A day out with Laura

As promised a return to the trip Laura McCabe and I made to both Rosslyn Chapel and Melrose Abbey. And by the way if you want to see us during the beading days you can admire pictures on The Bead Shop Scotland Facebook page here! I was so lucky to get the Saturday too as someone had cancelled. Laura had Friday off from teaching and it seemed such a shame that she was not seeing a lot of Scotland. I know myself that very often you go and teach somewhere but you don't have time to see the outside world much. But I've also been lucky enough for people at various venues to take me out and about, which is such a treat. So I took Laura for a day out in Scotland, visiting first Rosslyn Chapel (no photography inside allowed anymore, but they did have a DVD as well as an image CD for sale!) and then Melrose Abbey (seen above in all it's glory)

It's such a pleasure and one I don't get to indulge in too often, to go around with a fellow artist and one that is so completely on the same wavelength. I felt relaxed enough to just open my studio door to Laura during a brief pit stop at home for some lunch, in between Rosslyn and Melrose, without even considering the state it might be in since I closed the door last. Most artists simply expect the mess as they know that's how we work best. And she also shared my taste for graveyards! Above one of the stones in Melrose Abbey graveyard, where nature is fighting a winning battle!

We both also merrily clicked away to store images of the Abbey on our cameras for future inspiration!

We were so lucky with the weather. It rained during most of our visit to Rosslyn Chapel but that didn't matter as we were inside. By the time we reached Melrose the weather had brightened up considerably as you can see on the above pictures. It made a great play of sunshine and shadow through all the window arches. We also made it all the way up the winding spiral staircase to see the views over all the surrounding countryside. You can see more pictures on my previous blog post about the Abbey.

Finally this piece of sculpture which can be found in the small museum next to Melrose Abbey where Laura and I were the only visitors and which provided us with examples of tiled floors originally found in the grounds of the Abbey as well as pieces of sculpture that were once a part of the building. This one, a human face with blood suckers at the eyes and mouth, looked more pagan than religious to me, but how truely stunning that carving is, specially considering the primitive tools at the disposal of those medieval stonemasons.

I'm already looking forward to Laura's return to Scotland next year, but in the meantime I've made sure I have enough beading kits to keep me going for the foreseeable future!