French Onion Soup

French Onion Soup, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

After seeing some great recipes for French onion soup, I decided to try my hand at the dish. The end product was a success!
The soup was actually very easy to make - it just took a while to cook the onions.
Anybody have experience with French onion soup?

Autumn in Eyre Place

An autumn corner in Eyre Place, in the Canonmills area. This photo was taken on Thursday. No photos today - pouring rain, westerly gale. Probably very atmospheric for photos, but there's a whole winter of weather like this to get through, so we stayed indoors.

Quick Look II: A Peek into Another Day in the OBX

No, I’m not trying to set a new fashion trend with my bare feet and jacket attire.  The temps on Hatteras Island may well be summer-like, but with the wind blowing non-stop, a windbreak is an essential part of our attire here … especially when the sun is going down and the day is starting to cool off.

(The above will make sense to those who have questioned my sense of fashion in yesterday’s Quick Look … wink, wink.)

Following the storm that blew through here Sunday night, we have had great weather.  The forecast each day has been for temps in the low-to-mid 70F (22-23C) range, with sunshine and mostly blue skies.  The Phaeton’s temperature gauge would seem to agree with the forecasted temps, but it’s been feeling a lot warmer than that while we’re out exploring the OBX.  Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, mind you.  Unless the weather gods decide to give us a break, tomorrow just might be the last sunny and dry day of our vacation.

But, I’m not going to focus on what might be.  Instead, here’s a quick look at what we did today.

We were out the door very early this morning.  Like 6:15a early.  Heading south this time, we arrived at the tip of Hatteras Island just in time for the 7:30a ferry to Ocracoke Island.

leaving hatteras for ocracoke 
(shooting into the sun)

Our half-day visit to Ocracoke, found us making stops at …

the pony pen … home of the descendants of the wild mustangs

The British Cemetery

The Ocracoke Lighthouse

Although there were just four vehicles on the ferry going out to Ocracoke, the one returning at noon was packed to the gills, including two tour busses filled with school kids on spring break.  We left a third bus and a growing line of other vehicles behind us for the next ferry, and arrived in Hatteras 40 minutes later to loooooooooooong, multi-lane lines of vehicles waiting to make the crossing.  So glad we didn’t wait to go to Ocracoke later in the day.

The afternoon hours saw us making stops at …

The Graveyard of the Atlantic
(one of several granite memorial markers on the museum grounds)

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

We were back at the campground by 4:00p, pleasantly tired after our long day of exploring the OBX.  Armed with our chairs, and some wine and crackers, we walked the short distance to the beach and made ourselves comfortable until dinner time.

Chicken and rice, and salad for dinner.

Tomorrow we go out exploring again ...

Peebles Highland Games

The highland games season is drawing to a close. Peebles was lucky last weekend to have glorious sunshine for its games. The pipe band competition is a major part of the Peebles games, and these photos are courtesy of my daughter, who was there to support her school band - George Watson's College.
Before heading into the arena to play, the pipes have to be tuned. Here's the school band tuning up. Notice the electronic tuner being held up to one of the drones.

Over 200 students learn piping or drumming at the school, feeding in to the three bands. They enjoy huge success, winning World championships and touring to Japan every year.
The kilt is no obstacle to whizzing down the inflatable slide if you're one of the younger band members:

When the competition part of the games is over, the bands process through Peebles with their trophies carried before them. Another successful outing for the school by the look of it.

A sea of pipes and drums:

Sunrise Ride

The heat is on. Time to go on "summer" ride schedule. This morning I was at the trail head at sunrise.

Little delay getting starting this morning - was planning to ride from the Wabash Trace trailhead. At the parking lot, I saw the road and trail were closed at the railroad tracks. Changed plans and drove over to Manawa Nature Trail.

Today's photo was the sunrise as I started off on the Lake Manawa Trail.

Quick ride - lap around Lake Manawa. Then coffee & breakfast sandwich at Panera.