Weekending

 Before, just, we start on the coming weekend I wanted to record* a little from our last weekend.  Sunday was a gorgeous warm day and we decided to make the most of it with a walk and picnic at Woodhall Dean.

The Dean is only a handful of miles inland but as we drove back home, heading down towards the coast, we could see a thick bank of haar along the coastal fringe.  It didn't extend far inland this time so we were clear at home too - but some days we can be contending with cold, cloudy and damp weather knowing fine well that if we were a little further inland we would be fine - and on others we can gleefully relax in the sun's rays with the haar not quite reaching us.  One of the downsides of east coast Scotland, I guess.

Anyhow we had another lovely walk.  Only meeting a few other people and enjoying the wonderful vibrant greenery and spring flowers.  The bluebells were still going strong.

A few trees were climbed.

Some sticks were lugged and thrown.  And there was time to paddle and mess around in the burn. 

We collected wild garlic and a variety of greens but mostly stinging nettle and dead nettle so that I could make 'Nettle Revenge'.  I have posted about this walk several times but in this one (gosh the children have changed in the 2 years since then!) I recorded Angus' tumble off the path into a huge bank of nettles (he is rather prone to falling off and into things - usually water, so nettles at least made a change!).  

I used the greens to make Salsa Verde (tasty but not hugely exciting - recipe found in Alys Fowler's The Thrift Forager)....which the kids all ate surprisingly well.  I think Angus especially enjoyed the opportunity to get his revenge on the nettles!

The wild garlic has been made into pesto and we'll be scoffing it with pasta at some stage over the weekend.

And, of course, we enjoyed some yummy picnic.  Katie tried to supplement hers with worm and bracken but luckily we intercepted both before they made it into her mouth.  She's now almost crawling and pretty proficient at backwards commando manoeuvres.....something tells me she is going to be trouble!

8 1/2 months

Here's to a fantastic holiday weekend.  I hope you have a lovely time - wherever you are and whatever you are doing.  xxx
* I took these photos with our video recorder.  I didn't fancy carrying it as well as our camera.  The quality isn't so good but it did make life easier.