The Discarded Christmas Tree Project

My delicious homemade truffles

First of all, a belated felicitous New Year to you all (I'm still operating on Spanish time). So, after a festive season that has kept me très busy entertaining, cooking, gobbling truffles, and having the excuse of drinking before midday, it was time to take myself  off up to Scotland to be the knightess in a shining silver threaded coat.

My crazy Catalan friend has decided to brave the icy winds and almost constant drizzle, and will be studying in Edinburgh. I was to help her look for a flat, which was about as useful as a chocolate teapot because I too was about as clueless as she about the city. We carried about four maps between us and at times it was so windy the large map required a headbutt or two in order to be folded. The woman who'd given us the maps was the owner of the B&B where we were staying and she owned a delightful cat called Hugo, calling to mind Paris, compounded by the impressive architecture in Edinburgh.

We could have simply wandered the streets of Edinburgh ourselves, but my friend was in the know: she knows of the free tours in the cities of Europe. Well, technically they are free - a donation is always welcome depending on how much you feel the tour is worth. It's a jolly good idea though and we enjoyed it immensely, after three hours with a knowledgable, amusing, and beardy Australian - I fear he may have been forced to grow the beard to keep his face, unused to such low temperatures, snug. Much history was reeled off, many of the dates now fled from memory, but the imagery of blue naked wildmen keeping back the Romans will not likely be forgotten hurriedly. Nor shall the far too vigorous and enthusiastic descriptions of torture methods for political dissidents, which include nailing an ear with a three-inch nail in the middle of the market place and slivers of bamboo forced underneath the fingernails as possible until the nail popped off.

An expensive private school provided names for the houses in H.P.

There was also the creepy churchyard where many a ghost is said to roam, bodies still with plague buried, and the inspiration for some of the characters in Rowling's Harry Potter stories, most notably Tom Riddle. Woooo, chilling.... 

So, kings dying, beheaded queens, bishops having stools thrown at them, plague, mutilation, ghost stories, and literary phenomena; this sort of information works up an appetite. To luncheon, ho! During which a gauntlet for a truffle-off was hurled down. Time and place of duel yet to be confirmed. I'm sure I'll win.

Starfish!

 

Without a doubt, however, the merriest time for me was the Discarded Christmas Tree Project. Aim: strike as many different poses with as many discarded Christmas trees as possible. Success rating? I'd give a good 6.5. It's just a shame not many people got to witness the sheer genius and creativity of the activity; there were so many trees around that there were more than enough for the population of Edinburgh. In fact, I'm pretty sure there were more trees than people.

Bizarre tree-thief