Where did the weekend go? It’s nearly November and autumn is in full bloom. I wish I’d taken some photos today as Aberdeen is looking very pretty in its autumn clothes.
My tomatoes are just about dead but there are still a few fruits ripening. Two weekends ago I picked this from the greenhouse.
And Ben picked a heap of apples from the ground on one of his walks. It’s apple season!
I turned them into a blackberry crumble using the last of the wild blackberries. It’s nice to have some overlap between apple season and blackberry season so we can combine the two.
Elizabeth’s highland dance kilt was getting a bit small for her so I started looking for a replacement and I bet you’ll never guess how much a kilt costs? £400. Kilts you buy in the high street or in tourist shops aren’t proper kilts and you’ll easily see the difference if you hold a proper Scottish kilt in one hand and a tourist kilt in the other just by the weight difference. Scottish kilts have 7-8 yards of fabric which is 6-7 metres. They are very heavy and contain lots of fabric. This gives them a really nice sway when dancing in one.
I found a second-hand kilt made using the lovely Bonnie Marine tartan however the person got the measurements wrong in the ad and it’s smaller than I thought so Elizabeth will probably outgrow this soon too. It fits her now at least. We may have to stop feeding her.
In the photo the hem is all the way down – I initially took it completely down so there’s no hem at all then decided it could go up about half an inch to hide the selvedge and also because I think it was a bit long. This afternoon I spent nearly too hours sewing the hem – that’s how much bloody fabric there is! Does that make me Scottish now that I’ve sewn the hem on a kilt?
When I was looking online for Elizabeth I found a whole highland dance outfit from Oxfam for £140. It looked a bit on the large size from the measurements but not far off so I took the risk and bought it – it was so cheap given how much kilts cost new. It arrived and was too big for her but fits me so now I have one too. Hopefully it’ll fit her in a few years. It’s a lovely heavy kilt too. It’s creased in the photo but I’ve since had it dry-cleaned and it’s perfect now.
I haven’t coloured my hair since the start of the year when I decided to go grey disgracefully. Yesterday I had it cut and chopped off the very bleached blonde bits at the bottom. It’s looking more natural now and I like it.
Whenever I question my decision I look at the model Tera O’Hara’s Instagram. She has embraced her grey and looks beautiful.
Tonight we’re having vegan haggis for dinner which we all love and that I make from scratch now but without the sheep’s stomach of course. We’ll wash it down with some Glenlivet. What a wonderful culture the Scots have: haggis, whisky, tartan and kilts .. not to forget the fantastic folk music we’ve come to enjoy. I love it all.
Don’t forget it’s the regeneration episode of Doctor Who tonight.
rachel.blog 
I take it that you on-sell Elizabeth’s outgrown kilts? How much do they fetch? Just curious to see how close to £400 🙂
Yes I will sell her old kilt. She’s only outgrown one so far and I haven’t sold it yet. I’m still trying to decide how much and what exactly to sell because there’s also socks, a vest, and a blouse. Generally a good second-hand kilt will fetch upwards of £250 but it depends on the size (child versus adult) and the condition. People also often sell them together as a set with socks and vest or jacket.