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.

Time for learning and exploring

 I am so happy I have finally gotten around to starting this course by Laurie Doctor - Speak to Me From Everywhere. I am a great admirer of Laurie's work and her approach and a week long residential course with her is on my list of "would't that be wonderful" things.

Instead, I am sitting quietly in the cottage watching videos and testing out ideas and techniques. A very slow and meditative time is being had, and enjoyed.

I have only managed to work through lesson 1. I have also started before all my supplies arrive so I am really just playing around a bit on different papers. I couldn't get hold of a chinagraph pencil easily so I have ordered one. Along with some BFK Rives paper (I have stacks of it in Maleny of course!) and some particular watercolours. They should appear soon and I will either continue on these pages or start afresh.

Our kitchen table workstation is clearly very multi-purpose!

In the absence of the chinagraph pencil Laurie suggested a candle, and I COULD get hold of one of those nearby so that has been an experiment of writing so you can't see it; and then letting the imagery emerge after a wash of ink (still waiting for the watercolours).

I had a square of sturdy kraft card in my stash so I am experimenting with that as well as a piece of unknown white paper - which cockled quite a lot with the ink wash, so I imagine its not watercolour or printmaking paper!

I am enjoying the way in which the words are there but can't really be read, unless you stop, focus and try to train your eyes. I also like the sideways, upside down, top to bottom blocks of text and the way they add interest.

And the sun rose with an interesting sky the other morning and here is  wide shot looking back up the road from the cove.

And the walk the morning was book marked by the rising sun over Armadale Bay in the east, as the Harvest moon set in the western sky.

Just magic.

Tinkering is me

 I have come to accept, and even embrace, the notion that a lot of my creative time here is about tinkering. Or pottering. Or feutering as the Scots could say.

I used to worry that I was being flighty, unsettled, noncommittal or the like. Now I think I can celebrate that I find moments for creativity in most days, take them and make the most of them.

I am beginning an online course (which B purchased for me back in 2023); I am pondering the making of more Conversations with Women Friends work in a couple of directions. I have begun making more pebble forms to take back to Maleny and finish. I am cataloguing images for another piece of work. And so it goes.

I think I am re-framing towards "I am pushing work forward on several different fronts". Sounds impressive!

Pebble forms in the making...

I cut and soldered twelve small pebble forms.

Looking to solder them into stacked pebble earrings on my return to Maleny. I have to wait to get back to Maleny in order to put them through the rolling mill and flatten them, before soldering them together. No rolling mill here in the garden shed workshop!

They get quite discoloured with the soldering flame, so it was back to making some home made pickle to clean them. Each and every time I get delighted when it works!

Part of me is now wondering how things would go if I actually took six of the forms and tried to hammer them flat (rather than wait to roll them smooth through the mill).  I image that textured stacked pebbles might also look good? We shall see if the notion sticks.

In other tinkering I found myself searching for wooden cotton reels. I found a set on eBay and went to purchase them, only to learn that this seller was still an auction seller! It took me back twenty years I reckon where sometimes Barry and I would sit on our computers as the last seconds ticked down and tried to make the bids faster than whoever else wanted the thing we wanted. And we never ever won.

I thought to myself I am not doing that again. I made a reasonable bid and left it. Then After the auction closed I remembered to go and have look and lo and behold I had won. I was chuffed!

I received 20 reels on Saturday. Here are 11 of them.

Their arrival was a real cause for celebration as the delivery company that was being used can be somewhat hmmmm problematic up here? They have been know to wait up to 6 weeks until they have a big enough load to head out west and I worried I may never see them...

These 11 are all unique. All different and I was just so excited to see that. And perfect for what I am hoping to do! The other 9 have double sod these so I have separated them out and will se how I go.

And then there was foraging - we went on a bramble ramble...

And for some reason or another I have got this itch to bake focaccia (never have I baked focaccia) and I simply had to scratch it. Done. But this has only made me want to bake more and I now have three more recipes to try.

We had a stare out with these sheep on an afternoon walk.

And today is a washing day - and as they say a good drying day!

Tinkering and the light

 Once more I find my self tinkering - tentative steps this way; tiny tasks that way. 

It's OK, our life here is different and busy in many ways so I try to be kind to myself when I feel like I am not making enough time for making.

Tinkering-wise I have re-worked a pendant for a friend. She had lost one of the original pebbles, so I set about creating a renewed pendant. 

I sent her a couple of options and we both landed on this one that has four pebbles. As I worked with the three options, they felt incomplete. Her little family is four people and I liked to think the pendant could reflect that. We both separately felt that the larger pebble reflected her, surrounding them with her infinite love. Perfect.

I tinkered by buying a couple of coat hangers that might at some point belong to the work with the cotton reels! As well I inventoried my jewellery so I knew which sort of replacement pieces I need to make.

I tinkered and cut more linen strips. Clearly hopeful that may come across more cotton reels! I also tinkered and made a couple of cards and bookmarks along the lines of the white on black pieces in the background here.

I tinkered with buying some silk threads and some small books of writing. Both parcels arrived today. I unwrapped the threads and thought close, but not quite what I had in mind. And then I opened the books. And thought - I couldn't have done this if I tried...

And each day, whatever the weather, we walk and the light catches me every time the sun pops out. Sometimes it is brief, fleeting. Sometimes it hangs around all day, but most days are grey with a flash of sunshine scattered here and there.

Here are some of our moments..

Flowers in Inverness.

Rainbow against a cottage in the village

The Montbretias on our hillside, caught by the sun with the steely grey clouds behind them.

Some garden flowers on the front window sill, alongside one of B's comfort birds.

This morning's rain out to see, grey sky and fleeting sun on the hay...

Skittery and scattered

It is always of interest to me how the jet lag plays out. I am utterly functional and can do pretty much everything, but I get tired at odd hours, and occasionally wake at inopportune times, but one of the things I notice most is how hard it is for me to settle into making.

And so it has proven once again. My mind has been turning over lots of new ideas and plans, but the sitting down and starting takes time. I have happily researched and investigated, purchased some things like Letraset, been on the hunt for old wooden cotton reels and the like, but the actual doing? Not so much.

These cotton reels have got me thinking...and I would love to find some more of the taller ones so am having a happy time sticking my nose into every charity shop or collectable shops and sorting through the haberdashery. As an aside, before we left a friend told me about a friend of hers, who volunteers at a haberdashery op shop. An op shop/charity shop just for haberdashery and sewing notions! What a splendid idea. 

Out our bedroom window each night, the sky is always worth a look, especially this portion of the hill with the fence line.  I keep looking at it and wondering what it is trying to tell me. The best I have done so far is it feels like the fence is stitching the land to the sky. As if it is joining the celestial to the corporeal. There is something in there I want to explore... just not sure exactly what it might be.

I have been thinking about containing small amounts of text in 5cm x 5cm squares. I started out with just my handwriting in capitals, and then turned the square around and over wrote it. It makes an interesting texture. Very dense. Completely illegible. Looks a bit scary. Not sure it is saying what I want it to say just yet.

This is pretty typical of this time. Things are saying something, but I am not yet grasping them. Or I am not yet able to get them to say the right things! This too shall pass.

I have drawn some lines in the next square for my next thought...

And so, instead, I continue to look at the landscape, soak in the softness and the light and get inspired in so many different ways.

The cottage with the hillside of crocosmia/montbretia we have planted dazzling and bright.

Sunlight on the hay and the crofts. More fence lines...

Looking out along a headland.

The mist was in.

The late evening sun caught this line of cloud above the hill line. It was like a bright torn edge of some paper. Or worse - like a fire pouring over the hill.

And bringing some of the garden into the cottage.

Softly, softly. Gently, gently. The making will return.

Safe arrivals

We are back at the cottage safely, after a smooth travel experience - not something you can bank on these days. We had several fall back strategies should the air space over the Gulf be closed...

We spent our first night in Scotland at Pitlochry - a favourite spot to wander around. It is a sight to behold with its many baskets of hanging flowers; and this time we also got to visit the Book Shop at the Pitlochry Railway Station. What a brilliant idea this is - who hasn't sat at a train station wishing they could buy a book for the journey?

All books are donated and all sales go to the six charities they support. We got a couple of goodies and a cook book!

I think I need to find me a railway station with a vacancy....

And so to the cottage where the summer of rain has meant we have loads of growth - we have apples, potatoes, flowers and plenty of weeds!

We have since weeded the apple and hydrangea garden and it looks much better now! Before we left in May we planted out several containers with potatoes. They look utterly straggly, but we have harvested one pot and eaten them all!

Flowers are still going strong and I have brought some into the house just to keep the smiles going.

Out in the rockery.

Some of the wee heather remains on the hillsides.

And the cove looked majestic on our first morning here...

'Tis good to be back.