Farewelling the cottage

 Time has once again been a bit fluid this trip. Three months seem to have flown; yet at the same time the chores we did back in August feel like we did them on our last trip maybe?

It is intriguing and I never cease to be amazed at how much one suddenly has to try and fit into the final week!

This is a favourite scene. On the drive to our favourite bakery we cross the blanket bog. It has these wee lochans alongside it; the heather and the bracken have turned russet; and the mountains grace the horizon. This day sun showers were about and just added to the beauty.

I will love this landscape forever.

But we are also farewelling the cottage until we return. It is such a place of solace and contemplation; of slow looking; and friendly companionship. We are fortunate indeed.

Here she is in many moods.

We have both been researching a bit whilst here, and in sorting through some paper work we came across this photograph of the cottage taken back in about 1997, before the previous owners began to renovate.  We understand the cottage had lain fallow as they say, since around 1950 and had been used as a barn for storing hay. We are interested to see that the upper windows were in by 1997; but the door and windows were boarded up, and must have done the job as the cottage is very dry.

And a highlight of the trip (among many) was seeing the Northern Lights dance one evening. So often they are around when we are fully overcast or in the dead of night when I am not getting up and ducking out into the cold just to see if they are there...

Just wonderful.

I love how many stars you can see. I am standing just outside the cottage, looking north and using an iPhone. Magic.

Farewell, until next time...

Some stitching and some book marks.

 I have been progressing the conversation with the stitching of the brick wall. In small increments!

I took the test piece of linen and transferred the marks back here. I then gathered the threads I had selected and started doing some small split back stitching as outlines of the stones in the wall.

It was interesting that after doing these 6 stones I felt I knew enough to stop testing and begin stitching the length of linen. I determined from the test that the two main colours were going to be the darker grey and lighter brown; with only occasional use of the lighter grey and the darker, rustier brown. 

I think that will make for a coherent look and a little bit of interest here and there. Also the lighter grey pretty much disappears, and the darker rustier brown just dominates too much (plus there aren't many stones in the wall that are that colour).

As ever I just like gathering all the bits together and looking at them!

Packing up is underway - here are all the prepped reels and the linen ready for taking back to Australia.

As I was tidying up my art table in preparation for leaving, I came across a heap of scrap white paper and thought it might be perfect for some book marks. So off I went and cut it into strips and did a few whimsical flower bookmarks.

You can never have too many bookmarks!

Thursday Thoughts...

“If I waited for perfection… I would never write a word” 

Margaret Atwood

This week's ponderings about books, and in a sideways connection this one ponders writing.  Margaret Atwood is a wise and visionary woman, and writer. And these are wise words.

It doesn't take a lot of interrogation work out what she means here, or whether she is trying to say this, or maybe that...

I am more interested in thinking about the truth of what she says which feels so very very true.  

I think if we all sat around waiting until we knew we could produce something perfect, whether it was waiting for the perfect gathering and sequencing of words; or perhaps the perfect execution of a painting; or the flawless sewing of a garment without a single mis-stitch; or the perfect layout and placement and selection of lettering or type, then none of us could begin.

We all need to set something forth, regard it, consider it, move it around, lighten it up, darken it down, replace one thing with another. That is the work. It isn't the magical translation of an idea or notion conceived perfectly within the mind into something physical or evident.

Writing a book is not about having the whole thing mapped out in your head, every plot point, every character, every description and then delivering it word-perfectly. Nor is it about not putting pen to paper until you have the perfect way of depicting or describing something. It is about getting something down and then refining it.

It is incremental.

I think this is not so much a pondering as a nodding in agreement. And a reminder to stop not starting until you have the perfect idea or process or layout or colour swatches or...

In making a book, or writing some words. Dive in and do it. Reflect. Repeat.

Be curious. Explore. Take it step by step.

Preparing to stitch

 I have begun my conversation with the piece of linen I am working on for my friend who died. 

One of our best ever conversations was sitting with our backs against the stone wall of the cottage, in the sunshine, blethering this way and that. So I am trying to reflect that conversation and I am really not sure  I'll ever be able to do it justice.

At the moment I am very much in the testing and trialling stage. It might take a while to figure out how to do this I think.

But I have begun.

The circular nature of women friends feels strong at the moment. Here at the cottage I have this set of embroidery threads tied onto their card with symbols for whichever pattern they were intended for. These are one of my best friends' mother's threads, and she gave them to me after her mum died - about 20 years ago, and I have used the intermittently. I was very happy that I could pick them up and maybe use some of them for this wee project.

I printed off some photos of the wall and checked if there were threads that might match. I found four and thought that was a good start.

I then set about trying to recreate the wall for stitching.  Because the fabric is so narrow I am not sure how well this will work. But off I go!

I transferred fairly accurate shapes of the stones and the pointing on the wall to my book; then onto a strip of tracing paper.

And then checked to see what it might look like on the linen.

Barry walked in and knew exactly what it was as the moment he saw it. I remain a tad hesitant.

I then used a removable marker to draw onto a test bit of fabric. And that's as far as I got.

The proof will be in the pudding once I start stitching I think.

There is no way I can fill all of the stones in with stitches unless I want this to take forever, so I will have to see if I can somehow 'sketch' them in, or slightly fill them, or indicatively fill them. We shall see!

In the meantime, before we had Sunday's beautiful blue sky, we had some seriously wicked weather. Sometimes even that weather is beautiful...

Testing an idea

 Back here, I had soldered a lot of small circles ready to take them home and roll them through the mill to create pebble forms for my stack of three earrings.

A I posted, I had the thought about maybe texturing them? 

This thought niggled away and I went to the workshop (aka garden shed) to see if I could cut 6 small circles, solder 6 small circles, flatten 6 small circles, pickle 6 small circles, texture 6 small circles, and then solder two lots of 3 small circles, and pickle them again.

I am happy to say, mission accomplished over two days.

After soldering, the one on the right was hammered flat by hand. I realised as I did them that I usually manage to squish and distort the forms more by putting them through the mill, but was happy enough to proceed with the notion of more circle-shaped forms.

Looking somewhat earring-like...

And then pickled. With a few random fragments as well.

And so to texturing by hammering with a different hammer.

And soldered prior to pickling.

And pickled.

Still with some filing and polishing to do, they are looking maybe like they will be OK.

And then I thought, maybe I should oxidise them???

Will leave that thought till we return to Maleny!

And today has been 'a day between weathers' as our neighbour says; with what a friend calls a bluebird sky. Simply stunning.

We did some yard work, moving rocks and pruning and a touch of weeding. Then sat in the sun with our backs against the stone wall of the cottage. Basking. Apricating. Enjoying.

Bliss.

Thursday Thoughts...

“Words do have edges. So do you.” 

Anne Carson

I sincerely don't know how long this quote has been in my list; but I know it has been years.  And only this week did it spark recognition with the author, because Anne Carson recently won the Nobel Prize for Literature.  I have never read her work so am kind of surprised I had a quote of hers here. But it felt like a worthwhile time to attempt to interrogate it!

I think my response to this is about sharpness. That words can be sharp, and therefore painful. That you too, can be sharp, in your tone or in your actions or your words. So it feels like a bit of a warning. At the very least it feels like a reminder.

I am not sure of the context, but on reflection I look again at the word edges and think that edges don't have to be sharp. An edge can simply be an edge - the edge of the ocean, the edge of a tablecloth. So what then is an edge?

Could she be thinking about words having finite meanings? And we having finite limits? Could she think that words finish somewhere and go no further? That we as people have limits to what we can do and achieve?

On balance, I still think it feels like a reminder to take care with your words and your actions.

Scenes from our trips away

 It has been a busy month here with trips up and down and round about, for friends and with friends.

Here are some images of the beauty we have found along the way...

Two trips to Orkney in a fortnight and some neolithic magic, some beaches and some weather!

The Ring of Brodgar, brooding.

One of the dwellings at Skara Brae.

The Broch of Gurness

Rain shower looking over to Hoy

The beach at Skara Brae, Skaill Bay.

Back on mainland Scotland again, our beach at Armadale

Duncansby Stacks on the north east coast.

Down south - red squirrels at breakfast.

Autumn colours.

And the sheep on the common grazings in Armadale one morning.