Burns Supper!

Though later than the actual date of Burns' birthday, Rachel & I thought we'd continue our annual FHE Burns night. Rachel had a lot of uni on Monday, and I had none, so after work I started baking & cooking for the supper. I made Clootie Dumpling first, as it has to steam for about 4 hours! I did take a break for lunch, and I entertained myself with my iPod, but I was baking pretty much all day! By the time Rachel came home, and she, our flatmate Victoria & I were ready to go, I'd made/ cooked: Haggis, Neeps, Tatties & the pudding. Phew!

I'll admit, it was a bit overwhelming, to be cooking all day long (made me appreciate what Patsy does for us every month A LOT more!). But it was all worth it, and everyone had a lovely time, and everyone enjoyed the food!

Since I'll be posting pictures of the pudding, I must just quote this passage from "A Christmas Carol" (by Dickens, of course) which was running through my head the entire time!

"Hallo! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of the copper. A smell like a washing-day! That was the cloth. A smell like an eating-house and a pastrycook's next door to each other, with a laundress's next door to that! That was the pudding!"

For any reason, if you're interested, here are links to the other two years we celebrated Burns Night.
2012:
http://mairiglasgow.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/burns-night.html

2011:
http://mairiglasgow.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/burns-supper.html

I have oodles of string/ twine, but couldn't find it, so I just tied a knot in the cloth: the pudding about to be boiled.

The pudding completed! 

Rachel - about to launch into a wonderful reading of "Address to a Haggis" (by Robert Burns, of course!).

The Haggis in question.

You can see the bemused and delighted expressions on everyones faces at the poem. 

More happy faces! Who doesn't love Robert Burns?!

Haggis! Yummy!

Tatties! (mashed potatoes).

Neeps! (mashed turnips/ swedes/ rutabagas).

Burns Night Ceilidh!

Friday, the 25th of January, marked the anniversary of Robert Burns' birth. And all over Scotland (and probably throughout the world), Scottish folk celebrate the bard with a traditional meal (haggis, neeps & tatties), poems, toasts and the like.

On the 26th I was persuaded to go to a ceilidh up in Dundee. I don't usually travel distances for dances, and I am usually able to fall back on the excuse of having work the next morning. But as I had this week off work, no such crutches were available.

So I went. It was a mixture of modern music (and dancing) and ceilidh dancing. I didn't really participate in the modern stuff, but I'm pretty sure I danced every ceilidh dance!

Before the dance: doing our hair and playing with my camera phone.

Dovile.

Mercy & Ijeoma.

Rachel and Dovile.

Being silly - pretending to fight over some of Ijeoma's Nigerian money.

Mercy & me.

More messing about: Stephen (who gave us a lift) pretending to give us all a rose.

Left to right: Me, Mercy, Ijeoma, Rachel & Dovile.

The joys of the Subway!

On my way home (actually, from the temple the other day), I took some pictures of the subway, just to try out my iPhone camera. But despite that, I do have a soft-spot in my heart for subway systems.

Actually, saw this in the train station at Chorley. Moving on, now, to the subway...

Waiting for the train at St Enoch.

A clever advert for the GFT film festival (this is how the subway map looks).

Five Year Anniversary!

I can't really believe it's been five years since I got out my endowments at the temple in Palmyra, New York. On the 25th of January, 2008, I went through the temple, and my mother and my sister Heather were my escorts, and I had so many friends from the branch and stake come to be with me, it was one of the best experiences of my life!

I was able to find a couple of pictures taken at that time. Here is a picture of me standing outside the Palmyra temple. I'm wearing a sweater knit by my Grandma Jean (my dad's mother).

The Palmyra Temple as seen from the Sacred Grove area (roughly)

It hasn't been five years TO THE LETTER, but I was able to get cheap tickets down to Preston and attend the temple today. I haven't been since the summer, and I haven't been through a session since I don't know when! So it was lovely to be there again, and take things at my own speed, since I was by myself. But I didn't feel lonely. The temple always impresses me with its strong feeling of peace and love.

Approaching Preston Temple. Quite a bit of snow on the ground! Oddly enough, none up in Glasgow.

Coming out - with dusk falling (about quarter to five).

The moon! Lovely!

Jolly times at FHE

I apologise for not having posted much lately. The posts have been dreadfully thin on the ground! But tonight we had a great time at FHE (technically, I should call it home evening group, as we're not a family, but I can't be bothered). For our activity we made pretzels with Sis. Whitney. She had the dough made up already. It was SO fun!

Yum! Homemade pretzels!

Melissa, Sis. Whitney, Spring, Kris, Dovile & Rachel.

Kris, Dovile, Rachel & Mercy.

Spring's heart-shaped pretzel was the best!

the lovely Rachel.

Belated St Mungo Day

Apologies to those of you who have already seen these pictures on Facebook.

Well, St Mungo Day is the 13th or the 14th of January. I missed it by a couple of days, and celebrated on Tuesday, the 15th. I was going to try to pull of something more elaborate, but in the end I just did sugar cookies. As I have cookie cutters for all the St Mungo symbols (a fish, a bird, a tree and a bell) I just had to make them this year (I missed it ENTIRELY last year!).

I did sample a few that broke or that were over-cooked, but all the rest I gave to the Young Women Tuesday night.

I selected the best looking ones for the photos.

Fledgling iPod photos!

I know it sounds silly, but I love the vintage look of the photos that one can take on Apple products: Instagram, Hipstamatic, etc. and have looked forward to a day when I could try them out. And here is that day! I took a few pictures around my flat, and yesterday I wandered about the Botanic Gardens to snap a few pics.

Poinsettias 

The view out my window.

A close-up of my blanket Morag made for me.

Kibble Palace.

Blossoms - in January!

Late Christmas - how jolly!

So, there were a couple of boxes wending my way that I didn't get till last week. One was because of customs fees which I had to pay, and then they delivered my box to the local postoffice, but the postoffice didn't believe me, and I had to go back a few days later and get it. They still seemed a bit dubious, but at least they handed over the box.

All in all, I have received three late Christmas boxes, all of which were well worth the wait! I had a wee box from Morag (with some lovely Trader Joe's stuff and a couple of lovely hand-made things); a box from my sister Jennie and my niece Afton (Afton had my name in our family Xmas swap thing). That yielded some lovely jewellery, some 1920s style door signs, and a lovely grey sweater. The third box was a NEW iPod that my siblings got for me. I can now take vintage looking pictures! I confess, that's the main reason I wanted one. But I'd hardly had it a half hour when I was convinced of its other charms as well!

The beautifully wrapped gifts from my sister Jennie & my niece Afton!

Riverside Museum

Last Friday I met up with Sylvia, a lady in my ward, and her delightful daughter Maya. She wanted to go to the transport museum, and invited other people along. At first it was just us, then we were joined by other women (Kate and her daughter, and Leigh and her son). It was a jolly adventure around the museum.

These reminded me of "A Child's Christmas in Wales" when he gets a kit like this and makes  a sea-faring tram.

Kate's little girl sitting in the old subway car.