Courage Page

One of the new ventures this year will the Life Book 2015 classes I hope to be doing on a weekly base. I had been looking at this project for a few years now and always decided I had too much else on. I realized that would always be the case and the only way to go was to simply buy the class and do the best I can with it. It started yesterday and I'm loving it already. The videos are great and I thoroughly enjoyed the Meditation one. There will be more of these throughout the year although if they make you uncomfortable you can of course leave them and concentrate on learning new art techniques. The first video was a warm up exercise using our word for the year. After the meditation that word came bubbling up for me and it is: COURAGE.

There will be no explanations from me about how the pages for this project were put together as that would be against copyright. If you are interested you can sign up for the class yourself here.And I must just mention that the background text stamp I used is from Anna Griffin. I love both the font and the fact that it is in French.

Inside this envelope that I stitched rather than glued on are my intentions for 2015, one of which is to relax more. Playing with my paints, stamps and stencils is a great way to do that and if that means I make less quilts than usual this year then so be it. There are 10 intentions in all hidden inside the envelope, and at the end of the year I will open the envelope (only closed with washi tape so that should be easy), read what I wrote today and make up the score of how well I did! Should be interesting!

Baddingsgill Reservoir

Although it wasn't as warm as earlier this week, the day still offered sunshine so we took the dogs for a walk up near Baddingsgill reservoir. After walking for quite some distance we reached a gate (seen below) and John spotted some ginger hair caught there. That alerted us and we found further evidence of the presence of cattle on the ground. We walked on cautiously but very soon we could see the Highland cattle in the distance.

Time to beat a hasty retreat as we've been there, done that and already know that it's rather difficult to lift a 27 kg greyhound over a fence while fleeing from a bull.

Instead we went back and walked along the top of Baddingsgill reservoir where I admired the stunning reflections in the water. The above picture was one of my favourites but the all-out photographic winner of the day is shown at the top of this blog (and is also my blip for the day).

This is the same boat in the water but with some more boats in the foreground and a view of the entire reservoir. Seen from afar it looks quite small but in reality this is quite a large lake and surrounded with warning signs (deep water, no swimming etc. etc.) as well as rescue buoys. I sometimes think it might be better to just put up signs everywhere saying: "living is dangerous, do you want to continue?" and then we can make our own decisions from there.

Let's go sailing!

Today we finally managed to reach Baddingsgill Reservoir during the dog walk. It's a very steep climb although on a tarmac track so no scrambling required. On the way we passed this sad skeleton of a sheep. It must have been there before now but today it caught my eye and I climbed down towards it to get a closer view and a picture. There was a fence so this was as close as I could get. John and both dogs were with me so I resisted the temptation to climb over the fence but I'm keeping it in mind for future adventures. It must fallen on its back and been unable to roll back over. This can kill sheep in minutes and I've whipped over more fences than I can remember in order to push sheep back over on their feet. Very hard work but also very rewarding to see the sheep ambling away. This one was well past rescuing though!

It made me feel quite sad but the view of the reservoir definitely lifted the spirits again. Not just because it looked beautiful and peaceful but also because I really felt a sense of achievement having finally reached it on foot. John and I have been there before but always using a car. I discovered that the tarmac road finishes at the reservoir but there is a stony track going up even further into the hills so that is on my wishlist for future walks.

The reservoir is part of Scottish Water, which is no doubt why the road is in good condition so that their vehicles can get up there and in fact some maintenance was in progress out of view of this picture.

The presence of the reservoir also explains why there were boats about but the sailing days of the one seen above and at the top of this blog are definitely over. Nothing can save it! Steven, the husband of my very good friend Lenna, who lives in Florida, does up old boats but this would definitely tax even his skill to the limit. It's sunk deeply into the mud and in fact half of it is missing completely. It makes for a great photograph though and the picture at the very top is my blip today.

The sun is shining

Amazing the difference sunshine makes to a day. Suddenly the blood seems to stream faster through my veins and there is a definitely spring in my step. My head knows it isn't Spring yet (last year we had a load of snow in late March) but the snowdrops can be spotted in our garden and there is no longer any need for a duffel coat. The pictures also look so much brighter but of course the sun means more shadows too and I managed a self-portrait during the dog walk as you can see above.

Yesterday was very wet and there was still plenty of water about in the verges of the road, which the camera picked up but I took the photo above (also my blip) as I'm always so very happy to be down on earth enjoying fresh air and sunshine instead of being in those planes above! However, it does add a lot of interest in the blue sky. Flying nowadays is simply so time-consuming and no fun at all anymore.

The contrasts in the landscape are so much stronger and more interesting, and the small white clouds are a perfect finishing touch. Whatever happens weatherwise in the next few days, no-one can take the memory of this perfect afternoon away from me.

Baddingsgill walk

The dog walk was incredibly windy and again chillingly cold. Rueben and I did 20 minutes one way and were only too delighted to turn around and hasten us back to the car. You can see how high up we were on this picture. I tend to forget that and am always surprised when I get out of the car and the wind almost whips me away!

Still at least we didn't get wet.

Another day gone

Another day, another walk and another quilt that needs quilting. Somehow I got around to it all today. At dawn it was a lovely sunny day but that did not last. By the time Rueben and I started our walk there were ominous shadows in the sky but fortunately we didn't get wet!

The colours around us were a bit subdued, and mainly consisted of green

and brown

so the day toned in very well with the quilt that I started to stitch together today. Only a glimpse but you can the resemblance colourwise.

At the top of this is the most colourful picture I took today which became the blip!