frayed at the edge

Life is never simple!

After the events of the last three days, I don't think Stuart and Alison will ever move again!  The first piece of aggravation was on Wednesday.  The builders had said that their carpet fitter could get in to fit all the carpets - but when he turned up, the site agent refused to let him in.  This means that tomorrow, they will have to empty the entire contents of the house into the garden, then put it all back when the carpets have been fitted!!

However, yesterday got off to a good start.  We filled our van ......

 

........ Stuart's van

 

....... and Stuart's stepbrother's van

 

We gave the house a last clean

 

Then we waited for the phone call to say that the bank transfer of the money for the house was complete, and Stuart and Alison could collect the keys for their new home.  We waited, and we waited.  We had a picnic lunch sitting on the floor

 

Little Pixie came in from next door to visit

 

There were increasingly frantic phone calls to find out what the delay was .... in the end it turned out that the electronic transfer of the money, which should have taken minutes, had somehow gone awry.  Eventually the call came at 5pm that it was all sorted out!  We jumped up, ran for the vans and set off for the new house.  The lounge soon went from this .....

 

...... to this

 

Alison's parents arrived, then S&A's friends Fraser and Lynsey, followed by another friend, Craig.  While they all heaved boxes and furniture, I did something far more important - I got the bubbles on ice!!

 

We were much too tired to think about cooking (even if we could have found the box with the saucepans) so Malcolm and I headed to the nearest takeaway and came back with a wide selection of naughty but nice food - pizza,two kinds of pakora, onion rings, chips, dipping sauces - it didn't take long for it all to disappear.

We headed back down the road this morning, glad to see the hills as we got closer to home

 

After returning the van, we went to The Waterwheel for a cuppa.  Usually when we go there, I take photos of the owls. but they were ignored today, as there were lambs!!  After taking this photo of two of them in a little hollow .....

 

....... I spotted another two just in front of them, sheltering behind a raised manhole

 

Photos of lambs are always cute - but I think has to be one of the cutest ..... a lamb cuddled up to a large turnip!!

 

I came home with a little sheep of my own - bought in the garden centre where we stopped for breakfast

 

I think we will be having a quiet weekend, after all the excitement of the last few days!  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

White van man

Why were we here this afternoon?

 

Because we were hiring a van.  Why were we hiring a van?  Because Stuart is moving house tomorrow, and we are giving him a hand.  The first part of the run up to Falkirk was lovely

 

This photo isn't blurred, there's a mixture of sleet and hail coming down off the hills

 

As we got closer to Edinburgh, the Pentland Hills looked striking with their covering of snow

 

 

This view is of the other side of the hills

 

We are staying in a hotel tonight ........ this is the room we usually sleep in!

 

I guess we won't be eating in the dining room!

 

To finish - I bet these people wish they had gone on holiday with their boat last week when we had the beautiful weather!

 

ps - I might not be able to post tomorrow - Stuart doesn't get his broadband installed until Friday, and although he thinks I could post via his phone, I suspect we might all be too tired to bother.

Did you hear .....

..... the squeals of anguish coming from the studio late this afternoon?  I had finished sewing for the day, put the quilt up on the design wall, taken photos, tidied up, had one last look at the quilt before I went back to the house ....... and no no no no ......

But to start at the beginning of the latest progress of the quilt.  Havinng finished eleven of the twelve stitcheries ( and almost finished the last one), the next job was to trim them to size, making sure the stitching was centred

 

I then added them to the design wall, first of all just putting them in the spaces as I trimmed them

 

But then I consulted the pattern, and ended up with a much more balanced distribution

 

I then stitched the blocks together in rows, then stitched the rows together

 

When I went out to the studio this morning, I thought it wouldn't take me long to add the three outer borders.  WRONG!!  First I added the plain border and the flying geese to the top and bottom.  This was a slow process, making sure I didn't cut off any of the points (this photo shows my second attempt, as I had stitched the bottom row of geese on facing the wrong way, as they are supposed to fly clockwise round the quilt)

 

I then had to stitch short strips and squares to the other two sets of flying geese, as well as the plain inner border, before adding them.  Now, having sewn one lot on the wrong way, you would think that I would have been extra careful to get the second lot correct.  But not only are the right hand ones going the wrong way ....

 

...... I didn't notice when I took that photo, and still didn't notice when I put a couple of strips of the outer border in place and took this photo

 

However, apart from the naughty geese flying the wrong way, I am delighted with how it looks.  The same cannot be said for today's weather!!  We didn't really take the forecasters seriously when they said we would have snow, thinking we would maybe see a few flakes ...... another WRONG!  This was the view through the lounge window this morning

 

 

And this was from the bedroom window - that's my car windscreen, covered with snow, in the background

 

Then this was the view at tea time

 

 

However, the roads are clear, and it is unlikely the snow will linger.  To end on a cheerier note, I captured the sparrows having fun in the birdbath yesterday evening

 

 

 

 

 

Still shining ......

....... yesterday, but today the sun has gone, the skies are grey, and it has been trying to rain (and we just won't mention that snow is forecast!).  To make the most of the sun, we headed over to Harestanes yesterday morning.  This is one of our favourite walks, with lots to see.  We started at the childern's play area, where there is this amazing thatched play house

 

 

Although we had some rain on Saturday, it was dry underfoot, and the level in the little stream was low

 

 

There was no breeze to make  these daffodils dance, but they still looked wonderful

 

These frilly ones were glowing in a patch of sunlight under some trees

 

I have been looking in my new wildflower books, but I haven't been able to identify this

 

The new growth gave me the chance to take some of my favourite "arty" photos!

 

 

 

 

Of course a long walk has to be followed by a cuppa and a scone ....... I wasn't quick enough to take the photo - Malcolm had already cut the scone in half!

 

I've been busy sewing over the weekend and today.  Here is just a little taster, I'll show you more tomorrow!