Beautiful April

Rainy days seem like a distant dream - we are now enjoying day upon day of blue skies - it's glorious.

Easter weekend seemed like a good time to venture back up to see the primroses. I am beginning to think I imagined last year's display.......still not many in flower!

I didn't really mind, it was such a lovely day with bright blue skies. There were some sheep on the skyline looking dramatic.

It's good to cherish the sunny moments - just in case the dreaded rain returns.

This week's other sunny moment came when after many months of indecision I chose a new bicycle. Me and my old Pashley Princess had ridden many hundreds of miles together - in rain, hail, snow, thunder, gale and sun - up hill and down - but all that weather had taken its toll and it was time for my Pashley to be retired. 

Meet my Dawes Red Feather and in the words of Bing Crosby "she is yar" - super speedy and it's great to be able to get out and about again.

Tonight, after work, I cycled along to the low pier and it felt good to be cycling and to be enjoying the blue skies - this April has turned out to be quite beautiful.

April Sunshine

It was Mr M's day off today and I firmly decided to have a day off too. I managed to have just an hour or so dealing with some emails and then said goodbye to work for the rest of the day.

It's been a sunny, sort of windy day and I spent some time up on the swing seat cloud watching - enjoying the warmth of the sun in between the banks of clouds.

The trees are all starting to unfurl their leaves - birch trees always seem in a great hurry to be first.

Although older wiser trees like the big copper beech like to savour spring and hold back just a little longer until they are really sure spring is here.

At long last primroses are starting to appear all over the hillside.......

........along with dog-violets and wood anemones, tucked away among the daffodils.

It's easy to feel springlike with the sudden appearance of all that colour......so thinking that it's only a few days to Easter, I made the most of the sun and sat outside with some cotton and hook and a pattern from Love the Bluebird.

I managed to rustle up a few bunnies and I thought how much I had missed just pottering and crafting in the last couple of weeks. I have enjoyed working more too - I guess it's all a matter of balance and I haven't really got there yet.

I looked out my box of Easter treasure and I am looking forward to opening it tomorrow.

Where have I been?

I feel like I have lost control of my days (and my mind!!) - each day seems to rush to a conclusion and I feel like I have a million things still to do and a million things to think about and I just need to catch my breath.

Tonight after a typically bizarre day at work - I nearly broke my neck running from one place of work to another to meet someone at 1.30pm only to get there and find out it was only 12.30pm. Which meant I had to hightail it back to the other place of work at 4.30pm to finish off the work I couldn't finish because I ran out of time because earlier on I had been an hour ahead of myself. What??

Anyway, I digress......tonight I announced an urgent need to go for a hike up a track to a bridge I thought would be covered in primroses and would make a lovely photo and if we didn't go now when would we ever have the time. Mr M ever obliging and living up to his saintly status agreed - perhaps I was slightly unhinged at this point! Typically at this point the heavens opened and it poured with rain.....someone was trying to send me a message......undeterred we headed out.

The herd of cows all had that look about them.....couple of idiots out for a walk in this weather.

I forgave them especially when I saw the wee calf. Isn't it cute....if a little stroppy too.

The weather was clearing, but as you can see it was hardly a return to spring sunshine.

The track is an old Parliamentary road and dates to the start of the 19th century.

It was just one of those days. When we reached the bridge there were hardly any primroses to be seen. Mr M ever the smart one, declared that as it was North facing there was little chance of there being many primroses out yet. Good grief. A tree at the bridge was absolutely buzzing with bees the sound was almost deafening. We headed back down the track and stopped at the cairn to admire the view.

On a sad note the cat that was visiting us was knocked down and killed on the road and I've been heartbroken.

Tea Room Bunting

It's been a lovely day - slightly warm and slightly windy. It feels like spring has arrived on the Scottish West Coast. 

I love looking out of the kitchen window at the daffodils - there is a riot of colour in the garden - it really lifts the spirits. Last week passed by in a bit of a blur, all work and no time for craft.

So, it was rather nice tonight, when I got home from work, to spend a little time sewing together some bunting - when I really should have been making the dinner or doing some ironing. Making the triangles is the easy part - working out the distances and the overall length is a bit fiddly.

The bunting is for the top of a dresser in the tea room so I picked some fabrics that I thought would go well together and would look nice hanging from the dresser. I couldn't resist using some teapot fabric and the carrot fabric is rather jolly.

I'm going to try and do a little bit of craft every day this week. I am picturing myself with yarn and hook up on the swing seat with the sun shining and the birds singing.

Short and Sweet Saturday

Taking a leaf out of The Country Housewife's Book and making full advantage of some dry windy weather to collect some kindling for the stove.

Tea Room

One of my friends has taken on the lease for a tea room and after many weeks of hard work - she has turned what was a tired and worn out tea room into something very lovely! I'm going to be working for her a day or so every week.

Today was opening day and with a sense of great trepidation and anticipation we faced the public. Everyone was so nice, it was busy and the day passed by in a complete blur.

On the way home tonight there was a wonderful sunset.......a lovely end to the day. When I have five minutes and I am not so tired, I need to plan in some craft time - there are a couple of things I need to make and block of the week is turning into block of the year!

Singing Sands

After a fairly mixed week of weather, yesterday was decidedly promising with blue skies and sunshine. So, after a hastily prepared picnic, we headed off to do a walk to a beach called the Singing Sands.

We stepped out of the car and tried to ignore the rather icy blast of wind - home is very sheltered from most wind directions and it can easily lull you into a false sense of security - it's quite windy over here I declared - stating the obvious as usual.

Undeterred we headed off, the first part of the walk hugs the bay and is quite exposed (cold), but once we headed into the trees we were out of the wind (warm and springlike).

We cut the path a bit and crossed by the ford - the burn was quite fast flowing and we had to watch not to loose our footing. I speak from experience as I had done something similar on a walk one winter and ended up dripping wet and freezing - saved only from exposure by my brother-in-law's foresight in having brought spare clothing. We stopped to watch a Sea Eagle soaring high above us.

The sun was shining which was lovely and it was casting long shadows. I love the way I look like I am wearing a traditional Dutch costume!

We headed into the trees and a scent of pine was in the air. Although the path never wanders very far from the shore, when you are in among the trees you feel like you have entered another world. You can hear signs of life, but it always seems like it is just out of sight, forever hidden among the dense greenery.

We took an old path, an off shoot, from the main one. It was pretty wet - thank you wellingtons - and at times difficult to follow, but it cuts a chunk off the distance and places you nicely between the line of beaches on this part of the coast. You can hear the sea for ages before you clear the trees and actually see it. Bright blue skies and white horses on the waves and not a footprint on the sand.

We found a sheltered spot among the rocks and had our picnic. One of the coves had lots of seaweed washed up and an assortment of what can only be described as Tribbles - we couldn't decided whether they had been washed up or had been formed by the action of the wind  - like tumbleweed - on this particular beach. This one looked almost like a bird's nest.

It is such a special place - I first came here about 26 years ago and I still get the same thrill now when I'm on the beach as I did back then.

There are lots of dunes on the furthest beach. It was used to train troops for the Normandy landings during the Second World War. It's hard to imagine now, but the rusted remnants of shrapnel tell otherwise. You could see the layers of sand building up.

The wind was whipping up the sand - it really does sing when you scuff your feet along it.

A perfectly lovely walk, a perfectly lovely day.