Lazy rainy days

There was so much rain yesterday - the perfect opportunity to finish most of my alpaca cardi-poncho project. I have been working on this since summer last year and now I am finally nearing completion.

Because it developed into a monstrously big piece of knitting I decided some time ago that I would skip the sleeves and just wear it as a poncho. The alpaca felts easily and I knew that I would never ever be able to unravel everything, otherwise I would have considered beginning again in order to get it right. I am now working on the neck and armhole finishing and then I will - finally - be able to move on to the next big(gish) crafting project.

When the rain eased off a bit around early afternoon I quickly took a few photos in the garden, of the whole glorious glossy mess it is at the moment, full of blooming tobacco plants, fennel, verbenas sunflowers, rust-speckled hollyhocks and Japanese anemones.

Much love,
Qaroline

Everything on stitch holders - doesn't even fit in the picture ...

Japanese anemone 'Whirlwind'

Euphorbia mellifera

Sunflowers!

Nasturtium leaves

New pinkish growth on the camellia

Japanese anemones

More anemones

Hydrangea leaves and nasturtium flowers

Hydrangea bloom turning from cream to pink.

Lungwort leaves

Hamish helps

Roadtrip Jubilee: Scottish Highlands & Lake District

I have been holding off on posting random stuff as this is the 100. post on this blog and I wanted to do something special for the jubilee of Qaroline's Qonundrums. What could be more appropriate for this festive occasion than to blog about the mother of all roadtrips?

For the last years my bucket list of places to see has included just 3 places:

a) Lake District
b) Scotland
c) Iceland

This summer I had the chance to cross 2 of them off the list - but of course now I need to go back someday, as there wasn't time enough to see anywhere near as much as I wanted to see. I had only one week off and the opportunity to join friends of mine who had rented a Airbnb in Pitlochry in the Scottish Highlands. Because I knew I had to drive there to save on money (train fares are atrociously high in the UK) and that I would pass the Lake District anyway, I crammed my camping stuff and clothes for all weather eventualities into the car and drove north.

I did not plan too much, I rather wanted to experience the different landscapes without coming to them with too many expectations - but the one thing I knew I wanted to do was to swim in a loch. I ended up swimming a lot - every day when I was in the Lake District - and in the end this trip has been mostly about water.

Much love,
Qaroline

Falls of Dochart - near Killin. My first proper stop after driving through the night.

Falls of Dochart - Killin, near Loch Tay

Pebble beach, Loch Tay, on my way to Pitlochry

Wild flowers on the shore of Loch Tay

Dull, near Aberfeldy. I just needed to photograph this.

Stop on the A9, going to Cairngorms National Park

Loch Morlich, Cairngorms National Park. As always the mountains do not look nearly impressive enough on the photograph. When swimming in the loch (peaty, ice-cold water) they seemed to be really near.

The fish ladder in Pitlochry. A few weeks before I had listened to The Fish Ladder - a Journey Upstream by Katharine Norbury on audiobook. Highly recommended.

River Ness in Inverness

The relentless Scottish sunshine (!) - looking sunburnt and a bit blissed out next to Loch Ness

Blairmount in Pitlochry. Stunning Airbnb, for more info follow the link!

My campsite near Coniston Water wasn't that far from the Atlantic Coast. As I am always a sucker for the seaside, I drove to Haverigg near Millom after pitching the tent on the first evening

Haverigg - towards the coast

Coniston Water - where I went swimming on the first evening

After swimming - celebrating the first night in my new tent with a pipe

Ambleside, Lake District

Estwaite Water, very near to Hill Top, Beatrix Potter's place. Saw some of her water colours of Estwaite in a tiny exhibition space at Estwaite Fishery

Lakeside on Windermere - went swimming in there on the second day but at a different access point.

Dove Cottage, Grasmere, where Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy lived for 8 years. Am reading Dorothy Wordsworth's diaries at the moment (to be honest I originally came here because it features in The Trip with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon ...)

Houses around Dove Cottage, Grasmere

View towards the Old Man of Coniston from the campsite, zoomed in to cut off the tents

Cream tea in 'Fine Food Emporium - Mrs F's' in Keswick. Was feeling  a bit sunstruck by this point and needed to get away from the maddening crowd.

Last evening and last opportunity for a swim in Coniston Water. Sat in the shade beneath the big oaks on the shore line for a long time.

Dyed in Space

Sample skeins of merino.

I spent my whole Sunday learning how to space dye with acid dyes and my fingers still look like the hands of the Corpse Bride, the blue has coloured my nails and the skin around them. I took lots of little sample skeins, some of them white wool, some of them grey wool and some silk - and 4 massive skeins of fluffy white merino that I spun at least 6 years ago when I hadn't yet learned how to ply.

While kneeling on the lawn to take the photos of the skeins I noticed masses of black beetles on the geraniums - lots of mini-dramas going on there ...

Hope you had a great weekend too.

Much love,
Qaroline

Very deep and rich colours on the grey wool.

The colours came out so brighly on the silk that I overdyed the one in the middle and the one on the right.

Big skeins of fluffy merino - I am particularly impressed with the result on the far right skein, on which I dumped all left-over colours and painted them over with grey.

My lovely new geranium - two beetles trying to shove each other from the petals, one bystander.

Field trip

Field of poppies near Northleach.

This weekend I went on the pilgrimage to Hidcote. As my own garden is in its change-over phase at the moment and mostly green, I was looking forward to seeing this famous garden - but of course their roses were still going strong!

The most amazing thing for me is how different a garden can be on every single visit. This Saturday morning was actually pretty cold, but the air was filled with the fragrance of the varieties of mock-orange and the first lilies in bloom.

On my way back I stopped to take photos of two fields - one flax, one with so many poppies in it that it felt like a punch of colour on this grey day. I actually parked the car twice to photograph it from different angles ...

Much love,
Qaroline

Yeah I know. But I love this tree.

Mock-orange and sweet pea blossoms.

Hot colour scheme.

The Pillar Garden filled with mock-oranges, campanulas and lilies.

Orchard behind the Long Borders.

Field filled with flax in Gloucestershire.

A closer look at the poppies.