frayed at the edge

Sitting pretty

I have been doing more work on Cobweb - although as I wasn't happy with her wings, I ended up frogging them, and will knit a new set.  But she was quite happy to pose for photos ......

 

....... especially as she has lovely purple flowers in her hair!

 

Yesterday morning we went to Melrose for a walk along the river.  Although it was cold, with a little snow on the ground, it was bright, and it was good to get out and stretch my legs after spending rather a lot of time asleep on the couch last week!

Don't worry, Malcolm hasn't started carrying a manbag, it's my camera bag, and the other bag has the Sunday papers in it

 

It took several goes to capture this crow, as it kept turning its head

 

On the way back into town, in search of a hot drink, we came across these shaggy beauties

 

I enjoyed my hot chocolate, while Malcolm declared his americano to be excellent

 

The Post Office building in Melrose is very stylish .......

 

....... the ER over the door refers to Edward VII, not Queen Elizabeth, who is celebrating her Diamond Jubilee this year

 

I saw this little knitting sheep in a cake decorating shop window ........ if the shop had been open I think I would have bought it!

 

Another bit of fun to finish - someone in this furniture shop has come up with eye-catching signs!!

 

I'm back!!

Thank you for all your good wishes and suggestions for remedies!  I am still coughing a bit, but generally feeling much better (I can manage a whole day now without having a nap!).  On Wednesday, Malcolm took me out for lunch to cheer me up, and on the way home we stopped to check on the Jacob's ewes ........ wonderful, the lambs have started to arrive!

 

 

 

As ever, the goose and gander were protecting the flock!

 

Yesterday we had visitors, and after lunch we went for a walk.  Wonderful - more lambs have arrived!

 

 

 

This time it was the old donkey who was watching over the new arrivals

 

I had been making good progress with the quilt top for Anne - I will have to catch up at the weekend

 

 

I was delighted to be well enough to go to patch'n'chat this afternoon, as that meant I could enjoy the Friday cake.  This week it was the Ovaltine tray bake - it is so delicious there was silence in the room as we all tucked in!!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, love Anne

The old and the new

Malcolm and I hadn't been to the Woodhorn Museum before, and we had assumed it was just a collection of the mine buildings and machinery .... so we were amazed to see this visitor centre (Malcolm and Jennifer kindly supply the scale!)

 

They are looking at this

 

The plaque made us smile, as the word jobbie means something quite different for us!!

 

This memorial is for the men who died in the 1916 pit explosion

 

We will have to go back, to have a closer look at the various buildings and large pieces of machinery

 

After getting off to such a good start knitting the fairies, I seem to have got bogged down finishing them.  I am still fiddling about attaching the wings to wire to shape them, but I have made a start to doing Cobweb's hair.  I haven't stitched it in place yet, but I think it looks good!

 

As always I was at patch'n'chat this afternoon, and there were cheers when we went through for our afternoon cuppa, and found our favourite apple and sultana cake!

 

I hope you all have a good weekend - no doubt I will be chained to the sewing machine!!  Love Anne

 

A visual feast

We had to head to Newcastle again this morning, as Malcolm's car had to have more work done on it (a warranty repair this time, no so nasty bill!)  As always I had the camera at the ready as we approached the border.  On our side the sun was shining ......

 

....... but on the other side it was misty

 

You can just make out the line of the hill on the left, under the low cloud

 

As the car repair was going to take some time, we were given a coutesy car.  We headed over to Morpeth, to visit Malcolm's sister Jennifer.  While we were having a cuppa, Malcolm spotted this blue tit on the peanut feeder

 

Suitably refreshed, we then drove to Newbiggin, where Jennifer treated us to lunch.  Cheese omelette for Jennifer ....

 

....... crab sandwiches for Malcolm

 

....... and a ploughman's for me (Malcolm pinched some of my cheese!)

 

After lunch, we walked down to the seafront, to see .....

 Couple

 

However, it had turned rather cold and windy, so we didn't linger, but went on to Woodhorn Museum to see this exhibition

 

There were no signs forbidding photography, so I took some photos, although because of the low lighting in the room, they don't do the work justice

As we walked back to the car, it started to rain ...... but the sun was still shining and we were treated to this beautiful rainbow

 

I also took a lot of photos in the grounds of the museum, but I'll keep them for tomorrow.

 

 

 

Tradition

All over the world, Scots are celebrating the anniversary of the birth of our national poet, Robert Burns.  I was, of course, brought up on Burns, and at a very early age won this certificate (although for some reason I didn't recite a Burns poem!)

 

Some years later, I chose this book ........

 

..... when I won the English prize in 3rd year.  It was special to win this, as the prize was given by our family doctor, in memory of his son who had died when he was fifteen

 

The label was written by my latin teacher Wee Jimmy Russell, who had also taught my Dad, and the Rector of the school, W.C. Henderson (of course he was known as Flush) had been a young teacher in charge of the school cricket team that my Dad was captain of.

To celebrate Burns Night we had haggis for dinner ..... but this year we didn't have a traditional
haggis.  Instead we had these delicious haggis truffles ...

 

....... but we still had our traditional neeps and tatties with them

 

To finish, a little rant!  Our traditional way of life in Scotland is under threat because of the grandiose plans of Emperor King President Dear Leader Alex Salmond, who keeps claiming that he is speaking for all of us when he demands independence for Scotland.  Not so!!  The majority of us wish to stay in the United Kingdom, and find his 'nationalism' unacceptable.

Normal service will be resumed tomorrow, with the usual knitting, sewing and food related post!

 

A special delivery

I love when things arrive in the post with foreign stamps ......

 

...... and I was especially excited this morning, as I knew this had come from Cathy, my swap partner.  Cathy is the most wonderful artist, and she has painted the most beautiful postcard for me

 

She also enclosed two postcards from Sicily

 

and some tiny cards showing more of her wonderful work

 

Thank you very much, Cathy!  I have received some photos of the postcards that have been sent already - they are all fabulous and I am sure their recipients will be delighted with them.  I am looking forward to when all the cards have been sent and recceived, and I can show you the photos.

 

I mentioned yesterday that I had picked up some little bits in charity shops.  First, in Shelter, I found this little Laura Ashley case (it is about 6"x4")

 

It contains beads, trims and little card labels and embellishments

 

Then it was on to the Oxfam shop, where first I found two balls of aran weight cotton yarn

 

and then a bag of tapestry wools, in soft shades

 

Friday of course means cake - today was one of our favourites ....... Annette's light-as-air chocolate sponge

 

I will have a very busy weekend sewing, with the Linus day tomorrow and on Sunday I will start my new 'job' ...... although I can't really think of doing something I love as a job!!  I hope you all have a good weekend, love Anne

Bridging the gap

After dropping off the car yesterday, we went to Freudz Cafe for a cuppa

The name of the cafe is explained by the plaque beside the door ......

 

Suitably refreshed, we headed for the Biscuit Factory, where we pottered round all the wonderful exhibits, until it was time for lunch. 

 

 I ordered a BLT and Malcolm a smoked ham and cream cheese bagel, but when they came we shared them - they were both delicious!

 

As we then had extra time to kill, we walked down to the River Tyne, where we saw several of the many bridges that cross the river

 

We crossed the river by the Millenium Bridge, which we then had a spectacular view of ........

 

...... from the Baltic Mill, which is now an arts centre.  Unfortunately we picked the wrong time to visit, as most of the floors were closed for the construction of new exhibits

 

Having crossed back over the river, we then stopped to look at The Blacksmith's Needle - which is where the tin of sardines came from.  Malcolm as ever provides the scale!

 

I could have taken dozens of photos, but contented myself with these ......

 

We then visitedBessie Surtees House, which dates frmo the 16th and 17th centuries

 

We enjoyed our visit to Anne's shop (she had just taken delivery of some delicious linens, which I was very tempted to buy) ......... but I came home with all this without spending a penny

No, Malcolm didn't distract her while I stuffed it under my jumper!  I've got a job!!  I am going to stitch sammples for Anne.  I am particularly looking forward to doing the little Blankits.

 

I was going to go for a walk after lunch, but while we were sitting at the kitchen table eating, lots of cloud suddenly appeared and there was a spit of rain in the air, so instead I headed out to the studio.  I layered up the quilt I am going to give to Linus ....

 

....... then quilted it and added the binding.  By the time I took this photo, the rain had turned to snow and it was so dark I had to turn the light on - you can see the difference that makes to the colours

 

I'll finish the quilt on Saturday, whenI am going to a 'Linus Day', organised by Sandra, our wonderful local Linus Lady.

I got some little bargains in the charity shops this morning, but I'll show them to you tomorrow.

 

ps - I've just come back to say that I am having a problem leaving comments on Blogger blogs that have word verification.  No matter how many times I type in the correct word, it says it's wrong and won't publish the comment.  So I am still reading all my favourites, I just can't leave you a comment.

A very long day!

Before I tell you why I am so late posting tonight, I will first show you how last night's dinner turned out ........

steak and kidney, dumplings and buttered carrots

 

........ and show you this quilt top.  We have been getting the instructions month by month at Abbey Quilters, and mine should look like this, minus the outer borders.  It should look like that, but I haven't actually started mine (oops!)

 

So, on to today.  We left home at 9am to go to Newcastle, as Malcolm's car had to go in for a service.  The plan was to drop the car off, go for a cuppa, then later some lunch, before heading home the long way round so that we could call in to see Anne in her new quilting shop.  BUT, Malcolm got a call to say that new brakes were needed and that we wouldn't be able to get the car back until 3pm, instead of 2pm.  THEN, when we went for the car, it still wasn't ready, so we didn't get on our way until after 3.30.  After visiting Anne, we still had a 90 minute journey home ........ so we detoured into Hawick and bought fish suppers for dinner!

I am just simply too tired to start writing a long post, so I will tell you all about our day tomorrow.  But I'll leave you with this photo to whet your interest!!

a strange tin of sardines!

It's just the day for ......

.......rib-sticking, heart-warming comfort food!  The frost has gone and now we have raw, damp weather, with the possibility of rain later (I'm not complaining though, because it's heaps better then what it was like this time last year!).  I decided to make steak and kidney with dumplings for dinner, so I started by sweating onions and mushrooms in my new cast iron casserole, which was a Christmas present from Malcolm

 

I put the meat in a bag with well-seasoned flour and gave it a good shake

 

After browning the meat ......

 

I stirred in boiling water and my secret ingredient

 

Ready to go into a low oven to gently cook for a couple of hours

 

While the dinner was cooking, I popped out to the studio to make the next two farmer's Wife blocks.  It is so much easier to cut out the pieces on my new revolving board

 

With the blocks turning out the correct size

 

 

 

After adding thhese two blocks to the design wall, I have decided that once I have made the next two, I will make them up into a small lap quilt, then do the next batch of blocks in different fabrics

 

Now, a day late, the knitting update.  By the weekend I had finished all the body parts for the fairy  (and her skirt) .....

 

....... and had even knitted a second one!

 

I was unable to get a suitable sparkly yarn for the wings, so I decided to buy this plain (but slightly fluffy) one and add beads.  The usual way to include beads in knitting is to thread all on to the yarn before you start knitting - but this is a much simpler way.  All you need is a very fine crochet hook, which will go through the hole in the bead.

 

you then slip the stitch where you want the bead on to the crochet hook

 

pull the stitch through the bead

 

slip the stitch back on the needle and knit normally

 

The beads sit neatly in place at the base of the stitches

 

The wings are knitted in two parts

 

However I won't be sewing the fairy up tonight, as I am off out to the monthly meeting of Abbey Quilters.  We have to hand in our embroidered blocks tonight

 

As it's for a challenge, I made sure the back was neat too!

 

You will have to wait until tomorrow to see how the dinner turned out - because I am going out, I am posting this before dinner, rather than after as I usually do!!

900 posts .......

....... and I still haven't run out of things to say!!  When I started the blog, I never thought I would still be writing it three years later and that so many people all round the world would read it.  Thank you to everyone for reading and commenting - there wouldn't be much point in doing it if it wasn't for you!

As always for a Monday, I have lots of photos, all clamouring 'use me, use me, I want to be in the blog'.  So here goes.......

after the chocolate bunnies, mint chocolate lambs - yum, yum

 

the new curtains, looking good

 

I could see this from the back door of the studio - I want one!

 

the frosty start to yesterday's walk

 

sorry Malcolm, I couldn't squeeze this wood pile into the camera bag!

 

Malcolm provides the scale for this very old tree

 

not snow, but heavy frost in the garden this morning

 

icicles dripping from the sill of my (very dirty) car

 

the tit has its feather fluffed up to keep warm

 

this horse doesn't look very happy

 

and this one looks pretty miserable too

 

I'll keep the knitting update for tomorrow, as there are several photos to show you. 

It will be Burns' Night on the 25th, so one of the local butchers has an eye-catching sign in front of the shop, to remind folk to buy their haggis