messing about on the river

although i'm still a little wobbly in the canoe, i'm not entirely averse to going out when it's lovely and sunny!

up till now we've only ever paddled in lochs but the other day thought we would try some paddling in one of our local rivers.

i had imagined that we would just sit in the canoe and let the current sweep us gently downstream but it was a little more hard work than that!

we were so lucky that the river wasn't too fierce as it really highlighted that we still have much to learn ... when m was telling me to 'sweep right', i wasn't sure if that meant 'on' the right or 'to' the right so we didn't always go in the direction we thought we might :)

it's amazing the effect the current has on the canoe too, especially if you have water joining from the side that's flowing at a different rate. then there's learning to read the water, apparently you can tell where the rocks are, whether it's shallow or deep.

and then there were the rapids that m didn't mention until we rounded the corner and saw them - luckily they were only teeny, tiny ones and we were through before i knew what was happening!

so far, i have always sat at the front of the canoe, but after a brief stop at a little island, we decided to swap around. good grief what a difference that made! after we shot straight into an overhanging tree and veered left to right a good few times, we thankfully found another shallow where we could swap back again - it's amazing how bad i was at steering from the back!

when we were stopped, we had a bit of a look around and found ...

otter tracks

i think these are heron tracks

and possible signs of beaver activity?

we had such a fab time, although next time i'll be checking the route book too ... what m had thought was 9k, actually turned out to be 17k! how many corners did we go round thinking, it must be round the next corner surely? then the wind got up!

still, it was the perfect excuse to go for a chippy tea that night, i think we earned it :)

let's go for a little walk ...

i was feeling restless the other day and couldn't really settle to anything in particular.

not wanting to spend the whole day watching tv or playing on the internet i decided to throw myself out the door, despite the drizzly rain, and get out for some fresh air. and i'm so glad i did!


i stopped to admire the view from the car park






then i went up the hill


followed the path round


over the bridge


into the trees



through the forest


behind my favourite tree, along a hidden path, and down the lane



i stopped awhile to enjoy the view

and along the way i saw (i'm not 100% sure on my flower i.d., so please feel free to correct me if i've got it wrong) ...

wood sorrel

violets

lovely rusty bits

nettles, perfect for the soup or dye pot!

lichen

horse hoof fungus

not waving, but ...

greater stitchwort

very yellow gorse

unfurling ferns

feather caught in the grass

shiny black slug

cuckoo flowers

and celandine

what better way to spend a couple of hours :)

stone circles

we went looking for stone circles the other day - there are loads of them around here, plus standing stones; cup marked stones; cairns ... plenty to keep us busy.

i don't really know that much about them but i am fascinated by them, so we've got a couple of good books to swot up on and we're starting to discover all of the ones close by.

the first one we were looking for was actually marked from the road with a sign, so we knew we were heading in the right direction as we climbed the hill up to the field, even though we couldn't see it.

the conversation went something like this:

m:   can you see the stone circle yet?
t:     maybe we're walking in the wrong direction?
m:   let's just get over the brow of this hill and we might get a better look around.
t:     oh!  there's a herd of cows.
m:   don't worry, they won't bother us if we don't bother them.
m:   ah, you know that stone circle we can't see?
t:     yeeeeeessss ...
m:   do you see where the cows are standing?
t:     yeeeeeessss ... oh

apparently cows appreciate stone circles too!

they really are quite beautiful creatures but i prefer to appreciate them from a slightly greater distance.  m did manage to shoo them off briefly so we could have a very quick look but they did seem very interested in us and what we doing at their stones!

a bit of a potter and a cuppa tea

what with one thing and another (massive to-do list, bad weather, illness, injury ...) we haven't really had much opportunity to get out and about this year.

until the other day when m managed to prise me out of the front door with the promise of a picnic ... he's learning!

and we had a wonderful time. we drove off up glen quaich way, parked the car and walked off up a tiny track into ... bliss :)
 

within only a few minutes (and a lot of huffing and puffing up a bit of an incline!) we were in the middle of nowhere. it was lovely to be out and about again, the air was still a bit chilly but it stayed dry, the scenery was delightful and there was so much to see.
 

in fact, m had to keep turning round to make sure i was still there as i kept stopping to look at this, that or the other as so much was catching my eye, but he knew he wouldn't lose me - he was carrying the picnic, so i wasn't going to wander too far from the food! every other step flushed grouse and black grouse out of the heather accompanied by such a racket it really was quite startling in the quiet.

lots of lovely mosses and lichen caught my attention too.
 

and then there were the toads ... so many toads! and as we were walking in marshy ground i was being very careful where i put my feet, didn't fancy trying to scrape one of these cuties off my boot!
 

we finally stopped on a huge rock for our picnic, don't you think fresh air always makes a picnic taste that little bit better?  well, i should say that fresh air, a little sunshine and no wind or rain does :)

we took a different path back so thankfully didn't bother any more toads but this time something else was distracting me, gosh i'm going to sound like some kind of freaky geek, but here goes ... there were really interesting looking scats along the way - five really quite different types: deer and sheep, which we recognised; black grouse, which we had to look up when we got home (you can imagine the search history on our laptop - here's hoping it doesn't have to go into the repair shop any time soon); one kind of reddish, oily smear; and one black, circular and quite tarry one. i think i have narrowed them down to otter, mink or fox.

moving swiftly on!

it was a great way to spend a few hours and on the way back to the car we were wondering why we didn't do this more often.  to top off the day, m spotted a mountain hare, (apparently the only native hare to britain) which we stood and watched for a few moments before it bounded off. i was so chuffed we had seen it as i'd never seen them before and hadn't even been looking out of one. then a few moments later, another one! this time hunkered down on the hill, and we watched as it sniffed the air, had a bit of a scritch, cleaned it's face, and just sat and watched. amazing!

next time, i might not even need to be bribed with a picnic :)

mixed media workshop

i've just realised that i never did blog about this! i think the few months around christmas time were swallowed up in preparation for snowdrops by starlight so i feel like i'm just catching up.

aaaaanyways ... i'm always keen to try and push myself as a feltmaker and add new elements to my work by learning new techniques, i just don't think i'm very good at doing that on my own. so, when i saw that angela was running a mixed media workshop i couldn't resist.

luckily enough, it coincided with a rare weekend off for m, so we headed off to yorkshire for a few days.

on the way down we stopped off at fairburn ings for a spot of birdwatching, and it was great to get some fresh air and stretch our legs after what felt like a very long drive.

i had a fab time at the workshop, angela is really inspiring and brought along such a range of different materials and ideas it was hard to choose! i did my ususal and spent too much time chatting and looking at what everyone else was making but i still managed to end up with two finished pieces. it was a great opportunity just to get to play and experiment without worrying too much about the end result, i tried to use as many different materials and techniques as possible and chose colours i wouldn't normally choose and i loved the end result!

here's a few pics from the end of our very productive day ...

we had such a lovely weekend, everyone we met was so friendly - to the extent that m had to 'rescue' me from a very chatty chap in a gift shop i popped in to for 'five minutes'! and the scenery is amazing - although the fog on sunday and monday meant that i didn't get to see too much of it so we'll need to go back again :)

we took the slow route home and stopped off to have a quick look at hadrian's wall, there's so much to see around this area that i think another long weekend is in the offing!

just back but about to go away again!

well ... this past weekend was just amazing! wonderful company, great food, fantastic horst couture garments, such creative feltmaking ... i feel like i have just had the most amazing dream!!!

so, i'm just back but my feet still haven't yet touched the ground - i promise to blog and share pics really soon, and also catch up with you all too, but i was straight back to work and then i'm away again this weekend. then on hols for a week ... and i wonder where the time goes?!

look forward to catching up with you all soon and in the meantime, happy mid 'summer'!

lewis loom centre and hebridean woolshed

one of the reaons i was really looking forward to being back on lewis was being able to visit the lewis loom centre again!



this unassuming entrance leads to an absolutely amazing shop/museum, run by the very friendly and knowledgeable ronnie.

as well as selling harris tweed garments, and beautiful bags and cushions, there's also so much information about the history of harris tweed, with the most amazing sample books throughout the decades. the colours and patterns from the 20's and 30's are astounding!

but, my favourite part of the shop is the 'scraps' table. as you can see from the pics below, i blew my budget on lovely pieces of tweed that will soon be making their way into new felt pieces.








the two pics above might appear to be quite plain compared to the usual patterns and colours but the reason i really loved these pieces is that, if you look closer, so many other colours are revealed ...



i also made a quick stop at the hebridean woolshed, if you're on south uist you really can't drive past! i wasn't on the island long enough to take part in one of denise's spinning workshops, so i bought the next best thing to teach myself to spin ...
... i had visions of relaxing evenings round the campfire, spinning away ... but it wasn't to be.

i can't get it to work!

the instructions are really clear, i have watched videos online ... i know that, in theory, it's a simple process ... but i can't do it!!! think i'll need to get someone to show me because i am determined to learn :)