frayed at the edge

Up from the depths ......

........ of the knitting basket!  Now that the shawl is finished, I thought I should see what UFOs were lurking at the bottom of my knitting basket.  Fortunately there were only two - and I have now finished one of them

 

Fingerless mits, knitted in beautiful sock wool which I bought from my lovely friend  Helen .  I can wear them covering most of my fingers for warmth, but if I need to do something, then I can roll the edge back

 

I should have put them on at eight o'clock this morning, as it was rather chilly when I went out to take this photo of the moon

 

We went up to Selkirk this morning, where this turret caught my eye - but Rapunzel was nowhere in sight!

 

We had lunch at the Lochcarron Visitor Centre - the last time we were there it was raining too heavily to take a photo of this quirky piece of topiary - today it was lovely when we went in for lunch - but I thought I would wait until after lunch to take a photo - and, yes, it started to rain as we came out!!

 

On the way home, we stopped in the carpark at Homebase to take a photo of Ruberslaw, the hill behind our house - fortunately the sun had come out again!

 

When we were on holiday, my friend Lorraine looked after the house and watered the plants for me - but I forgot to bring this one in from the studio - oops!  But I think it still has a certain appeal .....

 

There are very few flowers left now in the garden, but this little rose managed to survive the heavy rain

And finally ..... the mystery has been solved as to why an Argentinian blog kept showing up in my stats.  The writer got in touch to say that she surfs the Web to find tutorials to include  - and she did say she would remove mine of I didn't want it included.  However, as it is a link to me, I don't mind at all - unlike the time when someone had photos of one of my quilts on her website, without saying it was mine!!  Do pop over and have a look at the Argentinian blog - there are some good links (it's not all in Spanish!)

And finally, finally, I started the baby quilt this afternoon - but which fabric did I use - you'll have to wait to find out!!
 
 
 

 

 
 
 

More livestock!

After falling in love with the gorgeous bull, today (fickle thing that I am!), I transferred my affections to a cute ram.  However, this isn't a real live one, but a toy one that we saw this morning in a shop that has just opened in Hawick, called 'Quaint or Ancient'.  The shop is a wonderful mix of quirky gifts (quaint) and antiques (ancient!).  I have named the ram Tuppence (another name for a ram is a tup) and he has joined Jacob - I think next time I will have to buy some ewes!!)

 

It wasn't just me who bought something in the shop - Malcolm couldn't resist some of their lovely blue and white china

It looks lovely on our blue and white place mats and table runner, as does our bowl of pot pourri and autumn squash

Also new in the kitchen is the tea cosy, which I finished yesterday - I turned in the edges of the openings and needle-felted them in place, to make it fit better.  When I took the photo, the light wasn't very good in the kitchen, so I took the teapot, resplendent in its cosy, out into the front garden

I paused on the way back in the door to take this photo of a pot of winter plants that I bought in the supermarket on Monday when I was doing my weekly shop!

I took this next photo late this afternoon when the sparrows arrived for their teatime
feed from the bird table.  They are very fussy and eat all the choice bits from the bird food, leaving behind one kind of seed - but I refuse to put out more food until they eat it all up!

On Friday, my lovely blog friend Lee celebrates her birthday.  We are in the middle of a postal dispute, so I didn't want to post her card (and there may be a little pressie too!), so I'm 'posting' her card on the blog (clever!!)  Again, because of the poor light indoors, I took the card outside - there was a slight problem though, as it was a little bit breezy, and every time I went to take the photo, the card would blow over!!  Finally, I managed to get a photo .....

..... but I then went indoors to take a photo of the inside of the card (you'll probably recognise the location - it's a chair in front of the French doors that I use quite a lot!!)

I know it's only Wednesday, but we're going away for two days, and although Malcolm has booked us into a hotel with wi-fi, just in case I can't do a post tomorrow, I wanted to make sure that Lee got her birthday card on time - Happy Birthday Lee - I hope you have a super day with your family - and enjoy the wine after your detox!!!!
 
 
  
 
 
 
 

The cutting room floor

Since I started my blog, I have taken hundreds of photos, and of course I have used quite a lot of them.  But there are some photos which are still languishing unseen in my folders ... perhaps they are a bit blurred, or the moment for that story passed, or something better cropped up later in the day to change the plans for that day's post .... and there are also all the photos from before blogging! However,  unlike bit-part actors, whose moment of glory ended up on the cutting room floor, some of these photos are finally getting their moment in the spotlight!

We'll start with cute animals .....

 

 

 

 

 

 

then a bit of falling down fence

 

 

my latest pillar box

 

 

a bit of sewing

 

 

a bit of knitting

 

 

there has to be Scotland's (other) national drink

 

 

a little bit of (a previous) garden

 

 

a (holiday) sunset

 

 

swallows getting ready to fly off to sunnier climes

 

I hope you have enjoyed my trawl through the archives ... and now I have a present for you ..... a little bouquet of flowers and grasses which I picked from the hedgerow this morning, when I went out for my last three mile walk - I certainly have got my legs fit for the holidays!!

 

No doubt while we're away we will have the occasional glass of wine .... and as always I'll raise my glass and think of family and friends and say

 

cheers!!

Great excitement!

We have been very busy making sure the house and garden are spick and span, because we have very special visitors coming on Thursday (we don't usually tidy up that far in advance, but Malcolm will be away all day tomorrow visiting his Dad, and I'm going up to Falkirk to see Stuart - I'm staying the night, so I won't be home until Wednesday afternoon) - anyway, to return to our visitors - Sarah and Andy.  Sarah and I have become blogging friends, first leaving comments on each others' blogs, then chatting via e-mails.  So when I read that they were coming up to Northumberland on holiday (not that far from us) I immediately invited them to visit!  So, the big tidy up of the studio commenced

  

welcome to my studio

 

a neat and tidy table

 

the woodburning stove in summer-mode

 

quilting and knitting books

 

pretty threads and pretty things

 

quilts and pictures all hanging straight

 

stash tidied up

 

very cute things on display!

 

and now for the garden

 

front garden looking neat and tidy

 

beautiful alpine (complete with hoverfly in the middle!)

 

a lovely clematis

 

pretty in pink on the pergola

 

vibrant crocosmia (I'm holding it as it was blowing about in the breeze!)

 

I'm sorry you can't all come to visit, so I hope you have enjoyed your virtual visit - and fingers crossed for good weather on Thursday, so we can show off the glorious Borders to Sarah and Andy!

 

Sunshine

Yesterday morning, the garden was bathed in sunshine, so of course, out came the camera!

 

Last year we got some bulbs in a free offer from a newspaper.  Malcolm planted them, and then we forgot all about them.  By the time they came up, we couldn't even remember what they were.  When these appeared in the alpine boxes, they looked like little tulips, but the flowers didn't open - then suddenly, they burst open to show these yellow flowers.  I have no idea what they are!

 

This house leek looks amazing!

 

More of the free bulbs - I was delighted when these flowered, as the colours are stunning.  The one at the back on the right is brown and gold - most unusual.

 

This purple elder is stunning, but in the autumn the birds eat the berries and deposit purple poo on the car!

 

This corner in the back garden doesn't get much sun, so is an ideal spot for hostas and ferns.  The caster oil plants were in pots - since being planted out, they have just got bigger and bigger.

 

Gorgeous!

 

I love alchemilla mollis - but who's that lurking in the middle?

 

Can you see the little bluetit on the corner of the wall, just keeping an eye on me before popping into the nesting box to feed the hungry chicks - who make some amount of noise!

 

I don't know what this is called, but it is so dainty and delicate.

 

My love is like ........

 

I bought this grape vine a couple of years ago for Malcolm - a proper one from a garden centre - but it isn't doing very well

 

Then I bought this one for him last year in Morrisons - it was half price as it had a sell-by date on it!  Not only is it flourishing, but it has grapes on it!

I know they won't grow that much, as our weather isn't warm enough, but it's still good to see them.

 

The weather turned very wet in the afternoon, and when it was time to come in from the studio, the rain was bouncing off the roof of the log store ( of course it was built by Malcolm!)

ps - I've made some changes to the list of blogs that I read - check out the new ones!

A busy weekend

I don't know where the weekend went - suddenly it was Monday morning!  However, progress was made with the squares for the throw - I have now done 19 from 12 balls of yarn, with 7 left, so I'm hoping to do 30

 

I didn't get as much work done on the baby quilt as I had hoped to, but I did get it ironed and then layered up with the fleece (sorry about the patch of light, but I have veluxes in the studio roof, and the sun wouldn't oblige by popping behind a cloud)

 

I put the walking foot on the machine

 

I did get a little of the quilting done, but I'll wait until I've done some more before I take another photo.

 

This afternoon I went for my last session of acupuncture.  I'm still amazed how having needles stuck in you makes you relax, but yet again I fell asleep!  While I enjoyed the sessions, I'm not sure if they were of any great therapeutic value......

 

When I came home, my eye was caught by this iris, which has just flowered in the front garden

 

I also couldn't resist taking a photo of these two poppies.  Although they are past their best, they remind me of blowsy old theatrical ladies, all too much rouge and black stockings wrinkled round their ankles - and a half bottle of gin hidden in the chamber pot!!

Patience rewarded

This afternoon, we were sitting having a cuppa in the garden ...... when the pair of tits who have moved into the birdbox suddenly started popping in and out.  Of course the camera was fetched!!  As it's just a somewhat basic digital camera, the birds are a bit blurred, but it was so exciting to actually get photos of them

 

heading home

 

does my bum look big in this doorway

 

here we go again

 

up, up and away

 

Earlier in the day, we had been in Hawick for some shopping.  On the way back to the car, we had a detour to look round the Saturday market and car boot.  I couldn't resist this lovely felted bag on the Fair Trade stand

 

and of course I refused a carrier bag and popped it in my Cath Kidston recycled bag from Tesco

 

Then I succumbed to this wonderful piece of fabric from one of the car boot stalls - the photo doesn't do it justice.  There is no obvious right side/wrong side .... one side is silky and shot with gold, while the other side is a much richer colour, and is textured like velour.  It is on the to-do list for cushions for the new kitchen chairs.

 

We also bought some plants for the garden - I got some to replant the pots that sit at the studio door, beside my lovely froggy welcome sign

 

'Sunset' is almost finished - I will probably finish it tomorrow, when I'll be in Chesters for another of Lindsay's Woolgatherings.  So what will you do next, I here you cry ...... I will be doing a baby quilt for my new great-nephew, Oliver.  I hope he likes tractors!!

 

 

Garden delights

When I was in the garden hanging out the washing this morning, the sun was shining and the colours in the border looked so wonderful, I had to take some photos to share with you

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now that you have feasted your eyes on all those wonderful colours, it's time to announce the winner of the giveaway ........ after much deliberation, Malcolm thought of a number, and when I counted through the comments .....

the winner is ...... Helen Lockhart

 

Well done Helen - I'll get the parcel off to you as soon as possible.

Almost there!

The excitement is building - yes, this is post number 99, so it's the big one tomorrow!  Here is the last thing to be included in the giveaway - some of the leftover batik fabric from doing 'Sunset'

 

Everyone who leaves a comment before 5pm tomorrow (Friday) will be included in the draw, and I'll announce the winner tomorrow evening.......

'Sunset' is almost finished - I hope to finish it over the weekend.  I'm pleased with how it has turned out - it is so different from my usual work that I wasn't sure how it would look!

We were sitting in the garden having a cuppa this afternoon when a little tit flew in to the birdbox, so of course I fetched the camera.  I didn't manage to get a photo of it coming out of the box, but I managed to get this one as it paused briefly before popping in again

 

Although I sat for a long time with the camera poised to capture it on the way out again, it didn't appear, so I had to give up, as my fingers were going numb from holding the camera up!!  Maybe next time!

Crafty!

I have been decidedly unproductive on the knitting/sewing front while this toothache/infected gum thing has been going on (back at the dentist yesterday, another course of antibiotics!), so I thought today I would show you some of Malcolm's woodwork in the garden.

 

He made the birdbox last year and we were delighted when we got back from holiday to find it in use.  We have seen a pair of bluetits flying in and out - I will try to get a photo - but they are just so quick!

  

The box hedge plants were moved here from another part of the garden.  Malcolm is slowly trimming them into shape.

 

The middle of this feeder is a peanut feeder that we were given as a houswarming present - but the birds wouldn't use it as there was nowhere for them to land.  Now, however, it is in constant use.

 

A smart cover for the gas bottles for our cooker.

 

Not one .....

 

not two .....

 

but three alpine planters.  Why three?  Because they sit on ugly drain covers!  They sit on little feet,  so that the garden trolley will slide in underneath if they need to be moved to allow access to the drains.

And the great thing about these wonderful objects?  They were all made from wood in Malcolm's stash (yes, even men have stashes) - leftover pieces from other projects, so they cost virtually nothing.

 

Now, this last picture comes with a warning for its high 'cuteness' factor - all together now - aaaah, aren't they just such lovely fluffy little cygnets ...

We saw the swans on the River Tweed in Kelso this afternoon, basking in the sunshine.