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...!

Walking on the Estate

No, they're too heavy, we can't carry those...

nor these

We sometimes do this walk in the afternoon. It's flat, which is helpful if you haven't got hours to spare and are not feeling hugely energetic. At one end of the loch is a ruin of a house. It belongs to the Inverbroom Estate.We can see lots of tree saplings have been planted and it's been fenced in to keep out the deer. What a house! And what a spot to live in. A view from every window. It comes complete with boat house and boat, but it does need a bit of work doing - and those dreadful gates would have to go - and as for that gatekeeper!

Thank you for the nice comments on my last post concerning our house. So far it has stood up very well to the weather! I don't like to say but we have had lower than average rainfall here for the time of year. We do get storm force gales at times. Last year our weather station recorded gusts of over 100 mph. I really do feel for the people who have been flooded out in the south. I try and imagine how awful it must feel to have filthy water invade your home.

Crazy Paving

Usually we go down the lane, today we're going up. We take the car and the trailer. Past the sheep that won't move. This time we're collecting flat stones. The bigger and flatter the better. This burn that flows down to the loch is full of the most perfect paving slabs, most of which are too heavy for us to carry. We collect the ones we can and put them in a pile. The day is a sort of brown one.Very still, overcast and not especially cold. We take the stones home, where they will wait and eventually be used to pave around the house when the top layer of gravel goes down. We need quite a few more -  but that can be part of  the exercise regime for next week!