All in a day's...

We have been away for a week, visiting the Shetland Islands, and it was wonderful.  It was as far north as either of us have ever been and we had an amazing time.  Whilst we were away the weather was kind, so it was bit of a shock the system to wake this morning at the cottage to a gale blowing, about 50mph, gusting this way and that.

We managed our daily walk to the cove with some entertaining moments - both of us stuck on one leg  at times as the wind was so strong it stopped us putting the other leg forward and down!

So it was pretty much an indoor day today doing bits of this and bits of that.

The sea at the cove was wild and crashing.

The sun made a valiant effort to burst forth through the clouds.

And was rather marvellous to observe through the salt spray that was blown across everywhere.

I did some washing - you know when you have to make the most of a good drying day!?!

It was hilarious - I have never been so buffeted in my life, but I got it done. Barry was working in the shed and photographed me thru the window.

Note the pegs that have been blown over and into the fence; and the roof slate in the basket to stop it blowing further away!

In between times I have been slowly dyeing more thread and the work I am imagining is coming together more in my head and in scribbled notes in my book.

I had to purchase some new wooden pegs for rolling the threads onto and they arrived during the week, so I rolled the most recent batches, and labelled them.

I am quite fond of the devils-bit scabiosus, and the lichen (off a rock in our garden).

 Part of my job now is getting the proper names for everything so I have a good record.

And because I looked around the studio (i.e. kitchen bench, lounge room coffee table) and wondered what next? I pulled out the sticks we collected from the beach last weekend and the horse's hair and wool we had detached from a barbed wire fence and went off to make some brushes.

Who knows what might happen next or how they might get used, but they are ready and waiting in my tool kit!

Barry made a much tidier one from horses' hair than me.

But I think they have some potential!

All in all a pretty good indoor day...

Thursday Thoughts...

"A studio is a toolbox".

Ryan Gander

I am post-posting my Thursday Thoughts this week as we were travelling and I didn't manage to get them done; and I like the regularity of them, so felt like I should do one, even tho it isn't Thursday anymore (altho I have dated it for Thursday for the ongoing record...).

This wee one felt pertinent this week as I face the ongoing challenge of making art and being creative when I am away from my studio.  My studio is definitely a tool box for me - it holds my big machinery (the presses) which I can't take with me and it has all the bits that keep them going. It holds the odds things, the bits I use infrequently but when I need them, they are there.  Just like a tool box.

It has heaps of paper stacked and stored; here I can manage A4 at the most, and suppliers of beautiful papers are few and far between in the Highlands (altho a visit to Vintage Paper Company in Orkney is always on the list).

I guess a studio is also like a toolbox simply in that it holds the tools of your job - all the bits you need to do what you are doing, and in that way, whatever you call your studio (your box of bits, your table, your cupboard) is what you draw upon to get the job done.

My toolbox on the coffee table in the lounge room!

And on the cushions on the lounge itself...

Corner posts

For some reason, I have been looking at and looking for, corner posts.  I noticed one a week or so ago, and my attention has been drawn back to them time and time again since.

I think I admire them because they have to be strong.  The integrity of a fence emanates from them; by taking the strain in both directions, they make a fence around a paddock possible.

I like that they are a juncture, a meeting point for different sides.

They are often worn, yet tough. Most of them tell stories through years of wire and additions.

Here are a few of my favourites so far, in all sorts of weather, mostly from our daily walk in the village.

A few iterations, at our neighbours'.

Perfect morning light and still holding strong.

Falling down on the job just a tad I fear.

A tangle of things, but still getting the job done, just across the road.

The balance of this one is quite calming.

Some are doing less work now than they used to.

The second one I focused on; not in our village but full of stories I'm sure.

And finally, the one that started my interest... love the danger.

Thursday Thoughts...

"It's a wonderful thing to let go of your own way of telling yourself the world and allow someone else to do it for you."

Mark Haddon

This is part of the joy and wonder of books for me - that they show me so many other ways of being in the world.  Whether its fictional characters, non-fiction essays or historical or memoir writing.  I learn so much, and learn that so many people embrace and live in worlds so very different to mine.

Reading opens minds, just opens, and I think opening up and being open are such very important things in this world of ours.

Opening allows for empathy, opening allows for interest, opening allows for understanding.

These two books are showing us so much about Scotland, nature, and life - beautiful essays of wild and wonderful places and other things.

Palettes of grey and blue

We often say there is plenty of weather here.  It moves and shifts and plays with you really.  This morning we woke to blazing sunshine and stillness after driving home in the gloom and mist and rain last night.

But it does wonderful things with the light, and looking back over photos, there are some lovely greys and blues...

Grey mornings, and the fish net drying poles

A sea wall at Keiss.

Peeling paint on a beached boat at Keiss.

Fishing nets in the beached boat at Keiss.

A transitional sky.

Clouds in a puddle

Clouds in the sky

The fishing net drying poles in the blue.

Cottages, gardens and stitches

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.

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.

Thursday Thoughts...

"Learn silence. With the quiet serenity of a meditative mind, listen, absorb, transcribe and transform".

Pythagoras

I often think about how powerful and important silence is, and we are finding moments whilst we are here when we stop and hear absolutely nothing. Nothing. Nothing at all.

It is eerie and challenging, yet also pretty special.

I like the way Pythagoras all those many years ago spoke of silence, not just in and of itself, but also as a catalyst for something more.

The idea of using the silence to consider and then propel yourself into something is interesting.

In part that has been happening of late as I adjust to the pace and the rhythms and the quiet.  My mind is beginning to have conversations with itself about what to do with it; how to use the thoughts that flow through your mind when you walk in amongst it; how to consider and make use of the words that flow - where should they go? what should they become?

And so hopefully yes, I will be able to absorb, transcribe and transform moments from the silence.

This and that in the Highlands...

I have been enjoying doing a few bits and pieces here and there, but we are also getting out and about having wee adventures when we can.

Before we came away I trimmed some linen from my dressmaking projects into squares with the plan of sewing some coasters for the cottage.

I marked out squares as guides using some fabulous 'chalk' I bought in Stockbridge in Edinburgh. We went into the shop that does alterations and repairs for clothes and asked if they knew where we could get tailor's chalk.  Me in English, all the staff Polish so it was pretty funny trying to get the idea across - but I loved the lightbulb moment of insight and translation as the manager grabbed something from a drawer drew onto fabric then rubbed it off with steam - and we had it! I tried to pay and she simply gave to me which was so kind. We gave her a Barry leaf in exchange.

As mentioned I have been brewing my pots of local flowers and we had two amazing days of warmth and sunshine - 25 degrees in the far north of Scotland!!!

The cottage early one morning - that biggest of blue skies felt like home.

The sun streaming in to the cottage kitchen with sweet peas smiling.

A beautiful afternoon's walk to the headland and looking back to Armadale Bay.

This morning was softer light and I picked this posy...

And ta-da! I pulled the threads out of the brew this morning and was pretty happy.  Top left is the sweet peas after they had started to fade; clockwise then red clover, purple thistle and stinging nettles.

I was pretty happy!

And this afternoon on one of our adventures we met quite a few Heilan coos... they are just the best.

Making a start

Our previous visits to the cottage in Scotland have been very task-focused.  The first time we were on a whirlwind trip to identify possible cottages; the second trip we came to renovate and furnish inside and set up the internet and telephone etc; the third time we came to do outdoor work of drains and gravelling and clearing land; and this time we hope to have fewer tasks to do (altho of course we are still doing lots of weeding and trimming to bring the yard into shape again after a fruitful summer of warmth and rain).

That said, we are both keen to focus on our art lives whilst we are here as well, and that can pose a problem for a metal worker and letterpress printmaker.  Our materials and tools are too heavy and awkward to move around the world with us, so we ponder other things.

I tried to be a bit prepared this time and have some fabric and some threads and some notebooks.

I made 8 notebooks a while back thinking I might write in one a week.  I started off OK and used the Turkish fold book to capture the week of transit - flying, stopping in Edinburgh, researching the cottage at the National Library, going to a Fringe show, enjoying the madness of the city in full festival flight and the many arts and crafts opportunities that were also on. It continues the r=train trip to Inverness, overnighting there and then the final train trip north and arrival at the cottage.

I wasn't sure how I might use this folded book but have come to the view it is brilliant for capturing a week of odds and sods and lets you dump things down without feeling obliged to write a full page.  A very friendly approach to journalling is my assessment!

And then to the cottage - the other place we call home.

We stuck to our tried and true method of being super busy and then we woke up. We slowed back down into the rhythm of the place and my mind turned to making and creating again.

I had seen a great leather purse in Edinburgh - a triangle fold and one into which I could put coins. My new wallet doesn't really work for coins so I have to find an alternative and additional option. Why not try to make one I thought?

I found the folding pattern on line OK and thought how hard could that be?

First attempt at a paper template failed.  I needed to draw equilateral triangles and couldn't work out an easy way to do it. Googling identified the need for a compass - which is not something we have on hand here; but also offered up an option for tracing around a round thing.

A mug perchance?

The inaccuracies associated with drawing pencil lines on a mug and basically hoping, thwarted mea gain and yet I was sure there must be a way.

So I fiddled and I faddled and drew one by messing about with fold lines.

Once I had done this I measured the height of the triangle and wondered if there was a formula for the ratio and yee ha there was.  I can now create equilateral triangle of any size by calculation. I laughed at my glee haven't cracked that!

I made a few paper templates and wrote some notes and called it a day.  Making a purse can wait.

I had chosen this wee notebook to use as my thoughts and ideas jotting place whilst away and it turned out to be the perfect choice.

Inside it has this extra bit which is the hinge that allows the pages to stay in place; which was just the right spot to tuck my templates.

And then to thread.

Having happily solar dyed some threads form our garden at home, I had wanted to try and dye some here as well.

I met too many stinging nettles for my liking as I weeded, but that got me thinking if they might be put to good use.  So I harvested some stinging nettles and some red clover and some purple thistle flowers and thought I would give it  a go.

We shall see what happens.

When last here, my dad had planted some sweet peas with the hope that they might be flowering when we arrived; and they were, so the dead heads were next in the pot!

 

 And finally after all my flights winding cottons onto pegs here i my stash from home.  All so gentle and sympathetic I think.

Stitching fun awaits!