Back on the road, day seven, a brief glimpse of the sun and an unexpected purchase

 We saw the sun, had a bit more rain but the wind has dropped a bit. Decided to go down to Kyle lochalsh on the mainland to pop into the recycle shop and also have a wander round as we used to catch the ferry from there many years ago.

Somewhere I have photos of the bridge being built, the buildings that you can see through the bridge are the fish factory,

WW11 mine in the grounds of the now closed Kyle Hotel although it does look like someone may be making an attempt to do some work on it.

This is Kyleakin where the ferry used to pull into on the island. Now a very quiet area as all the traffic goes over the bridge and straight up to the roundabout to go up or down the island. We remember waiting here in a storm having being woken by our landlady with candles and apologies for having to provide a cold breakfast !

when I first saw this sculpture, I thought it represented the arc of the Skye bridge. Further investigation revealed that it is music but I'm not sure which tune. Skye Boat song doesn't seem to match :-)

A quick stop off at the antique cabin in Broadford saw me walk out with a surprise purchase, one which will be having its own post in the future but for now , meet Emma Brown age 12 1870

The glass had been broken by the shop owner so the price was reduced , once I have found the best way to remove the stitching from the frame I will try and look at the back ( as long as its not glued) and see what the original colours were like. Not the neatest of stitching but I like it,

By the time we got back, the water level in the beck had dropped by about a foot.

Back on the road, day six

•  Not much to say, after a night of 60+mph winds and rain,
• Rained all day,
• Went out for coffee
• Went back to cottage.

update at 10.30pm, still raining, still windy and the water in the beck next to the cottage is a torrent.

Back on the road, day five

 In case anyone is wondering why we are not visiting all the tourist sites on Skye, we have been regular visitors for around 38 years so if the weather is awful we just stay in and chill.

Day five started with more snow on the hills behind the cottage and again we had been woken by windy gusts of hail against the windows, leisurely breakfast before driving across to a friends farm shop.

Yasmin owns Island at the Edge selling yarns, knitwear and croft tours. I had originally intended on taking some photos of her animals but was deterred by the driving rain. However the wood stove was on in the shop so we caught up on the gossip.

We bought a present for Yasmin, I hold it doesn't annoy her too much ( she loved it)

Back on the road, day four

 As I said previously, day four seemed like a rerun of day three but with worse weather. Again we headed down to Portree as its the only way to get to another friends croft. They weren't in, haha we had forgotten that it was Mothers Day.

However, as we drove through Portree I spotted the Gavin who we tried to catch up with the previous day, we caught up on the gossip and I may have done some shopping.

Gavin's shop Skye Batiks has been a favourite of ours ever since we bought my first scarf from him in 1989.

This time it was trousers and another jacket as my existing ones are a little too big :-)

I may still head back in for another patchwork jacket as I've had the last one for a good few years now.

We followed this up with coffee and ciabatta, nipped to the co-op for some food and came out to a serious hail storm which turned to snow.

We were glad to get back to our accommodation for the week and given the 50mph winds we were thankful that we weren't in the van as the campsites aren't open.

Back on the road, day three

 

view from the kitchen

Both Saturday and Sunday turned out to be very similar, on Saturday we drove down to into town through ran, sleet and sun to call in at a friends shop and ransack the nearby charity shops. It turned out that we just missed our friend so decided that we would call back later in the week and catch up with his daughter instead, Still it was a scenic drive down.

Even the car park has a view, once parked up we headed to the three charity shops, One of which is down by the harbour.

car park view

 Inspite of missing our friend, I managed a small haul from the charity shops to add to my purchase in Fort William

Budget £20.00 spend £20.50

By the time we had coffee and a bite to eat it was sleeting heavily, this was interspersed with blue skies all the way back to the cottage.

Soed Idee Jubileum week eleven

 I was right, a row of squares. A day or so late in finishing this one but will hopefully catch up properly during the week.

Back on the road, day two

 We woke early the next morning, packed then took a walk up the main street of Fort William but we were thwarted by the weather, again.

The underpass to the main road was flooded with two workmen keeping an eye on it.

 We made a brief detour and looked round the shops before beating a retreat due to the rain. One charity shop purchase was made which I will review along with any others in a few days. As we returned to the car, we caught a glimpse of what was to come.

Overnight the sleet had changed to snow making it a fairy-tale drive north.

eventually we arrived at the bridge, travelled a few more miles then dropped into the hamlet where we will be spending the next few days,

At this point I was going to drop in a photo of where we are staying, I'm sure I took a photo of the village but I can't find it so I will pop it in another blog. I have a feeling that rainbows may be a theme this week.

Back on the road, day one.

 We soon started to travel again , after Bridlington we headed North and across the Border, Not the best weather for driving up. Started off fine but soon started to rain and by the time we were on the motorway the warning signs were flashing weather warnings for wind and then floods,

sorry, shaky photo but you get the idea, It didn't really get much better. Even Callander was looking a bit dreary.

Glencoe was looking misty and moody, certainly not somewhere to get stranded and I felt a little sorry for the workmen. I'm not sure if they are widening the road or stabilising the banks but they had some interesting kit, all wheels and ropes on the rock sides.

By the time we reached Fort William it was heavy rain/sleet so we only ventured out to grab snacks from the local supermarket.

very quick yarn update

 I needed some yarn for an upcoming road trip so I cimbed some washed white face woodlens and some jacob, spun the fibre ready for a hat.

Soed Idee Jubileum week ten

 I finished week 10 at around 11 o'clock last night, just in time as week 11 dropped this morning. We seem to be on squares at the moment so the wording will have to be stitched after the next block completes the row, At least this will give me some time to think about how to space it out.

Just a few more Bridlington pics

 We ended up having five nights on the campsite at Bridlington, lazy days spent walking the cliffs into town, drinking coffee, catching up with the gossip and scouring the charity shops for bargains.

The weather was cold but mainly dry, not too windy but we didn't bother with the kites.

We spotted this sign in the window of Boyes Department store and had to investigate.

Interesting use of audio cassettes, I also spotted some textiles.

All in all it was an interesting window display.

On the subject of shops, during our first visit we spotted a traditional clothing shop on the high street. I remember taking photos as it had just closed down but still held stock and peering through the windows we could see the old wooden display cabinets. I took photos of the frontage but can't find them at the moment.

Nowadays the shop is empty and has been up for sale for some time.

However this time we were lucky and were able to go into the store to have a look round at the fittings that were left.

I would love to have these units in my craft room !

A last walk round before returning home, the last few photos then its time to plan the next getaway.