Yesterday, Lorna and I had lunch out at Dunkeld House Hotel, on our way to House of Bruar for a bit of shopping. The weather had started dull and misty, but the sun came out and we enjoyed our 25 minute drive through the turning colours of autumn.

Once we’d settled ourselves in the warm lounge bar of the hotel (which was fairly busy with other diners and a couple of well-behaved dogs), we both ordered the soup of the day, which we’d been told was pea. It came with very soft white bread, little packets of butter, and a bowl of chips.

The soup was an attractive vibrant green, and I tucked in joyfully. Lorna was suspicious of the lumps floating on the top, and hoped they were croutons. She tentatively bit into one, discovered it was a bacon lardon, and proceeded to pick the rest of them out of her bowl. I didn’t even notice them, and consumed my soup happily unaware of the meat element. (Not that it would have bothered me if I’d known, since I’m not averse to such things myself.)

We enjoyed sitting in the lounge bar, with the background buzz of other diners in a warm, comfortable environment. After polishing off our meals, we decided against having anything further, and decided to push on to House of Bruar, where we would have hot drinks and a snack. Lorna forgot to take any photos at Bruar, but she did take a couple in Dunkeld House Hotel grounds as we were leaving.

One of the delights of Dunkeld House Hotel is the long private driveway leading from the main road to the hotel. It’s a mile long and has numerous gentle humps to keep traffic at low speeds. It’s almost entirely single track with passing places, and every time we go up or down it we pass other vehicles travelling in the opposite direction. The little waves we exchange with fellow drivers, and the leisurely pace of the drive, make coming and going along the driveway a special part of any visit to the hotel.

Today, I had an appointment at 12:31 for my seasonal ‘flu and Covid jabs in the local hospital. Since the appointment was at lunchtime, we decided to continue on to a local eatery instead of going back home for lunch.

We drove the short distance to the Dalmore Inn, on the outskirts of Blairgowrie, a handy place we visit from time to time when we don’t want to go far.

Having put in our order and received our drinks (milk for me, water for Lorna), we prepared ourselves to receive cauliflower and roast almond soups, served with warm rolls.

Lorna was relieved to find that her soup came topped with snipped chives, rather than lumps of meat, and we tucked in.

The soup was nice and thick, and the almonds were clearly noticeable as tiny nibs within the soup.

After our soup, we were looking forward to dessert. We’ve noticed before at the Dalmore Inn that they’re pretty good at puddings, so our hopes were high. We had both ordered their daily special: autumnal spiced parfait with orange segments, spiced biscuit crumb and orange sorbet. It certainly looked very appealing when it arrived.

There was a good range of textures within the dessert, and the orange sorbet was exceptionally delicious, having a strong citrus tang.

Lorna agrees with me that, despite her off-putting topping, the pea soup was the tastier of the two soups on two days. However, life is all about variety, and we appreciated different aspects of our visits to both Dunkeld House Hotel and the Dalmore Inn. We often comment on how marvellous it is that so many eateries exist within a short distance of where we live, and that we’re able to support their noble endeavours.

On returning home, after tucking me into bed for an afternoon nap, Lorna popped out for a walk and enjoyed some autumn leaves still on trees, and carpeting the ground.