Royal mail through the Royal Mail

I am fairly certain that most everyone knows that I am a Royalist.  I am a big fan of the monarchy and was really excited when the Earl and Countess of Strathearn* announced that Kate was expecting. Shortly after the birth of their wee son George, I sent a wee card and pair of hand-knit booties to Kensigton Palace congratulating the couple.  My big surprise came a few weeks later when I received a very Royal reply through the post!  I hadn't expected any thank you in return so it quite made my week.  :)

*The Scottish titles for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

The booties and card I sent to Kensington.

I nearly had heart failure when I saw this awaiting me on my return from work.

I know it is a bit blurry, but the seal says Buckingham Palace!  And I now have their post code!

This is William's personal cipher.

The thank you note was written on the back of this photo.

The text of the thank-you reads:

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

were most touched by the thoughtful gift

you so kindly sent on the occasion

of the birth of their son,

Prince George.

Their Royal Highnesses have been

overwhelmed by all the wonderful messages

and gifts they have received and send you

their warmest thanks and best wishes

HRH Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge

22nd July, 2013

Creeping through Corstorphine

One of my favourite Edinburgh neighbourhoods is Corstorphine.  It has a very different feel from the city centre, with a mixture of cute cottages, and grander homes set back from the road.  I wanted to see all the quaint parts of this village-within-the-city, so a friend and I did a walking tour, again from 24 Great Walks in Edinburgh.  Below are some of my favourite shots of the delights we found.

Corstorphine Old Parish Church

The discovery of a ball in the churchyard is a beautiful thing!

Is it just me, or is everything just a wee bit crooked in the churchyard?

Green Man tombstone!

Tombstones make the perfect picnic spots.  :)

Another exciting grave marker.

Corstorphine Doocot (Dove cot) is all that remains of the former Castle.

I think I would like a bright, sunny door like this someday.

Corstorphine Museum

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?