Saturday Snapshot

Published on May 12, 2012August 26, 2024 by Margaret19 Comments

I couldn’t decide what to choose for today’s Saturday Snapshot, so I took pot luck and picked a photo at random from the loose photos waiting to be sorted.

This photo was taken years ago, when I used to belong to a spinning group. We had an open spinning day, demonstrating how to spin. That’s me, on the left of the photo using the smaller, dark wood spinning wheel. You can tell how old this photo is because I’ve got dark hair and am not wearing glssses (I had contact lenses).

We spun the wool from fleeces, first of all carding the unwashed wool, thick with lanolin – very good for your hands! I knitted the finished wool, making mittens and a cardigan. But eventually I gave up spinning as really I preferred knitting and it’s hard to spin enough wool at the right ply to make a garment successfully.

It’s good to have a record of a hobby from the past and I enjoyed remembering my spinning days! We also dyed the wool and made felt.

See more Saturday Snapshots at Alyce’s blog At Home With Books.

Saturday Snapshots

Published on May 5, 2012 by Margaret15 Comments

Today’s Saturday Snapshots were taken on a local walk near home over two years ago. It was a few days after Christmas and the ground was still covered in snow, when we walked down to the River Tweed:

Footpath overlooking R Tweed — View of River Tweed from the public footpath

We walked through the woodland above the Tweed back home climbing over the ladder style from the woodland into the adjoining field. The photo below shows our grandson climbing the style:

Footpath & Style near home — Climbing the ladder style

And this one is on the footpath in the field :

For more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce’s blog At Home With Books.

Saturday Snapshot: Bamburgh Castle

Published on April 28, 2012 by Margaret21 Comments

Last Monday we visited Bamburgh Castle on the coast in Northumberland overlooking the North Sea. It’s a dramatic sight, a huge castle extending over ¼ of a mile, built on a volcanic outcrop, 45 metres above sea level. (Click on the photos to enlarge.)

Bamburgh castle view from carpark P1010364 — Bamburgh Castle from the carpark

Bamburgh Castle was bought by Lord Armstrong (who built Cragside) and renovated by him at the end of the 19th century. The castle still belongs to the Armstrong family, and is open to the public. It also hosts weddings and corporate events and has been used as a film location since the 1920s, featuring in films such as Ivanhoe (1952), El Cid (1961), Mary, Queen of Scots (1972), and Elizabeth (1998).

The entrance is through two gatehouse towers, which still have some of the original stonework. They were altered and added to in the 19th century.

Bamburgh Castle entrance P1010387 — Gatehouse Towers

From there you walk along the Battery Terrace, with its cannons facing the sea, placed there ready to defend the castle when Napoleon threatened to invade Britain.

Bamburgh Castle Battery Terrace P1010366 — Battery Terrace

From the Battery Terrace you can see Lindisfarne to the north and the Farne Islands to the south. Lindisfarne is just a dot on the horizon above the first cannon in the photo.

View of Farne Islands from Bamburgh castle — Inner Farne on the horizon

The photo below is of the Keep, which was originally built in the 12th century. It sits on a massive plinth to prevent attackers digging beneath it and setting fires to collapse it.

Bamburgh Castle The Keep P1010380 — The Keep

And finally a view of Bamburgh Castle taken from the road from Seahouses to Bamburgh:

Bamburgh Castle taken from Seahouses P1060691 — Bamburgh Castle taken from Seahouses

See Alyce’s blog At Home With Books for more Saturday Snapshots.

Saturday Snapshot – our newest arrival!

Published on April 21, 2012January 8, 2021 by Margaret29 Comments

We went to get the car MOT’d yesterday. Whilst we were waiting we walked down the road a little way to the Animal Rescue Kennels – just to have a look, you know. Actually we’d been thinking about going there for months, but yesterday was the day. And look who came home with us:

She’s two years old and a little timid and camera shy at the moment, but I managed to take this picture. Whitie, that’s the name she knows, so I think we’ll carry on calling her that – she comes when you call her name, is sitting where Lucy used to sit – on the computer room windowsill. Lucy died a year last January and it’s taken us this long to feel it’s right to get another cat. She’s seems to be settling quite well.

Here she is deciding whether to sit down or not – she did and she’s sitting there now as I type.

Here’s another photo – taken last night in the kitchen:

No doubt there’ll be a few more photos soon.

For more Saturday Snapshots go to Alyce’s blog At Home With Books.

Saturday Snapshot: Dewars Lane

Published on April 7, 2012January 19, 2020 by Margaret24 Comments

Berwick-upon-Tweed is an interesting English town near the border with Scotland, with three bridges crossing the Tweed. There are the Elizabethan Town Walls, Ramparts, Barracks, a ruined castle and quaint passageways like Dewars Lane, which dates back to medieval times. This is what it looks like today.

Dewars Lane, Berwick

The white building on the right at the end of the passageway is now a Youth Hostel, Art Gallery and Bistro. It was built in 1769 and was originally a granary. Its fantastic tilted walls are the result of a fire in 1815, after which it was propped up rather than being rebuilt. It was used for storing grain up until 1985 and was then left unoccupied, gradually becoming derelict. It has recently been restored by the Berwick Preservation Trust.

The artist L S Lowry sketched it in 1936 on one of his many visits to the town and it is now part of the town’s Lowry Trail. Below is Lowry’s pencil drawing of the Lane.

Lowry Dewars Lane