Rosslyn Chapel

Way back when, I promised to write a post about our visit to Rosslyn Chapel (of Knights Templar fame) when we were at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival earlier this year.   Having just seen a post about a friend's visit to said chapel I thought it was about time I kept my promise.  Sadly, my memory hasn't retained all the interesting details we heard and overheard from the guide as we went around but I'll do my best.  You can link to the Rosslyn Chapel website for more information and there's also an App that gives you photographs of the interior, since the public is not supposed to take photographs inside.

 The exterior is almost as ornate as the interior.

 The stained glass was beautiful but I had to content myself with photographs taken from the outside.

 A sneaky glimpse through the door with visitors listening to a talk by one of the guides.

 This is the south aisle (I think).

 There are said to be over 100 Green Man figures inside the chapel.  There are also many carvings of musical instruments.

 This is Woman with Goose.

Carvings inside and out appear to show corn which was not known about when the chapel was built but other opinion is that it is an idealised carving and only coincidentally resembles corn. 

Photographs are actually courtesy of my lovely husband as my camera wasn't up to the job.

One story of the chapel has stayed in my mind and that's the tale of the Sculptor's apprentice who, while his master was away, finished one of the columns in the chapel to a higher standard than his master and without reference to the original design pattern.  When the master returned he was so enraged that he hit the apprentice on the head with a hammer and killed him.  Legend has it that the master's image was carved on a column opposite so that he could forever gaze on his apprentice's work (Wikipedia link here).

Here's the link to Chris Gray's blogpost that spurred me on to finally blog about our visit.

Edinburgh and Wool

We've just come back from a few days away in the beautiful city of Edinburgh.  My motive for going was to attend the Edinburgh Yarn Festival which I had found out about recently.  I lured my long suffering husband along with promises of lots of photo opportunities.  Actually he didn't take much luring and he even came to the Festival with me to act as pack-horse, but more of that in a bit.

We let the train take the strain and had a very pleasant journey up, enjoying the views of the Northumberland coast.

We caught a glimpse of the Angel of the North as we passed Newcastle and Gateshead.

We'd no sooner arrived at our hotel than we all had to troop out as the fire alarm went off.

Happily it was a false alarm but we still stood around in the cold for about quarter of an hour.

Friday found us at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, or rather, queueing to get in.  The organisation of the show was excellent and there was a good atmosphere in the queue with everyone being very patient.  I think it took about half an hour for us to get in but the queue moved steadily so it wasn't a chore.  The organisers did a great job all round.

Ironically, I went again on the Saturday, having a weekend ticket, and the queue for ticket holders was longer than the queue for non-ticket holders.  If you click on the photo above you can see the little finger post announcing the Festival.

Hubby, who has little interest in wool, amused himself taking a couple of videos,

Since I had Mr Muscle with me I bought the heaviest items on my list on Friday.  I bought an art flyer for my Louet Victoria spinning wheel and an inklette loom for making straps and narrow weaves on.

The art flyer is a different colour from the original wheel but I'm not bothered.  It is really simple to change over to this larger flyer and I think I'm going to get a lot of use out of it.  I've had a treadle with it this afternoon and it doesn't affect the stability of the wheel.  Happy, happy!

There wasn't a lot of fibre available at the Festival as it's set up with knitters in mind but John Arbon of Devon were doing a roaring trade as ever.

The cafe was extremely busy and I didn't bother fighting my way in.

Hubby very generously suggested that I go back on my own on Saturday so I gave up fairly quickly on Friday as it was very busy.  Saturday I had a lovely few hours browsing the stalls and getting way too tempted with all the beautiful yarns on offer.

Eden Cottage Yarns, Ripples Crafts, Watercolours & Lace and A Yarn Story all tempted me.

The lovely textured pack is by Añañuca and I'll enjoy either weaving or spinning it.  The mohair was a bargain at £2.50 and may get some dye added to some it.

The Threshing Barn not only sold me the Inklette loom but also tempted me with a sumptuous batt and some ribbons that will appear in some art yarns soon, to be spun on my new gadget.  I was delighted to find some Colinette bulky yarns in a shop on the way back to the hotel (as if I hadn't bought enough yarn already!).  Colinette no longer produce their beautiful yarns so once the available stocks have gone that will be it. (sad face here).

Edited to add a YouTube video of the show:


If  you're really interested there are several more on YouTube (you might want to turn the soundtrack off).

Once I'd worn myself out at the Festival on Saturday I headed back into Edinburgh to visit the Dovecot Studio and gallery.  To quote their brochure, they are "a landmark centre for contemporary art, craft and design built around a leading international tapestry studio."  I have an interest in tapestry weaving so I was keen to visit, especially as the viewing balcony was open.  I'll make a separate post of the visit so I don't bore you to death if you're not interested.  More to follow too of meanderings around Edinburgh and a visit to the Rosslyn Chapel.

Skye

Back in September, DH and I were off gallivanting again, this time to Scotland for two weeks.  We started off by joining our local coach company for a coach holiday based in Fort William.  The point of that trip was to ride on The Jacobite steam train from Fort William to Mallaig, a famously picturesque journey that I had been hoping to travel on for a long time.  The trip did not disappoint despite some typically Scottish weather (well, typically western side of UK weather really).

This is the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct of Harry Potter fame.  DH had to hang the camera out of a tiny space between the windows and hope that when he pressed the button he would have a photo.  His luck was in!  Sadly it was raining so much that it was impossible to take any photos through the windows so I can't show you the beautiful countryside we passed through.  Sterling work was done with tissues to clear the condensation from the windows so that we could see but photos weren't happening.

The end of the line at Mallaig did allow for some photography and as ever we were alert for creative potential.  

The beautiful Isle of Skye was tantalisingly close but just out of reach for the time being.

The sculpture on the pier was made by Mark Rogers of Airor in Knoydart.  (You need to scroll down to read about the sculpture if you follow the link.  Information is sparse on the 'net).

On our return from Mallaig we visited the Commando Memorial which proved to be very poignant with its recent Area of Remembrance where people have left tributes to friends and family members affected by and lost to conflict.

We had a day to explore Fort William and explored the museum as a way of dodging the showers.  If you are ever in Fort William the museum is free and is well worth a visit.  We had a fascinating time and were glad we'd taken shelter.

This beautiful stained glass door panel is a recent addition to the building which was originally a bank.  We received a very warm welcome the minute we walked through the door and were invited to photograph anything we wished.

On the fourth day of the coach tour we said goodbye to everyone and left at Kyle of Lochalsh to continue our holiday.  I had the madcap idea of using the coach trip as a way of getting to Scotland without having to make the long drive myself and it turned out to be the ideal thing to do as we picked up our hire car and headed for Skye.

First port of call was the Bed & Breakfast run by Emma and Dave of Heaven's Ocean.  You probably knoe Emma better as the author of A Little Bit of Everything blog.  I have been following Emma's blog for such a long time and as with so many blogging friends felt as if I already knew her.  We arrived as Emma was busy with her exhibition which was happening in the beautiful village of Plockton.

Emma had worked very hard for this exhibition and it was wonderful to see her work close too rather than on a digital screen.

Emma's B&B is in the most wonderful, peaceful location and she and Dave made us so welcome.

We had fun negotiating the large puddles on the lane to the cottage but they soon dried up as the rain abated.

How would you fancy waking up to this view every day?  This was the view from our bedroom and from the breakfast room. 

No sooner had we arrived on Skye than the weather fined up.  We counted ourselves very lucky.

Emma is now my bestest friend (not that she wasn't before!) and I can't wait to get back to Skye to visit with her again :-)  It might take a year or two though, god willing. 

This is Emma's very beautiful cat whose name escapes me but who was very affectionate and kept a watchful eye on us at breakfast from her comfy chair.  Tam also made us very welcome in his doggy way but I don't seem to have a picture of him.  Talking of pictures I need to do some resizing so I'll be back soon with more of our wonderful skye holiday, such a beautiful place.

News Flash!!!!  Grantham is finally on the map!  The world's longest embroidery is coming to Grantham tomorrow!  In fact it's already here.  I'm sure I've seen this work in progress at the Sewing For Pleasure show early this year so I am above excited that it will be on show from tomorrow and I will get the chance to add a few stitches (I was too shy to do it at the exhibition).  If you live within reach of Grantham come and see it and all the postcards that were made for the Olympics.   If they let me take photos I'll share it with you.  I've just noticed, I'm going to miss the associated Craft Fayre on 26 October as I will be on a secret mission in Cornwall - and DH isn't coming!  

PS  I must apologise to everyone who commented on my last post and who I didn't reply to.  I do value every comment I receive and normally reply but Yahoo have been messing with their email service and it has got very confusing and frustrating with the comments all arriving in one email which then has to be dissected to enable replies to be sent.  I have manged to delete replies instead of sending them.  Grrrrr!

Scottish Islands Part Deux

 This sight greeted us at a petrol station that we stopped at in Tyndrum on our way up to Oban, our crossing point to the Isle of Mull. 

Our coachdriver stopped so DH could photograph this mirror-like reflection.  A few minutes later and the surface was ruffled by the wind.

 This is McCaig's Tower in Oban, a folly that was built to give the local unemployed some work.

Who could resist this sweet little spaniel waiting patiently at an upstairs window for his master/mistress to come home?

You are probably wondering, as was I, what these people were doing with a tent on a layby.  Sadly I din't find out but I did realise that they probably had their hoods up to deter the midges as it wasn't raining.

I always like a good reflection and this one was at the ferry in Oban.

If you click on the image above you should see the remains of crabs thrown back into the water at Fionnport, the ferry point for crossing to Iona.

 I would have loved a walk on this beach at Fionnport.

Above is the rare landscape of the Machair . We must have arrived at just the right time as the flowers were beautiful.  We were lucky enough to hear a corncrake too as we walked along, a rare sound indeed! (If you follow the link for the corncrake you can click on a button to listen to its distinctive cry).

These photos show the Abbey and its attendant graveyard where ancient Kings of Scotland, Ireland and Norway are buried.  We only had time to grab a snap as we hurried back to catch the ferry.  Another reason to return.

What a beautiful place to be remembered.

The children of Iona had been busy decorating their cycle shelter.

And finally for this post, a few texture images for you.  

The fungi on the tree in the image above reminded me exactly where the inspiration for the windchime I had bought earlier in Cockermouth had come from.

Till next time.......