Night Kirk Event at Dunnet Parish Church

One of the opportunities I miss about Edinburgh is the many churches which kept their doors open during weekday hours, allowing members of the public to view the interiors or simply sit in silence.

On my now defunct blog, I wrote about the historic church building which now is Dunnet Parish Church. From a comment, I see that from 2000hrs on 8 July to 0800 hrs on 9 July, Dunnet Parish Church will be holding a night – or early morning if you hold with vespers, and all that – kirk event.

Members of the public will be able to spend some or all of the period inside this building, and refreshments will be provided.

Current Thurso Tesco Site On the Market

It has been a long time coming. The Caithness Courier is reporting that the Millbank site holding the current Tesco store in Thurso has been placed on the market.

Over a year after I wrote about approval being granted for a new super-store to be constructed on the old Ua animal mart on School Hill, and nine months after I wrote about this new site being cleared, something tangible is happening.

Rhubarb Heaven

This was the end product in mid-May of a weekend of jamming and chutneying and ketchupping. Because of the intensely cold winter, the rhubarb corner at one of my vegetable plots was like the Day of the Triffids, which would have allowed me to produce three, fours times the amount.

I not am one for sweets and jams, but have been happily taking that which I did make on oatcakes and in yoghurt. The pickles and ketchup, which I just have started eating, however, proved worth the effort and wait.

Fresh Radishes

After a not-so brief hiatus, I have decided to get this blog going again. Since the last of the winter leeks were picked in April, nothing has been taken from the established allotment plot for eating except the tips of shallot leaves. Now radishes, which I had been intercropping with onions, are in full spate and being eaten aplenty.

This morning, I took more than I could eat in a few days because I was worried the onions were being crowded-out. Now it is a case of what to do with them, and I fancy roasting them and having alongside a stir-fry tonight. 

Financial restrictions as well mean that the leaves look enticing as well.  Not as obviously tasty as radish salad leaf, they still are palatable.  If eating raw – as I did in today’s sandwiches - some bruising will be needed to flatten the prickles.  Adding to cooked dishes, a flash boil for 45 seconds or so seems more than enough.

Nasty Throat Condition You Have There

Afrikaans rock.

Hyperborean North MP Seeks Spin-Off Fund from the Crown Estate on Pentland Firth Leases

It would make a welcome progression from the miserable return Caithness and the surrounding area has received in terms of social finance from half a century of Dounreay.

Plans gather pace for leases to renewable developers of the Pentland Firth, local MP, with the potentially lucrative funds being in the hands of the Crown Estate.  The Aberdeen Press and Journal reports that local MP, the Lord Thurso is pressing the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osbourne for a proportion of eventual profits to be set aside for a community fund.

The Liberal Democrat MP said last night: “I asked the chancellor at a meeting of the Treasury committee how he would ensure that local communities in the north would benefit from community funds from marine renewable energy.

“He ducked the question.”

Having watched the exchange on the Parliament channel, I can agree with that sentiment.

Hit ‘em Up, Yeah!

Carolina Chocolate-Drops, my latest favouritest band.

Blogging Silence

Maybe my dozen or so daily readers have been wondering what has happened. I have moved over to the group-blog, Harry’s Place where I will have a daily audience of as many as 200.

My burblings about Korea and Burma and Africa will be taken there. The Warren will remain open for Caithness news and oddball items which do not fit elsewhere.

To Embarrass One Conservative Party Leader is Unfortunate…

…

… to embarrass the next as well suggests you are a bit of a blabbermouth.

Still, at least no-one would consider mocking the Speaker.

The Last of the Free

This represents the last of both my own-grown potatoes and onions. (That said, I have retained the largest onion to use as a pagan offering to the soil next spring.)

Unless I can stretch out the leeks, I suspect I will starve this winter. Oh, no, there always is Tescos.