Fete de L'Oeuf

The Festival of the Egg - that's Easter to you and me.  The day began swimmingly well - Gran Kat disappeared to the Baker, and returned with a chocolate hen.  Prior to this, I've only had the odd smear of chocolate (ice-cream and homemade cake), so a whole chocolate hen to myself was  pretty much like 0 to 60.  It was  amazing!  Never saw that chocolate bunny from Auntie Sonja though.  Mummy says you have to draw the line somewhere!

After lunch we headed to the pretty mountain village of Tourtour, which was immersed in its egg festival.  Big girls and boys painting them, huge paper mache ones in a zillion different colours hanging from every tree, splatted ones made of canvas crafted on the neighbouring hillside; and chickens - yes, hens of every fabrication and breed in every nook and cranny - real ones in boxes, pottery ones, paper plate hens - you name it!

I was taking it all in - the band, the DJ, the clucking hens.   No more chocolate was forth coming, but I liked it anyway - even if it was a bit chilly on the top of the mountain, despite the sunshine.  

Later on, I was even moved to do my first proper crawl - when I recognised one of those yummy chocolate egg things that everyone else seemed to be getting my fair share of!  It's hard being only 8 months old, you know.  I'm going to leave you with a little video I took of the Jazz Band.  They were awesome!

My First Big Fat French Wedding!

 OK, admittedly, it's not my big Fat French Wedding, but it is certainly my first wedding.  After 8 years of living in sin (whatever that is!), Granddad John and Gran Kat finally tied the knot, there by setting a much better example to the young people.

There were lots of people at the wedding besides me, including Great Auntie Sonja and Great Uncle Dave - (Gosh - that makes them sound positively ancient, doesn't it?)  Although Granddad complained a lot, I was the only one who cried.  I believe it is traditional for weddings - however, I should point out, I wasn't overly emotional or disapproving.  It's just that 3.30pm is prime nap time for me, and I didn't appreciate being woken up.  I didn't get any of the pink champagne either.  

WAITTING!!  WHY AM I WAITING?

Things did however look up once we moved onto the reception at Bastide des Magnans.  Dating from the 18th century and surrounded by mulberry trees, this attractive restaurant with rooms was originally a monastery, and now provides a most charming setting for a gastronomic adventure.  


Baby Led Weaning rules OK!  Yes, Yes, YES!!  I had it all.  Three hours of delicious tasty morsels, as I careered through the 4 course menu.  Who else but a baby led weaner would have sat so patiently?  First there were the nibbles (l'amuse bouche, if you want to get all technical on me).  I especially enjoyed the polenta cakes.  The starters were fabulous too: asparagus tart (white and green) in a creamy sauce.  I managed to work my way through a large slice, before scoring this delicious chilled tomato soup.

The garden in the summer - we MUST go back!

No one thought I would have room for any main - but it was delcious garlic roasted lamb with a rosemary jus, with baby veggies.  I even managed to squeeze in some of Auntie Sonja's baked cod.  Then there was the cheese course - a bit of a worry, I'm afraid - I mean - what happened to pudding?  Then it arrived after all - raspberry mouse, chocolate tart and icecream.  However, the real delight, which left me (literally) squealing for more was the lavender scented creme brulee.   Heaven on a plate - even though Mummy wouldn't let me try the sugar topping.  I am only 8 months old, after all.


So, it is official - I am a gourmet baby.  Tsshhh...  everyone was amazed...  but it is only custard after all.  I didn't get to try the coffee - but just when it seemed the Fat Lady really had sung, they turned up with the petit fours - that's French for even more dessert!  The little lemon meringue pies were divine.  The only calamity of the evening came when Daddy ripped the Rum baba from my sweaty grip, panicking in case it might actually contain alcohol.  It didn't.  Boy, did I protest! 

The Bride and Groom!

So there you go - my first gourmet dinner and my first wedding.  On the whole, I liked it.  I liked it a lot.  


Here's the happy couple.  I think they look rather lovely, and I love their taste in food.


Big kisses to Grandad and my new Gran 


Love Madeleine  X x


Les Bastide des Magnans is open daily for discerning diners of all ages. 

Pretty in Pink

 What are grandmothers for?  To spoil little girls of course.  How lucky am I? For this week, I have been visiting my brand spanking new Gran at her home in Provence, France.   New in the sense, that "we" only just got her officially.  She married my Granddad on Easter Saturday.  

Visits to Gran Kat and Granddad John are always full of presents.  Here I am in the ballerina outfit that Gran bought me from Canada, playing with my new Ostrich, Catherine's beads and Granddad's cigars.  (It's a filthy habit by the way Granddad - give it up immediately!)  As well as new clothes and toys, Gran Kat also managed to sneak me my first taste of chocolate  (Sshhh... don't tell Daddy!).

Sinister Dolly was still there, still playing peek-a-boo.  Here I am trying to explain, yet again, that although we are similarly dressed, I am far, far more interesting!  I am, aren't I?

St Maxime

Talking of exciting, this trip did include something quite new: my first proper experience of the seaside.  We had a spade and buckets and everything.  It has to be admitted, it wasn't totally a success.  I sat down in the sand, and having peered at it with some interest, I followed by usual modus operandi for close inspection.  Before anyone could stop me I had stuffed a huge handful into my mouth.  It was disgusting!  I didn't really recover after that, despite the fact that I am too young to be disappointed that the Carousel hadn't opened for the season yet.  The spade tasted good though.  Maybe next trip I will enjoy it all a bit better!  


Roll on Summer!

Gorgie City Farm

Calor Gas Chicken?

 An amazing sunny week, record breaking for March has seen us picnic-ing at Flotterstone, barbecuing in the garden and generally taking advantage of the amazing (for Scotland) weather by getting out and about.  As the forecasters warned this would be the last day of unseasonal sunshine, it seems too good to waste, hence Madeleine's first trip to Gorgie City Farm.  


Sandwiched between the the Medical Centre in Ardmillan  Road and Gorgie High Street, this tiny patch of land is the unlikely home to a menagerie of animals: a horse, goats, cows, sheep, guinea pigs, rabbits, pot bellied pigs, ducks, hens, a turkey and even a snake.  A fully working farm, the tiny scrap of land is jammed to the eyeballs with animals pens, vegetable plots, herb gardens, "interesting" sculpture and play equipment.  Your kids will love it.

The Real Deal!

Madeleine didn't quite know what to make of the Hen sculpture (above), and wouldn't be persuaded to pose  on the "gas cannister body" for a quick photo opportunity.  The real deal met with more instant approval.  I have to say, Madeleine does seem to have a thing about chickens, and will giggle and shriek with delight, particularly if they are penless and nipping at our feet!   Gorgie Farm caters for all tastes though - with a huge variety of different types of fowl - several different breeds of chicken, ducks and a turkey to boot.  (We took this photograph especially for you Granny Kat - we know you will think he is a Beauty!)


Next we went to visit the sheep and lambs.  I  know that in about 2 years time, Madeleine will require an extensive explanation of the artificial boobies for these newborn lambs.  "But why aren't they with their mummies?" "But why can't their mummy give them the boobie".  For now, we can just focus on how cute they are.  Gorgeous, aren't they!


Up in the meadow, there are cows, pigs and goats.  Bit whiffy today, I'm afraid.  Never-mind - I'm sure it was all being recycled down onto the veg patch.  Certainly the Produce Stall was bursting with good things to buy.  Hard to resist half a dozen very freshly laid eggs at only £1.50 a box.


The farm also includes a pet's corner manned by volunteers.  This seems to have changed since my last visit several years ago, so that you can no longer actually pet the animals - far preferable I think, as it is hard to imagine what educational purpose is served by frightening the be-jesus out of a handful of petrified rabbits and guinea pigs!  The tractor for the kids to climb on was still there though, and popular as ever.    Madeleine is too much of a cling-on, and probably just a little unstable for the traditional shot - so we decided to save that for our next visit.

And not a chip in sight!

Miss M is also just a little young to get much fun from the play park (slides and climbing frame that would probably please anyone even a little older), so we headed off  for lunch. There are plenty of picnic tables if you fancy bringing your own, but as we had been told the cafe was much improved, we decided to give it a try - this is actually M and I's first girls-only lunch out.   Anyway, happy to report the Cafe has our definite stamp of approval.  The last time I was there with Catherine it was pretty rank.  Chips with everything, seedy decor and an over-powering smell of stale deep fat frying.   

Yummy!  ALL GONE!

"What happened" I asked the cheerful lady behind the counter.  Apparently they got a grant and ditched the fryer.  Woo hooo!   Cheerful and bright, and not a chip in sight.  Nice salads, baked potatoes, home-made quiche and the like - we shared a puff pastry tomato and cheese tartlet.  It was delicious!  I did tell them that if it ain't good, Miss M won't eat it, but the highchair was cleaner than when we started!  For afters, we had a peanut butter flapjack - it tasted much nicer than it sounds.  Prices are reasonable - £4.50 for a baked spud - £2.10 for a latte - £3.50 for a child's lunch box..  but dear enough to leave you packing a lunch box if the pennies are tight.


Never mind, the farm itself is completely free (donations welcomed).  Definitely a pleasant way to pass a couple of hours.


Gorgie City  Farm is open most days 9.30am to 4pm.

Mill Farm

 A lovely day out with Mummy, Auntie Fiona, Brogan and Imogen on Mill Farm today - of course, I use lovely day in the Scottish sense of the word.  It is March.  It is Scotland.  There were no blizzards or hurricanes or driving rain.  It was, of course, freezing, but that didn't deter us - indeed it just made the place all the emptier - all the better to get to the trampolines.  I was especially taken with the small animals today - especially the chickens, but they wouldn't stand still for a photo opportunity - and these wonderful gaggling geese.  I'm not so sure about the goats - they looked pretty out there!

Even though it was March and freezing, this didn't deter Auntie Fiona and Mummy from opting for a picnic.  Mummy said it was my first, but Daddy points out that there was that time we went up to that Loch that almost sunny day last summer.  However, I spent pretty much all of that picnic asleep in my car seat.  It is also discounted because I was too young to actually eat.

Besides the animals and the picnic area, Mill Farm is also noted for the large number of bouncy things.  My favourite was the Jelly Belly - hugely good fun.  It's like a huge rubbery thing for bouncing on - I know that isn't the most polished description.  The trampolines are also very wobbly.  However, I missed out on the Bouncy Cow (pictured below).  Imogen and I were napping.  I understand from the photographs though, that everyone else got on for a bounce.  Serves me right for going to sleep.


Today was also the day I pretty much got waving cracked too. By the bus home, I was waving at everyone.  Some people even waved back.

Mill Farm is open most days, 10 am to 5pm.  

Dynamic Earth

Another guest post from the pen of my Mummy.

Madeleine meets the ancestors...

It's not a conventional science centre - they tell you.  Instead you will board a time machine, and go back to the beginnings of the earth.  Exciting, eh?  The problem is, a visit here really is like stepping back in time - not to 2.5 billions years ago - more like to about 1999 when most of the exhibition was installed.


Maybe graphics have moved on - maybe we are harder to impress in 2012.  Back then, when I was still polishing my Ph.D. and my colleagues in the department were occupied writing the text for this place, I thought the lift time machine was pretty cool  - now it just looks like er... well, a lift.. with some mirrors.  Madeleine didn't even have the courtesy to be scared.  Maybe next time?  Wow... the floor judders to accompany the secondary school explanation of tectonic plates...  and the teenage hosts -  ok, maybe they are older than that, but hey, I'm in my 40s now - even policemen are looking old - well, they do their best, to stay in character.  OK, they are not exactly talented, but I guess they are only earning the minimum wage.

To be fair, Madeleine did enjoy mawling the extinct animals, and I suppose you don't get many opportuntiies to do that.  You can still go see the iceberg (that used to be novel too) and walk through an undersea cave with videos of fish.  There is even one new exhibit - a 3D film exploring different habitats.  Although it had almost no content, it was quite fun, however if you are not old enough to wear the 3D glasses, then all you can see is a blurry screen.  This makes it exceptionally boring for very young children, and very stressful for the mothers of young children!

Finally, you end up waiting at the end for the Star Dome.  It was meant to take us 90 minutes to get round the main exhibition, instead it was nearer 45.  It used to be quite good - a talk on the planets in a planetarium type screen - lying on the floor.  Strangely enough, they have replaced this with a 25 minute dummed down American (but dubbed) documentary on life as a spaceman.

This is what Madeleine and Daddy looked like by the end.

At nearly a tenner to get in, I would save your money, and try the Museum in Chambers Street instead.

Dynamic Earth is at the bottom of the Royal Mile, Edinburgh and  open Wednesday to Sunday in winter.

A nice day out in Peebles

Daddy had the day off work yesterday, so we headed down to Peebles for a little jaunt.  Cullen Skink and my first taste of a home-made Houmous and bread for lunch followed by a tasty beetroot chocolate cake for afters at the Sunflower Restaurant.    It was all a bit bleak, but we went to their swing park anyway, before going for a wee amble down along the River Tweed  (great tarmacked pathway if anyone fancies a walk with a buggy by the way).  

I understand it is rumoured that the whole place brightens up for about half a day sometime in May, and with this in mind, Mummy kept mentioning nice places to have a picnic.  I suppose when you get that one hour burst of sunshine it is best to be prepared with some sort of plan in mind.

By far the best thing about the day was nipping into the deli on the way back through the High Street.  Mummy is partial to those French Fruit Tarts, and bought one to take home for dessert - but I got my share too.  Delicious!  We'd already been out to the library in the morning for 30 minutes of rhymes and songs - without a Wheels on the Bus in sight.  My favourite song at the moment is the Hokey Cokey, and I will burst into giggles for anyone who'll do it for me.  So all and all a pretty full day- I couldn't wait to get to my bed at 7 o'clock.