frayed at the edge

Soggy!

When I looked out the window this morning, I was very tempted to about turn and get back into bed, it was so damp and dreary.  However, I need the exercise, so I got dressed, got out the rain jacket and the tatty old trainers and headed out.  The drizzle meant that there were no insects about, so instead of swooping gracefully through the air catching their breakfast, the swallows were huddled on the phone line

 

The horses didn't look very happy either .....

 

....... but this little lamb had found a good place to curl up and avoid the worst of the weather

 

But it wasn't all gloom and doom!  I had fun looking for arty waterdrops ......

 

 

....... then I had a "find the biggest worm slithering down the road" competition!!

1st

 

2nd

 

3rd

 

I love how rabbits sit very, very still - I guess they think if they don't move, they can't be seen

 

The sheep haven't made much headway in eating the overgrown field - you can only just see the lamb's head peeking out from the long grass

 

When I was catching up on Brid's blog the other day, I saw that her house is featured in this month's Ideal Home magazine.  I finally got round to buying the magazine this morning, and have spent the rest of the day gazing longingly at her beautiful home

 

 

 

Did you spot the beautiful chair on the top right of the photo?  I have come up with a cunning plan ...... I am going to adopt Brid, then when I go to visit her, I shall accidently put the chair in my suitcase when I'm leaving!!

 

To finish, one of my arty photos ....... this is the skeleton of a dandelion flower

Do not adjust your monitor!

Very quick post, as I am very late doing it!

the new car (Citroen C3 Picasso) parked in Berwick

 

my lunch (I shared the coleslaw with Malcolm!)

 

my latest hairdo ...... what can I say, I was bored and had purple highlights put in!!

 

 

A chilly walk

Yesterday we decided to head into Hawick and go for a walk along the river - but we almost changed our minds when we realised how cold the wind was!!  However we kept walking and I'm glad we did, or we would have missed all this .....

ducklings with their mum

 

a young swan

 

an adult swan

 

heron

 

goose

 

goslings

 

an old fence post

 

mossy tree roots

 

I was surprised to receive a parcel in the post this morning, as I knew I hadn't ordered anything!  I opened it to find a lovely card .....

 

........ and a packet of biscuits.  Sarah sent them to me, after I had complained recently about Malcolm getting a biscuit with his coffee and I didn't get one with my tea when we were out for a cuppa!  So now I will be able to have a biscuit too

 

I have almost finished the Christmas stitcheries

 

and did you notice some Love Notes on the right?  Yes, I am now doing a Love Notes quilt for myself!  I have layered Lilly Pilly with some of this lovely cotton wadding (batting)

 

 

 

But Lilly Pilly will now languish on the table for the next three weeks because ......... yippee, we're off on holiday!!  We'll be leaving about 2am tomorrow, to drive down to Newcastle airport, to fly to Majorca.  Longterm readers will know that we go every year at this time  - but this year we are going for three weeks, rather than our usual two.  Stuart and Alison are joining us for the second and third weeks - they are looking forward to relaxing after all the stress of moving!!

But don't worry, you can still pop in, as I have scheduled posts to appear every day.  They are just short posts, with photos of my sewing over the years.  They aren't in any particular order, but generally the embroideries are the oldest, followed by the counted cross stitch, then the quilts.  And something very exciting will happen when I'm away ........ my 1,000th post will appear!!  Of course that means a giveaway ........ so, when I come back and check which post was the 1,oooth, I will ask Malcolm to pick a winner at random from the comments.  You can either leave a comment on the day you think is the 1,000th post, or you can leave a comment  every day.  I will have to find something very special to bring back from Majorca for the giveaway!!

 

I have packed the rest of my Love Note stitcheries to do in the evenings, and of course we have lots of books on our Kindles to read.  No doubt we will eat lots of delicious food, drink a bottle of two of wine, and generally relax (not forgetting the wonderful cakes to have with our morning cuppas!)

I hope you enjoy the little posts, and I'll be back in three weeks with tales of Majorca!  Love Anne

 

 

 

 

The day got off to ......

....... a rather dreary start!  We have had a lot of rain - the river is running hard, and the poor heron looked somewhat bedraggled and miserable

 

Things did brighten up a bit, when I bought one of my favourite quilting magazines

 

and this little quilt would brighten up the dreariest of days!

 

I'm still stitching away in the evenings.  I have to admit that I haven't quite finished this block, as it involves satin stitch, which I'm not fond of

 

This little fairy is so cute!

 

I spent the afternoon in the hairdressers.  I asked Melissa, my lovely stylist, to cut my hair a bit shorter than I have had it of late. 

oops!

 

OOPS!!

 

Oh dear, I hadn't meant quite this short - but never mind, it will soon grow again!

 

ps - if you liked my sheepie notebook yesterday, you can buy one for yourself (and lots of other sheepie things) here

Here comes the sun

I was delighted yesterday to discover that I have been given an award by Kay, aka the Borderline Quilter

 

To accept the award, I have to give a link to Kay, tell you something about myself, spread the joy by nominating other bloggers, and of course let them know that I have nominated them

I have already given the link to Kay above - she is the wonderful longarm quilter who recently made our fabulous new comforter.  She won several awards at the Scottish Quilt Championships last year ..... and has an obsession for feathers (the quilted kind!)

 

I've done several of these "something about myself" things when I have been given awards in the past ...... I usually end up asking Malcolm, as I never know what to say about myself!  So here is a potted history of me.  Although I was born and grew up in Scotland, I am half English (through my Mum) and one of my great-grannies was Welsh!  I worked for British Rail, in the Chief Civil Engineer's department, so know obscure things about continuous welded rail, concrete sleepers and pandrol clips.  My singing is terrible, but that doesn't stop me singing along to the radio - especially when I'm driving.  I've sewn and knitted since I was little - as a hard-up teenager I used to make my own clothes.  I love to read - I have books in almost every room in the house - although not in the bedroom or bathroom!  Since I started blogging, I have become more and more interested in photography, and take photos every day.  And lastly, I can't write without using excessive amounts of exclamation marks!!

 

Now for the hard part - nominating other bloggers.  I think I have already nominated most of my favourites for other awards, so this time I have chosen

Cathy - I am in awe of her amazing artistic talents, as try as I might, my efforts look like a five-year old's drawing!

Rachel - her embroidery is beautiful

Pat - I love reading about her many children and grandchildren (and we have a name in common .... her married name is my maiden name!)

Thanks again Kay for the award!

 

As you know Malcolm now looks after the garden - but I had to do something this afternoon.  The harebells have spread, and underneath this clump .....

 

........ is the fabulous bees balm, which I would be upset to lose.  Some energetic pulling up, and the invading harebells were (just about) gone

 

This tiny clematis

 

already has a bud on it

 

This shot of the tree .....

 

..... doesn't show that the blossom is almost open

 

Meanwhile, in the front garden, the sparrows were squabbling on the fat ball feeder

 

and eating the emerging blossom on the tree

 

At least these little metal birds behave themselves

 

I whiled away a pleasant half hour or so, taking photos of the sparrows.  I tried to count them, but they kept flying off!  I think we probably have about two dozen of them - and we'll soon have more, as I think they are nesting under the roof again!

 

 

 

 

When we were in Melrose this morning, we popped into the National Trust shop for a browse, as they always have lots of lovely things ........ and today, this notebook just had to come home with me

 

Well ....... could you have resisted it?

Looking after the pennies

We had a rather unusual day out today ...... we went to a "wealth management" seminar!  My, doesn't that sound ground - but let me explain.  Some weeks ago, Malcolm got a letter inviting us to this seminar.    We don't know why we got an invitation - Malcolm must be on a mailing list somewhere - as we certainly aren't wealthy!  His first reaction was to recycle it as junk mail, but as he read on, he spotted the words free, lunch and wine ...... so we thought we might as well go!  We were very glad that we did go, as this was the venue, Tilmouth Park Hotel

 

We got there early, so had a chance to walk round the grounds.  Looking up at the hotel, I could see this room has a four-poster bed

 

The trees are much further open than here

 

and the rhododendrons are flowering

 

 

When you enter the hotel, it is easy to picture the original family living there, as all the original features have been retained.  We were welcomed with a cuppa in this beautiful room

 

A quick trip to the Ladies before the seminar got under way meant that the camera had to come out to capture the fabulous wallpaper and general luxury!

 

So, what was all the wealth management stuff?  It was mostly advice about making the most of savings/investments/pensions - of course the firm running the seminar will do it all for you, for a fee.  I managed to stay awake until we had a break for another cuppa, in another lovely room

 

The ceiling had an unusual painted plaster centrepiece

 

as did the room the the seminar was in

 

it also had a very sparkly chandelier

 

I also managed to stay awake during the second session (I knew Malcolm was paying attention and taking notes!) ...... then, hooray, it was lunchtime.  We both chose lasagne, with side salad and garlic bread (and we had a glass of wine)

 

It was delicious ....... and then the very pleasant man who had served us came over to the table and asked if we would like anything else.  Well, the other choice had been chicken in white wine and cream sauce with rice, which also looked delicious, so we had some of that too (almost everyone had a second helping of whatever hadn't been their first choice!). 

We are glad we went, as we did get some useful information on making the most of our money ..... and a delicious lunch.  We usually have dinner quite early, but we will be eating much later tonight!

 

On the sewing front, progress is being made on the Christmas stitcheries.  Using just the one thread makes it much quicker, without all the stops and starts to change colours ...... and there are none of those dreaded French knots on the lettering, which took so much time on the "Love Notes" stitcheries.

 

Getting my priorities right!

I have lots of photos from the weekend, and had a vague idea of the layout of today's post ....... but then I went for a walk after lunch, and everything changed!  So, I hope you aren't too disappointed at having to wait to see where we went for our Sunday walk and what sewing I did over the weekend, and instead have to look at lots of photos of ......... LAMBS (and other country things)

this little one kept falling off mum's back

 

and climbing back on

 

holding on tight!

 

a post-lunch snooze

 

the Jacob's lambs are big now

 

I love the pink inner ears

 

After all the cute lambs .......... the first rabbit of the year!

 

This female pheasant was striding down the field .......

 

........ resolutely ignoring the male trotting along behind her

 

There are more and more plants bursting into life

 

 

 

This flower is slightly bigger than a shirt button, but has amazing markings (definitely one to save as an idea for an applique flower!)

 

I think this is a starling, but it was on its own, whereas you normally see a flock of them

 

To finish, a little taster of the weekend sewing

 

Life is never simple!

After the events of the last three days, I don't think Stuart and Alison will ever move again!  The first piece of aggravation was on Wednesday.  The builders had said that their carpet fitter could get in to fit all the carpets - but when he turned up, the site agent refused to let him in.  This means that tomorrow, they will have to empty the entire contents of the house into the garden, then put it all back when the carpets have been fitted!!

However, yesterday got off to a good start.  We filled our van ......

 

........ Stuart's van

 

....... and Stuart's stepbrother's van

 

We gave the house a last clean

 

Then we waited for the phone call to say that the bank transfer of the money for the house was complete, and Stuart and Alison could collect the keys for their new home.  We waited, and we waited.  We had a picnic lunch sitting on the floor

 

Little Pixie came in from next door to visit

 

There were increasingly frantic phone calls to find out what the delay was .... in the end it turned out that the electronic transfer of the money, which should have taken minutes, had somehow gone awry.  Eventually the call came at 5pm that it was all sorted out!  We jumped up, ran for the vans and set off for the new house.  The lounge soon went from this .....

 

...... to this

 

Alison's parents arrived, then S&A's friends Fraser and Lynsey, followed by another friend, Craig.  While they all heaved boxes and furniture, I did something far more important - I got the bubbles on ice!!

 

We were much too tired to think about cooking (even if we could have found the box with the saucepans) so Malcolm and I headed to the nearest takeaway and came back with a wide selection of naughty but nice food - pizza,two kinds of pakora, onion rings, chips, dipping sauces - it didn't take long for it all to disappear.

We headed back down the road this morning, glad to see the hills as we got closer to home

 

After returning the van, we went to The Waterwheel for a cuppa.  Usually when we go there, I take photos of the owls. but they were ignored today, as there were lambs!!  After taking this photo of two of them in a little hollow .....

 

....... I spotted another two just in front of them, sheltering behind a raised manhole

 

Photos of lambs are always cute - but I think has to be one of the cutest ..... a lamb cuddled up to a large turnip!!

 

I came home with a little sheep of my own - bought in the garden centre where we stopped for breakfast

 

I think we will be having a quiet weekend, after all the excitement of the last few days!  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

White van man

Why were we here this afternoon?

 

Because we were hiring a van.  Why were we hiring a van?  Because Stuart is moving house tomorrow, and we are giving him a hand.  The first part of the run up to Falkirk was lovely

 

This photo isn't blurred, there's a mixture of sleet and hail coming down off the hills

 

As we got closer to Edinburgh, the Pentland Hills looked striking with their covering of snow

 

 

This view is of the other side of the hills

 

We are staying in a hotel tonight ........ this is the room we usually sleep in!

 

I guess we won't be eating in the dining room!

 

To finish - I bet these people wish they had gone on holiday with their boat last week when we had the beautiful weather!

 

ps - I might not be able to post tomorrow - Stuart doesn't get his broadband installed until Friday, and although he thinks I could post via his phone, I suspect we might all be too tired to bother.

Where was I?

I remember, we had finished our wonderful lunch and set off for home.  The road home from Duns took us to the village of Greenlaw ....... we have driven through it countless times, going back to 1983 - but we have never stopped there!  So yesterday we stopped to take photos of the old Town Hall and the church.  You can read about both of them here.  The town hall lay empty for many years, and even starred in a BBC programme about restoring old buildings.  It is now offices - but from what we could see, there wasn't anybody in the building.

 

 

 

I popped that last photo in, just in case you are looking for some unusual office accommodation!

 

Next, we walked round the church and the old graveyard

 

 

What would you have on the end of your grave ....... this somewhat odd carving

 

or this charming one

 

or an angel to watch over you

 

We paused to admire the carving on this Celtic cross

 

and to wonder what the meaning was of this skull and crossbones set into the church wall

 

The church tower was once used as a jail - I guess there weren't many escapes through this metal grill

 

 

The last stop on the way home was at Hume Castle   It was a steep walk up to the castle - we must have walked off quite a few calories!

 

Unfortunately, it was dull and misty, but if you click on the link, you will see lots of photos taken on sunny days.  The views from the castle are stunning, even with the mist

 

 

Only the outer walls survive

 

 

 

From the top of the walls, we had a good view of farmers getting on with spring planting ......

 

....... and ditch clearing

 

and we could see major landscaping works in this back garden!

 

To finish ....... I remembered today to take a photo of the fabric I bought yesterday - it cost £8 for three metres!