More from Doune

We really enjoyed our week at Doune, working on our lace for the most part,  but when we felt the need of some fresh air, we just took ourselves off for a wander, or in some cases a good long walk.  Lisbet walked to Inverie and back one day – we reckon she did about 16 miles that day - but the others made it a one way affair, coming back with Liz in the van after she had had a trip to the village.  That day I stayed back at Doune trying to catch up on the  lacemaking time I had lost by a) arriving a day later and b)leaving necessary working information at home and having to prepare something completely different!   I had climbed the hill half way another day without too much difficulty but I didn’t take a lot of persuading to stay behind after it had rained hard during the night, turning the hill path into a bit of a mudslide! 

Generally I did go out at some time each day to look for photo opportunities I hadn’t already found over 14 years of visits!

 

  This time I tried to be a bit more “arty” so I can submit my pics to our Photographic Group  and I wasn’t unhappy with some of the results. 

 

 

 

 

 

Rocks, seashore, wild flowers, boats, etc make quite good subject matter!

 

 

 

 

This is a small clump of foxgloves growing by the front step of a long gone cottage, its last occupants having been evicted along with the rest of the settlement, in the late 1840s, by its ruthless  landowner, to make way for a more profitable income in the shape of sheep and deer.  There is something poignant in the flowers blooming here.

 

This is goosegrass, or as we know it “Sticky Willie” growing amongst the stones on the beach above the tide line.  As kids we’d have great fun with sticky willie , tying to stick it on our friends’ backs so that they were quite unaware of it!

Back to the rocks, and grasses growing with a tiny stonecrop plant. The boat in the water is  Gripper II, one of the Doune boats. 

 

I love the softness of this photo looking  across the Sound of Sleat to the long southern arm of the Isle of Skye.

So there we are for today.  I’ll have more pictures and stories from Doune next time too!!!

Talk again soon.

Mallaig and Knoydart once more.

I left Dunkeld earlish on the morning after the wedding and had breakfast in Pitlochry.  Being Sunday the A9 was quiet so I managed to zip up to Dalwhinnie and turned off on the Fort William road, before reaching the Road to the Isles (to Mallaig).  It’s really is a beautiful run!  Who needs to go anywhere else other than Scotland when the weather is good…  but then you don’t come to Scotland for the weather!

Reaching Mallaig in good time, Mary Doune and Skipper Andy had already arrived in the harbour (photo above) so it wasn’t long before I and my luggage were on board and we were off to Doune, round the second headland in the photo below. The crossing was easy, maybe a bit bumpy as the weather had deteriorated somewhat during the morning.  Anyway, Mary Doune being a faster boat than Gripper, our usual transport, we were soon in sight of our destination – and joy of joys, the tide was high enough for us to go right in to the pier – no decanting into the RIB in the middle of the bay, as has happened often before!!!    Liz met me off the boat and together we walked along the path to the Stone Lodges, where the rest of the group were already into the swing of their lacemaking, having arrived the day before!  Yes, it’s the long awaited Lace Week again!  Wonderful!  We all look forward to this week, peace and quiet, no TV, no phones ringing – that we have to answer anyway- no traffic, with the nearest road being almost a mile up the hillside, and then it’s only a 7 mile stretch from Inverie to Airor, so only the occasional local vehicle uses it.  If the weather is good we make lace part of the day and maybe go out for part, walking or just pottering about!.  If the weather is bad we make more lace! 

After a sandwich lunch – homemade bread rolls – I got my lace stuff out, only to find I had left at home my notes and working diagram for the piece of lace I had planned to do!  Time for a rethink, and Margaret came up with the pattern she was working, which I was happy to have a go at!  It meant a lot of preparation I had done already for the other pattern, but soon I was ready – not quite the same day – to get started, and through the rest of the week I worked a reasonable amount.  Here’s the sample pattern – we call it a pricking because we prick the pattern’s pin holes in the card before starting.  The red line is the path of outlining threads or gimps, a bit thicker than the working thread, so you can see the pattern looks like a water lily!  The threads on the bobbins are woven to form the designs over the top of the card - which is fastened to a solid lace ‘pillow’ - and are held in place by the pins, till we have worked enough length not to be pulled out of shape if we remove the pins.  This is how it will look….  I didn’t get the whole flower done.  I’d say I worked a quarter of it!  Don’t say, “Is that all?” It’s pretty labour-intensive… takes a long time and lots of concentration!  This is what I would like to do  in the future… 

 

 

a  hexagon of waterlilies!  There’s too much chattering to concentrate at our own lace group, and I have far too many other things to be doing during the week that I think I will have to book for all Linda’s  lace courses (in Kintyre) next year to get it done!  Then of course there’s also the pattern I originally wanted to do!

We had one new lacemaker – well, maybe I should say two!    One was Karin, a local lady from Inverie who came up for a couple of days,  and

Karin  <<<<<

Liz with Lauren>>>>

the other was Lauren, a member of staff  at Doune, a student of fabric art, who “had a go” during her time off!  I ended up teaching Karin who did very well, and Liz taught Lauren the type of lace she herself does, Honiton, very fine and to me, fiddly!  Lauren was amazing though!

The others in the group were  Margaret , Norma,  Joan,

 

Sheila <<<,Janet  >>> 

 

and though not a lacemaker, very much part of our group, Lisbet, who we met some years ago, and got on so well with.  She hasn’t been able to join us since then but every year she sends us greetings and a bottle of wine for our last night’s dinner!  It was with great delight that we greeted the news she was joining us this year!  She sketches and paints, and we all find we are included in her little book!  With paint box and bottle of water in one hand, sketch book on her knee, she colours her pen and ink sketches - of us, things she sees on her walks, views… she’s like me with my camera, recording the memories, but in such a lovely way!

Well this has turned out longer than I intended today, but I hope you are still with me at this point!  More about our week in Knoydart next time.

Talk again soon.

Home again, but not for long! Oops! this should have been posted before the wedding one! This is the last of the Skye blogs!

That night as we ate supper we watched the clouds forming like a blanket over the mountain in the distance.  It seemed to be hugging the shape of it as it rolled over. It looks like snow!  Amazing!  Janet wanted to look closer so she and I and Ian jumped into the car and shot off down to Glenbrittle again. 

The cloudy mountain must have been further south as when we drove to the end of the road again, we had lost the cloudy peak and got the most magnificent view of the sun shining on the Cuillin!

It certainly made up some for not having got to see Loch Coruisk, earlier!  Once again on our return to Carbost, the amount of cloud in the west was enough to hide the setting sun.  No more west coasts sunsets for me….. for now…..

So that was my last day in Skye.  Next morning I said my goodbyes to the gang, took the road back to Armadale, the ferry back to the mainland, and the rest of the road home, and now I am preparing for my next “adventure”, but more of that anon!

Talk again soon.

The Wedding of the Year!

I’ve been off on my travels again, starting with the Wedding of the Year, a week ago last Saturday! !  As Bee herself put it, the geriatric wedding of the year! Huh!  Bee’s not yet 60 and Donaidh, Gaelic spelling of Donnie, has a couple of years till he collects his pension!

It was a beautiful wedding- in Dunkeld cathedral,  Bee wore a beautiful ivory coloured dress with a long train,  pearl buttons and flowers down the back, and a chiffony over-blouse in – well I don’t know what colour you’d call it, but you can see it in the photograph and leave me a comment telling me what colour it is, if you like!   Anyway, she looked great and very very happy!   Her tall willowy, long legged daughter was a bridesmaid, one of four, and they were followed down the aisle by four little flower girls in matching summer frocks, and two young kilted pageboys!

Donaidh, resplendent in tartan trews and black highland dress jacket, actually looked nervous as he waited for his bride-to-be to join him, but by the time they exchanged vows, his nerves seemed to have gone.  There was real depth of  feeling there as they spoke their vows, gazing into each others’ eyes.  At last Fraser declared them to be man and wife,  and after his blessing, the bride and groom sealed their marriage with a long smoochy kiss at which everyone clapped with delight!   Some of my photos turned out quite blurry so I added filters to improve the look.  Hope you like this one!

Both Bee and Donaidh have sung in Gaelic choirs in the past, and have a big love for the language and culture so included in their wedding service were a blessing, a Bible reading and a song in Gaelic.  The latter was sung in four parts by a quartet, and was a song I could hum along to being one that I sang in the Lothian Celtic Gaelic choir in the 70s – an t-eilean muileach, the Isle of Mull.  More interestingly, a Romanian friend gave a “together” type of poem in her own language, translated verse by verse by her Scottish husband, and Bee’s son and daughter, with two of their friends, played on their fiddles a very poignant little tune written by their mum in memory of their younger brother who died at birth.  It was very beautiful.

Later, as the bride and groom returned from the vestry having signed the necessary legal documents, the waiting piper inflated his bagpipes and began to play, and accompanied by a  drummer,

 

 

 

led the new Mr and Mrs back up the aisle.  The tune was a popular one and related totally to the location - Highland Cathedral.   (Click here to find website then click Play Now)

We all filed out behind them and followed Brenda and Donnie to the bank of the River Tay for photographs.

 

The two enjoyed every moment of the photography session, ribald comments flying back and forward between friends and the couple.  I think it was the happiest wedding I have ever been to. 

So eventually Mr and Mrs McC climbed into the wedding car and headed off to Amulree for their “Hoolie in the Hills,

 

 

with the tin cans tied to the back rattling along the road behind them!

  We all followed along the lovely road to Amulree.  What a beautiful setting – and what a lot of cars!  They were parked everywhere spilling out of the car park and away along the road to Kenmore.

 

It’s quite an isolated hamlet in amongst the Perthshire hills, but it was here the couple had decided to hold their reception.  

 I wish I could remember what quip Donaidh came out with as he brought his new wife through the doorway!   By the look of things it was aimed at Bee!

After a lovely meal there were the speeches – and as  Donaidh is a great speechmaker, raconteur and comedian, we were soon all laughing at the stories he told about Bee. However, he did add later that he’d married his best friend!  After the best man had made almost as amusing a speech about Donaidh, Bee took her turn.  She wasn’t going to let the guys away with all their nonsense, she said.  Her words were in a song, she told us, and  to the tune of " O Danny boy”, she gave us a very funny” O Donaidh boy”, in which she mentioned all his bad habits – the snoring, his love of football, and sport on TV, how he had turned her hair grey, etc. but at the end, “I’ll live with that, fur Donaidh boy, I love – ye - so!”  Awwwwwwww!

and this was Donaidh’s reaction!  Up on his feet as quick as wink, arms about his wife, and a long smooch!

Again, awwwwwww! 

 

Well, the tables were cleared and the dancing began!  Of course the bride and groom took the floor for the first waltz, soon followed by other guests. 

The band was terrific – just a group of youngsters on fiddles and guitars – but what a sound!  They played for the first half of the night for various Scottish dances like  The Gay Gordons" (Happy Highlanders!) and Strip the Willow, or more likely the version called Drops of Brandy – usually a bit of a riotous affair -  as well as the Military two Step, Barn Dances  and waltzes.  It was a lot of fun.

Later there was a disco and lots of 60s and 70’s music. which everyone danced to as well.

Normally the bride and groom leave their reception early to head for their honeymoon, but Bee and Donaidh weren’t going away anywhere,  so eventually guests began to leave, and I went home with Bee’s Canadian cousins.  She was planning on throwing her wedding bouquet just after we left so I didn’t see which of the youngsters caught it.  I rather hoped Cally, the young lass I sat opposite at the meal, would be the one!  She and her fiance will be getting married this autumn.

Well, I am sure it was a night to remember for a while in Amulree – the night of Brenda’s and Donald’s wedding.  Sounds like there should be a song there somewhere!  And if you don’t already know the two dances I mentioned above then watch them by clicking their names and finding them on U tube.  Next Scottish wedding you go to you could be the expert!

Talk again soon.