frayed at the edge

Anne and Malcolm's Big Adventure!

We set off bright and early (well, it was 9am, so fairly early) for the first stage of our trip.  We headed across the country to Dumfries and Galloway, then over the Border in to Cumbria.  Then ... after driving on single carriageway roads ..... motorway

 

 

and of course no motorway would be complete without miles of traffic cones .... and not a workman in sight!

 

 

After about three and a hlaf hours, we arrived at the first destination of our trip - the city of Chester.  We had a quick bite of lunch, then set out to walk round the city walls. (unfortunately the weather didn't co-operate. so no lovely sunshiney shots!)

 

 

This was our first view of the walls, looking up from street level

 

 

then looking down to the street

 

 

I laughed when I read the wording on this building, as it now houses a dentist - I think most people would have more fear of the dentist than the Lord

 

 

Further on , we saw this modern doocot - complete with pigeons!

 

 

Everywhere we went, we saw strange painted rhinos (I guess it's some sort of street art), but I'll just show you one just now, and save the others for a fiture post, as I'm just doing a quick post from our hotel room before we head out for dinner

 

 

Tomorrow we will be up early to travel to Birmingham ..... but why are we going there?  If you think you know, leave a comment and I will choose someone at random from the correct answers to give a little prize to (connected of course to where we are going!!)

 

ps - I hope to be able to post again tomorrow, but if not, we'll be home again on Friday.

 

Get up lazybones!

For once that wasn't me talking to Malcolm as I headed out for my walk, but what I thought the standing horse was saying to the other one!

 

 

....... and the friendly horse which usually pops its head over the hedge was having a lazy start to the day as well

 

 

The new house being built down at my turning point is coming along at a great rate ...... I am fascinated by this octagonal room on the front

 

 

On the way back up the hill, I had to search to find a raspberry ..... there are only a few left now

 

 

But never mind, soon there will be lots of plump, juicy brambles

 

 

Everytime I pass this gap in the hedge, I am startled by these green humps - have strange animals invaded?  Fortunately not, it is silage (animal feed) tightly wrapped in plastic, waiting to be collected and stacked for the winter.

 

 

I took this photo last week, but it never made it into a post.  The old donkey took exception when I walked past his field - I think you can see from his posture that he was vociferous in his objections!

 

 

We will be heading off early tomorrow morning on an adventure.  We will be away two nights ..... we should have internet access in the hotel, but if we don't then you will have to wait until Friday to find out all about our trip!

 

 

 

The start of a new season!

Don't worry, I don't mean that autumn has come early, but that the new football season has started (yawn).  So now when I come in from the studio on Saturday afternoons, Malcolm will be watching a programme in which several retired footballers sit watching matches on monitors and getting over excited at missed chances and bad tackles.  Then on Sunday afternoons, there is usually a match on ...... it's all about as exciting as watching my fingernails grow!!  Having said it's not yet autumn, I could have been persuaded when out this morning that it is well on the way.  It was very misty - so misty that when I got to my turning point, the hills had disappeared!!

 

 

Last year when there were lots of berries in the hedgerows, I said to Malcolm that it was a sign of a hard winter to come ..... he pooh-poohed that as an old wives' tale ..... then we had the worst winter in 40 years!  Oh dear, there are lots of hawthorn berries

 

 

and far more rosehips than last year

 

 

The heavy mist meant that these spiderwebs were visible in the hawthorn hedge

 

 

You can see the droplets of moisture on this one (the photo should enlarge if you click on  it)

 

 

The swallows are starting to gather in the mornings and evenings - a sign that soon they will head off south

 

 

Yesterday morning we went for a walk, then headed to The Main Street Trading Company for a cuppa (and a cake!).  Of course I had to have a browse round the books ..... and yes, I bought one.  (Actually I bought two - the other is for Malcolm's birthday next month)

 

 

There are lots of fabulous projects .... including making your own knitting yarn!

 

 

Much as I am enjoying knitting Maia, it does need a lot of concentration, so I thought I would start a pair of socks to do as well.  I chose a pair from this book

 

 

unusually, the cuff is knitted first, then stitches are picked up along one edge and the socks then knitted traditionally on four needles

 

 

ps - I was at the dentist this afternoon.  There had been a hiatus in my treatment, as my lovely dentist a) fell off her bike and broke her arm and b) decided to go back home to Greece.  So this was my first appointment with my new dentist.  He was very thorough, poking and prodding and taking xrays.  The outcome is that I need to have a tooth out, a bit of reconstruction on a tooth which has broken and the usual thorough cleaning (followed of course by the pain of the bill).

 

 

 

Shadow Shot Sunday

 

It hasn't been the best of weeks to find shadows to join in Tracy's wonderful meme over at Hey Harriet - but fortunately I bagged these ones last Saturday evening!

relaxing in our new summerhouse with a glass of wine

 

said glass of wine

 

casting a shadow over my studio door

 

shadow of the rowan tree

 

ps  - the summerhouse will eventually all be painted the blue colour - the rain keeps holding up the work!

 

 
  

 

Rained off!

I got up as usual at 6.30 this morning, looked out the window, saw it was wet, windy and miserable ....... and got straight back into bed!  However I've only missed a couple of my walks since I started them in the middle of May, so I didn't feel too guilty.

I have had another go at wet felting.  This one wasn't quite so successful - it hasn't quite all felted together, and is a bit see-through in places.  Also a lot of the colour came out, so instead of a bright pink and lemon flower, it is now pale pink - the lemon has disappeared!  However, the green that I added on what will be the outside of the flower worked quite well

 

 

As a temporary measure, I have just used some thread to tie the flower into shape

 

 

and like my previous flower, I have put some little strands in the middle

 

 

I will have to get some green plant sticks to use for flower stems, but just for the photo I used a bamboo knitting needle!

 

 

I'm not the only one making flowers - Malcolm made this origami one yesterday

 

 

I haven't got much work done on my row quilt recently, so I made a special effort this afternoon at patch'n'chat to finish the cuties

 

 

You might have noticed that only one of them has her headscarf!

 

 

I have also been working on Maia in the evenings - I have now done about half of it

 

 

Of course, Friday afternoons mean cake ...... today's was a wonderful apple and sultana sponge - delicious

 

 

I will have to make sure I go out for my walk on Monday morning, to walk off the cake calories - although we will probably go for a walk on Sunday (weather permitting!!)  Whatever the weather, I hope you have a wonderful weekend, love, Anne

 

 

Cragside : part 2

After seeing round the house, we adjourned to the Tearoom for a bite of lunch (very tasty but a bit pricey!), then headed off for a walk round some of the forty miles of paths (I think we will have to go back quite a few times before we walk all of them!)

 

looking up at the house from the rockery

 

 

the iron bridge (it wobbles a bit when you walk on it!!)

 

 

a much older bridge!

 

 

no barriers, just a polite request

 

 

I think this might be an orchid, but I haven't been able to find out for sure

 

 

back at the house, I took first this photo ........

 

 

then this one of the doorstep .... quilt blocks perhaps?

 

 

I took this from the car as we drove home - the purple on the hill is the start of the heather flowering - soon there will be a blaze of colour all around the Borders.

 

We hope to go back before the house closes for the winter, as there is a walk to see the autumn colours - no doubt lots of photos will be taken!!

 

Cragside : part 1

We have been members of the National Trust for some time, but we haven't made full use of our membership, so today we decided to rectify that!  We headed for Cragside in Northumberland ........ but we had a couple of delays on the way.  The first was a heavily laden timber lorry

 

 

but we didn't really mind having to stop until these sheep went past

 

 

This was our first view of the house, a magnificent Victorian house built for Lord Armstrong.  Its greatest claim to fame is that it was the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectric power

 

 

This information board tells you of the other wonders of the house

 

Unusually, photography is allowed in the house, but no flash, so some of the photos are a little bit dark.  If I had lived/worked in the house, I would have made the butler my best friend - check out all the champagne bottles in his pantry!

 

 

When we walked into this room, we were stunned by the magnificence of this fireplace

 

 

But there were small details to catch the eye as well - like this exquisite wallpaper

 

 

Of course, the main theme of this blog is craft, so I was delighted to see several patchwork quilts. Unfortunately, the lighting in these rooms was even lower to protect the fabrics, so this is the best photo I managed to take

 

 

You know one of my obsessions is post boxes, so imagine my delight to discover that the house had one of its own in the hall

 

 

This next photo is for Malcolm, who likes both woodcarving and owls!

 

 

It has been hard to pick which photos to share with you .... tomorrow I'll show you some of the grounds - there are 40 miles of paths, so we didn't quite manage to walk all of them!  In the meantime, you can read more about the house here, here, here and lastly, here.  I know that's a lot of link, but they all have different bits of information, so it's worth having a look at all of them!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you mean .... 'on the way back'?

On Sunday morning we decided to go for a walk .... so of course we headed for our favourite place for Sunday walks.  There are several different walks, and there are two we usually choose, but this time we decided to try a new one.  The first thing I spotted to take a photo of was this oak tree - the leaves are already turning

 

 

This crop looked as if it is ready to be harvested.  We weren't sure what it is, but when Malcolm had a closer look, he found that it has lots of little seeds, so we think it is rape.  Given how small the seeds are, it must take a great deal of rape to produce oil

 

 

We would have gone through this gate, but for some reason it is several feet from the path!

 

 

When we passed this (very) large boulder, Malcolm thought it would look good in the garden.  He said I could just pop it in my backpack on the way back ........ excuse me, what do you mean on the way back, I thought all these were circular walks?  Oh no, we have to turn round and retrace our steps, he said, as we headed down a rather steep slope .....

 

 

And now ..... the mysterious tower.  Malcolm pointed and said 'I wonder what that is'

 

 

'What?' I said.  'That' he said

 

 

We scrambled up the hill to have a better look and discovered that it is a doocot  There was nowhere to stand to get clear photos, as it is fenced off due to its delapidated state, so these are the best I could manage

 

 

If you look through the door, you can just see the pigeon holes on the far wall

 

 

I haven't been able to find out anything about this doocot (Malcolm even spent some time online this morning looking at old maps), but I did find a photo of this one at Mertoun House  - it's not too far from here, but we didn't know about it!

 

 

After such a lovely walk on Sunday, the weather has gone somewhat downhill and this morning I got soaked on my walk.  But the strange thing was the rain stopped just short of the house, so Malcolm was a bit puzzled when I staggered in the door dripping wet!  However there was a brief break in the rain to allow me to take this photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Keeping the boys happy!

The Gnome Brothers were very unhappy when their sisters got the first toile cushions, so they were delighted when I finished theirs yesterday!

 

 

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to have a proper go at wet felting, so I got out my book and assembled all the ingredients

 

 

Usually, ofcourse, I would show you photos of all the stages ..... but my hands were wet and soapy all the time!  When I have another attempt I'll have to make sure that Malcolm is available to take the photos.  After much rubbing and rolling, this is what I produced

 

 

When I did finally dry my hands, I took this photo to let you see who was keeping me company in the kitchen - a very young-looking George Clooney!

 

 

When I took my little piece of felt out to the studio this afternoon, I had a play using some bits I had felted some weeks ago ...... I produced this flower, with the 'wrong' side on show

 

 

I actually cheated a bit - I held the flower in place on the back with one of those plastic clips that hold new shirts on the card packaging!

 

 

Yesterday morning we went for a walk - come back tomorrow and I'll tell you more about this building we found hidden in the woods!

 

 

 

Shadow Shot Sunday

 

The weather has been a bit mixed this week, but there was enough sunshine the other morning for me to capture some shadows for our weekly fun meme, hosted by the hardworking Tracy over at Hey Harriet .  As you will see, this week's crop features animals ...... and because it is a new month, of course we have the next braw laddie!

a beautiful grey enjoying the early morning sun

 

a mare and foal

 

some of the sheep prefer the deep shade in the field

 

swallows on a wire - soon they will fly south for the winter

 

And now - the moment you have waited a month for!  If this is your first visit, I should explain that the first time I posted a photo from this calender, it was accidental ...... but it attracted so many comments I have posted every month's gorgeous hunk since (and of course, the calendar is a fundraiser for a very good cause)  Regular readers know that I am married to Malcolm - but this is not my Malcolm (recently a friend was looking through the calendar and let out a shriek when she saw Mr August, as she knows him!!)