Category: camping

Meet the latest member of the family!

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Well of course you should have been reading all about the gorgeous fiestas I went to in Spain in this post, however I have skipped ahead for very good reasons.

I will get back to my time in Spain as soon as possible, but on the day that I was scheduled to post, we had a major power blackout that affected most of Spain, Portugal, and other parts of Europe. 

That was ‘interesting’, and made you quickly realise how very much we rely on having working phones, access to the Internet, ATM etc. 

One of my main concerns was that I was due to fly back to the UK two days later on the Weds, to be reunited with a very special new addition.  I have previously hinted at changes for this year but I would like you to meet Lotte.

Lotte is a ‘new to me’ 33 year old caravan, that I bought from my very good friends, Maggie and Peter in Yorkshire, last year. There have been lots of preparations in place surrounding the purchase and subsequent removal of Lotte to Scotland. Here she is on the haulage lorry in Yorkshire, and arriving in a very sunny Speyside 🌞

I needed a caravan to live in as last year I applied for, and was successful in getting,  a post as a Site Assistant with the Camping and Caravanning Club! The interview process started in October, and involved me flying back to the UK in early December for a recruitment day, and I got a job 🙃

I was so thrilled as this has been a long held dream post retirement from teaching. I was over the moon when a couple of days before Christmas I found out my post would be in Scotland.   

There have been a few stressful moments along the way. In the same week I had the blackout, finding out that the caravan towing company wouldn’t take her to Scotland last minute, and Katy having a seized handbrake and having to spend two days in the garage. However all got sorted and a day later than planned I set off for Scotland in Katy.

Lotte arrived last Wednesday evening, and I have been spending the last few days moving all of my new things in, and sorting everything out.

She is absolutely gorgeous and I already love living here in her. I have a lovely staff pitch, very shady, with lots of trees and birds around.

I have a fixed bedroom, which is great, with so much storage space.

Also a cute little kitchen area, and most exciting, a bathroom.  I have a toilet, and running water and everything 🙃

Also a lovely comfy lounge area, so I can sit and craft in the evenings as I listen to the birds. It is all just perfect and I am over the moon about it all.

I start work tomorrow, which I am so looking forward to.  Most of this week will be training, and at the moment I have the weekends off, so I will still be going out exploring this gorgeous part of the country in Katy. I plan to use the many stop overs and aires here.

I am further north than I have been before, just above Aviemore, so really looking forward to exploring. I took 10 days to make the journey up to my site, so got to visit some new places.

My first stop was at The Nook Cafe, in the beautiful Northern Pennines. They offer overnight camper stops for £5, with use of toilets if wanted. I had a very peaceful evening, watching the sheep graze.

I then stayed overnight with my very good friends, Sue and Chris at their house, before going on to the Oban campsite for four nights. 

That is a very pretty site, in a walled garden, with beach access across the road, and a beautiful set of forest walks next door in Sutherland’s Grove.

I also had an afternoon walk around the headland at Port Appin, with stunning views across to Mull and Lismore.

Then it was on to Loch Ness Shores campsite for another four nights.

The weather has just been amazing all the time I have been here, I am so lucky. On my last day I did the forest walk to the Falls of Foyers.

One of the best things about being here in May is that the rhododendrons and gorse are blooming, so gorgeous.

So here is one very happy little camper signing off. I will be back as soon as possible, work and lack of WiFi may slow things a little, but thanks as always for being here for my new adventure.  Hope you are all having fun and enjoying life.

Coming home

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Even though I no longer live in the area, I still consider Yorkshire, and the Peak District home. It is the place that I have spent the most time in, and I just love the countryside. It is also so nice to return to catch up with friends. At the end of the summer I chose to spend my last two weeks camping in the Yorkshire Dales, and the Staffordshire Peak District, between Buxton and Leek.

The first site was a Camping and Caravanning Club certified location, one of the smaller sites, for usually up to 5 vans. They are privately owned, often farm sites and I wanted to try one out. It was a stunning location, in the village of Buckden, not far from Kettlewell, and right in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The park celebrated its 70th anniversary in November 2024, and has always been one of my favourite places to camp. When my children were younger we used to come here all the time.

The certified location was on Heber Farm, with some very cute animals and a friendly cat host. As it was very quiet in the out of season October week that I was there I ended up on the farm campsite section, rather than the certified location in another field a few minutes away, so I could be near the facilities. The owners, Gill and Gary, were really welcoming and I loved staying there. Not only was it a fantastic campsite, with a facilities pod, and a few glamping pods as well, it is right on the Dales Way.

As always it was lovely to meet with other campers, a few walkers and mountain bikers were still around, and I met some lovely fellow outdoor enthusiasts. As I mentioned in my last post, I needed a quiet couple of weeks, and as the weather was variable enjoyed lots of time just reading and stitching my final Christmas ornaments, as well as some walks. I love the walk signs along the routes, both old and new.

I did go to Malham Cove on a beautiful sunny day, the drive there was so gorgeous and I am getting much more used to single track roads now! By the time I got there it had got a little duller, but I didn’t mind. I spent far too much time taking photos of the clouds, and just watching the weather change. I love the contrasts within a few minutes when you are walking, sparkling water to thundery skies, just magic!

My last site was one of the first that I ever stayed at in 2022, Leek Caravanning and Camping Club. This has to be one of my favourite sites, situated on one of my favourite roads for driving, the A53, from Buxton to Leek. Just stunning views, particularly the first stretch when you can see across to Chrome and Parkhouse Hills, known as the Dragon’s Back due to their unusual shape.

That week was spent looking at the clouds a lot. I remember that this site had the most beautiful clouds and sunsets last time, and it didn’t disappoint this time.

I was able to visit a few of the places that I have had on my wishlist for a while, such as Ilam and Dovedale. It was the most stunning autumn day, really warm and the walk was just brilliant, one my best days of 2024. I was just so happy to have been spending another summer doing what I love, and still enjoying living out of a Renault Kangoo and travelling. I can’t wait to get back to this life in March.

Ilam Hall is now a Youth Hostel, but the grounds are open and there is an excellent National Trust tea room or two, so I treated myself to a cream tea after the hike over to Dovestones.

The houses in Ilam village are just gorgeous, it was rebuilt as a model village styling itself on a Swiss village.

Another trip was to Rudyard Lake. Rudyard Kipling’s parents met there, and so he was named after the location. The lake is a reservoir built to serve the canals, but has been used for pleasure trips since the Victorian era, and there was some really good interpretation about the history, as well as some very friendly squirrels!

I also had a very exciting research trip to the Chatsworth House archives. I had contacted them earlier in the year to see if I could access some diaries that I know Evelyn, Duchess of Devonshire, the last owner of Hardwick Hall, kept when she was restoring the tapestries. I was told I wasn’t able to access the diaries, due to the 100 year privacy rule, but there was a small notebook they had listed detailing some of her textiles.

When I got there I was told that when they opened the archive box with the notebook in, they found two folders that they hadn’t known about. They were full of Evelyn’s notes about her restoration work at Hardwick, detailing visits from museum conservators, and the compromises that she was having to make trying to care for all the textiles there with little money.

It was absolutely amazing, and the best thing was that it fits perfectly into the timeline I am writing about. It was such a magical moment, and I am so thrilled that I found them. I haven’t done much writing recently but hopefully can catch up over the next couple of months with some writing retreats whilst travelling.

My final trip that week was into the town of Leek, as I had spotted that the local museum had an embroidery exhibition. Although only small, it was a fascinating display. Leek was at one point famous for silk production, like its neighbour Macclesfield. There were many silk mills in the town, and the wife of the owner of one of them, Elizabeth Wardle, as well as being the mother of 14 children, 9 of whom survived infancy, also set up the Leek Embroidery Society.

The organisation produced embroidery for clients, and designed and sold kits. They had some examples of the work, which was stunning, excuse the reflections from the glass cases.

The Leek silk mills specialised in the production of Tusser silk, which is made from the cocoons of the moths, and is a much coarser silk. It was a really fascinating display, and the museum is well a worth a visit, for that and its other textile treasures.

There was also an architectural trail through the town, celebrating the Victorian heritage of buildings such as the Nicholson Institute. This was built to house a library, and training school for textile workers, with friezes above the windows celebrating the various skills. The town has links with William Morris, who worked with many local mill owners. One of the original rows of weavers’ cottages has been turned into a covered arcade with craft shops, cafes and galleries. A really lovely textile filled afternoon.

I will leave you with a quote from one of the displays at Rudyard Lake. One of my favourite poems is by Rudyard Kipling, and it is one which has inspired my love of travel and meeting people from other cultures. It is called, ‘In the Neolithic Age’, and contains the lines, ‘Still the world is wondrous large, seven seas from marge to marge, and it holds a vast of various kinds of man. And the wildest dreams of Kew, are the facts of Kathmandu, and the crimes of Clapham chaste in Martaban.’ I remember having that on my bedroom wall, and vowing that one day I would visit those places. Not got to Martaban, which is in Mayanmar, yet, but maybe someday.

This quote really sums up the way I live my life now. I am so looking forward to more adventures in 2025, the first of which start next week. I am going to visit somewhere that has been on my wish list for a very long time, and am very excited to tell you all about it. There will be mountains, sea, and definitely textiles, which I know doesn’t narrow it down much for me, but all will be revealed in a couple of weeks 😉

Meanwhile I am finishing my second cat sit of the year, poor Dave the cat has been desperate to sit on my lap this afternoon, and keeps giving me upset stares, so will have to go and give him a cuddle now.

See you all again soon. Until then have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Rest and relaxation

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It may sound strange to say that I needed a bit of quiet time this summer, but after all of the excitement of Scotland and the van life festival, I really needed a quiet couple of weeks.

For the first week I chose to visit an area that I have driven past many times, on the M1. We would see the signs for, ‘The National Forest’, and be a little confused, as there seemed to be few trees. However staying at the Conkers Caravan and Camping Club site, right next to the visitor centre, gave me a chance to explore the area, and find out more about it.

On the way from Stratford I stopped off at Charlecote Park. I have visited before, however it was a lovely sunny day, so great for a wander in the deer park, and I don’t need any excuse to admire amazing plasterwork ceilings!

As far as textile treasures there were some beautiful needlepoint chairs, six contrasting designs on marquetry wood bases in the library.

The house volunteers, along with local community textile groups, had created a stunning pumpkin display in the kitchen.

The National Forest is actually an environmental charity, working across a 200 square mile area of the Midlands, helping to reclaim industrial land, repair the effects of industrialisation, and develop tourism and sustainable businesses in the area. The area is centred around Burton on Trent, Ashby de la Zouche, and Coalville, all important centres of industrial development in the 18th and 19th centuries. The area has a well developed canal network, and you know how I love canals!

The Conkers site is a small, spacious and quiet one, and after a day of doing the washing, tidying the van and sitting in the sun reading, I went off on walks the following two days.

My first walk took me to some local ponds, a lot of wildlife habitats have been created in between former industrial areas, and these were now part of a fishing complex and a caravan site. Lots of beautiful autumn colours, and some squirrels!

The second walk followed the path of the canal, through the Moira Basin, to the Moira Furnace, a lime and coal furnace which is now a museum. I love the way that the heritage has been preserved and the paths have been made accessible, and there were lots of walkers and cyclists around as it was such gorgeous weather. The Moira Furnace complex also has a small craft workshops area and café.

I have become fascinated by seed pods along the canal banks, and have taken so many pictures of them this summer.

This one I intend to print off and frame, I just love the way that the pods are curling in on themselves for autumn.

Then it was off back up north to Huddersfield, for our 42nd year reunion with friends who I was at Polytechnic with. A fantastic time, catching up in the pub on Friday with someone I haven’t seen for about 20 years, and then a bbq and night round the fire with other friends on the Saturday. Such a brilliant two days, and I am so grateful to have good friendships that have lasted this long. We already have this year’s reunion date in the calendar.

I am now back in Marsden, house sitting for one of the furriest cats on the planet, the adorable Frankie, and having my dose of winter. It was a very snowy when I flew back, so we were a little delayed, and the Colne Valley looked very pretty for a few days.

Sadly the snow has gone, and we are back to dull and damp, but I am having such a good time catching up with friends, and booking all of this year’s accommodation and flights, that it hasn’t mattered. I have a lovely warm house to stay in, and very importantly BBC I Player so I have been able to watch all of last year’s Sewing Bee 😉

It is amazing that it is nearly the end of January already, time seems to whizz by. It is lovely to be here in the UK at the moment, but I will be leaving again in a couple of weeks, for more adventures. My aim is get all of the summer/ and autumn blog posts completed before I leave, as I then have seven weeks of travel before my return to Spain in April. I have been very efficient and have sorted everything out until this time next year, because of some great bargains available at the moment, so fingers crossed 2025 will be as wonderful as the last three years, in fact it is set to be even more exciting.

Until next time then, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Stepping back in time

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One of the things that I spend a lot of time doing when visiting historic houses is to imagine how it must have actually been to live there, without the National Trust interpretation, the carefully staged rooms, and the guided routes around the house. Occasionally there are glimpses of the reality of living in a house that is too big, and too costly to heat properly, or be comfortable, as there was at Chastleton, where I visited in May.

It is more difficult to envisage how ordinary people lived though. The social history museums, such as those that I visited in the Cairngorms this summer, and in Norwich last year. Books help as well, and I love reading biography, and social history research. However these sources only give a selection of what has been kept or remembered.

One of the reasons that I wanted to go back to Northumberland on my trip this summer was to do some more research for my novel. I am so enjoying the process of writing this, along with bits of the others, and I love being able to research things. It is nice to know that those eight years of work on the doctorate have not gone to waste! I am writing my historical character’s timeline now, and am trying to spend a lot of time thinking about how her life would have been, and how she would feel.

Even though I have been to Alnwick before, it was a few years ago, and was more of a tourist trip, so this time I went as a researcher. I went first to the local library, and although they have no archives, they were able to give me access to the British Newspaper Archives, a source I have used briefly before. It was a really productive hour there, and I have managed to get a lot of factual detail that I needed. Later in the summer I also had another brilliant research trip, but that is for another post!

A wander round the town was also useful, thinking about how Dora, my character would have experienced the town in 1947. Would the horse trough and water fountain still be in use? Would there be the same traffic signs outside the town gate? What would she have thought of the street names, Bondgate Within, and Bondgate Without? I know I don’t have to go into too much detail in the book, however the amateur historian and ex-academic in me wants to get all of the details right. Also I am very much enjoying the process.

I stayed at Dunstan Hill campsite, only a short walk from the coastal path, and was lucky enough to have amazing weather. This is such a beautiful part of the country, with so many castles and remnants of early history, such as the development of Christianity, and the invasion of the Vikings. It is definitely an area I want to spend more time in.

On the way back down south I stopped in at Wallington, which has a gorgeous rural setting.

The interior decoration was very impressive as well. This is the unfinished painted central hall, with panels that tell the story of the local area, from the early kings of Northumbria to the industrial boom. The paintings were truly stunning in their detail.

There was also one of the largest pieces of personal needlework that I have ever come across. This panel is embroidery, not woven, and was done over 23 years by Mary Trevelyan, for her husband. It is an amazing piece of work, and I would love to know more about it. 23 years is such a long time to stitch a piece, and I wonder if she worked on it every day, or set it aside at times?

Life here in Spain continues to be very busy and fun. I have been doing a lot of planning for next year, and hope that everything that I want to do comes to fruition. I only have a month left here before my return to the UK, and am frantically trying to get all my sewing projects completed!

I am still very much enjoying making couture for my Barbies, but have other practical things that need to be made for next year’s camping season as well. I hope that you are all busy and happy, and looking forward to the festive season if you celebrate. I have two more stitched ornaments to go, and then on to the ones for 2025!

I missed my blogaversary again this year, but it has been 17 years, (and one week!) of writing here at Stitches of Time. This is my 996th post, so I will have to do something special for the 1000th, which should happen in the new year. I currently have 449 subscribers, and about 200 people visit every week. So huge thanks to all of you for following along, however long you have been here. Whatever you are doing have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Walking by the sea

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Although I have visited Northumberland quite a few times, I had never visited the coast above Berwick, and so was really excited to stay at the Dunbar Caravan and Camping Club site. The location was gorgeous, on the cliff top just outside the town, with amazing views over the Firth of Forth and Bass Rock. These pictures really don’t do it justice, but I had an excellent pitch overlooking the coast.

Dunbar is a very nice little town. On one of the days I went for a wander, and in the small town museum, which was previously a tower house and the town jail, found another connection with my muse, Mary Queen of Scots. Dunbar Castle, now sadly in ruins, was where she was taken when she was abducted by the Earl of Bothwell. The harbour and the rocky coast are just gorgeous, and the Battery there has been restored.

The town is also the birthplace of the naturalist John Muir, who moved from there to the USA at the ago of 11. He was instrumental in persuading the American government to dedicate National Parks, such as Yosemite, which he loved, and has been a huge influence over land preservation and protection in Scotland as well.

The museum was such an inspiring place, these quotes from his writing sum up so much of how I feel about my life outdoors. I have been lucky enough to live near beautiful wild parts of England, and now spend so much time exploring all the other amazing places in the UK and beyond. Somehow a beautiful sunrise, or sunset, makes everything wonderful, even if there is bad weather that day, all is forgiven when you see those sights.

On my first day at Dunbar, which was gorgeously warm, I went for a walk along the coast to Whitesands Bay, and the Barr Ness Lighthouse. Not only was the sea so blue, but the rock pools amazingly green, looking like craters on another planet. All this picturesque beauty was perfectly set off by a little white sailboat on the horizon.

One of the things I love about solo travel is the people you meet. I am often asked if I get lonely, but I have so many lovely conversations with people on my travels, I never feel alone. I met a very friendly woman while buying an ice cream at the little café at Whitesands, who was telling me how she had been ill for a number of years, and was just starting to get her fitness back, walking parts of the coast from her home in Edinburgh.

That just fits so well with what John Muir said, and something that I can so relate to. I still marvel at how much better I feel these days, how I can walk for miles, and although I am often aching at the end, it’s the good ache of a challenging walk, rather than the terrible pain I used to be in.

I was also lucky enough to have a fine day to visit St Abbs, although there was a heavy sea mist at the campsite, the Heritage Coastal path was stunning.

Again I met some lovely people, a couple of students from Poland, who asked me to take their picture, and the owner of the Post Office, when I stopped for ice cream, who was telling me about when the filming for the Avengers movie took place. The village was used as the set for New Asgard in Endgame, and still has signs up saying, ‘twinned with New Asgard’.

One of the most touching things was this small sculpture outside the visitor centre, of families looking out to sea for their loved ones, something that must have been a constant worry on this rocky coast.

I was there for 6 days, not really enough time as always, and it is definitely an area I would love to return to, as with all of Scotland. So many beautiful parts of the coast still to see! However I was on a tight timeline that week, as I needed to go south for a very exciting event. I will tell you about that a little later, as my next post will be about a visit to a textile wonder, not that from the Dunbar site, that is so amazing it needs a whole post to tell you about.

I have been back in Spain for 10 days now. I went visiting my brother here last week, and am away next week with Mum, so will still have lots to show you from here, once I finish blogging about all the summer adventures. It is lovely to be back, weirdly I am not sleeping well yet in the comfy double bed, after all my time on the road, but am looking forward to spending lots of time with friends and family here, as well as my sewing machine! I have a Barbie wardrobe to make in the next month for our Christmas Fair fundraiser.

I hope that you have all been having a good few weeks. Have fun, take care, stay safe, thanks for visiting, and see you all again soon.

Mary, and engineering marvels

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As I mentioned in my last post I had two stops before getting to my very exciting park up in Falkirk. Both had connections with Mary, Queen of Scots,which is not unusual given that we are in Scotland, but both were unexpected. 

When we were visiting historic places when the children were young, we often used to joke that she had slept everywhere we went. She did certainly move around a lot, particularly when she was under imprisonment during the last 17 years of her life.

When I was last at my current campsite, two years ago, I went to Buxton for the day and was surprised to find another, ‘Mary slept here’ plaque on one of the town’s historic hotels. Apparently she had complained that imprisonment was making her ill, so she had been taken to Buxton for the spa waters.

The first stop was Falkland Palace, in the beautiful village of Falkland.  It was a very wet day, and there were no interior pictures allowed, but Mary used to visit regularly, and play tennis on the court there that is still in existence. 

I had been going to visit my stops in central Falkirk that afternoon, but torrential rain meant that I diverted to Callendar House, a gorgeous building which is now the local museum. 

Not only was it a stunning building, modified many times from its original tower house, but it was also owned by a family with very strong connections to Mary. When she left for France, as she was engaged to the Dauphin  she took with her four ladies in waiting, all called Mary. One of them was Mary Livingston, daughter of the family.

It is so fascinating to come across these links, particularly as all of this is part of what I am writing in my novel. In a strange way I feel as if my travels are constantly linking with the book, even if I am not planning it. There was a photo of one of the embroideries I saw last year in Norfolk as part of their interpretation.  I am doing as much writing as I can on the road as well, mainly for the other books, but am determined to finish book one when I get back to Spain.

This is a photo of the whole house in its autumn beauty, from one of the tourist adverts.  There is also a country park surrounding the house, with Roman ruins as well.

I have been reminded a lot of my job while I have been travelling recently, I have driven past lots of places that I visited doing placement visits, and recently we had a reunion, so I was back in Huddersfield again.

The parts of my job that I really enjoyed were the research ones, and writing, even the doctorate…though not the deadlines! It is lovely to be able to use all that now. I was never going to retire and just sit doing nothing, I’m just not that person.

My exciting park up for that night was at the Kelpies! Sadly the interior lights were off for maintenance, so they were only floodlit at night, but they still looked amazing. I visited again first thing in the morning.  This was an excellent park up, it cost £12.50, with 24 hour access to toilets, and a free coffee at the visitor centre, which really made it only £9.50 for the stay.

The first two photos below are of the small scale models that were built before the actual ones.

My favourite photo above, Kelpie and clouds. This is not my photo below, it was at the visitor centre, but isn’t it stunning?

After the Kelpies, the excitement continued with a visit to the Falkirk Wheel! You will know from previous posts that I love canal history and to see this live was incredible. 

The wheel replaced 11 locks, built in the 18th century, which used to take boats a day to go through.  I was thinking about the original engineers and builders of the canal, and how amazed they would be to see this. Photo below from the tourist advert as well.

You can also stay in the Wheel car park overnight, and it gets lit up as well. So many exciting and different places for van life in Scotland. 

I am currently on the last week of my trip, I haven’t had good WiFi or signal for the last few weeks, so I have many more posts to share. From Falkirk I moved on to my last stop in Scotland, the gorgeous Dunbar, which I will tell you all about next time.

Until then have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Butterflies and bees

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One of the stickers on Katy is a quote from one of my favourite poems, I have mentioned it before, but is has the lines, ‘ What is this life, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare’. It comes from the poem, Leisure’, by a Welsh poet, William Henry Davies, and was published in 1922. A time when leisure was, as I mentioned in my last post, rare for many working people.

One of my greatest joys these days is being able to take time to really notice things, to stop and watch the butterflies and bees, to look closely at rocks on the beach, and just generally to be more aware and mindful about where I am, what I am feeling and seeing.

Much of this comes with having more time, but it is also about spending most of out outside. I have also had chance to read more widely, and some of those books recently have been about bees, or have included information about beekeeping.

Peter May’s, ‘Coffin Road’, set on Harris, and Sue Monk Kidd’s, ‘The Secret Life of Bees’, set in Southern USA, are both really interesting reads that I have picked up at charity shops, or the book exchanges on my campsites. I love getting books from these places, as it really broadens what I read, rather than the Kindle Unlimited suggestions. 

I have always known that there are many different bees  but a recent visit to Branklyn Gardens, a National Trust for Scotland property in Perth, meant I got to see some in action.

The gardens were looking amazing, it was a really hot day, so I had spent the morning just relaxing and reading at the campsite. I would love to revisit in spring, as they have an extensive collection of rhododendrons, one of my favourite plants.

Another of my favourites are hydrangeas, I love the fact that often they look like butterflies landing on flowers, and there were so many different varieties here.

There were also some fabulous berries. I love autumn for all the variety of these you see.

I had a few nights at the Scone Caravan and Camping Club site, as a stopping point to southern Scotland, but also so that I could go and visit some old friends, who left Yorkshire 29 years ago, for just outside Dundee.

It was a lovely catch up, and we had a quick trip to Arbroath for a walk along the cliffs before I headed back to Scone and then further south to Falkirk. 

I specifically wanted to visit two locations in the city, both connected with canal history and had planned to do both in one day.

However the weather was appalling, the worst I have had, with really heavy rain, so much so that driving felt more like water skiing!

A quick change of plans led to two interesting historical locations, connected with Mary Queen of Scots, which I will share next time. As you may remember, my novel mentions some of the needlework she did with Bess of Hardwick, so it is always interesting finding out more about her story.

More on that, and Falkirk next time. As often the way here, all horrible weather had gone by the evening  leaving a beautiful sunset and blue sky next day.

Until then, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Time travelling with textiles

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For me, one of the most exciting things about my recent visit to the Highland Life Folk Museum was the way that the textile heritage of the area was represented.

The museum extends for about a mile, and consists of a reconstruction of a 1730s township, and then existing buildings dating from the 1800s to the 1940s that have been moved and rebuilt.

This means that unlike a standard museum, or a Trust property, the houses and contents are a snapshot of one particular period, rather than an accumulation of artifacts over the family’s ownership of the house.

I’m not sure if all of the textiles in each house originally belonged to it  but each gives a unique insight into the life, and textiles of the era.

I have talked before about the importance of textiles in portraying aspects of daily life, and it is really obvious here. The 1730s houses are about survival, keeping the people, and animals who shared them, safe and warm, especially in the winter days.

Textiles here are functional, spinning and weaving them yourself the only way to get them, and a continual set of tasks within the community. 

One of the displays showed the multifunctionality of the original tartan cloth, garment, cloak and blanket, all in one handy length.

As life starts to get less pressured, and as job roles diversify, you have the separate businesses devoted to clothing.These buildings originally stood in the nearby town of Newtonmore.

The tailors and dressmakers, aided by the invention of the sewing machine. The idea of having lots of clothes for different purposes,  the ability to own more than one of things, and the luxury of not having to make it yourself.

Clothing as status, the well tailored tweed suit, the modern kilt in clan tartans, all things uniquely associated with Scotland, and exported all over the world.

In the later period houses, those of the leisure classes, with time to spend on the ‘decorative arts’, textiles to show your skill, to make your home look nice.

An endless succession of tablecloths, tray covers, anti maccassars, fire screens and cushions. All created in the home with materials bought from specialist suppliers. A way to pass time with friends, or while listening to the radio.

It was marvellous place to visit, and one of my very favourite ways to spend the day. I was also exceptionally lucky that the weather was gorgeous, and the scenery stunning. Loved the three varieties of Highland Cow, just enjoying the sun and their grass.

I ended the day at a new aire, in Aberfeldy, just sitting watching the clouds as usual, and listening to the birds flying over the fields.

I have a few more posts to share with you about Scotland, it seems such a long time ago that I left, although it’s only a week. Hopefully,  good WiFi allowing, I can share more next week, as I am making my way to the final few campsites of this trip.

In the meantime, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Lots and lots of locks and lochs!

stitchesoftime3 Comments

I have wanted to visit the Cairngorms for a very long time, and it is definitely an area to return to as I only had a glimpse at its beauty.

The trip from Skye westwards took me first to Fort Augustus, at the end of Loch Ness. I had been there before, briefly with Jacky two years ago, but wanted to revisit, partly to stay at a new aire just outside the town.

The journey was so beautiful, passing through Glenshiel and past Loch Cluanie.

Fort Augustus is famous for being the other end of the Caledonian Canal, I visited Neptune’s Staircase a couple of weeks ago, and here are the five locks that complete the journey, allowing boats to enter Loch Ness, and travel to Inverness and the sea.

There is a great information centre about the canal, and also lots of lovely shops and cafés. I was lucky enough to see another group of boats go through, both the locks and the swing bridge into Loch Ness.

If you look at the map of Scotland, this is where it nearly spilts in half, a fault line known as the Great Glen. The canals allowed ships to cross Scotland without having to follow the often dangerous northern coastline.

This was an enormous undertaking, these canals were dug by hand and it took 19 years to complete, overseen by Thomas Telford. There are a total of 29 locks along outside length. It is just amazing that this has been preserved and restored so it can still be used.

I stayed overnight at the very nice Loch Ness caravan park. Like many aires this has been set up by a farming family and is a quiet site, a short walk from the town.

I really enjoy supporting small businesses like these, and it has been great to have so many options in Scotland, as well as the Caravan and Camping Club sites.

The following day I went over to the edge of the Cairngorm National Park, with a quick stop at Aviemore for supplies. I ended up at the Rothiemurchus Estate.

The estate offers lots of different activities, such as bike hire, horse riding, fishing, but also has brilliant hiking trails.

It was a beautiful sunny day, so I did 8km circular route to Loch an Eilein, passing Loch Mor with so many water lilies, and through stunning forests and heathland. 

There were also deer on the estate, a little far away for good photos.

Despite all my walks, I still haven’t seen a single red squirrel, the only disappointment about my trip to Scotland! Lots signs saying look out for them, but none to be seen 😔

I had a choice of aires and park ups in this area, because it was such a beautiful evening, I opted for staying at the Loch Insh watersports centre. 

It was such a lovely way to end such a fantastic day, sitting with a G and T in the sun, watching the wild swimmers in the loch.

My final day in the area I will tell you about next time, as I need a whole post to share all the things at one of my favourite types of museum, the open air Highland Life Folk Museum. 

I am now in my last campsite in Scotland, I can’t believe I have been here for 6 weeks. It is the most beautiful place, and I will have to come back. I also can’t believe this is my fourth September of not having to deal with the start of term 🙃 Still so, so lucky to be living this life!

Until next time, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Seeing rainbows

stitchesoftime3 Comments

This is my last day on the Isle of Skye. I have been staying at a wonderful campsite, right next to the Cuillin mountains, called Sligachan.

I spotted this site last time we were here, two years ago and decided to stay, which was a great choice. We are right next to Sligachan Bridge and these amazing mountains, so I have had a chance to do lots of arty photos.  

Not only is it a fabulous location, the staff are so lovely and friendly and helpful. We have had the tail end of a hurricane mid week, so although I pitched my tent when I arrived, I took it down the following day, as there were 40mph winds forecast.  They were fine with me staying in the van.

It has been a fantastic location for rainbows, I have never seen so many in one place. There must be something about the mountains behind the site, and the loch in front, that makes it the perfect place.

The weather has been mixed, but enough sunny days to go and explore, and some gorgeous sunrises and sunsets as well.

Last time Jacky and I came we did all the famous stuff on Skye, so I have spent my time just exploring the less visited parts in the north of the island.

I have been out to Portnalong, to Carbost, Uig and had a quick visit to the capital, Portree.

I visited an iron age broch, with views over Oransay, and the Skye Museum of Island Life.

The museum is located in a more remote part of the island, 6 miles along a bumpy single track road, and really gives you a sense of how cut off people were living there. There are a mix of preserved, and reconstructed houses of crofters.

Even now, with a car, it is trek to get there, but there are still lots of houses there, with amazing views over the cliffs. One of the most significant pieces of information was that children living in these crofts would usually not visit Portree, a 25 mile walk, until they were 12, and old enough to cope with the journey. 

As well as the artefacts, including some great textiles, there were photos and archive film of people living there in the 1930s, which was the best bit. All textiles were made at home, from flax grown in the croft, and wool from their sheep.

This croft was home to a family with 10 children, accommodated in two box beds, with their parents in a small bed off the living room.

A fantastic place, and well worth visiting for a taste of real Skye life.

I have also been following a YouTube channel called, ‘Living  the Skye Life’, run by an artist and musician, Sarah and Willie, who relocated here two years ago. It is a really interesting exploration of 21st century life here, and gave me lots of ideas of different places to explore.

Tomorrow I leave to go west, I am heading for the Cairngorms, which I am very excited about. I have some park ups for the next few nights, and will hopefully be visiting more canals!

Until next time, have fun, take care, stay safe, and thanks for visiting.