The morale of the story is....

......take care when canoeing! Yesterday we learned that the bodies of three missing kayakers had been found in a river in Northumberland.
We set off from home a few weeks back on what was quite a windy day. After much faffing and fiddling, we hauled the canoe onto the car and set off for loch Veyatie a little north of Ullapool, and, according to locals, a good starting point for climbing Suilven. As soon as we entered the loch it was choppy, quite windy and the canoe travelled at some speed! We pulled off onto the opposite shore for lunch and at that point the sensible thing would have been to turn back. But Suilven looked so close and we wanted to see if we could get to the start of the climb.
How silly we were!
We started off again only to conclude almost at once, that we needed to abandon ship! I lost a paddle (later retrieved) and in our efforts to turn the canoe into the wind and struggle against the strong current to reach the shore we nearly capsized.
We reached the bank and dragged the canoe out of the water. We had come some distance and although out of the water and quite safe we had a long trek back to the car. No tracks to follow other than those made by deer, often unreliable and seemingly leading nowhere! There were an awful lot of ups and downs and boggy bits and it was almost dark by the time we reached the car. The canoe is still (we hope) where we left it and on a suitable day (absolutely not a breath of wind) we must go back and retrieve it!

Messing about

Last week Jo came for a long weekend. We spent two glorious afternoons on the beach. At times warm and sunny, at others a wee bit draughty! We played and sunbathed and thought how lucky we are to have this so near to home. But the best bit is to have Jo back, full of energy, and 'normal' (well, normal...ish!) after having struggled for so long with chronic fatigue/ME. She went home full of beans - we, on the other hand, had to have a lie down and a rest! 

Friday

Is everything going to be old and distressed asks Niels looking at the chair? Only us, I say! Yesterday was band practice. Somewhere in the distant past on this blog I have mentioned that Niels plays drums with various different bands. Yesterday the band (fortunately only small) met here. I took myself off for the afternoon. It was cold and the weather changed in an instant. I stopped to admire the view and as I turned, a stag appeared on the road. He was big and although very aware I was there he showed no fear and calmly crossed over to the other side.

I think I'm becoming a bit obsessed with digital painting and drawing. I've never really used photoshop for photos. I have a very old graphics tablet and pen and I like making my own brushes and textures and using photoshop to draw. I want to make a big picture. We tried first enlarging a card I made recently for a friend's husband. We increased the size and printed it out using 8 sheets of A4 paper. It's now very big. It's only held together with sticky tape and is only a rough.  The idea was to see how accurately it would line up when printed. This isn't the picture I want to make.....that's the next step!

Table tops, legs and inspiration...

I finally painted our 1980's Ikea table. Its orange knotty pine legs had been driving me crazy for some considerable time! Now the legs are duck egg blue (it says on the tin) and it is all together more restful on the eye. I did a wishy washy grey on the table top and waxed it like Annie Sloan said. I see so many amazing colours when we're out walking. Niels says you can have too much painted furniture, and I should be careful not to over do it.

But me and Annie Sloan are on a bit of a roll at the minute....

Squawk...

 Got anything for me to eat..?

I said have you got anything to eat..?

Suit yourself. I'll go and get a take a way...

Finished...got any more...squawk squawk...!