the changing year

Although the solstice is not until tomorrow, the evenings are imperceptibly longer. Sunset was 3.31pm today - on the 19th it was 3.30pm.



These are views from the back of our garden, showing the lower slopes of the hill behind our house, and looking south-west towards the distant Black Isle (below).

Quilting

We have had a heavy frost all this week. This is currently in my hoop, and keeping me cosy by the fireside. It is a baby quilt with 35 4-patches made from a single charm pack - the 4-patches measure 3.5"square as I have to cut off the edges before I start. I wanted the sashing to be heavily quilted, but what I have done is too busy for my liking, and I have some changes in mind for the next 'round'.



'Under the Stars' came out from its resting-place a couple of weeks ago, and I quilted a diamond pattern in the borders. I had put the stars in two of the corners last year, not with a great deal of success. It's difficult with a hoop to keep the 3 layers evenly stretched in the corners. Next time I will use many more pins! Now I need to remember where I put the binding fabric...

Anticipation...

This very large parcel arrived for me today. A Christmas present from R!

I had to open it, to make sure the contents were OK.


Inside I found a large quantity of this:

one of these:

some books and odds and ends, and...

One of these!

It's a Christmas present, I can't use it just yet. But I can read the instructions.

...maybe I could just practice treadling though? When no-one is around??

New Cooker

This is our new cooker. I've been meaning to post a photo for a while now. It is a refurbished pre-1970s model which we had brought up from somewhere near Birmingham, I think. We have had a few teething problems, but are getting on top of them now, I think. It burns (guzzles) oil, which is generally a bad thing - but we will only run her for 6 months of the year, and will change to a different fuel when it becomes available locally. Having this thing running makes a huge difference to our house. It was rather miserable here last winter. This year, for a few reasons, things are much better.

Oh and she makes great tasting food!

MeMe

Veronica tagged me.

And I'd hoped to slip under the radar!

Let me see:

4 Jobs I Had

1. Played in a string quartet when I was at school - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Scott Joplin and that sort of thing. We weren't terribly good, but made some pocket money (it seemed a lot to me at the time) playing at weddings and other events. My first job!

2. Strawberry picker. This was the summer I left school, in the Scottish Highlands, far from home. It was a lot of fun. Later that summer I went to Kent to help with the hop harvest and pick apples. That was fun too.

3. As a student I had a summer job for a couple of years in a hotel in the highlands. It was on the far side of a loch from the local village, and you could only really access it by motor launch. It was a small hotel; 8 rooms, and at one point I counted 12 staff! Not including the proprietors! I had various jobs - dishwashing, doing the rooms, cleaning the kitchen, serving the pre-dinner drinks. I was even entrusted with some kitchen tasks! (chopping parsley, whipping cream, stirring porridge, making toast, baking cookies and cheese biscuits if I recall). This is where I learned about what would, this year, eventually become my cooker (post to follow).

4. Hospital doctor. Less said...

Right, I've had enough of the meme! And I'm sure I'd get even more boring as I go on...

Frosty sunshiny day

Sharp frost last night. Minus 6 had been forecast.

Not so nice for poultry. The orchard doesn't get a great deal of sun at this time of year, and the grass stayed frozen all today. An excuse to give them mash and corn - that made them happy.

Ben Wyvis from the end of our road.

We decided to go see the beach in the sun!

There were mushrooms still growing on the dunes - don't know what kind they are, despite hours spent poring over my mushroom book this autumn. (lots of rabbits here make it fun for dogs!)

Beach at last!

North Sutor

South Sutor

Lifeboat going past

Not complete without doggy pics ...

There was daylight enough to do some tidying in the garden when we got home.

Full moon is tomorrow.

I wonder should I sow some peas?

Woolly visitor!

Tuesday afternoon I got to sew.

Well not sew exactly. I was cutting, all afternoon.

So there I was, cutting away happily and I looked out of the window to see this creature:

Don't you just love his horns?

He must have come up the drive and had just come to a halt in the yard. I don't know how long he had been there. So he looked about himself for about a minute, and then turned round and went off again. (hope he ate some of our long grass on the way out!)

I don't know where he came from -its mostly arable farming around here and the fields are unsuitable for livestock - they generally don't have much in the way of gates and some of them don't seem to have fences! It's pretty much all arable, apart from some cattle on the hill above our house.

Hope he got home safely, wherever his home is.

Windy beach walk

On Monday we went to the beach in the village. It's our closest beach, but we don't go there often as it tends to be busy. It was windy and the sea was wild. Lots of foam to walk through and send blowing off up the beach.

Shopping

Two trips to Inverness in two days; another trip to collect R this evening will make it three...ugh...

I had time for a little impromptu shopping in one of my favourite shops, and look what I found! A Warren Kimble 'fat cat' spoonrest...now it just so happens that I quite like Warren Kimble, and a spoonrest is exactly what's been lacking in my kitchen. It will go nicely with my other new kitchen toy...(post to follow at some point)

I also bought a grey cashmere sweater (75% off, 'designed in Scotland') and a very soft, very fluffy, snow- white bath robe. Bath time for me tonight!

Lavender Hearts

I've been experimenting a little. The aim was to make a lavender sachet; something pretty and feminine.

There were many prototypes; it was fun! I may need to do a little more work on getting all those little hearts to line up straight though.

The lavender comes from our herb garden; a very old lavender bush there is almost as tall as I am. The crop is fantastic, but it has grown unsightly and is due to be removed soon.

November Poppies

I found these beside the composters. These will be our last poppies for this year.




We had our first ground frost last night.

Something quilt-related (for a change)

Now I need something to restore my good spirits. Maybe a somewhat quilty post? There's nothing in this stack of 32 blocks to raise my spirits...my glass is half empty here...I need 36, and this week I am struggling for time to sew.

Nope, no. Not careless raggy applique.

Aha! A fistful of new fabric! That's more like it!

I don't even need to think about preparing them. Sometimes it's nice just to spread tham out and look at them, all full of possibilities.

I might do that a little more, they're so pretty.

"I'm going to peck you if you don't put down the camera and give me some crumbs" I'm working on some pet portraits. This is Billy, our only cockerel and poor Charlie's brother (BTW we candled Charlie's eggs, and so far it's all looking good). He's a bit cross 'cos he's just been bullied by Dugald (our drake). Our poultry are free range, and there's plenty of space so the bullying is more comic than serious.

Here are some seal pups we saw at the weekend on sandbanks on Loch Fleet - you might see them better by clicking on the photo.

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7 things about Me

Jane Ann tagged me to write about 7 random facts or habits.

1. I love "fairytales". I learned to read early, and was always allowed independence in the books I chose. Nobody seemed to understand why I was still reading these stories when I was obviously "far too old for that nonsense". I think partly it was comforting, but mostly because I was looking for meaning in these simple tales. And found quite a bit!

2. When I was little we spent much time at my grandmother's house, the rear wing of a grand Georgian mansion just outside troubled '70s Belfast. The garden was wild and beautiful, and at the bottom of it snowdrops grew in the lawn in rings. These, grannie explained, were faerie rings. (no explanation as to whether the faeries made the rings, or just used them, or what the faeries looked like, etc). I believed her. And a tiny, tiny part of me still does.

3. Just beyond said garden was a small wood. One of my sisters told me there were wolves in the wood. Despite knowing there were no wild wolves, for a long time I believed her and was terrified, especially at night. (I don't belive this any more!)

4. Last time I went to IKEA I bought everything I wanted and the bill came to £23.22.

5. I dislike telephones very much, and avoid speaking on them and especially answering them. I see from reading other people's blogs that I am not alone in this, and this makes me feel a little better.

6.'Love is Enough' (below my blog title) is the title of a poem by William Morris.

7. I have two pianos in my house.

Thank you Jane Ann, that was fun!

Visiting Afar

Still piecing, slowly; don't have much to show. This cross stitch bookmark for my older sister's birthday did however get finished. The kit comes from the almost-local Textile Heritage.

Yesterday I had some errands to do in Edinburgh and Glasgow. That meant an early start and a four hour drive. I had planned an intermediate stop at the quilt shop in Linlithgow, but it was closed and I ended up with some time to fill in before meeting LittleSis. The Botanical Gardens in Glasgow is a good place to while away a couple of hours...especially with all those second hand bookshops nearby...

I lived in the West End of Glasgow for many years, as a student and afterwards, and it was so nice to spend some time there again, just wandering around. It was warm and sunny, perfect "exam weather".

I tried not to think too much about little Maddy.

There was a lot to see in the gardens,

but I was focused - I have been wanting to visit the new Kibble Palace since it reopened in November. The message on the door is not easy to make out in my photo
It reads "KIBBLE PALACE erected on this site 1873 restored 2006"
Inside was all bright and clean, as it must have looked when new (until recently Glasgow was a city of heavy industry and covered in black grime).

The koi pond is still there. If you lean over the fish will come to see what's going on.
Dip a finger in, and they will 'nibble'!
The beds were freshly planted
and these curious mirrored discs hung from the ceiling. I'm not sure, maybe they are also floodlights.
Exiled in the foyer is Cain/ "...greater than I can bear" by Mullins.

while in the garden sits Eve.

At six o'clock an employee goes round the glass house and closes all the windows.

I only got half way through the first chapter of 'Cranston' before it was time to go.

Maybe I will get back again soon. I hope so.

Happy Birthday Harv!

Harvey is two years old! Worthy of celebration as we were told he was seriously ill last summer.

Bella came to us as a puppy, but Harv was 9months old when we got him. He was a quiet, sensitive dog, too shy to ask to go out. It was hard to learn he was so ill.

Nearly a year on he is big and bouncy, full of long-winded and very smelly dog-stories. Still sensitive and very cuddly, but happier and more independent. Bernese are recommended for all cases of low spirits!

Bones all round!

A Rather Gruesome Business (Charlie R.I.P.)

Those of a sensitive dispostion, better look away! (I am serious about this. Seriously. You have been warned!!!).

Following our move to the country, we became poultry farmers. In a small way - we buy the corn etc, but never seem to make a profit. Maybe because we keep giving the eggs away to nice people.

Charlie was my best hen. She was a Light Sussex. I bought her as an egg off ebay last summer, dutifully turning her 3 times a day and pulling her out of her shell when she pipped it. She was always the first to come running when she spotted me, and if i had no crumbs for her she would stop 4feet away, completely nonplussed (that's my mum! what do i do now?). She laid an egg every day; supermarket-egg-type in size, shape and colour, but we did not hold that against her. On wednesday she started to limp, and then she stopped laying and started spending most of the day in her nesting box. Still eating crumbs though when she was up and about first thing in the morning. Sunday her sore leg was yellow. Yellow? Was it a bruise? A mega-septic leg? We dusted off our poultry books and scoured the internet. LittleSis phoned her vet friend o'er the pond. We went and looked again, DH and I. That wasn't feathers stuck down on her back, that was an ulcer. And that yellow was yolk. Poor, poor Charlie, she had an impacted egg. Isn't that gruesome?

She had to be dispatched. She would have been all scarred up inside even if we could have got the broken egg out, and that's no good for a hen. DH did it.

I have to say, I believe this problem is very uncommon, and poor Charlie was very unfortunate to suffer from it.

We're shaking it off. Helped by the new folk who came back with us from the rare breeds market on Saturday:

Here is Jemima, she will lay chocolate-coloured eggs (no Freudian slips on this blog!) and Blondie, Brunnie and Darkie who are only 14weeks old and already laying the tiniest tinted eggs.

We put Charlie's last three eggs in the incubator, keeping our fingers crossed; I have resolved to take more photos of the hens - if they have names, they ought to have their portraits taken.

Today I shall be mostly...

plastering. That is, if I get the hang of it. So far it is not too messy and quite a lot of fun. Not sure we have the right kind of plaster though. The label on the pack says 'one coat' but it seems to be quite gritty and is very grey. I was expecting something altogether finer and orange in colour - more like plaster of paris (nothing to be scared of) and less cement-like (yuk). Discussion with DH to follow...

I tidied my desk. This is a major step forward in self-organisation. I framed some photos and cards, and painted up a couple of old picture frames to make them look a little smarter. It's not finished, but it is so nice to have a little space of my own again for thinking and dreaming, and I thought I would share it. I suppose, now I am no longer working I don't really need a desk. But it is nice. (Oh, and you might be able to spot that copy of Quilt Design Wizard - to be listed on ebay. I didn't really find it that useful...perhaps I should invest in the real thing?)

Encouraged by this, I set to work in the dining room. I've had a notion, ever since we came to live here, that this would not be a room for dining in; we're not in to formal dining at all, and there's plenty of other eating space with a dining kitchen, a breakfast room and a dining table in the garden room - and when it's the two of us we usually just eat in front of the TV anyway. The dining room had, in fact become a wasteland filled with all kinds of furniture and homeless junk. Not any more. I moved, I tidied, I reorganised, I binned, ...and now I have a corner to sew in! Well quite a lot of space actually! And the sun shines in from mid afternoon onwards.

I can't describe how great it is to have a place to sew permanently (much more work to be done before it is the perfect space, though). But just to sit and ponder the creative options. And how nice it is, if I have a spare ten minutes, to have everything at hand, in its own place so I can sit down and do something useful immediately (the moment is everything here!)

There are ominous clouds on the horizon, though. The sun is strong and we really need blackout blinds, for this room and the sitting room which faces the same way. This translates in my mind to the horror/joy of a trip to Ikea. Also, that little sewing machine is making a strange noise that I think does not bode well... However, I spent a couple of happy hours running up these 4 patches for the grandson of some neighbours, who has not been very well. Some coordinating sashing and binding, and backing is en route.

More recently I made a start on a new log cabin. Brown and cream is cosy, and not too adventurous, and some of these prints remind me a lot of the dresses I wore to church as a child.
Anyone fancy a quick look round my garden?

In the greenhouse, 'Tomgirl' has come into flower. You can't see it very well in the photo, but this geranium is a very beautiful deep and velvety red.



These red tulips are joyful, and catch my eye as I go in and out of the house. They just spill out through the edging stones of the bed they are planted in.


One of the last narcissi, in a shady spot.
I love the colours of cultivated anemones, the combination of blue and red and green is so refreshing - I saw some today on YankeeQuilter's blog. Unfortunately we have only blue ones just now. This is one of the colour combinations I think of at night before drifting off to sleep!

It wouldn't be spring without drumstick primulas - we bought these ones in Morrison's, and my mother has promised to give LittleSis some of my grandmother's white ones, to bring back from Ireland with her when she comes this week.
Wallflowers. Someone told me that they bloom 12months after sowing, so I'm making staggered sowings to check this out. Next time I buy seed, it will be just orange/red - the yellows looked washed out beside our daffodils.

'Marguerites' I think - at least that's what my mother-in-law calls them. One of the first early summer flowers.

Waiting...somewhat impatiently... (clematis)

Hawthorn, almost in flower.

I'm not sure what this plant is, but it grows in masses, appears to be perennial and self seeds everywhere - hopefully not the defining charcteristics of a weed!

In the vegetable garden, the peas I sowed right at the beginning of March are looking for something to grab onto now. DH constructed this with some left over chicken-wire. Lucky peas! No old pea sticks for you! I am sowing more peas every 10days now.

We are getting lots of broccoli these days, I think it was Pam who was asking about it. I'm a little confused about the broccoli/calbrese terminology, but I think that what we generally call 'broccoli' in this country is more correctly called 'calabrese'.

Purple-sprouting broccoli is much more of a delicacy. It is a cut-and-come-again crop - clever cutting can greatly increase the yield - and tastes much superior to calabrese - sweet and I think it is described as 'nutty'. Very yummy, raw in salads or very lightly cooked.


Well, it's been a long post. I must remember to blog more frequently, and maybe at less length!

I'm thinking I may well relinquish my Q4P ring membership; I'm not quite sure I like feeling under pressure to blog at regular intervals...although I understand why the request has been made. I think. Anyway, I am mulling it over.>