Fooled again

Join me for a cup of tea and a wander back through all that February has had to offer. It might be a short month, but we seem to have packed plenty in.

Blue skies and green shoots: feeling energised for spring.

Each year, by the time we get towards the end of February, my yearning for spring grows strong - gardens beginning to bloom, days slowly unfolding, and temperatures rising. I don’t know about yours, but our garden is beginning to show life. The snowdrops have given us a wonderful display; I am seeing the cheery dash of yellow unfurling from the vibrant, fresh spring green of the daffodil stems. Buds are appearing, and a reminder of all the things we planted last year, ready to give another wonderful display.

Of course, the moment we get some blue sky and the mercury rising, I get ahead of myself - perpetually the victim of Fool’s Spring. On Friday I was about to get out the short shorts and the BBQ - fooled again, see. I say this as I write to you from a very grey and rainy Argyll, after two utterly glorious days. Probably best to pop the legs away for a wee while.

But, as we flip over the calendar to March, I thought I’d reflect back on February, and all the gifts it has offered up.

Social butterflies

If I was to describe myself, I would say I’m an introvert in many ways. Don’t get me wrong, I do get my energy from being surrounded by people - well, the right people. For example, at work, I do enjoy working collaboratively. In my personal life, I come away from friends’ homes with zest and energy - whether it be for decorating Keeper’s Cottage, doing something in the garden, or just focusing on something creative. So in that respect, I gather my energy through being an extrovert. But when it comes to my downtime, I am quite content with my own company. I potter, read, write, draw and paint. If it’s a weekend, I would happily garden with my podcast on, or go for a walk with the boys. Evenings in front of the fire with a book or the TV might be some people’s idea of boring, but I am rather content, safely ensconced at home.

Whether it's a quiet weekend, or a cosy evening, I am very much in my happy place at home, with a good book and the boys snoring away.

Since we moved to Scotland, and to a rural and relatively remote (by some standards) area, we have actually never been quite so busy or sociable. This month we have finished our three final league matches for the carpet bowling - with mixed results score-wise, but jolly lovely evenings nonetheless. We had our ‘pub night’ at the village hall. Each month, a couple of us from the village hall committee take turns to host the evening. This month I was part of the team, and we provided pulled pork rolls - or a mushroom equivalent for the non-meat eaters. Paul, being a good sport, also formed part of the team. He may have his faults - and he subscribes to this blog purely to find out what they are(!) - but when it comes to mucking into social activities, he’s a trooper. And it was a blast. The only sticky point for me was the bar mathematics. You see, I am of a digital age - so when I worked in retail, I had machines to perform my arithmetic. But alas, at the village hall, it requires my brain to step in - and sadly, all mine is good for is overthinking the inconsequential. But I got there. Possibly fleeced all my neighbours out of a few pounds here and there - but it all goes into the village hall, so worse crimes have been committed.

And on that note, a wee group of lovely friends went to the local pub quiz, which was a hoot. And I won - the raffle. It’s funny, when I’m participating in a pub quiz, I do instantly get transformed back to my geography classrooms - where I was often daydreaming of being an adult - but I cannot for the life of me tell you what the highest mountain is, or the longest river, or which flag isn’t rectangular or square. I often think I’d have been better spending my time as a trainee gardener or something practical - though I’m sure that would have flouted a few laws around child labour. But still, years of enduring theoretical geography haven’t done me much good either (I pick on geography because of the bulk of the quiz questions, but geography teachers reading this, don’t take it personally, I was hopeless across the board).

Come dine with me

We have also enjoyed the company of friends around the country-cottage dining table at Keeper’s Cottage too, which is always wonderful. I didn’t actually take any pictures, not ideal for the blog, but a sign of a good time that was had!

I am not a bad cook. I know my way around a kitchen enough to serve some ‘grub’. But I’m most certainly not innovative. Set me an invention test, and I’d fall to pieces. But we managed to cobble together chicken and leek pies (Paul’s a dab hand at baking, so stepped in for the pastry), accompanied by buttery mash, mustardy cauliflower cheese and honey and harissa carrots (the latter two being Ottolenghi recipes, which never fail and are always a treat). This was followed by brioche bread-and-butter pudding (and an adaptation of Nigella’s no-churn ice cream, where I substituted the espresso powder for Cadbury’s hot chocolate and the espresso liqueur for some Bailey’s, then laced it with leftover Ferrero Rocher). The bread-and-butter pudding was a bit of a trial as I am doing a large quantity for tomorrow night’s end-of-season bowling supper, and I have around 100 brioche buns occupying my freezer from a cancelled village hall event last year - so I am very much attempting to find creative ways to use them up. I firmly believe 2026 will be the last year I ever eat a brioche bun.

What does March have in store?

This month we finished our kitchen revamp off - with the exception of a few snagging jobs, which we really must do.

Snippets of the revamped kitchen - which is now a place I'm thoroughly enjoying spending time in.

Our fencing chap came back to remedy our early fencing faux pas - we asked for him to put it up a certain way, only to realise we had made our driveway impossibly tight for turning in and the areas we’d protected for veggies were entirely shaded by overbearing, invasive rhododendrons. So we have bitten the proverbial bullet and paid to have it re-routed. The area is looking a little forlorn at the moment, but we know that it’s a case of second time a charm. He is due to return mid-March to replace all the fencing dividing us and our neighbour - as the current fence is now being held together by DIY battens erected during the last storm; it’s looking very sorry for itself and has in places decomposed entirely.

A bit of an eye sore, but with a spruce up - we know we’ve done the right thing (the second time around).

Whilst I find this type of work both invasive and destructive while it’s happening, and an incredibly dull way to spend money, it will make such a difference, and give us a real framework to begin rebuilding parts of the garden and making it ours.

I also want to sit down and begin planning the things I want to do outdoors. I would love to grow veggies again - potatoes and courgettes, like before. Salad and herbs too. But also a few other things - to be decided. And I must have at least one bed dedicated to growing cut flowers, which I can then use indoors. I love fresh flowers, but the buzz from picking my own veggies last year won me over, and I anticipate a similar level of satisfaction will be derived from cutting my own stems.

An allotment in the making...

Recommendations

For the foodies out there, I have been listening to Dish podcast, and as I’m up to date on this, I was reminded that ages ago, before moving up here, I used to listen to Jessie and Lenny Ware’s Table Manners, so I’ve started that again - both packed with inspiration, as well as good humour. Ideal when you’re pottering around, or catching up on admin. And on that theme, as I’ve said, I’ve been using a few Ottolenghi recipes this week - and Simple is brilliant. If you’ve not got any of his books, I’d recommend beginning here. They really are doable; I even use a few of them for mid-week suppers.

As ever, thank you so much for reading along. I do appreciate it. And I hope you’ve all had a few moments to treasure this February. And here’s to March... Let’s see what’s in store.