Saviours of the Universe

Lindsay was in work avoidance mode this evening, again, and stumbled over the parallel world of Savage Chickens - Chicken Cartoons by Doug Savage. April 3rd was a good cartoon day...

All work and no play ... hah!

Had a busy weekend - garden work on Saturday, L did a charity abseil on Sunday and H went off road again (without me... again..) and then there was a birthday so they went gadding about (without me etc), doing towny things, I think. I did get walks and chewed sticks and sniffed round the hens and got into trouble digging a hole in the polytunnel so there were highlights to my days too.

More pics - L looking less than elegant doing what I am told was a 'controlled descent' down off the Waterloo Monument, a 150 ft high stone pillar, in aid of Anthony Nolan Trust. Good news is that 94 people did it and raised £21,000 for the charity. Hugh's 'Rocket' sculpture in the garden and Eric, the Scots Grey cockerel, contemplating it from the safety of his run. Some inside work got done too and there should be some acrylics on show here next week.

The Borders Rocks!

Quite tired now. Had a very busy day doing a forest recce with H & L and their good pals. We were looking for suitably testing routes for off road vehicles for an event later in the year. I got to chase about through the trees and clock up many miles in pursuit of nothing very much. My dangerously low energy reserves were then totally overlooked by the callous four who proceeded to devour freshly made bacon rolls and then cake in front of my nose! I was presented with a couple of dog biscuits but they were a poor substitute.
The 'boys' kept spotting mountain bike routes that they want to go back and do. L snapped some of the stunning views - the Scottish Borders are damned impressive!

Spring is sprung

I was home alone this morning but spent a busy afternoon in the garden searching for mice and chewing more prunings. H was out with the chainsaw lopping branches off the willows and L trimmed some of them so she would have a further supply of cuttings to plant. Then she took it into her head to prune the brambles down to the ground so it looks like there won't be much blackberry jam this autumn. Ho hum.
There's an adventure planned for tomorrow - two Land Rovers, two pairs of adults (?) and little me, off to check out a new forest with permission of the Forestry Commission. Better still, the other party will have a stove and a supply of bacon for butties at lunchtime - happy day! Pics to follow...

Fuss over Felt

Enjoying some peace today after the comings and goings of the last week. Hugh's been fixing various off road vehicles and helping out friends in between his painting, hen and log duties. Lindsay's been on paperwork, Village Hall duties and manic felting sessions...

Yesterday they spent helping to run a jumble sale across at the Hall. Made a very respectable sum from other folks' cast offs although I notice a suspiciously large pile of 'essential' old clothes and other stuff which I think L has salvaged for her rag rug workshop later in the year.

L's handspun handknit bag was felted in the washing machine and she was over the moon with the result. The inevitable outcome was that a little brother bag got made and now there's a blue stripey 'book bag' drying out as well. Further bags and baglets will follow until the stash of handspun is no more!

H is out with the Wee Beastie today so there will be more shots on here before long of man and machine in perfect harmony...

whipup.net

Lindsay's been zooming about the net again tonight and found Whip Up which is jam packed with other folks' creative stuff - nothing sordid in the name after all... whipup.net
And she's found a blogger in Wisconsin who keeps hens, does lots of spinning and knitting and looks to have a pretty cool dog as well - seems there may be more long suffering hounds sharing house space with textile crazed women than I had realised (check my Links - I think I have cracked how to do them)

Here's proof that the Wee Beastie was off road last weekend. Hugh and Dave (sound man, remembers to make a fuss of me...) came third in the competition on the Beastie's first outing. Now H has the bit between his teeth and will be out at every opportunity, hail rain or shine, sporting his very fetching 'air crew' overalls purchased on ebay, bless him.

Suspicions Confirmed

Yip, I was right. There was a plot. It involved me being dumped with complete strangers for three, yes THREE, days and nights while they headed north to Dunkeld to enjoy themselves. Actually, the kennels was OK and I had the company of two black retrievers who are staying there till April so maybe I wasn't so badly treated by H and L after all. Not that they need to know that....
They met lots of like minded folk at the Scottish Off Road Club AGM and Hugh got himself on to the committee so there will be yet more talk about events around Scotland involving Land Rovers but not involving ME. I can see the flaw in this so why can't they?

Life since I was rescued on Tuesday morning has been pretty fine - First stop was the forest where there was a sprinkling of snow - made for better quality sniffs.
Second stop was beside the stove.

Hugh has been scheming to get more metal for his impending sculptures and sorting out work to go to Conundrum Farm near Berwick - a wonderful place (so I am told...) full of hens and sheep and goats and rare breed pigs and excellent cakes and coffee. Lindsay has stopped knitting baby socks for the minute and stitched a big bag from handspun yarns. It is currently in the washing machine with a pair of jeans, getting felted. Here's a before pic.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

One nil to me today.
L and H had been outside, digging up a defunct flower-bed, without my assistance, I might point out. Hugh did all the work and Lindsay swanned in for the last hour and a half with a spade and a rake. On her return she lay face up on the floor. Seems she was straightening out her back. Well, I'm sorry but it looked for all the world to me as though she was in 'I'm a cute little submissive puppy' mode so I did what any self respecting hound dog would do and landed a swift left hook to show who's boss. Exit L stage left with bloody nose! (Best bit is I didn't even get told off - seems she appreciated the error of her ways).

H had a big sort-out in the shed and stuck all the spare bits of metal into one place. He has plans for bigger metal sculptures this year and has been spotted eyeing up various locations in the garden for these masterpieces. Needs more scrap, apparently. Probably be angling for a second-hand forklift before long too...

L has finished her textiles to go to the gallery next weekend - more bags and some sheepy cards. H has yet to decide which acrylics he is submitting - probably be a last-minute Should-I-shouldn't-I-is-this-one-good-enough?-Oh-I-don't-like-any-of-my-work type of decision. Ho hum. Think I'll concentrate on chewing sticks and keep my head down. There's something brewing and I have an uneasy feeling it concerns my welfare.....

Quality Control

Well, Lindsay managed a little light knitting during her weekend by the fire. She made some more purses from her handspun with sheep or hen buttons. I checked them over for her and managed to avoid dropping any bone fragments, fortunately. (Yes, they eventually capitulated and the bone kept me occupied for a substantial part of a rainy Monday)

Sunday, soggy Sunday in Southdean
(that's the name of the parish that this village of Chesters is in, and sort of interchangeable, I think)

Good points about the weekend
Proper walks including this morning which was a new place with fresh sniffs and the bonus of a muddy stream and then an opportunity this afternoon to hare round a stubble field and follow badger scents. Lindsay has got some bug which means she's got energy for only about half an hour at a time - the stove has been going full blast and she even spent time sleeping on the sofa yesterday afternoon.

Bad points about the weekend
[1] She did not want my company when lying on the sofa, even though it was my clear duty to keep her warm. I am at a loss to understand her sometimes heartless behaviour.
[2] A roasted bone was definitely purchased on Friday. I know exactly where it is but I have not yet been given access to it. Have I sinned in some small way and they are exacting revenge by allowing me to smell it but not chew it?

Chilly here today but L and I have been busy outside - she has been pruning shoots off the willows and I have been chewing the ones she lost sight of. She has trimmed them and built a slightly squint and wobbly trellis-y fence thingy with the cuttings and about a hundred miles of green jute twine stuff tying all the crosses together. I expect if it grows there will be a photograph or two on here to show it off.

This has been a momentous weekend. Hugh bought a Land Rover-based vehicle last February so he could take part in hill rallies and off road competitions. It has taken him a year to get the Beastie into safe working order and on Saturday it finally made it out of the shed and into the neighbour's field for testing purposes. There's no middle seat in it for me so I had to content myself with trying the new driver's seat before it was fitted.

Lindsay has become hooked on knitting blogs and sites. All too often of an evening this past week my slumber by the stove has been rudely interrupted by shrieks and guffaws from the other room as she finds yet another site to ooh and aah over. I dread to think where it will all end...

glittyknittykitty

glittyknittykitty

L just found the knitted terrorists tonight and thought I should spread the word - their links are wild too.

L has been working on new collages - this is part of a big black & white one. She sits up in her attic room and has no appreciation of how lonely it gets for a neglected brown dog down at the foot of the ladder. At least when she is spinning she does it downstairs somewhere near the stove. H has been productive too and just finished painting this acrylic based on one of the Border valleys.

As for me, well, dammit, the sun was shining this morning so I felt I had to take full advantage...

Action shot of me in the garden last summer

Hello!
I'm new to this lark but I think you should hear about some of the goings on in this part of the world. Once the paws have mastered the art of dropping in images I'll be back with some hard evidence of life with two artists and a sometimes disappointingly lukewarm stove.