frayed at the edge

Running off to Gretna .....

........ but not to get married!  Rather, we went out for the day in Malcolm's spiffy new car!

 

to get there, we had to leave Roxburghshire and cross into Dumfries and Galloway

 

passing lots of sheep enjoying the better weather

 

we then crossed the Border into England

 

before crossing back into Scotland!

 

we went to Gretna Gateway Outlet Village for a little it of retail therapy.  I got a nice pair of summer shoes ....... but I forgot to take a photo of them!  I can't show you the other thing I bought, as it is for a birthday present.  We sat outside in the sun to have lunch, which came from here ........

 

....... because we had a voucher for a bogof on a 6" sub.  It tasted much better than it looks in the photo - pulled pork with lots of salad 

 

the sun was still shining on the way home

 

back home in the garden, the osteospermum flowers were turning to the sun

 

and the poppies are ready to flower

 

to finish, a male sparrow, enjoying the early morning sun in the front garden

 

I saw a ship come sailing in ......

......... or rather, I saw three ships in the studio yesterday, after Malcolm added sails and little flags on the masts

 

and in case I get lost in the garden, I have a smart new sign over the studio door

 

I bought the tiles in Majorca last year, but Malcolm only found the fourth piece of driftwood for the frame on the beach at Berwick when we came home two weeks ago

 

this may seem a funny thing to buy on holiday, but when I saw these pegs they made me smile!

 

I have long been a fan of Marian Keyes, going back to her first book, which was published in 1996

 

so when I saw her latest in the supermarket on Monday when I did the weekly food shop, of course it went in my trolley!

 

I raced through it in a couple of days ....... a real "I couldn't put it down" book (except to eat and sleep!)

 

I shall have to make a space in the Marion Keyes section of the bookcase!

 

This is the first of this year's sparrow chicks that I have seen ....... a little bundle of fluffy feathers visiting the new birdbath

 

in the back garden, I took this photo through the studio door of a blue tit about to pop into the nest box.  You can just see that it has a fly in its beak

 

I keep getting distracted by the sheepies in the field across the road

 

and to end, we have the Friday cake - a delicious chocolate confection flavoured with Ovaltine, and topped with Maltesers ....... bliss!

 

I am going to a workshop at Abbey Quilters tomorrow, so hopefully I will remember to take photos to share with you on Monday!  Have a good weekend, love Anne

 

 

 

Don't worry, there will be sewing ........

........ but I have some other photos that have been patiently waiting for inclusion.  First ..... sheepies!

 

and a horse, all of them in the field across the road

 

we had a beautiful sunset on Friday night

 

remember I bought the inexpensive bird bath as a temporary replacement?  Well, it's just as well it was inexpensive, as the birds wouldn't go near it!  And when we had heavy rain last week, we realised that the resulting increased water level was too deep.  So it has been demoted to looking pretty in the back garden, and I have bought a proper replacement.  The sparrows have already checked it out and approved!

 

so, now for the sewing.  I took the "Twas the night before Christmas" stitchery on holiday, and managed to get quite a lot of it done

 

and when we were over at the flat last week I finished another little stitchery (that's 12 of 32!)

 

but best of all, at patch'n'chat on Friday, I persuaded Margaret to let me take photos of some of her latest blocks.  Her work is beautiful ...... I am looking forward to seeing how this quilt progresses (click on the photos to enlarge them to see the detailed stitching)

 

I wouldn't want you worrying that we were deprived af tasty treats now that we are back home"  Yesterday we went to The Waterwheel Cafe on the outskirts of Selkirk, where we enjoyed one of our delicious two scone lunches

 

 

A streaker in the garden!

Don't worry, Malcolm hasn't been running round the garden without his clothes!  A starling has decided to use the satellite dish as a perch from which to chatter away to the other starlings, with the unfortunate consequence that he has left his mark on the dish

 

a pair of blue tits were busy all afternoon establishing a new home in one of the nest boxes

 

I glanced out of the kitchen window at lunchtime and saw a bird on the telephone wire across the road

 

could it be the first swallow of the year?  I rushed off to get the big lens - and yes it was indeed our first swallow.  This means we have to keep the garage door shut, as they try to nest in it!

 

we have been enjoying some wonderful weather, and the garden is bursting into life

 

to finish - I took these photos of last night's sunset from the comfort of my sofa.  At first sight it looks as if the camera lens had dirty marks on it, but it is a cloud of flies dancing in the evening sun

The view from my window

Now that the nights are much lighter, we don't shut the curtains, which means that last night I saw this tiny sliver of new moon

 

then there was a dilemma - if the shrub was in focus, as in the previous photo, then the moon wasn't, and if the moon was in focus, as in the next photo, the shrub was blurred!

 

the problem was solved by zooming in, so that only the moon was in the photo!

 

I also took several photos at different times over the weekend, from the comfort of my sofa!

a blackbird at sunset

 

sunset without the blackbird

 

Mrs Blackbird enjoying a bath

 

making sure her topknot is clean

 

a last wash under the wing

 

a fluffy sparrow

 

we are out of our usual routine this week, and this morning we were in Hawick.  We decided to have a cuppa, and thought we would try the Almond Tree, which has now been open for some months

 

the menu explains the set-up of the cafe

 

I had my usual pot of tea, Malcolm had an excellent americano (with hot milk on the side) and we shared this very good cheese scone

 

back home, I had just refilled the bird bath, when some sparrows appeared to have a drink

 

then this little one tentatively got into the water

 

but didn't have quite as vigorous a bath as Mrs Blackbird

 

while this one just sat on Mr Owl and laughed at him

 

I'll be back tomorrow with some sewing.

Rush, rush, rush

Just a quick post, as it's Abbey Quilters' monthly meeting tonight - and what better subject could there be for a quick post than some sparrows, taken at various times over the last few days, in sunshine and rain

 

Mrs Blackbird turned up for  bath this afternoon

 

I have spent the day making a mess playing being creative - I'll show you what I have been up to tomorrow

Buildings large and small

As the weather was good on Sunday, we headed down the coast to Bamburgh, to have a walk on the beach, although, of course, I had to pause on the way to take photos of the castle

 

then there was another pause to take a photo of this gate across the path through the sand dunes

 

but finally we reached the beach, where I was promptly waylaid by shells marooned when the tide went out

 

and a worm cast

 

and of course from the beach you can see the whole castle

 

after our walk on the beach, we had a stroll through the village.  This weathered rock caught my eye - do you, like me, see a face?

 

we will have to come back through the week, when this establishment is open!

 

of course we went for a cuppa, but I'll save those photos for the end.  As it was such a lovely day, we decided to go on down the coast to Beadnell, which we hadn't visited before.  After the splendour of Bamburgh castle, this quirky house, which was having a lot of work done on it, was at the other end of the scale

 

the village is known for its limekilns

 

these beautiful doves had made themselves at home on one of the kins

 

Malcolm wouldn't let me play with the big machines on the beach!

 

and I had to tell him not to go right to the edge of the pier

 

 

in the distance we could see Dunstanburgh Castle

 

driving back towards Bamburgh, as always we commented on how the castle dominates the landscape

 

and now ........ the cuppa!  We popped into The Copper Kettle

 

a lovely, traditional tearoom

 

where we enjoyed fruit scones with jam and clotted cream (as always we were going to share one, but the waitress brought two by mistake ........ and they looked so good we decided we would have one each!!)

 

 

 

A very, very busy weekend!

Oh my, we managed to squeeze so much into the weekend, this will have to be a two part post!!  So, let's get going!  We went for a (rather chilly) walk on Saturday, stopping first at the Coastwatch Tower

 

we were invited to go up to the balcony for a better view, but when I saw the ladder, I decided that I would remain on the ground!

 

while Malcolm was upstairs, I took these two photos to show how strongly the wind was blowing

 

a quick selection of our progress along the beach

 

I wondered what this group were doing, so of course when we went past, I stopped to ask!  They were making a dinosaur sand sculpture ...... and I think the adults were having more fun than the children!

 

I wondered what had left this mark on a rock.......

 

when I saw this on the next rock

 

and while I was taking that photo, Malcolm pointed out this on the next rock!

 

I'm glad that the dog that left this paw print in the sand wasn't still on the beach!

 

we encountered quite a lots of birds on Saturday

 

there was a very high tide on Saturday - a combination I gather, of the 18-year lunar cycle and the eclipse.  Combined with the wind, the waves were coming over the breakwater 

 

we had an excellent day out yesterday, but I'll save that for tomorrow, and instead I'll skip forward to today.  We were woken up in the early hours by a lot of noise coming from the dock, so we weren't suprised to see a large ship when we got up this morning

 

its cargo of grain was being unloaded into large lorries

 

we popped into town for some shopping, and decided to try out the new coffee shop

 

which is very nicely decorated

 

but I don't think I'll be rushing back to have a cheese scone served with salad!!

 

Would we or wouldn't we .........

........ see the eclipse?!  The weather forecast last night wasn't very encouraging, with talk of clouds.  When I got up at 6.30 it was misty, then as the mist cleared it was indeed cloudy, but with little bits of bue sky showing through.  By 8.30, the sky looked like this

 

we waited anxiously as the cloud came and went, then we had just the right amount of cloud to let us see the eclipse and take photos

a few minutes later, you could see that the moon had moved further on past the sun

 

the birds were discombobulated - they stopped feeding and returned to their roosts.  This sparrow landed on the roof before disappearing into the ivy where it usually spends the night

 

the little baby cardi is coming along nicely.  I have knitted the back, both sleeves and one front.  Once I have knitted the other front, I will knit the yoke.  It has been a very quick knit, and I will have to see if I have other neutral-coloured yarns in my stash to knit another one

 

at patch'n'chat this afternnon Katy was auditioning fabrics.  She had originally made this sample log cabin block with plain navy on the other side, but had decided that she wanted  a different colour.  I don't know how many bolts of fabric we looked at before she decided on this pink one

 

Annette was back from her holiday, and had made her light-as-air cupcakes for us.  It was hard, but I resisted having a second one!

 

the weather looks promising for the weekend, so there may be some beach combing!  I hope you hav a good weekend, love Anne

Randomitis!!

Oh my, a large dose of randomitis has hit today's post!  The first photos are from last night's final of the Sewing Bee - stand by to swoon, it's the delectable Patrick!

when we got home yesterday, there were two interesting packages in the post.  The first one contained this panel to make fun seaside bunting, which I bought here

 

I recognised the writing in the second package as being that of either of Malcolm's sisters, as their writing is similar.  It turned out to be from his younger sister Judith.  First, there was a picture from her last years's calendar

 

then a postcard of a David Hockney painting

 

the package was wrapped in what appeared to be plain brown wrapping paper - but look what was on the other side - OWLS!!  This will be upcycled on to cards and gift tags!

 

the butterfly is still in the bathroom.  I put some flowers in a little vase on the windowsill for it, but it preferred the cacti - which is a bit stupid of it as they are candles.  When I went to take a photo this morning, it was sitting on the wall, in the bottom right hand corner of the photo (I was going to write about calling it Shanks, and if another one appeared it would be called McEwan, but I couldn't find a suitable link to put in, that Shanks and McEwan used to make sanitary ware ........ leading to the word shunkie, meaning toilet!!)

 

when I was getting ready to go to patch'n'chat, I saw a tiny long tailed tit in the garden, but despite my best efforts all I managed to capture were sparrows!

 

but don't worry, the attack of randomitis hasn't affected the Friday cake photo.  Annette is on holiday, so her right-hand-woman Cathy baked a cake for us - chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream topping - what more could a girl need on a Friday afternoon!!

 

hopefully the randomitis will have been cured by Monday, when I will have my next report on the Aunts' Quilt.  Stuart and Alison are coming down to spend the weekend at Berwick with us, as it is Mothers' Day on Sunday.  No doubt we will eat too much and perhaps indulge in a glass or two of wine!  Whatever you are doing, I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne xx