frayed at the edge

Swanning about

As we walked across the car park to the car after our usual Thursday morning potter round Hawick, I suggested that we walked on towards the river

 

we were rewarded with a pair of swans

 

however the seagulls looked somewhat unhappy at the lack of water

 

because of the extended spell of good weather, the council workers have been able to cut the grass in public areas of the town, making everywhere look very neat and tidy

 

I can only think that it is the hot weather which has persuaded this orchid to start flowering again. 

 

there had only been two flowers left on it, when it suddenly put out more buds

 

this one also had only two flowers left, and it too has put out more buds

 

these two were languishinng on the windowsill in the back bedroom, as it is some time since they last flowered - but they have both put out flower spikes since I checked them last Friday, when I watered the house plants

 

this afternoon I layered up and pinned Country Cottages ready for quilting

 

I did some in-the-ditch quilting, then started quilting round the cottages

 

when I did the workshops with Gail Lawther, she mentioned frequently that she always uses the knee-lift on her sewing machine.  This is a lever which you push with your knee (you probably guessed that) to lift the foot, instead of using the lever.  This leaves both hands free to manouevre the quilt, and also makes it a bit quicker.  I have rarely used mine, but thought I would have a go as there was a lot of turning back and forward quilting round the cottages

 

once I got into the rhythm of using it, I decided that it does indeed make it quicker and easier, and I will continue to use it.  I don't have one for my other machine, as it has a feature that raises the foot slightly every time you stop stitching.  It would be great if you could get a sewing machine with all the best features from every machine you have ever had ...... I've just counted up, and I have had eight machines over the years, starting with a very old Singer treadle machine which a friend of my Mum's gave me when I was a teenager!

 

the birds have been making good use of the bird bath.  The collared dove had been having a drink

 

whereas the sparrows like to have a good splash

Two for the price of one

Not only did we have a morning out on Sunday, we had a day out today!  So, to start with Sunday, we headed out to Abbotsford.  We started by looking at the map

 

then set off through the trees

 

there were some nasty steps to negotiate to go under the main road

 

but once back on the path, I paused to take one of my favourite arty photos

 

there were more steps

 

then we started to catch glimpses through the trees of this old bridge over the river

 

the rivers here are very low at the moment - you can see from the marks on the bridge how high the water is at times

 

this is the bridge where we went down the nasty steps to go under the road - on the way back we crossed the road, which we reckoned was safer!

 

as it was another lovely day, we sat out on the balcony to have our cuppas and scones

 

we had a wonderful view over the house, which has just re-opened after a major refurbishment.  We are waiting for a rainy day to see round the house!

 

last week, I noticed a voucher in the paper for two tickets for the price of one for the four Royal Botanic Gardens in Scotland, so today we set off for Dawyck Botanic Garden.  It was another lovely warm day, although a little bit cloudier.  There are some magnificent trees

 

Malcolm kindly provided the scale for this one

 

there are little stone bridges

 

and pretty flowers

 

I remembered that last time we were there, I wondered why they didn't remove this tree which spoils the view of the chapel

 

I had forgotten that it is in a row of trees round the chapel

 

the chapel is private, so I could only take a photo of the outside

 

we came upon a little wooden house in the trees

 

which had posters with words I have never seen before! (click on the photos to enlarge them)

 

all that walking had made us hungry (of course!) so we headed back to the visitor centre for lunch.  Egg mayo sandwiches for Malcolm

 

and a cheese and pickle toastie for me

 

I'll be back tomorrow with some sewing, but to finish ......... if I am a very good girl, do you think Santa will bring me one of these!!

Christmas in July!

Two Christmas presents arrived today ....... one for each of us.  I'll tell you about mine first.  Last week, Lucie emailed me, to ask for my snail mail address, as she had a parcel to send me.  The plot thickened, when she said the parcel was from Susan in Australia.  When I got back from the Monday morning food shopping, the parcel had arrived

 

curiouser and curiouser - Christmas wrapping paper!  All was explained in the letter in the parcel.  Some Australian quilters celebrate Christmas in July, when its winter over there, and Susan thought shhe would send Lucie and me a present.  Look what a wonderful present it is ....... four delicious fat quarters!  Thank you very much Susan, for such a delightful present!

 

Lucie had included one of her business cards - isn't it just the cutest thing!

 

and now for Malcolm's present.  We have to cast our minds back to last September, when we were in Sydney.  We were invited to dinner with Lee, John and the Gorgeous Girlies.  John made pizzas for us in his outdoor pizza oven, which you can see (with its cover on) on the left of the photo

 

 

Malcolm was quite taken with the oven, and we talked about getting one, but once back home we never got round to it.  Then last Wednesday, on our way home from St Abbs, we popped in to the Garden Centre in Duns for a cuppa.  We had a look round ...... and there was a pizza oven!  I could see that Malcolm was still quite keen, so I asked if he would like one for his birthday* and Christmas*.  Being a sensible shopper, I didn't buy it there and then, but had a look online that night - and got it for a good deal less!  While I was opening my parcel, a delivery van pulled in to the drive, and the driver wrestled this very heavy box on to the drive

 

the box was so heavy, Malcolm had to unpack it and carry the contents a bit at a time to the back garden

 

fortunately the assembled oven has wheels for ease of moving it!

 

the logs or charcoal go here

 

and the pizzas go here

 

I will of course have a full report when we cook our first pizzas! 

 

I remember showing you these last summer ........ a little taste of childhood!

 

I had intended today's post to be about our Sunday morning walk (and sconnage) so please pop in tomorrow to see where we went.

 

**I know his birthday isn't until September, and of course it's quite a while until Christmas, but it made sense to get it now and enjoy using it over the summer!

Coming clean!

We arrived home from our shopping trip to Hawick with all of this ......

 

...... have I been bitten by the cleaning bug?  NO!!  When I did the weekly food shop on Monday, I was given a coupon which said that I would get another coupon for 7p a litre off fuel if I spent £30 on cleaning products (did you follow that?).  As I needed to fill the car, we popped into Sainsbury's on the way home and stocked up - I then saved £1.75 on my fuel bill!

 

Once I had tucked everything away in the utility room, I headed out into the sunshine to take photos of the bits'n'bobs that I picked up on the beach while Malcolm was collecting driftwood.  I popped the shells and bits of seaglass in a little glass jar

 

I think this is a bit of a Coke bottle

 

they have joned my little seaside vignette on the bathroom windowsill

 

when I went for my walk on Tuesday morning, the donkeys were in the faraway paddock, but when we went past yesterday, they were in the paddock next to the road. So I had a walk along the road after lunch in the hope that they would be there again today.  The haymaking is in full swing - this is the field across the road from the donkeys

 

oh dear ..... the poor donkeys were being tormented by flies!  The little spotty one had on a fly coat and hood

 

the other little one and the medium one had hoods

 

the big one was coping by constantly flicking its tail and ears

 

I spent the afternoon in the studio, but you'll have to wait until tommorrow to see what I was doing!  While I was sewing, Malcolm was making progress painting the summer house

 

to finish, I can now show you what I sent Sarah as her prize for the giveaway.  As well as the stitch markers, I sent her a mounted photo of a heron, as I know that she shares my love of them

 

you will have to wait to see what I sent Meredithe, as her parcel hasn't yet reached Melbourne!

On the beach

Although the weather forecast for today wasn't quite as good as the last few days, we decided to head to St Abbs.  It was a bit cloudy, but still reasonably warm.  We arrived in time for lunch, which we had in a delightful cafe down at the harbour

 

Malcolm had the sausage and red onion pannini

 

and I had the cheese and sweet chilli one

 

after lunch we went for a walk round the harbour

 

there were lots of seagulls about

 

Malcolm spotted this jelly fish swimming in the harbour

 

after exploring the harbour, we walked along the coastal path to Coldingham, where we encountered more jelly fish - but these were dead ones on the sand.  There was a little girl poking her fingers into one - yeuch!

 

it might have been a warm afternoon, but it must have been a bit chilly in the water!

 

I quite fancy having a beach hut

 

even bees go to the beach for the afternooon!

 

I think this rocky outcrop looks like a lobster ....

 

while Malcolm was hunting for driftwood, I found these two lumps, which unfortunately were just too big to take home

 

look what I found when I went round the other side ...... I have put my foot in the photo to give it scale

 

and of course as usual I found some "arty" shots

 

there was only one way to end our walk on the beach ...... ice cream!!

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Sun, sun, sun!

The weather is still glorious, so instead of using the implements of fitness torture, I headed out the door at 6.40am for a walk.  I was so early the sheep were still lying about in the field across the road

 

but the horse was up and about

 

every few yards there was a pop of colour in the verge

 

and this handsome chap added even more colour

 

this ewe kept an eye on me through the fence

 

while her lamb watched through the gate

 

this dog regularly barks at me

 

but these two sweeties are very well behaved.  They belong to Marion, the owner of the Jacob's sheep.  I remember when she got Jason, on the left ...... and now he is the father of the other gorgeous dog (whose name I can't remember!)

 

after breakfast, I headed out to the studio to do some more work on the Vineyard wallhanging ...... but before I show you what I did, I have to show you these photos, which I forgot to do yesterday.  So with apologies to Charlie, Anne S and Sheila, here is what they did on Sunday (having pestered them to take photos for the blog, I am very embarrassed to have forgotten to put them in yesterday!!)

 

this morning I filled in the rest of the scene and added the borders

 

then added some of the iron-on bias strips

 

I must make the effort to scrub and repaint my chair, which is looking very neglected

 

it sits beside the studio doors.  Do yoy like my heart decoration?  I could lie and say that I made it, but I bought it yesterday in Sainsbury's!

 

at teatime, a collared dove appeared to drink from the bird bath

 

isn't life grand when the sun shines!!

A stroll in the garden

Our garden isn't big enough to have much of a stroll in, unlike the garden we visited on Sunday afternoon.  After visiting the Barn, we went a short distance down the road to Sizergh, a fine medieval house.  As we had some time to wait until we were able to see inside the house, we had a long walk round the wonderful gardens

 

we kept getting glimpses of the house

 

unfortunately photography wasn't allowed inside the house, but if you are holidaying Cumbria,  I can recommend visiting Sizergh.

 

This morning we headed off down the road to Stitchin' Heaven.  Malcolm dropped me off at the shop and went off for a day of beachcombing.  I handed over Leanne's House, delighted to have finally finished it (after approx 200 hours work!).  The pattern is available on the website

 

Annie was working on her stunning applique blocks.  She is calling her version of the quilt Baltimore meets Kyoto, as a lot of her fabrics have Japanese patterns

 

when I arrived, Anne had just received a parcel containing a teapot and matching mugs.  If you are having a good day, it is ........

 

........ but if it's a bad day

 

I may have come home with some fabric - I'll show you tomorrow.

 

Fun at breakfast!

Thank you for all your commiserations about our disappointment with Woolfest!  Both Gilly and Thimbleanna left comments saying that we weren't the only ones who didn't think it was as good as previous years.  Never mind, after having lunch in Cockermouth and dinner in Keswick, the next meal we had was breakfast at the excellent B&B.  It was the most wonderful breakfast, with sausage, bacon, eggs, mushrooms and toast.  But as well as enjoying the food, we were also entertained by a young Japanese couple ..... we think they were on their honeymoon.  They obviously didn't speak much English ...... and also obviously hadn't encountered a cafetiere of coffee before, as the boy (he looked much, much too young to call him a man) tried to pour it without having depressed the plunger.  Having been a Brownie and a Guide, I performed my good deed for the day, and showed him what to do.  They started breakfast with a bowl of porridge ..... judging by the face-pulling, I don't think they liked it very much.  Then they had smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, which was fine ..... but he had black pudding with his and she had vegetarian sausage ....... I think they had just ticked boxes on the breakfast menu without knowing what it was!

 

After breakfast, we headed to Lower Sizergh Barn.  There is a wonderful farm shop, crafts for sale, some beautiful (but expensive) clothing, and a lovely tearoom where we only had a cuppa, as we were still full from breakfast.  But the best bit was the farm trail ..... we didn't walk round all of it, but look what we found on the stretch we did walk

 

we then went to ........ but I'll tell you that tomorrow, as there are still lots of photos to share with you, and I haven't yet shown you what I bought in this shop in Keswick (well, I did have all that money that I didn't spend on wool!)

first was this wonderful tin

 

which was filled with mint cake

 

the nougat is for Malcolm, as is the bag of milk chocolate orange thins on the left, with dark chocolate mint thins on the right for me

 

you know that I love to get parcels from afar .........

 

....... and just look what was in this one!

 

you can find the shoes here

Berwick : part II

Yesterday, we left Malcolm gathering driftwood on the beach.  Unfortunately he couldn't free this amazing piece from under a very large boulder - it would have made a great feature in the garden

 

he found lots of good pieces, but they were all wedged tight, and he didn't want to risk bringing the boulders down on top of him, trying to pull them free

 

I went on taking photographs, including some of my favourite arty ones of rusty things!

 

I also poked about in the sand, looking for other things to take photos of.  An empty crab shell

 

and a piece of glass, with the edges worn smooth

 

I also had fun deciding whether to have the lighthouse on the right .....

 

....... or the left of the photo

 

when looking through the photos to choose which ones to include, I came across this one.  You may wonder why the windows have been filled in  - unless you know about this tax

 

a neat stack of lobster pots on the quay

 

a seagull on top of an old chimney

 

and to finish, the first photo I took yesterday.  This was on the main road, just a few minutes into our journey.  There was a large lorry in front of us, so I only had a few seconds to take the photo as the caravan came into view, before we had passed it

 

I mentioned yesterday that I had missed the milestone of my 1300th post ....... and I'm offering a prize for the best story of a missed/forgotten significant event.  So tell me in a comment or email to have a chance of winning the fabulous prize (now I'll have to have a search in the studio for something fabulous!!)

 

 

A missed milestone!*

Oh dear, I didn't notice when I did my 1300th post ....... this is post 1306!  So we'll just pretend that this is the landmark one, as we had a great day out today, so there are lots of photos to share with you.  We headed over the border to Berwick, a town steeped in history.  As we walked from the car into town, I stopped to admire the railway viaduct

 

first stop was for lunch.  If we had known how big the baguettes were, we would have ordered one between us!  Malcolm ordered Coronation chicken, and I ordered cheese savoury.  When the waitress brought them, we took a look at each other's and decided to have half each!

 

after lunch, we set off for a walk round the town walls.  There are a lot of gun emplacements ......

 

........ a reminder of the days when the town had to be protected from the pesky Scots!

 

the sun came out, and the views were wonderful

 

two gates in one photo!

 

I remembered that the last time we walked along the walls, we passed some allotments, which seemed to be home to a Hobbit

 

I spotted this man in a boat ....

 

....... then realised that he was working with these men, pulling in fishing nets

 

but I don't think they would want to use this boat, which was part of a garden design

 

we had a good view of the three bridges - the original narrow one (easily defended to keep the aforementioned Scots out), the "new" bridge, which was opened in 1928, and the railway viaduct

 

after our walk on the walls, we headed to the beach, to look for driftwood for Malcolm's creations.  While he gathered wood, I took photos of the old wooden groynes

 

I still have lots of photos to share with you ...... so I think you will have to come back tomorrow for the rest!

*Have you missed or forgotten a special event ...... tell me in a comment or an email, and there will be a prize for the best one!