insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman
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The evolution of salt
The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine is an ancient Chinese text dating from 300 BC. A translation from the text reads, If too much salt is used in food, the pulse hardens… The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine The Chinese knew more than 2000 years ago that salt causes high blood pressure. In…
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Homemade haggis
I made my own haggis last night for the first time ever and it was delicious, better than the supermarket version. I got the recipe from the Scottish Vegan Cookbook by Jackie Jones. It’s a wonderful book and I do recommend it. Scottish food is renowned for being fatty, meaty, and generally unhealthy but Jackie…
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Birsemore Loch
There’s a lovely loch in Aboyne that I didn’t know existed until recently. It’s only small so good if you just want a quick walk through forest. It’s called Birsemore Loch and it’s special not just for the beautiful scenery but because you can walk past the Queen’s Hut which is a log cabin built…
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Loch Callater
It’s always nice to find a new walk we haven’t done before and that happened today with a walk up to Loch Callater. The walk starts about 3 miles south of Braemar at Auchallater Farm. There’s a small carpark there which costs £3. It’s about 7 miles to the loch and back from the carpark…
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Knock Castle in the snow
It snowed in Ballater today so we decided Knock Castle in snow was the place to be and we weren’t disappointed. You can’t beat a castle ruin in Scotland in winter snow. I got Ben doing a jumping shot this time. My jumping shot is fab. Look ma, no legs! You can go inside Knock…
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Craigendarroch, Ballater
We went for another fantastic walk today, this time up Craigendarroch in Ballater. I got lots of great photos. We’ve climbed up Craigendarroch many times now and in all seasons and weathers. Today was mostly sunny and a very easy climb except for the beginning bit where we ended up off the path. We usually…
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Seven Bridges Walk and Knock Castle
We went on a lovely, long walk in Ballater today called the Seven Bridges. We extended it slightly to Knock Castle and all up we think it was around 6.5 miles. The walk starts at the old train station and follows the main road out of town towards Braemar initially, before turning left onto Invercauld…
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Fruit and hare
I had a busy weekend again although not quite as busy as the last one. I did some wallpapering in the kitchen. With the cupboards extending to above the picture rail I was able to easily wallpaper a section next to the start of the cupboards. Plus some of the old wallpaper was damaged when…
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Wildfarmed flour at Bandit Bakery
All the bread at Bandit Bakery today was baked using Wildfarmed flour. This is wheat that is grown alongside other crops to increase soil health and biodiversity. Instead of one giant monoculture of wheat, the rows of wheat are interspersed with a herbal lay of plants, grasses, and legumes. I bought my usual loaf of…
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More dramas in the night
We had another eventful night last night but nothing life-threatening this time. First I was woken at around 1am by the sound of Elizabeth’s bedroom door. I went in to find her getting dressed. I told her it’s 1am and she laughed and went back to bed. This morning she told me she thought she…
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Busy weekends, crochet, step stools, greenhouse, and war
What a busy weekend this has been. I went into hyperdrive on Saturday and accomplished a huge number of jobs which felt good. I started the day packaging things for the post office and writing a letter. Then I dropped some used carbon dioxide cylinders off at the corner store to return to the manufacturer…
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A new kitchen: before and after pics
This week we got a new kitchen. It was planned last year and fortunately went in after the laundry fire and not before. The fire did make things a little more chaotic because last weekend we had to empty our old kitchen of stuff; stuff we were planning to put in the laundry. Instead we…
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The day after the fire
I didn’t sleep very well last night. I could smell smoke all night and it’s difficult to ignore that when the previous night this same sense of smell helped avert a serious disaster. I kept reassuring myself it was just the left-over smell from the previous night but then when I shut my eyes my…
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Fire in the night
We had an eventful night last night and a close shave. I woke up at around 4:15am and thought I could smell burning plastic. My body wanted to go back to sleep but my brain was telling me to go and check it out. I have a very strong sense of smell so I got…
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The highland dance exam, some crochet, and groat oats
Elizabeth did her highland dance exam today and she thinks it went well but she won’t get her results for at least a few weeks. She got highly commended in the national exam she did last year. Thankfully the socks arrived in time along with the kilt which we sent off to have the hem…
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A boy in a suit
Daniel is on a school trip. This is one of the nice things about being back at a regular school: he gets to go on trips with his classmates. On one of the evenings they were planning to go to the ballet and we were told a jacket and tie would be required. Daniel was…
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War in Europe
Europe woke up on Thursday morning to news that Russia had invaded Ukraine. British and American intelligence over the past couple of weeks was spot-on, it seems, as they had been warning of an imminent attack. This impassioned plea from the Ukrainian UN ambassador to the Russian ambassador less than an hour after the assault…
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Snow and lunch in Braemar
We had a lovely day in Braemar today: lunch followed by a walk in the woods. We finally got some snow and it was mostly sunny all day.
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Groat oats
The past two days I’ve had groat oats for breakfast. Many people probably don’t know what these are which is sad because they’re just unprocessed oats. Oats you buy in supermarkets have been processed, albeit only a little bit, to make them faster to cook. Groat oats are the original grain unaltered. For this reason,…
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Bad science
I’ve just finished reading Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. It was published in 2008 but is still relevant today. Indeed I think it should be compulsory reading for high school students and all journalism undergraduates. There’s a fascinating chapter on the placebo effect, an eerily familiar chapter about the denial by some that HIV causes…
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