Struggle against it all you like, but there is no escaping winter.
Search out your gloves, never go out without a lip balm, slip the woolly liners inside your boots, bubble up the soup pot, reacquaint yourself with the hot water bottle by all means, but you have to face reality: it is going to be cold and dark for months.
Somehow, I feel we'd all be able to embrace this challenging season with more enthusiasm if we could just hole up somewhere like Trigony House Hotel for the duration. Instead of risking broken limbs on icy pavements, we'd start the day with a proper hot breakfast, cooked by someone else, then we'd take time to read the papers in front of the fire. The light hours of the early afternoon would see us take a gently bracing stroll through the woods, down gravel paths that crunch with frost; then we'd head back to the house and the open hearth, this time for afternoon tea. Next thing we'd know, it would be time for aperitifs, followed by dinner cooked with well-chosen ingredients - many of them local to Dumfries-shire, several of them organic.
As you will have gathered, I rather like Trigony. It's still a beautiful house, despite the blandly modern interior decor, and it doesn't have the self-pleased, stuffy, antiqued, heritage feel of so many country house hotels. At Trigony, no-one will feel obliged to dress up for dinner, and dogs get to snooze before the fire. It's more like staying in a comfortable, larger-than-normal family house run by hospitable friends. Best of all, its well-priced winter breaks make it possible to pass a few days in quiet comfort without breaking the bank.
The least good thing about the food here is the presentation. Even by my laid-back standards, several of our dishes could have been prettified. But that's a minor consideration really, given the fine provenance of the ingredients, and the generosity with which they are served. A starter of duck confit was a case in point. It amounted to a good main course-sized portion of richly succulent, almost fondant duck, eased off its bone, under a paper-thin, crispy skin. Its accompanying sour-sweet shallots set it off nicely, though the dull salad (cucumber, iceberg, ungainly tomato) did nothing for it. It was a similar story with the goat's cheese croquettes. They were more a light, cleanly fried tempura of oozing cheese than a breadcrumb or batter-heavy number, with crisp, refreshing green apple slivers, mixed with walnut and dressed with thyme honey - but they weren't improved by the surplus salad pile.
Venison is one of our finest national ingredients, and roe deer roam freely in the locality. The loin, served at Trigony on a bed of pureed celeriac, was impeccable, almost fork tender, and just lightly gamey. Equally, the juicy roast chump of lamb with its lubricating cover of fat had all the flavour you would expect of sheep that roam the hills. The accompanying cassoulet of soft green flageolet beans, spiked with ham, was just right for it.
There was a very respectable, palpably fresh and natural baked orange cheesecake with a crunchy chocolate base. It came with whipped cream, though for my taste, the cream was too much; some orange compote or sauce would have finished it off better. It's not often that I choose the cheeseboard, but then at Trigony, the line-up is so discerningly chosen and apt. You get organic Loch Arthur cheddar from Beeswing, Cairnsmore ewe's milk cheese from Newton Stewart, Dunsyre Blue from Lanarkshire, and Clava organic brie from Ardersier on the shores of the Moray Firth, all served with homemade walnut oatcakes - yet you don't have to pay a supplement for the privilege. Menus at £22 and £25 (for two and three courses respectively) represent brilliant value for money, given the top quality ingredients.
The cooking at Trigony is sound and agreeably unfussy, although a more assertive hand with herbs, and some ramped up flavours, wouldn't go amiss. I'd go back like a shot for the warm home-made organic bread alone, and to toast my feet in front of the fire.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article