Casual Miracles (And Root Canal Work)

[f4f3]

This has been a day of casual miracles. I'm working from home, mostly so that I could get to the dentist at lunchtime. I thought I was going to have a temporary filling replaced. He thought I was getting root canal work done. He won. But that only took an hour, and I decided to get lunch at Stravaignan, in case I wasn't able to eat anything when the numbness wore off. 
The casual miracle was the food. Haggis, neeps and tatties, followed by collie, with salt collie mash and a raisin puree. It was so delicious that it reminded me how lucky I am to live where I do, when I do. I then walked across to Artisan Roast for a flat white which lifted the top of my head off, flipped it neatly, and put it back in place. 
My appreciation of all this was heightened by reading Robert Macfarlane's "The Wild Places", which has the most beautiful descriptions of a sea voyage I've read since Rabban's "Passage to Juneau". He conjured up the sea paths from Lewis, and the Cairngorms, so clearly that I felt myself sitting on a hill overlooking Portuairk again, watching the sun go down over Skye, Muck, Rhum and Eigg. 
I am a very lucky man, living a blessed life, and sometimes it's good to be reminded of that. 

One of my favourite bible quotes is, "Man was born to trouble as the sparks fly upward", and luckily another is, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin."

The world's troubles aren't mine, my happiness is my business, and, to quote another wise old bird “Everything is unfolding as it must, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.”

Comments

[helianthas.livejournal.com]

I like your quotes. You are sounding in better spirits?

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if I am or not, but the river moves on, no matter how hard I try to beat back against the current.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin.

This is from a guy who invites 5000 people to a rad happening, neglects to bring food, and then solves the problem with magic.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

*handwaves*

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

I'm quite worried about the collie mash :(

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

That would be the fish...

[rparvaaz.livejournal.com]

Today, I had a pretty good demonstration of that last line up there. :)

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I'm very pleased to hear that :)

[mhaithaca.livejournal.com]

I'm at a loss to guess what collie or salt collie mash might be, and the Internet isn't helping. The rest is quite easy, though it's hard to find a good haggis 'round here unless I make it myself. (The nearest other source I know of is more than an hour's drive away.)

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Coley! Not collie! I guess in the week that UK beefburgers turned out to contain horse, that counts as a Freudian slip.
Full menu here: http://www.stravaigin.co.uk/set-lunch.php

[mhaithaca.livejournal.com]

The menu looks great! And I admit I'm scratching my head over the horse issue. Considering how much horsemeat is consumed across the Channel, you'd think it wouldn't be that foreign a concept. Of course, contamination is bad. Now I'm wondering if there's a fraction of a percent of horse DNA in American beef, too.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Stravaigan isa wonderful place, a pub with one of Scotland's best restaurants in the basement (and they serve the same menu upstairs, if you like).

I wouldn't mind eating horse (I've had it in France) so long as I was buying horse. Some of these burgers were 30% horse, and sold as beef. That's quite simply a crime.