Return from Edinburgh

I’m back from Edinburgh!

It was great. Lots of walking. Rich had quite a few blisters. I managed just the one.

We spent the vast majority of our time perusing the old town. And eating. And walking. We stayed at the 5 star Balmoral Hotel (just the one night), where Rich ate one of the best breakfasts he’s ever had. Ever. His scrambled eggs were free range.

‘Twas good. Not being one for eggs, bacon, sausages et al I opted for scottish potato cakes (hash browns) and beans, followed by croissants, and a selection of mini danish pastries. Welllllll, we’d done SO much walking I felt as though I deserved it.

You see, the day before I’d satisfied a longing to stop off at the birthplace of Harry Potter – the Elephant House cafe. The back room has looks out on the castle, and we sat with our iced fruit smoothies gazing at the view.

During the day, we saw all the sites; Holyrood, Edinburgh’s Disgrace, the castle, royal mile, the parks… being unashamed tourists went on a couple of sightseeing tours atop a bus, walked through the many streets, wynds and closes, took pictures, ate food, got hot, ate and drank more and had an alfresco dinner of pizza and garlic bread on a wobbly table on the cobblestones of Bella Italia on Northbridge.

So it’s fair to say that we arrived home on Friday evening tired and aching. In Edinburgh we’d had temperatures in the high twenties; at home it’d broken thirty degrees. And my vegetables and plants hadn’t been watered for two nights running. They looked a bit worse for wear.

However, a weekend of a bit more TLC seems to have done the trick. I’ve been pretty bad over the last few weeks, leaving them to fend for themselves mostly, sporadically watering and weeding when I had the time or the inclination. I haven’t even got my butternut squash plants out of their small pots – I’m a bad, bad person! I need to get them in this week if there’s any chance of them growing to a decent size. It’ll be a pleasant surprise if they manage to produce any fruit. Bah. I’m trying!

But I’ve got two (well – one and a half) days off work left, then it’s three days’ work before the weekend again. So effectively that gives me time to put a bit of work in here. I already got down to the allotment with Mum yesterday (where we were discussing the reality of the situation – was I really able to keep it on now that I’m working full-time and have everything at home to contend with?), and intend to go down again before I go back to work on Wednesday. At the very least, we came home with a trug absolutely chock full with red and white onions, potatoes and some small but tasty Early Nantes carrot thinnings.

I also need to weed my onions at home. They’re looking OK – not huge, but at least they’re consistently medium at the moment. I’ll give them some time. Carrots are doing OK. But they won’t be ready for a good 6 weeks or so. Potatoes – I’ve got Charlotte potatoes coming out of my EARS. I might bag a few up and sell them from the garden gate. Earned me some spare change last year.

I think work might calm down for a while now we’ve got this big project out of the way. It’s just been madness for the past three weeks or so. It’s made me feel a bit… tied down. Like I want to escape it all, especially when I went to London in 35C for a meeting. I just don’t know if I belong in that kind of life. I mean, I like writing. But I love writing about things I really care about. I know in this climate I am more than lucky to have landed a stable (contracted) job. And it doesn’t have to be forever. And it’s not a bad job. And it’s helping me get back on my feet.

But it’s not my passion. That is what I’m struggling with a bit at the moment.