frayed at the edge

A walk in the woods

Yesterday morning we drove over to the Woodside Garden Centre, and having parked the car, went for a walk in the woods.  We had only gone a few yards when I had to stop to take this photo, of the sun shining on a tree stump

 

since we last were there for a walk, this new bridge has been built

 

it is a major construction, with metal supports

 

there were lots of snowdrops

 

and the wild garlic was just starting to come through

 

this may look like a weird woodland creature, but it is a pile of fallen branches smothered in moss

 

this flash of white caught Malcolm's eye

 

we decided that it was a fungus, but neither of us was willing to touch it, to examine it more closely

 

this bridge is a somewhat smaller construction than the new one

 

this fishermen's hut is slowly falling to bits

 

we eventually had to turn back, as the path got too muddy, but it was no hardship to pop into the garden centre for a spot of excellent sconnage!

 

this morning I spotted this big fat pigeon poking about under the bird table

 

then this afternoon a robin appeared and sat at the edge of the bird bath

 

would he venture into the water?

 

he decided that he would rather have a meal instead!

 

I'll be back tomorrow with lots of sewing - and some knitting

 

oh, the agony!

Yes, this morning I had my last visit to the dentist for the current block of treatment, and had to pay the bill ....... oh, how that hurt!!  But now I am celebrating, as he fitted the new partial denture that he made for me, and my smile has been restored.  So this bottle of cava may well be opened after dinner!

 

we quite often drink this cava when we have our annual holiday in Majorca ...... where it costs about a third of the price here!

 

I also got us another little treat

 

now, I could lie through my (new) teeth, and tell you the I baked this cake

 

or I could be truthful, and tell you that I bought it in the supermarket!  We had some with our afternoon cuppa, and it was delicious!

 

although the partial denture replaces some back teeth, which you couldn't see were missing, I just feel that my smile has been restored, so I thought I would take a photo to share with you.  Not such a good effort, as I was looking down at the screen on the camera

 

ok, now I am looking up, but I have nearly cut the top off my head!!

 

then later on, I remembered that I can flip out the screen on the camera, so I can take a selfie (this is not something I usually do!)  By this time I was doing the housework, so please excuse the old t-shirt I have changed into

 

we are staying at home this weekend, so no doubt I will be out in the studio sewing ...... and hopefully on Sunday we will get out for a walk.  Have a good weekend, love Anne

Back on the straight and narrow

As we seem to have had rather a lot of treats recently, I thought we ought to get back to some healthy, low-calorie eating.  So yesterday I decided to make some vegetable chilli.  I finely chopped onion, celery, mushroom and green beans, and sweated them in a little oil

 

then I added chilli powder and ground cumin

 

and a little bit salt

 

and cooked it some more, to cook out the raw flavour of the chilli powder

 

you know that I don't like raw tomatoes, but I do like a nice rich tomato sauce in chilli and pasta sauces.  A tin of tomatoes would be fine, but the carton was on special offer!

 

the carton of tomatoes added, and it's looking good

 

the with the tomato puree added, it is lovely and rich.  I left it to simmer until the vegetables were soft, then left it overnight for all the flavours to infuse the veggies

 

today I took these two sweet red peppers

 

and slit them open, scraping out the seeds and membrane with a teaspoon

 

I filled them with the chilli and popped them in a hot oven for about 30 minutes

 

yummmmmm - it looks tasty

 

but how about adding some extras - grated cheese and jalapenos

 

so was it delicious?

 

definitely (and Malcolm enjoyed it too!)

Crash, bang, wallop!

You will have to wait until the end of the post to discover what went crash, bang, wallop ..... but we will begin with sunrise in Berwick this morning

 

we walked over to town later in the morning, and stopped on the old bridge to take photos of a heron (and his reflection)

 

and a last look at the beautiful blue Berwick sky

 

so, on to the promised sewing.  I have finished another stitchery (only four to go!!)

 

I have added a second row of large hexies to Mrs Billings

 

and I've done more fmq on the animal quilt, working a sort of curvy design on the chicken border

 

and spirals on the outer border

 

and in one of those little serendipitous moments, when I turned over, the spirals had outlined the eyes on two of the owls!

 

then it was on to the red and black blocks.  I stitched together the top left hand corner

 

then the top right hand corner

 

when I stitched the bottom left hand corner and put it back on the design wall, an idea was starting to form .......

 

and by the time  had stitched the last section, I knew what I would do next

 

I stitched a sashing strip between the two top sections

 

and having trimmed the block I made with the scrappy leftovers, I added a central strip

 

 

then added a sashing strip to the bottom two blocks and stitched it all together

 

this detail shows the fun fabric I used for the sashing

 

but now I have another pile of scrappy bits left over!

 

on Saturday afternoon, our lovely neighbour (the shoe shop owner) appeared at the back door of the studio.  As I walked round the table to open the door to talk to him, there was a bit of a rattle ..... then the aforementioned crash, bang wallop.  The lid had come off this tin on the top shelf

 

and some of the contents had landed on the lower shelf

 

and the rest had landed on the floor.  A thousand pre-cut paper hexies (a gift with a magazine) to be picked up ........

 

 

Sun, sea and sand

Yesterday afternoon we decided to go for a walk, as the sun was shining and the sky was blue

 

that of course meant a lot of looking up for photos, to include that lovely blue

 

fortunately we passed a good selection of old chimneys

 

and the gulls were enjoying sitting in the sun

 

we walked under the old walls, to head for the lighthouse ....... this shows you the turns in the breakwater, which you don't see when I take photos of the lighthouse from the beach

 

I love the way this tree grows out through the wall, and then back in through the railing

 

but I did tear my eyes away from the blue sky to snap these two swans

 

although there were lots of other people enjoying a walk in the sun, I managed to take a photo of the lighthouse without anyone in it 

 

this morning we decided to take a run down the coast to Seahouses, which of course means passing Bamburgh Castle

 

we popped in for a cuppa, which was served in pretty china

 

there was a slight delay in the scone arriving, as it was heated for us

 

this little wagtail insisted on standing in the middle of the road

 

whereas these two large crows were much safer perched on a church weather vane

 

down at the harbour, Malcolm had his eye on these pieces of wood, but unfortunately they didn't fit in my bag!

 

and it might have caused a problem if he had taken the pieces propping up this boat!

 

there were two men busy working on refurbishing this boat

 

and there were lots of other small boats in the water and up on the quay, as there are few trips to the islands at the moment

 

we decided to go on down the coast to Alnmouth for lunch, choosing the Village Tearooms

 

Malcolm had crab sandwiches, which he assured me were delicious (I have an agreement with Mr Crab - I don't eat him and he doesn't make me violently sick ...... I have the same agreement with Mr Prawn)

 

I had stottie filled with hot roast beef and gravy - very, very delicious!

 

we dodged the flying golf balls ......

 

to go for a walk on the beach

 

there were lots of other people (and dogs) on the beach, but I managed again to take a photo with no-one in it

 

someone has had fun with driftwood, building a cosy little den - I hope Malcolm doesn't decide to build one in the back garden with his stash of driftwood!

 

in the distance dark clouds were appearing

 

but as we walked back to the car the sun came out again, to shine appropriately on this Inn

 

I'll be back tomorrow with lots of sewing.

 

 

My few purchases

I really was quite restrained in my purchases on Friday.  First some new pins - I have used so many pinning the edges of the stitcheries that I had run of of pins this size.  These are lovely fine French pins

 

I was delighted to get these patterns at what I think are very reasonable prices

 

my biggest purchase was this new cutting mat.  Here it is sitting on the old mat, which shows round the edges

 

although both mats were sold as measuring 24" x 36", that is the overall size of the new mat, but the working area of the old mat

 

when I had popped through to the kitchen on Saturday night, two things caught my eye.  First, the light thrown by this little fishy wax burner

 

and second, this candle, which appears to be floating in the air, but is actually sitting on the kitchen table!

 

we had stayed at home for the weekend, as the weather wasn't very good, and when we went to Jedburgh yesterday for a walk, I decided to switch the camera to B&W, to go with the grey skies.  First, we have two views of the old bridge

 

this may need a little bit of refurbishment

 

unlike the house next door, which is for sale

 

and this recently refurbished one on the High Street is also for sale

 

this tiny window is in Mary Queen of Scots house

 

as is this stone detail

 

and is this Mary's ghost looking out of the window ........ or is it just my reflection (with Malcolm looking on)!

 

of course we have to have a couple of shots of the Abbey

 

then it is back to colour for the delicious cheese scone we shared after our walk

 

we came over to Berwick this afternoon, and I have just been hanging out the bedroom window to take this photo of the rising moon!

 

A grand day out

Maureen came over at nine this morning, and we set off, not in my little car, but in Malcolm's bigger and better car (thank you, dear, for lending it to me!).   We were off to the spring quilt show at Ingliston.  You know the form, I can't really show you the quilts because of copyright issues, so this is just a general view of quilts based on Church Saints

 

but then, what is this ....... our very own Kay Bell had a display of her quilts, and when I asked her if I could put some photos on the blog, she said of course I could (thank you Kay)

 

this is Kay's description of the white quilt

 

 

and this is her description of the lavender quilt above it 

 

I could quite happily have taken this one home with me

 

Kay makes it sound so easy!

 

I love the way the straight lines of the centre are softened by the applique

 

she doesn't mention the beautiful scalloped border!

 

unfortunately the lighting wasn't very good on this stunning quilt

 

Kay mentions her free-motion quilting

 

here is just a little sample of it

 

you now by now that when I go to the quilt show I have macaroni cheese and chips for lunch.  I was delighted that they have gone back to using proper plates, after serving it up in nasty polystyrene containers

 

I met up with so many friends that I think that I spent more time blethering than looking at the quilts!  All too soon it was time to head for home, but we stopped off at the garden centre for a cuppa, and we shared a rather tasty cherry and coconut scone

 

amazingly, I hardly bought anything ...... come back on Monday to see what I got!  Have a good weekend, love Anne

 

Scraps

After making the red and black blocks, I was left with a pile of scraps

 

so I started sewing them together

 

randomly adding bits

 

ending up with this block

 

but now I have scraps of the scraps!

 

today was orchid-watering day (I only water them once every two weeks) and I thought you might like to see which ones are flowering.  This one has only just started to flower 

 

a lovely pale flower with delicate markings

 

this one is darker

 

with much stronger markings

 

this one is a stronger yellow than it looks in the photos

 

the flowers are waxy looking

 

and now a very special treat - a guest photographer!  Stuart recently upgraded his camera (I am very envious) and took it out for a walk on Sunday.  He sent me these three photos, which he was particularly pleased with.  First an arty shot of a pine cone

 

next, an elegant swan

 

this is my favourite - a very sharp image of a robin

 

to finish - there was a bit of a commotion in the kitchen this afternoon, and this is what I found when I went to investigate.  I had left some tubs of home made soup to cool, before I put them in the freezer ........ and Malcolm had somehow knocked a pear out of the fruit bowl into one of the tubs.  As he went to clear up, I was, of course, shouting "leave it until I take a photo"!!

 

All gone!!

Hooray, when we got up this morning, the snow had gone, so we headed out for lunch at Lochcarron, in Selkirk.  I was delighted that they had Thai chicken soup on the menu today

 

while Malcolm chose their lentil soup - both of them were delicious, as was the sun-dried tomato bread

 

I haven't made much progress with my socks, as I don't take them to Berwick

 

but I've made good progress with my latest blanket for Linus, as I can work on it in the car on the way to and from Berwick, which amounts to two hours of knitting

 

on the sewing front, I have prepped another four stitcheries

 

I have also cut out the eight hexies I need for the remaining stitcheries

 

there has been more work on Mrs Billings - I have stitched together the remaining hexies for the other three large borders

this afternoon I got out a pile of small hexies which I had previously prepped

 

and laid some out on the narrow border

 

having stitched them together I found that I was one short!

 

as I so enjoy sitting stitching hexies, I decided to have a big bite at this project, and by the end of the afternoon had completed two rows

 

I have been having a sort out of our DVD collection, with a view to giving some of them to a charity shop when I have watched them for the second, third or even fourth time (having checked with Malcolm that he doesn't want to watch them again).  This afternoon's offering was the Minority Report, with Tom Cruise, who is not one of my favourite actors*, but it is a good film

 

we had a glorious sunset tonight - a nice change from recent grey skies!

 

please think of me tomorrow morning, when I have a dentist's appointment at 9am - much too early to endure such torture!!

* my favourite actor is, of course, George Clooney ...... closely followed by Robert Downey Jr.  I have gone off Johnny Depp recently - he seems to have turned a bit weird!  And of course there is the delicious British actor Richard Armitage - oh, those smouldering good looks, that deep brown voice - excuse me, I shall have to lie down now in a darkened room!!

 

 

More snow!

Yesterday I promised you more snowy photos, so you shall have more snowy photos!  In the morning I had walked up the hill from the house, so after lunch I walked down the hill.  The last time you saw the stream was when we had the floods, and there was a huge amount of water roaring through it.  Yesterday it was running quietly between its snowy banks

 

another snowy gates

 

the old (but still in use) post box at the end of the road

 

I was glad that big beastie went past when I was still in our road .......

 

........ and not when I had walked up to the junction to take a photo of the old (unused) phone box

 

when I took the next two photos, I was thinking along the lines of not seeing the wood for the trees!

 

and of course there has to be another arty photo - this time a delicate piece of ice hanging from a branch

 

then the next two photos show that it isn't just a steep drive up the road to the house, there are two bends to be negotiated, and as the road is barely wide enough for two cars, you can see why I decided not to go out in the car!  

 

I forgot to put these two photos in yesterday - first, why was I about to lean over this gate?

 

 

because I could see the two donkeys in the stable yard!

 

back tomorrow with some sewing, and maybe even some knitting!