Fruit loaf for the freezer. Instead of sultanas I used mixed dried fruit with peel for a slightly more festive version.

I am enjoying this. Next, venison in red wine.

..for holiday season visitors. I lined three containers with double layers of cling film as I won't be serving 8 - 10 people at once.

I used bought meringues, popped them intto a bag

and enjoyed bashing them with a rolling pin!

I nixed the neringue with the whipped cream adding strong coffee and raspberry liqueur. I plan to serve it with raspberries, pomegrante seeds and a spoonful of the liqueur.

Drizzled some of the strong coffee on top, folded over the clingfilm and put on the lids.  Three desserts now in the freezer.

(There is a link to Sarah Raven's original recipe on Saturday's post.)

The moon is about to topple!

..as a stepping stone to Christmas.

I enjoyed this little video  (Am I right in thinking that in the UN list of happiest countries UK didn't even appear? How very sad!)

I was tempted to buy a lovely white table wreath I saw lately, but I looked around at home and used this little 'running foxes' garland I bought cheaply in Ikea some years ago.

by listing the ingredients needed for some delicious holiday food. I am going to make this this week.

Tonorrow I will check what I have got - ingredients for recipes, wrapping paper etc, stamps and cards, and I might get the decorations box out from the cupboard under the eaves...

Nice things to do on grey wet November days.

What will you be doing?

With perhaps just a hint of Christmas? Too soon for baubles and twinkly lights but preparing the candles for the season..

.
Starting to think about table decorations and making lists. Might get a little early baking done and in the freezer. A long slow run up to Christmas might be the thing this year. Leisurely.

Have you begun preparations yet?

..at it's most beautiful.

And we got that afternoon tea which was a gift from last Christmas! A lovely treat.

I loove that the exquisite facade of Mackintosh's Willow Tearooms has been so beautifully restored. It is hard to beleive it opened in 1903. One of the delights of the city.

I also love that I can walk out of my front door into this..

I am so lucky to have access to both.

Town or country? Do you have a prefernece?

A herd of wild boar have been creating havoc in gardens in Strachur, a village on Loch Fyne  11 miles to the north of us and word has it they are heading this way! There are about twenty of them. I didn't even know we had wild boar in Scotland!

I wonser if the soap trick works with wild boar..

Here is the beautiful viburnum plicatum 'Mariesii' in early summer.

It appeared to die a number of years ago then over the past five or six years floourished again, mysteriously. However there is no mystery as to why it is now a stump. The deer have eaten it!

I don't usually get deer in the garden until spring, or when there is snow on the higher ground and I manage to deter them by putting down bits of strongly perfumed soap (works a treat to protect your tulips by the way).

Woodsmoke..I do love this smell.

I suspect the decoratons on my wreath  (see this post) are a bit delicate for the front door, exposed as it is to wind and rain.

The wreath itself is sturdy enough but the leaves will just have to take their chance..

I have to get out there and enjoy it.

Coffee for ten in my small sitting room today! Our village Conservation Group got together for the first time since Covid to tidy Coronation Wood and plant lots of bulbs in tubs. It rained. But we are hardy folks, and it was good to catch up and get to know some new residents..

Click on Menu to see the story of Coronation Wood.

 
The ceazier the wider world, the more I relish creating order and calm in my narrow domestic sphere.  A stack of freshly laundered towels, a linen cupboard all in order, a newly defrosted and organised freezer, well stocked, a pretty table setting and a home cooked meal. 

I have control in my little world and it feels good!

Are you in charge in your home and is it your sanctuary where sanity can rule? (Even if it isn't always tidy.) Does that feel good to you too?

..is defrosting the freezer. It takes forever! But I found the last of the bramble and apple puddings and had it for lunch.
Such comfort when the sky is dark and the rain is lashing down.

What is your favourite comfort food in November?

Aching feet after a day's shopping, But counting my blessings that I can afford to shop and that I have a place to come home to. This winter must be about helping those who are not so lucky.

I almost missed a brilliant exhibition, and I did miss an afternoon tea! 

Last Christmas I was given a voucher for afternoon tea for two at Patisserie Valerie, so a friend and I set off for Edinburgh for this lovely treat.  However  we decided to look foirst at this exhibition

It was so wonderful, with lots of work I had not seen before that we completely lost track of the tme and discovered we had left it too late for the afternoon tea! We will just have to go again.

Here re two of my favourites. An exquisitely balanced composition by Vuillard, and a joyous Dufy which is about 2 m x 1.5 m.

I hope you were able to read the text of the Matisse I posted on Friday and I am  sorry the quality of the photographs is not very good.

With gratitude.

Thank you to Susan in Dorset who recommended this programme on BBC Radio 3. I particularly love Music For Growing Flowers in 10 October episode, and Hana Rani's Safe Haven from 31 October - the sound of rain on the roof of the attic in her home in Poland. (The programmes  are available for a  limited time.)

Each episode features a different theme and has a different guest who shares their safe haven.  Delightful!

I love that the blog is a two way process and that over the years you have told me about wonderful books, music, films and videos, events and places. You enrich my life and I thank you.

It may well be a bit  narcissistic to write about my clothes (It may well be a bit narcissistic to write a blog!) but clothes are important to me and fashion is my fun.

I think I have always loved clothes and can remember very clearly things I wore when I was little more than a toddler. I studied printed textiles at Glasgow School of Art, and I love people watching - just seeing what people wear and trying to understand what it is about those people who just get it right...

There are quite a lot of posts under Simply Stylish if you have time to browse, and in 2013, in an attempt to get my own style right for me and avoid buying things I then did not wear, I started my own style notebook.  See here.  This has been invaluable.

The biggest wardrobe change since then is  that as I can no longer drive, I use public transport and that definetiely requires different clothees. Buses, ferries and trains combimed with unpredictable weather can make it quite a challenge,

Well travelled Mary collects scarves as souvenirs - a treasure trove of memories!

Here's how my friend stores and displays her scaves. You can see her colour palette is very different to mine, and she loves pattern. I think it looks like an art work. Gorgeous.

Scarves

 
I've been sorting winter scarves. I love scarves. The thicker ones I keep rolled up in a drawer, the thinner ones I hang. I prefer natural materials - wool, felted wool and linen. Most of them I have had for many years. No matter what I am wearing I think adding a big loovely scarf and a pair of earrings can take me anywhere!

A different kind of street photography. I enjoy a browse every now and thhen of The Sartorialist. This one features scarves..

..some early Christmas gifts from M&S. (At least one of them is for me!)