frayed at the edge

A short break

On Thursday we headed over the Border to England, but instead of crossing at our usual point, we headed south west to Dumfries and Galloway, as we were on our way to Carlisle.  As well as doing some shopping (possibly for Christmas!!), we indulged in  a bit of history, with a visit to Carlisle Castle.  The castle and the surrounding area was fought over for many years, but in the end, the English prevailed!!  Despite its age, it is still an imposing structure

 

the entrance gate

 

this photo shows the thickness of the walls

 

To defend a castle you need weapons, such as this cannon, but on closer inspection, we saw the makers mark .....

...... I think this might be called ironic - this cannon, defending an English Castle, was made in Scotland!  It was made by Carron Iron Works - the site of which was about half a mile from our last house!  Although the works have long since gone, there is still a company on the site called Carron Phoenix - they make beautiful sinks - we have one in our kitchen!!  If you have studied military history, you may have come across a carronade - a type of small cannon - which of course got its name because it was manufactured by Carron.

this is part of an old drainpipe, dated 1717!

is this early vandalism?

this is the official explanation!

this old fashioned hairdressers is across from the castle

 

Friday morning in the village of Caldbeck, with sheep in the car park!!

a brief stop for .....

a cuppa and a scone, then all things woolly at .....

the Wool Clip - the organisers of the wonderful Woolfest

wool, wool and more ......

.....wool!  You will see what I bought soon, when I do a little needle-felting tutorial!

 On the way back to the car, we saw this wonderful log pile - it's just as well that it was on the other side of the stream, or Malcolm may have tried to fit it in his pocket!!

 

I eventually sorted out yesterday's gremlins, after 30 frustrating minutes on the phone to 'customer services' (I eventually handed the phone to Malcolm to sort out the technical stuff!! ) Do pop over to Leenie's blog and scroll down to her Weekword post - she has an absolutely hilarious tale about a very large black bra ..... (and her paintings and photos are superb!)  See you tomorrow for Shadow Shot Sunday.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Weekword

This week's word is TRANSPORTATION, which was chosen by Leenie (I'm sorry I can't put the link in just now, as I am having another attack of the gremlins - hopefully I'll get it sorted by tomorrow!!)  However, I can show you my interpretation of transportation

 

 

Hope you all have a super weekend!  We have been away for two days 'south of the Border' - I have lots of photos to show you tomorrow.

Love, Anne

 

More livestock!

After falling in love with the gorgeous bull, today (fickle thing that I am!), I transferred my affections to a cute ram.  However, this isn't a real live one, but a toy one that we saw this morning in a shop that has just opened in Hawick, called 'Quaint or Ancient'.  The shop is a wonderful mix of quirky gifts (quaint) and antiques (ancient!).  I have named the ram Tuppence (another name for a ram is a tup) and he has joined Jacob - I think next time I will have to buy some ewes!!)

 

It wasn't just me who bought something in the shop - Malcolm couldn't resist some of their lovely blue and white china

It looks lovely on our blue and white place mats and table runner, as does our bowl of pot pourri and autumn squash

Also new in the kitchen is the tea cosy, which I finished yesterday - I turned in the edges of the openings and needle-felted them in place, to make it fit better.  When I took the photo, the light wasn't very good in the kitchen, so I took the teapot, resplendent in its cosy, out into the front garden

I paused on the way back in the door to take this photo of a pot of winter plants that I bought in the supermarket on Monday when I was doing my weekly shop!

I took this next photo late this afternoon when the sparrows arrived for their teatime
feed from the bird table.  They are very fussy and eat all the choice bits from the bird food, leaving behind one kind of seed - but I refuse to put out more food until they eat it all up!

On Friday, my lovely blog friend Lee celebrates her birthday.  We are in the middle of a postal dispute, so I didn't want to post her card (and there may be a little pressie too!), so I'm 'posting' her card on the blog (clever!!)  Again, because of the poor light indoors, I took the card outside - there was a slight problem though, as it was a little bit breezy, and every time I went to take the photo, the card would blow over!!  Finally, I managed to get a photo .....

..... but I then went indoors to take a photo of the inside of the card (you'll probably recognise the location - it's a chair in front of the French doors that I use quite a lot!!)

I know it's only Wednesday, but we're going away for two days, and although Malcolm has booked us into a hotel with wi-fi, just in case I can't do a post tomorrow, I wanted to make sure that Lee got her birthday card on time - Happy Birthday Lee - I hope you have a super day with your family - and enjoy the wine after your detox!!!!
 
 
  
 
 
 
 

Singapore sensations!

This will be the last full post of photos from our holiday - although I am sure some photos will creep in to other posts in the future - especially shadow shots when we have to many grey days during the winter!

After our wonderful stay in Sydney, we moved on to Singapore.  I've just had a brief look at the photos, and there are so many wonderful ones, it is hard to choose some...... so I've picked some lovely ones from the Botanic Gardens

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had fun taking the last photo - making sure only Malcolm's head could be seen!!  I hope you have enjoyed the photos of these beautiful plants - I have enjoyed looking through them again!

 

 

 

 

I've fallen in love ......

....... with our new neighbour!  He's gorgeous - young and handsome, with beautiful big eyes ....... and oh, you should see his muscles!!  Would you like to see a photo of him?

 

 

isn't he lovely!!

I was slightly worried when he came over to the fence - he is very big!!

 

Now I have some lovely news to share with you.  Stuart's colleague Emma gave birth to a daughter yesterday.  She is called Mia, and Mum and baby are both fine.  I took another photo of the hat and socks ......

and now I can tell you what I have been knitting over the summer, which has been a closely guarded secret, as Emma reads the blog .........

........ a shawl.  It's not quite finished, I am just sewing on the last of the edging, and then it will be washed and blocked (stretched).   It's knitted in two-ply, so it's quite fine ...... and it's a well travelled shawl, as I knitted quite a lot of it on holiday!

When Emma told Stuart she was pregnant, he promptly said that I would make a quilt for the baby!!  So today I had a browse through my stash, and came up with four very different ideas

very, very bright

tasteful pastels

fun cows

very cute sheep

I can't decide which one to choose - perhaps you could leave a comment and tell me which one you prefer!

 

This week's word for 'weekword' has been chosen by Leenie - do pop over to her blog to find out what word she has chosen - and maybe you could join in this week!
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

Shadow Shot Sunday

I went out for a walk on Thursday, to experiment with my new camera.  As I walked back down the hill towards home, the sun came out, and I saw some shadows on the church - so I changed the camera setting to B&W - and here are the photos - hope you like them!!

 

 

 

 

Shadow Shot Sunday wouldn't be possible without the hard work of Tracy of Hey Harriet - do visit and see the montage of last week's shadow shots and visit this week's participants!

 
 
 

The wonder of the internet

Some time ago, I had a post called easy peasy tutorial - it didn't attract a lot of interest at the time, so you can imagine my surprise, when in the last few weeks it kept showing up in my stats.  A little bit of investigation has revealed that the tutorial is listed on this blog, which comes from Buenos Aires, Argentina!!  I have no idea how I ended up on the blog (I don't mind!!) - so I have e-mailed the writer of the blog to ask how she found out about me - I'll let you know if I get a reply!

 

Today had been another miserable day, grey, wet and increasingly windy, so this afternoon I was quite glad to retreat to the studio, especially as the Malcolm had lit the log burner for me!  Last night I finished the tea cosy - here it is sitting on the teapot

 

As you can see, it is a little bit big, so I decided to felt it - I put it in a bowl of hot soapy water, then gave it a good pummelling (for once ignoring the rule about only squeezing handknits!)  I also washed (but not in hot water!) the baby hat and socks that I knitted recently (the baby is due next week).  I took them all out to the studio to dry in the heat of the stove

Oh dear,  Typepad had thrown one of its periodic hissy fits and won't put in the photo - but I think (I hope) if you click on the red cross you will see the photo!  If you can't see it, it shows the tea cosy, the socks and the hat warming themselves in front of the stove - the best place to be on a miserable afternoon!  The tea cosy still isn't quite the right shape/size, so once it's dry, I will use a bit of needle felting to tweak it into shape!!

Malcolm made the dinner tonight and I wondered why he was shouting at me to bring the camera, when he was dishing up .... well this is why - he was so delighted with how his fish pie had turned out!!

mmmmm - it was delicious, and the sliced potato was a nice change from mashed potato on the top!!  And on the subject of food - of course there is a photo of yesterday's cake - the patch and chatters think it's hilarious that Annette's cakes have a fan club!!  So here it is - a yummy peach flan with cream .....

 
  
 
 

Weekword

This week's word was chosen by ..... me!!  After a bit of thought, I chose BROWSE, and here is my interpretation

I can browse through my books for something to read

 

 

I can browse through the cookery books for a recipe for dinner

 

 

browse for a new project

 

But now to do all these things, I don't even have to leave my armchair, as I can browse on line  for books, recipes and patterns - which of course is what we think of now when we use the word browse

 

 

To see other interpretations, visit these lovely blogs over the next few days ......

Anairam   Sarah  Linda Sue  Leenie  Lotte   Dasha  and Sandra

If you haven't yet let me know you are joining in this week - leave me a comment and I'll add your link!

 

Hope you all have a super weekend - and I hope your weather is better than mine - it is a decidedly dreich day here!!!

 
 

 

 

 

Practice makes perfect ......

....... I hope!!  I went out for a walk this afternoon and took along my new camera to try to get to grips with the myriad settings (my poor brain was hurting by the time I got back home).  Here is a selection of the ones that didn't go in the recycle bin!!

 

the church looks different in the low autumn light

 

 

lovely ripe elderberries

 

 

wonderful gnarled dead branches, blanketed with moss

 

 

these sheep were happy to pose

 

 

these ones took one look at the camera and trotted off!

 

 

I love autumn colours

 

 

a reminder of why I live here!!

 

 

sheep enjoying a meal of windfall apples

 

 

I may pick a sprig or two for Christmas!

 

I also got a bit arty, and took some B&W photos of the church on my way home, as the sun had come out and there were some good shadows - you'll see them on Sunday!

 

 

 

 

Bits and pieces!

I was so excited when I opened the post this morning - my lovely friend Sarah had sent me a belated birthday present - just look at what she sent 

 

a wonderful set of stamps - with pictures of post boxes!!  And .... the folder has lots of interesting photos and info

thank you Sarah - it is a super present!!

 

I was in a charity shop in Jedburgh this morning, when I saw this little cross-stitch kit - priced at only £2.50 - needless to say I had to buy it!

 

This afternoon, I met my friend Lorraine to go to knit'n'natter.  I hadn't seen her for ages, as she went on holiday just when we came back!  We had rather a lot of news to catch up on - including hearing about what she got for her birthday last month - a new sewing machine!  However I did manage to do some knitting in between chatting, drinking tea (and eating a toasted teacake!).  Malcolm recently bought me this tea cosy book (sorry about the marks on it - I accidently splashed it with wax when I was blowing out a candle)

I foolishly said to Malcolm that I would knit him whichever cosy he wanted - and some of them are very elaborate!  But being a man of tast and refinement, he picked a very simple one.  It should actually be knitted in a paler blue, but this denim blue aran wool was left over from a jumper I knitted for him last year

not bad for an afternoon's knitting (and I've started the other side!)

 

If you've ever bought a book from Amazon, then you'll know that you get e-mails for ever more suggesting other books you might like to buy.  Usually I delete them before I'm tempted - but last week I got an e-mail saying that people who had previously bought a book by Jan Brocket might also like to buy Cath Kidston's new book.  I made the mistake of looking at the new book .... yes, I bought it!

As well as all sorts of lovely projects, there is also a kit to make the bag on the cover - I think that might go to quite near the top of the to-do list!