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. 

A Crafty Thing

 

Many many years ago a friend in Canada gave me instructions for making a fabric wreath after I had admired one she had made herself. It was so long ago that I had no idea where in the UK I would get the fundamental item necessary to make it - a Styrofoam wreath base. I suspect at the time I wouldn't have been able to find one here for love nor money. 

Fast forward a couple of decades and I am somewhere with my sister and I see a Styrofoam wreath and I buy it, thinking, at last! I can make one of those fabric wreath things. And the wreath has stayed in my miscellaneous craft materials box ever since. because somehow I never got around to giving it  a go.  

Recently I saw the new Tilde fabric Christmas range and thought I'd like to make a Christmas wreath, with that but Tilde fabric is Not Cheap and I was put off buying it by the thought that I might make a mess of it which would be a waste of money. And then - a lightbulb moment. Somewhere in my small fabric stash I thought I might have a Tilde charm pack that had come free with a magazine a long time ago .... I went for a rootle. 

I found the wreath, I found the charm pack, I found the time and voilà! a fabric wreath. I'm so pleased with it. It is so very pretty. So now I can buy the fabric and embark on making a Christmas wreath without worry. There's just one small problem - I cannot find a Styrofoam wreath to buy in a sensible size! However I suspect Mr Amazon can be relied upon to have one if I have a look,  and possibly the local craft places will have more suitable sizes nearer to Christmas.  

Meanwhile this one needs a ribbon and a hook to hang it from. 

A Couple of Cheery Things for a Grey Day

 I had some happy mail last week. This was the 2nd 2025 quarter for the Little Grey Cells Club from Henny Penny Makes.

That's not at all true to the colour of the one on the left! Due to the nature of the long term project these are going into, half of these are now used up, which is pleasing.

We also had a visit from some friends who we now live much nearer to, which is a good thing, and they brought us a lovely bunch of sunflowers. 

It's a bit of a cool grey day here and I'm a tad under the weather so the cheerful colours are a nice bright spot! 

Doon the Watter

 

Last Christmas the OH's brother bought him a voucher for a cruise on the Waverley, the world's last remaining working paddle steamer. It was good for the whole year, but time was ticking on and it doesn't stay to cruise from Glasgow all year round, so we got ourselves focussed and booked a trip for Sunday just gone. We opted for a Full Day and not getting off at either of the two ports of call, and both of those are decisions which we would not make again, but then hindsight is a wonderful thing. 

It was an early start, too early for us to get there in time if  combined with a reasonable getting up time in Alloa, so we went over to Glasgow on Saturday, caught up with an academic friend in the afternoon and spent the night at the Glasgow flat. One of the good things about the move, amongst multifarious others, is that we get to see a lot more of son no. 2 who lives there. Even being so close, the next morning was an early-ish start to get to the Glasgow Science Centre from where Waverley departs. (I was going to say sails, but obviously that wouldn't be right, unless sails is an acceptable generic term for the movement of all boats, however powered, Which it may well be. ) Anyway, we got there, and there she was. 

And there also was a piper. To be fair he wasn't provided by the Waverley people to pipe us on board, he was just a young lad taking the chance to earn some pocket money and he didn't stay long. Although long enough to give us a quick swirl of Highland Cathedral, which, don't get me wrong, is a lovely tune, but it does tend to stay with you all day. To that extent it was much less embarrassing than when we boarded The Ghan all those years ago and were greeted as we arrived on the platform with a trumpet fanfare. So embarrassing. 

So the cruise went all along the Clyde, into the Clyde estuary and then turned right ( yes, I know) along the coast, past a couple of islands called the Cumbraes, along the east shore of Arran and through the Kyles of Bute into Loch Scriven. It was impossible to take good photographs of the wonderful scenery because the boat was super full, and there were just too many heads, and bodies, always in the way. Here however is a photo of the entry to Loch Scriven just as we turned around to leave it, with a few arms and bits of boat tubing cropped off. I risked life and limb, not to mention losing my phone, to take this picture, leaning out over the side of the boat as far as I dared so I hope it's appreciated! 

Overall, it was beautiful, a lot of the time it was relaxing, most of the time we had really good weather, warm but overcast so the sun didn't get too hot. It was fascinating to sail down the Clyde estuary and think of my PH D subject dong the same decades ago, first as a student when he used to charter yachts in his vacations and later as he stood on a troopship and glided down the Clyde at the start of the long journey to the North African coast. 

On the downside we were 10 hours on the boat which is a long time to be on a smallish boat with a lot  of other people especially when there are slightly too few seats to accommodate everyone. The seats, except in the eating places, are hard and you really felt them after the first 90 minutes. Rather than the whole day we could have bought a ticket that would have allowed us to get off and then back on at either Rothesay or Largs and in retrospect a few hours in Rothesay might have been fun. But we didn't know that when we booked and I don't think either of us had actually got our heads round quite how small the boat is so that the reality of of ten hours on it wasn't something we had properly internalised. 

Overall though, although I wouldn't do it again, I'm glad we've done it once. 

A Nice Thing to do on a Wednesday ...

 is to go to a fundraising strawberry tea. Which is what we did this week. 

I'd had a flyer about it from someone at the knitting group last Friday, and it was only in Dollar which is a large village not very far away, so we thought we would go. Show support, browse the stalls, buy a raffle ticket, enjoy the strawberries. 

Dollar is lovely, lots of beautiful old stone houses and there's a river running through it - (not something you can say about any village in Orkney). It is also an absolute pain for parking so we walked quite a long way up the river to get to the venue. Not a hardship as it was a warm afternoon and it's very scenic. it also has a very picturesque bridge. 

The venue was absolutely packed; it's obviously a very popular (annual) event, raising money for the local museum. There were nice flower arrangements on the tables - this was ours

and the tea was very nice too. well actually, the tea was a bit weak, but the scone was very good! And you can;t go wrong with strawberries.

On the way out I said hello to the person who gave me the flier and it was patently obvious she hadn't a clue who I was which was  a bit of a downer actually, but there you go. It will be that 'seeing people out of context thing' which to be fair was quite a feature of Orkney life. We missed the raffle table as it was on the other side of the hall to the way we entered and exited, and the ravening hordes had hit the cake stall before we got to it, so we didn't buy anything extra. It was fun, but I don't know whether we'll go again next year, if only because  of the parking thing. 

Exhibition in Edinburgh

 The trip to Shropshire rather knocked off accounts of other things we had done in Alloa before we went away so here's the first of two catch ups, a trip to the Dovecote Studio in Edinburgh for an exhibition. 

We went up on the train using our new senior railcards and here's a bit of the famous Edinburgh skyline seen from the road bridge by the station and yes, we did have to walk all the way up. 

The exhibition  was the Scottish Colourists in their European Context, and I'd wanted to see it as soon as it was announced.  As our moving day got pushed further and further back I had become reconciled to not seeing it, which was a bit of a downer, as I'm a big fan of the Colourists, but in the event we managed to see it in its final days. Hoorah! 

To be honest there was rather too much 'context' and not enough Colourists for me, plus we had to keep hanging back as we had arrived at about the same time as a guided tour was starting, and it was very distracting trying to look at the pictures and not be half hearing the tour leader who spoke with a distractingly heavy french accent. 

Having got the grumbles out of the way, I have to say  it was a fantastic exhibition. As always none of the pictures I really liked had associated postcards on sale except for one, and that was this one. And it's even by one of the Colourists ( S J Peploe)  and not one of the context painters. 

Luckily I had taken a couple of photos of others that really appealed 

and this was my favourite of them all, which was by the English painter Duncan Grant

not my usual sort of style, but it fascinated me. 

ION, it is still very hot but we are promised rain tomorrow. Also, after a huge push my study and craft room are both now organised enough for me to relax and actually use them which is a massive leap forward in the settling down stakes. 

Well I've never done this before...

 

That there is a Mystery Yarn Bag. I've never bought one before because you don't know what you're getting ( yup, the clue is right there in the name!) and I've watched lots of people on YouTube unboxing/unbagging mystery stuff and too often seen them try very hard to not look disappointed when the fourth ball of unsaleable dull yellow cotton comes out of the box and they say brightly 'well, I don't know what to do with this, maybe a baby garment ....' and you just feel so sorry for any baby in their vicinity. 

So why have I bought one now? well because it was from a dyer whose yarn I have often wanted to try, so it seemed like  a good opportunity,  and because I knew from the list of bases that were on offer that I wouldn't be wasting my money and because I thought 'I'm x years old, why not take  a punt for once in your life?' So I did. 

and when I opened the parcel I was certainly not disappointed. No gritted teeth or forced smiles here. 

The one on the right is a standard sock yarn, the other two are a baby alpaca /silk blend. And while I will have to look for patterns to use them on I don't think it will be a hardship. 

ION it is very hot. We are not used to it being hot but we're sort of coping by doing stuff in the mornings and evenings. That said the OH is currently putting up shelves for his lego. Rather him than me, although to be fair that wold apply whatever the temperature.