frayed at the edge

It's Friday again!

Where did the week go?  One minute it was Monday, now suddenly it's Friday.  As always at the end of the week, I have lots of photos that didn't make it into the blog, so I thought I would have a quick browse through the leftovers, and pick the best of them to share with you

a thistle, a problem for farmers, but striking in the verge

 

the first time we have tried growing beans

 

the pak choi has bolted, but the bees love the flowers

 

a foxglove in the hedgerow

 

enjoying the early morning sunshine

 

an "arty" weed in the verge

 

an unusual wall decoration in the cafe in Corbridge where we had lunch

 

a dog rose in the hedgerow

 

flowering privet hedge

 

these flowers are tiny, just the size of pinheads

 

I hadn't noticed before that you can see right through the church to a matching window on the back wall (despite passing the church dozens of times in the last six years!)

 

a heron on the River Slitrig

 

I hope you have enjoyed this wander through the leftovers ....... and talking of leftovers, there wasn't much left after we had our afternoon cuppa this afternoon!  Annette is on holliday, so the cakes came from Border Meringues

carrot cake

 

Border tart

 

As always I will be busy sewing over the weekend, and hopefully we will be able to dodge the forecast showers to go for a walk on Sunday morning. I hope you all have a good weekend, love Anne

 

 

Messing about on the river*

On the way back to the carpark in Corbridge yesterday, we stopped on the bridge to watch some children having fun in the river

 

 

but they wouldn't have been able to play there the day that all this came down and got snagged on the bridge

 

 

leaving the town, we didn't get held up at the level crossing .....

 

........ but we did get held up behind this tractor

 

on the way home, we stopped in Bellingham for a cuppa .......

 

........ at this cafe

 

I like the standard rosemary plants in the pots at each side of the door - I just might attempt to grow one!

 

after our cuppa, we went for a stroll, popping in to this shop, where it was hard to resist all the lovely locally produced crafts

 

while I was taking photos of the village hall ....

 

 

....... Malcolm was examining this curiosity

 

 

why put up a new sign when this rusty old one still does the job!

 

however something that will have to be replaced is this section of pavement, which has fallen into the river

 

 

if only I could have fitted this old fencepost into my backpack - it would look good in the garden!

 

this was a lovely spot to sit and watch the world go by - just after I took the photo, an elderly couple settled on the bench to eat ice creams

 

our last stop in Bellingham was here

 

where Malcolm bought three bags of offcuts.  Some it will be used in the logburning stoves, but the better pieces will be turned into nest boxes and other little wooden items

 

 

altogether a great day out!

 

* you can find the words of the song here

 

I was singing Leonard Cohen* .........

........ as I set off for my walk, having taken these two photos as I stepped out of the front door!

 

 

the horses in the field across the road were sitting like bookends

 

the thistles provided a lovely background for this ewe

 

do you think these sheep appreciate the stunning scenery beyond their field?

 

after yesterday's eerie mist, this morning the church was basking in sunshine

 

once I had had my usual Wednesday pamper time, with a soak in the bath, with a good book and a mug of hot chocolate (!), we set off for Corbridge.  Parts of the road are like a roller coaster - this photo makes it look as if we are up in the air looking down on the road!

 

there are a lot of blind summits, and I caught this car just before it vanished over the top of this one - it's quite scary the way the cars either appear or disappear on these summits

 

when we were stuck at temporary traffic lights, I passed the time taking photos of the dry stone wall we were sitting beside

 

 

as the town was busy, we decided to go for an early lunch, which turned out to be a wise decision, as the cafe rapidly filled up.  As always I had a pot of tea

 

and Malcolm had a large americano, with hot milk on the side

 

there was so much choice on the menu, it was hard to decide, but in the end I ordered eggs benedict

 

and Malcolm a soft ciabatta roll stuffed with sausages

 

 ........ and then we traded half of our meals, so I can tell you they were both absolutely delicious (and I should add that we have a light dinner when we have lunch out on Wednesdays!)  Of course one of the reasons we went to Corbridge was to go back to Re ..... I can't show you all that I bought, as it's for presents, but I can show you the fabulous "French" breakfast cups (which are actually made in Portugal!)

 

so why did I buy two purple ones and only one yellow one?   Well .......... on Monday I was putting Malcolm's coffee mug in the dishwasher when it slipped out of my hand and fell on one of the two yellow breakfast cups which were already in the dishwasher.  Did the cheap and cheerful mug break, or did a great big chip get knocked out of the much dearer cup?  I think you can guess the answer to that one!  However, I remembered that I had seen the cups on our last visit to Re, and I was delighed to find that they still had them, so that I could replace the broken one, and buy a couple of spares to tuck away for future use, as we do like a great big cup of tea after breakfast!

 

I still have lots of photos left from our day out, which I will save for tomorrow, but I'll finish with this one ......... I guess solicitors must have annoyed this person, if they are now offering to savage them!!

*Bird on a Wire 

 

Back to me!

Malcolm was delighted to receive so many comments yesterday - could this be the start of a new hobby?

After handing over the blog to him yesterday, I have some catching up to do, starting with Saturday.  When I left the Quilt Exhibition on Saturday afternoonn, I was a bit annoyed to see that there was a major hold-up in the traffic.  However, I stopped being annoyed when I found out the cause ........ Kelso Civic Week parade

 

 

 

 

 

the star of the parade

 

Yesterday morning I headed out as usual for my walk, although it was a bit grey and wet.  These sheep were sheltering against the wall

 

but the crows and seagulls were busy pecking through this field, which has just been cut for hay

 

Yesterday afternoon I was busy making jam and chutney, but as it's for next month's Southdean Show, I can't show you the results yet!

 

This morning was grey and wet again - and it got steadily wetter.  I was dripping by the time I got back home!  The church looked quite eerie in the mist

 

 However these cows weren't bothered by the rain

 

I had just taken this photo .......

 

....... when this curious cow popped its head into the hole in the hedge

 

I have been busy working on Twas the Night before Christmas.  On Sunday I pressed and trimmed the stitcheries

 

and ironed the fabrics for the blocks

 

Today, I cut strips

 

and stitched them together in sets

 

I then cross cut these sets and joined the resulting strips into ones of varying lengths, which will frame the blocks and go round the edge of the quilt

 

Next I had two blocks to make 

 

 

 

The next stage is to make foundation pieced blocks, which is possibly my least-favourite method.  Just in case I get some wrong (it has been known!), I photocopied one of the pattern sheets, so that I have spares

 

When I am out for my morning walks, I quite often stop at the field gate just past the church to take photos of the Mintos and the Eildons.  However, on my way out this morning, this was the view - or rather lack of view

 

it had improved slightly on my way home - I think the rain had washed the mist away!

 

but this was last Tuesday ...... just a slight difference!!

 

 

When I was sewing this afternoon, Malcolm stuck his head in the door and shouted to me to come and see .........worms, worms and even more worms!  The compost bin was full of them - we have never seen so many worms!  This photo shows just a few of them

Gorgeous babies!

I was all set this morning to take some more photos of the exhibition when ....... one of the group members started putting up signs saying photos could only be taken for personal use and were not to be put on the internet (because of copyright issues).  However, I can show you this bag, which I donated to one of the raffles .......

 

....... these cushions which were made by Kay - she's coming to give a talk to the group later in the year, and these cushions show off her exquisite longarm quilting

 

....... and these cushions which were made by the patch'n'chat ladies and some of the other regulars at Borderland Fabrics (it was when I was on holiday)  The cushions are being sold to raise funds for Project Linus

 

This afternoon I was on the door with my friend Katy, taking the entrance money and selling raffle tickets.  A woman came in and looked at me, and I looked at her ...... she said "I know you, how do I know you, where do I know you from?"  Eventually, we realised that we knew each other from years ago - maybe ten years or more - when we were members of Stirling Castle Quilters.  She was with her daughter, who recently got married and moved to Kelso, so maybe I'll see her again when she is visiting her daughter.

Then, we had a very special visitor ....... Katy's gorgeous new grandson Aaron!  His Mum, Lucy, was going shopping, so she popped in to leave him with Grandma, knowing that Katy would have a wonderful time showing him off to all her friends (there was a queue to ooooh and aaaah and say what a gorgeous boy!)  He is now seven weeks old ..... but he was born five weeks early!  However, he has steadily put on weight and is a healthy bouncing boy (Lucy was quite happy for me to take his photo for the blog)

 

back home, there was another baby to admire.  We have a large sparrow population in our front garden, and they are busy raising their second brood of the year (if the weather improves we might even get a third brood, as we did last year)  You can see that this young male hasn't fully lost his fluffy chick feathers

 

 

Of course Friday means cake, and although I wasn't at patch'n'chat, I still had some.  I had shared my lunchtime sandwich with Katy, as she had slept in and didn't have time to make her lunch, so we then had a little selection from the cakes for visitors to the exhibition (there are always cakes at quilt exhibitions!)  The first is my plate, the second is Katy's - but she didn't have less, she was already eating her first one when I took the photos!

 

 

The sun is shining and there is quite a lot of blue sky ........ fingers crossed that it stays like this for the weekend!  Love, Anne

Oh my poor feet .....

...... and my poor legs!!  I must have walked for miles today, helping to set up Abbey Quilters exhibition.  But the thing I find most tiring is constantly going up and down stairs ...... having lived for most of my life in houses with no stairs,  my legs don't half complain when faced with mutliple trips up and down!  There is a lift in the building, but it's a very small thing, which is really just a platform which goes up and down (there are no internal walls, just the outer lift shaft).

Unfortunately my camera battery ran out, but here is a selection of the photos that I took.  I'll have more tomorrow, showing you the whole exhibition

 

 

 

 

The next three photos are of the colourful display of Linus quilts, which have been hung in the coffee shop.  It is always wonderful to see the amount of work that the makers put into these quilts ..... and their generosity in donating them

 

 

 

I did take another three photos this morning, which I can't show you, but I can tell you about them.  During the morning, a woman came into the room I was in, asking if anyone had a camera.  When I said I did, she asked if she could borrow it, as hers wasn't working. Ah, well ..... I wasn't going to hand over my camera to a stranger, but I said I would be happy to take the photos for her - and I am so glad that I did.  I went with her into the Adult Learning Room, where three students were being presented with certificates, having completed an Adult Learning Course.  It was lovely to see their delight at receiving their certificates, and share the happy moment.  I have already emailed the photos to the delightful Laura, the Adult Learning Worker.

Rather tired!

Just a quick post tonight, as I am a bit tired after a  long day out!  I also had a busy time at Anne's - so busy that I didn't take any photos.  It was a wrench to hand over Lilly Pilly ...... but I still have the pattern, and fancy doing it in stark tones of grey, or in my favourite autumn colours.  I helped Anne to make up the Lilly Pilly kits - there has been so much love for it every time I post photos, I am sure she will sell them all.  To ease the pangs, I came home with this new pattern - as you can see it is by the same designer

 

I am going to make it in these fabulous linen fabrics, with the spotty one for the background and the cream one for the tree

 

I also got the fabrics to finish the "Night before Christmas" wallhanging.  The pattern shows the quilt worked in red and white Christmas fabrics, but as Anne didn't have a wide enough selection of these, we chose instead these red, white and green fabrics, which will give the quilt a lovely fresh, lively look

 

I did get a little bit of sewing done today, handstitching the binding on my block keeper.  I have to apologise to Lucie , who designed the block keeper, as I forgot to give her a mention up to now!  She is a longarm quilter, and is going to be quilting the "Life is Beautiful" quilt top (the one that I pieced and appliqued, and Anne did the stitcheries)  I am looking forward to seeing it finished!

 

For those of you who requested to see Stuart in his kilt ....... I have passed the request on to him, and he will have a look for a photo!

 

It's a grey rainy evening, so I think we will have another sunny photo from yesterday's walk to finish!

Running late!

When I arrived home this morning, I was decidedly out of breath after sprinting running walking quickly down the last leg of my walk.  Malcolm had assumed that I was gossiping blethering having an erudite and intellectual conversation with a neighbour.  So why was I late home ....... because of this gorgeous deer!

 

I was so glad that I had put the big lens on the camera, and was able to zoom in, as she stood there keeping a wary eye on me

 

 

 

I spent quite a long time just standing watching her through the camera ........ her ears kept twitching as flies buzzed round her.  It was only as I resumed my walk that I realised that I had been so engrossed that I had been standing in the middle of the road, on a bend ....... so it's just as well there is hardly any traffic at that time of the morning!!

 

At patch'n'chat this afternoon, Anne S had just finished this very striking quilt top

 

Katy was working on another miniature quilt (when she wasn't showing off the latest photo of her adorable new grandson Aaron)

 

Maureen was somewhat concerned about hanging this stunning peacock wallhanging in her home, as she had been told that it was unlucky to have anything to do with peacocks in the house (my Mum believed that).  But then she was told that it would be fine as long as she hung it next to a door, as the bad luck would be reflected back out the door ........ aren't we funny with the things we believe!

 

Annette wasn't in the shop today, so we were concerned about our Friday afternoon cake ...... but she had left us a delicious dumpling, and some of her daughter's wonderful shortbread biscuits.  For once I was good, and only had a piece of dumpling despite being twice offered the biscuits

 

 

It's Abbey Quilters exhibition next Friday and Saturday, so over the weekend I will be sorting out my entries, making sure that they are all properly labelled and writing out the information cards.  I will be helpingto  set up the exhibition on Thursday, then undertaking various duties on Friday and Saturday.  However, Malcolm won't be at home missing me, as he will be in Aberdeen ...... I'll tell you all about his trip next week!

I'm not going to mention the weather, but simply hope that you all have a good weekend ........ I shall be bottling my first attempts at fruit vinegar!!  Love Anne

Perhaps not quite a sunset ......

......... but there was definitely a bit of colour in the sky as we headed to bed last night!

 

 

and there was a wonderful colour this morning ....... blue!!

 

this ewe looked much happier, surrounded by DRY grass

 

and the view over to the Mintos was even clearer

 

I think this Jacob's ewe was probably in a show, as she is clean and clipped

 

the cows in the same field are very keen to pose at the gate!

 

 

recently, despite the fact that I don't bake, I seem to have acquired several books on the subject (I blame Sainsbury's, which sells them at half price!)

Marion used baking to fight off depression

 

the delightful Rachel with her take on classic French recipes

 

the very skilful Jo

 

the king of baking, the gorgeous Paul

 

but now, I really will have to knuckle down and actually bake cakes, instead of just drooling over the pictures, because I have just bought this beautiful glass cake cloche and stand (from here)

 

until I have a cake to put in it, I have put it on the dining room windowsill

 

and next to I have put a little glass butter dish, which is Italian ....... but I bought it in Jakarta!

 

there are other things on the windowsill from Indonesia.  This is a becak (pronounced bay-chack), a bicycle taxi

 

this chicken man is carved from a single piece of wood

 

with amazing detail on the man's face

 

and on the chicken

 

to finish ........ I'm used to encountering large lorries out on the main road when I go for walks after lunch - but I was suprised to meet this one this morning!

 

I had just taken the photo, when the lorry stopped and the driver jumped out.  Oh dear, was he shy and didn't want his photo taken?  No, he was lost!!  He was looking for our neighbour Billy the Farmer.  I had to tell him that unfortunately he had passed Billy's yard ...... and he would have to go a mile up the road before he would be able to turn!  It's just as well that he was unlikely to meet anyone else on the road that early, as he took up most of it

It stopped raining ......

........ for about five minutes this morning, and for the first time in days, the Mintos weren't hidden by mist and low clouds

 

but the Eildons were only just visible

 

I stopped at the church to take photos of the new information notice (click on the photos to enlarge them)

 

 

and here is the man himself!

 

since the morning that we saw the fawn, I have kept a lookout as I have come past that field, and this morning I was rewarded with a glimpse of an adult deer in the long grass

 

I must have made a noise as I leaned on the field gate to take photos, as the deer's head came up, and I just had time to snap one more photo before it leapt off back to trees

 

the new owners of the neighbouring farmhouse are having some groundworks done.  Does anyone know how to hotwire a mini digger ......

 

....... or even better, a big dumper truck!!

 

by the time I got back home, the rain was on again, and this spider web in the front garden had captured some raindrops

 

later in the morning, we drove up to Selkirk, to have lunch at Lochcarron.  The closer we got to Selkirk, the heavier the rain came down, so a large bowl of spicy Thai chicken soup with delicious bread was very welcome

 

back home, we settled down to watch cricket on tv ..... the West Indies v New Zealand.  They were playing on the island of St Kitts, and we delighted in seeing lots of blue sky and sparkling seas!!  While Malcolm wrestled with the crossword, I got on with my knitting, finishing the body of the tea cosy

 

the pencil is through the steek stitches for the spout

 

I have just pushed the steek through to the inside, but it gives you an idea what it will look like once it is cut to make the opening

 

the next stage is to work another vikkel braid, before shaping the top of the cosy,then finishing the edges with i-cord ...... and there should be enough wool left to make one in the reverse colourway!

 

to finish, I assumed the sheep in the old orchard were ewes (they are usually lying down when I see them), but after taking this photo this morning, I'm not so sure .........