a wee walk

I was off work a couple of weeks ago because my M.E. and Lupus had flared up. When this happens my main thing is to sleep a lot and work up to being able to walk a couple of miles. Just a stroll, but if I can walk to the village and back then I know I am getting better. It took me to the second week before I managed it but when I did it was lovely weather and I was in shorts and t-shirt.

The walk I do to get myself back on track is up through the university campus, through Mine Wood and up to the village. It is a good walk for recovery because there are several places you can stop and several places where it is easy to turn around. You are never far away from the bus route so there is a get out if the fatigue kicks in.

I start off walking through the campus - there is a lovely walk around the duck pond and if I have some bread around the house they get a wee snack.




From the edge of campus I can just see the riding school (white building) and the edge of Mine Wood.


When you get up towards the riding school there is a wee bench that is an absolute sun trap and is a welcome break from the steep road.



From the edge of Mine Wood you can see out across to the Wallace Monument and also across the village and out to the Ochils. My house is just below the Monument so I like this view as it makes me feel I have done a fair bit of walking by this point.


There are two walks you can do through Mine Wood - they both bring you out roughly at the same place but the lower walk is easier and downhill most of the way. The upper walk takes longer and is steeper. It goes up and round the back of the back of the woods. On the longer walk there is a big uprooted tree - good for a wee pause to catch your breath.


They bring you out at the back of the village and you follow the walk down through to the river and the back of the local chippie.

I then have two choices - if it is a very nice day I get a takeaway picnic lunch from the deli and sit by the river. If it is nice but not quite picnic weather I go and get the artichoke, feta and beetroot salad from Clive Ramsays and sit in their wee outdoor bit.

Then it's the walk back along - I am usually pretty exhausted by this point so instead of trekking back through the wood I walk through the village along the main road.

I managed this walk three times before I went back to work and on the last walk I did the upper version so treated myself to an icecream from Corrieri's as a reward - not sure that's on the healthy eating list...

home made lamb sausages in prosciutto

On Saturdays we allow ourselves a bit of a lie in after a week of 0630 starts and take in a bit of Saturday Kitchen - yes, our life is just too exciting. But sometimes there are good recipes or ideas to try out for Saturday dinner. A few weeks ago Tana Ramsay was on - much nicer than Gordon - and she did a recipe for home made lamb sausages. Being half asleep I didn't quite catch everything so when we did our shopping I kind of had to wing it. Here is the recipe I did but if you want the proper one it is on the BBC website.

Makes 12 small sausages or six big. The 12 small means you can split it out over a couple of nights.

Ingredients

for the sausages

500g of lamb mince
couple of tablespoons of breadcrumbs
red onion finely chopped
2 tbsp of cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander
pepper to season
beaten egg
12 slices of prosciutto

for the salad

spinach and rocket leaves
cherry tomatoes cut in half
warmed broad beans
squeeze of lemon juice, half a tsp wholegrain mustard and glug of olive oil mixed for dressing

for the potatoes - this makes my recipe much less healthier than Tana's but Andy loves these potatoes

baby potatoes, cut in half and boiled until just done
olive oil
garlic

Method

for the sausages

mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl
mix in the egg
roll into 12 wee balls - wet hands first to prevent sticking


pat the balls into wee sausage shapes and then wrap around the prosciutto
place in a well greased baking tray
cook in an oven preheated to gas mark 6 for about 20-30 minutes (my oven isn't great so adjust heat down a bit if you have a fan oven)



for the salad

mix the salad dressing ingredients while heating the broad beans through in a pan
mix ingrediants together!
I quite liked some shavings of parmesan

for the potatoes

heat enough olive oil to reach half way up the potatoes
pop in some cloves of garlic and allow to cook gently
remove garlic as oil begins to sizzle - you can check the heat by testing a potatoe
add potatoes cut side down and fry for 10-15 minutes
turn over to the skin side and fry for 10 mins

For a healthier alternative, boil the potatoes until done and while still warm mix with a tablespoon of pesto.

This was a good dinner to have outside in the garden when its not quite fully salad weather but you don't want a steak pie or something heavy. It was very nice with a cheeky glass of wine!!

the project

We both wanted to know a bit more about the church we will be living in - fingers crossed - and so being stuck at home I did a bit of internet searching. I thought it strange for a church to be called 'Chalmers Church' - I associate churches with saint's names or a more religious sounding moniker. It turns out it was called Chalmers Memorial Church (a free church) and was built circa 1854 but I haven't discovered yet who Chalmers was.

I have found a picture of the inside of the church as it used to be -


I got this from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments in Scotland website. They seem to have lots of pictures but only let people download this one from their site. The others you have to order - although you can't see what you are ordering. It also looks like the RCAHMS holds an unpblished leaflet (Bowden, J (2003) History of Chalmers Church 160 years: 1844-2003, Unpublished Pamphlet)on the church that might be worth a look. So it may be a wee visit to the RCAHMS will be the way to find out more.

If you look on the right hand side of the picture, the door you can just see will be our front door.

The Church was designed by W.H., J.W. & J. Hay, Architects, of Liverpool and is described as a Middle Pointed Gothic style church. The pointed spire is 108ft in height and it was erected at a cost of #2,500 with seating for 800 people. This is how the church is described in The Building Chronicle, 1856.

I also found an article in the Glasgow Herald, 20th May, 1940 which reports on the dedication of the organ screen.



The church closed and merged with Bridge of Allan Parish Church (Church of Scotland)in 2004. Bridge of Allan Parish Church is notable for some its internal fittings, which were designed by Charles Rennie Macintosh in 1904. And, with a bit more searching, I found the schedule for selling the church in 2006 which included this photo -


The church was originally for lease/sale as offices - I am glad that instead it is going to be houses!

alternative to wallpaper

I have already posted about wall stickers or decals - here are some more that I like from Supernice.

This one would be good for a utility or laundry room...


This one I like for the diving theme...maybe for a bathroom or a store room for our dive kit...

And this one is a design I think would look good in a lounge area...

dressing for work

I have a hard time figuring out what you should wear to work. I work for a charity - so it isn't suited and booted all the time. But I am a manager and often doing events - so I want to look smart and professional. Being female I am really conscious of appropriate work wear that isn't a boxy suit but also isn't so girly that people make judgements [not that they should cause that would be sexist but the world ain't perfect yet]. Also - I can look young for my age. I am 31 but frequently get asked for id when buying that cheeky bottle of red from M&S on the way home from work on a Friday night and also get charged a half on the bus on occasion. This boosts the ego no end but isn't great when you are trying to convince the government to do what you think they should be doing.

I also commute and work on the west coast - so weather and being comfortable are also issues. And, finally, I want to wear clothes that I like and feel like 'me'!



I don't work in academia but I really like a site called academic chic as it tackles a lot of the same problems I find myself faced with.Its an american site but the tips translate even if the shops aren't over here ye - although with Cos and J Crew opening branches over here soon it should become less of a problem. They also blog on commuter tips and other fashion challenges women in the workplace have. Being young women working in the traditionally male and stuffy environment of the university or college campus must be something of a challenge and a lot of what they blog about resonates with my own concerns.

A New Home...sometime in 2011!

We have been looking for a new house to move to and last week took a big decision - to go for an off-plan church conversion in Bridge of Allan by Crammond Select Homes. So the next few weeks will be a flurry of legal papers, getting the flat on the market and keeping our fingers crossed that it will all work out. Buying off plan is worrying - because you can't see what you will get - and exctiting because we get to have a big input into the layout and interior decoration of the property. For us, the excitment makes the worry worth it - it may be strange, but the chance to map out exactly where you want your power sockets to be is to my mind a wee slice of heaven. All of this means the move date is likely to be between Christmas and March 2011 - so lots of time to search out that perfect tile or paint colour...

However, this - coupled with the lack of a decent oven in our current rented place - means my updates are likely to focus more on home stuff rather than food in the next wee while. But you can bet that the design of the kitchen will feature heavily and that post-move there will be plenty of culinary experiments on the go.

Champanys

On Saturday night we went through to Linlithgow to have dinner with Michelle and Robin. They had told us about a restaurant called Champanys - a chop and ale house out near their house. They told us about the amazing burgers and steaks and we were only too happy to test their recommendation.

There is a restaurant which we hear is excellent but was a bit pricey for a Saturday night meal that wasn't for a special occasion - so we went to the chop and ale house.


It doesn't take reservations so we got there early to get a table. The place was very busy and Michelle and Robin said that they had never seen it quiet - it is always busy and has people waiting for tables. We had a half hour wait - just enough time for a quick G&T and some chat - and then got a table.

Robin and Michelle advised skipping the starters and saving room for pudding - and they were right. The main meals were very generous and the puddings were excellent - we would not have wanted to have missed out on them. Robin, Andy and I had burgers - mine with cheese and the boys had the mexican. Michelle had the scampi - my second option - and she let me have a taste. The scampi was excellent and I would give it a go next time - because there will definitely be a next time!! The burgers were thick and juicy and the meat amazing. The side salad was actually worth eating and the coleslaw was good - I prefer coleslaw to having sauces and this one wasn't too creamy and had enough bite from the cabbage for it to stand up against the doorstop of a burger.

The puddings were also good - it is not often you get a restaurant that is excellent at both main and pudding courses. Andy had the cheesecake and it was bliss - it tasted like no cheesecake I have had before - it was very light and yet didn't stray into mousse-y territory. It avoided being claggy and the texture was smooth and silky. I had the profiteroles which were also very good - light pastry and sligtly bitter chocolate to cut through the cream. But I think next time I would go for the cheesecake.

The service was also top notch. It was very busy but the staff were all polite, the courses were served in good time and the staff had time to make a comment or quip while serving. A bit of banter is always a good thing.

The bill was good too - around £30 a head - which for the standard of food and service was a good deal. We also took a peak around the wine shop next door and spotted a few bottles that looked pretty tasty. Champanys is definitely on the list for a repeat visit.