Evee

A spot of DIY

2012-01-23T01:13:00.001Z

Well, if I’m honest I have to say it wasn’t me doing the DIY! Colin came up from North Yorkshire for the weekend, and did some jobs for me that have needed to be done for some time! First of all he fixed the Ramsay ladder hatch to the attic so it didn’t keep falling open and letting the draughts in! I think that is ace! I just need to nudge the hutch and it opens! Then it closes with a push and a click! (He oiled the ladder itself and got it running smoothly last time he was here!)

Then he put up a pulley - an airer you can pull up to the ceiling level – it’s only a little wee short one but I can hang plenty of wet teeshirts and jeans from coat hangers on it! I’ve never lived so long without one of these fabby creations! Been here 10 years and a bit. Now I won’t have to festoon the house with washing on a wet day – I don’t use the tumble drier that much as it’s too expensive, and I can wait for stuff to dry naturally!

He also put together a shelf unit for my laundry/airing cupboard, and put new longer legs on my sofa so I don’t have to struggle out of it any more! It was a struggle too! Sore hips and gammy knees, a frozen shoulder that won’t allow me any leverage, and now, well, as they say, Bob’s your uncle! No problem!

We went out to the pub across the road for tea yesterday, so here’s Colin, with the vase of roses in the picture to make it look romantic(!!! Hmmm!) and just before I tucked into the strawberry Eaton mess! (He had Auntie Someone’s apple crumble, but this looked better!!)

Recently I bought a tabletop dishwasher on Gumtree, and since then it has been sitting on the back seat of my car, as I’ve not been able to lift it, far less carry it down 24 steps from the street and up 9 to my flat, so enter Colin….and now the dishwasher is set up in the house and ready to go, though I really ought to steel myself into washing all the dishes at night before I go to bed, instead of leaving them in the sink! So now, I am no longer the only person in the world with a dishwasher in their car, but am now probably the only person to have a combi microwave/convection oven/grill in it! It’s been misbehaving for a while now – and I think there’s just a loose wire somewhere, so tomorrow it’s going to the repair mannie up in Penicuik to see if he can fix it! I hope he can! As you might guess it broke down when it was not long out of warranty!!!

Anyway, as well as helping me clear out a lot of stuff, and taking bags of rubbish and recycling stuff to the recycling centre just out of Peebles, Colin also showed me how to make barley pudding! Now barley pudding is not your typical Scottish fayre. In fact, even despite living in Yorkshire for some years, I have never ever eaten barley pudding before in my life – and you know what? It’s not half bad!

Basically you put a cup of barley and maybe about 3 cups of water into a pot/pan, and simmer on a very low setting on the stove - for hours if necessary - topping it up with another cup of water from time to time, and adding some sultanas or raisins, until the barley is tender, the fruit swelled and the water almost dried off! Then add about half a can of condensed milk and stir in, warming it up on the same low setting. Stir occasionally to stop the pudding sticking to the pan, and add a sprinkle of nutmeg before serving with a drizzle of condensed milk over the top! Pretty good, though I’d say ours was still a bit chewy! Didn’t cook it long enough, obviously!

Anyway, a big thank you to Colin for all your help over the weekend. Couldn’t/Wouldn’t have done it without you!

Talk again soon.

after the frost

2012-01-17T15:58:00.001Z

Just a quick entry today as I have lots to go and get on with in the way of,.. I can hardly bring myself to say the word…. housework! I saw a card once that summed up my feelings on the subject. It said, “I hate housework. You make the beds. You do the dusting…. and six months later you have to do it all again!”

I just wanted to show you a couple of photos,

one taken yesterday ……… and the other today!

How does something as delicate as a little primula survive that hard frost!

I really thought it was going to be even thicker frost today, but sometime early this morning the temperature went up and by lunch time, even my garden had lost its frost cover! The ice in the pond has melted and the stones are clear of their “furry coats” too .

Now these I didn’t even bother to take a photo of yesterday, but you’d never know they were an eighth of an inch/2.5mm deep in frost when you see how lovely they look today!!

The council guys were out cutting bits of branches off the trees on the Green this afternoon! I’m really not sure what they actually achieved – just a few twigs gone! It wasn’t as if they would have taken anybody’s eye out. They were well above even his head!

There were three of them though! One to cut the branches; one to pick up the branches and put them in the back of the truck, and one to drive the truck! Oh well. keeps them out of mischief.

Talk again soon.

Frost!

2012-01-15T22:09:00.001Z

The weather has been quite mild recently but yesterday morning was frosty – for a while before the sun came out, unlike today when the frost never melted at all, and the sun didn’t shine much. It was cold outside, and I thought twice about going anywhere in the car, as it would mean scraping the windscreen to try to defrost it. Instead I went out for a bit of a walk along the riverside, up to Fotheringham Bridge and back on the opposite bank. However, first I took some photos of the frost on plants and stones in the garden.

I love looking at the frost crystals and wonder why they tend to be thicker and longer round the edge of a leaf or stone. I have some pieces of slate and groups of little stones by the pond and they too were really pretty.

My little Christmas tree in a pot went to live outside after Twelfth Night, and here it is with a covering of frost on the needles. You can clearly see the regular pattern in which the needles grow. Nature is very clever!

I’m not sure what this plant is but I loved the appearance of a frost bloom

and these clusters of leaves are very pretty too.

Leaving the garden behind I headed across Tweed Bridge, taking a picture downriver to Priorsford Bridge, Lee Pen the hill in the background, before crossing the road to take another picture up river

past the cauld and the park to Neidpath Castle, misty in the distance. I would walk up the left bank as far as the next foot bridge. Of course wasn’t it just then that I realised I had forgotten to put the charged camera battery in my pocket… and the one in the camera was on its way out! Oh well!

I had never taken a picture of the self-made island between the cauld and the bridge before, so snapped it quickly before taking the path to the riverbank.

Views back towards the town are always good from this side of the river. The building on the left is the local swimming pool that was built some years after a tweed mill on the same spot burned to the ground. You can see the island here too with a fallen tree that was probably not very deep rooted lying in the water, a victim of the recent high winds.

Just above the cauld a couple of trees have piled up, making good perches for the gulls that frequent the river. Some tree trunks manage to fall over the cauld – I’ve seen them float by from my windows – but these two have obviously hit some sort of barrier. The long straight tree trunk is a recent addition here, again a victim of the storms. I was just taking this picture when a couple of friends walked by going in the opposite direction. We stopped and blethered for a few minutes before they continued on their way and I….. I was going to say “and I on mine”, but before I did, I took a photo of them heading towards Tweed Bridge.

Here’s another look across at the parish church

and another, this time with a self seeded ash sapling to enhance the view. It’s such a photogenic building!

This is my favourite view. I love it when you get the reflection like this! Talking of reflections…

These Scots Pines standing at the beginning of Hay Lodge Park always reflect in the water here as it is generally still and calm before reaching the cauld.

Just before the park Hay Lodge itself stands above the river bank alongside Riverside House, built as a hotel but now sheltered flats/apartments for the elderly. I wouldn’t mind ending up here when I can no longer manage the steps to and from my present house – just as long as I can have a flat with views of the river. I know a couple of people who live here and their little flats are very attractive – and there’s a lift/elevator!

So, I was in view of Fotheringham bridge when I took this picture of the grasses against the backdrop of the river…..and this was where the battery finally gave out! Hmmmm!

I carried on to the bridge as planned and came back to town on the far side. Why didn’t I remember to pick up the recharged battery before I left home? I could have kicked myself – but then I would probably have had to split this post into two parts. Maybe I’ll get another chance to take frosty views from the other bank tomorrow! It’s still very cold and frosty tonight, so fingers crossed for another frosty and maybe sunny day to follow! The sun was what was lacking today!

Talk again soon.

Edinburgh with Katrina

2012-01-14T01:04:00.001Z

She thinks her photo will make her look like a dingbat!!!! Not at all - and just to prove it here she is, at Edinburgh Castle. This was towards the end of our day together, after we’d done a fair bit of walking and exploring, blethering and being blown about by the wind Not for nothing is it called the Windy City!

We started off, having met at the bus station, by taking a walk to the end of Princes Street, up Waterloo Place heading for Calton Hill, but first we made a detour into the old Calton cemetery so Katrina could take a photo of the Martyr’s monument, the tall obelisk, left of centre in the photo below.

She has a family connection with one of the five 18th century campaigners for political reform, who were transported to Australia for their troubles, two of whom died of illnesses out there after only a few years.

The view up to Calton Hill is quite impressive, with the classical buildings of Waterloo Place making a frame for the National and Nelson Monuments. It was the Nelson Monument we were heading for, and the climb up almost to the top for views round the city. However just before we started climbing the hill, I had a discovery to make! I mentioned recently an ancestor, David Octavius Hill, who worked with Robert Adamson, pioneering the art of photography. I knew he had lived on Calton Hill but never knew where, but having seen a photo of the house recently, I was able to pick it out – the white house in the terrace! One of the gates in the wall below was the one Hill was photographed at in the 1840s.

Onwards and upwards….

The Nelson Monument was built to commemorate Nelson’s success at the Battle of Trafalgar, which, though it didn’t signal the end of the Napoleonic Wars, did establish Britain’s position of ruler of the seas (Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves…..). It was built to look like a telescope with its narrow tower at the top, wider section in the middle and an even wider section at the base.

There are several buildings on the hill, the one we had seen from below, Scotland’s National Monument, having been intended as a replica of the Parthenon in Athens, but which was abandoned when the funds ran dry. It seems like history could be repeating itself with the Edinburgh trams fiasco. Maybe one day it will be the trams and no longer this building that get the nickname of Edinburgh’s Disgrace!

Another of the Monuments on Calton Hill is the one built in memory of a 19th century Scottish philosopher, Dugald Stewart, and on the flat top of the hill is the City Observatory which you’ll see later as I didn’t get a decent picture from ground level – just a few steps to the right would have made all the difference!

You can see at the top of the Nelson Monument what looks like a cross but is in fact a mast with four directional points. Each day just before 1.00 o’clock a large ball is raised on the mast, and at 1.00 precisely, it drops down again – a signal to ships on the Firth of Forth to set their chronometers by. Of course in the early 19th century the Firth would be hoaching with sailing ships – the sea providing the main traffic routes before trains, cars and trucks came along. Nowadays you may see the occasional tanker on its way to or from Grangemouth or perhaps a cruiseliner heading for Queensferry, but there’s little else in the way of ships these days. We had time to climb the hundred and forty-odd steps to the top of the middle section, before 1.00 p.m.,to take in the amazing views of the city round about us.

Here, we are looking northeast-ish, over Edinburgh’s Disgrace, and the city to the widening Firth (or estuary).

and turning a little to our right we are now looking at the extinct volcanic hill called Arthur Seat – nothing to do with King Arthur, but from the Gaelic language which when anglicised sounds a bit like the words Arthur Seat. The name means Hill of either ‘the fairies’ or ‘the axes’! More likely to be the axes of a prehistoric settlement! Below the hill and its craggy outcrop, which was once a quarry, is the royal palace of Holyrood next to the now ruined abbey that was built by David I, King of Scots, in thanks for being saved from harm while hunting in the forest by the intervention of a white hart with a cross between its antlers. The royal palace came later.

Most of the white buildings comprise the incredibly expensive Scottish Parliament - designed by a Spaniard, as if we didn’t have enough Scots architects who could have done the job. Probably one of only a few Scots I DO like the building! I didn’t like the price though! The spiky white tent thing is an exhibition of our Dynamic Earth, which I still haven’t visited! In the foreground is the former Royal High School which was once earmarked as the debating chamber for the Parliament, before the choice of site was changed.

Further round again we were looking down on St Andrews House, Waterloo Place and Princes Street, with the castle on its own volcanic plug almost on the horizon. The top of the church spire to the left of the castle is the highest point of the city! Behind St Andrews House is the main railway station – I refuse to call it a train station – for the city. The line east runs below the castle and the question has been asked by tourists - “Why did they build the castle so close to the railway line?” Um, they didn’t! The castle dates back to around 600 A.D, though there is evidence of occupation of the rock itself going back to 900 B.C. In the great scheme of things the railway is practically brand new!

Round the monument platform again and on the windy side, we are looking west-ish, over the City Observatory with Observatory House on the left corner of the wall and a monument to architect William Playfair in the foreground at the right hand corner.

The distant water is the river Forth again but looking upriver to the Forth Bridges. Fife is the region across on the other side. I was keen to see the ball on the top of the monument raised, so we came back down the 140-something steps and headed outside, meeting the engineer on his way in to wind up the mechanism. We stood in the shadow of the monument and waited, till sure enough, the ball began to appear in view. Now, at the castle there is a famous gun that is fired daily at 1.00 p.m. and the joke is that when the gun goes off all the natives and local residents will check to see that their watches are correct. Actually, a lot of us do! I say “us” because I was born and brought up in the city, though I don’t call it home any more. The other joke is that the i o’clock gun is thought by some to shoot the ball down on the Nelson Monument. I was watching the ball as 1 o’clock approached… heard the gun go off and saw the ball drop down the mast again. Been there! Seen it!

As we headed back to the building to see the exhibition on the ground level we met John, the engineer again. We asked him about the size of the ball - probably about 4 or 5 feet in diameter - and how the mechanism worked. It takes 50 turns of the winder to bring the ball to the top – and he SAYS he waits till he sees the puff of smoke from the 1 o’clock gun at the castle before he releases it again! Now I really don’t know if he was just “winding us up”, but it used to be triggered by the clock at the observatory! Anyway, it makes a good story! John has been climbing the stairs there almost every day for the last 20 years. He had planned to do it for only a couple of years after taking early retirement, but he’s still there and looking as fit as a fiddle!

The exhibition, really just a series of information boards about the monument, the Battle of Waterloo and Horatio Lord Nelson, is set out on the walls of a series of small rooms that encircle the spiral stairs to the top. Katrina noticed in the largest room – still not that big, that there was a large hearth in front of one wall. There must have been a large fireplace, and so it had been, we found out when talking to the caretaker. Up till about 7 years ago, someone had actually lived in these ground floor rooms. The room with the hearth – and beautifully corniced ceiling – had been the living room and had had a wonderful Adams fireplace – which “walked” during the alterations and renovations to form the exhibition rooms. How tragic! I wondered if there were any photos of how the room had looked but it seems that there aren’t. We both decided we could have lived quite happily in the apartment in the monument – next best place to a lighthouse, i think was Katrina’s observation. I’d drink to that!

So, we had a final wee walk on the hill, round the outside of the Observatory, where this plaque on a bench made me laugh! Nice place to rest your weary… whatever, though! You can get some more information and photos of Calton Hill here.

Time for a bite to eat, so back we came to the St James Centre, where over a sandwich we carried on blethering! Not sure where to go next we wandered along Princes Street – poor old Princes Street, bring dug up yet again for the sake of the tram system that it seems no-one wanted in the first place – well someone obviously did…… We climbed the Playfair Steps alongside the Mound, turned into what is now being called Makars Court which I like as it’s the Scots word for writers, and it was called Writers Court till very recently. Here is to be found the Writers Museum dedicated to Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson.. Deciding it could be left for another day when there was more time to spend on it, we continued up to the castle esplanade. The sun was sinking and what a pretty sky!

Down Ramsay Lane – steepest road in Edinburgh, taking a quick peek into the quadrangle of New College (of Divinity) to see old Calvinistic John Knox on his pedestal, and then back to Princes Street and the bus station. There was a Kirkcaldy bus in, so there we parted company with a hug and a promise to meet up again soon. I waited till Katrina’s bus left, gave her a parting wave, and headed off to get my bus. It was a lovely evening and I took two last pictures as I headed for the top of the Bridges.

Thanks for a lovely day,Katrina. Look forward to meeting again - with or without all the bloggers, commentors and lurkers!

Talk again soon.

One a day

2012-01-10T23:51:00.001Z

At some point last year I decided to make a calendar page for each month of this year. The intention was to print them out and use them as my desk diary, only I got so many other calendars at Christmas from overseas that I didn’t need these ones. Shame to waste them, I thought, and decided that I would use them to record the year in pictures! This is May’s page – obviously!

I started on 1st January with the cyclists’ lights coming through the railway tunnel, then chose the Christmas lights in the High Street for 2nd. Next year we may be getting new LED lights, but this year was still the old coloured bulbs, quite a number of which had popped by the time they came down on 6th, Twelfth Night.

For 3rd it had to be something relating to the strong winds that battered the country – even if we did come off rather better than many, so a view of the trees from my window seemed to fit the bill. They took quite a beating but thankfully survived.

On 4th I met Edwina and Jean at IKEA for lunch and a mooch around the store, determined to keep my hands well and truly stuck in my pockets! Hmm! I managed to spend £20! I could have spent a whole lot more though! However I also picked up a few ideas for my house!

In the afternoon of 5th I went with a few friends up to Edinburgh, to the Festival Theatre to see The King and I. It was excellent, despite the King not being Yul Bryner! In fact the King in this production was altogether his own man and was brilliant! Great sets, great costumes, great acting... In short – Great!

The 6th was rather a dead day, but I had lunch in Pam’s tearoom, the Oven Door, and took a photo of the poinsetia standing by the actual oven door. The cafe was a former bakery and the ovens are still in situ.

I went round the Peebles shops on Saturday afternoon 7th, and bought a pair of Hotter shoes in the sale. I think I got £20 off the original price, and they are sooooo comfortable! I’ve been hooked on Hotters for a few years, even though I tend to live most of the time in Crocs. My “choir shoes” are Hotters too. The new ones will go fine with jeans.

So there went the first week!

Linda and I usually meet once or twice a week for lunch or an evening meal so on Sunday 8th we tried somewhere new for lunch, Hergés on the Loch, at Tweedbank near Melrose. Looking out from our table by the window we could watch the swans, ducks and geese on the water. A pair of swans seemed to be doing synchronised swimming, dipping their heads at the same time, lifting them again, turning to the same side at exactly the same time to preen, then upright again… it was like a ballet!

Yesterday, 9th, was another dead sort of a day but it was quite noticeable that the days are beginning to lengthen again. It was still light enough at 4.45 to take this picture, again from my window, whereas a few weeks ago it was dark by 4.00.

So to today,10th January, and it was a busy day - just not the type of day though to be taking photos! In the morning I was working in the charity shop and in the afternoon was at a meeting of the U3A. In between I was back at Pam’s for a brie and cranberry toastie for lunch, I’ve invented a new name for it… a branberry toastie – I got my tongue tied round my teeth and that’s what came out! So! A photo of the “Oven Door” is my picture for today. That’s Pam in the background, She wasn’t for turning round! Spoilsport!

Well, just to let you see how the calendar is looking, here you are… Ta-daaaaaa! There are a few dates up ahead – Burns Night on 25th, a celebration of the birth of Scots poet Robert Burns; the choir’s particular celebration of that occasion on 28th, and before all those, a special day in Edinburgh on Thursday, meeting a fellow blogger! Who? Keeping it a secret for now!

Talk again soon.

More from the scrapbook

2012-01-09T22:23:00.001Z

Not so much going on right now though there may be a fun meeting and day out one of these days soon, I hope! In the meantime I’m going to show you a few more of my scrapbook pages. For some reason it has been the accepted thing to do square pages, so most of mine are in fact square, but at least one scrapping website is promoting A4, which I do quite like! It’s then a choice of portrait or landscape orientation, and each has its benefits.

However these are a few of my older pages, including this very early one of Edinburgh’s answer to Peter, Paul and Mary!!! Yes, that’s me! I used to sing with Chris on the left and Ian, in a folk group. We called ourselves “Contrast”! This photo was taken in 1970, when we were just young things! Trouble is, it doesn’t seem all that long ago! Actually we were quite “with it” at the time, singing things by Joni Mitchell and even Hot Chocolate, as well as the traditional Scottish stuff that Ian and I liked, but Chris didn’t particularly – which was why we also sang things by Joni Mitchell and Hot Chocolate!

This page is a much more recent one, with a photo taken in October in the Outer Hebrides. I had just been looking at the famous standing stones of Callanish on the west side of Lewis when I was aware of some rabbits playing down by the side of the pathway I was on. I stopped and stood as quietly as I could to watch, and was rewarded with this picture.

I love this photo of my grandfather, taken while relaxing in the Welsh mountains about 1937 when he was in his 70s. I never got to meet him as he died just a couple of years later, 10 years before I was born.

These are my maternal grandparents and my mother as a child. Crumbs! I do look like her! I just adore granny’s bathing costume but would love to know what sort of swimwear Grampa was sporting under that robe!

These are the same grandparents on their wedding day in 1919. The page boy was granny’s nephew, who ended up in South Africa. What about the style of granny’s dress! My sister still has the veil and the circlet of wax flowers she wore round her head. I must get a photo of them!

I have quite an illustrious family connection! David Octavius Hill, who was a Scottish artist, joined forces in 1843 with an early photographer, Robert Adamson, to take photographs that would enable Hill to complete his famous painting of the Disruption of the Church of Scotland. He and Adamson went on working together and a couple of years later they took a series of pictures of the fishermen and women of the village of Newhaven on the river Forth. The picture above right is one, and it features – just by chance - one of my great great great grandfathers, James Gall (standing on the right). Sixty years later, the great grandson of JG, married the great grand daughter of Hill’s sister Mary – my grandparents – so Hill is my great great grand-uncle!

This page shows a picture of great great great grandfather Gall at the age of about 88, with his family round about him. The little boy standing with his mother on the right of the photo is grandfather, the one who would marry Hill’s great-grandniece, and the one who is relaxing in the Welsh hills above. Just realised I put this in my last posting! Oh well, now you know the story!

These two pages were made with photos taken on holiday on the Scottish west coast a few years ago. The white cottage is where we were staying; the bluebells were growing in the garden. The lower photo was the view to the right of the cottage. Nearby were the wonderful Inverewe gardens, created by Sir Osgood Mackenzie . It was a wet day when we visited, and the midges were out, but it still was a day to remember.

I first met Ruth in 1966. We were both in our teens, and on holiday with our parents Like me, she is a “catophile”! All around the house from the front door mat in, there are pussycats – which I photographed and used along with the photo of Ruth and the real cat, Coco, to make this page.

I also use my scrapping kits to make greetings cards, that I can send in an email. The kits consist of “papers” that you can use to make backgrounds, and “elements” which are objects with no background, so you can move then round the page and add other element to create the look you want. You can add two or three background papers, reducing them in size slightly, layering them, and angling them to make something interesting, but the reason for a page is to show off the photos, so the pages do not need to be too cluttered. Some designers add alphabets matching the colours or style of the kit, but you can also use fonts you have or download new ones. I like to use elements I have made myself on occasions, like the bluebells from the Poolewe garden and Ruth’s cat ornaments. I in effect “cut them out” from photographs with the software program I use – nothing as complicated as Photoshop, though I can see I may have to explore PS Elements one of these days!

So I hope you’ve enjoyed my scrapbook pages. I really ought to work on some more, as I have hundreds of pictures I could use. I just don’t have enough time. Maybe I should set myself a goal of one a day! At least that would give me 365 pages a year! Talking about a picture a day…….. no, that’s another story!

Talk again soon.

Digital scrapbooking!

2012-01-05T12:27:00.001Z

I did a short presentation on my digital scrapbooking, at the photographic club last night. It was all part of a Craft Season – What I do with my photos. Barbara had showed us some of her audiovisual presentations; Margaret had demonstrated card making; Ruth told us about the photobooks, calendars and cards she gets printed, not to mention the mugs she got for her grandkids with her photos of them on, and today I got my chance to do something on my scrapbooking.

I’d always fancied doing something more than just arranging photos and sticking them in scrapbooks, but knew I was just not organised enough to take up the idea that was becoming more popular, an American import, of embellishing your scrapbook pages with fabric, ribbons, buttons, braid, etc. It would cost a fair bit to buy papers, and card, and all the accoutrements - which you’d have to replace when they were used up - then you’d need to store them… No, no room for all that, and you know about my general inability to keep anything tidy…. but then I discovered you could do the whole thing digitally!

I had some very simple software - none of your Photoshop stuff for me –which I began to experiment with, and my very first scrapbook page was this one of Fergus, my furry feline friend, sadly no longer with us. I didn’t know at that time that you could buy kits or collect freebies, and made my own backgrounds with photographed wallpaper, patterned, textured, coloured… It helped that I was working in a small shop selling wallpaper. I’d take my camera with me to work, and when it was quiet, I’d leaf my way through the sample books taking photos. I still don’t think my first efforts were dreadful! In fact some I really like. In this one the scene painted on the piece of wood is just a cropped rectangle of photo, but now I’d know how to cut round the shape, losing the four corners! I’d rearrange the pictures and the text box too.

My blackbird is still a favourite, as are the following two which were part of a competition entry! I was getting bolder!

and then I discovered the website Digitalscrapbookplace, and that, as they say, was that! I was hooked. There were so many beautiful kits you could buy for really very reasonable prices, to use over and over if you so wished – though generally I wanted a new kit for each new page.Since then, I have discovered many wonderful websites and designers, and made friends with other scrappers around the world into the bargain! I won’t show you the whole of last night’s presentation, you’ll be relieved to hear, but I hope you enjoy the next pages as well. Many of my pages are of flowers, and wildlife,

but I made a series on the Ancestors, of which these are just a few,

and another on the relations,

from Canada (right),

Australia, (below left)

and NewZealand (below).

There was an album of Friends,

and one of my travels which I must do more work on one of these days. There’s lots to catch up on!

This was in France, right, and northwest Scotland, below.

I even have an album of pets – not all my own – for example Dinah belonged to my cousin Moira in Sutherland.

and this is a page from my Peebles album!

My mother was a good photographer and used to do lots of slide shows to groups. Her last picture in many of these shows was of a sunset, so in the tradition…. here’s my last picture for today!

Talk again soon!

A letter to Peggy herself!

2012-01-04T00:49:00.001Z

Hi Peggy (of Peggy Ann’s page)

The tunnel!?!? – she said in a mysterious voice. Well! It would have been quite an adventure but with hips and knees and even shoulders not behaving themselves I thought it might just be one risk too far! How I'd love to be able to say I've walked through the railway tunnel, but I reckon it will be one of these things that I will never get to do! If I ever get a new hip and knee then we'll see! That will no doubt be way in the future though!

To be honest I'm not sure how long the tunnel is – probably about a mile, maybe a little more - or less? It’s actually less! I looked at it on the map and it’s only about half a mile!!! The cyclists that I met didn’t think it much fun, and Julia told me later it was pretty bumpy and hard to walk at times! I’ve been a short way into the tunnel’s other end, by the viaduct, and it’s not long before it’s very dark indeed! We don’t realise in the night dark that in fact it’s not as dark as we think! The tunnel is definitely VERY black dark! Even torches aren’t too great a help. I think you really need those lights powered by big batteries. Trouble is, the batteries are heavy!

I once went on a drive in New Zealand to see Milford Sound on South Island’s west coast. One of my Aussie cousins was travelling with me, and we had planned to do the overnight stay on the Milford Wanderer, a boat that did the trip out into the fjord, let you have fun in a canoe for a while, and took you nose-in to one of the spectacular waterfalls where one of the crew collects water from it in a glass and lets a few folk taste it. At night you stay on board, returning in the morning to the quayside. I’m digressing somewhat but it’s all connected! When it got dark, and after we had eaten supper, some of us went back up on deck. The generators had been turned off so we were only armed with torches. Well, it seemed dark then, but as our eyes got used to the dark we began to see a myriad stars overhead, and make out the silhouettes of the high jaggy mountain peaks all around. It was a sight to remember, especially when we realised the Southern Cross was perfectly positioned between two peaks!

Well what that is leading up to me saying is that when we were on our way to Milford, we had to drive through a mountain tunnel. I was driving and before we were too far in at all, we could hear a terrific rumbling, and huge lights appeared up ahead! Jan was screaming at me – “Put the lights on! Put the lights on!” - and I was screaming back - “They ARE on!” Well I have to say the headlights were totally ineffectual. We could see and hear this thing coming towards us but couldn’t make out how much room we had to let it pass! I squeezed the car as far as I could against the tunnel wall – with Jan shrieking, “You’re too close!” Well, the huge truck eventually lumbered past us safely and headed off out into the daylight again, leaving us breathing huge sighs of relief that we hadn’t been squashed to bits! I’ve no idea even yet how much of the road it took up !

We carried on once our eyes attuned to the darkness and the car’s meagre headlights – and boy was it dark! The headlights were ok once the truck had gone by but still not that great. You still couldn’t see both sides of the tunnel! Now that’s what I think the railway tunnel would have been like but at least there would be no trucks or cars coming through! Take a look at this video. It’s about a coach trip, but we did the journey by car.

Since this is still holidays in Scotland - we have 1st and 2nd, but with the 1st falling on the Sunday, the two days holiday are Monday and Tuesday - I can’t wait for things to get back to normal, though it has given me an excuse (as if I needed one) to play with my laptop, or read all day. I’ve started reading a Barbara Erskine novel I haven’t read before - Child of the Phoenix. I don’t think I’ve read it before but it’s one of her early ones - 1992 – so I don’t know how I would miss it!

Set in the 13th century, it follows the story of Eleyne a royal princess whose roots go back to Wales. and whose destiny lies in Scotland. “Child of the Phoenix is a compelling tale of love, courage, tragedy and hope; a haunting ghost story about the power of the dead to influence the living; a glorious panorama of the violent, turbulent thirteenth century!” Well, that’s what it says on the back cover!

I love Barbara Erskine’s books, though a few of her more recent ones have been mighty scary – not the sort of book to read in bed before you fall asleep!

So, I think I’ll get back to the book for a little while before I head for bed. At least the wind has died down now, so I won’t constantly be distracted, wondering if the trees outside are likely to get blown down. They’re the strongest winds we’ve had for a while! My friend Linda and her partner are down in the southwest of Scotland just now and they lost their power and couldn’t get out because of fallen trees! Apparently the trees were moved pretty swiftly, but the power only came back on this evening!

Thanks so much for your comment on the blog! I wish more people would write comments. It’s good to know what they are thinking about it.

All for now then. I look forward to reading more about what you are reading throughout 2012.

Happy New Year!

New Year’s Day

2012-01-02T02:01:00.001Z

I had debated with myself for a few days, since an email arrived from Julia, telling me that a group of friends were going to do their annual walk through the old railway tunnel, followed by “food”at her place. She didn’t think I would want to do the tunnel walk but was inviting me to the bunfight afterwards! I would love to say I have walked through the tunnel, but I didn’t think I would manage to walk the distance up to the far end of the tunnel and complete the walk back! Could I?…. Should I? …. Would I? …

Well, sense prevailed and I decided that I wouldn’t attempt the walk – but I had the idea to meet them at the end of the tunnel and take photos of them emerging from the darkness. They were assembling at Julia’s at 1.00pm and leaving when everyone had arrived – which I reckoned would probably be about 1.15. Give them about 40 minutes to walk up to the viaduct, along the riverside, and at least an hour, probably more, to walk back through the tunnel, so I set off at 3.00, heading alongside the river at first, then entering the cutting along the old railway track bed. It’s not far!

Soon the tunnel entrance was ahead of me among the trees. It was very muddy underfoot with all the rain we have had over a long period. Cautiously I picked my way along the drier patches getting nearer and nearer to the tunnel. The ends of the tunnel have been semi-bricked up, since the line closed about 50/60 years ago with a large door across the entrance. However that has since been well and truly demolished by folk wanting access to the the old rail route, and kids doing what kids like to do, lighting bonfires.

This was the wettest and muddiest part of the walk, and once I reached the wood lined brick doorway I could hear the drip drip drip of water that seeped through the tunnel roof and fell on the ground in several puddles. I was quite sure that by this time there would be some sign of the group – they’re a loud noisy crowd – but I could see or hear nothing……. but was that a shout? I “woohoo’d “ along the tunnel and a few moments later, I heard someone” woohooing” back! Yes, it must be them! Then a tiny light appeared, and I realised that the curve in the tunnel wasn’t so very far in.

Then the side of the tunnel was lit up by some bright torches, though surprisingly there weren’t so many voices. I heard a man’s voice saying “Someone’s got a camera!”, as the light grew brighter against the wall and I flashed the camera.

Suddenly the whole tunnel was lit up, as the torches rounded the curve and were pointing right down towards me.

“Hello-o!”

but no-one replied……. and then I saw why! Coming towards me was a cyclist huffing and puffing his way to the entrance, closely followed by his partner. It wasn’t Julia and the crew at all! The man cycled on past with the briefest of hello’s, but did answer my question, had they passed any walkers. Yes, there were some near the other end! Going the other way? Yes, answered the woman. Damn! It had never crossed my mind they would do the walk in the opposite direction! “What’s it like in there?” I asked the woman who had come to a halt in the mud having hit a stone with her front wheel. “Horrible!” she replied vehemently, before she managed to get going again, and disappeared after her husband.

There was nothing else for it but to turn around and head back to Peebles, in the rain now, stopping on the footbridge to take a photo, and in the park to take another.

I was passing Morag’s, so went in to wish them a Happy New Year, and after a while I continued along the road to Julia’s place. Lights were on in the front room and I expected a party in full swing, but no! All over! There were just Julia and Chrissie left – and Mr Poo, the dog. Nevertheless I was presented with a glass of wine and a plateful of blinis with cream cheese and smoked salmon, and some stuffed potato halves, and I spent the next hour having a lovely chat with them…. and yes they had gone up to the viaduct and walked back though the tunnel, but I missed them! They were well back by 3.00 and presumably crossed the footbridge to go back to Julia’s whereas I had crossed the road bridge and walked up the other side of the river! Next year, they’re going to phone me as they start off!

Still, it was a nice way to spend the afternoon, even if the sun in the morning did disappear and the rain began!

Talk again soon.

That time again!

2011-12-31T22:42:00.001Z

Wishing you all a very happy and safe New Year.

Health, wealth and happiness!

Bliadhna Mhath Ur!

That’s Gaelic for a Happy New Year

Slainte! Cheers!

Talk again soon!

Christmas

2011-12-26T16:42:00.001Z

The other evening the choir had a carol party at Jackie’s! We sang the usual carols and Christmas song in English

then a few in Gaelic, like the one that says Rinn mi bodach sneachd an diugh - I made a snowman today – not that we could have as there was no snow for us this year! The one fall we did have recently soon melted away and the temperature has been quite mild since! I liked Child in a Manger, infant of Mary, sung in Gaelic. I think that’s what the choir could be concentrating on in the photo above. These are the words on the left. Remember you can click on a photo to enlarge it.

On Christmas Eve I met my sister for lunch – which was when we found out that amazing coincidence of her friend living at one of the Fife farms I had visited the week before. The restaurant was full of Christmas ornaments, including this lovely Santa Claus with his sack of goodies over his shoulders and a cuddly teddy bear (in England he’s usually called Father Christmas, but here he’s Santa Claus!).

Then I had a lovely Christmas Day yesterday. Linda and I usually spend Christmas Day together, going out for a meal that we’ve booked way back in September. This year, instead of having a Christmas dinner in my neck of the woods, we drove down the coast east of Edinburgh, stopping briefly at Longniddry Bents to look back at Edinburgh (left)

and over to Fife across the waves (right) – it was quite a windy day - and then on to the beautiful village of Dirleton where we had a very appetising meal at one of the hotels there.

We pulled our crackers, and read the silly jokes – now what was mine? Do you know, I can’t remember! It wasn’t that funny obviously! I wore my paper hat throughout the meal, and for once the little gift in the cracker was quite useful – a little padlock and key – for the holiday suitcase next time I go away!

It was dark by the time we started our drive back to the city and the lights of Fife were twinkling along the coast across the Firth of Forth – the estuary of the river Forth. We waved to Katrina (Pining for the West) over in Kirkcaldy (you can tell it’s Kirkcaldy from 3 prominent residential tower blocks at the east end of the town). What were you doing around 5.30, Katrina? Were your ears burning? – before getting onto the A1 bound for Edinburgh again.

After exchanging and opening Christmas presents at Linda’s – I got a pendant watch from Linda, who always says I have no sense of time! – we settled down with drinks and nibbles – as if we hadn’t eaten enough already – blethered (chattered) some more, and then watched the Christmas Special of period drama Downton Abbey on TV.

I left for home about 11.30, getting back to Peebles around a quarter past midnight. The Christmas lights were looking really festive. You don’t really appreciate them till you drive into the town out of the dark countryside!! It’s a holiday today so I left my car on the street last night! Hurray! Just as long as I remember to move it before tonight! I’m not sure if the traffic warden is working tomorrow or if it’s still a holiday, as Christmas was on a Sunday.

So there we are! As my dear late friend Vina would have said – It’s as far away as ever again! So it is! 366 days till the next one, – 2012’s a leap year, don’t forget! Well one of those days is almost gone now anyway so 365 days left now! Don’t worry. I won’t be counting them all down!

Talk again soon.

a bit of bird art!

2011-12-26T01:09:00.001Z

Just a wee film for you tonight at the end of a lovely Christmas Day. I’ll edit my photos and write about it tomorrow. In the meantime turn up the sound. Enjoy Pachelbel’s Canon and a ballet extraordinaire! I saw one like this once but with not nearly so many birds!

Talk again soon.

A postscript

2011-12-24T23:34:00.001Z

I met my sister for lunch and to exchange Christmas presents today. While we were chattering about this and that, I brought out my camera to show her a photo taken in the last day or two. Being Jean she started to flick through the other pics, coming to the ones of the farm houses in Fife that I showed you the other day. We-e-ell, it turns out that one of her old school friends lives on one of the farms I visited and I spoke to her husband and her son who were outside working! I can’t believe the coincidence! I probably would not have recognised Ann, as the last time I would have seen her would have been in about 1967 the year I left school, but wouldn’t it have been even stranger to have been talking to her! Actually she would probably know my name, so she might have twigged!

So now Jean is going to write to Ann to tell her (Ann) that it was her (Jean’s) sister who came looking for information that day! I did write a note of thanks to the farmer, so the penny may still drop, and Jean may hear from Ann first! What a small world!

Half an hour till Christmas day! I just had a great conversation with cousins in Auckland, New Zealand where it is already Christmas morning! Amazing how much smaller the world seems to be getting!

So happy Christmas to you all.

Talk again soon.

Greetings!

2011-12-23T15:41:00.001Z

Whatever faith you are, I want to wish you Greetings at this time of year, our Christmas, along with thanks for reading my blog, and writing your comments. Special thanks to my “Evee’s Blog’s Members”, my friends and my relations, and hope to hear from you throughout the coming year! Whatever and whenever you celebrate your special festivals, I give you my Best Wishes for happiness, peace and joy.

It is traditional here to decorate our houses with evergreens – a fir tree, mostly, or maybe just branches of fir, holly and ivy. We decorate these too with lights and tinsel, baubles and ornaments. Many of us light candles – something that is often common to our different celebrations – so when you light your candles think of me! I’ll be thinking of you - my friends!

Talk again soon.

Family history stuff

2011-12-19T01:21:00.001Z

The weekend after I was at Colin’s, I found myself on a mission to take photographs of farmhouses in Fife that had a connection with my ancestors! Part of this mission was on behalf of a very distant relative whose family went to America a couple or three generations ago. We had been corresponding for a short time exchanging information on our respective family trees, and Mike desperately wanted to see the places where his ancestors came from. We tried doing that from Googlemaps, but that didn’t work, firstly because they don’t have that little mannie who walks across the maps and shows pictures of places, and secondly because I discovered later there wasn’t one of them the correct farm!!!

So! Out with the overnight bag again, put some petrol into the car, and I was off - armed with my detailed map of where these farms would be found. I crossed the Forth Road Bridge, calm again after a highly windy day the day before, when the bridge had had to be closed to high sided vehicles, continued along the motorway and turned off onto the St Andrews Road - though I was only going as far as Cupar. By the way this bridge is the Forth rail bridge resplendent after years of work being done on it. You can see the road bridge in the distance beyond it though! Strangely I was just crossing the road bridge when something came on the radio about how the rail bridge looked as good as new again and wouldn’t need any further work done for another 20 years! So bang goes that story about a never-ending job being like painting the Forth Bridge!!

So, having turned off the motorway there was a farm to be photographed before I got as far as Cupar. Detouring to Strathmiglo, I couldn’t find a farm – only a group of new houses with the street name of the farm! There was an old cottage left though, so, rather disappointed, especially for Mike whose family had farmed here,

I took my photos of the cottage and the houses replacing the old farm buildings, and continued on my way.

As I got near to Cupar I detoured again to take a look at the mill where a very early ancestor and his family lived and worked. In fact the family worked the mill for over a hundred years and seem to have made a very good living out of it by all accounts! It was probably only a flour mill in those days, but subsequently went through a couple of reincarnations at least, becoming a spinning mill for flax, and much later a pre-cast concrete works. The place looks very deserted now, so I wonder if the business has closed or moved. I had been here before a couple of times but hadn’t spotted the old house with its lovely bow window before. I don’t think for a moment that my ancestors lived in it, I think it was probably built after their tenancy of the mill was over, but I still took a photo or two of it. Sadly it too seems to be pretty derelict. Such a shame.

From the mill I took the back road into Cupar in order to track down the house that old maps have as Bondfield, but which is now known by the name of the farm round the corner, Gillliesfaulds House. The owner knew nothing of the house’s history so, sneaking a quick photo I came away. Bondfield was the name of the house built by the elder brother of one of my direct ancestors, on a piece of land that had been in the family for a good long time. I had never resolved the problem of locating the actual house as there are several Bonville, Bonfield, Bondfield Villa names further into the town. However I am fairly convinced now that the house I photographed was the home of my Inglis ancestor, especially as a brand new development right in front of the house has a street named for him – well, I assume it’s him! More digging to be done on that one!

I had decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in the library at Cupar looking at some books about the history of the area, stay overnight and do my touring around the next day. So in Cupar I found the library and was shown to the research room. The staff were so helpful, and I found a few interesting snippets, though made no major discoveries.

Next day was cold and frosty but, as often happens on frosty days, sunny – a perfect day for driving around. I found the two farms that had once been a single estate, bought by an Inglis, whose wife was Mike’s connection. He renovated one old farmhouse, adding this impressive front, (left)

built a new house at the other (right) and gave them to two of his sons, Henry and John! Henry’s house, Newington, the house on the right, is actually for sale right now. I’d love to see round it, but thanks to the young woman I spoke to at Colluthie on the left I did see some of its interior, which was really fascinating, and what was also interesting was that inadvertently I had taken a photo with the initials JI and the date 1869 quite clearly inscribed on one of the buildings in the yard at the back. It took Mike’s sharp eyes to spot that! I hadn’t, at the time! Has to have been John Inglis.

The next few farms were connected with Mike’s ancestors, but I found it fascinating talking to the present owners and being given bits of information which may or may not be right, and it was great just to see these marvellous solid houses, and wonder about the people who had lived in them.

The house in the photo, left, was the old farmhouse of Berryhill while the one on the right, above, was built behind the farmhouse for one of the spinster daughters, I was told. Lucky lady!

This farmhouse on the edge of Newburgh was most interesting as its back wall was incorporated into the wall of the former great abbey of Lindores, sadly ruined since the 16th century. Imagine having the Abbey as your back garden! It was some size of abbey - huge!

Lochmill farmhouse stands at the top of this rise with the farm steadings below. Unfortunately, no-one answered my ring on the doorbell.

As with several of the farms I saw, the farmyard was empty and unused. Sign of the times, I think! I wonder if doves or pigeons still enter the right hand building through the two little holes above the window, and if there are nesting boxes inside, as was common in old farms, the eggs and the birds themselves being good provender.

Ormiston House is another of these solidly built houses of the 1800s, and yet again I found no-one around to talk to about its past owners.

The land around it looks very rich and fertile.

Lumquhat is the name of the farm below. In the Scots language QUH are generally pronounced like WH, a sound that is produced by pretending to blow out a candle. There are several place names with that combination of letters, but the only one I can actually bring to mind right now is Balquhidder, home of Rob Roy Macgregor, pronounced Bal-whidder – though a lot of Scots will put in the KW sound Bal—kwidder. So Lumquhat is Lum-WHAAT. Curious name. I don’t know what it means.

The couple who live in the farmhouse were very kind, even going so far as to bring out the deeds to the house and look through them for a familiar name – which we didn’t find in a quick skim through. I wonder if Mike’s ancestors here were just tenant farmers rather than owners.

Next time I come ancestor hunting in Fife I ought to do some graveyard searching. One retired farmer I spoke to happened to ask the question “Where would they be buried ?” and we talked about which graveyards would be in which parish. I know there are many people who aren’t the slightest bit interested in who or what went before, but I find it all very interesting, and wonder how like some of these ancestors am I? I never liked history at school, but now I enjoy the social side of it, finding out how the ancestors lived, so here’s to the next time!

Talk again soon.

down near Darlo

2011-12-17T21:15:00.001Z

I had a nice visit to Colin’s a couple of weekends ago. He’s not that far from Darlington (Darlo to the locals), but on the Yorkshire side of the border from County Durham. Having done all sorts of jobs in his life he is now throwing himself into being the odd-jobbing delivery man at Paddock Farm Garden Centre owned by a couple of his friends. Mark and Janet have only recently taken the place over and are doing a great job in building up the business. The weekend I was visiting they had a Christmas Fair on, and Colin was car park attendant for the two days! Not just any old car park attendant either as he was dressed up - not as an elf or Santa Claus, oh no - but as a turkey, in a costume Janet had found on a recent trip to the German markets. He was in his element, and if there were no cars to direct, he was up by the road to wave at all the passing cars! He even encouraged a few to stop to find out what was going on!

One of the greenhouses and a polytunnel were filled with craft stalls. Something for everybody! There were some quite unusual craftworkers there, as well as cardmakers and toymakers. I must give Hippy Lizard a plug! She had some beautiful bits and pieces – purses and bags, fancy brooch pins and jewellery, and she herself looked very funky in her beautiful woolly poolly (or should that be pully?) with matching necklace of zipper pulls!

I bought a pretty purple velvet drawstring money-purse from Libbie, and a painted flowerpot, complete with poinsettia plant from another stallholder called Mike who sported a long straggly goatee beard and had a really jolly smile. He and his partner were in a corner of the greenhouse, with the sun shining brightly through the glass behind him so of course everyone looking at his painted plaques and pots brought their hands up to shield their eyes! “There’s no need to salute me!” he quipped “Everyone’s saluting me for some reason! Don’t know why!”

I would love to have bought some of the unique and striking jewellery from Kathryn Guy. Turns out, by the way, she’s related to folk I used to know in my Yorkshire Dales life – twenty-five and more years ago ! I can’t believe I’ve been here in Peebles for 25 years – cos yes, I have! Kathryn doesn’t have a website of her own but exhibits in the Showcase Gallery in Richmond – the Yorkshire one – and is on their website. I adored her necklaces of machine embroidered flowers. You’ll see one on her page! Couldn’t afford it – and besides, when would I ever wear something so pretty and delicate? I’m not a getting-dressed-up-and-going-out-to-parties type of person! But I do covet those necklaces!

There was entertainment on offer as well. I actually missed the choir, as I met a woman in the cafe who thought she knew me. Funnily enough I thought I knew her face too. It turned out she had worked in one of the Swaledale hotels I used to frequent now and again, but I couldn’t think that I’d have remembered her from then. However we spent so much time chatting about the folk up in the dale that I missed the choir I was looking forward to listening to. I managed to hear the last couple of songs from the choir of ten from a local primary school though. They were sweet – as you’d imagine!

Then the big act followed! Elvis – in person – at Paddock Farm! He was very good – and I’m not an Elvis fan – and smouldered and girated his hips to the great approval of his audience. Later I caught him talking and singing with young Garry,who had completely missed the point of him being an Elvis impersonator and wanted him to sing some Cold Play songs. In the end they sang Jingle Bells and We wish you a Merry Christmas together! I thought that was so nice of “Elvis”!

Santa Claus, or Father Christmas if you prefer, put in an appearance too and I had to smile when I found him later at the checkout – with his fingers in the till. Don’t worry! He was staff, taking money from the customers!

Inside the shop a table had been laid out with bits and pieces for children to make Christmas tree decorations with. Great concentration in this photo as one of Santa’s elves looks on, advising and admiring!

Over in the work sheds behind the scenes I found Ian and Mark making Christmas wreaths! I can’t remember how many they had to make. It was certainly in the higher hundreds! Winding wire round the greenery onto ring bases looks pretty hard work, and that was only the beginning! Later they added in the holly, pinecones and ribbons, also wrapped with wire. Still they looked pretty good when they were done. Shame the sun was a bit too bright in this photo, and guess who they’d had hopping around the shed to entertain them – a very tame robin!

While I was in the area I managed to catch up with a couple of my old friends from Swaledale. Yvonne and I had worked together in the CB hotel in Arkengarthdale, and Lynne lived across the road from me in the village. Both have married and moved away from the upper dale but have both ended up in the same village just off the A1 – the Great North Road. Well, Yvonne actually lives right on the old Great North Road – much quieter now as the traffic doesn’t roar past their door any more.

It was a good weekend, marred only by the first snow of the winter, which had me setting off for home earlier than I might have, so I could get over Carter Bar in the Cheviot Hills in daylight. Carter Bar marks the border between England and Scotland right on top of the hill, and in the summer the car parks, one on either side of the road, are thronged with bus- and car-loads of people anxious to have their photos taken beside the SCOTLAND sign. I wonder how many actually have their pictures taken on the side that says ENGLAND? It seems to me it’s the other side that’s the main attraction! Anyway, nothing was happening that day as I drove from one country to the other, and about an hour and a half later I was home again.

…and just because I haven’t put in a photo for a bit, here’s Esme, Colin’s cat, a final picture before I go!

Oh and remember the woman in the cafe, back at Paddock Farm? I saw her doppelganger in the High Street the other day! I hadn’t remembered the Yorkshire lady at all! She just looked like someone I know from up here!

Talk again soon.

A very special visit

2011-12-08T00:33:00.001Z

The market place in a Yorkshire market town…. A street off the market place….A front door…. but not just ANYbody’s front door….This is a very special front door because a very special man lived and worked here. Better known to most people as TV vet, James Herriot, Alf Wight (front left) was a vet here in Thirsk for many years. The surgery where TV vets Siegfried Farnon and James Herriot, in real life Donald Sinclair and Alf Wight, practised their veterinary trade has now been converted into a museum and we were keen to take a look.

I keep forgetting how long it is since All Creatures Great and Small appeared on our TV screens, and that a whole generation has grown up since then, but I hope the show will be remembered. The tour guide who welcomed us to the house had known Alf the vet, and laughed as she pointed out the waiting room. “I’ve lost count of the cheques I have written in there!” she told us. One of the funniest characters in the series was Mrs Pumphrey and her very spoiled Pekinese dog. Here they are, waiting to see “Uncle” Herriot!

In the next room we were a bit disconcerted to see the arm chair by the window occupied, and had the feeling we should withdraw, apologising for our disturbance!

This was the Wights’ sitting room, and there was “Alf” sitting in the corner reading his newspaper, cup of tea on the little table just to hand, and his feet surrounded by the toys of his children Jimmy and Rosie. It had such a homely feel to it.

The cup and saucer had caught my eye and Margaret, our guide brought it over to show me. This was the same china we had in our house when I was growing up! The Sunday china in our case!

Round the corner we passed the dispensary on the way along the passage to the kitchen.

I could see plenty in the kitchen that we’d had in ours when I was a child in the 1950s.

Out of the back door buildings have been added or converted for the purpose of the museum, but the old car is the one Alf used on his farm visits around the Yorkshire countryside. I remember the days before flashing indicator lights at the back and front of cars, when a little orange arm-lever flicked up and out from the side of the car to show your intended direction of travel! Seeing this brought it all back to my mind!

The rest of the house was given over to a museum of veterinary tools and equipment, and a children’s activity area, but for me the house and living rooms had been the most interesting part. Apparently, around Christmas time there is to be a TV programme about the young James Herriot, “Young James”, based on the “real” Alf Wight’s life as a boy and a student at Glasgow university, so I look forward to that. Some of it will have been filmed here in Thirsk. It will bring back memories of when I lived in Swaledale and we watched the filming of some episodes of All Creatures… starring Christopher Timothy, and Robert Hardy, with Peter Davison as Tristan, Siegfried’s young brother.

I met the real James Herriot once, at a book-signing in Darlington. The big bookshop, Dressers, has gone now, but was a great place around 30 years ago. There was a long queue waiting to have Alf write his name in their book, and when it came to my turn to meet the man himself we had a grand conversation about the dales and Scotland – he never lost his gentle Scots accent, I’m glad to say!

Click on Youtube All creatures great and small and this will take you to Part 1 of Against the odds. It’s in several parts, but in Parts 1 and 2 you’ll find Mrs Pumphrey and the spoiled dog Tricki Woo! The parts end abruptly but you’ll find enough parts – 5 in all - to make up the episode! Hope you enjoy it!

Talk again soon.

Harrogate

2011-12-06T20:55:00.001Z

Next morning we had breakfast in the hotel dining room, looking over towards the Royal Baths Building, before heading out to explore the town.

Beautiful stained glass in the hotel windows! The cross of St George and the initial G with the roses of England.

Off to the right we turned to get a view back to the hotel, before continuing up the road to the Pump Rooms. The original well was first advertised in the 1660s, and as its restorative properties became more widely known a canopy was built over the well. The evil-smelling sulphur liquid was dispensed to visitors and eventually a building was commissioned to be built over the well to offer better shelter to the ladies and gents who frequented the place. This is the entrance, to the pump room where you can still see the original well, look round the museum and taste the foul water! They say that Harrogate toffee was invented to take away the taste of the water! I can believe it! It really is revolting, yet it was the fashion in the 19th century to take the waters and people flocked to Harrogate to do so. The town became so popular that many attractions were set out to encourage visitors who would stay for “the season”, attending the assembly room balls; walking in the various gardens…the Crown Hotel Gardens for instance - for which this was once the ticket office (right) – the Winter Gardens under its glass domed roof, and the still existent Valley Gardens; taking tea in the pavilions, and bathing in the Royal Baths. Beautiful new buildings shot up, some of which are the buildings you see today, and some which were demolished to make way for a carpark for example, in the 1950s. Another few years and “Conservation” would become the buzz word, but too late for some.

There are lots of interesting shops in town, including this lovely antique shop and those in the Westminster Arcade which I had photographed the evening before. Upstairs there was a beautiful gallery with little shops arranged round it. Little nooks and crannies that house interesting little businesses and restaurants or tearooms abound, but we had one place in mind for a cuppie and a bite to eat – Betty’s!

We had to queue (wait in line) outside, such is its popularity, but it wasn’t long till we were ushered to a table by the window where we could watch the passers-by under the arcaded canopy, looking towards the cenotaph.

Linda went to the counter to look at what was on offer…. cakes laid out on silver trays, of which these are only a small sample, open sandwiches with rather lovely toppings… We made our choice and the waitress – or should I say server, these days? – brought our plates to the table. Eating at Betty’s is probably not the place to go every day…. but you have to go once!

Down the road again, we went into the Arcade that I had photographed the night before, with its little galleries and small shops arranged round them. This was upstairs…

Looking back down the hill there were the Winter Gardens and the Royal Baths buildings, with our hotel past the autumnal tree.

Walking down to the crossroads again, I took another photo of the modern, though not out-of-place Royal Hall, with the theatre beyond. In fact I rather like this modern take on a Greek-style facade.

In the afternoon we split up and did our own thing, mine being to turn left past the front of the Royal Baths again to take a walk in the Valley Gardens. It was a beautiful sunny autumn day – couldn’t have been better - so I detoured a little, past the council offices that once housed the Royal baths; up steps beside the old town hall (left) where there was an art exhibition on show; across the road to take a picture of the pump room – the public well is situated under the window of the stone building, pretty much behind the lamp post! The smell around there is what we would call bowffing!!!

and finally to the gates of the valley gardens. Let me finish today with some of the views in the gardens. It was gorgeous, with colonnaded walks,

pavilions,

paddling pool,

tree-ed paths and avenues,

squirrels,

and even masses of dahlias still in bloom!

We had had a great day and the next day we were heading for home again but with a rather special stop off on the way.

Talk again soon.

Harrogate

2011-11-27T21:02:00.001Z

Some time ago Linda and I picked up an offer on kgbdeals – on the internet, for a two night stay in a hotel in the spa town of Harrogate for £99 - £50 each, £25 per night each, including breakfast… in a hotel! You can hardly get a Bed & Breakfast for that price these days!

Anyway, I was not long home from the Outer Hebrides than we were off to Yorkshire. Linda drove – down the A68 to Corbridge in Northumberland, where we stopped for lunch and a stretch of the legs! It’s an attractive old town, from Roman beginnings as Corstopitum, a supply town for the military on Hadrian’s Wall. In fact much of the stone used in the buildings you see today is from the old Roman town.

We chose the pub to eat at, because of the cat sitting inside the window, a very friendly cat by the name of Mittens, we found out. In fact Mittens decided to curl up and go to sleep on the jacket I had taken off and laid on the bench seat beside me! You can tell I love cats!

To work off our lunch we took a little walk up one street to the square where we found the old St Andrews Church dating back about 700 years – quite a bit of Roman stonework in there- and the Vicar’s Pele, a small tower house used by the vicars of St Andrews in centuries past. The shops, inns and houses are very attractive, the inns having very typical names such as The Black Bull, and the Golden Lion. I’ll bet there’s also a Red Lion around somewhere. I’ve a feeling that’s the most common inn name in the country! From the square we took the other road back, and before getting back into the car took a look at some shops and an attractive gallery in the beautiful old Town Hall building – just as nice inside as out!

The gallery was well worth a browse, with some very interesting quirky objects and some great paintings. There was also an exhibition showing strange people models, by Matthew Roby, which quite amused us, like the Bubblegum Queen and Penelope Pincushion.

My favourite was Thirteen..

Then there was the most wonderful 3D wire picture by H Sharpley. The central double walls leading to the front door stick out from the picture. It’s magnificent! Holly Wright made the amusing little hen on it perch in the hen house. It’s an egg holder! Of course! What else could it be?

So, time to move on. We wouldn’t arrive in Harrogate in daylight, but I was confident enough of the centre of Harrogate to be able to find our hotel, the St George, and so it proved. What we did lose though was the carpark… but it turned out the lane with the bollards across it was the entrance. The park was full so we were directed into a side street with a permit. We’d bring the car into the park in the morning after breakfast and leave it there while we went exploring.

That night we had tea in The Winter Gardens! The glass roofed interior of the 1897 Winter Gardens was demolished in 1938, but thankfully the entrance and beautiful marble staircase were retained, and now form the entrance to the new Winter Gardens!

Further up the hill is Betty’s tearoom, with its arcaded frontage and appealing window display. Halloween coming up, the cakes were little pumpkins, owls and ghosts!

I meant to get some Mouse bread to bring home, but forgot!

The Westminster Arcade looked rather nice, all lit up. We’d explore it the next day…. and more or less opposite our hotel was part of the Harrogate Exhibition Centre, looking for all the world like a traditional Georgian theatre or hall, but it is mainly glass, as we were also to see the next morning!

So back at the hotel we had a drink in the comfortable bar before taking the lift to our room overlooking the car park at the rear of the building! It was quiet at least!

Talk again soon.

Peter and Peeps!

2011-11-21T15:39:00.001Z

I was blogwalking today – as if I had nothing else to do - and found this on Dawn’s blog. Dawn lives near Lake Taupo in a place called Whaka – something, New Zealand, and I’ve lost her blog! It was interesting and I was going to go back and read some more. I did put a comment on her blog though, so hopefully she will get back to me.

Anyway back to the video – it’s about the rescue and rehabilitation of a baby humming bird who fell out of his nest. It’s beautiful!

Talk again soon.

The last couple of days in Lewis

2011-11-21T00:35:00.001Z

Friday had even seen some folk leaving the island, but most folk seemed to be going on the Saturday afternoon ferry. In the morning it was too wet to do the usual massed choirs parade through the town. Instead we were all instructed to gather at the school for a big sing! Those who were left filled the hall and enjoyed an hour or so’s singing – Sine Bhan, Gleann Bhaile Chaoil, Illean Bithidh Sunndach, Suas leis a Ghaidhlig, etc.….each song conducted by a different choir master, and with a lot of humour from the master of ceremonies! This is Catriona our Gaelic tutor with some faces you have seen before. Catriona has just celebrated her 90th birthday. She comes from Eriskay, which is where the SS “Politician” carrying crates of whisky to America, went aground in 1941, giving Compton Mackenzie the story of Whisky Galore. Apparently Catriona’s father was one of the main characters in the real story. She can tell a few stories of the goings-on to save the ship’s cargo, and evade the excisemen.

And here are my wee cousins with Lisa, their mum. Not only was Lisa conducting her choir but Nuala was competing in her first Mod – AND she was second in her competition!!! First next year?

So everyone then began to disperse, and I found Catriona wandering around looking quite lost – not like Catriona. She’s as with-it and as fit as someone half her age. She was looking for Jackie and May so I offered to help her find them – which we never did, due to mobile phone batteries fading and others switched off! However I spent the afternoon with Catriona, drinking wine and tea at the County Hotel, hearing some of her stories and getting a couple of Gaelic lessons forbye! Soon it was time to get her to the ferry terminal , which was where we eventually found Jackie and May.

We all said goodbye as they and several others from our choir went for the boat. I was booked for the next day but in the meanwhile was going back to Shawbost. Tim, Maddy, Jennifer and I paid a farewell visit to Ann next door before heading out to a Beer Festival Tim had heard about! As it happened, when we got there we found that the cost for the evening was astronomic so in the end we about turned and came home.

On the Sunday morning Tim and Maddy left early. bound for Harris for the ferry to Skye. Jennifer went to church, and I packed up my car and headed back to Stornoway again to wait in the queue for the boat. Jennifer would be along later. The ferry was late in, so there was plenty of time for a look around the terminal building with its amazing batik banners hanging round the octagonal cupola. That’s the ferry terminal in the background, behind the other fishwife statue I mentioned the other day.

The banners were amazing, and these are just a few of the 24.

You really will have to click them to see them clearly.

There are so many pieces of artwork in the building. I just adored this mosaic of the Callanish stones.

Incidentally, I forgot to show you a fabulous Harris tweed wall hanging in the centre where we sang on Friday. While we’re on the subject of artworks I’ll show you now, with some close-ups of some of the motifs. It was specially made by Isle of Lewis Quilts for the Mod and not only celebrates it but also the hundredth anniversary of the Harris tweed logo – the famous orb. There was a map of the islands - Lewis being the top part of the most northerly island - gannets flying high above. You’ll recognise the standing stones, and a Celtic cross, and below is one of the hoard of chess pieces found buried on a beach on the Lewis west coast, in the 19th century.

I just loved this, and the talent of the needlewomen.

So back to Sunday morning in Stornoway. The ferry was late in arriving but finally she was sailing into the harbour.

The prow opened like a giant mouth and soon the arriving traffic was being disgorged. There wasn’t much of it. The Sunday sailing is quite a recent innovation and still many of the islanders don’t use it as they are against breaking the Sabbath. The Stornoway streets were quite deserted, not a shop open, as I took my final look around. Just a few views of the town before the ferry journey…..

Lewis Castle overlooking the river flowing into the harbour,

An Lanntair – the lantern – the arts centre, and the County Hotel in the background to the left of the church,

the Town Hall, where we sang our first competition on Friday morning…..

At last we were directed onto the boat and finally set off for Ullapool.

We’ll be back! In a few years…. after the Mod has been in Dunoon, Paisley, Oban….

Talk again soon.

More from Lewis

2011-11-19T03:08:00.001Z

Rena drove up through Harris having arrived on the boat from Skye on Wednesday morning. She eventually found her way to Jennifer’s and after a quick cup of tea we set off in her car for a drive. She hadn’t been up to Ness before so off we went, up the road to the north again – well, “again” for me! At least the weather was a good deal calmer than it had been the other day so at the Butt of Lewis we were able to get out of the car with relative ease to take the photos I hadn’t dared to take before.

There was a camera crew filming shots where they wouldn’t have dared to stand the other day. It appeared to be screenshots for a film called Funeral! Keep your eyes peeled!We were able to walk around the other side of the lighthouse that day too so that’s it on the right of the photo above.

I have to say, the waves were still crashing at the base of the cliffs but weren’t anything like as ferocious as before,

and there were seabirds resting on the top of the seastack. You could hardly even see the stack the other day.

We tried to find somewhere to have a bowl of soup or a sandwich but the cafe at Eoropie was closed, so we decided to head for Stornoway for a bite to eat instead, passing through Upper Barvas again on our way. Do you remember I mentioned the old guy at Upper Barvas who lived in a blackhouse similar to the one at Arnol? Well, I reckon his house stood somewhere in the region of these two houses. I must do some digging in the attic to see if I have the photo my mother took all those years ago. The bodach – old man – was very keen to have a copy of the photo and I am sure my mother sent one on. I wonder who he was. Maybe he lived there all his life and was a young man in the 1911 census….. If I could find his name I’d go to the Barvas cenetery next time I’m out there, as I should think he’d be buried there.

Rena was staying in a Stornoway B&B so after finding our way there and finding Jackie and May there too, we all went out to eat, followed by a bit of ceilidhing in one of the bars.

On Thursday Rena and I met up in town to go to hear the Rural Choirs competitions. My cousin Neil was singing with the Tarbert Loch Fyne choir, conducted by his wife Hilary – that’s Neil on the right, standing at the end of the row,though it looks like he’s second from the right

and their daughter-in-law was conducting the very new little choir from the Inchnadamph area. They had only one man – Piotr from Poland, no less, and while he sang bass some of the women sang the tenor part. Mull choir was also competing – Tina from Bunessan was in that choir - she was on the same Gaelic course I went on last year – and of course Carloway choir - left - made their Mod debut, to great cheers from the audience who knew the story of them rehearsing their parts through Skype!

The next day was our big day, competing in the Puirt a Beul (mouth music) competition in the morning and for the Lovat and Tullibardine Shield in the afternoon. We were on first thing at 9.00a.m. so were all up early at Shawbost. Tim and his wife Maddie had joined us on Thursday evening as had Chera, our Canadian member, so a rota for the bathroom had been worked out the night before!! Jennifer prepared bacon butties for breakfast so well fortified we all piled into Tim’s car for the 40 minute drive to Stornoway again. The town hall is right on the main esplanade by the harbour front, and with a car park right opposite it was very handy for us. After a quick voice warm up in a side room, we were on! Four judges sat at a table in front of us – two for the music and two for Gaelic – and a small amount of people had gathered to listen. We sang well, and then, gathering up our belongings from the side room, came down into the hall to listen to the rest of the choirs. There was a visiting choir from Canada too, who were delighted at being awarded third place when the results were read out later! Surprisingly, we were considerably further down the ratings! Not last though!

At the Nicholson Institute, Stornoway’s school for the 11 – 18 year olds , a room had been allocated to us for practising before the L&T, so as we were not singing till well into the afternoon we had a good time to prepare. One thing about the Mod is that there is a lot of hanging around, being moved from one holding hall to another before finally reaching the stage. We had one of the squash courts as one of our moves, where there was sufficient time to take pictures. This is not the whole choir by any means but a selection of my favourite photos.

You can see that nerves haven’t got the better of us! Barbara and Maggie..and Maggie and Linn.

Some of my fellow altos pose with conductor Jackie.

John, chairman of An Comunn Gaidhealach, the Gaelic Association, member of not only our choir but the Carloway choir as well, exchanges a few words with Doyle from Washington DC.

Mairi, Rena, and Hilde, from Holland, enjoy a laugh.

John, John, Martin and Tim are tenors while Stuart, Ranald Angus and Doyle sing bass.

There are always more sopranos than anything else, and these are only the ones who could come to the Mod!

Finally we were up on that stage standing in our two rows in front of the An Comunn logo, and ready to go. The hall was dark but we could see there was a big crowd out there, as well as the judges looking very official at their table down the front! Afterwards Jackie said we had sung very well, so it was a bit of a disappointment to find ourselves in last place. They say it’s because the standards are so high, but we didn’t deserve that. Anyway, Jackie took it on the chin and said we had done all that she expected of us and more, and not to worry about our placing! We STILL haven’t actually received our adjudication, a month after the competition! Hmmm!

So that was that! The serious work was over and it was time to ceilidh – and ceilidh we did! After a choir gathering to eat in an Indian restaurant where we sang a few songs to the delight of the other diners, several of the choirs met up in the same pub and we sang our hearts out, and drank a few Coca - colas (well, I had to as I was driving home, but the rest had smaller glasses, taller glasses, or glasses with stems, containing varying tipples.) Despite being quite sober my ceilidh photos weren’t brilliant – personally I think it’s because no-one else was that sober!!!!!

I think it was about 2.00 a.m when I arrived home at Shawbost and I had left early! I bet there were a few sore heads next day!

Talk again soon

Another day in Lewis

2011-11-17T00:02:00.001Z

I’ve been putting off writing this entry in the hopes that I would hear from Historic Scotland about using a couple of photos from their guide book to Arnol blackhouse but no news yet. Anyway, can’t wait for ever so here we go without their photos.

I went back to Arnol the next day to have a proper look at the blackhouse. When blackhouses were occupied – till 1970s in some cases – they were just called “houses”, and it wasn’t until the Regulations of the 1920s about health and hygiene came along that things changed much. New houses started to be built in the style of the mainland, and these looked so different and modern that they were given the name taigh-geal white house.It was only then that the old houses became known as blackhouses. Living in a blackhouse, you shared your four walls with your stock – humans at one end, animals at the other, though I daresay the hens came into the warmth of the fire at the human end from time to time! Divisions between the two ends were perhaps just thin wooden partitions. An addition to the house at the back, would be a storage space perhaps. In older blackhouses there was also another extension to the front which formed a porch and store room. There was only turf and flagstones for flooring and walls made of stone – double thickness filled with peat and earth for insulation. Not much wood was available on the basically treeless island so driftwood and old wooden cast-offs were used as roof props and rafters. I think it’s the Arnol house that has an oar in its roof! The roof timbers would then be covered with turf and then with straw, tied down by heather rope nets with stones as weights. In the photo on the left you can see (against the dark of the peat stack) three stones sticking out of the end of the house. These were steps to enable the men to climb up to the top of the walls to mend or replace the thatch.

The fireplace was usually in the middle of the floor with a chain hanging from the rafter above to attach the cooking pot or kettle to. The smoke from the peat fire would swirl round, rising into the roof space, sooting up the turf and straw which was renewed regularly. The old stuff was then spread on the fields as fertiliser.

Beds were made of wood and were like cupboards with doors or curtains over the opening. Sometimes these would be used to form the partition between living and sleeping rooms.

As time went on some of the blackhouses were improved with fireplaces built into the gable end of the house and chimneys erected, while some houses also had a window or two installed, but it was eventually decreed that barns and byres had to be separate from the living quarters, which was the beginning of the end for blackhouses. “White houses” sprang up next to the old houses and gradually the old fell down. There are many ruins to be seen even today, and of course now the whitehouse is seen as being old fashioned, though they too have gone through periods of change and modernisation and smarter even more modern houses are beginning to spring up! Old folk like the Macleods who built No.42 Arnol around 1875 would be astounded at how homes have developed since their day.

I can’t help but wonder how the family who lived in the blackhouse next door to this taigh geal, undergoing some repairs just now, would have felt the day they moved into their new home. It was light, there was a fireplace with a chimney so there was no smoke wafting round the rooms. Was it a wondrous experience, or did they miss having rafters where you could smoke meat or fish. Did they miss the sounds of the animals? This is how the living room looked when it was taken over by Historic Scotland in the 1970s but what did it look like on that first day around 1920 with the everyday possessions from the blackhouse set in place? Some folk didn’t like their taigh geal and moved back into their old home. It can be seen nowadays that the new houses were damp and probably not as cosy as the blackhouse that had been vacated. However eventually the move was enforced and so the blackhouse’s day passed into history. There are two rooms downstairs in this house, and a steep staircase up to the roof space where apparently two sleeping rooms had been planned.

Leaving Arnol behind I drove down past Carloway again and on to Callanish to see the prehistoric standing stone circles. There are three circles but the main one is second only to Stonehenge in the south of England. It’s pretty spectacular! You can read about it here, its history – it’s about 4000 years old - the excavation from 6 feet of peat that due to climate change had grown around the monument, what it is thought to mean……, and here are some of my photos.

This is the tallest stone which I would have said was taller than the Truiseal stone I saw at the weekend, but apparently it isn’t! It marks the centre of the ancient circle, and at its base are the remains of a later burial chamber, probably only 2000 years old. It was very boggy and wet that day as you will see from all the puddles, though the water in the background of the photo on the right is actually a loch!.

The cloud effects were rather lovely too that day.

My favourite picture is the one below right!

As you can see the sun was pretty low in the sky and soon it was time to get back to the car, though not before watching a group of rabbits that were grazing near to the footpath down to the carpark. Some bounded into their burrows in the banking below the path while others were bolder, and due to me standing quite still I was able to get one or two photos.

By the time I got to Carloway the light was almost gone and the sky over the village a pretty combination of pinks and purpley grey, and a bit further on, almost back at Shawbost I got a glimpse in my mirror of the sun going down behind the hill. It had to be photographed!And so back to the croft to tell Jennifer what I had been up to! She had a choir practise that night so while she was out I spent a very pleasant evening with Ann next door, drinking cups of tea and watching the winners of the day’s Mod competitions on TV. Our turn to sing soon, though still a day or two off yet!

Talk again soon.

Wordle art

2011-11-12T17:01:00.001Z

Taking a break from the Lewis saga to tell you about a website I found today. I’m not sure how I found it but it all started when went to look up a book that Dragonfly Dreams had mentioned in connection with one of my posts here. The book, by the way is The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry.

Anyway somehow after exploring various websites about the Lace Reader I came across this website www.wordle.net

You enter words you want to play with, click Go and you get something like this popping up on your screen.

I entered “This is great. I could play with it all day”. This wasn’t the first version that came up but I found you can change the font, the layout and the colours to get different effects and this was the one I settled for! I found I could in fact use the tilde sign – no I didn’t know what it was either, but it’s the wiggly sign I have above my #. Shift and # = ~! Yes, you can use the tilde to create spaces between words you want to keep in order, e.g. This~is~great.

I tried playing with a few wordy things and these are what I got! First a message for Mary who has been feeling miserable with a bad cold.

Then a list of lace-making words

and I discovered that the more often you enter a word it doesn’t repeat it, but only appears larger. I put in the word lace three times and bobbins twice. Here’s a list of friends.and the word art I have called Family History

I think you can deduce there have been mostly Williams in my family line, followed by Roberts then Jameses. I’m the sole Evelyn.

These are some of the places I have visited this year.

As I said I could play with it all day. I do recommend you read the FAQs though. I learned that to save a design you have to take a screenshot of the page……..

Talk again soon.

Exploring northwards

2011-11-11T22:21:00.001Z

There was thunder during the night and in the morning it was “blowing a hooligan”. During the day there was sleet, hailstones, sun, rain….. and always the wind….. but at least we didn’t have snow!

I decided to head northwards again, past Arnol and Barvas and turned onto a side road to see the Truseil stone, apparently the tallest standing stone in Scotland. The reasons for these standing stones have pretty much got lost in the mists of time. Though local legends have it that it commemorates a local battle, archaeologists believe it to be much older - around 3 to 4 thousand years old, in fact. The wind was so strong and the weather so squally that I didn’t even get out of the car to photograph it. Even winding down the window was a dangerous prospect!

Nearby there were views out to sea, and you can see how stormy it looks. The sign points the way to a monument erected to the memory of 12 local fishermen who were lost along with their two boats in a terrible storm in 1885. You can read about it here. It was too stormy to go exploring so I took the sea photos and headed back to the main road to continue my journey to the northernmost point of the island where I took a look at Port of Ness and some of the other small settlements in the Ness area.

The little harbour was very calm and sheltered from the wild sea beyond.

These waves were a good 10 feet high as they rolled towards the beach. Port of Ness is very pretty with its houses much closer together than in most of the other villages I had seen. I should think it’s because this wasn’t so much a crofting township as a fishing village. This type of house with outside stairs reminds me of the likes of Newhaven on the river Forth, where fishing gear was stored downstairs while the family lived above.

A narrow road led from the village to the most northerly point of the Western Isles at the Butt of Lewis, a point reputed to be the windiest place in the country. I’ll buy that! The wind was so strong it was pretty hard to stand upright, and sea foam was being blown up over the tops of the 80 foot cliffs, as the waves lashed them! It was pretty impressive, but not a day to get out and explore. I managed one quick photo before hot footing it back to the car. Even getting a photo of the lighthouse meant hanging on to a signpost to stop being blown over. In fact as I was about to start the car again, I realised my door wasn’t closed properly. Never thinking, I began to open it a little way, with the intention of banging it shut, but an inch was all it took for the wind to yank the door open and nearly off its hinges, with me still hanging on to the handle! Half in, half out of the car, if I let go then, I would fall out, and I wasn’t going to let go in case the wind did indeed take the door off! Left hand holding the steering wheel, right hand hanging onto the door handle I tried to pull the door closed – not easy when you’re lying horizontally in thin air, hanging on to a wobbling steering wheel with one hand! However, I managed to get the door closed somehow, and sat there in the car realising that I had wrenched my shoulder – only the one I had been having physio on for the few weeks before, due to the muscles not being too strong and not doing the job they are meant to do! They must have responded in some way to the exercises I had been doing, for me to eventually get the door closed – only now my shoulder felt as bad as ever it had! I could still drive though so that was fine. (When I got home and saw the physiotherapist she immediately recommended a steroid injection into the muscle before I did any more exercises – so that’s where I am now, waiting to see if the injection is going to work and I can get back to my strengthening exercises!)

So, slightly shaken, I returned slowly to Ness village, stopping to take a photo of some oyster catchers and a plover grazing on some grassland in a more sheltered spot.

The weather wasn’t getting any better so I gave up plans to do some coastal walking, and made my way instead down the road to Stornoway, the only town on Lewis. There was a nice looking tea room not far from the car park where I was very lucky to find a space, so I sheltered there for half an hour, before venturing out into the rain again. It seems a much nicer town than than I remember it last time I was there – a good number of years ago now – and I quite enjoyed having a look around. Knowing I’d be back there later in the week I didn’t take many photos that day. Lewis Castle could wait for brighter skies, but I took this one of a lifesize model of a herring gutter, in Perceval Square. There’s another similar model at the edge of the carpark which I photographed a few days later.

There weren’t too many people around – they obviously had more sense – but I enjoyed the quiet streets, stopping to look in shop windows and to admire the larger than life posters made by Lewis school children in honour of the Mod! “Failte!” said one – Welcome! I do like that ladies choir!

Another showed what a good day on the island (by Carloway school children) could be like – note the musical notes coming from the blackhouses at Garenin, and the sheep choir in the truck being pulled by tractor in the direction of the Mod! Nothing happening up at the broch (top left) though!

This one was a simple statement! “Mod 2011” - lots of musical notes and a treble clef. That about says what it’s all about!

Well it was all going on at that moment, and we would have our turn soon enough.

Talk again soon.

Exploring the Westside

2011-11-09T20:01:00.001Z

Sunday…. I learned yesterday that the Gaelic community has such a good tradition of singing because the Free Church plays such an important part of the lives of the Hebrideans. From an early age children are learning and singing the psalms – in Gaelic – in a very individual way. To a non Gaelic speaker unfamiliar with the Free Church the sound is quite extraordinary! However it allows a certain amount of individuality in the singing, which helps develop the singing tradition. I found this online.

This being Sunday, Jennifer went off to church, while I took the car round to the other end of the bar across the bay, where I spent another happy hour or so watching the waves still crashing on to the beach, though the tide was higher this time of day.

You realise too at this end of the bar that in fact Loch a’Bhaile is not landlocked at all, but its waters do indeed reach the sea via a short stretch of river flowing beneath the bridge.

It certainly was a day of stormy squalls

and an occasional rainbow could be seen out to the sea side of the bay.

I had to drag myself away to explore further north, and drove the few miles north to Arnol where an old blackhouse has been restored and opened as a museum of how life was lived in the islands in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Being Sunday it was closed of course, but I resolved to return during the week. I remember about 50 years ago, on holiday with my parents, meeting an old man in another village nearby, whose home was exactly like the one at Arnol, at least from the exterior, and I expect the interior would have been similar too. I looked out for the old man’s house when I drove through Barvas village later but there are no blackhouses left there now at all. They have all been pulled down to make way for more modern housing. It’s rather sad.

At Shader (SHAAder), a small sign indicated a stone circle was to be found up the hill to the right, which I decided to investigate. I parked the car and began the rather wet boggy ascent!

The purpose of these stones is unknown as they have never been properly excavated but it is thought they may have been a prehistoric farming settlement rather than a religious site the likes of Stonehenge or the local equivalent at Callanish, just a few miles down the road. I walked round the large outside ring, possibly a stock yard, its stones like a mouthful of worn down teeth, quite close together, and back to what may have been the farmhouse,made up of a jumble of fallen stones on the edge of the circle, above.

Looking downhill towards present day Shader, between the village and the hill I was on, is a small loch with evidence of a small dun on an island, probably man made as this would have been a safe place to live.

Returning to the car I decided to head south again, back through Shawbost, to take a look at the ancient stone broch at Carloway, thought to date back about 2000 years or so. On the way I saw a sign I remembered and took a quick turn off the main road, heading for the sea and the tiny village of Garenin. The main part of the village has been restored and is used as holiday cottages now.

One was the youth hostel till the end of this summer, but a sign on its door said it would not re-open as its lease of the building was up, and it was being returned to the village trust. These houses were only vacated in the 1970s, but now live again. It was indeed a squally day and on a couple of occasions I had to shelter in a doorway, but then it would clear again and I could photograph more seascapes!

Time to move on. The day wasn’t getting any better and I did want to get to Dun Carloway before the heavens opened. The new visitor centre was closed – everything closes up here on a Sunday – but the Dun – same word as Doune in Knoydart – was accessible from the path, so through the gate I went, and uphill. (These prehistoric monuments are all uphill!) It’s quite an amazing structure, double walls with internal stairways between floors, probably, it is thought, the home of an important family,

and the picture here shows how it is thought to have looked and worked. From the picture it looks as if they reckon the broch was twice as high when it was being occupied. What a skill those ancient builders had. The stones have never seen a drop of cement or other material to stick them together. Obviously they have been dressed and placed well for a good fit, and they have withstood the battering wind and weather for over 2000 years. Who’d have thought it possible! It would have been seen in the landscape from quite a distance judging by the views I took from it.

Here is one set of stairs within the walls. You really do wonder how they did it!

Leaving Carloway behind it was time to head back home again, past some peat hags – where the peat is cut each year, dried and carried back to crofts and cottages to use as fuel for the next year; past the sign to Dalmore – next time I’m going down that road – and suddenly a cove came into view off to the left. The sign said Dalbeg,and I turned onto the road. At the beach the waves were fierce and beautiful. I could have stood for hours watching. Let me finish today by showing you just a few of the pictures I took there.

Talk again soon.

Exploring Shawbost

2011-11-08T23:46:00.001Z

Well, finally things have quietened down sufficiently for me to get back to blogging about my visit to the Western Isles – the Outer Hebrides. I left you on Friday night, after Jennifer and I arrived in the dark at her house at Shawbost.

Jennifer’s house was probably built to replace the old thatched blackhouse, gable end to the roadside to the right of the shed. She has dreams of “doing it up” (the blackhouse, not the shed!) and making something of it……. one day!

Next day was Saturday. It dawned bright and sunny, though windy, but when we went out to visit Jennifer’s neighbour, it didn’t feel that cold. It is just a short walk to Ann’s house on the next croft, where we were greeted warmly. On went the kettle and out came pancakes, butter and jam! Drop scones, you might call them! I met Garraidh (Garry), the ginger cat and Ben the collie dog – who only understand Gaelic - and Jennifer caught up with the news of the last few weeks since she had been here last. We had a blether about the Mod and the choirs and the songs we are singing. – Jennifer is also a long-standing member of the Lothian choir – and enjoyed the homemade pancakes and tea.

Later she went off to her rehearsal with the Carloway choir while I took myself off on a bit of an exploration of South Shawbost (Siabost, a mixture of Gaelic and old Norse! These islands belonged to Norway once!). I walked along the village – oh if only you could get the smell of the peat they burn on their fires up there - turned right at the sign that said To the Shore, and passing ruins of the old village (old and probably deserted even in 1898 according to an old map Ann showed us in the morning), I came to the semi circular bay at the head of Loch Shawbost. Blue skies, blue sea - apart from the white foamy waves crashing on to the sand. The spray was blowing off the waves as they rolled in from the sea loch. It was magnificent! I spent quite some time here on the beach, sometimes down at the water’s edge sitting on a rock taking pictures of the sea and the seabirds – till the tide began to creep towards my toes – and then up at the top of the beach among the stones. Lewisian gneiss is the oldest rock in Britain dating back some 3000 million years! The stripes and colours are beautiful.

A very unusual feature of several of the bays here is that there is a great bar across each, probably of stones pushed up by the sea over centuries, and against which a sandy shore line has evolved. The wind is constantly blowing sand up onto the bar, and grasses and wild flowers have settled in to grow in the sand, and behind the bar is an almost landlocked loch! The bar is wide enough to have a path crossing it - in fact it would be possible to drive a 4x4 across, with plenty of room to spare! I could have spent the whole afternoon here. As it was, I certainly spent an hour or two, looking at the stones, and watching the waves on the sea and on the loch, before coming back to get the car and driving a little way south of Shawbost to see a restored Norse Mill and Kiln, a short walk from the road near tothe loch that you see from Jennifer’s kitchen window.

It didn’t occur to me till I saw the kiln that it would be exactly the same idea as the one at Doune in Knoydart, though this one was in-

side a thatch-roofed building. I wonder if the one at Doune was originally under cover. It would make sense of its position between two high rocks, and at last I have found out how it worked.

The picture here shows that a fire was lit at the entrance to a funnel that carried the smoke into the bowl of the kiln. Grain would be laid on slats of wood over the bowl, and the warmth from underneath would dry the grain over a period of about 48 hours.

The mill itself was typical of the Norse way of working. Here at least, wood was in short supply- there’s a notable absence of trees on the Outer Hebrides, and those there are, are stunted and windblasted – so there were no big wooden wheels turning the machinery. Instead the smallest of paddles were fixed to the sides of a vertical post. The water flowed in, under the floor turning the small horizontal wheel paddles which in turn got the mill stone turning to grind the grain, and flowed out of the building on the other side. Quite amazing that such a small “wheel” could work! Down to the power of the water, I guess!

In the evening there was the concert at Carloway where Jennifer introduced me to some of her friends and we listened to the choir and some of their solo singers, including Jennifer herself, above. A young lad who had won a gold medal that day at the Mod, played his melodeon for us, and tea, biscuits and cakes were brought round at the interval. The story of the Skyping choir made national news – at least in Scotland – and everyone was highly impressed at the result.

On Monday I went exploring a bit further but I think I will finish off here and take you on the next step next time.

Talk again soon.

Stop the world, I want to get off!

2011-11-03T11:38:00.001Z

Just to say sorry I haven’t been here for a while. I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had time to edit photos, write blogs or emails. However I have had a few opportunities to take loads of photos – apart from those I still have to show you of the Western Isles, I have some of autumn colours which will probably brighten the duller November days to come, and some from a short visit to Harrogate in Yorkshire – an 18th and 19th century spa town, with the worst tasting sulphur spa water in the world! I tried it and it was re-volt-ing!!! How people could drink 3 glasses of the stuff even before breakfast, I don’t know, but they did!

So, I’ll be back as soon as I can – the next pressing thing is to get the U3A newsletter finished - editing, printing, pages stapled together and folded…..

Take care then and talk again soon.

See you at the Mod!

2011-10-18T15:21:00.001+01:00

Our last choir practice before the Mod out in Stornoway in the Western Isles was on Thursday. We still lack a bit of confidence and technique but we aren’t bad! If all goes well we’ll aquit ourselves quite nicely. Doyle, from USA, had been learning the songs through Skype calls with Jackie, our conductor, and was with us in person for the first time that night. He joined us in the pub afterwards, sounding really excited about singing with us and going to the Mod. As the night grew late and choir members began to slope off, the farewell catch phrase went round – Bye! See you at the Mod!

I was leaving the next day, to drive up the A9 to Carrbridge where I was to pick up Jennifer, then on to Ullapool to catch the afternoon ferry out to Stornoway in Lewis. It was to be an early start – well, for me, the night owl, 8.OO a.m. is early – but I was up and out in good time. The morning was pleasant and mild as I headed for Edinburgh city bypass and the Forth road bridge. Soon I was feeling the holiday spirit as I reached the Perthshire hills. The trees were beginning to show their autumn colours quite spectacularly the further north I travelled so by the time I reached the Kingussie area I decided to take a detour off the main A9 and travel a bit on the old road, so I could stop and tale a photo or two.

There was plenty of time before I had to meet Jennifer at Carrbridge, so I took another detour and found the ….. Centre by Loch …….. where they advertised woodland trails, canoeing, yachting, etc. as well as a restaurant and shop. The autumnal woodland trails were beautiful, the problem being there were so many directions to go in, which one to choose. I chose well, though I daresay if I had chosen a different path I would still have been delighted! Alongside the loch, through beech and oak woodland, the highlight was seeing a couple of tree creepers, birds I have never seen before. There’s no doubt that’s what they are as they do creep up the tree trunks, and fairly well camouflaged too, I have to say! Birdsong was all around and I could hear a robin or two, chaffinches, bluetits and great tits….. and they were just the ones I knew.

No time for a cup of tea but it wasn’t far to Carrbridge and I knew Jennifer would be up for having some lunch. She was waiting for me as I pulled up at the horse riding centre where she had spent the morning, and having packed her bags in the car we made for the cafe/gallery on Carrbridge main street for soup and a sandwich. Fed and watered, we were on our way again – just a brief stop at Dingwall for some groceries – arriving in Ullapool in good time. The ferry was late, but we were happy to wait. Ullapool is a pretty place and the harbour is always bustling. I even bumped into a former neighbour from Peebles!

Once the ferry had arrived and the incoming traffic disgorged, it was our turn to drive on to the car deck. With all the cars, motor bikes, campervans, sheep lorries, and food supply vans, it is quite a task to get everybody parked safely in the right spots, but eventually everyone was on board, and we were off, leaving Loch Broom to cross the Minch, the area of sea between the mainland and the Outer Hebrides. The Minch has a reputation for being a bit choppy, and let’s just say that although our crossing wasn’t too bad, I wouldn’t have liked to be in anything much smaller! It was a bit of a bumpy journey – and the ferry is not that small!

The crossing took about three hours, which we passed quite happily, having a bite to eat, chatting to various people including members of the Carloway choir, and having a snooze! Now, I mentioned Doyle learning the choir pieces by Skype, but the new Carloway choir have ALL learned their songs that way. Carloway is a small village on the west side of Lewis, the next village to where Jennifer has a house and croft – a smallholding, for want of a better word. Earlier in the year she came up with the idea that Carloway should have their own Gaelic choir - after all, Lewis is one of the main Gaelic speaking areas in the country - and brought the subject up with some of her friends and neighbours. It seemed there was a good lot of interest but not everyone with the connection to Carloway or the west side was actually still living there. One was in Dingwall, another in Oban. Two of the tenors were in Aberdeen and Inverness respectively ……and Mairi (MAAHree), who had volunteered to conduct the new choir, being a music teacher herself, lives in Somerset in England! So, on practice nights everyone got together on Skype to learn and practise with Mairi. Pretty novel, eh? Apart from a general gathering in August, the members didn’t get together again till Saturday – and on Saturday night gave a concert in Carloway Community Hall! What an achievement! They were excellent! I hope they do well on Thursday in their competition.

Well, we arrived in due course at Stornoway – in the dark - and took the road for the west, pulling into Jennifer’s drive-in around 10.00 p.m. On with the heating, a cup of tea brewed and supper eaten, it was time for bed! It had been a long day!

Talk again soon.

Farewell to Doune for another year

2011-10-11T19:54:00.001+01:00

Well, it had been another great week at Doune – lots of lace made, though not by me, good walks – I even managed the climb up the hill,

though this photo (right) was taken by Morag at the sheep fank. We had the most wonderful food,

lots of conversation and fun, good company, wonderful surroundings, and even the occasional beautiful sky.

We had rough seas

and calm seas,

sun

and rain,

and all too soon it was the end of the week and we found ourselves saying goodbye once again.

Our last night is usually Prawn night, and this year was no exception. Here’s Joan about to dig into the marvellous array of salads and the huge dish of local prawns….. A close up of the prawns, anyone?

After breakfast on the Saturday, our luggage loaded, and ourselves aboard Gripper, it was time to go. Steve threw off the mooring ropes and we were away, waving our goodbyes to Jane, Martin, Liz and Frances who had come to see us off. Soon we were bumping through the waves, leaving Doune behind……..

and in a while we were back in Mallaig.

I had one last photo to take – of Steve, our lovely young lad the boatman….and didn’t he blink just at the wrong moment! Shame! Hopefully he and Frances, his girlfriend, will be at Doune again next year, along with the fabulous folk who make Doune the most wonderful place for a holiday – and lace week. Thanks and love as always, to Liz and Andy, Martin and Jane, Steve and Frances. See you next year.

Talk again soon.

Now for the Fauna

2011-10-10T16:29:00.001+01:00

(I had hoped to get the Doune blogs finished by now, but have been holding off to see if I got permission to use a certain photo in this posting. However I’ve heard nothing back so I won’t be able to use the photo, more’s the pity. Never mind! I’ve also been pretty busy with loads of other stuff, so I’m sorry I’ve not been here for a while. By the way my Peebles blog is back! I haven’t been doing the photos but I have a guest photographer in the form of Iain Mackay.)

Well, fauna covers animals and insects, bugs and birds, so I guess I can include the Doune pets! You’ve seen Ron, the little black female dog belonging to Ewan, Liz’s son, so here’s Steve the boatman’s dog too – a rusty coloured Patterdale terrier with a Gaelic name. She’s called Eilean (AYlun) which means island. She’s a cute wee thing! Seems to like being on the boat – just as well, as she spends a lot of time on it – and would give you a heart attack to see her standing on the edge like this. Apparently she has been known to fall into the sea at times, but thankfully she didn’t while we were there. She and Ron are great friends!

Not quite pets, but not far off it, are the exceedingly free –range hens that wander at will, on the grass, through the heather and down on the shore amongst the seaweed, always grubbing up something tasty to eat.

This one is finding something good in the seaweed. Is this what makes the egg yolks so yellow they’re almost orange? Good source of iron too!

Outside the dining room windows are bird feeders which were very rarely without a chaffinch or two at them, attempting to polish off the peanuts. There was a bit of a queuing system – a pecking order? – so while waiting their turns we had the pleasure of having them sitting on the rail of the decking outside, watching us watching them.

I think these two photos have to be the best of the several I took, though I do rather like this one of the fluffy youngster. Strangely, there only seemed to be chaffinches around this year.

Down on the shore there were occasional gulls,but nothing else really. We have seen other LBJs

(Little Brown Jobs – small brown birds) on other occasions, just not this year!

Something else I didn’t see this year was the deer that came down to the front of the lodge during the night. Someone was up and about, looked out and spied the beast, and alerted one or two others, but they know not to bother waking me, as once I’m in my bed I don’t like getting out of it – even to see a deer! We never get good photos of the deer at night in the dark anyway.

On days when we went walking over to Dun Head and beyond, we quite often encountered these huge caterpillars among the grasses and wild flowers - some kind of moth, I believe. We call them hairy oobits! I did look them up once and keep meaning to do it again, but right now I’m not on-line, so it won’t be today! Sorry!

The highlight of the week though occurred one morning – not the best of days – but Steve had just headed out in the dingy to fetch Gripper from her mooring in to the pier, had rounded the point and was in the bay. Someone in the dining room, our work room, must have been looking out of the window and suddenly the shout went up “Dolphins!” Lacemaking was forgotten as we all leapt out of our seats to make for a window. There must have been five of them, and for the next twenty minutes we were treated to a tremendous display of leaps, twists and splashes, as Steve took the dingy in a roundabout journey around the bay encouraging them to follow, splashing his hand on the water to hopefully get them to jump into the air. It was fabulous, but sadly my photos were too blurred – with excitement? - to do anything with or by the time the shutter clicked it was too late and they had leapt and disappeared back into the water. This photo indicates the residual splash! Actually I did get one photo that was not bad!

Later, Marge and Lisbet did some little paintings of what we saw, though there weren’t quite as many dolphins as in Lisbet’s scene,(below) and they didn’t all jump at the same time! This is really a combination of the whole show. It was certainly quite a thrill to have been entertained by the dolphins , especially as it was only the third time all summer they had come into the bay!

So, I was going to continue to the end of my visit to Doune, but I think I have enough here for you to read and look at. I’ll post the last episode next time.

Talk again soon.

Flowers at Doune

2011-09-27T23:54:00.001+01:00

I’ve been to Doune at different times of the year, In spring the foxglove dominates the countryside, in summer it’s the wild orchid, and in autumn the blue scabious, such a pretty little flower on a long bare stem, grows in profusion, among the grasses and the meadow hawkweed.

These two small photos were just experiments with my camera, but I think they turned out well enough.

This year I found one or two white scabiouses that I don’t think I have seen before. The two together look very attractive.

This is the meadow hawkweed, quite like a dandelion but with a fine stem, and petals that are flatter at the tips, but still serrated .

Of course being the middle of September, the heather was still in flower. In fact even some earlier flowering bell heather was still in bloom. It usually puts in an appearance in early July whereas the ling blossoms later, in August.

Here’s some heather growing with some bog myrtle. Bog myrtle is quite good for keeping the midges at bay, midges, for the uninitiated, being tiny mosquito type insects that can be a positive pain in the neck in mild humid or damp situations. On the west there are millions of them – and even if they don’t bite (it’s only the females that do the biting), just their flying around you is enough to really hack you off! Kenneth McKellar, a very popular Scottish singer of the latter years of the 20th century, wrote a silly wee song about the midges…. describing them as having teeth like piranhas, and a friend says that it wouldn’t matter how many you killed, there would be thousands more that would come to the wake!

They really do seem to be particularly vicious on the west coast in summer, and those of you who, like me, are particularly tasty to the little….creatures, will be very grateful for some sprigs of bog myrtle around your person! You can crush the leaves and rub them on your face and arms, or simply tuck a small spring behind your ears! The little son of a friend of mine once heard his mum talking about bog myrtle and got hold of the wrong end of the stick. “Why’s it called bog mental?” he asked, and bog mental it has remained to us, ever since! That wee lad is now about 20!

Here are both types of heather growing together. The traditional Scots heather is calluna vulgaris, or ling, and a whole hillside of the stuff scents the air with honey. In fact heather honey is really the bees knees of honeys, if you’ll pardon my little joke there about the bees! Bell heather is named for its flower shape, its latin name though is Erica Cineria.

Unfortunately, these days,bracken is crowding the heather hills and choking it. It’s not ragwort that councils should be pulling out by the sides of roads, it’s the ever evasive bracken. I didn’t have the heart to uproot this tiny little bracken though!

These are just a few more of the flowers we encountered at Doune, cinque foil – from the five leaves - a tiny eyebright,

i don’t know the name of this one on the right, and couldn’t find it on the web. Anyone able to tell me?

This is our red clover,left,and below is a very late flowering sea thrift.

I’m pretty sure these are the seed heads of a couple of hawkweed flowers.

No yellow flower but this is the silver weed, the undersides of the leaves appearing silvery.

It wasn’t just flowers I photographed. I also managed to get some photos of tiny toadstools like these orangey yellow one and the tall thin black ones.

There were lots of fungi around this autumn.

Well, this was going to be Flora and fauna, but I think the fauna has to wait till next time! I’ve gone a bit overboard with the flowers. Anyway, hope you aren’t over bored!

Talk again soon.

exploring at Doune

2011-09-26T03:23:00.001+01:00

One afternoon, Morag and I decided to take a bit of a walk over to the other side of Doune Head, the headland being where the ancient prehistoric Dun or settlement had once been. Over that side there’s plenty more evidence of the old Doune, with ruins of cottages, overgrown field boundaries, and the lazybeds I mentioned last time.

You can see the boundaries quite clearly in both these pictures; cultivation plots in the one above and a ruined cottage in the one on the right. It is the best preserved cottage in the area, I think.

There’s also the old corn kiln, which I have photographed before, where the inhabitants of 17th/18th/19th century Doune would dry their grain before grinding it for flour or maybe for making beer. It is about 8 feet in diameter, about 2 feet high, and would have had a fire lit within the circle of stones, beneath a large dish-like object on which the grain would be spread. You do have to use your imagination a bit but the heather is growing on top of the circular walls and the dark hole would have been where the fire was stoked.

The land is very boggy so I expect the “Dounies” of old would have dug some drainage ditches. It’s also not very good land – you can see the amount of rock around - but the plots would have been built up and fertilised with seaweed, over many years.

Further on, and still near the shore is the stone-built sheepfold or fank, in Scots – from a Gaelic word – where the ‘post-1852 clearance’ sheep would have been gathered in at certain times during the year. You’ll probably have to enlarge this picture to see the outer wall of the fold on the left. It comprised a holding area from where the sheep could be separated into two smaller areas, and a narrow run that would allow the separated sheep to run out of the fank at the far end.

Well, the sheep are all gone now too. We didn’t see any around the Doune area. It’s a bit ironic!

From there we came down to the stony beach with its tiny bit of sand to look at rock pools - and look for stones, in my case! We met Marge on her solitary walk and all headed back to the lodge together, me lagging behind as usual to take photos.

the Cuillins over the Sound and beyond Sleat

Doune Head – pieces of the vitrified fort or settlement of Dun can be found up beside the rowan tree. In more recent history there was at least one cottage down on the shore

Ron in the sea at the beach in front of the lodge!

Later that evening we had one of our better sunsets, so I’ll sign off with that for now.

Talk again soon.

A recommendation

2011-09-24T21:51:00.001+01:00

Just a quick little post tonight to recommend a great blog I found recently and to whom I am going to award the Your Blog Rocks award! Katrina is from the west of Scotland, but lives on the east and is Pining for the West!

She writes mainly about books she has read, but also about places she has visited, Scots words, exhibitions, the weather, DVDs, films, cooking, crafts……….. there’s just SO much to dip into!

So I want you to have this award, Katrina – Your Blog Rocks!

I don’t believe it!

2011-09-24T02:03:00.001+01:00

PS to my PS at the end of tonight’s blog below this! I spent hours trying to get the layout right and every time I previewed it, it had all got tangled up, with pictures overlapping each other and script going in lines down between pictures, or getting hidden by the pictures! I kept going back and redoing it, and In the end when the preview looked as good as I’d got all night, which still wasn’t brilliant I posted the darn thing – with apologetic PS - and lo and behold, it printed out ALMOST perfectly! So the preview doesn’t always mean that’s how the post will look once it’s printed! I could scream! Anyway I hope you enjoy reading about the spectacular boat trip now. Keep scrolling down!