December

December at the cottage

Welcome to our cottage in December. This is my very last entry on A Year In A Country Cottage and I’d like to extend a very big thank you to everyone who has visited or followed this blog over the past year. I've had a lot of fun taking photographs throughout the past twelve months and sharing my country cottage with you. Early in the New Year I’m hoping to get my new author website up and running and I will be working hard on finishing my next novel - so I do hope you will all keep in touch.

This month started out on a festive note with a Christmas lunch in Babbity Bowsters restaurant in Glasgow. I took the train to the city, as I had said goodbye to my trusty Landrover during November in anticipation of a new and more economical vehicle, which had not yet been delivered. After enjoying a wonderful lunch with my writer buddies, I returned on the train but somehow, in the pitch black, I managed to get off at the wrong station! Mr Country Cottage, who was waiting to meet me, was not amused when I phoned him on my mobile phone to say I was stranded in a village almost twenty miles away. What happened next, however, was so absolutely typical of the lovely folk who live in the rural hamlets and towns in this part of Scotland. A woman on the platform, overhearing my anxious phone call, immediately offered me shelter in her home near to the station. She said I was welcome to sit by her fireside with a nice cup of tea – or something stronger if I felt it was needed. I was deeply touched by her generosity and grateful for the kind spirit of her concern. In a world were people are often shown to be uncaring and selfish, this I felt was a wonderful reminder, especially poignant at this time of the year, that there are still plenty of good and thoughtful people amongst us.

Mid month, the snow caused disruption here just as it had all over Britain. Getting out and about, by foot or in Mr Country Cottage’s van, proved difficult as the ice and snow deepened in the narrow lanes leading to our cottage. A weather warning had been issued and a white Christmas promised so I set to making lots of soup. Chestnut. Broccoli and Stilton. Scotch Broth. Pea and Ham. Bacon and Lentil. I love soup at any time of year but especially in the depths of winter!

The garden in the depths of winter

In the days that followed, Mr Country Cottage made sure we had fuel for the generator in case of a power cut and plenty of logs in the woodshed ready for the Yule Time fire. The dogs and the hens prepared themselves too. In Polly and Ruby’s case – this was to lie by the fire or warm themselves by the Aga. To the hens, it meant tucking into an extra meal of corn and making sure the local pheasants and wild birds didn’t steal it from under their very beaks.

Kylie watches out for those feathered friends who might steal her corn...

An opportunistic corn-poaching Pheasant heading for the hen hoose..!

Meanwhile, Polly toasts herself by the fire....

With Christmas fast approaching, I iced and decorated the Christmas cake - made last month and ‘fed’ with a very good Scotch Whisky - and adorned the seven foot high pine tree, now sited in the sitting room, with all it’s festive tinsel and baubles. Then, when number One and Two sons arrived back from their respective universities and declared that our family Christmas could officially begin - I suddenly remembered that thanks to not having a Landrover anymore - I hadn’t actually done any Christmas shopping!

In the sitting room: The Christmas tree decked in traditional decorations

In the garden: The Buddlia - decked in traditional winter snow

Just four days before Christmas, my new eco-vehicle – a retro styled Fiat 500 – finally arrived. The car transporter driver telephoned to say he couldn’t make it up to the cottage and so the car had to be delivered into a snowy lay-by a few miles away. I was beside myself with excitement and, although it had been ordered many months earlier, it being delivered so close to Christmas, made me appreciate it even more. I immediately drove into the village to do my Christmas shopping, and then, feeling very pleased with myself, I bravely headed back uphill to the cottage where I was met by my husband and three burly sons who helped me to coax the little car safely home. Since then, and to date, the snow and ice around the cottage has worsened and so I’ve yet to take a second drive out in my lovely little new car!

A four-wheel-drive it isn't!

Recipe for December: Turkey Soup.

There are so many things to do with turkey leftovers. This year I made a turkey and ham pie with the leftover Boxing Day ham and white turkey meat. I made a turkey Balti curry with the leftover brown meat - and a delicious turkey soup with the absolute pickings and bones. I’m pleased to report that not a morsel was wasted. This is how I make my tasty and warming turkey soup.

Ingredients:Leftover turkey meat scraps picked from the carcass
Several of the larger turkey bones, scraped clean
2 carrots, chopped
1 stick of celery, chopped
1 leek, sliced and chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 large potatoes, peeled and diced into small peices
1.5 litres of chicken or turkey stock – I used 3 Knorr chicken stock cubes
Seasoning of salt, black pepper, & thyme – fresh or dried.
A splash of olive oil
A dash of cream

Method:Wash, peel, and chop all your vegetables to a similar size and put into a large stock pot. Sweat over a low heat in the oil. Once softened, but not browned, add the stock, the turkey meat, and the bones. Stir together and bring to a rolling simmer. Skim occasionally as the oil and residue from the bones will come to the surface as a foam.
Simmer for 40 minutes either on the hotplate or in a simmering oven. Remove the bones. Use a hand blender or whizz in a processor to blend the soup and add a dash of cream before serving.

As Hogmanay approaches, I’d like to wish you all not only a very happy New Year but a wonderful New Decade to come. I hope that the year 2010 and beyond offers us all hope, peace, and prosperity.

Happy New Year!

Love from, Janice

September

All summer long, the cottage has been filled with the turbulence of our three teenage boys and all their visiting friends, fellow students, girlfriends, friends-friends, and cousins. So, September and the start of the autumn term, has given me a real taste of empty-nest syndrome. Son number three is staying on at school to take his Scottish Highers and is thankfully still living at home - but his elder brothers have both flown the nest to their respective universities in Edinburgh. Mr Country-Cottage and I are very proud - but feel the cottage is suddenly too quiet.

We decided to solve the problem of a too quiet life – by introducing a new and very noisy member to the family. We now have a rather handsome pure bred Welsommer cockerel to entertain and protect our three hens. He crows very loudly every morning at dawn. It’s a good job we don’t have neighbours!

What shall we call our cockerel..?

The new cockerel needs a name and, bearing in mind that the hens are named Kylie, Britney, and Beyonce, we would favour keeping with the theme of popular stars. So, this is where you come in, dear cottage-blog reader. Do click on this month’s poll to choose a name for him!

And, our other animal news is that on the 2nd of the month, it was wee Ruby’s first birthday!

Wee Ruby is one year old this month...

This month, interest has been expressed in knowing more about the cottage, so I thought I’d tell you a little about it’s fascinating history. It was built as a shepherd’s cottage in the mid 1800’s from the very same pink sandstone used to build nearby Drumlanrig Castle. Until we bought it twenty years ago, the cottage was owned by the estate of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry. We bought it in a derelict state. Before it fell into decline, however, it was lived in over very many years by families who were born here, happily brought up their children here, and died here.

Years ago, at the end of our lane, there was once a local school and schoolhouse. Both are now privately owned houses. So our own children, and all the children in the outlying farms and cottages, have to travel six miles into the village for their schooling. That is also where we go for the nearest shop and post office. The nearest supermarket is well over twenty miles away!

The aerial photograph below, taken by the Ordinance Survey in 1964, shows our shepherd's cottage being lived in by a family who worked the land. You can see the neat rows of cabbages and potatoes growing on the patch of land opposite the cottage and the greenhouse/potting shed in the garden. I suspect it was these keen gardeners who originally planted the blackcurrant bushes which still thrive today.

The next photograph was also taken by the Ordinance Survey but in 2004. You can see that we have bought a bit more land, expanded the boundaries, and built an extension to accommodate our growing family. In 2004, we were still to landscape the garden and to begin planting vegetables of our own, but this photograph shows the cottage more or less as it stands today.

To give you an idea of how the cottage looked when we bought it derelict from The Estate, these photos show the kitchen before and after. The sandstone fireplace which now houses the Aga is an original feature found behind the crumbling brick façade of the previous century fire and oven housing. What a find!

Above: Original Kitchen vs now and the cottage hallway in 1990..!

In the garden this month, I’m still picking tomatoes from the greenhouse. The peppers are doing very well but are all still green. They will go from green, to yellow, to red as they ripen over the next few weeks. The pumpkin was doing marvellously until wee Ruby thought it was a football for her to play with on the lawn. It goes without saying therefore that we won’t be having a home-grown pumpkin at Halloween this year. The weather in September has been much improved and I have spent some time in the garden doing a last sowing of salad, rocket, and coriander. Plants to admire this month have been the flowering Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ and the white-scented Prunus, which has taken over from the Buddlia in the garden as the focus for butterflies.

The White Flowering Prunus

Sedum, Autumn Joy

Recipe for September: Oven Baked Squash Frittata

A frittata practically cooks itself and is an excellent supper dish.

I cook mine by lining an oven dish with butter or olive oil rubbed greaseproof paper and letting the oven do all the hard work. This month, I’m using seasonal squash instead of my usual potato as the main ingredient and the result is texturally sublime.

The method:

Use the middle of the roasting oven on a range cooker or turn up the oven to moderately hot at 180 degrees C, 350 degrees F, or Gas 5-6. Chop up whatever squash variety you have to hand into cubes and together with a sliced onion, I used a red one for a fabulous colour contrast, roast until soft and golden/caramelised. Scrape into a mixing bowl and add grated or crumbled cheese for a contrasting flavour. Again, use whatever you have to hand, cheddar, feta, mozzarella: it will all taste good. Scatter in a handful of rosemary with rocket, spinach or watercress for texture and beat in the eggs – as many as you need for how many you are feeding and the capacity of your oven dish. Pour the whole mixture into the greased greaseproof paper lined oven dish and bake until it is fluffy, set, and a little bit wobbly on top. Turn out onto a plate or slice into wedges for serving. This is fantastic with a seasonal pickle or chutney!

Next month, in October, I’ll be looking forward to the golden days of Autumn closing in. Already, the leaves of the deciduous trees in the woodland opposite the cottage are starting to curl and dry with the increasingly shorter days. I feel there is something comforting about the gathering in of crops at this time and the enthusiastic collecting of fallen wood for the log fire. The village thanksgiving festival, celebrated every year in October to signify the end of the harvest, and known locally as ‘The Cairn’ is the official start of the long winter ahead in this part of Scotland. No doubt, I’ll have lots to tell you about it all next month…

Janice

Welcome - Blog Intro

Welcome to A Year In A Country Cottage. ©Copyright

This is a personal blog created to record a year living in a small stone cottage deep in the Scottish countryside. My family and I (husband and three teenage sons) have lived in this once derelict cottage, which used to be a shepherd's bothy, for almost twenty years now - and having moved here from the city – we love it. The views from the cottage are breathtaking, no matter the weather or the time of year. In the summertime, the garden produces flowers and vegetables. In the wintertime, we can be snowed in and it is important for us to be as self-sufficient as possible. As well as our teenagers, we keep four hens, Madonna, Kylie, Beyonce and Britney, and two West Highland doggies, Polly and Ruby.

My plan is to update this blog on the last day of every month.

As a keen cook, I'll tell you what's cooking on my Aga and I'll share with you my own exclusively developed recipes. I’ll talk about the weather, my hens, and my dogs, and note the progress of whatever I’m managing to grow in the garden. I'll include lots of photos and blog about all the joys and achievements, the trials and the tribulations, of living a country lifestyle.

So, if you’d like to drop in now and again, I’d be delighted - and even more so if you decided to leave a comment!

Janice

These photos are of the Nith valley on a bright day and also on a bitterly cold day, in January 2009, as viewed from the dirt-track outside our cottage and from the hillside behind it: First photo by Janice - the second photo taken by #3 son, while out sledging.

See you on the 31st January...?

Janice

NB All rights reserved. Extracts or photographs may not be reproduced in any form except with the permission of the author.