A few years ago we had a holiday in Gloucestershire – in Painswick. I’ve posted some photos in the past but not these of a walk in Frith Wood, which is on a ridge between Slad and Painswick. It’s a beautiful, magical wood of magnificent beech trees, with a mix of oak, ash and sycamore and it’s a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
For more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce’s blog At Home With Books.
Another photo of Heidi. She likes drinking the bath water. In this photo she’s waiting for the water to get to a level she can reach without getting wet:
For more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce’s blog At Home With Books.
By this time last year I’d read about twice as many books as I have this year. One reason is the length of books I’ve been reading, but another reason is that I’ve been doing a jigsaw. I enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles and once I’ve got started on one I find it simply addictive – and I’m often surprised at the length of time it can take me.
Just as I have a backlog of books waiting to be read, I have a backlog of jigsaws and I bought this one, Northumberland Castles when we first moved to the county three years ago. I put it to one side at the time, busy settling in the house and promptly forgot about it, until recently. I finished it last weekend:
This puzzle shows from top left, looking at the photo, Dunstanburgh Castle (which we have yet to visit), Bamburgh Castle (see this post), second row from the left, Alnwick Castle (see this post), Lindisfarne (one of my favourite little castles – see this post), then Warkworth Castle (we have visited but I’ve not written a post yet) bottom row again from the left Chillingworth Castle (not visited this one), and Norham Castle, right on the Scottish Border (see this post).
I use a PuzzleKaddy to do the jigsaw. It folds away keeping the pieces held together and has a carrying handle. When I’m not doing the puzzle I fold up the board and slide it under the sofa out of the way.
I also use a Jigsafe to hold the pieces. This is a series of nesting boxes. I think the idea is to sort the pieces by colour. Each tray has a separate cardboard base so that you can do small sections and then slide them complete onto the jigsaw board. I don’t actually do that very much but use the trays just to hold the pieces, as shown in the photo below where I’ve sorted the pieces for the next jigsaw I’m doing. I separated the side pieces into the smallest box and just put the rest in the boxes as they came to my hand. Heidi was very interested!
For more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce’s blog At Home With Books.
This is the 18th century Old Marriage House in Coldstream. It was also the Toll House for the bridge, which crosses the River Tweed from Coldstream in Scotland to Cornhill-on-Tweed in England. The Old Marriage House is at the Scottish end of the bridge and is now a private home. But from 1754 until 1856 it was popular (like the Smithy at Gretna Green) for runaway marriages, because during that period under Scottish law couples could get married without parental consent and without giving prior public notice.
In the 19th century 1,446 ‘irregular’ marriages, valid in Scots law were conducted by ‘priests’, whose numbers included local men such as shoemakers and molecatchers. During that period five earls and at least two, maybe three, Lord Chancellors of England were married there.
This is the Coldstream Bridge, built between 1763-6, designed by John Smeaton. It replaced the old ford across the river.
For more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce’s blog At Home With Books.
We’ve had snow and more snow, our garden and the surrounding fields are all white, but the main roads are clear, and we haven’t had the snow that’s brought some parts of the UK to a standstill.
This morning the sun is shining, and the snow is sparkling in the sunlight.
The paw prints in the snow shows that Heidi has been across it, but she’s not keen. This morning she wanted to go out through the patio door:
but she didn’t want to get her feet cold and wet:
So she came in and tried the back door, but that was no better:
She stayed away from the snow and soon came back inside the house.
For more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce’s blog At Home with Books.
It snowed here most of yesterday and today it’s snowing again with more to come for the rest of the day and the next few days.
This is the scene in the front garden:
and in the back garden;
Close-ups of the empty bird boxes:
and the wonky one:
For more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce’s blog At Home with Books.
BooksPlease 