It is witchy time again, and although it will be a different Halloween this year, there are signs that the magic is still around – pumpkins guarding the doorways, witches’ faces drawn on windows and little kids all excited to dress up and have a ghoulish time. We ate our pumpkin ages ago so we are spoil sports, but I did see a very nice recipe on TV for a curry sauce that I might try next week. 

This year I have become my mother’s and grandmother’s daughter. They had huge doubts about me whilst going through my teenage years and even in my thirties, but suddenly I have discovered the joys of the hedgerow, and have become a born-again jam maker and forager. Natasha is in a different league, as she and Leo have become members of the mushroom club and can tell what can be eaten and what must be avoided. I find the fungus world quite beautiful, and am happy to leave the fairies to their little domed dwellings.

Bonnie made a beautiful picture of mushrooms that won first prize, and quite rightly so.

Hazel has been ready for Halloween for days. 

John and I have hunted for brambles to mix with brandy, also apples and plums for chutney, and we were given a gift of sloes which I turned into gin.  I have made raspberry vinegar, elderflower cordial and every kind of jam. The kitchen has been a production line of ladles and jars and labels. 

Today the sea is agitated and the sky is grey; storms are forecast. I did brave the splattering rain to harvest the angelica plants that I have grown this year. The herb of the angels I am told and so apt for this time, as it is medicinal and was once thought to help fight the plague. Nick’s ex-girlfriend sent me a collection of seeds from all around the world, to help fight disease and build up our immunity. I was quite bemused, but dutifully planted a selection from the packets, even tiny poppy size seeds from the Andes which produced small little tubers that I am to plant next year and which should give me a more recognisable crop of potatoes. I have Cape gooseberries, Japanese cherry, rhubarb and so many more which all came from tiny packets. I am tending them carefully.

Anyway the angelica flourished and  today I have blanched the straw-like stems, and will then peel the outer skin and dunk them into a sugar solution. The whole process is fiddly and prolonged, and I know no one will want any… but I shall insist! 

I could also make tea from the roots and put leaves into a chicken dish – we shall see.

We have been walking around, further afield now that restrictions have been lifted (for the moment) and searched for bits of broken pottery along the beautiful Fife coast line for Irene to turn into mosaic pictures. The days have been sunny and we have relished being out and about. 

We walked up by Falkland Palace and through the path to the Pillars of Hercules. The day was beautiful, and we stopped in the antique shop that specialises in violins. An elderly man was strumming his guitar, and pointed us to a pile of books which he was selling. They were his autobiography. We dutifully bought one, and later found out all about Bob Beveridge, an ex-CID officer for Glasgow back in the 70s and 80s. His violin/antique shop has been visited by Johnny Cash and later by his daughter Roseanne and in fact Roseanne Cash recorded three songs in the back room of Bob’s shop. 

We chatted, and our eye looked over the wallie dugs, old dinner sets and specialist violins, but it was not a buying day.

We do love the little village of Culross with its fabulous history and colourful quaint houses, but best of all we like to tramp across the fields behind the village to the old graveyard. It has become so familiar to us now, and further along to the plague graves where the remains of children from Dunfermline lie in the woods. 

We look after Dillon twice a week at the moment, and took him to Torryburn, where the woods and village were used in the setting of the TV series Outlander. The woods were magical and so we played Hide and Seek. I was mad with John as he hid so well, I really thought Dillon and I were going to be walking in circles for ever. Scary places in the deep dark woods.

Talking about Outlander, Jamie was spied modelling a kilt outside my old house in Glenelg!

Last week we meandered along the coastal path from Limekilns to Rosyth, where the huge aircraft carriers were recently built. 

We found the derelict tumbledown ruin of Rosyth Church and its graveyard. It was naturally on  the ‘Coffin Road’ so we duly went in to look at the inscriptions of ‘who lies here’. I was intrigued with the stones marking how many ‘rooms’ were available in each grave.  I have never heard that term. On looking it up, it really means how many ‘lairs’ are available, and people would buy the plot, and have it dug to the depth they might require. 

Anyway we walked back and had a walk about, and dutifully photographed a dragon that someone had erected in their front garden.

My birthday came and went, and it was good. Particularly the lobster cooked with a thermidor sauce. It was just so delicious. Gerry’s oven had broken down, and as she had offered to make the cake she had to resort to buying one instead. We were all a bit shocked at the size! It had about five tiers, probably good for a wedding. Fantastic and we shared it amongst us, and needless to say our half is gone. 

Because our university classes are all cancelled, I did look up to see what might have been on offer, and one tutor was going to be doing American Literature, so I acquired the books and read them, and am so glad that I did. Of course I miss the tutorials that would have gone alongside, but still I am all the better for having read something new and different.

Housekeeping by Marlynne Robinson, A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, Winters Bone by Daniel Woodrell, and I have just finished Jazz by Toni Morrison. 

Sewing has been limited. I did do a picture, but turned it into a table runner.

It’s quite nice. I have also made a Shetland beanie and am now making another.

I painted some buoys, which are fun, John was not impressed with my Forth bridge, but at least its recognisable amongst the flowers. I have just done the undercoat for two more. I am waiting for inspiration before I get started. 

John has been fishing with Mike, at a pool near the Five Sisters Zoo. They were so lucky and caught five rainbow trout between them, and John was bemused as he quietly cast his line and heard the roar of lions in the background… this is Scotland? 

So life goes on, we are busy, and like everyone else, we are making the best of this year, trying to live and be happy but also keeping our distance and being safe. Who knows how the winter will develop? 

I have put lavender detox pads on the soles of my feet, and John bought me a mighty machine that sends electricity up through your feet and helps circulation. We watch TV, and hum Yves Montand as we look out, and see ‘the autumn leaves pass by the window, the autumn leaves of red and gold’.

This might be my last blog, in which case fare thee well.  But if not, and I decide to pay up for another year’s subscription, you will hear from me in a while!

And I saw a tree in Edinburgh, totally in Lockdown!