Any time I hear this merry little tune it makes me think of the wonderful aroma given off by the chestnuts roasting the oven in our kitchen.

Brown like a dull mahogany wood, the chestnut is a stand out fruit, especially at this time of year. Most often thought of at Christmas time, they can be found at any good vegetable market from mid-late October.

Always buy more than you will require, as no matter how good your supplier is or how thoroughly the supermarket rifle through them, you will always find the odd mouldy or rotten one.

Chestnuts can easily be eaten raw although can often be somewhat astringent, more so if the thin membrane encasing the nut is not removed.

Chestnuts ready for roasting

The best way for chestnuts to be eaten in my opinion is roasted, roasted in their shell, peeled then roasted again to achieve that nutty, sweet flavour with a little crunch on the outside and soft fluffy texture inside. Chopped up and served with some nice baby potatoes, some lovely lardons of streaky bacon, baked breast of guinea fowl, and lashings of gravy.

Chestnuts don’t have to be served only as a savoury option, quite the opposite actually, they lend themselves wonderfully to desserts also. Like a chestnut and coco parfait, or caramelised chestnuts atop a warm Christmas pudding with brandy butter mmmm…

So get out there and pick up some of those fantastic chestnuts and see what you can make, or come along to Knockderry Country House Hotel and taste our marvellous chestnuts.

The day will provide an exciting and fun day out for the whole family who can discover for themselves what really goes on on a working farm.

Visitors can see for themselves how natural plant and insect species are encouraged to thrive alongside crops, they will get a close-up look at farm animals and see how the needs of wildlife are balanced with modern food production.

The day’s events include a nature walk, sheep shearing demonstration, hosted farm tour, as well as a chance to meet the pigs, sheep and poultry and a delicious array of fresh farm produced will be available in the farm shop.

This popular annual event organised by LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) is a must for anyone interested in how farmers produce our food, and the ways they care for our countryside too.

So for a fantastic day out in the open air why not go along and see what can be done on a small farm!

Directions from Drumfork Rd: turn into Drumfork Farm, go through the gate and take the left fork. Please note that this is an unmade road and care should be taken with vehicles with low clearance. Please wear appropriate footwear for a farm walk.

Visitors can turn up on the day but the farm would appreciate an e-mail or a call on 01436 678895 to get an idea of numbers.

We are joining up with Lifeworks 11 art exhibition for Cancer Research UK which is being held on 7 and 8 May at the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club in Rhu, Helensburgh. The exhibition features a variety of contemporary works from artists with an international reputation, including Peter Graham ROI, Stephen Carruthers, Christine McArthur and Laura Drever.

This is the third time that Lifeworks has been run and are back by popular demand both from the public but also from the artists. Previous Lifeworks exhibitions were held in 2006 and 2008.

Bouquet

The venue is only a pleasant fifteen minutes drive away, and will be featuring a special ‘Lifeworks’ lunch menu on Saturday and Sunday of the show.

Room With A View

Head chef David Hetherington is putting together a truly exciting menu especially for the event and 25% of the price will be donated to Cancer Research UK.

Fishing The Firth of Clyde

Jennifer McEwan of Lifeworks 11 says, “It’s a great opportunity to view art in a way which is contemporary and friendly without the sometimes intimidating feel of a gallery with the huge added bonus of knowing that your purchase directly supports Cancer Research UK.

“Art fairs are not new ideas but we like to think we give our visitors a really special experience in magnificent surroundings and the artists themselves are donating a portion of the purchase price of each piece to the charity in lieu of commision. We think it is a win -win formula.

“We are hugely indebted to Beth and Murdo MacLeod, David and the entire team at Knockderry House for their amazing support. What better day out than come to lifeworks, be tempted by some lovely art work, have a delicious lunch and maybe pop back to the exhibition to buy.”

Good luck to Lifeworks 11!

The documentary is presented by Muriel Gray who tells the story of the Glasgow Boys, a group of late 19th century painters who put Glasgow on the art world map. The film is focuses mainly on just four of the Boys – John Lavery, James Guthrie, George Henry and EA Hornel – and Gray examines their masterpieces in detail and charts their shifting friendships.

Muriel travels throughout Scotland and northern France to uncover the sources of their inspiration and show just how radical their paintings were and visits many of the locations of their paintings including Helensburgh.

Lavery lived in Helensburgh for a while and painted a number of paintings of the town.  Guthrie too was well known in the town as he was often a guest of one of his patrons and dentist, who lived there.  As a footnote Guthrie’s son – Guthrie Jnr has some extremely fine stained glass in Knockderry’s Dining Room.

The documentary will be shown on Thursday 3rd June 2010 at 9pm on BBC Two (Scotland only).  A BBC webpage has further details on The Glasgow Boys.

Many see it as a recent rather commercialised festival imported from the United States, where the tradition to celebrate Mother’s Day has become the most popular day of the year to dine whilst telephone companies record their highest traffic.

However, it is a tradition that can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans who celebrated with a Spring festival dedicated to Cybele, a mother goddess, presumably including a trip to the Coliseum to watch a few guys who’d forgotten their anniversary, Valentine’s Day, the birthday and Mother’s Day (The Grand Slam) being thrown to the lions or in later days being dragged round IKEA behind a chariot – TWICE!

Even early Christians, the ones who remembered, celebrated a Mother’s Day of sorts during Lent in honour of the Virgin Mary;  eventually, the holiday was expanded to include all mothers. Some however, believe that Mother’s Day was so named as people returned to their home or “mother” church at least once a year.  The same opportunities for holidays did not exist as they do now, but like today, children often worked away from home so this became a time for family reunions.

It was therefore, the reference to the “Mother” church which led to the term ‘Mothering Sunday’ which in turn led to the tradition of children, visiting their mother and family with gifts and a special fruit cake or fruit-filled pastry called a simnel.

These days, Mother’s Day is celebrated all over the world and although for  many the church connection has been lost, it is still a special day on which to say thanks to our mums and the chance to express both love and thanks for all that they have given us.  As long as you remember of course……otherwise it’s off to the Coliseum or even worse…..

From all at Knockderry House, we wish you a Happy Mothers Day.

The room was once the dressing room for the master bedroom and on turning the home to a hotel in the 60s, it had been foolishly hacked about leaving most of the orginal carvings boarded up, cut out or given a lovely dash of magnolia gloss.  Worse – the bathroom could not be reached from the bedroom but only from the corridor, leaving many embarrassed guests no choice but to appear in the lounge bar clad in nothing but a very small towel in order to retrieve a spare key.

Decoration revealed these treasures and the original Leiper panelling hiding behind the paint. Subsequent revelations included samples of the original wallpaper and evidence of Leiper ‘built’ in wardrobes.  Interestingly we never did find a fireplace in the room – which would have necessitated some very hasty dressing in the winter months.

Fortunately modern central heating is now fully installed so the room with its new four poster bed and carpets will be significantly more comfortable for future guests than for the poor Victorian gentleman who first stayed there.

So we learn to make jokes about our weather as we try to answer with humour the perennial questions, “Does it ever stop raining?” “Does the mist ever rise?” “How do you cope during the winter with all the snow?”, but in reality – when the clouds part and the rain drifts away – we are left with the most beautiful countryside imaginable. And the rain? Well we have it to thank for the hundreds of thousands of acres of lush verdant woodland, our rivers and burns, cascading waterfalls and fertile glens feeding contented, fattened cattle.

The rain will come – but for now, the colours are spectacular everywhere you look. So as I look out across the deep blue of Loch Long to the hills of Arrochar and beyond, the richness and variety of the colours of so many different trees turning a myriad of autumnal shades, I give thanks for the rain that has passed and look forward to the year to come.