High Days, Holidays & Hebridean Sheep.

We went away at the end of August; ran away to Peebles and then up to Edinburgh to catch the tail end of the fringe. Jim’s brother kindly came to mind the animals. Before he arrived we had to dispatch Jock the Cock as he’d become so vicious. We also had to send Big Old Stripy away too. I thought she was brooding as she was sat in the egg house, but she was not well, seemed to have had a stroke: one eye closed and almost paralysed down her left side. She really was quite ancient, but a lovely girl.

Andy was happy staying in the caravan, mainly because we have a faster broad band connection than him and he’s addicted to ebay. He really was good to the animals, bought the cats ’special’ treats, and had trips about. Even though the weather was not good when he was here he took some great photos. Which I'll upload here when I've worked out how to do so.

We saw some wonderful sheep down in the borders, mainly Black faced & Blue Leicester’s, oh, and some Texels - which I’m non too keen on as they look a bit like pigs with wool.http://www.texel.co.uk/
Or a wolly pit bull - like something Peter Howson would paint.
However at a sale one achieved £231,000 - Can you believe it?

I’ve just acquired four Hebridean ewe lambs and they are far prettier.

There was an art exhibition on and we bought an unfinished painting that will arrive once it’s been done & framed - hopefully. It is really rather striking and called Jackdaw. The girl who is painting it is very shy and too modest by half. Her stuff is excellent, quite surreal, but with almost photographic images of mystical things. I think she will go far.

We saw some brilliant street performers at the fringe: a guy juggling a fired up chain saw, cutlass & an apple over the top of a Danish tourist he’d got to foolishly lie down on the cobbles. How happy his wife looked taking photographs & laughing!
At the end a young guy set up a tripod over the Danish tourist and took photographs all around and one looking at the sky. He had a stall near by and had some of his work mounted and on sale. Here’s his website - truly incredible stuff.
www.maoartland.com.

We hardly saw any beggars which is unusual for Edinburgh. I wonder if they’d cleared them away for the duration of the festival, and I wonder where to. There were men walking around with uniforms on, not the Police, but something similar. They had ‘Street Wardens’ written on their jackets. Maybe someone could enlighten me?

We went to a few exhibitions, free ones I may add as I’m a tight wad. We found the Dean gallery excellent. It was packed with beautiful things & the tea room is great: home backing and really good coffee. The gift shop is a place to avoid if you like to keep a hold of your money - really unusual things stacked everywhere. Jim bought me a brooch I couldn’t stop looking at. It’s a rabbit galloping along pushing a wheel that came from an old watch, it has gems and a tiny window with curtains & a gem stone. There’s a little heart dangling beneath it. The workmanship is superb, miniscule rivets - most clever. It’s like an intricate sculpture of less than two inches. I haven’t worn it yet, I just keep opening its little tartan (I know Tartan) box and looking at it. I’m well chuffed with it.

http://mudmetal.stores.yahoo.net/pins.html
As you can probably gather I’ve just realised I can do link things.

I’ve been quite savouring all I saw while away. We haven’t had a holiday in years - just mad dashes down the motorway when disasters occur with my family, so it was good to get away & relax, see new things.

I wanted to go to Little Sparta, http://www.littlesparta.co.uk/ as I had bought the book a while back for Jim. We did go, but were a bit disappointed. It all seems a tad run down. It was a dreich day, low cloud and damp which sort of lent a gloomy air to the place. There were clusters of barking posh people traipsing around. An elderly woman just about had my eye out with her walking stick as she loudly explained in cut glass vowels ‘The Meanings’ of the calligraphy, the sculptures. She was a visitor too, not a guide, there wasn’t one. I didn’t want the meanings, but she looked rather terrifying in her tweeds, so we just avoided eye contact. It was £10 each to get in & they wanted £5 if you had a camera. There was no tea room or toilets & a half mile hike across a cow & sheep infested field to get there, not that I minded (felt like being at home, but I’m sure plenty will.

After all the staying in B&Bs & hotels, having things like baths & showers I sort of settled back into the getting washed in a bucket again. Then yesterday I got an invitation to be a delegate from this crofting area at a conference at Granton on Spey. I’ll be away for 2 days and put up in a hotel - whoop. I’m really excited about it.
http://www.crofting.org/index.php/conference

I don’t know why I got asked. I have been a bit vocal at some of the meetings about the Crofting Reform Act, but not overly, I just feel passionate about crofting. But maybe they couldn’t get anyone else to go, or someone backed out? It is all a bit last minute.