Smouldering

One of the loveliest mountains in the north west Highlands is on fire. A wild fire started last week and a large area between Lochinver and Suilven went up in flames. I'm not sure how it started but it has been very dry here. The fire is under control now but one side of Suilven is still burning. I took a trip out yesterday afternoon. I did a full circle around Suilven on mainly single track roads. It is such a beautiful part of the world, and so quiet. The smell of smoke combined with the coconut scent of gorse hung in the air. They made a film last year Edie. It hasn't been released yet. It stars Shelia Hancock who plays a grumpy old lady who fulfils an ambition to climb a mountain in the north of Scotland. It isn't the highest of mountains but it's a steep climb to the top and it's sad it's on fire. It will burn its self out and no doubt recover.

I have been busy!

Spring has arrived....just

but some days it doesn't feel like it!

This tiny little shop 'The Old Ferry Craft Co-Op' in Kylesku has agreed to stock my cards.

so, I've been busy making boxes. The theme of this set is 'Passing Places' More people are coming up to this beautiful little corner to drive the North Coast 500 and there are many single track roads to negotiate on the way

I've decided to knit face cloths. They are very similar to dish cloths! But I wanted a change. I need to design a wrapper for them....I think you could use them as dishcloths too!

Robin came for Easter. It was lovely and sometimes the sun shone!

We sat outside the pub in Ullapool, almost warm in the sun, and watched the last ferry of the day slip its moorings and sail over to Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides

                        

Home from London

I've been in London, visiting family, friends, shopping and playing with a new phone! A lot of playing. I can't stop picking it up. I'm half terrified and half fascinated at all the wonderful things it can do. I've never had a smartphone. It's much smarter than I am. Jo and I on a cold platform waiting for the train. We'd been to Ikea at Croydon. I've never been to Ikea without a car! We didn't buy any flat packed furniture.

David Hockney at the Tate was absolutely brilliant and amazing and inspirational

Now I'm home again and this morning I took my phone to the bottom of the garden...I did think about using google maps to get down there but thought that might be a bit excessive..! Our little house still holds on, waiting for a new roof and some TLC.
After all the hustle and bustle of London and awful events of last week it was a joy to sink into the peace and quiet and abundance of overgrown wilderness, tumble down trees, rocks and seaweed  at the end of the garden

An abandoned caravan. It belonged to a lovely lady who used to use it as her bathing hut. Sadly she is no longer with us and the mice have moved in and others by the look of it who enjoy a wee dram!

Another little house like ours. They're dotted about the highlands, simple and robust  constructed  using local stone. There will never be a shortage of stone here.

These rocks at the bottom of a our garden on the shore have the most beautiful iridescent colours. The tide comes in and covers them twice a day

This tree bleached by the weather is completely white. It's a work or art to be walked around and enjoyed

And,that is just what me and my smart phone did!

Mind the Gap..!

Gill came to stay, and finally after months of  deafening silence and total inactivity on my blog I thought I had better take it up again! That, combined with recent queries from friends both locally and from afar enquiring, ever so politely, if  "Everything is OK"?  has prompted me to come out of my stupor. The biggest motivator is guilt! but also knowing the very few followers I have really do look regularly to see if I've posted anything.
Yes, everything is OK and I'm truly sorry for the gap. A small health issue in the winter, now resolved, set me back a bit. Then Christmas, then January (nobody does anything in January surely?!) and now I'm trying to come up with some new ideas for cards and prints to go in Cabinet opening for the season in April.

My friend Gill looks good in a force 9 gale! We took her on a  local walk recommended by a friend

It's difficult to describe the walk. It starts at the end of our lane. I think the Estate owner had it made, for people staying in the big Estate house

A rough track, hacked into the hillside

It takes you up to one of the many gorges deep in the hillside carrying water cascading to the river below.

It didn't disappoint. In true highland fashion it was rough and ready, haphazard and very beautiful

A length of blue rope tied to trees shows the way over the waterfall!

They haven't bothered with silly old safety barriers

I'm sure there are many people capable of climbing into a gorge, but for us it was a real treat and an experience to follow a track, however basic, to help us scramble round and enjoy this very beautiful awe inspiring landscape.

We felt quite small and enclosed as we contemplated the forces of nature

On the track continued

I love the hap hazard abundance of growth here. Moss, trees, rocks, roots, bracken and ferns. All manner of plant life slip sliding to the bottom of the gorge

Finally we came up out on the other side of the gorge. We loved it. Gill said they wouldn't do that in Surrey. They might, but I suspect there would be much more attention paid to rules regulations and safety