frayed at the edge

G'day

It has been a lovely day here, despite being the last day of winter!  We have walked for miles ..... we have seen the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, the Botanic Gardens ........ and the Banknote Museum (it's right up there with the Pencil Museum and the Needle Museum!)

 

Just a quick post, as it's a slow connection!

 

Tomorrow we are having dinner with Lee and her family, which we are looking forward to.

 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend ....... and hopefully on Monday I can write a longer post and include some photos!  Love, Anne

Fluttering by and buzzing around

We have had hardly any butterflies and bees in the garden this summer, so when I saw several butterflies and quite a few bees on Sunday afternoon, I rushed to fetch the camera ......

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second time around

We were sitting in the summer house the other day, when over on the other side of the garden I spotted a flash of pink in the middle of the hellebore.  A few snips with the secateurs to take off the tatty old foliage ....... and just look at this - a second flowering (it flowered first in the spring)

 

 

 

isn't this a beautiful rose?

 

I added my thumb to this photo, so that you can see that it is tiny!

Rich in history

Everywhere you go in the Borders, you encounter reminders of the history of the area.  On Sunday we went to Melrose, with it splendid Abbey

 

 

 

 

After our enjoyable potter round Melrose, we went to Abbotsford House, the home of Sir Walter Scott.  We wanted to look round the newly opened Visitor Centre

 

it is an amazing building, and there is an excellent exhibition about Sir Walter Scott.  If you are going to be in the area, do visit ........ and if you need some extra persuasion ......

 

 

 

 

we had our cuppa in the restaurant ......

 

........but we could have sat out on the balcony

 

from the balcony, there is a good view of the house, which is closed at the moment for major repairs

 

it is scheduled to reopen early next summer, but I am sure we will be back at the Visitor Centre before then!

I'm singing John Denver*

Not long to go now!!  I am just about jumping up and down with excitement at being off on our travels, but before we go, as promised, the project I am taking to work on when I join Meredithe and her friends for a sewing day.  I have so many things on the to-do list it was hard to decide, but in the end I settled on this

 

I love Anni Downs patterns (I have another book and a small pattern for a needlescase as well!).  I have gradually been collecting small-print fabrics .....

 

....... including some of Anni's own designs

 

and of course there was the bundle of Lynette Anderson fabrics which had one with cats on it hidden in the middle of the bundle!

 

However, I won't be taking the fabrics with me, as I will be working on the stitcheries first.  I photocopied the patterns, to make it easier to trace them on the light box

 

 

Once the patterns were traced, I put some thin iron-on wadding on the back (oops, forgot to take a photo of that stage!) and looked out an assortment of embroidery threads

 

We leave here early tomorrow morning, and finally arrive in Sydney on Thursday  I've got lots of books on my Kindle and music on my ipod for the journey, but as it is an overnight flight, I will probably sleep through most of it.  I got used to flying longhaul when we lived in Indonesia, so although it can be boring, I don't mind it too much.

 

When I have finished this post, I will do another three quick ones and schedule them to appear while we are travelling, as I still have lots of photos to share with you ....... and we visited somewhere new yesterday for our cuppa after our walk.

 

* and I'm still singing "all my bags are packed, I'm ready to go" and "I'm leaving on a jet plane"!!

Shadow Shot Sunday

It's just as well I have some shadow shots in the archives, as it is raining again!!  I would be very disappointed if I didn't get to join in the fun over at Shadow Shot Sunday 2, where shadow addicts from around the word post their latest shadows.

 

This week's shadows feature fruit in the hedgerows

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last of the season

This morning was the last early morning walk for this year - by the time we come back from our holiday it will be getting dark at that time of the morning.  Don't worry, I will still go for walks over the winter - just not at 6.45!  So here are the last of the summer morning photos .......

 

The verges have been very green and lush this summer, but there hasn't been a lot of colour - I had to hunt for some this morning

 

 

 

 

 

what are these rabbits looking at?

 

a cheeky squirrel!

 

which shot off as I took another photo!

 

Marion's old donkey was out in the field again ....... and again was determined to keep his back to me

 

and he had obviously persuaded the ewes to do the same!

 

fortunately this ewe was quite happy to face the camera

 

on the way home I spotted another little rabbit

 

and some more colour - but this time in the trees

 

 

If you scroll on down from this post, you will see that I was experimenting with my ipod touch this afternoon.  I wanted to see if I could do a basic post from it, so that if for some reason I can't do one using my laptop, I can still keep you up-to-date with our travels.  I was delighted to find that it was straightforward (and thank you to Sue and Rachel who commented immediately to let me know that it worked!)

 

I will be busy over the weekend sorting out our packing, but of course I will still find time to take part in Shadow Shot Sunday, and then I will be back on Monday to show you the project I am taking with me to stitch when I spend the day with Meredithe and her friends.  I hope you all have a great weekend, love Anne

Success

Well, that seems to have worked ok. I just wanted to see if I could write a quick post (no photos) if it wasn't convenient to use my laptop ....... If perhaps we were in a busy coffee shop with a wifi connection that I could use.

Trial post

I'm just checking to see if I can post from my iPod touch!

Extinct volcano?

A lot of the hills around here are extinct volcanos, including Rubislaw

 

but when I saw it this morning, I was a bit worried that it wasn't extinct after all!

 

there were some dramatic cloud formations this morning, with just a tinge of pink from the sunrise

 

 

 

there are lots of seedheads in the verge, giving me the chance to indulge in some of my favourite arty photos

 

 

 

 

but as well as all the plants going to seed there is new growth too

 

so ........ the holiday.  We start by driving to Newcastle Airport (how exciting is that!), then we fly to Heathrow ......... and then (BIG roll of drums, ENORMOUS fanfare) ........ we fly to Sydney!!  Australia is our very, very, most favourite holiday destination, so of course that was our first choice for celebrating the big birthdays.  But it gets better, because we are also spending some time in Melbourne, before flying to Singapore for a week (our second most favourite place for a holiday).  And if you think it couldn't get any better than that ........ when we are in Sydney, we will be visiting Lee, whom we met on our last trip to Sydney three years ago.   And then ...... when we are in Melbourne, I am going to spend a day sewing with Meredithe and her very talented friends  (and there is talk of a quilt shop hop!) 

 

I was in Kelso at the hairdressers this afternoon, and popped intoWH Smiths to buy a magazine to add to Malcolms "birthday bundle" (which he will oen before we leave).  I wanted to get him either a cricketing or a woodworking magazine ........ but I couldn't find anything suitable.  So I did what any sensible personn would do - I bought a quilting magazine instead!