the patchwork dress

4 : wholefood heaven

Thanks to a tip off from my friend Susan - thanks, Susan!xx

... yesterday we checked out the new Wholefoods supermarket that has come to Glasgow!

I did a trip to the US in 2004, and one of the highlights were the wholefood supermarkets in each town selling lots of alternative and healthy eating goods with a conscience.  I was actually stopped and asked if I needed help in the Alberquerque store as I was in a state of awe with my mouth open I think!

Well, I slightly revisited that state yesterday - as anyone with gluten or dairy intolerances will tell you, it gets a bit boring having to hunt for food, and having to go to several places to get specific things.  Now it is all here under one roof, with brands like Orgran, Ecover, several types of dairy free icecream - not just vanilla! which I have been finding increasingly difficult to get hold of locally - plus the luxury goods like the deli, the chocolate aisle will have your eyes on stalks.

You can also check out their site to see if there is one near you.

I have been saying for years "wouldn't it be great if" and now it's here!

Luss

"Iz ziss ze bouss to Louss?" is something we say quite a lot at home.  A question often overheard from visitors from abroad who wish to board the bus to the beautiful Loch Lomond village of Luss..

above: the pier; coffee in the 'Coach House Coffee House' - lovely tables for writing, log fires and candlelit storm lanterns in winter..

I featured a September walk around the village way back when I started this blog.  Since then it has become a favourite haunt for me 'out of season' - after the busyness of summer, the tearooms are a bit quieter, and it is a nice place to go to wander, contemplate... and take photos.

above: the pier looking back towards the village and hills; end of the pier looking out across Loch Lomond.

Walking round I considered that you can revisit a favourite place time and again, it's often the details or the cumulation of them that enriches the experience - like these 'old roses' that climb the cottage walls, or the faded hydrangea peeping out near the shoreline.

...or the beautiful ironmongery on the church door (I've got a bit of a crush on chevrons at the moment).  The church at Luss is especially beautiful with its covered gates. When it is open to go inside, there is a beautiful stained glass window of an angel.

...and then, in the churchyard - I thought I saw a little brown angel hovering amongst the tombstones

 - ha! it was this chap..

autumnal coloured lichen on the tombstones.

 

sewn up

Yesterday mum and I went to see Bending the Line - an exhibition by the 62 Group of textile artists at the Collins Gallery in Glasgow.  After visiting the practically empty Gallery of Modern Art (sign of the Times?), we were berating the end of Borders bookshop, which was such a central hub to Glasgow and somewhere to browse or have a coffee without an agenda - when we passed their new windows...

 

 

the space has been taken over by the All Saints clothing chain - but they have done an amazing window display with these old sewing machines which takes up several large windows right round the building.  

The reflections prohibited any really good shots of the old graphics, but really worth bypassing if you are window shopping!  I wondered where they had got all the machines from, and although they probably came from salvage -  for some reason it made me think of sweat shops in India or the east where people still work on machines like these.

secret hideaway!

 

I kept this place a secret for a while.. but have decided to share with you my favourite café which is the Wee Blether at Kinlochard.  We didn't actually manage out here last year or even until very recently this year,.. so I was concerned as to whether it was still there, but obviously Shona has no need to advertise any more, because once you have been here - you will return!

The first time I saw the view at the top there.. I cried!  It is so peaceful, calm and tranquil looking out over Loch Ard.  When I was 14, my friends Alison, Karen and Kerstin and I stayed for a couple of nights in the (once) Youth Hostel at Kinlochard for my birthday weekend.  We hired bikes and cycled round the forest side of Loch Ard to Aberfoyle and back, bathed in the loch drinking Appletise from the hotel and felt very independent.  

 

I've brought many friends here, but this time it was just N and I celebrating a joint birthday (29 years on for me!).  There is no doubt, from the signage, that they are open and trading! And the once village shop has been converted into a very cosy self catering cottage for 2 people - which I would HEARTILY recommend as a location to anyone who wants to stay up in this area - within a short walk of boating/canoe centre and a gym and treatment spa - plus loads of forest walks - all tucked in behind Ben Lomond in the Trossachs best kept secret.  

Sshh!  We love Kinlochard!

    

 

a visit to jupiter

Hi there! Firstly, housekeeping... I had a lot of fun reading your number 1's from the previous post - now I have a sort of image of each of you, bopping away to your birth tunes!  We even took it a step further by finding out what was no.1 in the US at the same time - mine was Windy by The Association.  This tickled N, as he thought 'windy' and in 'need of love' was very apt for me...ahem... moving on!... 

Anyway... the winners of a set of cards each are the 2 Vanessa's  (guess who put 2 slips of paper with 'Vanessa' in the hat, and then had to decide again which Vanessa! - so they both win.. ) and Susan C came 2nd and gets the set of postcards.  

Thank you all for taking part, it was fun.. and I kind of wish I could send cards out to all of you.  However, the remaining card sets will be available through the shop for a while longer, for anyone who would like some.

Last week mum and I had a daytrip to Jupiter Artland near Edinburgh.  I first heard of it through Jane's blog, and have wanted to visit ever since.  

We were met by a very friendly spacecat, who checked our credentials.. we could proceed.  Perhaps it arrived in the silver spaceship below, fueled by cappuccino.

I cannot stress how unusual and well executed the whole site is - I won't spoil by posting too many pictures - so much of the charm is the element of discovery... but there are artworks by Andy Goldsworthy, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Antony Gormley, Charles Jencks and Nathan Coley to name but a few.

 

(Gormley's sculpture looks out across to a similarly structured Forth Rail Bridge - just glimpsed with white hoardings in the distance)

It's a little tricky to find, so take directions - but once there you will feel part of a different world... Jupiter perhaps?

 

castle campbell

On friday mum and I met up and went for a walk up dollar glen, to one of my favourite castles.. castle campbell in Dollar Glen.

 
This was always one of my favourite places to come as a child - you are rewarded by a characterful glen of bridges, walkways and waterfalls, by an equally characterful castle at the summit. 

I took this photograph above in the glen - can you see the 3 or 4 lights around the waterfall?  I am not sure about the whole phenomena of 'orbs' in photographs, but these seem rather unusual with a blueish light.  I am keeping an open mind - it would be nice if they were water sprites! 

Spring and autumn sat side by side in the landscape.

The castle has a very simple interior of one room per floor off a spiral staircase, but with enough character in the ceilings, nooks and crannies.  

 

Although it was nicknamed Castle Gloom, I can imagine it was a happy place to live on a hot summer's day - leaning out over the parapet to call to people in the glen or by the burn.

 

You can walk out onto the roof and look right out across the surrounding hillsides and over Dollar village. There are plenty of places to wander to on a nicer day. 

 

 

I love this rusty finish to the hills in winter - a real camouflage for deer.

We saw lots of robins, 4 by the door, several in the gardens - in true robin style, competing to be King of the Castle, of course.

 
 

 

  

in search of spring 2

I found Spring on a weekend trip to Pitlochry, via Birnam and Dunkeld, Aberfeldy and past frozen lochs on the return via Crianlarich.  A fantastic round trip.

Spring was hanging out by the river bank, opposite the beautiful settings of Pitlochry theatre.  

 

There is a really nice walk from the theatre carpark, across a shoogly iron bridge, through the town and back via the Fish Ladder (where you can see salmon leap up a special stepped set of pools to avoid the dam). Unfortunately it was closed this time, and the fish counter set at 000000 - so either it's too early for the salmon, or it's broke. 

This forced us to detour via the other bank where I found these lovely flowers..

We were driving back via Aberfeldy through a landscape I thought should typically have lambs bounding around by now - and just as I had the thought, I turned my head to see a lambs' little black head sticking out of the back of a grazing sheep! Literally just giving birth, but not really bothered by it.  Ah, nature! 

Hope you have found Spring where you are, or Autumn if you are in the other hemisphere. (There are some brown leaves in these pictures to give the balance of both!) Xx

  

invercottage fair

What a lovely day out we all had on Saturday.  I don't know if I can do it much more justice than Isobel already has, so here are some of the pictures - more here.  The weather was fantastic and the location felt as if it were made for us. 

our 'shop'.  You can just see the terrace there behind the 2 trees where you can sit out and drink coffee or have lunch.

literally me turning round from the picture before -  this was the view with a little pebble beach just below the grass there.  The old castle Lachlan is out on the peninsula and there is a short coastal walk round to it.

the room... there were people there - honestly - it was that magic trick that whenever a camera appeared, everyone would disappear!

my stall - with 'clutterbuckets'

close up of the cards etc

Isobel's Bella Bheag stall 

detail of Suzanne's fieldy tweed

Lynne's My Baboo knitting kits and teacosies - you can just see the bears peeking out - very cute!

Some new friends - j'emmajo.  Emmajo and I got talking when she recognised one of my photos as the yarn stand from the Unicorn tapestries at Stirling Castle.  Turns out she wove the first one!  It's a small world.

Had to include this - my favourite picture of Lynne and Isobel demonstrating how one should carry a' clutterbucket'  Victoria Beckham stylee!

going to be busy...

...for a while, anyway.

Check out the Invercottage website - it's a lovely location, have been there a few times.  

Be lovely to see you if you can make it.

For me and Suzanne it will be like old times revisited, as we met on a job down this way in 1997!, and had many escapes to Invercottage for dinner! (...funny, they don't mention that on their website!)

(Poster designed by me... what do you think?)

patchwork in detail

At last I am getting round to posting about the Loch Lomond Quilt Show which actually ran 20-23 may.

One of my favourite venues was the show of french quilts at Renton Trinity Church.  I didn't even know this church existed.  It is tucked down a little side street and actually has a wonderful energy.  Behind the church the river Leven snakes past in what is otherwise a former industrial setting.

This was such an unexpected jewel in the crown as both the church is very pretty and unusual - with beautiful ceiling, stained glass, and quite a homely, even cosy, feel.  The quilts were exceptional - above is 'Honeycomb' by Marie-Françoise Grégoire which was made up of tiny hexagons (handstitched? I think) - all hung amongst the lovely organ and structure of the church.

I also really liked this detail from a mini-quilt (sorry I forgot to take the name of the maker, and also apologies for fuzzy focus).  Each of those diamonds is approximately 1" wide, and it also looked as if all handstitched.