Windy Wanderings

On the windiest day I have ever experienced, and perhaps ever will experience, Catherine, Whitney and I foolishly and adventurously went up and over Arthur's Seat before making our descent into idyllic Duddingston.  How windy is windy, you may be asking.  Quite right.  I shall quantify.  Edinburgh Castle was closed to visitors (it never closes).  There had been wind warnings all over the radio and internet weather sites.  

Not the best of days for two just-barely-over-five-feet girls to go wandering about on one of Edinburgh's highest rock formations.  Luckily, we had Whitney to tether us down in case of any unauthorised journeys in the direction of cliff edges. All-in-all we had very few casualties (there was a bit of difficulty involving my attempts to get back upright after our lochside picnic.  I may have been knocked to the ground thrice in a row... *ahem*), and did have a great deal of fun in the sun! 

We followed the walking route as set out in the Frommer's Guide '24 Great Walks in Edinburgh'.  A very good library find indeed!  The highlight of the walk for me was when we finally got to the kirk and got to see a set of jougs and a loupin' on stane, neither of which I'd seen before.  Pictures below!

Up and over we must go!

Whitney contemplates our beautiful surroundings (or perhaps the likelihood of being blown off the edge of our surroundings!)

We poke around the ruins of St. Anthony's.

We did a little al fresco dining with a view over Duddingston loch.

A first view of Duddingston.

I feel that this shot with flying hair/ bundled-up-ness and slight expressions of misery does a good job at conveying the sheer magnitude of the wind.

Descent into Duddingston.

We had a wee tea at the famous Sheep's Heid Inn.

 We had Dr. Neil's Secret Garden all to ourselves.

I really quite liked all the purple amidst the dry stone wall.

Tower of Duddingston Kirk.

We poke around the grounds of the kirk.

A most excellent tombstone.

Whitney demonstrates the jougs and Catherine demonstrate the loupin' on stane.

A last look.

The road home.

Who Wants to be Martha when I can be ME?

I stole the title of this post from my good friend, Lyndsay, who has an amazing blog of all the crafty things she creates (mostly crochet).  I am hoping that she won't mind my plagiarism since I have endorsed her blog and hopefully she will get more footfall there and at her Etsy store.  :)  You can go visit her at: http://whowantstobemarthawhenicanbeme.blogspot.co.uk/

I would not class myself as a super-crafty person.  I enjoy making things but it takes me ages to finish projects and I have to stick to the pattern otherwise disaster can and will strike (I have a half-made baby bootie to attest to this truth).  I would consider myself a stubborn person, though.  When an idea takes hold, I need to do it, get it, etc.  So when I wanted a 3-tiered cake stand made from vintage china and the lady who makes and sells them went AWOL, I decided I was going to have to make one myself.  It wasn't a hard sell, since it a) meant I would get to have a stand made from exclusively blue-and-white china (my fav!), and that b) I wold have to rummage around the car boot sale and thrift shops to procure said china. So after a month or two of hunting (and acquiring some pieces to keep in my cupboard sans holes) I was ready to get cracking (or hopefully not).

With the emotional support of my friend Megan, and with access to her hand-drill (and her help with the drilling when my arms gave out!) I was able to create my perfect cake stand. 

To get started you will need a hand-drill with drill bits suitable from drilling through ceramic (£2.49 for the drill bits on Amazon), and the hardware for supporting your plates (£4.00 on Amazon).

After that comes the fun bit! (Get it, bit?  You're using drill bits?  I crack myself up.)  Using whatever pottery you like, you get to make your very own original design. You can mix different shapes of plates or do the top tier as a bowl, or tea cup and saucer, whatever you fancy!  I found that the more 'real' the pottery was, the easier it was to drill through.  My knock-off Royal Copenhagen took ages to drill through, whereas my very real almost-killed-me-to-drill-through-it piece of Staffordshire pottery was a dream to get through.

You need to figure out the centre of your plate.  A piece of paper can be useful for this step since the bottom ridge of the plate can be traced out, and the paper folded to find the middle.

Then you get to drill all your holes.  Be warned. This can take hours.  Go to a friend's house and have a cup of tea and a chat to make the time pass by more pleasantly.  :)

Once you have holes in all your places, you can assemble your stand.

 The best part about this project is that the stand can be versatile.  Use as many tiers as you like!  If you aren't having many goodies or many friend round, why not just use one tier?  More friends?  Add the second tier, or go all out for really fancy and festive occasions.

One....

Two...

Three!

For about £10 (less than half of what it would have cost me if I had bought this from someone else) I got to have the fun of learning a new skill and hunting down my perfect plates (50 pence - £2). Now I just need to have a get-together worthy of finger sandwiches to christen the stand.  :)

Shadow knitting

My pen-pal, Julie, gave me sock yarn for my Christmas gift in  2011. Julie taught me how to knit and this was her way of encouraging me to expand my skills.  She had more faith in my that I had in myself and I was petrified to make an attempt for a full year. The yarn would come out, be admired and then tucked away again for 'some other day'.  Finally one day I decided to face my fears.

While knitting my 2nd sock of my first-ever pair of socks one cold but sunny day, I noticed my shadow on our white couch and I thought it looked quite nifty so I got Matthew to take this wee video.  :)

In case you were wondering how the socks turned out, here is a wee photo.

They fit!

The tide is out so the winklers will play!

If you ever find yourself in need of an adrenaline rush, I have the solution.  You need to head for a tidal island, in the winter,with 2 fearless men, just before sunset, with only a vague sense of when the tide is due to come in.

Throw in a dead seal, and this describes the adventure Matthew, James, and I had this past December when we went out to Cramond Island.  Although I was fearing the sudden surge of tidal waters at any moment, it was a grand adventure.  And I really need not have fretted, as the winklers were out a-winkling and surely they knew when the tide was coming in.

What are winklers, you ask?  Well, a 'winkle' is an edible mollusk and winklers are folks who go out to the beach while the tide is out and gather such mollusks.  In my experience, this involves a shovel, bucket, headlamp, and a dog barking somewhere in the distance (maybe the dog was on tide-watching duty). I feel that having a winkler or two about the place can only enhance the tidal-island hopping experience.  They were basically my favourite part, as evidenced by my taking every possible chance to reference them in this post.  :)

Our first stop in Cramond was at this wee church near the Roman ruins.

Tower and tombstones in the churchyard.

They're off to find the ruins, the wonderful ruins of... Roman-ness.

Having successfully found Roman ruins, the correct course of action is to stand upon them.  :)

... And then there was a bit of silliness!

Sunset had began and we had yet to make it to the island...

The mainland with the causeway connecting it to the island.

Matthew & James demonstrate how the WWII anti-submarine devices would have functioned.

A winkler a-winkling.

Blurry shot, yes.  Posted as evidence that a headlamp is a  requisite piece of one's winkling kit.

I would love to go back to Cramond Island at some point during daylight hours.  I wonder if one can go a-winkling in broad daylight or if it is best done under the cloak of darkness? 

Winter Wanderings

Ma and Pa came for their second visit in deepest, darkest November for an early Christmas adventure and it turns out we had more snow then (in the form of frost) than we had for the majority of the winter!  My dad was none too keen to come for what he imagined would be a dark, wet visit, but I promised him that winter is actually the dry season and although the sun does set at about half 4, we had some nice, sunny days. I wanted them to come in December so that they could experience the magic of the German Christmas Market and the fun of the rides! That's right, outdoor fair in December! Matthew, Mom and I went skating (my first time since moving here) during the day with Dad acting as official-photographer-in-chief, and that evening the Christmas Market was magical, as always.  :)  For the first time since we've been here we layered up and stood in the cold night air to watch the official city lighting festival when all the Christmas lights are turned on for the first time. Then it was off to the rides and sampling of German food.

Another highlight of our time together was that Mom and Dad wanted to take us out of town somewhere. We hummed and hawed a bit about where we could get to within the restraints of Matthew's tutoring schedule.  We finally landed on taking the train over the Forth Bridge to Stonehaven so we could visit Dunnottar Castle.  I'd been wanting to go to the Castle forever, and Mom really wanted to see the Forth Bridge up close.  Plus when I showed Dad a picture of Dunnottar, he exclaimed that it was his desktop picture.  That really sealed the deal.  :)  I got to choose the B&B, so we (of course) stayed somewhere quite old-fashined feeling, and as we were the only guests, our hostess spoiled us.  :) I would highly recommend the Orcharhill B&B to anyone travelling in the area.

Orchardhill B&B in Stonehaven.

We walked the coastal path out to Dunnottar Castle. The bleak, November beaches had a charm all their own.

Evidence of such charm.

My mom was really impressed with the abundance of plants still flourishing in November.  I had forgotten that this impressed me my first winter in Britain.

Captivating signage on our way.

Our first view of the castle.  Quite a deceiving angle, as we actually had to hike down and back up the coastline to actually enter Dunnottar.

Down we have to go!

Dunnottar sits on ancient volcanic matter.  The entire mound looks like bubbled, Aero chocolate.

My travelling companions.

Time to play 'Spot the Father'.

The coast below.

The castle did not disappoint and had a massive bake oven for me to find and pose in. :)

Matthew found himself a stone beer vat.

Matthew enjoys a bit of a chance to read under shelter, since the dining hall was the only building with an intact roof.

Time to play, 'Spot the Matthew'.

At sunset, the buildings are transformed with a fiery glow.

Nothing brings a family together quite like a fireplace.  ;)

Thankfully, the setting sun did not give Matthew a fiery glow!

Why is it that ruins are so evocative?

Sunset of course meant that we had to start heading home.  Ambling along the coast in the dark was not high on our list of 'fun things to do'.

View from back on the mainland.

Matthew & I were super-jazzed about our visit!

The sunset was a beautiful backdrop for our view of the War Memorial on our walk back into town.

As you can see for yourself, Stonehaven proved itself to be a delightful little town full of whimsey and charm.  I would imagine that equally striking as viewing Dunnottar Castle bathed in the light of a winter sunset, would be viewing it on a sunny summer's day.  If you managed to go on such a day, do send me a snapshot or two!