Catch Up!

Friday was slightly better weather so Gordon got out to wash the car and do some exterior maintenance while I went into town to do a little shopping for the last ingredients for our dinner party tonight.  Gordon's only job for me is to run down to the local farmer and pick up fresh eggs.  First though I dropped a bag of books at Oxfam then off to the Deli which sadly wasn't open.  Julie and Ian are not back from vacation so......where will I buy honey and vanilla?  Off to the butcher for Cumberland sausages.  Need 3 pounds, he's got slightly more than 2, hmmmmm.  So I take what he has and try the green grocer's for grapes.  Scott's Green Grocers is closed!  DANG.  But at the Town Hall there's a small "market" going on and I'm able to find grapes there.  Now honey and vanilla.  McGary's might have it.  McGary's is a very small shop that has stuff like milk, cereal, magazines, cigarettes, wilted up veggies and basically junk. They have honey that's not to my liking but no vanilla.  My only other option is the Co-op at the end of town.  So off I go and sure enough they have both items .  What a hassle!  Once home Gordon reports that the farm is closed and there are no eggs!  Geez.  But he ran to the butcher for me so now I'm good to go to bake a honey/vanilla pound cake.

I'm so confused about conversion over here and I've got my computer helping me convert temperatures and measures.  Alas, either the oven isn't calibrated or I've screwed up the temps and my lovely pound cake is a brick!  Overdone on the outside, pretty much batter on the inside.  Oh well.

Right on time at 7:00pm Gordon's cousin, Frances, arrives......alone.  Now we were told that Frances lives with her significant other in Lochmaben and Gordon issued the invitation to Frances on Facebook inviting both of them for dinner.  But apparently we were wrong AND Frances was not aware she had been invited for dinner!  Never let your husband venture into your territory of issuing invitations!  I have WAY too much food!  I was expecting to feed two men!  Anyway we proceeded to have a really wonderful evening getting to know Frances and hearing about her life here in Scotland and catching up about Gordon's other cousins too.  This is NOT a close knit family.  Gordon doesn't really know his cousins and in fact has only really seen Frances 3 times in his adult life.  Friday night, at Isa's Memorial Service and at their cousins wedding when Frances was 16 and Gordon 21!  Some of the cousins live in the same town but never see each other socially.  That strikes me as odd since in my family, with dad's 9 brothers  and sisters and my mom's 7 brothers and sisters, our cousins were our first friends.  We spent holiday, Sundays and vacations with our cousins traveling to Pennsylvania and North Carolina to visit.  Apparently the Wilson's don't even venture across town to visit.  Interesting.  Anyway we really enjoyed Frances and had a nice meal and an early evening.  Fortunately she didn't want dessert!

Saturday morning, with a tiny break in the weather, Gordon and I went out for a walk just up and around Gallow Hill and into town.  At the top of the path and starting around Gallow we stopped for a couple of pictures.  Gallow Hill has one of my favorite views in Moffat:

Sure looks like fall here doesn't it?

 As you walk the circle around the forest on Gallow Hill you start on the east side looking toward another forest and the old Moffat Well and thing swing around to see the Beef Tub and then along looking up at the far ridge which is the Old Edinburgh Road.  Below is that ridge from the edge of the Gallow forest.

Look at ALL THE CHIMNEYS! There are at least 3 to 4 chimneys/fireplaces per house.

Coming down a different route into town off the Hill you approach a second old church in Moffat which has been converted to "condos".  I've never seen any of the units but it's a pretty cool idea.  The bell is still in the tower and all the old glass as well.

 On the High Street we notice a very old coach post marking the distance between Moffat and Edinburgh and Dumfries.  We hadn't noticed this post until this year.  Wonder how old it is?

While downtown finishing our walk we popped into Little's, the bakery, for a GI Loaf.  Don't know what that is technically but it's really good.  Our joke is Gordon calls it GI Joe loaf, and I call it Upper GI or Lower GI loaf.  It's a whole grain and it's good so whatever.  Then we go to the butcher for a couple of chicken fillets (pronounced fill-its!) for dinner and to the green grocer who is NOW open for a leek and a butternut squash for soup and in to the Moffat Toffee Shop for some caramels for a candy dish (I hear that Bob likes his sweets!).

Back at home I made vegetable soup and tried a new recipe for Butternut Squash Soup from America's Test Kitchen.  It was easy and delicious though I hate peeling the big funny shaped squash.  We are thinking that Bob and Jeanne might arrive tonight instead of Sunday morning and Bob is pretty much a pescetarian so options for him need to be thought out.

We made a yummy dinner of Chicken Picatta and broccoli and lounged reading and watching a little TV expecting a call from Bob and Jeanne. And sure enough, they call and are 10 minutes away!  YAY!  So they arrive, unpack some fabulous wines they've carted all the way from California and 2 pounds of Peet's coffee too.  We sip delicious red wine and catch up on their adventure in Scotland so far and Bob's antics driving in the UK.  They've already had a minor incident which required them to turn their first car in a get another one!  Oh well.  They eat veggie soup and have a cheese course and a caramel and we went to bed at 11ish. 

We are so happy to have our company here.  Today we plan on a nice long Moffat walk.  The big "market" is at the Town Hall from 11-3:00pm today so we'll go see what's what there and head down to the Woolen Mill for a free Scotch sampling.  I think a pub-crawl is probably in order for late afternoon and we have reservations at the Buccluech at 7:30 for dinner. 

The weather is supposed to be nice the next 2 days so .......fingers crossed!