is about you You're so vain! I'll bet you think this post is about you Don't you? Don't you?

Clutter

Carved wood quilts

Yes - really! http://www.gofraser.com/photos.

My favourite saucepan

Just thought I'd share :)  It's now full of simmering Bolognese sauce There is a new book swap scheme up at our village shop, and I purloined a couple of good books this morning -  Great Dishes of the World by Robert Carrier and Real Fast Puddings by Nigel Slater. Very pleased with them. Continuing a food theme, my meat box arrived today from Rosewood Farms; as well as the excellent meat, it is packaged in a good sized sturdy square box, very snugly lined with fitted polystyrene sheets. This will do good duty as a packing box, then go on to be part of my experiments in haybox cooking in the future. http://www.grassfeddexterbeef.co.uk/

Real bread

Looking back through some photos, came across these, must get it out again soon!

Making an entrance

My front porch in the bright late winter sun. The scent of the white hyacinths is absolutely gorgeous this morning, and is perfuming the hall as well. I bought them at a local garden centre in that beautiful little decorated wooden box; the two little horses were from Wimborne market and the tip, and the wooden bird on the right also came from the tip. The very precious inscribed glass roundel was a treasure from e-bay - it was made in Orkney  and is one of my very favourite things. This is the Celtic blessing on it: Deep peace of the running wave to you Deep peace of the flowing air to you Deep peace of the quiet earth to you Deep peace of the shining stars to you Deep peace of the son of peace to you ***

The Camargue

Cooking red Camargue red rice for supper today rekindled my interest in the region, so had a quick look-see on the net.  It's amazing what you remember you know when you catch up on stuff!  Lovely to be reminded of the horses and rice, the wetlands and the landscape.  Found this lovely wee house -  Gardian house, from the 20th c according to Wikipedia; the pole to the side is for climbing to keep an eye on the animals.  The Gards are the cowboys who look after the horses and cattle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camargue What an interesting world we live in :)

Sunday, Sunday......................

Nice quiet day mostly to myself in my beloved kitchen :)  Some cooking, bit of baking, knitting, silly frothy film (Russell Crowe in 'A Good Year' ) with wonderful settings, bit of Scrabble and lots of tea and coffee. Supper is all made and ready just to pop into the oven.  I've made chicken with smokey Camargue red rice, followed by apricot crumble and cream, to use up the end of a jar of home bottled apricots.  MY kitchen smells wonderful, I love Sundays like this :)