Honey and Lemon

I'm sat here nursing a mug of honey and lemon and trying desperately to stay awake long enough for the roast to finish cooking before I can curl up in bed and try to get some sleep. The plus side of having a cold is that you wake yourself up with coughing at unholy hours of the morning and you get a phenomenal amount of housework done. Our house was spic and span by 8am on Saturday - I wasn't previously certain that such a time existed. The slight down side is that I've been propping my eyelids open with matches today at work - I think I need to combine the reputedly non-drowsy cold medicine with something with a good caffeine kick - maybe chocolate!

I've been knitting like a crazy thing over the weekend from my position under the quilts but for reasons that may become obvious in due course this latest pair of H's boy socks need to stay under wraps until I've finished the second one.

Until then, how about some pictures of equally rainy times but in much more beautiful scenery, the view over Gullane golf course and into the Forth of Firth on a day when sunshine interspersed with torrential downpours.



We'd stopped off at Gullane for a quick break from the rain on our way back to Edinburgh after visiting Tantallon and then Dirleton Castle.

Dirleton can look quite imposing from some angles - mainly the land side, and you wouldn't want to approach the main drawbridge without being certain of your welcome - far too many opportunities for arrows followed by boiling oil from the murder holes

On the inside though it's a lot more homely as castles go, certainly a softer more cosy feel than the bleak austere exposure of Tantallon


And they would have been well fed and watered - these

are two of the storage chambers and the bakehouse at the end and on the top was an enormous hall and another kitchen with two giant fires - we're talking big enough for a serious roast, and never mind about the jointing.

The castle itself was abandoned in the 17th century but the gardens were kept up as part of the estate to the new house and so there is an odd juxtaposition of a medieval castle with a bowling green, formal Victorian box garden and, and this is a matter of some pride (they have a plaque), the world's longest herbaceous border:










This is all the one border - it goes around a fair few corners and it's 215 metres long. It's also stunningly beautiful which helps.

A pretty place and some lovely memories.