I have been enjoying the quiet moments - stitching, reading, writing and researching. We are interested to discover as much as we can about the woman for whom our cottage is named; as well as the history of the cottage itself, the village, and the archaeological bits around this part of Scotland with its ancient history.
So I am mostly doing the people stuff - discovering that "Hughag" was in fact Hughina McKay, born 1868 and died 1951. One person in the village, our neighbour across the road, remembers her as a tall stern woman in black who kept her chickens in the kitchen. Another woman from a neighbouring village says she was a wonderful story teller and the children would hang around her and she would teach them songs and tell them stories. I like that part a lot, but I also love the chicken story.
Barry is doing maps and village history and the archaeology - I am trying to track down the building of the cottage and its inhabitants. The people with whom we share the experience of living here, albeit in very different circumstances.
So that is lots of fun and means we have no excuse for an idle moment! This was a great find, a petition for the building of a doctor's house signed by Hughina in 1896.
The garden is returning to a semblance of normal, although heavy rain meant we once again had to dig drains! The water gets away a whole lot better now.
Nonetheless rain does make for lovely photos too - I call these two "wet washing day".
It is the first day of Autumn here today and the colours are fading and a few leaves disappearing. But there is still enough around for me to want to dye more thread, so the search continues.
I was amazed by the first batch of dyeing. The sweet peas had been so mauve! Then as they dried they softened down to a pinkish colour, then I rinsed them in water and they turned silver grey, then they dried agains and ended up soft green. Who knew?
I spent time last night rolling them onto pegs, and then did the labels today.
From L:R sweet peas, thistle, red clover and stinging nettles.
And then to stitching quietly. Two coaster top layers stitched, a third underway.
So I am mostly doing the people stuff - discovering that "Hughag" was in fact Hughina McKay, born 1868 and died 1951. One person in the village, our neighbour across the road, remembers her as a tall stern woman in black who kept her chickens in the kitchen. Another woman from a neighbouring village says she was a wonderful story teller and the children would hang around her and she would teach them songs and tell them stories. I like that part a lot, but I also love the chicken story.
Barry is doing maps and village history and the archaeology - I am trying to track down the building of the cottage and its inhabitants. The people with whom we share the experience of living here, albeit in very different circumstances.
So that is lots of fun and means we have no excuse for an idle moment! This was a great find, a petition for the building of a doctor's house signed by Hughina in 1896.
The garden is returning to a semblance of normal, although heavy rain meant we once again had to dig drains! The water gets away a whole lot better now.
Nonetheless rain does make for lovely photos too - I call these two "wet washing day".
It is the first day of Autumn here today and the colours are fading and a few leaves disappearing. But there is still enough around for me to want to dye more thread, so the search continues.
I was amazed by the first batch of dyeing. The sweet peas had been so mauve! Then as they dried they softened down to a pinkish colour, then I rinsed them in water and they turned silver grey, then they dried agains and ended up soft green. Who knew?
From L:R sweet peas, thistle, red clover and stinging nettles.
And then to stitching quietly. Two coaster top layers stitched, a third underway.
And some foraging in the weeds produced these flowers for the next brew. I think they are Devils-bit Scabious, but it can be pretty tricky working out these Scottish flowers!
They may be the third purple flower to dye green, but we shall see. At least they have had some lovely sunshine today to burble away with.
such beautiful colours from your cottage, you would be able to grow Blue Tibetan Poppies (Meconopsis baileyi) up there, a Scottish horticulturist from the Botanic Gardens said they grew every year at his old aunt's cottage in the wilds of Scotland
ReplyDeleteOh My Mo - we just looked at these poppies are very keen! They say to plant from October so we might just try!
DeleteFiona - I had a similar experience ... dyed some blanket flowers (Gallardia) at the beach and got a wonderful purple ... then took the cloth out several months later and found it had turned yellow-green. The resulting colors on your weathered pins look just right.
ReplyDeleteAnd I love your coaster stitching ... regular and random at the same time, a real treat for the eye
Thanks Liz - my lack of knowledge and willingness to just try and see what happen is very liberating with these threads. It is so different to my planned and meticulous approach to book editions, and I am thrilled with all of the results despite their unexpectedness. It felt like magic just watching the colourss change in front of me. The harmony of the colours is delightful. and I love that you found the coasters regular and random - I hadn't got it together in my head like that, even tho I knew I wanted a square outline and straight lines, but I definitely didn't want perfect crossovers! Go well.
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