In May the Magamsewalong theme on Instagram was “May Mashup”, and I had to think long and hard about what I might do. I happened to be looking in a cupboard and noticed a whole box of silk samples and had a lightbulb moment. Could I somehow felt the silk into my own fabric? I pulled […]
Read more
I’ve entitled this post “wonderful Wales”, but need to point out that we spent quite a lot of time cruising around on the border. It has to be said that this is a really beautiful part of the world with all the black and white buildings, the eye-watering greenery, the hedgerows and the flowers. There […]
Read more
On our way from Glasgow to the Lake District we felt obliged to check out Gretna Green. All I can say is that every tourist in the area had the same idea, including some who I’m convinced had no idea what it was really about. Mark certainly didn’t until I enlightened him. A tiny doorway […]
Read more
I was very much looking forward to introducing Mark to Glasgow as I had a very happy sojourn there about twelve years ago when I did some teaching and research at the University of Strathclyde and really enjoyed staying there. We stayed in an apartment on St Andrews Square and it proved to be a […]
Read more
We begin this journey on the Isle of Skye. I had booked a tiny house called a “wigwam” – not really like the wigwam I had as a kid, but it was very cute. and had the odd bit of quirkiness in the garden. We had an amazing view over the moors and the skies […]
Read more
From Inverness we headed up to Durness on the very top of the witch’s hat. You don’t know what I’m talking about? When I was at school we had to draw maps of Great Britain (Ireland was not in the curriculum apparently) freehand from memory as we were never allowed to use those plastic templates. […]
Read more
We reluctantly left our lovely Smithy’s cottage in the Cairngorms and set out for Inverness, driving through some of the most scenic spots in the Highlands, and Loch Ness monster spotting on the way! To get to our Great Glen starting point, we drove through Dunkeld, which I later discovered has a wonderful park called […]
Read more
For our trip around the Cairngorms we decided to park ourselves in Blairgowrie for three days and got ourselves a little cottage in Kirkton of Lethendy – how lovely does that sound? It was obviously the Smithy’s cottage (as that’s what it’s called) and it was really quaint. We were able to luxuriate in front […]
Read more
Onwards from our accommodation in Huntlywood and we passed through Lauder, which has a lovely bakery, from which comestibles were purchased. Too many unfortunately, as my jeans are getting very tight! We crossed the Forth Bridge shortly afterwards and kicked ourselves as we didn’t get a good photograph of it. It’s rather wonderful, looking light […]
Read more
I think I mentioned in my last post that we were going to drive to Edinburgh via some of the border towns, but it wasn’t to be due to the traffic. Instead we drove into Edinburgh to do a quick reconnaissance before we caught up with our lovely hosts for the next couple of days, […]
Read more