frayed at the edge

A last batch!

 This is a very random last selection from the holiday photos.  As you go through, you will find some wonderful gnarly old trees, pigeons sharing a window with a tv ariel(!), a brilliant yellow jeep which Malcolm wouldn't let me steal borrow.  There are also two more of Malcolm's photos, which I have credited to him!  When you have staggered to the end, you will find three photos from yesterday

Malcolm #1

Malcolm #2

 

on our way up to the hairdresser in Kelso yesterday, we popped in for a cuppa, and shared a delicious cheese scone (we did miss our scones on holiday, no matter how many cakes we ate!)

 

I took this one from the car when we were stopped at temporary traffic lights (Malcolm was driving)

 

and to end, this is Jake the Salon Dog, working hard at guarding the premises!!

 

we will be heading home from Berwick tomorrow.  Malcolm will be busy over the weekend in the garden, and I hope to get lots of sewing done.  Have a good weekend, love Anne

 

A quick tour

I had hoped to have all the photos sorted out for today's post, but I was at The Quilt Shop all day yesterday teaching, and I was there again today for our usual Wednesday sewing day.  So here is just a quick look at our holiday

 

the front of the villa

 

the back of the villa and the wonderful swimming pool

 

the lounge area

 

the dining area, with the kitchen beyond

 

the Iron Cockerel in Pollensa

 

looking over to Puerto Pollensa

 

there are lots of these wonderful old gnarly trees

 

now this house has been refurbished, it has been screened from public view - most annoying

 

cute goats!

 

delicious food at the Sunday market

 

every year I offer to buy this boat for Malcolm!

 

a misty evening view of Puerto Pollensa

 

an old well, hidden in a neglected garden

 

one of Malcolm's photos

 

another of Malcolm's photos!

 

this car owner has a sense of humour!

 

I will try very hard to sort out more photos for Friday, as I still have some super ones to share with you!

I'm back!

Hello!  Did you miss me?  I missed you and I am looking forward to catching up with what you have been up to while we were away. I have been busy since we got back getting the laundry done and buying half the supermarket this morning to refill the fridge (I even did some gardening yesterday, as it was such a lovely afternoon).

I have yet to sort out all the photos that we took - yes, Malcolm has been bitten by the photography bug and took lots of photos too!  So for today, I shall share this one with you, which he thinks is his best one, taken in Cala St Vicenç

6&6 in 2018 : April report

 This month I worked on a UFO - Potty McDotty.  The first job was to trim all the blocks

 

and pop them on the design wall

 

it didn't take long ......

 

........ to trim them all

 

I then rearranged them

 

and started sewing them together

 

you may notice that by the time I had stitched all of them together, I had done a bit more rearranging!

 

I added the side borders

 

then the top and bottom borders

 

did you spot some missing pieces?  There should be fabric circles

 

but I thought that I would use up some of my button stash

 

however, I won't sew the buttons on until I have done the quilting - so for the moment Potty is back on the UFO pile!

Do pop over to Meredithe's blog, and after reading her report, scroll down to the linky thing to see what everyone has achieved this month.

Sunshine!

When I came into the kitchen at quarter past six this morning, the sun was shining strongly through the window ......

 

......... creating some excellent shadow shots

 

I took this shot yesterday afternoon, when there was just a hint of a shadow

 

just look at the difference this morning!

 

those of you who pop in to see me on Instagram (@annetaydon) know that on Fridays I post a photo of the treat I have for breakfast because I have been good all week.  Well, that might have been a slight fib this morning, after enjoying this delicious chocolate brownie on Monday!

 

today's title of Sunshine doesn't just refer to this morning ........ ok, we need a roll of drums and a fanfare - we are off to Majorca tomorrow for our annual stay!!  I won't be blogging over the next 3 weeks, except for popping in on Monday with my April report for 6&6 in 2018, but I hope to pop a photo on Instagram each day (warning, there may be a lot of delicious cakes, and even the occasional glass of wine, as well as sea, sand and sun!).

I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

Funky chickens!

Yesterday, seven ladies joined me at The Quilt Shop for the Funky Chickens workshop

 

this was a sample chicken I made to advertise the workshop, before I made the full wallhanging

 

the ladies didn't take long to get all their supplies unpacked

 

I recognised quite a few of the scraps in Sonia's box, as she had recently acquired them from my scrap bucket!

 

after a busy morning, I was glad to sit down to my healthy lunch - homemade soup with some cheese in it, and some of the delicious strawberries that I bought on Monday, with vanilla yogurt

 

ok, these might not have been quite as healthy!

 

after lunch, chickens popped up all round the room ...... short fat ones

 

tall thin ones

 

ones with extravagant tail feathers

 

and of course, they need a henhouse to roost in

 

this was just a small selection of the chickens which had been finished by the end of the day

 

next month we will get together again, and they will stitch their chicken blocks together to make the wallhanging.

 

 

A sunny day

When I got up on Saturday, there was a little bit of cloud in the sky, and I tried to capture the sun's rays shining through

 

but by the time we walked over to town later in the morning, the clouds had gone, the sky was blue and the sun was shining

 

and finally spring is bursting out all over!

 

after doing our bits and bobs of shopping, we walked the long way back to the flat, through Coronation Park

 

it's a while since we last walked through the park, so we don't know when these amazing new sculptures were installed

 

I wouldn't want to meet a bat this big!

 

I liked the robin so much ......

 

....... I had to take two photos of him

 

this is barley, which was so important in days past that it was used as currency

 

fortunately I know that a group of owls is called a parliament, so I didn't need to walk round the read the words on the post

 

the owl would look good in the garden, so if it goes missing one day, you will know where to look for it

 

these creatures give me shivers if I find them scuttling about in the garden

 

the otter has lovely sleek lines

 

and who could resist this cheerful mole .......

 

...... as long as he doesn't pop up in the middle of our lawn!

 

we were pleased to see that the driftwood boat has survived the winter storms

 

I usually take photos of the bridges from the other side

 

so it good to see them from a different perspective

 

and a train obligingly appeared on the bridge, to emphasise the size of it

 

we hadn't seen the seal all winter, so as we walked back over the old bridge, we were delighted to see him perched on his rock

 

he was obviously aware of us hanging over the parapet looking at him, as in this photo he has turned to look at us after we had walked further along the bridge

 

I am teaching at The Quilt Shop tomorrow, so hopefully I will get the chance to take some photos during the class to share with you on Wednesday.

 

Dual purpose

 As promised, the rest of the story of Malcolm's clock.  When I next saw it, he had repaired the glass and the face, fitted a new mechanism so that it functioned again as a clock, drilled a hole through the case and inserted a lamp fitting, and had looked out a shade (which he acquired from a charity shop!)

 

He has kept the innards to use in another project (perhaps another lamp?) .......

 

and here is the finished lamp/clock, which is now in the guest bedroom.  Malcolm liked this photo, with the blind drawn so that he could turn the lamp on

 

but I prefer this one in the daylight, and with the lovely photo of my Granny back in place.  I don't know exactly when the photo was taken, but it must be at least a hundred years ago!

 

on our way up to Berwick today, we stopped at Carnaby's for a bite of lunch.  Malcolm chose the pork and apple sausage roll, which was delicious

 

and I had a rather trendy smashed avocado with chilli and lime, on rye bread, which was also very tasty

 

the weather today has been glorious, so of course we headed out to the beach for a walk.  There was just enough breeze offshore for this little boat

 

I recently invested in some litter pickers, and I hadn't gone very far before I had filled a small bag with plastic rubbish.  I know it might seem odd that I have used a plastic bag to put the rubbish in,, but it was one that I had used in the freezer, so I was recycling it

 

last week we could barely see the lighthouse through the mist!

 

after 20 minutes I had filled two bags, and as Malcolm had picked up a large piece of driftwood, we headed back to the car park

 

while he stowed the driftwood and my litter picker in the boot, I popped the rubbish in the bin, then thought about stealing this magnificent tractor.  However it had a large trailer on the back, which might have made driving it a bit tricky!

 

we continued our walk along the beach, and soon encountered what had been on the tractor's trailer - a very large machine, which was scraping sand away from the base of the wall

 

and dumping it well away from the wall

 

as the café on the promenade was open, we stopped for a cuppa, enjoying sitting in the sun and watching the world go by

 

when we walked back along the beach to the car park, Malcolm spotted this little dead fish - we were surprised it hadn't been eaten by a gull

 

I rather liked the fluffy clouds behind the old chimney

 

when we got back to the flat, I sneaked into the dock (ignoring the "keep out" signs), to take some photos of the swans

 

but these two didn't want to co-operate and headed out of the dock to the river!

 

we have our fingers firmly crossed that the glorious weather continues, and we can get out and about for another walk tomorrow.  Have a good weekend, love Anne

 

A very grand day out!

 I had said that I would tell you today what Malcolm was making with the old clock that he bought last week, but that will have to wait until Friday, as we had a very special day out yesterday.  We had received an invitation from The Newcastle Building Society to a presentation at Alnwick Castle.  Not only would we be treated to a buffet lunch, we would also be given a guided tour of the grounds of the Castle, after a talk from the CEO of the Building Society.  So of course we accepted the invitation.  As the Castle is still lived in by the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, there are no ugly car parks in the grounds of the castle - but who would object to walking from the outlying car park up to the Castle while enjoying this view!

 

there was a large group of children walking into the Castle in front of us

 

it is a magnificent building

 

these two tourists give you an idea of the scale

 

this ring is for tethering your horse

 

with a rather fierce beastie to look after it

 

after the presentation and a delicious buffet lunch, we went on the guided tour, which was conducted by a charming young man named Daniel.  If you have been thinking that the Castle looks familiar, it may be because many films and tv programmes have been filmed there - the most famous being the Harry Potter movies, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (the Kevin Costner one), and the latest Transformer movie

 

 and an episode of Downton Abbey, which of course is shown all round the world (although I have to admit that I have never seen it)

 

but this is a real life hero, Sir Henry Percy, aka Harry Hotspur

 

this courtyard has been used in several firms, including one in which our guide Daniel had a minor part!

 

fortunately we knew .....

 

that these threatening figures on the roof are statues!

 

the Union Flag was flying proudly in the breeze

 

as we made our way back to the car, I spotted this tree ........ could this have been the model for the Whomping Willow?

 

 

Reflections in the mist

 On Friday night we walked over to town for a bite to eat

 

with several stops on the way there

 

to take misty reflection shots of the bridges

 

and a couple more

 

on the way back

 

Malcolm pointed out this shot of the slightly sagging old roof

 

a splash of colour in the mist

 

when I got up this morning, it was misty again!  Looking out of the window after my session on the implements of torture, I was somewhat surprised to see a rabbit sitting in the middle of the road!

 

by the time we had eaten breakfast, the mist had lifted - and the cheeky rabbit was sitting in the garden

 

Malcolm bought this clock last Thursday for a mere £3.50

 

as you can see, it is in need of some tlc

 

deep in thought on Friday afternoon, having removed its innards

 

come back on Wednesday to see what he has done so far!