frayed at the edge

Gold!

Our morning routine, Monday to Friday, is to eat breakfast at the kitchen table, then take our (very large) cups of tea through to the lounge.  We then read for a while.  However, that routine was thoroughly disrupted this morning, with the arrival of these two birds on the peanut feeder

 

 

Yes, goldfinch!  I didn't need to use my new bird book to identify them

 

 

The book I have been using is a childs' book (yes, I stole it from my own son!!) and the drawings in it aren't always clear.  However this book, as well as drawings, has stunning photos of birds, and lots of information

 

 

Usually when we get an unusual bird in the garden, I am lucky to get one blurry photo before it flies away, but they stayed for most of the morning, so I ended up taking dozens of photos ..... here are a few of them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The collared dove appeared later in the day, posing prettily on the other bird table

 

 

Later in the afternoon, Malcolm was working in the front garden, when he came to the door to let me know that the first swallow had arrived!!  We think this is at least a week earlier than last year.

 

 

But I wouldn't want you to think that all I did today was take photos of birds!

From the fridge, I assembled these ingredients

 

red onion, mushrooms, sweet red peppers and leftover lamb (from Sunday dinner).  To these I added

 

tomato puree, ground cumin, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, garlic - and apricot jam.  As always, I had to get out my special tiny measuring spoons, as the smoked paprika is very strong, and I only need to add a smidgen!

 

 

I started by gently frying the onions and mushrooms in some olive oil

 

 

then added the garlic and the seasoning, and cooked it a little bit more, then added the jam and the meat.  Finally I added the tomato puree, and a little bit of water

 

 

This is when I realised that I had forgotten to include the next ingredient in the earlier photos!

 

 

As you can see, Sainsbury's are very precise and don't call this cheese 'feta' - but that's what it looks and tastes like!  I diced it and stirred it on to the mixture, then spooned it into the peppers

 

 

Then it was into the oven for thirty minutes.  I wish you could smell this ....... delicious!

 

 

Thank you for all the advice and good wishes for my poor sore wrists.  I have almost finished the gardening gloves, and won't do any more knitting this week!

 

 

Introducing Miss Jemima

This is my rag doll Jemima, modeling last week's knitting project.  She is actually a little bit old to be wearing a baby cardigan as she will be thirty five this year!  The cardigan was straightforward to knit, although I find constant moss stitch tedious - and it always give me sore wrists and hands.  When it came to the three-needle cast off for the seam down the sleeves, I read the instructions several times, and each time came to the same conclusion - if you do it the way the pattern says, the seam will be on the right side!

 

 

She soon got fed up posing for photos, and tried to climb over the back of the chair, revealing the fact that she lost her shoes many years ago!

 

 

Those of you who have the Debbie Bliss book and have been following the progress through the projects, will know that this is not the next one

 

 

This week should have been shelf edging, but instead I am doing gardening gloves (I think Malcolm would look very sweet in pale green knitted gloves, his opinion isn't printable!).  The reason for the change of order is quite simple - we are going on holiday soon, and the projects for the two weeks we will be away are big ones.  I don't want to take a lot of knitting with me, as Stuart and Alison are joining us, so we will probably be out more in the evenings, and I won't have as much time to knit.  However once we're back, I'll continue to work through the projects in the order they are in the book.  I had planned to start my socks last week, but because my wrists were sore, I decided to have a rest from knitting after I finished the baby cardigan.

 

On Saturday I went for a walk after lunch, we both went for a walk yesterday morning, and then today I again went for a walk after lunch.  There is so much growth in the verges/hedgerows, I realised that I am not very good at plant recognition, so this afternoon I got out this book .....

 

 

....... and went through my photos.  However I didn't find it particularly helpful - I think it would be better to have a book with photos, rather than drawings.  However, I didn't need a book to identify the wild garlic yesterday - the smell was a big clue!!  We were walking along the river, when we came round a bend to be greeted with the sight of garlic as as far as the eye could see!

 

 

Growing among the garlic was another plant that I know - butterbur.  The flower spike comes up first, followed by leaves that look like rhubabrb

 

 

This next plant is tiny - I think it is a wild strawberry

 

 

This is so delicate, it would make a lovely applique block

 

 

When I was out walking on the main road today, it happened again ...... an enormous truck thundering along the road!  (I think they park somewhere and wait for me to appear!)

 

 

I sometimes see strange things when I'm out for a walk - and this implement certainly qualifies - it looks like a cross between a rake and a pitchfork!

 

 

To end, some more lambs ...... they are just so cute, I just have to take photos of them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Shadow Shot Sunday

As we move further into spring, we have more and more sunshine - perfect for shadow chasing!  To see who else has captured shadows this weeks, pop over to Tracy at Hey Harriet.

This week's selection were taken last Saturday at Jedburgh Castle Jail - you can read more about our visit in yesterday's post. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And of course there has to be a reflection shot - way, way down in the depths of the well - comparing the size of the square that the camera is looking through, with the size of the squares in the reflection gives an idea of the depth!!

 

The four Maries

Last Saturday, when Stuart and Alison were here, we visited Mary Queen of Scots house in Jedburgh.  In one of the rooms, there are paintings on the wall panels.  This Is Mary

 

 

and these are the four Maries (or Marys), who were the ladies-in-waiting.

 

 

If you google the four Maries, you actually discover that there were up to eight different Maries, but according to the song I learned many years ago

The Queen, she had four Maries

Tonight, she'll have but three

There was Mary Beaton, Mary Seaton

Mary Carmichael and me.

 

The singer of the song was Mary Hamilton, who was about to be executed. Mary had an amazing and complicated life, before she was executed on the order of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth of England.  You can read more about her life here.

Mary must have had tiny feet - this is one of her shoes, and looks as if it is only big enough for a child

 

After looking round the house, we went on to see the Castle Jail.  This inmate didn't look very happy about being incarcerated for debt

 

 

And this poor woman had the added misery of a very bad hair day

 

 

I came across this amazing quilt, which was made on 1901.  It is rather badly hung, in a narrow corridor, so I couldn't get a good photo of it

 

 

Friday, as ever, means cake at patch'n'chat.  We had our favourite apple and sultana cake - there was silence as we all tucked in!

 

 

And to end, a little aaah moment ....... another very cute calf, snuggled up to its Mum.  I hope you all have a good weekend, love Anne

  

 

 

 

Lets stick together!

When I was doing more prep on my Baltimore blocks this afternoon, I decided to try out a technique that I have been reading about on Teresa's blog ..... you can find out more here and here.  It's a very different way to use freezer paper to the one that I use, but as it looked quick and easy, I thought I would do a sample piece.

I started with a leaf-shaped piece of freezer paper ironed on to the RIGHT side of a scrap of fabric, a glue pen, cocktail stick, and an old ruler to work on (as suggested by Teresa, as it is easy to clean)

 

 

! put a line of glue along the edge - helpfully, the glue is blue so that you can see your line

 

 

I turned the seam allowance over, using the cocktail stick to smooth out the curves

 

 

For the next stage, I got out my box of cotton threads .....

 

 

...... a scrap of backing fabric, my favourite applique needles - and a vital piece of equipment, a needle threader!

 

 

I peeled the freezer paper off, pinned the leaf to the background fabric and started stitching

 

 

Then I encountered a small problem.  I had too much glue on the ends of the leaves, making it difficult to make neat points.  Once I had finished stitching, I washed the sample to remove the glue, and ironed it dry.  Apart from the untidy points, I was pleased with the result.  It is a quick way to prep the pieces, and I think I will use it for this quilt

 

 

Just after lunch, I heard a great deal of noise coming from the field across the road.  I looked out to find Billy the Farmer trying to persuade these sheep to move in to the next field.  As you can see, they weren't in any hurry to move!

 

 

A lot of the noise came from this little chap .... but he soon grew tired of trying to be sheepdog!

 

 

Birthday girl!

It is Jennifer's birthday in a few days time, so we we went down to Morpeth this morning, to take her out for lunch.  I can't tell you what we gave her for her birthday, as she hasn't opened her present yet ..... but I can tell you all about lunch!  We went to The Country Barn at Widdrington, where there is an excellent coffe shop and farm shop.  As it was a special occasion, we had a bottle of wine with lunch.  Both Malcolm and Jennifer hate having their photo taken so this was the best I could do!

 

 

There is a wide choice of food, so it took us some time to decide what to have.  Jennifer and Malcolm both decided to have quiche .....

 

 

..... while I plumped for the baked potato with coronation chicken

 

 

The food was delicious, and we lingered over cups of tea and coffee (of course you know that the tea was for me!!)

On the way back to Jennifer's, we passed this wonderful sculpture, which has been nicknamed 'Robin of Pegswood' - you can read about him here.  I'm sorry it is not the best of photos, but as I was sitting in the back seat of the car, it was rather difficult to capture Robin in all his glory!

 

 

Before we left this morning, I had to take these photos in a bit of a rush.  This explains why the bathroom cabinet, which Malcolm has made for his other sister, Judith, is standing on the kitchen worktop!  We were taking the cabinet to Jennifer's, as Judith will collect it next time she visits her.

 

 

Judith had given him the measurements, and a rough description of the style she wanted

 

 

I don't have a cabinet in my bathroom - I shall have to put in an order for one!!

 

A small delay

I've been doing some more work on my applique project.  I remembered a method I had been shown at a workshop some years ago, which means that you don't have to mark the placement of the pieces on your background fabric.  This means that you can change the layout as you stitch.  The tutor had proper bought stuff to use, but I have improvised with cut up polythene bags!

 

 

The idea is very simple - you trace the pattern on to the polythene, and use it to put the pieces in the right place.  This shows the polythene, with a large 'x' showing the centre, over the first pattern ...... and this is where the delay came in - because I realised that the pattern needs to be increased in size (the only one of the nine which isn't shown full-sized!), which meant a visit to the copy shop yesterday!

 

 

So here is the second pattern being traced.  You may spot that the pen has changed.  That's because the first pen did indeed write on any surface, as the packaging said ..... but unfortunately, it just wiped off again!

 

 

This is the tracing placed over the background fabric - so when I'm ready to start stitching, I just need to centre the pattern over the fabric then slip the pieces underneath the plastic and line them up with the drawing

 

 

While I was working on the tracings, I was watching this film

 

 

Meryl Streep is at her glorious, over-the-top best.  I love her great booming voive - and her hilarious French accent!

 

 

As I got organised to go back in to the house, I had a look round and thought that perhaps I need to tidy the studio .....

 

 

...... and it doesn't look much better from the opposite angle!

 

 

We had a rare visitor to the bird table yesterday - a collared dove

 

 

We're off to Morpeth in the morning to see Jennifer for a special occasion ..... I'll tell you all about it tomorrow!

A well trained son!

We had a relaxing evening on Friday, with Stuart and Alison quite happy to watch tv, after a busy week for both of them at work.

 

 

Stuart and I got up early on Saturday morning, and headed out for a walk.  Unfortunately, it was very misty, but this little creature was happy with the damp road!

 

 

We stood well back, as this tractor and trailer appeared out of the mist, taking ewes and lambs out to the field from the lambing shed

 

 

Once we were all finally up and showered, we headed to Jedburgh for breakfast, after which we visited Mary Queen of Scots' House and Jedburgh Castle Jail - but I'll save that for another post.  On the way home, Stuart was driving ...... and being well trained in my blogging requirements, he didn't need to be asked to stop when we saw this cow and her contented calf!

 

 

 By lunchtime the mist had lifted and we enjoyed lunch sitting out on the deck.  Stuart was having fun playing with my camera, and very patiently took a lot of photos of this little beetle, trying to get it in focus (if you compare it to the size of the print, you will see just how small it was!)

 

 

Having enjoyed another lazy evening, on Sunday morning I made breakfast (French toast, bacon and maple syrup) before Stuart and Alison headed off for Falkirk.  As it was a glorious morning, Malcolm and I went over to Harestanes for a walk.  The recent rain and the much warmer weather means that there is a lot more growth.  This is a chestnut tree - the buds will soon open into either pink or white flowers

 

 

The flowers on this mahonia are very bright

 

 

The air was full of the scent of wild garlic

 

 

Best of all, the beautiful blossom on an old apple tree

 

 

Now, the weekly knitting update!  The needle case was another very simple project ........

 

 

........ which only took an evening to knit - and about thirty minutes to stitch the lining fabric and felt on

 

 

This week's project will take a bit longer - a baby cardigan, knitted in 4-ply on 3.25 needles!

 

 

 

 

Shadow Shot Sunday

It's that time of the week again, when I join in the fun over at Hey Harriet, where Tracy has yet another SSS up and running - do pop over and check out this week's shadows.

My offerings come from the old graveyard at the Kirk of The Forest, in Selkirk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And to end, an appropriate thing to see in an old graveyard ......... a big, black crow!

 

Alien invasion!

Just a quick post tonight, as Stuart and Alison are here.  We have just finished dinner....... Malcolm's wonderful pot roasted brisket, and for pudding, we made the supreme sacrifice and shared (some of) the lemon drizzle cake which Rachel gave us yesterday.

 

Last night, we thought that we had been invaded by aliens, when we saw this hovering in the sky

 

 

Had they arrived from the moon?

 

 

Or from Mars?

 

 

Did they just park to walk the dog?

 

 

However, the sheep weren't bothered!

 

 

Have a good weekend, love, Anne