The elements have been conspiring against us this week and we’ve spent a couple of days at the tail end of the week without electricity so my pictures are taking on a candlelit look to them.

Saturday – the kids made me a Happy Happy cake

Sunday – Tenor Horn

Monday – Knitting a pair of socks

Tuesday – I’ve got a lovely bunch of … bananas!

Wednesday – my brand spanking new saxophone … I am in lurve

Thursday – Candle reflected in the window

Friday – Reading by candlelight

The bonus picture is of the blanket that the wind had blown from the washing line on top of the bird bath on Thursday morning.  I was so pleased with this picture but the candle reflecting in the windowsill gave a better option for that day.  We had now in the morning on Thursday and horrible rain and winds of 90 mph in the afternoon and evening.  They went on until late Friday night…and this is reading like a weather forecast so I’ll stop now.

I’ve been shopping today and bought some sock wool as well as a tatting shuttle.  I’ll obviously knit myself some socks with the sock wool, but I’ve no idea what to do with the tatting shuttle.  I just knew that I had to have one.

That’s right, Saturday.  I really do wish I could keep up and post on a Friday night but it’s just too much for me at the moment, so Saturday it will be.

Here’s a glimpse of what I’ve been looking at this week.

Saturday – Wanlockhead & Leadhills Narrow Gauge Railway

Sunday – Daffodil

Monday – Hot coals in the stove

Tuesday – Lens reflected in a hairband

Wednesday – Geranium

Thursday – Firewood

Friday – Cactus

I’m working on another scarf and still trying to find time to finish the topsy turvy doll.  I’ve also got a million ideas running through my head that need to be channelled before they’re lost.

A day late due to travel with work…sorry!

This week I had a notion that I would theme my photos.  I chose dilapidation.  As you can see these are not all related to dilapidation so…FAIL.  Nevertheless, I think my skills are improving a little as time moves on, notwithstanding work getting in the way…hence Gies Peace (pronounced geez peace for all you none Scots).

Click on the pictures for full size images.

The bonus picture is of the beans thriving in the polytunnel…slowly but surely.  We’ve also got some garlic coming through now too.  Can you believe it?  We’re almost 1500 feet up with rubbish soil and freezing horrible weather and we’ve got vegetables growing in January.  Can’t wait for us to start with the spring/summer planting.  We’re just waiting for a propagator and we can get the tomatoes started.

Another week gone by and I’m exhausted.

I’m quite proud of myself this week for managing to keep up photo taking while being back at work, although they have a distinctly night-time feel about them now.  I must get over the embarrassment of taking photos while other people are around.

Jan 8 2011

Been playing with my knitting machine most of the day.  It’s my very first time using it in spite of winning it at auction what must be more than two years ago.

I love the uniform texture of the fabric it produces.  This is cotton crochet yarn.  I think I’m going to make it into a dishcloth.

Jan 9 2011

The kids and I discovered the joy of my folks’ Powerball (gyroscope) today.  Great fun, but it really hurts when it gets going.

Captured some shots of the ball in action.  This is Iona working very hard to keep it lit.

Jan 10 2011

Today I was given the all clear to start driving again so I go back to work tomorrow.  I’ve come to love this oil heater that has kept me warm for the past couple of months.

Today’s photo was a toss up between this and a hot water bottle because this alone isn’t enough to keep the room warm enough.  I needed the hot water bottle, dressing gown, scarf and occasionally a hat too!

Jan 11 2011

This is the final track to our house tonight after I’d driven along it at speed so that I maintained momentum.  You can’t be a wuss when you live here.  The watery patches are solid ice.

Can’t wait for the summer!

Jan 12 2011

This is Bridget, or more affectionately known as Widgie Woo.  She’s only got three legs but she can still run around and stand on her back leg as if she has four.  We rescued her from the SSPCA in March last year to keep Willow company.

She’s very pissed off in this picture because I moved her bed to get a better shot!

Jan 13 2011

We got a carver chair from a very nice lady in Biggar (via Freecycle).  It needs to be re-upholstered but in the meantime look at this worn leather…delish!

Jan 14 2011

To complement Widgie Woo, here’s Willow.  She really doesn’t photograph well, being all black.  Looking sad is a permanent state for her but I think she’s probably happy enough.

And my bonus picture for this week is a hot water bottle.  Not only do I love the pattern but it’s really needed tonight after a long and arduous week at work.

So far, so good.  Day three and we have three new posts.  Let’s see how long this lasts!

In our new blogging regime, Fridays are reserved for my Photo a Day weekly roundup.  Apologies to my Facebook friends who will be no doubt sick of looking at these…I’ll try and include a bonus shot each week to make it worth your while.

Jan 1 2011

And a bonus photo from this morning, taken from the front window at sunrise.  We’re very lucky to have a south facing house so we still get some sun in the winter.  I like this, it reminds me of Narnia.

Regular readers will realise that there has been something of a focus on gardening, growing, polytunnels and stuff on this blog over the last few months … in fact some might say there has been a general focus on grown stuff, given that I have decided to launch a new site focusing purely on this grown stuff, so much so that I’ve decided to call it GrownStuff.

GrownStuff.co.uk will be the repository for all my gardening posts from now on whilst MadeStuff will continue to focus on the arts and crafts, that’s not to say there isn’t an overlap though, photography remains an important part of what I do and the garden offers a wealth of photographic opportunities that interest me.  So in that vain at least I will continue to post images here that I deem ‘pretty enough’, such as this pair:

Clicking either image will take you to the new post.
See, now you get the pretty pictures without the ‘boring’ back story!

Jolene loves these wild daisies that flower in masses up and down the sides of roads, motorways and any other wild verge they can gain a foothold in … little wonder then that a small colony has established themselves in the garden!?

They are tremendously nice, although they’re currently competing with some ground elder that I’d remove if I could summon the energy and if it would stop raining for a wee while, although even the ground elder puts out some lovely wee flowers:

Still, I think we’d much rather have these ones:

I actually went a bought a close approximation of the wild daisy, no doubt a cultivar of some sort – the marguerite daisy – before the wild ones sprang up:

Anyway, that’ll be some daisies then …

In the last 4 weeks we’ve had both of our booked craft fairs whipped out from under our feet, due to no fault of our own I hasten to add.  The first thanks to the council library failing to sort out the right licence from, well, the council; the second being cancelled for who knows what reason.  It’s not like it’s the end of the world but it is just a tad frustrating!

In fact the only ‘fair’ we’ve been to recently was the Rosneath Highland Games, although that was only to spectate, not that I would struggle to throw the hammer or toss the caber you understand but I wouldn’t want to put all those big burly blokes noses out of joint by showing them up …

… I didn’t even get any decent pics of the games that I would be happy to share on here, so – I’m afraid – that means more pictures of flowers!  This remains a craft blog, honestly, even if it does look more and more like a gardening one!!

It’s pink … what more can I say!

Marigold

Rocket (I believe)

They’re white, and flowery … very pretty!

It was the lad’s birthday a couple of weeks ago so there’s a cake post waiting to be written, coming soon I assure you!

… and still I’m gripped by an inability to craft, seized as I am between an unfinished poly-tunnel and the start of the school summer holidays.

Progress on the poly-tunnel is slow, although there is at least progress with the door-frames having been erected since my last update, leaving only the base-rail to attach, the cover to apply and finally the door to attach.  On the bright side I have discovered an aquilegia hiding under a willow hedge, I’ve wanted aquilegia in the garden for an age and knew that if I was patient it would make it’s way up here from the village below.

We also have one of these (below) in the garden although, I’m damned if I know what it is …

… in fact, it’s bugging me so much that I’m willing to give the first person who can identify it a £5 discount off anything with a price-tag of £10 or more from the shop.  All you need to do is convince me that your identification is correct by providing me with a link/s to somewhere that shows pictures with the correct name attached.  Just leave a comment at the bottom.   That should be easy enough if you already know what it is :)

Also today the lad has been playing with dung beetles …

I mentioned previously that I’ve been busy putting together the poly-tunnel (amongst other things) hence the dearth of actual crafts of late, although I think the tunnel may actually qualify under the auspices that it is ‘Stuff’ what has been ‘Made’!?  Failing that Jolene has been working on a couple of bits n’ bobs that should be finished in the next few days so we might actually return to some real craft stuff soon :)

The tunnel’s steel work has been relatively simple to erect, in fact I can honestly say that the most difficult part was digging quarrying the holes for the ground tubes and anchor plates through a rock rich clay mixture.  Fortunately the father-in-law volunteered to help, and I must say it was help that was hugely appreciated, it took the whole day to finish digging the holes and get the tubes in but by the end of Saturday that part was done:

Having said that I did need to dig a couple back up the next day to re-align them, but with the soil already loosened by the previous days efforts it only took a half hour to do, unlike the solid hour it had previously taken to dig each whole.

On Sunday, Jolene and I set about putting up the hoops and although I had to dash out to get a titanium drill bit to allow us to drill holes for the screws we progressed well and we managed to get the basic frame up along with the corner stabilisers and door rails, even it did mean that I had been on the go from 9am until 7pm without any real break:

On Monday I was at it again, fortunately the lass was content to entertain herself and sat watching for most the day so that I was able to press on and attach all the crop bars and storm braces.

All that’s left to do now is put together the door frames, doors, attach the base rails and then wait for a nice calm day that happens to coincide with some spare bodies so that we can get the cover on.  Of course once that’s done I’ll need to install some raised beds and a staging area … we might actually get something growing in it by 2012!!

Aside from weeds I mean: