Maybe you can guess from Bob's outfit that we've been to Scotland, not so much a holiday but more of a road trip doing things so I haven't got very good pictures to share.
Bob was outside a lovely little bakery cafe, Mackenzies in Strathpeffer, I like Strathpeffer it's a beautiful old spa town with wonderful architecture. The weather was a bit grey though to get snaps but here is a delicious savoury herb scone at Mackenzies and they also have an amazing selection of malts.
This snap is Strathpeffer Victorian station, now tearooms and a couple of little shops.
Carvings are at the station too.
Our road trip took us through Perthshire and I have to say I was completely taken with the beautiful swathes of bluebells across the countryside. It seemed once you drove into Perthshire bluebells appeared everywhere in vast carpets. Sadly I didn't get any better pictures than these whizzing past in the car. I don't think the bluebells are visible on the pic with cows but they are there in the distance.
Bluebells, pink bells and white bells. Anyone know why, is it a soil thing why some are different colours?
One lovely stop off on the trip was Aberfeldy and a visit to our friends coffee shop, the Habitat Cafe. We saw the fabulous new espresso machine which had arrived that week and sampled some tasty and delicious award winning drinks.
Bye bye Scotland until next time. I didn't get to see the Kelpies which I want to at some point but here is the Stirling mermaid.
What an odd week, started off with 3 days of downpours and you should see the mud and puddles it brought down here. By Wednesday thankfully better weather as I had a day at the seaside with my sister and nephew over from Belgium. Then today a heat wave and a plague of ants on the patio.
I've been very busy with projects the last couple of weeks, some fairly secret and some just coming out into the open like these.
In just 49 days the Grand Depart for the Tour de France will start in Yorkshire and I imagine it will be a crazy few days. The nearest it comes to me is a brief flirt with York but I'm already thinking it will be too busy and too hot to attempt to go and see it.
Instead I have opted to get involved in a more calm and creative way. My 'souvenirs' for this event are some tiny little textile artworks which have evolved into brooches.
They are made from Harris Tweed with some needle felting, stitching and embellishing.
I have made little linen machine embroidered bags to go with them.
Once I had found some tiny buttons for the wheels they started to take shape.
Adding the riders was the tricky bit.
Only made the very small amount shown here and a couple will go to Gallery 49 and the other few are going to The Attic in York.
Enjoy the sunny weekend everyone, could be as good as it gets for a while :)
May is well underway and following the sale of one of my needle cases in the previous post I've had an order for 7 more which is lovely.
I'm also very busy with other projects which in turn has lead to going out and about with the camera to the seaside so I have some pictures for this post.
Went to Scarborough last weekend and the Italian gardens had been beautifully planted up, these are just snaps from my phone so they don't really do it justice. The pastel coloured flowers in the centre bed were very pretty.
I always like the reflections captured on a sunny day in the glass on the covered bridge near the Spa.
Today it was Bridlington with the camera and to the beach huts.
Bob came too and posed outside the yellow one with his new car!
It was pretty blustery and we didn't have long before it rained.
Had some fun messing about with photo filters on my Bridlington pictures, the seaside is always a great place to find some interesting and quirky things to shoot.
Love this new ride thing with Triffids!
Beach huts always make me smile and think Hi-de-Hi! Lovely sugary, candy floss, sugar almond coloured doors.
