One of the benefits (if that's what you want to call it) of being made recently unemployed is not having to request annual leave from your employers, and you can make immediate decisions to go away somewhere for however long you want. Well that's what happened last week, with the roof patch work completed we made an
impromptu decision to travel down South to see family, so much apologies to my readers who wondered of my absence.
On Saturday we went to one of U.Ks most famous markets in West London - Portobello Market.
Portobello Market goes straight through the centre of Notting Hill. Some of you may have watched the romcom movie
Notting Hill which was filmed in and around here. Although an extremely successful movie, it was
heavily criticised by local residents for not reflecting the true multi 'ethnic' and cultural diversity of
Notting Hill and its roots.
Back to the market, let me tell you, this is one of the busiest markets I have ever been too. I mean after a while, I stopped saying
sorry when accidentally bumping into people and took it in my stride of it all being part of the experience. Also it was very difficult to take photographs, pretty much every one had a camera but here are a few snap shots of what caught my eye.
Rockabilly Buskers - actually they were very good.
Some antique and vintage tins.
Look closely (or click on the image) and you see some white asparagus.
Guess how much it was? 2 for £1.50 !!! I wanted to pick some up either for our meal in the evening; or to bring back up with us, but D discouraged me pointing out that I didn't want to be carrying fresh asparagus, especially at we were only at the start of our tour at Portobello Green Market.
Gggrrr I wasn't completely happy with his decision and wished I had picked some up. On the right hand side of the photograph you will also see some mushroom, they almost look like carved wood. On this stall you could also find Japanese aubergine and
kerala also known as bitter gourd - the bitter crocodile of vegetables becaue of its green knobbly skin.
I quite like this artwork on the van - Enjoy your Bananas!
At first glance I thought it was a Health shop, but when we entered it we were pleasantly surprised to note it was a Vegetarian eatery. The grain offers a number of vegan pies, sweet and savory pastries and sweets. Other than a piece of toast, we hadn't eaten very much for for breakfast, so picked up a
Schnitzel Pastry. It was just okay. It sustained us until our next foodie stop which was a Ghanaian stall called
Spinach and Agushi owned by the runners up on BBCs The Restaurant. As well as learning a little about Ghanaian cooking and ingredients, I really admired Adwoa Mensah-Haganhere passion for cooking. Anyway, we bought a small portion of the
Spinach with Melon seeds served on a bed of spiced rice to share.
As you can see it was busy ....
It got busier...to seek refuge from the hustle and bustle we turned into one of the streets. I realised we had stumbled upon the Books for Cooks and
The Spice Shop. I was a rather overwhelmed with the selection of dried chillies and spices stocked here. The next time I come here (and there will be a next time, unless I order online), I will make sure I bring a list with me.
Books for Cooks reminded me a lot of Clarissa Dickson Wrights
Cook Book Shop (closed in 2004) in Edinburgh (but later I discovered that Clarissa of
Two Fat Ladies actually once worked there). I was surprised to find
Books for Cooks crammed in such a small space. In fact it was so small that people were constantly brushing past you and at one point, I actually knocked a few books off the shelf. You may be surprised to note that I came out empty handed - I'm watching my pounds and pennies you see.
A final walk through Portobello Market and one more snack to share.
When we originally entered the Portobello Market, one of the vendors at
Mama's Jerk Station stall overheard me pointing out to D that they had some vegetarian offerings. The lovely man called us over and offered us a piece of
Jerk Veggie Bean Cake and my mother in law Jerk chicken. He told us that the The Jerk Veggie Bean Burgers were made from sweet potato, kidney beans, black eyed peas, coconut, plantain, and
Mama's Secret Jerk Marinade. I could taste the shredded coconut. We told him we'd probably get some on the way back, but when we returned instead of getting a Jerk Veggie Burger I opted for the
Mama Jerks Veggie and Dumpling Soup - it was substantial, warm, hot and spicy - D declared it 'the best thing we had eaten all day'. I totally agreed.
Yesterday we drove around the West coast.
Stopping at our usual spots, some of which I've posted about before here.
We stopped briefly at the farm shop, but as National Trust for Scotland members, we decided to purchase most of our vegetables from Geilston Gardens. There was so much choice and the prices extremely reasonable.
We came away with purple kale, broad beans, green beans, parsley and blackcurrants.
We drove past the Dunbarton rock. I think its quite impressive from the distance, than close up. See previous blog entry here.
Still rather early and feeling quite energetic, we decided to drive to Loch Lomond and then onto Balloch. I've posted about these places before too, see here. It was rather nice, doing nothing in particular, enjoying the beaming sun-shine and having a lazy summer stroll.
I was a little sorry that I did not leave the flat with some bread, so that I could feed the brave quacky ducks and rather elegant swans who were coming up close and personal.
We also decided to go into Pollok House. The last time D and me came here, we were not members of the National Trust of Scotland, so were only permitted to go into the servant quarters downstairs. When we walked downstairs, there was a cafe and a tourist shop. This time as members, we were permitted to go upstairs. Hmmmmm. I'm not really one for admiring regal and grandeur places of residence, I prefer to look at such places from the outside. But what did capture my interest was this property also hosted Murder Mystery: Candlelit Dinners, where you can dine and take part in their Murder Mystery! I wonder if they do a vegetarian option!?
After walking around the house, it was onto the gardens and admiring and absorbing natures colours and natures beauty.
It really is a fine place. D needs to hurry and get himself a bicycle, so that we can cycle and explore these places a bit more.
Rhubarb, runner beans, courgettes and lovely tomatoes. Apparently the stall also had some broad beans, but they were all sold out by the time I got there. What a shame, but I have enough to keep me busy in the kitchen.
This looks like a 'tombstone', but its actually not. Its a marker encouraging you to take a wander into the forest. Once you walked through the tall pine trees, past these incomplete wig-wams, over a little bridge with a stream running beneath it.
You come what is known in Scotland as 'drystane dykes'. Drystane literally means drystone. Dykes are a characteristic feature of most upland areas and many parts of lowland Scotland. They are a popular feature in Scottish agricultural landscape designed primarily to form field boundaries.
Anyway, whilst walking past this rather attractive mossy dyke. I started noticing something different about this one. Every so often you would come across a stone with 'words' engraved on them.
These are a few that made me smile: dreamin(g); ponderin(g); feelin(g); sharin(g); stumblin(g); and finally bletherin(g). A good Scottish word meaning to talk nonsensically or utter foolishly. It was one of the first Scots slang I learned when I moved up to Scotland. 
Upon reaching the end, you come across a table with a sign giving you the price of turnips, potatoes and eggs. But how does one pay as there was noone there to take you money. Well a little hole had been had been inserted into the table, where people are trusted to pay for what they take. This is called an 'honesty box'. Now how often do you see that? I would have taken some turnips, but there were none there, so we continued walking towards the Pillars of Hercules, which is the farm shop I wanted to visit anyway.
Some of you may remember we came here last year, but for those of you who don't know. Here's the link.
No sunflowers there at the moment, but still plenty of work going on and lots growing albeit a little slowly. I really wish the first rhubarb had already grown and been harvested, as I really really want to eat some. This is quite unusual for me because I never really liked rhubarb, I used to find it really sharp until of course I started growing my own. Also, now I just appreciate the seasonality of this vegetable, and it is a vegetable not a fruit (so I've been told).
There may not have been any rhubarb in the farm shop, but there was plenty of other vegetables.
I got Swiss Chard including Ruby Swiss Chard, some potatoes
A beautiful January King cabbage. I also got some Curly Kale but not from here. I got it from Cupar Farmshop. According to the the Pillar of Hercules chalked blackboard, the curly kale that they had planted here had been ravished by the pigeons.
Our next stop was Falkland Palace. Last time we only saw the outside of the building and were quite impressed by it. This time however, as members of NTS had the opportunity to explore the inside. Other than admiring the painted ceilings and an intricate four poster bed imported from Indonesia during the reign of James I of England and VI of Scotland. I was personally not that impressed by the Palace. So I am not going to say much about it. Just share a few images that caught my eye. 
Why so serious?!
Ah much better. 
Overlooking the palace was someone plot. Oh how I envy. One-day.
This was the Palaces orchard. Did you know that in Gaelic apples are called 'Abhalls'. No, well you do know.
A very large game of draughts aka checkers. Do you want to play? After our very brief tour of the Palace, we drove onto a little town called Cupar.
We were welcomed by this Black Grouse - not a real one.
A beautiful angel in the skies.
And then some cakes, lots of them.
Although I wasn't exactly transported back to Paris where I spend my belated honeymoon last year, what this cake filled window managed to do was remind me of my time in Paris, when D and me greedily gorged on many sweet patisseries, cakes and bakes. Of course we had to go inside.
We went in and came out with a treacle scone and a couple of macaroon meringues, which we had as soon as we got home. The macaroon meringues were soft, chewy and sickly sweet! Whoops what will my dentist say?!