frayed at the edge

Crash, bang, wallop!

I had some time to sit down and knit this morning, while the washing machine was on and my bread dough was rising.  Normally I would sit in the lounge at the front of the house .......

 

I wonder if you would guess this is where I sit!!

 

........ but we had workman making a tremendous amount ofnoise, as they prepared the drive for tarmac to be laid later in the day.  So instead I went and sat in the lounge at the back of the house ........

 

 

......... where I had lots of company

 

the gnome brothers

and the gnome sisters

 

As you can see from the last photo, the sun was shining today, so I took my scarf/shawl into the garden to take photos

 

you can see how fine it is

 

I had some advice from Rattling on ..., who told me that in Russia, women wear long pointy shawls in winter - they roll the top edge to shorten the shawl and to form a collar, which you can see I have done.

 

 

a detail of the beads

 

I have a confession to make ....... Malcolm finished my cracket just before we went on holiday, and I didn't have time to post about it then ....... and I forgot when we came back home!!  So here is my cracket - Judith's and Jennifer's are oak, but I chose pine for mine

 

the softer pine meant that Malcolm could cut a scalloped edge

 

I love the detail on the legs
 

 

I made egg mayo sandwiches for lunch ...... while the eggs were cooking, I finely sliced a spring onion and grated some cheese.  The rough guide to portion size for cheese is a piece the size of a matchbox ......... but which matchbox?

 

 

The matchbox from Cafe Batavia is a souvenir from when we lived in Jakarta.  We went there several times for a meal with a group of Malcolm's colleagues and their wives.  There was always a lot of laughter when any of the men had to go to the Gents, as rumour had it that the large mirror behind the urinal was actually a two-way mirror, that allowed anyone in the Ladies to have a view of the Gents!!  Of course we would never say if the story was true .......

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early one morning .....

....... just as the sun was rising - oh, ok, the sun had already risen and I didn't hear a maiden singing in the valley below, but it was still quite early!!  But to continue, on Monday when I went out for my walk, I took the camera with me as it was a lovely morning.  When I start the walk I'm still half asleep and the verges are just a blur of green, but by the time I have eaten my piece of fruit and have hit my stride, I start to see all the wonderful colours in the verge

 

 

Unfortunately, I'm not very knowledgeable about the names of wildflowers, I just enjoy looking at them!

 

 

I love ferns when they are just uncurling (is that a word?) - I think they look like something from a sci-fi film

 

 

There is a saying ........ ne'er cast a cloot till may is oot........ which roughly translated means don't take off your thermal vest until .... ah, but is it when the month of May is over, or when the the may blossom on the hawthorn is out?

 

 

This next little flower is tiny - not even as big as the nail on my pinkie.  I think I will have to print out this picture to turn it into a pattern for applique

 

 

There have been vast amounts of dandelions this year - seemingly because of the severe winter.  This one has already gone to seed.  When we were children, we used to blow on the seedheads, believing that the numbers of puffs it took to blow away all the seeds would tell us the time!

 

 

When you were little, did you hold a buttercup under your chin to see if you liked butter? (if you did, the buttercup would cast a golden light!)

 

The lambs are much more independent now, and spend more time away from the ewes, with the bolder ones squeezing through the fences to feast on the lush growth in the verges.  The lamb in the field looked anxious when I stopped to take this last photo, but the one on the verge wasn't going to leave the tasty morsels it was tucking into!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A soggy tale!

When I got home from my usual Monday morning shopping, I found Malcolm in the garden wearing swimming shorts.  Now, I know I was in town for a while, but I didn't think he had time to dig a swimming pool, so why was he in his shorts?  Well .... it all started yesterday evening, when ......... but I'm getting ahead of myself, so lets go back to yesterday morning -

We headed off to the garden centre to buy some fence paint (yes, it's that time of year again!), then we thought we would visit the Donkey Sanctuary - after all we've lived here for almost four years and hadn't yet visited it.  There was just a small problem - when we got there we discovered it didn't open until 2pm (oops).  However, I was able to take some photos .....

 

enjoying the spring grass

 

 

this one was a little bit shy!

 

On the way home, we had to have one of those emergency stops for photo taking ........

 

as you can see from his leg, he thought about getting up .........

 

 

....... but it was all too much effort to get up and pose!!

 

Back home, while Malcolm was working in the garden, I was busy sewing - but it was practical sewing.  I was making this peg bag for Stuart - at the moment he has his pegs in a plastic bag.  The fabric came from my stash of curtain samples, which our local curtain shop sells very cheaply.  I just made a very simple peg bag - I didn't think he would want one with applique and embroidery!

 

 

But I also got quite a lot of sewing done on the applique runner for our bedroom chest of drawers

 

 

Later I also did some work on my knitting.  It is a scarf/shawl, knitted in laceweight yarn.  I have been making it up as I go, but it looks as if it will turn out ok.  I've pinned it to our footstool to give you an idea of how it will look

 

 

Don't worry about all those ends - I have a cunning plan for them!!  So that takes us up to yesterday evening ...... there was a lovely sunset and I went out into the front garden to take some photos, including this one

 

 

I then went through the house and out into the back garden, where I took this photo of the moon

 

 

But as I took the photo, I realised that the outside tap was running, so I went to turn it off ..... but it refused to stop running.  I fetched Malcolm, who also couln't get it to turn off.  We have a short length of hose attached to the tap (to make it easier to fill the watering can) and Malcolm faffed about trying to put a clamp on the hose to stop the flow.  But I came up with a simple solution - we put the nozzle from the main hose on the end of the short hose and closed it - problem tempoarily solved.  When Malcolm went to fit a new tap this morning, he encountered a slight problem - he couldn't turn off the supple to the tap, which meant he would get soaked when he took the old tap off ....... hence the sensible solution of wearing his swim shorts to do the job!!

We have another small problem - these two swallows are determined to move into the garage to nest - but that would mean having to leave the door open all the time, which isn't a sensible thing to do (sorry about the quality of the photo, but the light was bad, and I didn't want to startle them with the flash)

 

 

As I'm writing this, lots of swallows are swooping round the garden, feasting on insects - I have tried to take photos of them, but they are just too fast!!

 

 

 

 

The magic of technology

Yesterday's post may have appeared as usual ....... but I wasn't here!  I wrote it on Wednesday and scheduled it to be posted yesterday evening, as I was away from home from 7am to 9pm!!  So, what was I doing?  I went on an outing to the city of York, to see a quilt exhibition .... but let's go back to the beginning ...... last Friday, my friend Anne said that she was going with Kelso Embroiderers to York.  There were spare seats on the coach and would I like to go - of course I said yes.  So it was up at the crack of dawn to head to Kelso to meet up with the Embroiderers Group.  We set off in our comfortable coach and were soon crossing over the River Tweed at Coldstream

 

 

On of the good things about travelling by coach is that you get a good view over the hedges.  This is a field of potatoes

 

 

The fields are ablaze with rape - even on dull days it looks as of the sun is shining!!

 

 

When we arrived in York, of course the first thing we did was have a cuppa, then we headed for the exhibition, which is in the Quilt Museum of the Quilters' Guild of the British Isles.  We arrived at the door .....

 

 

....... and the camera had to be put away, as no photography is allowed, not even a general view of the wonderful room that the exhibition is in (it's because of copyright issues).  So please click on the above links to see more of the exhibition!!

However, I can show you the wonderful gardens round the museum .....

 

the wrought iron and old bricks show off the plants beautifully

 

 

the old buildings provide a wonderful backdrop for the gardens

 

After a delicious lunch, it was time for a little sightseeing

 

wandering through the maze of streets in the Shambles ........

 

 

I remembered to look up

 

 

I wonder who Mad Alice was

 

We met up back in the gardens at the museum, and enjoyed a cuppa in the sun before heading for home

 

 

On the way to York, I was sitting on the wrong side of the coach to take a photo of the Angel of the North, but I was ready to capture one on the way home

 

You can read about the Angel here and see more photos  here.

 

The forecast for the weekend is for good weather, but whatever the weather is, I hope you all have a good one!!  Love, Anne 

 

Little lambs

As promised, here is the tale of Lucy, Lottie and Edward.  I was sitting in the studio on Tuesday afternoon (working on next Tuesday's tutorial), when three little lambs wandered past the back door.  I wasn't entirely surprised, as Malcolm had been talking to our neighbour on Monday, who had mentioned that they were hand-rearing three orphaned/abandoned lambs.  Of course my first reaction was to grab the camera!  I opened the door as quietly as possible, in case I scared them, but they stood there and posed prettily for me

 

 

My neighbour came out of their stable to tell me about the lambs - that's Lucy on the left, Lottie in the middle and tiny little Edward on the right.  She said they were more dead than alive when they got them, but are now all thriving.  The lambs meanwhile were tucking into the clover and dandelions

 

 

I asked what would happen to the lambs (I was thinking Sunday dinner!), but they will be going into the field with the horses - I was given a quick lesson in animal management .... the sheep eat the bits that the horses don't eat, keeping the pasture healthy and the worm count down (I didn't ask for an explanation of that bit!!)

 

 

If you think it looks a bit like a building site .... that's what it is - it's where the last part of the steading is being converted into a house!  The lambs were quite happy to explore, but they haven't been so happy being out in the field - every time they are taken out, they just finds gaps in the fence and come back home!!

 

 

I mentioned that I have been working on a new knitting design - here is a little sneak peek!

 

 

 

 

Crafts old and new

Wherever we go on holiday, I always have a look for craft/sewing/knitting magazines.  There is an excellent Spanish one that I always buy, and this year my timing was perfect, as I was able to get two issues!  Added to them, I also got a French magazine.  I studied French for six years at school, and although I am decidedly rusty when it comes to speaking it, I can still cope with reading it (and I still have my French dictionary, which was a school prize!)  I also studied Spanish for a year, and although I did pass my 'O' Level, I promptly forgot most of it (on holiday I can say hello, please and thank you!).  However, when you know what the subject is, it's amazing how much you can understand!  (except for a Japanese quilting book which was given to me by a lovely Japanese girl whom I taught to quilt when I lived in Indonesia - fortunately it has excellent diagrams!!)

 

 

Today we went to Jedburgh for lunch, and as usual had a look in the charity shops.  This book caught my eye, and as soon as I flicked through it, I just had to buy it.

 

 

There is a fascinating collection of crafts, but the page that particularly caught my attention was this one about knitting, not only for the information, but also for the illustration of the woolwinder, which is similar to the one I bought recently at a car boot sale

 

 

When we recently visited Helen, she mentioned that her home was about to be featured in a magazine, so when she showed  photos of the magazine it on her last post, of course I had to immediately buy it

 

 

There are beautiful photos spread over seven pages, and amongst all the lovely treasures, there is evidence of Helen's cushion obsession!

 

 

One of the other things I acquired on holiday is this fun bracelet, made with dozens (if not hundreds!!) of beads.  I think I may have some fun trying to make something similar

 

 

To finish, I want to introduce you to Lucy, Lottie and Edward - come back tomorrow and I'll tell you all about them!

 

  

 

 

Early morning delights

Yesterday, I crawled out of bed and was out the door at 6.40, determined to walk off some of those cake-calories.  It was a lovely clear, bright morning ....... but it was frosty!!  However I soon forgot about the unseasonal weather, when I saw these little cuties

 

they weren't too sure about someone taking their photo ......

 

 

...... but these two posed quite happily!

 

Those lambs were very young, unlike these two bold ones who were munching away on the verge, and stood watching me approach for some time (the photo is a little bit dark as we were in deep shade under large overhanging trees!)

 

 

I could see where they had squeezed through the fence to get in and out of the field, as they had left rather a lot of fleece behind!

 

 

It might be the middle of May, but the daffodils are still flowering in the verge

 

 

These primroses were a bright spot under the trees

 

 

The apple blossom is starting to appear - I hope there is a good crop of apples like last year, so that I will be able to make more jelly!

 

 

I had to take yet another photo of my favourite tree - if you click on it to enlarge it, hopefully you will see several birds in the holes - it looks as if they might be nesting

 

 

This afternoon, I abandoned the holiday laundry to head for patch'n'chat.  It was lovely to see all my friends and catch up with their latest projects ........ and of course there was cake!  Annette had made a wonderful lemon meringue pie for us ......

 

 

.......I'm going to have to do some more walking!!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, love, Anne

 

 

 

It will come as no surprise ..........

.......... to regular readers, if I start the tales of our holidays with some food!!  Before we left, I mentioned that no doubt cake would be eaten, and  on our first morning, these little beauties were consumed with great relish!!

 

 

Mindful of the amount of calories in cakes, we shared this one!!

 

 

When Stuart came out to join us for the second week ........ the cake eating continued

 

 

But we didn't eat cake every day ........ one morning we had icecream

 

this was mine

 

 

Stuart was delighted with his

 

 

I think this picture shows how good the icecream was!!!

 

It wasn't just us who were tucking into treats - Malcolm enjoyed giving these chickens in the orchard next to the villa some tasty things to eat

 

 

But don't worry - we did walk off a lot of those calories ....... tomorrow I'll show you some of the sights of Pollensa.

 

 

 

Hooray, it's the weekend!

Well, it has been a bit of a fraught week, with airports closed, then open, then closed again, open again ........ so fingers are still firmly crossed that our holiday goes ahead ok next week - especially as we have bought the sunscreen and got lots of euros!

It was forecast that we would have some spectacular sunsets because of the volcanic ash.  Although this sunset from the other evening looks dramatic, it isn't any more so than our usual ones

 

 

When I turned to go back into the house (before any of the neighbours saw me in my jammies!) I saw that the moon was already out

 

 

Last weekend, we had a trip to the garden centre to replace some of the plants that we lost because of the terrible winter.  There was a good choice of hellebores, and I finally chose this one

 

 

We also got a new cordyline - but it will be a few years before it grows to the size of the one we lost - it was obliterated when the snow came off the roof.  This time we choose a dark one, rather than the green of the previous one

 

 

Of course, we have to end with a photo of the Friday afternoon cake - another of Annette's light as air sponges - this time with apricot jam ...... delicious!

 

As it's Friday evening, I'm enjoying a very nice glass of wine - the weekend starts here!!  I hope you all have a good one, love, Anne

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birthday Girl

All can now be revealed!!  Tomorrow, Jennifer has a 'significant' birthday, so I have been working on a quilt for her ........ I couldn't show you, as she reads the blog.  We went to visit her today, to take her out to lunch and give her her presents

 

 

While she is sitting with her feet up on her cracket, she can read her new book

 

 

and if it's a bit chilly, she can cuddle up under her quilt.  I couldn't decide where to photograph it - first in the garden

 

 

then in the studio

 

 

this detail shows the machine quilting

 

 

and this the hand quilting

 

 

The weather must have realised that it was a special day, as we had blue sky and sunshine for our day out

 

 

It was hard to decide what to have, when faced with this fabulous menu

 

 

Here is the Birthday Girl, trying to make up her mind

 

 

She decided on this wonderful butternut squash and ginger risotto

 

 

Malcolm had smoked haddock and spinach risotto, with a poached egg

 

 

and I had a warm salad of bacon, Stornoway black pudding, mushrooms and quail eggs

 

Of course, a special occasion means that you can have pudding as well .....

Jennifer had rhubarb brule with a ginger biscuit

 

Malcolm had fresh fruit salad with a ginger syrup

 

I had a beautiful lemon tart with raspberry sauce

  

The food was so good, this lovely dog wanted to come in

but had to be content with sitting outside

 

Happy Birthday for tomorrow, Jennifer,  have a wonderful day!

 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, love, Anne