Spring is here again

Last weekend we spent three days at Harelaw in the Scottish borders. It's an idyllic little spot in the Bowmont Valley, near(ish) to Kelso, and the weather was *fantastic*. We were very lucky! There are hundreds of garden birds of all species nesting here, wild flowers of every kind, and at the right time of year owls nest in a special 'owl-box' high up on the wall, with CCTV - you can check out what's happenning inside the box by tuning in on the television!

This is a short post, but here are some glimpses of my favourite of the garden's flowers - snakeshead fritilaries (Fritillaria meleagris).

We made a garden seat!

This Saturday Mike and I have been busy sawing and chopping, making a new seat for the garden. We spent the day at Harehope Quarry, being taught (some of) the art of rustic furniture making by Rachel Benson of Old Sleningford Farm.



Quite different from sewing quilts and bags, but such a brilliant day! The weather was amazingly cold and amazingly sunny - although it's spring here in the UK, we haven't yet had any warm days! In this photo the seat is almost finished - we added more willow to the seats afterwards, and another arch to the back. We're calling it the 'Pixie Love Seat' - it's small but perfectly formed, and I think the shape on the back resembles a heart. Ahhh.

We started off making two frames with hazel logs for the legs at each side, then joining these with horizontal pieces front and back to make a rectangle. Here's Thomas busy with the drill:



Next we added horizontal seat pieces, and a back frame...





And then it was time to add curving willow sticks to give the frame some character. Here are the arms in place, and the first pieces going on the back:



In the meantime Kitty was very busy making a little Stone Bug!



So when the warmer weather comes (!) we'll be ready to enjoy a cup of tea in the garden, on our Pixie Love Seat. And just imagine how beautiful it's going to look with a quilt on it...:)