Hello lovelies! I hope your summer (or winter) is going well…….
Lu and I often fantasise about jetting off somewhere hot and exotic with our families one day…….. Sadly we can't quite afford that yet! Lu went off to visit her mum, did you see her post? I felt like I was away with her and her lovely family.
I also went off with my mum and dad, who were visiting from Malawi, along with hubby and younger son C. My big boy won't come away with us anymore, I'm hoping he’ll relent one of these days.
We are so lucky to have the use of hubby’s dad’s cottage in the Scottish Borders.I trained up in St Andrews and Scotland is very dear to me. We have been going there for decades, since before C was born. It is on a farm, and is a traditional old farm worker’s cottage along a little lane with thick walls and a cosy fire. Both my boys learnt to cycle along that lane, and we have many happy memories of holidays there. It is always a treat to go back. Can you spot my C cycling, he must have been about 4! Mum and dad had only been once before, briefly. As school wasn't over yet I headed up a day early with them on the train. It was chilly when we arrived, but we lit the fire and settled down with a glass of wine.
My two men were arriving the next evening so I spent the day showing my parents some of our favourite haunts. We visited Paxton House, and had a little boat trip on the river Tweed.
This is the Union Bridge, the first crossing ever built across the Tweed and the UK's oldest chain bridge. Nearby is the quaint Honey Farm where we had coffee in an old bus.
In nearby Eyemouth, it was the Herring Queen Festival. You can read about this lovely tradition, dating back to the end of the First World War here. As we wandered around Eyemouth, I was delighted to see this yarn bombing outside the town hall.
That evening, while waiting for the train to arrive, we pottered along the Tweed again, admiring the bridge and the sunset.
The next day storms were predicted, so we pottered around in the cottage, cooking and catching up.
The sun reappeared on Wednesday, so we headed out to explore some of the nearby towns, coffee in Dunbar and a lovely sunny lunch by North Berwick harbour at the Lobster Shack.
There are gorgeous beaches in this part of the U.K., and though it was too cold to swim, we enjoyed the fresh air.
We took the opportunity to do some walking around the farm, and C loved being able to hang out with his grandparents. He was even able to catch Pokemons and hatch eggs!?!
On Friday, we had a very special engagement…...Anne, one of our blogging friends had invited us to the exhibition run by her quilting group. As Mum is a keen quilter, I was thrilled that this happened to be when we were there, and that I would get to meet Anne. I have read Anne's blog for years, and felt I knew her already!
Well, what fun we had! Anne is just as bubbly as she sounds, and we were soon nattering away like old friends. Although she was on kitchen duties, she kept popping out to find us. Her group had done a huge number of gorgeous quilts. Above is Anne's block in the raffle quiz, and she has written about some of the other quilts here. There were delicious cakes to go with your tea or coffee, and it was lovely to chat to the quilting ladies.
Seeing all the lovely quilts reminded me of something I have been needing to finish...... I started this baby quilt over 10 years ago. I pieced it, rather wonkily in places. It has been back to Malawi with Mum for the hand quilting, and then work on it stalled a few years ago. Once we got back to London, I dug it out. Mum finished off the hand quilting, and I have now sewn on the binding. I just need to stitch the binding down and it'll finally be done! Thanks for the inspiration, Anne!
For the next few weeks, we are going to take a little break from our blog (but we'll still be on instagram, facebook and twitter - click on our side buttons), so we can both have a bit of well deserved down-time before the excitement and busyness coming up in September and beyond, with that much talked about and promised shop launch!
So lovelies, we’ll see you very soon!
Love Jenny and Lucy xxxxxxxxxxx
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