Yes I Remember This Winter 1962 - 1963 UK The Big Freeze

Hi Dear Folk,

I was watching Call The Midwife the XMAS 1962 episode,  depicting the terrible snowstorms that hit the UK I remember that winter.  The lack of daily milk delivery, and if you did receive it the top was all popped off because it froze, the country just shut down. We had a solid fuel Rayburn in the kitchen and we just huddled up. As a child it was great fun, I do remember wrapping up including welly boots and layers of socks and going out to play and having snow ball fights and sledding.

Not so good for my dad he worked for the Eastern Gas Board and he was out on call day and night. Somehow he kept a heater under his lorry just to get it started for call out.  He would have been 35 years old then. My dear dad.

It was terrible though, people died and many animals had to be fed from the air.  Shortages of food, especially fresh food in the shops.  Burst pipes, no water, no gas, no electric.  Cars and trains stuck in snow drifts.  For a child most importantly no school.

You might enjoy this to go along with Call The Midwife.  A must watch to see how very bad it was.  Cliff Michelmore was the news reporter of my childhood.

Lattice Lace Wrap, Isle of Skye

Hi Dear Folk,

Working on my Lattice Lace Wrap, I love this yarn and it casts my mind back to a morning climbing over the rocks on the Isle of Skye near to Dunvegan Castle.  I found these photos of the Isle of Skye to share the colour on the rocks with you.

You can just see Dunvegan Castle in the background.

Christy

The Colour Of My Childhood Fawn

As a child of the mid fifties, a baby boomer although that term wasn't around then, born the year rationing ended after WWII, the colour of my childhood was fawn.

Even just using that word I can still hear mum saying I'll take five balls of fawn.  Mum knitted a lot of our jumpers and the pattern of choice was Fair Isle.  So when I ran across this painting it so evoked memories of childhood.

Stanley Cursitor, The Fair Isle Jumper, (1923) The Edinburgh City Arts Centre

I love the little slouch beret mainly fawn with the Fair Isle band and little pom poms, how pretty is that?

We wore brown lace up shoes, fawn socks, quite often a tartan kilt, or a gym slip and very often a Fair Isle jumper with a fawn background, or a cardigan.  

I have a photo of when I was very young at a party.  My mum went out and splurged on a beautiful little party dress for me.  Now remember this is when you went to the one shop in town that specialized in children's outfits, not the racks and racks of clothes you look through today.  In this photo, in black and white I'm in my little party dress, which I think mum said was white and pink, it looks like everyone else must be wearing fawn.  I will look it up and insert it, because it so speaks of that era.

Dad thought mum had spent an awful lot on this dress for me for a company party, but I must have stood out in it as every one said" Who's little girl is that?" "Oh! That's Tubby's daughter."  That was my dad's nick name.

Will insert photo.

I was a vivacious child, very blond, wanting to do my own thing, you can see that in the photo, I am being held back, by the boys either side of me.

The coats of my child hood were a duffel coat and a Harris Tweed.  This was our winter attire.

What memories do you have of colours and clothes of your childhood?

Christy

Breaking Out The Drambuie

Years ago at Heathrow airport I bought a bottle of Drambuie, European size a litre.  To be honest I had never tasted it but it came in a lovely tartan box and was a good price so I splurged.  Well that liqueur lasted for at least twenty years, but I did enjoy breaking it out when I felt like it.  So when it was done, finished I missed it and said next time at the airport, I'll get myself another bottle; which I did. No lovely box, but the contents are the same.

Drambuie is a combination of whisky, honey and herbs and is made in Scotland,  I love it, better than many other liqueurs. 

Here I'm breaking out my new bottle with Maria, and sharing my trip with her.

Christy

My Isle of Skye Journals

Back of my Journals

Front of Journals

 I made two journals for 2011 on Blurb, from my 2009 Isle of Skye photographs.  I'm keeping the one on the left and the other with the highland beast I am sending to my sister.

Christy

Daffodils and a little bit of Skye

Daffodils and narcissus from my garden, along with a shell picked up off Coral Beach, on the Isle of Skye.

Plus my Light House Tile from the Isle of Skye, a gift from BB.

Christy

Still on the Road to the Isle of Skye

Glenfinnan, this is the viaduct at Glenfinnan and when we were there, there was actually a train going across. It has appeared in many films, such as Charlotte Grey.

A true Scottish scene of heather.

This was in the area of The Five Sisters of Kintail. I'm not sure if these are The Five Sisters.

Loch Dunne

Eilean Donan

We had a glorious Saturday to travel on up to the Isle of Skye. It seems that Scotland and the Isles have had their wettest year in 100 years, but all that rain in just 50 days. I think we had the only week that did not rain. As when we got back to my sisters and I looked at the weather forecast, it was raining again up there. How fortunate we were.

Isn't Eilean Donan so romantic, a little austere, in that Scottish way how wonderful to build a home on a rocky outcrop, looking up the Loch both ways.

We passed through Fort William, the name makes me think of cowboys and indians. Ben Nevis rises here, the highest mountain in the British Isles. All names that conjure up pictures and stories in ones mind.

Christy

The Journey Begins, 1st Day, Loch Lomond and Scotland

Peugeot 308 diesel, and my brother-in-law taking photos at Loch Lomond

Loch Lomond at 9:00 am

A man and his dog on Loch Lomond

Ranoch Moor

Our journey to the Isle of Skye from my sister's house in Suffolk, began after midnight on Saturday 12th September 2009. We travelled up the M1, which is the first Motorway built in Britain and it gets very congested, so leaving at that hour of the morning was great, because it meant that we were sitting by the side of Loch Lomond by 9:00 am drinking coffee and eating biscuits even though we stopped a couple of times on the way up.

I had rented a car at Heathrow airport, but it was a Ford Focus petrol and probably got about 38 to the gallon, I was able to change the car at Stansted airport, which is not too far from my sisters for a Peugeot 308 diesel, which averaged well arround 58 miles to the gallon, so 20 miles more per gallon, which is a big savings. I was so happy that I had bugged them to death to change the car.

From Loch Lomond on, all the way to the Isle of Skye is A and B roads, so the going from then on was slow. Made even slower by me wanting to stop quite often for photos. I had not travelled any of these roads since my teens.

Scotland has a desolate beauty, which cries out across the ages of it's history. Bringing back to mind songs you sang in Primary School, "I'll take the high road and you're take the low, and I'll be in Scotland afore you ..." We passed through such places as Ranoch Moor, The Sisters of Kintail, Fort William, to name a few. And some in our recent history, Lockerbie.

So begins my journey.

Christy

My Husband's family Name, Gordon

Gordon Weathered

Red Gordon Muted

Red Gordon Modern

Red Gordon Ancient

Gordon Muted

Gordon Dress

Gordon Ancient

Gordon Tartan

How can you go to Scotland without thinking of Tartan. I thought I'd feature the Gordon tartan, as this is my husband's family name. I had no idea that there are so many Gordon tartans, the most familiar one to me, is the bottom one. What child didn't have a tartan skirt, or kilt when I grew up. Hope to pick up some lovely tartan fabric or a nice tweed.

Which are your favourites? Mine are Gordon Dress and Gordon Weathered.

Christy

P.S. You probably figured it out but the names of the tartans are below each tartan.

"The Strangest Place in the British Isles", H. V. Morton

H. V. Morton (1892 - 1979)

Drove a bullnose Morris around Scotland.

Isle of Skye

Why did Morton want to see Skye more than anywhere else?

Morton believed Skye “the strangest place in the British Isles”. Some of that aura’s inevitably gone now it’s connected to the mainland by a bridge, but not the breathtaking views Morton described.

Looking for the perfect vista on which to end his journey, Morton wasn’t disappointed by the views from the top of the Cuillins. “The grandest and gloomiest view in all Britain” is equally majestic to all today, who understand how ‘gloominess’ was an essential element of Morton’s perfect landscape, evoking as it did remoteness and wildness.

I last visited the Isle of Skye over forty years ago, and remember it as a remote and wild place, with a landscape that evoked history. Dunvegan castle and Bonnie Prince Charlie.

We were camping with our caravan, and stayed at a campground that overlooked Portree, I wonder if it is still there? We took the ferry across from Kyle of Localsh to Kyleakin. I remember we had good weather, except for the drive through the Cuillins when it was overcast, and it's true the gloom was great.

Let's hope we have great weather for our trip.

Christy

An Innocent in Scotland. More Curious Rambles and Singular Encounters, by David W. McFadden

I am enjoying reading this book. David McFadden's style of writing is personable. He wants to visit his ancestral home and follow in the steps of H. V. Morton's route around the country. McFadden is absorbed by the landscape and especially the people.

He is a great listener and engages you in his time spent in B&B's, pubs and just where he meets people and has a chat. People tell him all sorts of things from what's happening today in Scotland, the past, land clearance by the Lairds, to the travel of Scots to far flung places of the globe. His erratic travels follow Morton's journey in the 1920's.

The cover says it's a good fireside read. It's a little warm right now for a fire, but on a thundery, rainy afternoon, it makes for a good read.

Christy

A Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 1773

James Boswell and Samuel Johnson Tour Scotland

We had tedious driving this afternoon ad were somewhat drowsy. Last night I was afraid Dr. Johnson was beginning to faint in his resolution, for he said, "If we must ride much, we shall not go; and there's an end on't. To-day, when he talked of Sky with spirit, I said "Why, sir, you seemed to me to despond yesterday. you are a delicate Londoner; you are a maccaroni; you can't ride." JOHNSON. "Sir, I shall ride better than you. I was only afraid I should not find a horse able to carry m." I hoped then there would be no fear of getting through our wild tour.

James Boswell, Ninth Laird of Achinleck (1740-1795). Scottish lawyer and diarist.

Christy

The Tea Room at Kellie Castle, Fife, Scotland

The Tea Room at Kellie Castle, Fife, Scotland

I spent a delightful day here with my friends daughter. They live in a little croft overlooking the Firth, about three miles from Kellie Castle. So on a lovely summer day we walked to the castle down country roads. Taking a small packed lunch with us.

The gardens at Kellie Castle are lovely. You can have a wedding in them or other events. What a delight it would be to do so.
Christy