Lavenders blue dilly dilly

Lavenders green, if you'll be king  dilly dilly I will be queen

A couple of weeks ago our son Graeme and daughter in law Sue decided  to  take us here . Oh it was lovely , I adore the smell  of  Lavender and  I think by now it will  be  in full bloom.

Another  great place to visit, I don't  think it has  been  open very long  so it is  still being "found".All things  lavender , scones,  cake and cordial.

Caught in  the act, but we did share.

I had the cream tea, and himself  had the cheese  with chutney so we  did as G&S did and had half of each others. Hmmmm delicious.

I am liking these summer days out. Not  a very big garden but lovely things to be seen.

Canterbury bells, foxgloves  and achillea. Alliums in  a  circle.

Like lollipops,and again the lovely shade of lavender. After we visited the shop and bought a rose called Hot  Chocolate we returned to Sue and Graemes and enjoyed a few of these in their garden.

Hmmm Harris G&T ,sitting in the sunshine with good company ,who could ask for more. Reliving the lovely afternoon.

Can you imagine the smell  when it is all out.
You will be  thinking  I have not  been doing much stitching etc  , well you will be right , my hands are playing up at the moment so I am stitching a  little  but not  a lot.  I  did manage  to finish this for my friend Junes birthday.  Although I feel maybe I should not of put her age on  it .  Oh well damage done and  she  did not seem  to mind.

Nothing else has been finished it is all just wips.I do  have  a spotty sheep on  the Makeover piece  which I will  update  you  with next time. Elizabeths dress is being  stitched ,Jubilee is still minding  her sheep, blackwork has anotherblock.  and Spring has R almost completed ,Next time will give you  pics  of  the,
Last Thursday we  decided  to stay local and  went over to see a dinasours footprint and a few not  extinct animals  on   Portland  .

You can  just make out the three toes, but only if you know  what you  are looking for  hmmmm. We also saw these carved in the stone.

And a snail. Which we have  plenty of in  the garden .

Wouldn't want one this size in  the garden though. Animals we were suprised  to see ,totally unexpected.

Now I did not think I would see those on Portland. I did like this character though , he was no Jemima  Puddleduck though and was a  bit belligerent,

He  was rather  handsome though ,  the animals  were  very tame , there was a schoolparty there when we were  and they could feed  the animals which caused lots  of shrieking  and  hilarity.
I could not get over the size of this pig,

He was HUGE. Of course there were these and sooo tame ,but could not get through the fence to them.

Sheep and goats, one did really want to make friends though.

 We walked to the edge of the farm and this was the view.

Looking across to Weymouth, the harbour is where the 2012 sailing was  held.We found lots of wild orchids. A rarity.

I could go on and on but I won't. We wandered  our way back to the car stopping on  our way to speak  to this guy and take some views of Chesil beach and  Portland.

I  love this view of Portland .

So there is last  Thursdays meanderings  ,  G&S came down that evening as Graeme  needed to see his dad for fathers day as he  was working on   the day itself.  So we pootled off  to Portland  again,  we were going to the cove for them to eat but it was full to overflowing so we  called in  the Boat that rocks  and enjoyed the view  from there.

We do live in a lovely part  of the country ,but then   I am  biased.  Shall I take you round the garden now before I go and play in the kitchen. 

The new rose Hot Chocolate. Some  lavenders for me to kill as I have no luck with them usually.

I bought three of these to  go on the decking. Books yes more books but they can  wait  until next  week.  I  did  see  this bench and loved the saying  on  it.  So I will leave you with that and say thanks to you who  are so kind to leave  me a comment or even just glance  my way.  Take  care and  this comes  with 
Much love  and many hugs.
Barb,

Would you llike to come rambling again ,

If  the answer is yes ,then off we go. We had to travel to Salisbury in  Wiltshire as  I had a hospital  appointment for my back  ,which was very informative.  Have to go back in  4-6 months after  having  some manual  phsyiotherapy which I am  waiting  an appointment for.  So we set off early for my 11a.m  appointment  ,we arrived about 5  mins late as  we  got  lost on  the way . Martin  asked if  I wanted to go straight home  to which I  replied  no  I would like to see the  Cathedral.  We found the park  and ride into   the city centre  and because we  are old we  have bus passes so  it  did not  cost us anything .   I  wonder  if it  will be stopped in time by the government. So here is the view of  the Cathedral.

I love this place, we have been a few times over the years. It never ceases to amaze me the workmanship .  We
thought we would visit a National Trust  property which was very near here and sit  in the garden and have  lunch.
The  place was Mompesson House,  we could sit in  the gardens for £1 each which we thought by NT standards it was not too bad , evidently if  we wanted to see round the house  it would have  been more.
I took  a few pictures so you could see.

The pear tree was planted to commemerate the Queens Silver Jubilee in 1977. We sat in the garden and had cake or I did and Martin  had a  date  and walnut cake  without egg.

This was the view from  where we sat. The scent of these Irises was so lovely. At the end of this border was the  privvy ,which made us smile.

Bums on seats perhaps.Then looking toward the house.

We  sat for a while in the sunshine and it was quite a suntrap.This  was the  tea room.

A wander round the garden.

It  was quite nice to find a shady spot after walking round the garden.

I am a lover of foxgloves,we had some in our garden but this year so  far I have only seen one. These aliums were quite striking but we did see  some  better ones the next week which I will show you later.

 So fed and watered  we wandered over to the Cathedral.

 We did  not  go inside  this  time just in  the Cloisters, how about this for carving.

I  was  waiting  for  the 3 people to  move  but I  think  they were so  deep in conversation  they weren't  going  to  .I  think the Cathedral  has had a facelift clean recently so it certainly looked good.

 This  was a view of the cloisters and   the roof.

 The resident  stonemason   chipping away.

I  wonder  when this  was built how many stonemasons were  employed.

 We would like to have seen  inside in more  depth,but time   was against us and  we  had a long  journey home ,we have promised ourselves a weekend here  maybe and  explore in  more  detail as  it is a fascinating old city. The walking  Madonna  artwork in the close is  a bronze by  Dame Elizabeth  Frink .She strides from  the Cathedral  into  the wide world where human  needs are to  be  met.

So there you have our short visit to Salisbury , we passed some public  school boys on  our  way back  to the bus and  overheard one say , when  we  get back  we  will have  a game ,it is just the day  for  Croquet. Hmmmm have to get the hoops out when  we get home then   . That was  a week after our Scotland trip.
The following week we  had  a lovely trip out with Graeme  and Sue but will share that  next time.
My stitching  has  been almost non  existent and Sallty will  be  despairing of me ,but I have a little finish to show you but that will  be next time too. I wrote so much  about Scotland  I am not sure if I told you about  the  Lewis trilogy by Peter May.  I have read them on Kindle but needed the proper books ! I am re reading them now.

Almost finished The Black House. These jumped into the basket at the same time, I had seen the Knot in a bookshop at the Cathedral and saw they had it second hand in Amazon.

Also by the same author was this one.

The library grows, soon need and extension for books. I did succumb to this from Lizzie Kate.

I need to stitch this. Martin has been busy too and has made me  a Celtic cross in glass. His brother now wants one.

Just a quick update on the sheep makeover.

Then I have 4 squares I have knitted toward a blanket.

So that is all for this week, hope your coming week will be full of nice things that you like doing. Thanks again for all the comments , I am getting back to stitching slowly but it is slow. Take care of yourselves and this comes with much love and many hugs.
Barb .

Day 6 and 7.

I am going to attempt to finish this today . So be prepared. We left Aviemore  at  9 o clock to travel  down towards Glasgow. I was hoping for half  an hour in the town as I had seen a lovely Harris Tweed shawl in one of the shop windows  and it was half price. It was not to be though and we left it behind . I did  take a  few pics on route ,but have no  clue to where they were.

I will not be showing you lots of these ,you get the picture. We were going to stop  in Pitlochry for an hour and a half.

There was a walk

 to the waterfall to see if you could see the fish jumping , I passed on that but Martin said  he would go. I hit the shops, Not  big time because of  weight again but got a few little  bits from  this shop..I know its a dreadful picture but I needed a reminder  of where I had got things. You will see them later. Martin meanwhile had found the railway station and took a picture of the porter.

He found whilst there that the  Edradour distillery was 2 miles away but although he could have made it and back  he would not have had time to visit. I had bought him  some for his 60th birthday from  here and I  had not realised we would be visiting the town.

View  upstream  to the Salmon fishing  waters.
 Martin  then  found me  at  the designated  meeting place and we went for coffee and cake  yum. Onwards then to Stirling ,where  we were told we  would have  about 2 hours so time  for a climb  to the castle  if we  wished. What a difference  to the islands , the peace and  serenity have  gone.

Stirling high street. My goodness it  was hot. So we climbed to the castle , decided  not to go  round as not enough time to take  it in properly.. We did see  Robert  the Bruce  outside though.

 Also another kilted warrior.

We treated ourselves to an icecream here , it was needed. We passed the Old Jail on the way up too.

We also passed  this  building  , took the photo to show Kate our daughter and children. Thought it quite apt.

We took some  photos of Stirling from  the castle.  It was these chimneys that I took a fancy to.

You can tell how far up we had to climb. I had seen a little friend to buy so we walked back the way we came and bought him ,again I will show you that later.I  wasn't  sure if I  had been  quick enough to catch the squirrel ,but as  you can  see I  did..

So our journey had nearly ended and  we  were  back  at Glasgow for  our last night.We said our goodbyes got a pic of Kimberly and  Steve .Which is on Martins  camera  so not  one here.  Not such a good night as the air conditioning unit thing was above our floor and was humming all night as we were on the 9th floor. We saw our nice waiter and he remembered us . Lovely young chap. So after breakfast we  headed our way over the road to the airport ,checked in  baggage ,phew nothing to pay and then waited for our flight at 11 oclock.No vip this  time and  we were further back in the plain.  Fluffy white clouds and blue skies. Not sure but thought we saw  Blackpool Tower so I waved at  "home" . Our dear daughter in law Sue was waiting to take us to  theirs. She so kindly had done us lunch and after that we got in the car and drove home. Very tired  we  fitted a lot in , but we have so many lovely memories of that special  holiday.
Just a little glimpse of things we purchased.

lots more books on the area , but I did see one that  I had to have .

Just amused me as I said earlier we bought lots of books on  different areas  we  visited. More about the archeaology for Martin. The Hebridean jewellery that Martin bought me and a scarf to be fastened by it, I bought the scarf in the shop at Pitlochry.

In the shop where I bought the scarf I also bought Martins mum a teddy dressed in tartan.  It was her 92nd birthday the day we arrived home. I also bought this to stitchl

A scissor keep , does anyone have the same problem as me , if I have a scissor keep on a cord on my scissors ,what is the betting that at some point I will cut through it . Oh well perhaps this one will be different. I told you that I had bought a friend back from Stirling ,well he looked so lonely sitting there in the shop window.I had to have him.  So let me introduce you to Donald  .

He has an authentic Harris Tweed Waitcoat and hat ,I called him  Donald ,as  he has no trousers. Perhaps he will accompany me on more trips we will  see.  Last but certainly not least we had to send for some of this as it was too heavy to fetch back on the plane. We also got one for Graeme and Sue for ferrying us to and from the airport. Thanks to you guys. Can you guess what it is, only online from the Distilllery .

I do hope you have liked our trip  to the Outer Hebrides , Please leave a comment  I have loved hearing your thoughts through the week.  So cheers here is to the next one , hope it is not  quite so many years till   that one.,
Hugs. Barb.x