frayed at the edge

Practice makes perfect ......

....... I hope!!  I went out for a walk this afternoon and took along my new camera to try to get to grips with the myriad settings (my poor brain was hurting by the time I got back home).  Here is a selection of the ones that didn't go in the recycle bin!!

 

the church looks different in the low autumn light

 

 

lovely ripe elderberries

 

 

wonderful gnarled dead branches, blanketed with moss

 

 

these sheep were happy to pose

 

 

these ones took one look at the camera and trotted off!

 

 

I love autumn colours

 

 

a reminder of why I live here!!

 

 

sheep enjoying a meal of windfall apples

 

 

I may pick a sprig or two for Christmas!

 

I also got a bit arty, and took some B&W photos of the church on my way home, as the sun had come out and there were some good shadows - you'll see them on Sunday!

 

 

 

 

Bits and pieces!

I was so excited when I opened the post this morning - my lovely friend Sarah had sent me a belated birthday present - just look at what she sent 

 

a wonderful set of stamps - with pictures of post boxes!!  And .... the folder has lots of interesting photos and info

thank you Sarah - it is a super present!!

 

I was in a charity shop in Jedburgh this morning, when I saw this little cross-stitch kit - priced at only £2.50 - needless to say I had to buy it!

 

This afternoon, I met my friend Lorraine to go to knit'n'natter.  I hadn't seen her for ages, as she went on holiday just when we came back!  We had rather a lot of news to catch up on - including hearing about what she got for her birthday last month - a new sewing machine!  However I did manage to do some knitting in between chatting, drinking tea (and eating a toasted teacake!).  Malcolm recently bought me this tea cosy book (sorry about the marks on it - I accidently splashed it with wax when I was blowing out a candle)

I foolishly said to Malcolm that I would knit him whichever cosy he wanted - and some of them are very elaborate!  But being a man of tast and refinement, he picked a very simple one.  It should actually be knitted in a paler blue, but this denim blue aran wool was left over from a jumper I knitted for him last year

not bad for an afternoon's knitting (and I've started the other side!)

 

If you've ever bought a book from Amazon, then you'll know that you get e-mails for ever more suggesting other books you might like to buy.  Usually I delete them before I'm tempted - but last week I got an e-mail saying that people who had previously bought a book by Jan Brocket might also like to buy Cath Kidston's new book.  I made the mistake of looking at the new book .... yes, I bought it!

As well as all sorts of lovely projects, there is also a kit to make the bag on the cover - I think that might go to quite near the top of the to-do list!
 
 
 
 
 
  

An autumn walk

Although we have lived here for three years, we had yet to walk up the bridleway just up the road from the house, so this afternoon, we set off to explore.  We passed a few houses, but soon we were surrounded by trees

It was very quiet and ever so slightly spooky!  However, I soon forgot that when I saw one of my favourite things to take photos of on country walks ....... a lovely dilapidated fence!

 

Did you notice the broken branch to the right of the central tree?  Would you like a closer look?

 

Further on we came across this wonderful tree stump - it wouldn't look out of place in an exhibtion of modern sculpture!

 

There were lots of mushrooms under the trees, but we don't know enough about them to risk picking any - so we just contented ourselves with a photo

 

We may not have picked any mushrooms, but we did pick lots of apples and rosehips from the hedgerow - I've got a blister on my finger from chopping up the apples!!  The jelly bag is set up again, and a lovely pink liquid is dripping through .......
 
 
 
 

Gremlins!

Well, those pesky little gremlins have been rounded up and removed!!  So after a slight delay, here it is, my 200th post (I just hope you think it was worth waiting for!!!)  I have been so busy since we got back, that I haven't yet taken photos of the things included in the giveaway, but there are things from Australia and Singapore ... and maybe even something from the studio.  All you have to do is leave a comment (or e-mail me) ........ I'll make the draw on Wednesday evening, so be sure to visit on Thursday to see if you are a winner.  I really enjoy writing my blog - I had withdrawal symptoms on holiday!!  But of course there would be no point in writing it, if I didn't have all you lovely people out there reading it - so .... thank you!!

Yesterday, it was off down the road to Chesters, for another of Lindsay's Woolgathering.  There was a good turn out, and as it was a slightly chilly (but sunny) day, we had a log fire to keep us cozy while we worked.  As always, there was a great variety of work - my favourite was Janet's beautiful embroidered cushion

Her stitching is exquisite, as you can see in this detail

 

Alison is just starting a new venture, making wonderful kitchen accessories

I immediately bought a chef's pad, and I may have to buy a matching towel - they are designed to fit over the handle of your oven - a great thing if you have husbands/children who take the kitchen towel to dry their hands and don't put it back!!  There are also aprons and oven gloves available.  If you are interested in buying any of these lovely things for your kitchen, let my know and I will pass your enquiry on to Alison.

 

Fiona received lots of compliments on this wonderful fabric picture - I'm sorry the photo doesn't do it justice - it was hard to take a photo without getting reflections on the glass.

 

I was working on my chickens - I think I will have to make an early New Year's Resolution - get those chickens finished!!

 

 

Of course, no Woolgathering would be complete without one of Lindsay's wonderful cakes ......

 

 

 

Back to reality!

After all the wonderful weather we had on holiday, we awoke this morning to grey skies and drizzle!!  Never mind, the damp weather couldn't spoil my birthday!  Malcolm brought me a cup of tea in bed (and presents!)  - and I had cards from friends, including a very special one sent from Australia by my very special blogging friend Lee.  Thank you, too, to all the people who left comments with birthday wishes!!  We went to a local garden centre for brunch (more sausage, bacon and egg!)  Then it was home to continue with the unpacking.  Among the goodies from Australia are these three magazines ...

This is the first issue of this magazine.  There are some interesting articles and some good projects.

This is the second issue of this knitting magazine - it was the only Australian knitting magazine that I found - although there were several British and American magazines available.

Just one of the quilting/sewing/craft magazines that I bought - some of them were in 'bundles', where they give you two out-of-date magazines free with a new magazine - brilliant idea!!

 

I was relieved to find that this little gift tag had survived the journey home - it is ceramic, and although it was in bubble wrap and cushioned by clothes, I was worried that it would snap.  I think I will frame it to hang in the studio - the quote just appeals so much to me .....

 

It wouldn't be a birthday without cake ..... this is just a tiny little cake (it's on a teaplate) but it is lovely and chocolatey, with Smarties on the top - yum, yum!

  Malcolm is busy cooking dinner ..... salmon, new potatoes, broccoli and hollandaise sauce, and we are having a nice glass of fizz, as we have an extra reason to celebrate - the sale of Malcolm's Dad's house was finally completed today, after some hitches along the way.

I'm hoping to do some sewing tomorrow, but if not, I will defintely do some on Sunday, as Lindsay has orgaised another Woolgathering - it will be good to catch up on everyone's news and see what they are working on.

 

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!!

A perfect scone

As ever, yesterday morning saw me leaping out of bed at 6.30 to head out for my walk.  I've shown you lots of photos of the Eildon and Minto hills, but not Ruberslaw, the hill behind us, as the sun is usually behind it.  Finally yesterday morning I was able to take a photo

 

When I got to the bottom of the hill, where I turn to head back home, a car drew up and and elderly man got out.  He expressed surprise that I was out and about so early.  I explained that I went for a walk every weekday morning, to keep fit.  He then said that when he retired he started keeping black sheep, to give himself a reason to get out of bed in the morning.  He then heaved a bag of feed out of the boot of his car (a very cool and trendy black Mercedes!) and we went over to the gate to look at the sheep.  He called to them to come over to the gate, then got them to stand and pose for a photo

 

The ewe at the back was supreme champion at the Royal Highland Show at Ingliston, one of the other ewes is her daughter and another is her granddaughter!  The one on the right is the tup (ram) - the elderly gent couldn't quite find the right expression to tell me why the tup was there ... eventually he hit on the word 'mate'!!  He then headed into the field to feed them and I headed home for breakfast.

 

In the afternoon, as always it was off to Jedburgh for patch'nchat at Borderland Fabrics.  I took along the strips I had left from the 'jelly roll' that I bought for Oliver's quilt.

 

I had decided to use them to make a quilt for 'Project Linus', which gives quilts to sick children (named after Linus in the Peanuts cartoons, who is always seen clutching his blanket).

 

I started by selecting six strips and stitching them into two lots of three, which I then crosscut into squares.  I realised I needed more squares and did the same again (sorry, forgot to take a photo of the second lot!)

 

All the squares cut and laid out ready to sew together .... but then there was a slight pause, when we had to go and eat Norrie's wonderful scones ( I had butter and strawberry jam on mine)

 

We were also offered a slice of Annette's light-as-air sponge, but we were strong and went back to our sewing!

 

By the end of the afternoon, I had the squares sewn into strips.

 

On the way out to the studio this afternoon, I was sidetracked by this lovely butterfly, which sat and posed on the buddleia!

 

A quick bit of sewing, and the strips were joined together

 

The last stage was to add borders, then I went out into the garden to take an arty shot of the quilt top draped over a steamer chair - but as fast as I focused the camera, the breeze sprung up and moved the quilt!  Eventually I managed to take my photo ....

 

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for Shadow Shot Sunday - especially if you like cute little dogs .....

Meandering

I'm in shock!!  I've been checking my stats over the last couple of days (yes, I know it's sad!!) and I seem to have acquired a lot more readers!! (and it has caused an outbreak of exclamation marks!)  So no pressure then to write another intelligent and witty post!!  Oh well, here goes.....

Although it's only the middle of August and is supposedly still summer, autumn is creeping in, as can be seen in these two adjacent fields

 

a late summer cut of hay

 

and autumm harvest

 

then there are summer flowers still blooming in the verge

 

 and autumn seedheads

I'm still walking three miles Monday to Friday (got to get the legs fit for Sydney!).  Getting up at 6.30 to go out walking means not too much time is spent looking glamorous (I just about manage to brush my hair), but I don't think that I look so bad that these horses need blinkers on!

 

Do you remember the recent post about the goose making a great racket when I was taking photos of the Jacob's sheep?  Well, it wasn't a goose, it was a gander, and he belongs to my neighbour, Marion, who breeds Jacob's sheep (as we live in the country, a neighbour is anyone who lives within a two mile radius!).  The reason he was making such a fuss, is that he is in love with one of the lambs!  I took the next photo another morning, when Marion had just let the lambs out

 

It's that quiet time of year for news, so as usual the stories of large cats prowling the countryside are back  - so I was slightly worried to see this ahead of me in the road

 

So what was it - a panther or some other large beastie, escaped perhaps from a zoo?

 

it was just a very large domestic cat!!

I was at the dentist this morning for a very long and painful scaling of my teeth - and I have to go back on Monday to have a tooth out.  I kept telling the dentist that the tooth hurts when I eat, and finally today, yet another x-ray showed that it is cracked beyond saving.  When I got back home, Malcolm took me out for lunch to cheer me up, but there was a slight delay on the way - a country-style traffic jam!

 

ps Stuart's big fish (last Wednesday's post) is a red gibbicep plecostomus (you probably knew that!)

 

The nice things that people say .....

...... can really make your day!  First it was Sarah on Thursday - when I said that I couldn't believe that Stuart is 31 next month, she said I must have been very young when I had him!  Then on Friday at chat'n'patch, Anne said that I had made her ears sore, I had talked so much.  Why did that make me happy?  Because finally the latest medication is helping with my sore face, and it no longer hurts to talk!!

I was also happy when the post arrived this morning - first there was this invitation to Lindsay's Woolgathering on Sunday

 

Lindsay makes wonderful envelopes from magazine pages - an excellent idea for recycling!

 

Isn't this a wonderful fabric picture!  It is actually part of a booklet that was sent to Malcolm, trying to persuade him to buy a new Golf Plus!! .....

 

..... the booklet is stitched together - I think they are targetting women to buy the new Golf (I should add here that it's my car, in case you think Malcolm drives a girly car!!)

We went into Hawick this morning for some shopping and of course went for a cuppa

 

It's a quirky cafe tucked up a side street in Hawick - but worth the effort to find, especially if you like second-hand books!

That was all a lot more pleasant than it had been first thing this morning when I went out for my walk

 

The photo looks out of focus - but it was just very wet, with a lot of low cloud over the hills.  However my feet were warm and dry, as I had on my trusty walking shoes and a pair of my handknitted socks

 

although as it was so miserable, perhaps I should have had my 'Happy' socks on!!

 

Why 'Happy' socks - simply because that is what the bamboo yarn is called (although I have been less than happy about the way the socks have washed - my wool ones wash much better!)

So now that the new medication is helping, I am just about back to my normal happy self (although when I said to Malcom I was back to normal, he groaned and said 'oh no'!!!!)

 

So much to tell you ....

... that I had better dive right in!

After all the excitement of Sarah and Andy's visit, there was even  more excitement yesterday when the post arrived.

 

This is the prize I won in the lovely Anne's recent giveaway 

 

she had stamped the envelope

 

stamped the tissue paper and made this beautiful gift tag

 

all that loveliness - and there was still the prize to see!

 

A set of wonderful stamps, complete with little sparkly decorations

 

my card isn't quite as good as Anne's wonderful work!

 

but of course it's the thought that counts

 

I obviously need a bit more practice!  I won't post this to Anne, but I will be sending her a little something else!!

Then of course it was off to chat'n'patch, where Chris was working on a lovely scrappy cushion cover

 

the fabric behind it will be the back of the cushion

 

and of course there was cake - strawberry pavlova - yum, yum, yum!!

 

I am sure you have all been fretting overnight to know if it stayed dry for Jim the farmer to get his hay baled.  Well, I am delighted to tell you that even as I write this they are busy baling it

 

after the tractor and baler have gone so far.....

 

..... out pops the hay bale!!

 

meanwhile, the other tractor driver had fun creating a circle!

 

fuchsia flowers remind me of ballet dancers

 

a butterfly on the buddleia

 

I took this photo yesterday when I was out for my walk - the colour of the hydrangea is wonderful

 

it was sad to see this butterfly dead on the road, but the colours were still strong!

 

the grass was greener on the other side for this lamb!

I'm sorry these last photos are out of order - I just had so much to squeeze into today's post I forgot to start with them!!