Another Chat, and This Time I'm On Time!

1. What's your favourite kind of salad?


I had never had Caeser salad until 2001 when my Mum and I visited Canada. Ever since then, it's been a real favourite. Of course, we don't really live in a 'salad climate', so it isn't the priority on our menus. Normally, we would think of ... our favourite Stew; our favourite Soup; or our favourite Pudding. 


Actually thinking of Salads can often make me want to go and put on another cardigan, or add another peat to the fire.


Figuratively speaking, as we have no peat fire. But ... Watch this space. That's all I'm saying.


2. How old were you when you learned to cook?


Oh, I don't really know if that's a question I can answer with a specific age. I think I just learned bits and bobs over the years in Mum's kitchen, and since I've been married the learning goes on and on. I am learning so much over these past few years. Now that I don't have the busy-ness of babies, it does give more time for browsing and trying new ways of cooking. Catherine and Katie are very keen cooks, and love to try out new foods and cooking methods. They are teaching me loads, and so the learning goes on and on.


3. What's your favourite kind of store? (grocery, garden, department, cooking, bookstore, etc)


Oooooh ... I can scrub the grocery one first. No, no, no.


Garden store: yep, I enjoy this, and especially if I'm able to actually buy something.


Department store: Not really. I'm not keen on shopping in this way at all. I think my years in Glasgow gave me my fill of these kind of shops. I have no inclination to go to the mainland for department store shopping. In fact, I'm getting a headache just thinking of it.


Cooking store: Ahhh, that sounds gooooood. I could browse in one of these all day but, like Patrice there is the possibility I would be driven mad with desire!


Book store: Oh, Patrice. Now you are talking. A bookstore with a coffee shop and comfy sofas ... really and truly, I think this must be my idea of an almost perfect day out.


4. If you could have lived during another time in history, what era would that have been?


I think I would be in the era of the Pioneers. I know that doesn't make a lot of sense, because had I been in that era, I'd have been here in Lewis, living a life of a great deal of hardship, but I love reading of the Pioneers and their journeys Out West.


They really touch my heart (as do many others), but I often think of some of the Scottish Highlanders who lost their homes during the Clearances, many of whom made their way across the Atlantic out of necessity. Because of their lives of hardship 'back home', they would have been used to tough times, and would have thought little of travelling west to look for better pastures. I think of them praising God that, though they had been thrown out of their homes and off their land in the Highlands of Scotland, yet God had a better plan for them. Many Scots made good lives for themselves and for their families in America and Canada. They took their strong faith, their work ethic and their commitment to their families across the ocean, and 'all things worked together for their good'.


And for the good of America and Canada, I believe. Of course I'm biased, but I do believe that the Scots who went across to these lands in past centuries gave these countries more than possibly any other group of people.


Maybe that's too skewed, and too biased. I'm willing to be corrected if I'm wrong, and I'd love to know what other Americans, Canadians and Scots think. 


5. I'm looking forward to _______________ .


The Plot!


I have work I must get done in the next few weeks before I 'allow' myself to begin planting seeds, but I can't wait to get my hands dirty again and to begin to see seedlings popping up out of the soil.


I. just. can't. wait...

These were Thyme seedlings from last year. I'm excited just looking at this photo.