Rudders at Home

So, Paul and I went to the Borders for an Easter break this year. We weren’t counting on good weather at all, being April in Scotland, so we were pleasantly surprised when we had full on sunshine for the weekend.

We had two options at our disposal, take full advantage of being in Scotland and find a good pub, or take advantage of being in Scotland and do some outdoor activity. So, we decided to go on the Three Brethren Walk, a walk up a big hill with three cairns at the top. And boy was it something.

Here’s the view down the first hill in the walk that we went up. This was a wooded area and there was a stream running along side this road. Once at the top of the hill, the scenery changed slightly.

The hill leveled off and there was a nice bit of flat space to walk down, with a nice stone wall along side it. The landscape opened up here as well, and the ground gradually sloped upwards.

And another scenic picture of the heather and the inclined walk. Not to mention the sheep. There were sheep all over the place, and I can’t tell you how many pictures of sheep I have. But there were lambs everywhere as well, so I think the excessive photo taking was justified. The landscape here just continued in a similar way, with more and more heather (the dark bit on the hill in the distance). And the path became increasingly rougher and steeper.

And after the last arduous bit of the walk, we were greeted by the three brethren (cairns) at the top of the hill and a glorious blue sky. Once up there, we took a break and had a look around and enjoyed the view.

And what a view it was, too. Overall, it took us about 3 – 4 hours (we didn’t time it precisely!) and the walk was around 9 miles long. What a great walk, apart from the wet foot. But that’s a story for another day.

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Sometimes I love being miles and miles away from home. It means I get fabulous care packages and very often they’re are filled with everything I ask for. Around Christmas, I received a package from home with some home made table mats in them. So, this time, I got a table runner to match. 🙂 Have a look:

My mother made this, just for me. Aren’t I a lucky girl? And it fits on my coffee table perfectly. I now just have to make sure I don’t spill anything on it! Thanks Mom!

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Welcome British Summer Time! We change our clocks today, moving ahead an hour. I don’t mind losing a bit of time, so long as I get to see more sights like the one below.

And the weather here does seem to be breaking.  It’s definitely not summer time, but it is certainly starting to be more like spring here. The sun is shining a bit more, and the entire mood is starting feel lighter. I’m loving it. 🙂

Next the bluebells will be out in full force.

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Remember these? Well, they’re now fully finished socks. I finished these up some time ago, before the snow came, so I had a nice warm pair to wear then. But I thought I should share the finished product with you all, so here you go!

These started out really well, with the color pattern matching up pretty well. Until the heel/ankle, that is. Plus there was some variation in the striping that all accounts for the big black toe. I used just a basic vanilla sock pattern here. I’m now working on another pair, which I’m doing two at a time, on two circular needles, which is working out just fine. 🙂 I’m quite enjoying the whole sock thing!

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But here’s where I fill you all in on where we went for Paul’s birthday!

Brighton! You would think that in the years we’ve been here in London, we would have spent some time in Brighton by now. But no, we’d only been once before, and that was just a quick drop by on our way someplace else. So, we thought that since we wanted to go somewhere, and conserve holiday time, that Brighton seemed like an ideal spot. And overall it proved to be a wonderful place to spend a weekend.

We left work on Friday night, caught the train and arrived around 8:00 or so. It was pretty dark and frigid cold when we got there. We had no idea what to expect the next morning. We were pleasantly surprised when we opened the blinds to this:

Yep, this is the West Pier that burned down a few years ago. If we looked left, we saw the pier in the picture above. All in all, not a bad view.

We started the day with a brisk walk down to the lively Brighton Pier, and spent about 20p playing the penny drop slots. The majority of the rides at the end of the pier were closed due to high winds, (I wasn’t too crazy about the look of them, either) so we turned around and headed back in to town. We then spent the rest of the day wandering around the city, doing some shopping in the Lanes, where we bought a clock for our living room, and then finished the evening off in a pretty nice pub. Not a bad way to spend the day.

Of course, it was all made the better because it started off with Paul’s breakfast in bed…

Doesn’t he look happy?

Not as happy as he was when his robots showed up in the mail!! Sadly, there is no photographic evidence of that. Anyway, I think it was a pretty successful birthday for him this year!

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