Storms and Snowballs.

Well, we had a wonderful Christmas. It was a beautiful day and we walked to the far beach. It was so warm I took off my jacket and opened my jumper, but now we are back to torrential rain and high winds. It is supposed to be a stormy weekend again, so what's new?

As you probably have read on the Net, the PTA of Sandy Horne School have decided to welcome the students to the new school by decorating it with snowflakes. They have asked people to make snowflakes, and details can be seen here There are loads of free snowflake designs to download, but they have to arrive at the school before 12th January. Go and make some! Here is a picture of some of the snowflakes I made to send -

In the last few posts I haven't been showing a lot of the things I have been making, so I will have to get my finger out.
Perhaps next time,
tich
  

Merry Christmas!!

Wishing you all, wherever you may be, seasons greetings and much love.

tich xxx

Storms and Floods

Last Friday the winds got up and we had a lot of rain. If it is a high tide and the wind is in the right direction, we get the spray from the waves flying over the road into one of our fields. My husband had moved the ram into new pasture, so all that could get wet were the geese. They enjoyed the flood that ensued and went swimming quite happily in their newly acquired pond. This happens every year and it subsides just as quickly as it arrives, so we don't worry.

On the Saturday the wind direction changed and the waves were now hitting the road past the bridge and round the corner from us. The wind did not seem particularly high, but the waves were spectacular. We had to go out at night and the road was completely blocked to a depth of two feet with stone and seaweed, so we about turned and got out the other way. Sometimes the road gets stone and seaweed on it after a storm, but I have never seen it as bad as this. I went along on the Sunday morning to take a few pictures. 
The council worker had been at it for hours, and he said the road had been blocked for 70 yards. It was the worst damage he had seen for years. The fencing on the opposite side of the road was broken, and one of the houses nearer the road has a curved dry stane dyke through the force of the stones hitting it. The storm had hit down the east coast of Scotland, so we were not the only ones to suffer. We have high winds and rain this weekend again. Never mind. The shortest day is passed and we are now heading to Spring!! I will leave you with a short clip of the stones being cleared (the council worker stopped as he was wondering if I wanted through) and some other pictures. Some can be enlarged.

Till next time.
tich

News

I started writing this weeks ago and it suddenly disappeared! I was looking at Blogger today, thinking it was about time I got organised and started to blog seriously again, when I saw this lurking in Drafts. It wasn't there before, but perhaps it was fed up hiding! So I will continue from where I left off. At this rate the New Year will be half done, before I catch up!

  My blog sebatical was due to a little illness, a bit of procrastination, a lot of visitors and finally a computer that died of old age. I didn't enjoy the illness, loved the visitors, but my computer!!!!! It was like a death in the family!! I had religiously made back ups, but when it came down to it, I still lost a lot of files! A friend helped me a lot over the Internet and eventually my cousin, who lives in the south of England, sorted it out, and my baby is back up working! I did go onto a PC when my Mac was away and I still don't like them! I think eventually I will revert to a PC, as I have so much software I cannot use on the Mac, but that does not mean to say I will enjoy it as much.

The embroidery above was done for one of my visitors. Let me state now I do not like canvas work all that much and I usually do not use kits, but this was an exception. I have known this person for over fifteen years and even though we moved away, he has kept in touch and is a lovely person. He had just moved into his first home of his own, so when he asked me to make a cushion for his sofa, I could not say 'No'. He is an avid gardener, so I thought I would bring a little colour into his house, during the dark, dreich days of winter. When he came with his uncle for a visit, he was delighted with his present, so I did not feel so bad.

We have been seeing some terrible pictures of freak weather conditions on Mainland Scotland and England, with enormous floods, torrential rain and rivers bursting their banks. We have been so lucky. We have had a little rain, but in the main the weather has been good. I leave you with a little clip of our bay, taken last week. I thank God every day for this beautiful view. We are so lucky to live here!  

Till next time.
tich                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

We Will Remember

 

The service at the War Memorial was lovely, but it was so cold!! A new name was added to the list on the Memorial. A Rear Gunner from Sanday was killed during the war.The aeroplane crashed in a mountainside near a remote French village in the winter.The villagers had to wait until the spring to retrieve the bodies.The parents would not believe their son had been killed, so would not allow his name to go on the Memorial. It was very sad. Recently his relatives asked if his name could be added, so today we learned of his story, saw his picture and at last his name was there for all to see.

WE WILL REMEMBER!!

 

Till next time.

tich



YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!

Alex Salmond

I'm back!
Today is the most important day in Scotland for over three hundred years. Today the terms for the Scottish Referendum for Independence was signed by Alex Salmond and David Cameron.

How will you vote???
Till next time
tich

Baa!

When people ask me what my hobbies are, I immediately say patchwork, then beading and finally spinning/dyeing. Recently my granddaughter asked me for some pictures of our sheep for a school project, and I realised just how involved I am with them.

This is the first lamb born last year. The ewe had twins, but she rejected the second lamb, which was very weak, so my husband bottle-fed it.

 

Our ram was also hand-reared by my husband. The sheep are really friendly, and always come over to see what you are doing.

 I got given this fleece by one of the islanders. It is a Jacob/Suffolk cross. In the picture above part of the fleece has been washed and then it is carded on a drum 

carder. 

The carded wool feels so soft, after it is taken off the drum carder. It can be spun on the spinning wheel. or felted.

 This is actually a felted bag shape (below), but I did not like it, so I cut a bit off, so that I can make a clutch bag out of it. I intend to embroider the flap.

 I also made some felted balls. One of them is embroidered and another has various types of material and thread embedded in it. I want to experiment more with these. 

 Remember last year I experimented a lot with Kool Aid and a crock pot and got some interesting results.?

 My granddaughters using a diz, so that it is nice and easy to spin.

 A variety of colours for selling.

 This year I have started experimenting with natural dyes, and I have organised a dyeing workshop to take place in June, with the tutor coming from another island. It should be great fun. 

I am amazed just how involved I have become with wool. Now I will just have to learn how to feed the sheep and it will be a full circle (and also please my husband no end!)

Till next time.

tich