Greenclogs Returns …

Hi there people!

So, you may have noticed that I have been conspicuous by my absence in the blogosphere for the last … erm … months? … Years? I wish I could say this is because I’ve been doing something dreadfully exciting like circumnavigating the globe in a shoe, or finding a cure for the common cold in the bottom of a teacup, but alas, nothing so exciting. I’ve been living life, working, teaching, writing, knitting but I haven’t felt too inclined to write about it so the blog has taken a back seat.

However… I recently became aware that one of the things I haven’t done much of for a while is photography. This became tricky as upgrading my laptop meant quite a bit of rejigging of editing software, but as we’re all back and running now I’m keen to get out and about again, and I find the best way to do that is by blogging about it too, so here we are!

This week’s offerings are a little predictable …

It snowed last weekend! So what can you do, but get out and take pictures?

Perhaps not so much fun if you’re a sheep though …

This one did, however, seem to be coping admirably!

Also, I couldn’t relaunch the blog without featuring any yarn-based escapades, could I?

So here, for your delectation and delight are a couple of sneaky peeks at my latest project in wonderful Fair Isle. I love stranded knitting – it’s like painting with yarn! More on this in future posts. (N.B. These pictures were taken on my Samsung phone and edited using Instagram – am far to engrossed in knitting the beggar currently to begin photographing it properly too!)

I think it’s coming on quite well. The pattern is from this book …

… which I was lucky enough to get for Christmas.

Anyway, these ramblings should be enough to be going on with, to facilitate the reintroduction of the blog to the wild. More to follow soon, including exciting developments in my woolly endeavours.

Have fun, and thanks for visiting.

Aviemore and Boat of Garten

 

Hello World!

The lack of blogging recently has been indicative of the size of the workload I’ve been dealing with recently. Anyway, as of this morning that is all FINISHED, and I’m now on HOLIDAY until I start my PhD in September. I still have my University tutees, whom I’m supporting through their double projects in various aspects of Autism Studies, and I have a bit of consultancy and an academic writing job to do over the summer – but all of this can be done from anywhere with an internet connection and I have lots of exciting travelling planned.

Actually, the travelling began last week, as the husband, the lovely friends (the workload) and I escaped to the Scottish Highlands for a week, prior to a gig with the band in Edinburgh on Friday night. We had the best time, and as we’re all photography-geeks, lots of photos were taken! Here are some of my favourites:

There were my favourite people …

Some beautiful scenery …

Scary thunderstorms in the Cairngorms!

There was lots of lovely food and drink!

And we organised a great session in The Old Bridge Inn, in Aviemore on the Monday night. This was a lovely irony, because had we not been in Scotland, it is very likely that we would have been at our regular session, at The Old Bridge Inn, in our village, which is also on a Monday night!

The Blurry image is Jon playing his Hurdy Gurdy – I love how it expresses the energy in his playing!

We had a really great time, and then rounded off the week with a gig at the lovely BAMFest in Bedale – a great festival, well worth a visit next year! Now I’m waiting for J to get back from this weekend’s festival in Nottinghamshire … Summer is really here!

Have a great week, and thanks for visiting!

Mille Feuille

Hello everyone, and Happy Springtime!

Hope you’re having good times this weekend. Lots and lots to show in this Blog as it’s been lovely, busy, sunny times round here.

Firstly – Last week I shared the sad state of my craft room and cutting table. Well, I’ve been a busy bee, and now have a lovely clear space in which to work. It’s a gorgeous place to be:

 

And … having said lovely space in which to work, I have FINALLY finished a small project that has been on hold for weeks and weeks because of lack of time. It’s another bunny, similar to (but smaller than) the one I showed previously. I’m pleased with it, but it highlights something I already suspected about myself and crafting – I don’t like making things more than once. I know some people love designing different versions of the same thing – cards, soft toys etc, but for me, what I like is the creativity and the element of risk involved in seeing if I can make something new for the first time. Once I know I can do something, I find it very difficult to motivate myself to repeat the process. So … no more bunnies for a while. Anyway, here is Bunny #2:

 

I have lots of new projects in mind for the coming months – including … wait for it … I’m about to start to try my first attempt at Fairisle, as I’m planning to start a blanket pattern I found on Ravelry. Yarn has been purchased and casting on will be happening imminently … wish me luck, I may need it!

Also, I hope you’ve been having good weather this weekend. It’s been lovely round here and the light in the late afternoon was just wonderful, so I had to get out with my camera. Just a brief wander down the road with my camera and my favourite lens (my grandad’s Pentax Fixed 50), and a bit of messing in Lightroom – and here are the results:

 

I’m quite chuffed with these results, though obviously nature did all the work!

Hope you’re having a lovely weekend and, if you celebrate it, Happy Easter!

Thanks for visiting x

 

 

 

Sweet Sunshine and Lovely Nancy

Now then … Hope you’re enjoying the spring light as I am! It’s been beautiful around here today, including the most perfect ‘Golden Hour’ where I had to get out with my camera. Recently, hanging yellow bikes of various sizes have been appearing all over our village. This is to mark the fact that in just a matter of weeks, the Tour de France is going to be travelling through the village (passing the end of our little terrace.) These yellow bikes are in such lovely places, and I’m sure this isn’t going to be the only photo I manage. Apart from anything, there’s a life-size one on top of the pub, and it, along with the chimneys is just dying to be an HDR perspective shot. Just as soon as I can figure out how to get high up enough in the right place without actually becoming Spider-Man.

Anyway … To be going on with –

On an unrelated topic – my lovely mate Nancy Kerr has started a blog about her music and songwriting, and about traditional and folk music more widely. Nancy is an award-winning singer and fiddler and what she has to say is definitely worth a read. You can find her lovely musings here.

Love and peas, and thanks for visiting.

Keswick #1

Just back from the best few days away in the Lake District. So much photo editing to do, but just couldn’t resist a teeny tiny post with a couple of teasers!

If you go down in the woods today …

I spent a lot of time photographing Jon over the weekend … portraits to follow, but above is some silliness by Derwentwater!

We saw some great wildlife at a park near Lake Bassenthwaite, including this Bald Eagle. Yay for the telephoto lens!

Hope you’ve had a nice weekend too.

Thanks for visiting.