The Sun Has Returned

We are having another of those blue-skied, sunny, cool-breezy, mid-70s days with no rain. It is heavenly! Don and Gordon are back on the golf course. Helen and I are in our separate gardens madly trying to finish the book for next week's book group meeting.

Last night's Manhattan Transfer concert in Edinburgh was superb, start to finish! Helen and Gordon picked us up at 4. We got to Helen's brother Jimmy's flat to find orange juice and chilled bubbly waiting for us. He has a handicap sticker (a leg problem) and so we were able to park at the back door of the venue.

If you ever go to Edinburgh, you must have a meal at Hewat's Restaurant [http://www.hewatsrestaurant.com]. It's a fairly small place but they really know what they're doing. The service was efficient and friendly, the atmosphere quietly elegant, the menu interesting, the prices reasonable, an the food was beautifully presented and absolutely delicious. (I had the best steak I've ever had in the almost three years we've been living in Scotland.)

It was an easy walk of about 200 yards from the restaurant. The venue, a former church, was quite warm (NO climate control whatsoever). Except for clapping, we were fairly still but the Manhattan Transfer were dancing and jiving all over the stage--and every one of them in long sleeves! (I'm sure they'd heard it would be cold and rainy in Scotland.) They probably lost about 5 pounds each during their absolutely top-notch performance. We last saw them at Wolf Trap in Virginia we think in the 1980s. They haven't lost a thing in the interim. If you like vocal jazz and innovative pop music, check their tour schedule on their Website [http://www.manhattantransfer.org/] and make a point to go see them. You will be glad you did.

This morning Don went to Perth to do a shop while I entertained Margaret Coll at coffee. (That sounds much more formal than it was.) We talked about quilts and quilting, among other things. She had made 2 lovely pieced totebags, one a Provencal design and the other made from various wool tweeds in soft browns and tans. We're plotting a daytrip to Linlithgow to visit the quilt shop there, have lunch, and perhaps see the palace.

After lunch I planted two of the plants I bought at the street market 10 days ago and did some watering and dead-heading of the front bed flowers and hanging baskets. Now I really must go do my afternoon reading.