Thursday...

Dr Anne went to the utility room to get her washing.  She looked at the big freezer packed full with her fruit of the year.  The fuse had blown and the freezer was off.  Dr Anne opened the door.  Shock, horror, the freezer had been fused for a while.  All the fruit was defrosted.

Only one thing to do... Focus... Cancel all plans.  Jam making had to be the priority. The rasps were defrosted but fresh.  Dr Anne had 1kg jam sugar.   Shona, next door offered her jam pan and 4kg of jam sugar.  Into the pan, kg after kg, after kg rasps. Wendy arrived for the Pilates session.  She set off to Buckie for jam sugar as the Coop in Portsoy does not stock sugar suitable for jam.  She arrived back with 10kg.  

Dr Anne was lucky she had purchased her jam jars from Amazon and they had arrived at the beginning of the week.  There were 72 new jars.  

So...  25 jars made by the time Dr Anne was due to head to the dancing.  On the way up the road she told her friend Fia what had happened.  Fia said she would come round after tea to help.  Sure enough she was there with sister Ellen.  Fia wrote all the labels, Ellen unpacked all the jars.  By the time the girls went home there were 80 jars of rasp jam.  

The black currants and red currants were stewed and sitting in their jelly bags.  

78 jars of rasp jam are ready, labelled and packed for the charity stalls.  

The black currant jelly is cooling.  The red currant jelly is cooling.  Fed up with strawberry smoothies there are strawberry muffins in the oven.  

Sadly there was some waste but focus, help from friends and a high level of motivation made sure much was saved.

Bothy Day Oot

Dr Anne has just returned from the annual Salmon Bothy Day Oot.  The group started out at the museum in Turriff and its Butt and Ben Cottage.  Deirdre and her team gave the Bothy volunteers a wonderful welcome.  The group headed to Delgaty Castle for lunch and a free tour of the castle.  They wound their way up the spiral staircase higher and higher and found more and more treasures as they went. 

They stopped at the Windy Walks at Woodend before heading to the heritage centre at Tarves.

The team of volunteers welcomed the group and showed them the classroom and museum.  There was much chat and lots of transfer of information.

Supper was at the Aberdeen Arms Hotel in the square at Tarves.  It was a great day.

Church Outing

The church had its annual outing yesterday.  45 people travelled to Ballindalloch.  The weather was favourable, the cream tea was delicious, the company was good.  Olwen, Maureen and Dr Anne walked the ground and along the river.

The House by the Lake

Harding, T. (2015). The House by the Lake. London: Penguin Random House.

Greygranite gave Dr Anne this book as a birthday present.  Dr Anne opened her parcel in time for her visit to St Andrews last week.  Dr Anne has read a number of books about Germany and France recently mostly fired by Greygranite.  They intrigue her. 

One house, five families, one hundred years of history.  The house was by a lake on the outskirts of Berlin and not far from Potsdam.  

This is the kind of book Dr Anne would love to write.  It was about people, their context in time and their place in time.  We all live in a context and are encultured.  It so shapes what one is able to do.  The research was amazing.  The writing was enthralling.  Thank you again, Greygranite.

Dr Anne awards an 8.5.

Portessie Staff

The Portessie Staff had their annual reunion at the Mill of Tynet, our eighth.  The janitor, the secretary, the playground supervisor, the cleaner, and four teachers met with me.  We had a brilliant time with brilliant food.  

Pittenweem

The beautiful village of Pittenweem

Pittenweem Arts Festival

Dr Anne visited Pittenweem's Art Festival.  She spent hours walking around the village stopping at the venues - garages, front rooms, sunrooms, tents, halls, the school, in fact all over the place.  The theme seemed to be bikes.

Junior Summer School

Dr Anne has just returned from Junior Summer School at St Andrews.  She had a brilliant time.

The group danced, did crafts, ate, performed at the ceilidh and all passed their introductory medal test.