More notelets!

 It was back in March that I made a few notelets with some ribbon and some stickers, and as these have now all been used up I thought I would make some more.  There's a tiny but more to these ones than just a sticker and a ribbon, but not much. I was however very pleased with them. That's a dozen blank cards used up, ditto a set of flower stickers someone sent me in a letter recently, also some card and ribbon.

Some might call them plain, I prefer to say they demonstrate my 'spare aesthetic' (ROFL). I like some more than others, and the rabbit is really not me! but it was a relaxing way to spend some time. Sadly I also realised I need another paper trimmer and/or mini guillotine, but given the rate at which Hobbycraft send me vouchers that's not going to break the bank! 
 

July Wool stats and finshed stuff

 Getting this in early as we have another grandchild visitation day today; just one of them and he will be wanting to play Caesar IV on my computer.

I'm aware that it's almost time to review August and I have yet to do the July post. That's not just because it doesn't make pretty reading although there might be an element of that in it. The thing is that we're very busy now that we've moved and I just don't have the same amount of time for crafting as I did. Maybe things will change in the winter months when we spend more time indoors. 

Meanwhile - yarn in 450g, yarn out 224g. The yarn in was the Little Grey Cells club that I get every quarter plus the Irish Artisan Yarn mystery bag. The LGC is half used up so that's something. Still, net increase for the month was 226, making the overall decrease for the year 5606. It doesn't help that I'm working on some time consuming projects and I don't count the yarn I use in them until they're finished. Ah well, onwards and upwards. Or, |I suppose in this instance, preferably downwards! 

After the puny effort that was finished projects in June - 1 pair of socks if you remember, I managed to double that in July and make two pairs. 

This was all yarn I bought on my Lay Family yarn retreat. The top pair are for me and used a very small part of a 100g skein plus 3 minis from a five mini set that I bought. The lower pair are for the OH; I hadn't realised when I bought this that it was a 70g sock set so I ended up playing yarn chicken. I did have some other yarn I could have used to pop in an extra stripe at the end of the foot and which wouldn't have looked out of place had I had needed to, but I was glad I didn't. Note to self; always check weight of sock yarn sets! 

I did of course make the rag wreath and I've also been doing some scrapbooking and card making so I suppose my craft time is spread more thinly over more crafts. As for the cross stitch I didn't touch the little lavender thing, with which I have got totally bored. I'm almost sure I didn't do any work on the Earth Dancer in July either. I did however look out some fabrics and threads and make a start on one of the charts I bought while I was away in Shropshire - it's  sad at my age to still be always distracted by the new shiny thing! 

That was one busy week ....

 but first, here is the picture of the Kandinski yarn that somehow didn't appear on yesterday's post. I did put it in there but obviously missed a click at some important point. 

So, I mentioned our visit to Stirling castle and covered the film. Next up was the Scottish deer centre which sounded fabulous but in the event was expensively disappointing. I knew they no longer had wolves, although the word on the street is that they will have some again shortly - I won't be going back to see them. I love wolves, but honestly, it would take more than the promise of a possible wolf sighting to drag me back. Grandson no 2 was all excited at the prospect of the lynx, the otters and the brown bears, none of which deigned to put in an appearance, although we did catch sight of a few wildcats and he got to feed some deer. Also to use one of the play areas and get a ride on an electric go-kart. Both feeding the deer and the go-kart were extra. We'd given him the choice of this place or the Scottish owl centre and honestly I think we'd all have enjoyed the owls much more. That said he seemed pretty pleased with his day so who are we to complain? 

Another day was so hot that we just stayed inside, venturing out in the evening for a short local walk

We went to Doune Castle, also a very hot day. Doune Castle was featured in a Monty Python film, also Outlander. It  claims to have been used for filming of Game of Thrones too which surprised me, but it turns out that it was used in the never broadcast pilot, so I don't really think that counts. It was too hot for me to appreciate the place properly but I wouldn't mind going back another time for a proper look when it's cooler. It has a couple of spiral staircases and I discovered recently that they are  a long way from being my favourite thing; when I was younger and had better eyesight they were nothing but fun, but these days I just see them as   vertiginous opportunities for broken ankles. 

Our last day we spent at Edinburgh Zoo. At the risk of sounding like a miserable old bat I have to say that Zoos are not favourite places either these days, but this was a special request. Grandson No 2 had done a school project on a thing called a Pallas's cat, and was disappointed that he couldn't be taken from Toronto to Boston Zoo, which was the nearest place that actually had one. So we were asked to take him to Edinburgh Zoo where they also have one. They are generally nocturnal and we were warned by Zoo staff that our chances of seeing one were low; 'just keep going past at regular intervals is your best bet' was the advice we got , but in the end  we were in luck, as the thing was out on our first pass, and stayed out and moved around a bit as well. This photo was taken by the OH - it's better than any of the many I took. 

The penguin photo of two little rockhoppers however is all mine! 

It was a long day because we went by public transport which meant a train and a bus in both directions. However it was worth it as it meant we got the grandsons into the Zoo free. And thanks to a current Scotrail promotion we got their return train tickets for £1.00 each. 

I am still not quite 100% recovered although definitely getting there. Managed a few chores and a trip out today. The trip out was registration day for the local U3A, but I was a bit disappointed that there was no-one there to give me any help with most of the groups I'd be interested in joining.  There was a man who organises the Wee Walks Group, but when I stopped to ask him if their wee walks were circular he said yes they were but the group was full.  He did add that they were looking to see if they had the numbers to start a second group so I suppose I might hear something about that over the next couple of weeks. The lady at the stall for Literature, Reading and  Writing, knew nothing about any of the groups the heading covered except her own thing, which was creative writing, so that wasn't much use.  I wasn't impressed with the overall  organisation of the event at all tbh, but I'm trying not to rush to judgement. 

I'd like to think that from next week we could start what I would think of as 'normal life' here, but September looks so busy that I suspect we won't. I want to find somewhere where I can swim regularly, I need to sort out an exercise class and possibly some Pilates as well, and get fixed days once a week for a walk and a trip out to a place of interest. Ah well, maybe October for that then! 

 

Happy Mail

The grandsons are gone;   more on that story later, as they used to say on Dead Ringers when it was still funny and therefore I still listened to it. The visit  was a lot less bad than we had feared and some of it was even fun but gosh! children are tiring. especially talkative ones who think they know everything. 

Anyway, we're still in recovery mode - and mine was not helped by getting bitten or stung this morning by some horrible little flying thing that sunk its teeth, or sting, into the back of my my neck and then flew away sharpish before I had a chance to identify it. We were on our way into Hobbycraft at the time; when we came out  we went off to find a pharmacy for some antihistamine ointment. This  turned out to be a case of Boots 0 - Tesco 1; a surprise result as the football commentators say. I cannot really get my head round the concept of a large Boots without a pharmacy counter but take it from me, there's one in Falkirk. The Hobbycraft trip was a score draw I think; they did have safety eyes, a Styrofoam wreath for Christmas and some fat quarters of very nice Christmas fabric. They didn't have self adhesive ribbon, or a pushy tool for rag wreath making or any 2mm dpns, but I can manage without the first two if needed and I'm sure I can find some of the latter if I look hard enough. And they weren't urgent. 

Once we came back I washed some towels, read a bit, knitted a bit, cross stitched a bit, and paper crafted a bit and I am slowly coming back to myself. Another couple of days and we'll be back to normal. 

And now for the happy mail. I got two months together of the Yarn Unique Artist of the Month club for reasons that are too long and too boring to go into. 

Here is June's 

I loved this, The artist is Hiroshi Yoshida. Beautiful yarn, and postcards and a cherry blossom bag. The bag is a bit small tbh, not sure what I could use it for, but I'll find something. 

And this was July - yarn and notecards based on the work of Kandinski. I really liked these too, just  not quite as much as June's.

To spur me on to have a proper go at the sewing machine I bought a small quilting kit from someone on Ravelry and that arrived on Monday

When I say small I mean teeny tiny, which I hadn't quite appreciated when I bought it, but I'm going to have a go at it next week. 

Should manage to get back here tomorrow with some photos of our adventures during the last week. 

Postcard from the Edge

 Our grandsons arrived on Tuesday evening for a week's stay. 

This gives me little opportunity to blog, since we're either busy doing stuff, or my laptop is commandeered by Young People who Need a Screen. 

Yesterday we went to Stirling Castle. It was very hot.  Also as we went round we coincided with a group of 4 young children (all, from the look of them under the age of seven) who were the most badly behaved kids  I've ever encountered.  And shame on their parents who looked complacently on while their offspring shrieked, yelled, swore and tried to destroy things. After the castle, we went out for  a meal which was both expensive and horrible.  

Today we went to the cinema at the behest of grandson No 2 who was keen to see a film called Legend of the Ochi. He enjoyed it which was one consolation for having to go and see it. The other was that my brother-in-law had given me a cinema voucher for my birthday so the amount of real money spent on seeing it  was negligible. If you were to ask me whether you should go and see it, my answer would be if you have an alternative, up to and including having a tooth out without anaesthetic, go for the alternative. I may vent about this in greater detail at a later date. Or I may not. 

I think it would be true to say that I am quite tense just now although making valiant efforts not to show it. Some efforts, despite the valiancy ( is that a word - probably not, but I'm sure it's understandable for all that ) are unsuccessful. It is hard, when you have been told that your visitors-to-be 'love snacks' to discover that everything you bought as snacks they turn up their noses at. Also I don't appreciate having a teenage visitor come and tell me that 'it was teatime half an hour ago'. The way I see it unless it's your house, or you've offered to make the tea yourself, tea time is when I say it is. It's not like I was making them wait until midnight. 

Tomorrow we are off to the Scottish Deer Centre, which has deer, lynx, wildcats, otters and all sorts of other wonderful things and I think it should be fun - although not as much fun as it would have been if they still had wolves. 

No idea when I'll be back here but anyone wanting to send 'thoughts and prayers hun' is very welcome to try. 

Well, that was a nice day....

We went into Stirling on Saturday; dove to the Park and Ride and then got the bus. We wanted to check out the new Sostrene Grone shop that opened in Stirling on Friday. I'd never heard of Sostrene Grone until last November when we wandered into their shop in Chambery and bought a couple of small things but we we very taken with it, so it was good news that they were planning one so local to us. 

It was very busy, which I suppose you would expect on Day 2. After shuffling round ( like IKEA it's a one way, go past everything we sell layout - although one doughty couple were en fact wandering around anticlockwise which was, you know, an achievement in the circumstances, but one which was very annoying to almost everyone  else in the shop.

After that we walked up to the Castle. We are having the grandsons to stay shortly, in fact they are arriving tomorrow evening, and Stirling Castle is one of the places we're planning to take them so we wanted to do a brief recce before then. The castle is strategically placed on top of a very large and steep hill and by the time we got to the castle gate we were both so exhausted we knew it would be a waste of time actually going in.  We  were too tired to walk around it. So we bought ourselves an ice cream instead, and sat on a defensive wall* and discussed the likelihood of getting the boys up the hill, the verdict being Not A Chance. Fortunately we had noticed a different park and ride bus which goes up the hill almost to the top, so come the day, we'll be catching that. 

*I want to say rampart, but I'm not 100% sure that I know exactly what a rampart is, so I'm gong with wall, rather than risk making an idiot of myself

Once we'd recovered we wandered back into town. I visited the library to see  if they had anything I might like to borrow before Bloody Scotland next month, and they did, and then we walked back to the bus station via another quick dip into Sostrene Grone, this time to buy something I'd been delighted to spot when we had our first look round. 

Photos.

The Wallace Monument from the castle walls. 

Three (hopefully) good reads and two packets of liquorice fudge, unfindable for many many months. Hooray! 

A Walk from a Book

I didn't mention our first trip to Dollar, which was long before the fund raising strawberry tea;   well -  I say long before, it was after the move, so long before is a relative term really. Anyway we went to check out the bookshop. I'd been told it was fantastic and it is indeed very good, and there's a cafe attached with nice cake and good coffee. They also had a small selection of Yoshi goods, so the OH got treated to a new keyring and some nice jigsaws and I treated myself to one of those. 

We also bought a Walk Book. because when you move somewhere new, that's what you do isn't it?  'Weekend walks in Stirling and Falkirk'  it was called and it seemed just the ticket. Alas I had not realised when it said weekend walks the vast majority of them would take me a whole weekend to do. 

I'm joking. but it's a long time since I did any regular walking of any length and when I looked through the book to mark walks of 2.5 kms or less as a starting point there were very very few. And most of them had the word 'steep'  somewhere in their description. And that's really quire off putting. 

But anyway last weekend, the weather being lovely, we decided to do one of the walks and the OH, who was given the choice went for one  that was rather longer then 2.5 km, but was at least basically on the flat and on a well marked footpath, it said. And it was. It was at a place we'd often passed signs to; the Gartmond Dam country park. The walk is basically a big circle around a reservoir created by a dam which a local bigwig built, not to create a reservoir and therefore a guaranteed water supply for the local villages, but to stop his mines from flooding. The water supply thing was an unlooked for, and happy, consequence. 

Lots of birds, lots of trees and some wonderful views of the hills in the background. So even though the walk  made my back ache it was a very enjoyable afternoon. 

We saw this heron

there was an island, just ripe for the Famous Five, or possibly the Swallows and Amazons to have an adventure on

There were, as promised, beautiful views of the hills

tree trunks on which to practice my Dorling Kindersely photography addiction 

 and as we came away, many sleepy ducks!

More walk reports as we do them. 

Ah well, Happy Birthday to me

Today is my birthday and we had plans. Actually ages ago  we had a Plan A that we changed at someone else's request to  Plan B,  and then Plan B got changed on us a week ago, so we sorted out a Plan C,  and Plan C was put paid to by Storm Floris. Seems the universe isn't keen for me to celebrate my birthday this year. Perhaps it's telling me to save up the celebrations  for next year's Big One. Maybe. 

However there were beautiful flowers

I don't think we have been without flowers since we moved in for one reason or another which is lovely. 

There was Icelandic inspired Danish chocolate coated liquorice , in various flavours, which I love.

And there were cards and other presents and it's been an OK day, but really I just wish we had been able to carry out Plan C. I thought we had left wind compromised plans behind us when we left Orkney, but it seems not. 

So Much to Catch Up On....

 So there was always the blog paradox, which was that when you were doing things you were too busy to blog about them, and when you weren't busy there was nothing to blog about. And now there's another consideration in the mix which is that I don't have my computer on nearly as much as I used to. In Orkney I would tend to switch it on when I got up and it stayed on most of the day  ( I hate to think of all the time I 'wasted' but on the other hand there wasn't so very much to do instead ) whereas nowadays I tend to switch it on just when I want  to do something specific. So those moments when I thought 'what shall I do now, oh I know, I'll write  a blog post' just don't happen any more. 

So there's  a place we've been to twice recently and I'll conflate the two trips into one post. This is the Doune Art and Antiques Centre ( yes, as seen on Antiques Road Trip,  and also recommended to me lots of times by local friends). 

It's huge and it's stuffed full of stuff and it's great fun to walk around, although a bit like Art Galleries, after the first hour you're a bit overwhelmed by it all. We'd been told the cafe was excellent; we didn't have lunch there but we did have  a drink and a cake. It was a very hot day and this was my, very impressive,  elderflower presse

I've discovered that elderflower can range from delicious to practically tasteless so it's always a bit of a gamble when you order it, but this one was definitely at the delicious end of the spectrum. As was the honeycomb cheesecakes which I see has been edited out of the photograph except for a teeny tiny corner. The OH had a coffee and a piece of Bakewell tart and they were good too apparently. 

On the way we had seen signs to the David Stirling memorial and decided that we would have a look at it on the way back. We had absolutely no idea who David Stirling was but it turns out that he founded what became the SAS. While I'm not a fan of knee jerk, 'let's put up a statue' type memorials, this was rather more well thought out with pieces of stone representing some of the terrain the newly formed unit worked in,  and as they were largely operating in North Africa to begin with it was yet another link to good old George who fought there too, although not in anything as prestigious  as the SAS. 

The man himself. 

                    and a memorial for the Long Range Desert Group which was the SAS forerunner

There were beautiful views of the surrounding countryside too, it really is in a stunning location.  

A couple of things had caught my eye when we had been walking round - well, let's be honest, lots of lovely things had caught my eye, none of which we needed but one of them that I couldn't get out of my mind was this 

now doing duty as a bedside table for me. Not one for the non-fantasy fans obviously, but I loved it and I did actually need  a bedside table. 

We also need mirrors. This house had no mirrors of any description, not in the bathrooms, not on the front of bathroom cabinets (also conspicuous by their absence when we moved in  along with towel rails!) and not on the door of the otherwise excellent built in wardrobes. I'd seen a mirror that I thought would go nicely in the bedroom, a plain-ish one with a narrow gold frame and a little Greek key detail round the edge. I'd also seen one that I loved but doubted  would 'go'; a circular  Arts and Crafts one which could have come straight out of an illustration for Sleeping Beauty. Guess which one we came away with? 

Until about 18 months ago I'd have bought the plain gold framed square because it 'went' and 'would do', but in a change which I see as progress I bought the one I really loved instead.