the highlands and the hunky bunk

February 27, 2013 By Kate in Bruce, Camping, landscape, Scotland, walking Tags: Bridge of Orchy, bruce, Camping, Highlands, landscape, Scotland, walking, West Highlands 72 Comments

Hiya! It is I, Bruce. Today I am pleased, because, after a long break for the Winter, the walking and camping times have begun again! This particular walking and camping time was a surprise, because the weather is good, and Tom has not yet begun New Job. We packed up the van, and set off for West Highlands, a place in which Tom and Kate always seem very happy.

In West Highlands there is excellent walking to be had, and many interesting smells that I do not smell in other places. These smells are because of the big deer buddies, with whom I am not allowed to play. Indeed, an interesting feature of West Highlands is the prevalence of fences and gates, which are there to keep the buddies IN and me OUT. As you can see, however, the buddies sometimes get OUT . . .

. . . and (with human assistance) I can get IN.

These gates are mystifying machines. Try as I might, I cannot operate them.

The best thing about West Highlands is that we go for lovely long walks. This time we walked up hills and through woods. . .

and then we walked along the side of the water. All of this was fun.

Afterwards, we went to camp in the place that is called Bridge of Orchy.

The place is called Bridge of Orchy because of this:

The Bridge. Of Orchy.

At Bridge of Orchy it became very cold. I am often told that I have a nice thick coat, but although this is true, I do not have extra woolly clothes and fluffy bags to keep me warm in Extreme Highland Conditions. The humans have these things, and though they were cold, they were not as cold as I. Then a very exciting thing happened. Because I was cold, I was allowed to get on the hunky bunk with the humans for the first time ever! It was cold on the floor, but it was warm on the hunky bunk with three of us, and so we all slept there together! This was very good. All I can say is, now I know just how good it is on the hunky bunk, I shall definitely expect to sleep there at all times. I shall ignore all human mutterings of “this is not a precedent” and suchlike — YES! ITS THE HUNKY BUNK FOR ME!!

In the morning, there was ice all over the van, and the water had frozen in the pipes. And then we discovered that the van had run out of cooking gas. Kate was extremely worried that she would not be able to have her requisite Giant Cup of Tea, but disaster was averted by Tom, who is the keeper of all equipment, and who had the forethought to bring the spare camping stove.

Giant cups of tea were drunk, I snaffled half a hot cross bun, and everyone was happy.

See you soon, love Bruce xxx

mr porky’s thought for the day

February 2, 2013 By Kate in Bruce, recovery, stroke, walking 91 Comments

Yesterday was the third anniversary of my stroke. It is not an anniversary I want to ‘keep’ in any way, but I would be lying if I said it didn’t occasion in me a little melancholy and grief.

Bruce and me have been out walking.

Outside things are starting to grow.

And Bruce found something that really interested him.

Really, it is just another, ordinary, February day.

Lauder morning

November 4, 2012 By Kate in colour, landscape, photography, running, Scotland, walking Tags: Autumn, Borders Cross Country Races, color, colour, Cross Country, fall, knitting, Lauder, photography, running, Scottish Borders 33 Comments

We got up early, and drove down to the Borders. It was a beautiful crisp morning.

When we arrived in Lauder, the sun was already turning the frost into a magical, dewy haze.

Today, the Autumn colours seemed even more deeply saturated. I want to knit everything in these tapestry blues and golds.

While Bruce and I were enjoying our morning walk, Tom was making preparations. . .

Today was the first race in this series. A hand-knitted running vest is, of course, obligatory on such occasions . . .

Off he goes!

Ah, Cross Country season . . .

weekend in Unst

September 6, 2012 By Kate in landscape, photography, Shetland, walking Tags: Hermaness, landscape, Norwick, photography, Shetland, Unst, walking 54 Comments

The perfect spot

The rocks and creatures tell out their stories

in runic scribbles

On the hill, the heather is turning.

A walk to land’s edges.

A meeting with Britain’s most northerly flock.

Two days on the beach.

Bliss.

Wester

April 9, 2012 By Kate in Camping, landscape, photography, Scotland, walking, wildflowers Tags: Beinn Eighe, Caledonian forest, landscape, Loch Maree, perry, photography, Scotland, scots pine, walking, Wester Ross 62 Comments

We spent the weekend up in Wester Ross. This is a truly beautiful part of the world.

And despite it being a holiday weekend, it was also incredibly quiet. For two days, we had this glorious landscape pretty much to ourselves.

One of the many lovely things about this area of Scotland is its native woodland. The trees here are many hundreds of years old, and were once part of the ancient Caledonian forest. Visitors to Scotland often think that dense plantations of sitka spruce and lodgepole pine are what makes up the “Scottish” forest but this is not the case. In fact, such plantations are of relatively recent appearance, many being the result of a Thatcherite loophole, which, a few decades ago, allowed the wealthy to shelter capital from taxation by investing it in forestry. Large swathes of the West Highlands, Sutherland and Caithness were covered with densely-planted non-native species so that Terry Wogan could continue to line his pockets.

To get a true flavour of the old Caledonian forest – less than 1% of which survives – then you need to go somewhere like Beinn Eighe, where the native woodland has been protected since 1951.

Scots pines are the ecological backbone of a woodland environment that supports many important species: capercaillies, pine martens, red squirrels, Scottish crossbills.

Some ancient pines remain short, hugging the hillside, while others grow tall and majestic. Together they lend the landscape great variety and drama.

. . .perhaps particularly on a murky, misty day. . .

. . . and these trees are just as impressive at close quarters.

I remember, on childhood holidays, how much I enjoyed collecting pebbles. The best pebbles were always wet – found in rock pools or at the waterline. When I brought my treasures home, I was often disappointed in how their bright colours faded to grey as they became dry, so I took to storing them in a bucket of water, in order to admire them as I’d found them. Many people, I imagine, don’t like being out and about in the rain, the mist, and the wet. But to my mind, they are missing something – water lends a clarity to objects that is really pretty amazing.

And a wet walk is just fine, if you have a cosy van to dry out in , some tasty fare, and a delicious glass of cherry perry to enjoy afterwards.

Thanks for the perry, Jen! Slainte!

steamies

March 6, 2012 By Kate in Edinburgh, walking Tags: Edinburgh, laundry, Scotland, steamies, The steamie, walking, washing, women 106 Comments

(Edinburgh women negotiate the gradients of the old town, bringing home their washing from the steamie)

As I walk about Edinburgh, I often find myself thinking about residents and visitors of the past, moving about the city. A while ago, such thoughts gave rise to the Jane Gaugain walk I wrote for Twist Collective. These days, pottering about my locale, I find that my path often crosses with those taken by the Newhaven fishwives, on their way to town to sell their wares; in Leith, I think about Betty Mouat, and, at the East end of Princes Street, Anna Laetitia Barbauld always springs to mind. Today I managed a good long walk and found myself thinking about the distances women must have have traveled on foot, pushing prams, trolleys, and make-shift carts, to get their washing to and from the steamie.

The cleaning and drying of clothes was a massive problem for those living in nineteenth-century Scottish tenements, many of which did not have a clean running water supply or access to a drying green. By the late 1800s, Edinburgh and Glasgow followed the example of London and Liverpool, and introduced public wash-houses, known North of the Border as steamies. Often attached to swimming baths, and publicly managed by the council, steamies were used by women all over Scotland’s cities.

Several of my neighbours have told me about how they used to frequent the Bonnington Road steamie.

(women at the Bonnington steamie, 1973)

There was a steamie in Stockbridge (attached to what is now Glenogle Swimming Pool), another in Portobello, and according to this 1960s timetable, seven further Edinburgh steamies – making a total of ten city-wide.

During the 60s and 70s, the rise of the domestic washing machine and the advent of the commercial laundrette spelt the end of the communal, publicly-run, steamie.

(Portobello women sign a petition, protesting against the closure of their steamie)

But, in new automated form, the council-managed steamies seem to have lingered on in Edinburgh until the early 80s.

(women protest in 1981 against the closure of the steamies: “Don’t let the Tories make the steamies redundant too!”)

Though I’m sure most of us relish the convenience of the domestic washing machine, communal steamies played an important role in the lives of many women in Edinburgh and Glasgow (for example, see the comments of these women, recorded in 1971, about the closure of a steamie in Edinburgh – does anyone know which one it is?). Following their demise, steamies quickly became the focus of an affectionate nostalgia that’s best exemplified by Tony Roper’s immensely popular play The Steamie (the 1988 TV production is available in full here on the STV player).

Did any of you use one of the steamies in Edinburgh or Glasgow? Did equivalent public laundry / wash-house facilities exist in US cities?

A walk at Roslin Glen

February 26, 2012 By Kate in Edinburgh, grafitti, walking Tags: Edinburgh, Roslin, Roslin glen, Rosslyn, Rosslyn Chapel, Scotland, walking 36 Comments

Tom is beginning to feel better, so we took a leisurely stroll around Roslin Glen earlier today. Yes, this is the same Roslin (or Rosslyn) that is home to the chapel. Dogs and visitor centres do not mix well, so we didn’t take in the interior, but if you are in the area then I heartily recommend a visit – it is just as staggering as you might imagine. (You can have a peek at a few of the most famous carvings here).

It was a chilly and dull-ish sort of a day, but there were still some welcome signs of Spring. . .

. . . and the woods were full of the scent of wild garlic.

We found ancient walls

sporting modern graffiti

Bruce enjoyed a splash in the Esk.

But he was not over-keen on my new hidey-hole.

We are both glad that Tom is improving. An actual, solid meal for him tonight!

breezy

December 25, 2011 By Kate in knitting, walking Tags: Alice Starmore, Alice Starmore Bainin, Christmas, knitting, North Berwick Law, walking 44 Comments

Hello everyone – hope you are all having a lovely day, however you are spending it. We’ve just been out for a very windy walk. Let me tell you, there is a very good reason that those nineteenth century women mountaineers abandoned their skirts at the foot of the hill — the damn things act like a bloody sail when the wind picks up.

Ascending was pretty difficult in this get-up, and Tom had his own problems . . .

The weather really is quite bizarre: the past two years, we have had crisp, white Christmases, but today it is weirdly mild, incredibly windy, and strangely brooding. There was no-one to disturb us up on North Berwick Law.

Tom is wearing his new Christmas sweater. He picked out the wool himself to match his kilt. It is Alice Starmore Bainin in the ‘Cairngorm’ colourway – a very pleasing shade of blue. Tom also more or less designed the sweater (based on one he already had) and I then knit it – more or less to his specifications. It is a high-necked raglan, plain and very simple.

Looks good with that blue-y green tartan, though. (It is the Macdonald of the Isles ‘ancient’ tartan, for those of you who are interested)

Tom’s Christmas sweater is ravelled here.

Right, a feast beckons. I’m off to the kitchen. See you later!

Madeiran inspiration

November 18, 2011 By Kate in art, design, Kate Davies, textiles, walking Tags: design, funchal, Kate Davies, knitting, Madeira, mosaic, mosaics, pattern, pavement, portugal, Rosa Pomar, street, street life, textiles, tiles, walking 40 Comments

One of the many things I admire about Portuguese culture is the way that pattern and design are part of everyday life.

There are beautiful tiles everywhere. Most interiors are tiled, and almost every public space is enriched by a particular experience of the decorative.

Even Brutalism approaches the ornamental.

Wandering around Funchal – Madeira’s ‘capital’ – is a peculiarly graphic experience. By simply walking one is taking a sort of masterclass in pattern.

The narrative of one’s footsteps, of one’s movement through the street, is told out in tiles.

These distinctive mosaic pavements are everywhere in Funchal, from the town’s alleys . . .

. . . to its squares.

The patterned pavements seem to invite the pedestrian to the act of leisurely promenading, strolling, window-shopping.

The aesthetic is all pervasive – here is the entrance to a supermarket . . .

. . .and here is the exterior of a parking garage.

These pavement mosaics are made up of alternating pieces of basalt and limestone. Over the years, Funchal’s designers have clearly enjoyed playing with the high-contrast potential of these materials.

For someone pattern-obsessed like me, the streets of Funchal are exciting and inspiring spaces. For example, I love the way that these right angles . .

become diagonals

The particular design repeat used on this mosaic also appears in one of my Latvian weaving books, and another book I have about Estonian mitten patterns. Such cross-cultural aesthetic connections really intrigue me, and are one of the reasons that I am so looking forward to Rosa Pomar’s forthcoming book. Just pottering about the streets of Funchal made me reflect on the fundamental nature of the repeat and on how the same basic principles tend to govern the surface decoration of very different media (textiles, pavements etc). The OXO, for example is a ubiquitous feature of Spanish and Portuguese tiling, Baltic weaving, as well as Fair-Isle knitting patterns. I particularly liked this playful example.

Anyway, as you might imagine, the streets of Funchal have inspired me to produce a design of my own. I began work on it while we were in Madeira and finished knitting it last night. Here is a wee taster.

No, it is not a hat, but something altogether different. More photographs and a pattern this weekend!

yellowcraigs

November 5, 2011 By Kate in beasties, Bruce, landscape, Scotland, walking, wildflowers Tags: East Lothian, landscape, walk, wildflowers, Yellowcraigs 49 Comments

Hiya, remember me? My name is Bruce and I am 18 months old. Today I am telling you about what I think may be the best place in the world. The place called Yellowcraigs.

This weekend the Tom-human is away visiting the other human that they call The Mule, although he does not walk on four legs. After Tom-human and Kate-human, my next favourite humans are called Mel and Gordon. It is they that know of this place Yellowcraigs.

It is curious what humans find interesting about a place. Kate, for example, just kept staring at these twisty sticks.

But these sticks are of the growing kind, and hence no fun at all.

Gordon knows many things. He knows about how Yellowcraigs was once a rainforest, covered in lava-spewing volcanos! He knows about this island, whose name is Fidra.

He also knows much about the growing things.

This spiky thing is “Sea Buckthorn”

And this blue-ish purple-ish thing is “Viper’s Bugloss”

But the best thing about Gordon is that he likes BALL.

Gordon, please throw BALL.

While we were engaged in the pressing business of BALL, Mel and Kate marvelled at this swimming human.

There was much talk of “brr” and “chilly” and “a stronger woman than I” but I did not see what was so remarkable about it. For I will swim in the water whatever the weather! Who braved that frozen bog-pool at Eshaness last January? Bruce, that’s who. And can that swimming human find an important pebble in a pile of seaweed?

Or leap and seek out elusive BALL through the long grass?

I think not.

Kate Davies Designs

Category Archives: walking