Monday Bike Ride

No Saturday morning bike this weekend (hubby was marshalling at a cycling race so I did Saturday swimming lesson duty). Instead, as it's a bank holiday, I get to take Monday for my ride. Weather-wise it's certainly worked out to be a good deal...

I set off at about 8am accompanied by beautiful blue skies.

There was quite a hard frost overnight. Even though the sun has been up for a couple of hours there are a few pockets of frost still to be seen.

I follow my usual route out of the village...

...turning right at the cross roads just after the big stone...

...and past farms with sheep dotting the fields like balls of cotton wool.




I'm heading up to Muirshiel Country Park.

I've a rendevous at 11am.




I'm a little early so I've time to wander about listening to the cuckoo and taking photos of butterflies (I'll need to look up what this one is, it's a new one for me)...

... and ferns unrolling.

And then I get to see these two characters! Hubby, A & N have driven up in the car so we can all enjoy a beautiful day in the lovely countryside together.

Much guddling in the river is followed by a picnic lunch (with hubby's best choc chip muffins!), a little walk through the woods, a pond inspection, and ice cream from the cafe. They then set off home in the car and I follow on the bike.

I go home a slightly longer route so I can get a little view of the hills.

One last look.

It was a beautiful day. This is a very small selection of the photos I took. It's just so good to see the countryside finally looking green again. I love May!

A round crochet cushion for A

A completed project! I have finished the crocheted cushion cover I was making for A.

She helped choose the colours. There were the expected pinks and purples but I was a little surprised when she was very keen we use the dark yellow which, left to my own devices, I wouldn't have picked. We then agreed to use the bright lime green to balance the strong yellow.

The yellow and green seem to lift the other colours, things would have been a little dull without them.

I had fun taking photos of the two completed sides.

The same colours were used on both side, just in a different random order. Twenty two rings of treble crochet made a cover 16" in diameter. I bought an 18" feather-filled pad from e-bay, buying a larger cushion gives a nice plump result...

Ta da!

A decided she'd rather it went on her bed.

And tonight she went to bed cuddling the cushion under the duvet as though it were one of her teddy bears. You can't get a better sign of approval than that!

PS My giveaway is still open, see previous post!

1st Blog Birthday Giveaway.

Finally!

It was to have been my 100th post giveaway but I wasn't organised enough. However, my momentous first post ever was on 27th April 2009 and as it's now 29th April 2010 I'm only 2 days late for my blog's first birthday, and as anyone who knows me (not that I've told many who know me about my blog!), a mere 2 days late for a birthday is a pretty good achievement for me.

I started my blog to promote my leaded glass business. That was a complete shot in the foot! Any spare time I now have is spent blogging and crocheting (which I discovered through blogging) and my "business" has been left to languish (along with the housework!).

Anyway, on offer is a leaded tealight holder which I have managed to find time to make recently. I've made two designs to choose from...

...a robin (not just for Christmas!), or...

... a sailing boat.

The leaded glass piece is slotted into a little wooden holder which has a recess for a tealight candle. The lead has been left in it's natural finish but polished to a shine.

A word about my leadwork...

All my leaded items are decorated using the stained glass overlay method. This differs from traditional cut stained glass in that coloured films are applied to a single piece of glass, and adhesive lead is then applied on top (in traditional stained glass, pieces of coloured glass are cut to the required shape and the lead is used to hold then all together). For the small items I make I find the overlay method to be a good medium. It also means that my designs are not as restricted as they would be using the traditional cut glass method (a method which I have used in the past having completed two years of stained glass evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art). However, personally, I would not recomend the overlay method for exterior use (I just don't think it would last as well, the manufacturer's guarantee for exterior use is 10 years "with an estimated life expectancy in excess of 25 years"), or for large areas of window decoration (the effect is just too flat and you don't get such beautiful light transmission as you do with real stained glass). It is, however, ideal for the mirrors I make as it allows them be created using a single sheet of mirrored glass thus keeping the reflected image undistorted. Instead of plain film I like to use those with marble effects, wisps and lustres which have added depth of colour and interest. I use natural lead and am therefore able to solder lead joints which gives a quality finish to the leadwork. The lead is either polished as-is for a natural lead finish, or treated with a patination fluid before polishing which give the lead a darkened antique finish.

So there you go!

Also in the giveaway will be...

Some nice dark coloured tealight candles (white ones stand out too much against the wooden holder), otherwise available from good old Ikea.

One of my beaded bracelets, and...

...a pair of fridge magnets that I have made.

All you need to do (if you've managed to get this far!) is...

1. Have your own blog
2. Comment on this post and let me know...
(a) Whether you'd prefer the robin or the sailboat.
(b) Which colour of bracelet you'd like.
(c) Which two fridge magnets you'd like.
(d) Whether you prefer milk or plain chocolate (can't have a give-away without chocolate can we!)

That's all, except to note here how much I do appreciate all the comments any visitors leave on my blog. As I said, it was to have been a crafty business blog but has developed into a cycling, crochet, baking and garden blog, which I don't really mind at all!

Oh, and you have till midnight a week today to enter, good luck!









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Our April Garden

Following the unusually cold winter our garden is a little late in blooming this year. There weren't many horticultural happenings here in March but April has been a much more generous month. However, though we have had quite a lot of sunshine it has generally been accompanied by a cold wind. Aside from a couple of warm days it has definitely still been sock weather!

As you will see, I like using my macro button to take photos of the plants in the garden. It's great for focussing on the beautiful flowers, buds and leaves and not on the general mess which usually lies behind. There are still far too many weedy and untidy bits of the garden for me to give a proper tour but I have included some views of the garden towards the end of this post. The trick in getting away with these seems to be to take the photo into the sun!

We start with a blossom from the copper leaved tree we have in the middle of the back garden. This tree used to always be very early to flower and would be covered in many blossoms. This year it's very late and there are very few flowers. Those that there are are still very pretty though.

Ladies Mantle. Considered a nuisance by some due to it's prolific self-seeding habit. For me it's a blessing as it's great at hiding weeds! The leaves look especially lovely after light rainfall.

Lupin, also lovely after rain.

Viburnum, not a very exciting shrub.

One of my three lilacs. This one is in the front garden and is always first to flower. I do like lilacs, I'm sure I could find space for another one, perhaps with yellow flowers as I don't have one of those, yet!

Bleeding Heart. Nice at this time of year though it looks a bit dead and messy by late summer.

I liked the contrast here of the bright leaves against the dark wall. The pink flowers are from a flowering currant...

...and look even more striking againt a clear blue sky.

Ta da! It's red! This is the first year my camellias have bloomed. I planted them 6 or 7 years ago.

A small cabbage white butterfly. I've also seen a peacock butterfly and a small tortoiseshell. I've never noticed them before at this time of year, however, I've also never been blogging at this time of year - I now see so much more of what there is around me.

Violas. I planted two large pots of these before the winter and they have been fantastic. Since taking this photo the tulips I also planted in the pot are now just about to flower.

Some colourful washing.

It's just so good to get washing dried oustide again.

A view of the garden. N (not yet 2) is already quite an adept climber, if you look closely you can see he's just made his way to the top of the ladder on the climbing frame.

Another garden view, this time looking down towards the back of the house from the seat in front of the brown shed. In the foreground are two of our four raised veggie beds. The other two are behind the shed. A was very keen that I take a photo of her about to go down the slide.

And finally, a view of the back garden from N's bedroom window.

Soon it will be May, my favourite month of the year as everything looks so fresh and green and full of promise.

Now, however, it's time for bed!