Winter sun

We have had some lovely sunsets recently, but the night before last really took the biscuit!  I first

noticed that the sky outside my window was rather pink with fluffy little clouds!  

My room is south-facing, so that was a bit of a clue that the sunset was going to be something special, so out with the camera and headed for the front door for a view towards the west.  This was the view from the garden.

  

A bit of a purple sky but the orange colours were more to the left, rather hidden by the buildings.  So, making sure my phone was in my pocket, in case the gasman called to say he was on his way to fix my central heating boiler, i climbed the steps to the High Street, and took a picture of the church with coloured sky behind.

The view from the bridge round the corner would be better, so that was my next destination, only a couple of minutes away.  Yes, the colours were better!

This was a zoomed in shot of a similar view as the one below.

Back at home, i went to put a picture on Facebook, but I'd been pipped at the post.  Several others had got there before me with some fantastic shots.

The first photo was actually taken at Doune in Knoydart on the west coast.  They'd had the sunset too!

The point of land across the water on the right is the southern tip of Sleat on Skye.  Behind that is the Isle of Rum, with its high mountain peaks.  The west coast is renowned for its sunsets, so this doesn't disappoint!  I've taken a few Doune sunset photos over the years, but this is better than any I've done.

Then I found Sandra's picture.......

and Tommy's........

and Teri's.  She actually put up three beautiful shots

Here are the other two.....

Photos kept trickling in to my Facebook page.  Here's one from Edinburgh, about 25 miles north of Peebles!

 And one  taken over the River Forth, by Claire Dalrymple

There were some even from Donegal on the west of Ireland.  We'd all experienced something special!

By the way, if you remembered back at the beginning, i mentioned that i was waiting for the gasman come to fix the central heating boiler.  He was supposed to phone?  Well, he didn't, and he never turned up!

Talk again soon.

 

Winter and some lace

Yes, winter has arrived!  We had the first snow a few days ago, and it is cold with a capital C-O-L and D!  Daytime temperatures are around 0 - 2 degrees Celsius,  the low 30s Fahrenheit, and while I know it’s not as cold as it is in America for example, for us it is pretty cold.  I went to West Linton the other day, not too far away, and stopped to take a photo on the way over and another on the way home.  The countryside is just so pretty, as long as the roads are clear! 

The light was beginning to go on my journey back so my car headlights were on, as you can tell from the photo on the right.

We don’t get temperatures as low as they used to be when I was a child.  Our local duckpond was always frozen over sufficiently for it to be used for skating.  The ice had to be at least 8 inches deep all over before anyone was allowed on the ice.  I came across this photo of a game of curling on the frozen river Tweed, that was taken probably in the 1950s.  A few years ago there was ice beginning to form on the river but nothing like this has happened for several decades.

Anyway, I haven’t had a chance to show you pictures of some of the lace on display at the Edinburgh Lace Day way back in October.  The Edinburgh Lacemakers hold an Open Day, mainly for other lacemakers, every October, and as well as stalls selling lace threads, bobbins, books etc, there is always a display of the lace made by the club members.  I took photos of several of the pieces on display, demonstrating the different styles of lace that is worked by the group.  Everyone has their favourite style, whether it be one of the four styles of English lace to the European countries’ styles.

It is extremely hard to make those little leaves, and they say you have to make 200 of them before you can call yourself a lacemaker.  Well, a lacemaker made this, that’s for sure.  These are beautiful.  Actually I have the feeling that this just could be my sister’s work!, though I could be wrong.

This one is a sampler.   I started this pattern myself years ago but never finished it!  This is excellent!

 

 

 

So is this piece.  I’d say this is quite complicated to work, but it’s beautiful.

 

 

I just adore this piece.  I first saw the pattern in a lace magazine and it was in colour.  Oh how much I wanted to make it myself!  However there were various techniques I had never tried before and I knew I night need a lot of help, certainly at the beginning, so I never even got started with it!  Here’s a closer look at the flower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So far all of these pieces have been worked in white, a very traditional colour, along with an off-white called Ecru, but there were also pieces in colour which can really make a pattern zing!

This motif inspired a bookmark and a decorative edging  for a runner, while the next piece could well have been dyed with its lace edging already in situ.

 

 

 

 

 

This purple design was stunning, and again, look at the petals of the flower.  Worked in the same way the leaves were in the first picture, these flowers are “something else”!

I believe it was actually a  neclace design. .  Perfectly beautiful!         Yes, here is the complete necklace.

 

 

this was one piece out of a set, the hairpiece/hat in black and red, accompanied by the  shoe accessories and the handbag.  Someone  worked hard on these.

 

 

 

Here’s another piece of traditional white lace, a bookmark, perhaps.  It’s another quite complicated piece.

and this is part of a wallhanging, worked in a variety of styles and patterns.

 

 

 

 

Years ago, when I was a member of the Edinburgh Lace Club, everyone made a circular piece of lace with their name attached, to be part of a club project, for a table cover for special occasiions.  This was my effort, and this next one, my sister’s.  It was nice to see the cloth still used, and our lace displayed.

 

 

 

this is a piece of Carrickmacross lace, worked as two layers, hand stitched  round the central and outside white sections then one  layer in berween cut away to leave the net as a contrast to the design.

This was an amusing and clever little picture of some spiders, with two spiders seemingly escaping from the picture.  I did like it!

There were a few others I took photos off , but I hope the lacekaers will   understand   that I can’t upload every shot I took!    I hope you have enjoyed seeing these ones.

Talk again soon.

Thank you.

 

Thank you to all my readers for sticking with me throughout the year.  We’ve just celebrated a winter Christmas, but some of you will be celebrating in the warmth of summer, and it won’t necessarily be Christmas.

 

 

 

 

Talk again soon.

An autumn walk along the Swale

Before we get too far into the winter season, I must show you some photos of a river walk, not along Tweed this time, but along the Swale in Yorkshire.  When I lived in Yorkshire for a few years my house was about 100 yards from the upper reaches of the river Swale, but this walk was further downstream, from Easby Abbey up to Richmond and back – a round trip.  http://where2walk.co.uk/yorkshire_dales/walks_through_history/easby-abbey-from-richmond/

It was a beautiful day as we drove up from CB’s house to Easby, on my last visit.  As we came down through Abbey wood, there were the ruins of the 12th century Easby Abbey, a sizeable group of buildings, destroyed in the 16th century after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII.

We parked in the Abbey car park and began our walk along a little lane, leaving it further on, to walk down a field, past St Agatha’s House then  through the gate onto the riverside path through the trees.

Buster, the collie dog, came with us, and he had fun chasing the sticks we threw for him, while we walked and talked along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

The trees were beautiful, beginning to turn to autumn browns and yellows, a bit behind the trees further north at home.

 

 

 

 

There has been a fair amount of erosion along the path nearer to Richmond and we found these exposed tree roots, hanging on to the banking.

Soon we were approaching Richmond and could see the old  church of St Mary’s ahead.  When I was little, and we were staying with Richmond friends of my mother’s, Dad often used to take time to travel into Darlington by train to make calls to certain booksellers who sold some of his firm’s publications, such as ready reckoners, contour road books, and even a couple of astronomy books.  I was eventually allowed to walk with Dad from where we stayed, down through St Mary’s churchyard and on to the station, to wave goodbye to him as he left on the train for the day in some “shadowy big town far away”.  Well, if you were going by train it had to be far away.

The train doesn’t run between Darlington and Richmond any more, the line closing in 1969 and the station with listed building status became a garden centre.  A swimming pool was built in one of the railway buildings and nowadays the Station is a sort of an Arts Centre, with two cinemas, a restaurant, various rather lovely retail outlets, a brewery, a cheese maker’s, a heritage centre and art gallery.

Before we reached the station though we still had a bit to walk, under the old Station Bridge  (We are looking back at the bridge here, at the side which was washed away by storms some years ago.  It’s repaired now and looking as good as ever).and up to where the Gas works used to be, past the falls and on a bit further to visit some friends who live beside the Swale.

After a pleasant visit with Mike and Ruth, we came back to the Falls, and made our way to the Station, having crossed the bridge,  where the next section of our walk was along the old railway bed.

Dad would have had some nice views from the train all those years ago. We saw Easby Abbey with Easby Hall behind it across the river but had to walk further along to another bridge then double back to where we had parked the car. 

I think Easby Hall is a guest house or Boutique hotel these days. Nice looking building. 

 

So there we were!  Back in the car it was only a short drive back home again.  I’m enjoying being able to walk greater distances than recently!  I wonder where the next walk will be!

Talk again soon.