The Boggy Brae 2014 Gingerbread House

First the microscope and bryology books and general Nelly clutter are cleared off the work table >>>>

Then a member of Gryffindor House
makes the dough

While doing so, she looks up and spots Magnetic Hippo's new 'hiding place' on a carafe drying stand that hangs over the cooker hood. He has been there for ages :)

Nelly leaves Toadlet (the Hogwarts pupil) and DivingDaughter to get on with it. When she returns she finds her South American music CDs used as building props. Novel! Actually, they nearly used novels instead.

She also notices some gaps where the rain and wind could get in...

...and that, on removing some of the outside CDs so that the icing cement Toad then pushed into the gaps would not drip on them, discovered more CDs inside.






Next day Toadlet and DivingDaughter did some decorating.

DivingDaughter's side and gable end

and Toadlet's

and the gingerbread forest with wild honeysuckle and a rockman, sorry, snowman.

This is DivingDaughter's fridge back home in Edinburgh

I don't know if she and her flatmates have eaten their house yet, but by the end of Boxing Day she had helped the rest of us at the Boggy Brae to polish off the forest, including all the undecorated trees that Nelly found and did herself.

All are agreed that it's darn good gingerbread!

Happy New Year to All!

Pictures from my Christmas morning walk

Except for the last three which were taken on the way home, the pics are all from along the top of the Boggy Brae 'ridge'

Skyline to the north

Clyde

Looking towards Arran

Across Loch Long

An old farm waggon

no wind

On the home straight

Christmas Tree

Inspired by a card from my grandsons, one of my scrappies turned itself into a christmas tree this morning. I might finish it later today if Toadlet and DivingDaughter get on with the gingerbread house.

Happy Christmas, everyone! 

Making a new bow string

A little fraying near centre serving; black part is 2mm across

I noticed recently that my current bow string was beginning to look a little worn near the centre serving. For non-archery folks, that's the middle of the string which is strengthened for clicking the arrow on and because that's where your fngers go to draw the bow ready to shoot. Apart from my making a learner's sample piece of bowstring by the Flemish Twist method at a workshop, Toad has done all our string making so far. I decided it was time to learn the process properly for myself.

<< Flemish Twist end loop

Initially I made a white string with waxed Dyneema thread. Toad thought its slight tackiness would be easier to work with, at least to begin with. Unfortunately, following the usual 'rules' for working out string length didn't work so it ended up too short for my bow, Biddy (Black Douglas by Border Bows>>"BD">>Biddy). However, I made it well and it will do for another bow.

Doing a yellow end serving on the white Dyneema string

When Toad made his recommendation, he was perhaps forgetting that I'm used to doing fiddly things with thread. In any case, I decided my second attempt would use "Angel Majesty" thread, which is coated with resin instead of wax. I preferred the feel of it when working and didn't find it difficult. I decided to stick with yellow end servings.

I like the way they show up and make it easy to see if they are sitting in the limb tip grooves properly. One checks by feel as well, of course.

This is what the red string looks like on Biddy. The wee bit of chamois leather is to rub over the string to make sure all is even. The centre serving and nocking point for the arrow are still to be done at this stage but the bracing height (distance between the bow grip and the string) is within the recommended range. Border Bows, with these extra-recurved limbs, have lower bracing heights than standard recurves. The red is right too – looks good and makes a nice note when twanged, an F#, I think.

Restarting scrappies

After a long break, the scrappies are go.
When the weather is as dreich as today it's a fine thing to do.

Besides, I needed a new coaster

mug coaster

before I start on the big stuff again.

Thimbly and toady mycology on my birthday

In search of a birthday present for me, Toad and Toadlet found themselves in the haberdashery part of a department store. Toadlet was intrigued by the word. What could it mean?

They found out and also found me some "heavy duty" fabric scissors. Fiskars have added some extra leverage to scissors, it seems, doubling their cutting power–great for cutting through several layers of fabric. I shall enjoy using them.

Scissors also turned up on one of my birthday cards. My friends know me well!

The mycological theme (see wrapping paper above) repeated itself in a thimble

and in a froggy, or could it be a toady, ornament?

Roses too:

What with newsy letters, cards and greetings from friends and family far and wide, I had a most enjoyable day. Thank you all.

The hedge in the top west corner

The spiraea hedge in the top west corner of the garden is not going to be an elongated rectangle. It's going to be less than a metre deep from front to back in the west corner (on the right of the photo), about three metres deep from front to back at the end nearest to us in the photo, and somewhere in between those measurments along its roughly ten metre length, with a couple of large 'scoops' taken out of it along the way. I still have some roots lower down the slope to dig out. A robin came and watched as I was doing that this morning. Toad thinks that robins think we humans are just like wild pigs the way we turn over soil and ground debris releasing lovely edible grubs for them to eat. Nice to feel useful that way. I also still have to tidy up the hedge with the hedge cutter, then I need to tackle another grey sallow that needs pruning.

During my diggings up of spiraea roots, I found quite a few bluebell bulbs, which I replanted. They have not flowered in previous years in this part of the garden but perhaps giving them a bit of 'breathing space' might encourage them. I hope so.

Just to the left of the hedge pic is today's

favourite bryophytically enhanced fence post.

And further along from that was a rotting log of grey sallow on which is growing today's fungus. I think it might be a tooth fungus but don't quote me on that.

Scrambling among the grey sallows' several trunks is lots of honeysuckle. I noticed it had new green shoots already, even before this all year's leaves have fallen off. The large beech tree up the hill in the wood is bare but the hazels still have some leaves. What can the Woodland Trust have meant about hazel having had an exceptionally early leaf drop this year? That certainly hasn't been the case here, nor in the other parts of Argyll I've been in lately. Last Friday I drove to Inveraray and there were hazels with leaves all the way there and back along Loch Long and Loch Fyne, lots of them.

Honeysuckle–old leaves and young shoots