I have two p?

If I have to pay 30p, then I am taking a damn picture!

You pay to eat, you pay to sleep, but would you pay to pee?

You will in Europe! Toilets (aka bathrooms or washrooms which I should point out do not show up as real words in my ever annoying UK edition of spellcheck) in train stations require a 30 p payment before letting you inside to do your business! Despite being a new concept to me, this is often the case in shopping malls and public places. 30 pence might seem like a small price to pay but to me it was the principle.

My free-peeing North American mentality makes it difficult to justify this cost to relieve my constipation.

This system serves to make alot of money out of me and my tiny, tilted, low-lying, extra spastic bladder; I stand to loose my ability to 'pee freely'! I boycotted pay toilets until just recently when nature didn't call, it hollared and in no uncertain terms!

So with no other public toilet options in sight so as to continue the boycott, I sucked up my pride, pulled out my coins and paid 30 p to pull down my pants. The hardest part was just getting my head around having to fork out for what I have come to expect is a free service. So I had to blame the whole ordeal on my standpoint and change my expectations in the Edinburgh train station that day!

So how much is fresh running water and sickeningly scented soap worth to you? Have you ever put any thought into whom polishes that porcelain after you have passed your poop? You might, as you are rifling around trying to find exact change before you are allowed to tinkle! The cost actually pays for the upkeep, says the internet, so question answered.

Have you heard the term 'Spend a Penny', which is used in replacement for Canada's 'Going to the John' (or insert the term 'shitter' here if you are from somewhere further north like me)? Well I guess I learned the origin of the saying that day, in addition to learning about inflation in the UK.

In conclusion, I suggest you keep some change handy if you order a tea or a cocktail on the train! 30 p to be exact, I know, and I have the picture to prove it!

So when in Rome.....You pay to pee

Our foray at the Farmers Market

Today (wow, I started writing this two weeks ago) we took a wander down to the Edinburgh Farmers Market. Walking hand in hand, eating things on tiny toothpicks, taking pictures and treasure hunting for farm fresh produce is something very special to us. The first time my husband and I spoke was when he was off to the local farmers market in my home town. Shortly after, one of our first dates was a morning bike ride the the Trout Lake farmers market in Vancouver. So in addition to filling our fridge and cupboards with locally grown produce, supporting the farmers at the most primary level and knowing where our food is coming from, we are in fact quite sentimental about the experience of weaving through stalls and chatting with folk.

This Market runs all year round, every Saturday from 9am until 2pm. It also happens to run in the rain, which we found out the very wet way! It did not deter us, but rather resulted in us investing in some hot lunch of steaming hot venison haggis, neeps and tatties (aka Scotland's signature dish with potato and turnip mash on the side). We were informed that venison haggis was in fact the original, and the sheep version Scots know and love was introduced later. Our meal was totted as being nature's waterproofing, meaning that once it is in you the cold, wet weather can no longer penetrate.

Moving on, the market boasts 55 stalls and is set under the stern shadow of the historic castle. The castle terrace is transformed into a lane of blue and white striped awnings. Items are both local and from as far afield as the west coast Scottish Island of Arran. Something, as a North American, to consider is the scale of Scotland which is hard to fathom both by map or via blog. Scotland from east to west coast is just over an hours drive wide, so local could mean over the border in Northern England or nearer to Galsgow. In tangible terms, Southern Scotland is the distance of a Sundays drive to Vanderhoof, or for my Vancouverites a drive over the Lions Gate bridge during rush hour. I digress...

Hope this helps you find your way to the freshness!

The Edinburgh farmers market website is a great way to plan your Saturday morning. In one handy spreadsheet it lists all the merchants and which weekends they will be present, so you can plan your meals around their attendance. There is even a Slow Food demonstrations on the first Saturday of every month if you are so inclined! The joys of shopping for seasonal produce is just that, it is seasonally available in a county with a shorter growing season and climates better suite to raising livestock. Diets are no longer dependant on what is available locally, but rather we rely heavily on imported goods to satisfy our expectations of a varied and ever more interesting menu. Importing goods dates back to the eighteenth century in Edinburgh specifically, so it is no wonder we exist today consuming with little regard to regional growing restrictions, growing conditions or the effects geographical locations has on production of crops.

This leads me to my next point, which is having to adjust your idea of what farm means. Walking into the market area your olfactory system is overwhelmed with the smells of many cooked meats. Fried Aberdeen Angus burgers, spit roasted whole pig, smoked local venison, barbequed Cumberland sausages and bottomless pots of steaming haggis to name a few. Sheep are better suited to Scotland damp climate it seems, and there is no where more evident of this than at the stalls of this farmers market. It truly makes you think about how many fresh things we are importing in at all times, no longer leading lives where we are satisfied with what our particular area can provide us with. What am I trying to say exactly? Succulent blueberries and gorgeous peaches are not to be found. Game pies and sausages outnumber the vegetable venders. And Scotland is really good at growing things on their farms that have four legs! My ideas of green things has gone out the window, but that is okay, because it has made me think about the ways I eat and how I can amend them. Toto, I don't think we are in Vancouver any more!

So, this is what you will find! This week at least!

Pies, but no sweet fruits to be found here! Pies are more commonly savoury, hearty and packed full of meats! An example is this 'Rabbie Burns Pie', wild rabbit cooked in red wine brandy,topped with Haggis!

This mother-daughter duo sold jams, jellies and chutneys! Also punnets of strawberries and spring asparagus too!

A kiosk by Spokes, the local Lothian Cycle Collective handing out Edinburgh cycle route maps and campaigning to improve conditions for cyclists in the city, promoting safety too! This cause is close to our hearts since Lumberjack (my husband) was hit while on his bicycle a few months back(whilst wearing his helmet and riding with his lights on)! So keep up the plee for bike lanes in the Burgh please!

Arran Cheese of awesomeness! Plenty of samples and an invite for a tour of the fromage factory when we are on the island! Yes please!

Something you would only see is Scotland! A stand serving hot, fresh Poutine...Nope...Porridge!

This is the World's first Porridge bar!

(note- the castle in the background, wha? I know!)

This is what I took home with me! A wheel of Isle of Arran smokey garlic cheese, cheddar with crushed stem ginger and a hank of traditional hand spun, hand coloured wool from Kate Sharps own flock of sheep! I am so in love with the colour!

Some Scottish strawberries, a loaf of bread made by Lumberjack and a big pot of tea was perfect on that rainy afternoon! mmm, so nice to share!

I totally recommend making at stop at the farmers market if you are in town. It is busy and delicious and will provide you some insight into Scottish cuisine and Sottish culture. Check out the Edinburgh Farmers Market website to see when your favourite suppliers will be present and find out when the food you love is actually in season! A mighty tasty way to spend a Saturday.

missing greens but loving what Edinburgh farmers had to offer,

erin x

You can creep on Edinburgh!

When we first made the decision to move to Edinburgh, I of course was a tad curious about what it would be like. So, I put my internet surfer hat on and scanned through a multitude of images, videos, travel sites and the like. It is always so exciting and out of context to view a city for the first time via someone else's perspective, ie. photo. But unlike my online Edinburgh immersion, life surprisingly does not come with a photoshop button. So upon arrival, one must take the high street (pictured) with the ripe alley behind the fishmonger's (not pictured).

That being said, this site displaying Edinburgh's web cams a-plenty was my obsession. My Lumberjack and I were still courting at the time, and I would often daydream about our future in what seemed like such a far off place. This little stream of Edinburgh images helped my imagination along, while also telling me the current temperature out too! Practical? Yes. A tiny bit creepy? Oh you bet and I realize that fully only now. But you can tell yourself you are just popping in to contrast the weather conditions with where you are at in the world, you know, like Dads do!

Who knows, perhaps one day you will see me on one of my adventures, strolling along the High street oblivious to the fact that Big Brother, and YOU are watching!

So these are some images of Edinburgh Castle found in the archived webcam photos. This should give you an idea of what it is like at 10pm, 11pm, 12am, night night castle and then 2pm today! The summer solstice is behind us so the days are only gonna get shorter from here on in! Sad face!

Click Here for a nosey through the Edinburgh live web cam options. May I recommend the Historic Edinburgh and the Royal Mile streaming camera 1.

Sometimes the cameras work, sometimes they don't, so sometimes you will enjoy them!

erin x castle vision 2011

Flower Power

Everybody in Edinburgh knows Vintage = W. Armstrong & Son

Now you do too!

After an accidental thrifting session this morning, unintentional in that I was supposed to be sourcing citric acid for my future Elderflower Cordial, to no avail. It turns out the illusive ingredient has been taken off the shelves on account of it also being an ingredient in making of heroine! yikes! So no citric acid, many explanations that I am too chubby to be a heroine addict, plenty of strange looks and awkward chuckles later, I went thrift shopping instead.

My house now looks like some kind of shrine to Laura Ashley. It must be the fact that summer either has yet to arrive, or did and is just plain unsatisfactory, that caused me to loose myself in a sea of floral prints today. If it warms up, I will wear them with loafers and my white vintage Ray-Bans, if not, with cute cardigans and rolled up jeans.

Pictured above is a 3/4 length high-waisted skirt that looked so fresh with my navy boat shoes!

Blouses! I love buttoning them right to the top lately.
One in floral and one minty vintage Ben Sherman.
We are the Mods!

A sweet little change purse...then Presto Change-O

It truly is a 'change purse'!

It unzips into my newest shopping bag!

Perfect for some impromptu thrifting next time!

All my purchases were 10% off too! Armstrongs offers a student discount which is by all accounts Amazing! So all in all, I got out of the shop with all this for under 20 pounds. Perfect!

I am always one for stopping to smell the flowers and today...they smell a little bit like granny flavoured mothballs, so I better go do some washing up!

Addresses and wee maps to Armstrongs' three lovely locations here!

erin x

"I want to go to there"

While on a day where our only order of business was to take pictures, I saw this. Edinburgh has many events, shows, installations etcetera at any given moment. I tend to miss all of them. This is my complaint about our fair city: I never find out about anything until it is over!

I'm sure this is a "It's not you, it's me" type argument where I should subscribe to a lifestyle in which I both get out more, AND stay in more, searching the internet to find all these art openings, concerts, haggis eating contests, film festivals and seminars that escape me.

For whatever reason, this poster was the icing on my annoyed cake. This exhibit has 'erin' written all over it. I even took it upon myself, as a Women's studies major back in Canada, to purchase a book to this affect when I arrived. I thought to have a well rounded view of the history surrounding women's right to vote, I should know how that came to be in the country in which I would soon be voting in, in addition to the one I was born that was covered in my course. I have never felt quite so detached from a city before now, now have I felt like I had to make quite so much effort to find out what on earth is going on in it!
So, here I am on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, discovering one more event I nearly missed.

Today I ask you,
Is there a go-to guide that helps you pick and choose venues before they have passed like the summer here?
What is your favourite website or zine that tells you what's up in the Burgh?
I want to plan my calendar now, and not a year from now when these things come around again in 2012! Or worse miss them entirely only to here how they were a 'not to be missed' event!
(insert sigh here)
Edinburgh manages to elude even me sometimes, even though as a blogger in the Burgh I make an active effort to engage with it.
"Edinburgh, sometimes I don't love you", a quote by Erin Maguire-Lonsdale

Edinburgh City Guide

This comprehensive city guide to Edinburgh covers all the spots, and all the shops! The always trendy, always up-to-date dames at Design Sponge posted this a few months back, and do not disappoint! This guide should satisfy the culture vulture, the fashionista, the indie film goer, the foodie, the lover of all things underground and all things Scottish alike.

It takes you around Edinburgh by street name or community area, and was something I actually referred to when I arrived. D*S tends to be a reliable source in the style department, and having been written by a resident/lover of Edinburgh, this was no exception.

Of course everyone is after a different experience and is bound to have different tastes, but whether you are taking a tour, thinking of moving, travelling to the capital city or trying to find something in your home town, this guide seems like a great start!

Bravo Design Sponge, you have taken the pressure off me! This would have been alot of work, so I left it up to Eloise!

Enjoy the link, and better yet, Enjoy Edinburgh!

erin x this link

Click Here for your Edinburgh City Guide by Eloise Leeson For D*S

Stay-cay and a Vaccay!

I have plenty of things I am working on to post from this weekends wonderful stay-cay in Edinburgh! I also have a couple of days off from my job at the camping and hiking store to go...you guessed it! Camping and Hiking! This is where this shit gets real! (ahem)

In search of the perfect travel companion-a book, I used ALL of my time searching for some Scottish fiction or a tale of trails and trials in the highlands, and all of my cheese budget on books. I spent NON of my time fine-tuning the many drafts I have piling up, and though I am excited to share them, none resemble a finished postable product!

Sigh, so much to write about, so little time! So thus I will surely add to the backlog by going on my adventure to the Island of Arran this week! Oh well, I am sure you will agree it is worth it! Wouldn't you say? We will follow the Tastes of Arran trail, this is a real thing, and it looks real tasty too. Arran has creameries, fish smoking facilities, cheese and chocolate factories, and distilleries to wash it all down! Also, all are open for my touring pleasure! We are packing in and packing out so our little laptop did not make the cut. A light load makes for more room for local Arran cheddar to make the trip back. The sacrifices one has to make.

Well enjoy your week, whether in Edinburgh or beyond, and I will report back about my local food related findings post-trail of taste!

erin x

Seeing Spots

Spring time in and a 'round' Edinburgh...

Arthur's Seat around the time of our Gorse gathering

Loch on Queen's Drive encircling Arthur's seat

Quite near the palace.
The Queen own all the swans in the UK. Fact

Morning view. Around the time I wake up

Harry Potter was here. Alnwick, around February

Royal Mile from Princes Street. Sunny spot

Crocuses in the Meadows, where the circle
of friends meet

Enjoy these pictures of Scotland's Capital, while I prepare to tell you about my travels to Pitlochry.

Wedding Meats Warhammer...wait for it...

This past weekend we had the pleasure of travelling to the lovely lakes district to take in a wedding. Lumberjack's brother got married in Penrith and it was my chance to attend a proper British wedding as well as the first I have attended since my own.

DIY I Do's

The things I loved about this wedding were the handmade additions to the usual wedding fare, which happened to be everything!

• Miles of homemade bunting in red, yellow and orange
• Waistcoats( aka vests), wide ties and bridesmaids dresses all made by the brides most talented Mom
• Wedding dress designed by the brides Dad, complete with lace, gathers and tiny flowers all sewn by the same mighty busy, mighty skilled Momma
• Pom poms/carnations, depending which country you are reading in, made with tonnes of tissue paper for a sweet, super old school look
• No fuss flowers bought the day of, arranged by me and the brides Mom
• Freeze dried fruits covered in chocolate made right there in the community
• Centrepieces set on well loved board games complete with Trivial Pursuit cards on the corners of each table.....

which tied in perfectly with the cranium themed wedding cake. Oh, did I mention that dancing was not to be found? But rather in its place was time for a rousing game of your choice from the couple's bonanza of board games.

Post Hog roast consumption, hence the meat mention in my post title, Ticket to Ride, Scrabble and Settlers of Catan were scattered all over the tables at the little town hall. Even the groom got into the action, grinning ear to ear during a wedding night battle of Warhammer. I stuck to the kitschy classics so as to not interfere with my serial mingling skills, including Pop up Pirate, Buckaroo, and this plastic triumph you might just remember...

This is me in wedding attendance attire reliving my youth, perched competitively on the floor submitting to the nostalgia, playing a mad game of Hungry Hungry Hippos (yes, I chose my hippo to co-ordinate with my dress, so what!)

So all in all it was a wonderfully individual event, showcasing the hobbies of the couple and including the attendants in the interests they share. The newly married couple loved it and I was pleased as punch to have been part of it.

Oh, and PS.

Yes...there were plenty of fabulous wedding hats and fascinators being worn! Just cause I knew you were wondering!

x

Flake 99 Three Ways

Things you will not find in this post:

• Debauchery or eroticism with ice cream based products
• A triplet of recipes with Flake 99s in the list of ingredients
• A descriptive guide detailing 99 or 3 ways of doing... anything really

So, now that that is out of the way, these are pictures of me and my massive plastic Flake 99s in and around Edinburgh. I was not sold on my first sampling of this time honoured treat, so in an effort to embrace British culture, I thought I would embrace as many cones as I could, literally. I swear I am not sponsored in any way by the British soft serve sensation, I am just a girl who likes to snap photos of myself standing awkwardly infront of gigantic fake Flake 99s. That is all. Enjoy!

I've got 99 problems but an ice cream ain't one! I wonder if I owe Jay-Z any royalties for that one?

Go Greens!

This is my first year in Scotland and to keep our grocery bill at bay we decided to make use of the window boxes provided with out flat (aka apartment). We planted Swiss chard, round carrots, beetroot (aka beets), salad greens of sorts, garlic chives and the herbs we tend to use/cook/eat the most! They are all snuggled together with a tiny army of mis-matched marigolds to fight off the bugs. Despite Scotland lacking in the sun department and the gale force winds this week, our urban container garden is growing happily perched on our window sill. We also planted a pot of courgettes (zucchini) which are showing their little sprouty heads just now, so we hope they will be ready in time to harvest by late summer.

Having been raised by a gardening family it just feels natural at this time of year to go outside, or in our case into out kitchen with newspaper on the floor, and get your hands dirty. Back then, our acres of vegetables and potatoes took some of the strain of providing fresh food off my parents, I believe more importantly it made me appreciate the work/love that goes into a garden/family. Many hours were spent digging hills of potatoes, picking and peeling peas, keeping the kids from eating all the baby carrots and sharing the wealth with family and friends. The process was just as rewarding as the product!

On an entirely mini scale, me and my Lumberjack got to experience the satisfaction of spending time together in an effort to grow food for our family of us.

And so, I introduce my first bowl of greens, grown in Edinburgh, enjoyed in Edinburgh and worth the effort! I'm not gonna lie, I'm a wee bit proud, and I think my green thumbed Dad would be pretty dang proud too...and then recite all the scientific names for all the plants we planted... and then go on to list at length all the other things I could have planted that would be suitable for this growing season we find ourselves in! If you know my father, I'm sure you will find this account of him both amusing and accurate.

So in conclusion: Having our wee window boxes full of greens to great us when we look out the window makes it feel a whole lot more like home to me!

I will leaf you with this picture...

Time for some reflection...

That is all!