What’s been happening?

First of all a doggy update; Harvey is coming through with flying colours! Socially, he is charming and competent. He had plenty of opportunities to display his talents yesterday. In the morning he was as a guest of the Tynepark art group and was a big hit. After that he met a couple of friends in Haddington. He isn’t phased at all by any situation he has come across and he has a way with the ladies, something that his owner Paul said he might not be too good at, because he hasn’t met many women before. Today he is going to meet some work colleagues and this afternoon he will meet my granddaughter who is 5 years old. Paul said that Harvey doesn’t have much experience of children, so we will see how he gets on. Up to now, he has wanted to be friends with everyone, let’s hope that continues.

There have been developments with my on-line poem 'An Autumn Leaf with Attitude.' I put it on the poetry section of a writers web site called ‘Writers Circle; and got some useful comments, some of which I have used to revise the poem. I hope to get more constructive criticism at the next writers group in Dalkeith. After that, I will post the final version on the blog. I think I will make that an ‘Autumn Leaves’ day and post a watercolour painting on the same subject, which I am working on at the moment.

CAFÉ - CAFÉ… The second in my occasional series on cafes I visit describes the Tyninghame Smithy country store and café. As the name implies, an old Smithy (Smiddy in Scottish) building is now an ample store of arts and crafts with a more modest space for the café. Tyninghame is a lovely, unspoilt village of stone cottages. It is near the coast and perfect for a visit after some healthy exercise walking on the beach and in the woods. The best time to visit is on a sunny day when you can sit outside in the courtyard. Dog bowls of water are provided (I’m noticing things like that now.) The café inside is a little cramped and the coffee is made in a cafetier there is no Latte or Cappuccino on sale. There was in an interesting variation on the fruit scones with cherry’s used, the verdict from the others about the cakes was – very good. Overall the café is well worth a visit and I would give it **** out of *****.