Of coloured skies ...

One of the the things I find our two homes have in common is the sky.  It is big.  When it is big and blue here it is just like when it is big and blue in Maleny. Looking up at, and across it, something we do in both places.

However, I hadn't, until yesterday, really seen a great fiery sunset or sunrise here.

We woke yesterday morning to the colour starting in the sky.

By the time we were downstairs it was spreading and changing before our eyes, so it took a long time to have our juice as we kept ducking out to look.

It changed again and started to enhance the sky at the back (to the west)

So then I had to do an overhead panorama shot - looking like a limbo dancer as I did - to try and capture the sense of it.

And then we walked, as we do, to the cove and the colour shifted and changed again.

A mackerel sky it is called apparently - the clouds look like fish scales.

As we began to walk home it was still startling.

Even reflected in a puddle the clouds looked good.

And the cottage had this backdrop in the sunshine. Wonderful light all morning.

Sometime nature just puts on a show and all you can do is gaze in wonder...

Thursday Thoughts...

"Success is dangerous.  One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others".

Pablo Picasso

As if artists don't have enough to worry about: whether our work is good or not; whether people like it or not; whether we are worthy or not; now Picasso tells us success is dangerous!

The second part of the quote is the part that got me thinking and turning my brain this way and that.

Why is it more dangerous to copy yourself? And what does copying yourself even look like?!?

I can imagine what copying others appears to be - most definitely not a good idea and not at all helpful to yourself.

But copying yourself.

I imagine he may mean that its a trap and a way of getting stuck doing the same things. It may mean you stop exploring, trying new things or heading off down unexpected paths.  If he had said don't repeat yourself I would have got that in a flash.

Perhaps it is simply that he was trying to make the point that if you are successful, you are more likely to do more of the same thing because you have some measure that says this is what works, and that that can limit your actual creativity.

Point taken.

Some serviettes I made...

This and That

I am still learning how best to make and create here in the cottage.  This time I came prepared with some ideas and since I have been here, I have been doing lot of things, and in the end most of them are preparation.

I have been trying to dye threads using plants from here; as I won't be able to do that back in Australia.  I have tried to make brushes with materials from here and make marks on paper.  I will take the paper home, but won't be able to take the brushes - sheep's wool; horse's hair and feathers, all of which our quarantine folk would most likely want to keep, so I don't want to risk losing them into a bin.

So this week, I managed to get some more thread dyed and make some marks on papers.

I am retaining my serendipity is good kind of approach to things, but got caught out when I tried to replicate some colours.  This was stinging nettle.  I had had it turn the butteriest yellow before and then, as it started to die off I go a most gorgeous grey.  Being into grey I went and got heaps more in the hope it would go grey again.  This is what it did instead - absolutely nothing.

So I tossed the nettles out and started again with dead and dying nettle leaves. As ever, we shall see.

I had chatted with a neighbour one day about natural dyeing and she recalled some notes she had made from a book from South Uist (Outer Hebrides) about the old ways of dyeing.  She found them and copied them for me and we chatted about how water lily should give black.  I thought that was amazing, but where would I find waterlilies in Scotland I wondered?

As serendipity would have it, we came across a lochan (wee loch) with them growing and in an adventurous manner, with Barry leaning in, sleeve rolled up and me tethering him in the bog, we collected one wee root. And gave it a go.

It came out greyish. Not bad.

However I was chatting to a friend Lesley in Wales and she sent me through a book. It also spoke of water lilies but mentioned you should put copper and iron in to get the black.  We were a few days in by this stage, so I tossed a penny coin and some rusted washers in to see if that made a difference.  The brew is still in the pot, looking darker, so I shall report later.

Before adding copper and iron.

And so to brushes and marks and paper.

A previous bouquet became brushes with the addition of a goose feather gifted by a different neighbour.

I loved the soft ex-thistle flower - it held the ink well and moved smoothly.  The tight flower/seed head also worked well; but the open one didn't.  The feather gave really tiny fine lines.

The ex-thistle flower circles.

This is the short horse hair brush with Payne's Grey diluted.

This is wispy wool.

This is wispy horse hair

More wispy wool.

A few pages ready to pack and take back, cut up and use somehow.

Its very different to making and completing, but I know the investment is important.

Its also very therapeutic just experimenting and exploring and not really being in control!

A road trip of books and beauty...

We have returned from a wee mini-break down to Ullapool.  It is a bustling, beautiful, arty-booky town of 1500 people on the west coast.  It is also the departure point for the Western Isles Harris and Lewis and we had visited briefly overnight once as we caught a ferry to Lewis, and had always thought it would be a place worth returning to.

So we tootled off down the single track roads and made Lairg for morning tea, then onto Ullapool via Oykel Bridge (love that name) and thru a craft market at Elphin.

We were staying at The Ceilidh Place - in part because it had a book shop, an exhibition space and seemed delightful.

I had not expected this when we arrived...

Each bedroom had a small library of books which had been selected either by a staff member or a long-term visitor. The folder listed them all with alit of blurb about the selector,a nd about the books. I really enjoyed glancing through the folder and flicking through several of the books. I managed to read fair chunk of a few of them

There was also a Guest Lounge which was really a big library, so we spent time in there as well.  There were books scattered on all the tables and in a room that was a library of sorts.  It was like heaven.  And of course there was the book shop downstairs that stayed open as long as the bar was open, so you could browse and buy well into the night...

The view across Loch Broom.

Having visited galleries and coffee shops and more book shops we turned north ward, heading of home at our own pace.

We stopped by Achiltibuie one afternoon, looking back towards Ullapool thru a rain shower.

We stopped off at Ardmair beach on the morning we left - a beautiful stretch of grey stones and pebbles. Gorgeous. Looking out to the sea where the ferry heads to Lewis.

The day was still and the light so clear, we saw some majestic and magnificent scenery.

The reflections on this loch were stunning.

Another book moment occurred at a tiny locality called Inverkirkaig - just out of Lochinver.  We had turned off the main road to discover this place and we travelled thru some tight turns and windy roads and steep bits on single track road and were thrilled to find it. Alchins' Book Shop and tea shop.

Literally in the middle of nowhere. we had scones and the and bought a book and just loved the notion of books in the wild.

On there return the main road we passed by Loch Assynt again - and once more the reflections were superb.

Heading further north to Kyelsku and Scourie the reflections continued.

And my favourite detour of the day was to a trio of hamlets Tarbet, Fanagmore and Foindle.  By far the steepest and windiest of single track roads we had driven - down to first gear in places - and yet the beauty was astounding.

We made it back to the North Coast at Durness - had a hot chocolate at Cocoa Mountain, and saw the beach again.  

Now back at the cottage, still a bit stunned by all that we saw on the trip, and settling back into the rhythms of our place. 

Sitting, stitching the last top of the coasters; next to sew tops to bottoms.

Thursday Thoughts...

"I ransack public libraries and find them full of sunk treasures."

Virginia Woolf

That all sounds very pirate-y of Virginia Woolf, but it does in some ways describe those moments when y can dig an delve and explore all manner of books as you visit a pubic library.

One of the joys of the Dewey system is how it puts different categories of books next to each other; and yet within the category there are pretty strong connections.  So you actually dig deeper in your own world; or be led astray by the world next door. Love it!

I am pretty sure she is saying that within public libraries there are treasures to be found, and I couldn't agree more...

We investigated the map room at the Scottish Archive Library in Edinburgh and found this map of Armadale, before the road in was built (pre 1832-33). Our cottage would later be placed upon the new lands described on the left of the 'road) at or around no. 5 or 6 on the left. Treasure map!

Brushes and marks

I got out my home made brushes the other day to see what sort of marks they might make.

I was able to use one of my journals that I made in advance of the trip - a nice small square one - and decided the simplest thing for me to do was to draw circles.

The kitchen became the studio, with a painting drop sheet on top and everything else pushed up one end.

 I tried them all and really enjoyed the different marks.  I started first with black ink.

And then to undiluted Paynes Grey (which didn't seem that much different to black, so I will add water next time to get more of a grey feeling).

I also played more with these, rather than aiming for a single-stroke circle I let the many marks make a circle...

The wee book was perfect for this - I have made notes in it now and I must say I do love a circle within a square.

And then of course, I went a'wandering and found more potential brushes! yay.

Peace, purses and pictures

Saturday was International Day of Peace and Barry and I had hung our peace flags and doves int eh tree at home; and we had also brought a few with us to hang at the cottage.

It is always a bit of a challenge here as the wind can get up quite quickly and seriously so I am never sure they will last any distance.

Here they are at home courtesy of my dad.

We hung a few on the gate to our cottage, and then a few on a side fence that has barbed wire - somehow the barbed wire just seems to make it that more poignant and real.

Before hanging.

On the gate...

And on the barbed wire fence.

It is a day for us to stop and think about peace and the possibilities of peace, even tho we walk in aworld where there is sadness and strife.  I do have hope however, that we can find our way.

On a far less profound note, I am using cash a lot more in Scotland than I do at home.  That means I get more coins and change.  My new wallet does not really accommodate much change, so I have been making do with a tiny ziplock bag.

It fell apart yesterday so I had to think about an alternative.

I had one spare square of fabric that is 10cm x10cm  which I have been using to stitch my coasters (onto the last top!!), and I figured if I cut it in half and stitched the two together then folded it, and stitched a pouch and added a press stud, I should be good.

So I did, just doing a back stitch by hand then finishing with a blanket stitch - so a little purse entirely stitchesdby hand. So far so good, it served me well today.

And because nobody else will really get to see it, don't worry too much about the untidiness of the inside!! I promise you I don't.

And then just because, here are a couple from two different walks we did today. Stunning skies and landscapes.

And what is a trip to the Highlands worth without a coo? Enjoy!