Isabella Campbell's shrine

The 60–90% threat of rain hung over us most of the afternoon but we decided to go for a walk anyway. It didn’t rain. We did a little wander along the shore at Garelochhead noticing a swan family near the McAuley Burn bridge and Biting Stonecrop in abundance among the broken shells atop the sea wall.

Then as we were leaving Garelochhead on the Rosneath  Road, we decided to stop and go explore up the path signed to Isabella Campbells shrine. I’m not sure about the shrine bit but anyway something to investigate and which we never had until today. It is a small fenced place beside the burn where she ussd to pray. Someone keeps a votary candle there.

 I soon realised that this was probably the hill path that the dog Amber and owner, whom I’ve met in my Garelochhead wanderings, go up to get muddy before coming down for a splash in the sea. It proved a lovely path, not so muddy at the moment, with lots of common spotted orchids and some huge old trees, both oak and ash.

I noted the Whorled Caraway leaves among the spotted orchid ones.

There were some good views down to Garelochhead  and down the loch. We could see the field that’s just south of our garden but the light was poor for photos.

It’s a place to go exploring with my grandsons when they are next here.

Beyond a fence into what I suppose is MOD land there was a rusty sign the colour of which Toad, with his new enchroma glasses, really appreciated! 😁

Japanese Knotweed at Garelochhead and a one man clean-up

A few weekends ago there was an impressive beach clean at the head of Gare Loch. People lifted immense quantities of litter off the beaches on the eastern side and along the head up to the outlet of the McAuley Burn. I noticed that at about the same time brambles and other shrubs were cleared from the area between the footpath and the beach. I presumed that was the council's doing. Then pyramidal stacks began to appear along the salt marsh part west of McAuley Burn. I presumed that was council work too until just the other day when I saw one man, whom I stopped to chat to, systematically clearing wood, litter, and last year's dried knotweed stalks and piling them up into, so far, seven bonfire heaps. You might be able to make them out in the photo below.

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Here is one of the heaps and the sadness of litter around it. As the man said, the swathes of knotweed act as litter traps. To clear it one would need some kind of heavy duty scraper or digger, but then what would you do with it all? I guess it would have to be burned or the knot weed would be spread wherever it was dumped.

I suppose one advantage of the litter trapping by the knotweed is that it doesn't float out to sea again. And talking of 'advantages' of Japanese Knotweed, I've noticed that further up the burn, at the edge of its flood plain, there are parts of the bank where the lumpish knotweed root 'stacks' seem to have made what look like 'natural' levees. It occured to me that these monster plants are holding the bank fast. Perhaps.

Where the new shoots are growing many are already thicker than my forefinger. You can see in the photo below how thick they get when fully grown by the broken off last year stems. If you can enlarge the photo you'll see that the nascent leaf on the largest of the shoots looks like a red arrow.

All is not gloom on the Garelochhead littoral though. I spotted this driftwood piece of tree root art recently. I've increased the colour saturation to make the details clearer.

I'm thinking well done that one guy putting in all that effort. I hope he gets to burn his bonfires. The area he has cleared certainly looks a great deal better than it usually does at this time of year.

Oasis knittings 2016-7

The Garelochhead Oasis "Daffodil Tea" is to be held next Saturday. The knitting group has been busy all year. G has been making, among other things, some scarves and a snood.

Earlier in the year she made a baby blanket for a friend.

Earlier in the year I also put together this cushion cover from knitted strips.

I hope it brightens up and 'comfies up' someone's chair.

G's latest finished project is a little tea cosy. There is a yellow and cream one almost finished too.

Meanwhile, M has been churning out colourful blanket strips. I have begun sewing these into what will be a lovely blanket but I can't keep up with M's output! 😀 Look at the piles I've to finish off by sewing in ends and then sew together. Actually, I think there'll be two blankets-worth!

Oasis blankets

I am back home after the best part of a week with DerbyshireDaughter and family. That's her between the two behatted toerags, my grandsons. Toadlet is behind. I'm not allowed to go visit her nephews without her.

DerbyshireDaughter taught me how to do "mattress stitch" to join sections of garter-stitch knitting. We put together two blankets from sections knitted by the Garelochhead Oasis knitters.

Click on the photos to 'embiggen'* them.
[*made up word]

The sorting.

Blanket 1 completed

I edged it with a double row of crochet and
DerbyshireDaughter ingeniously reinforced a couple of weak spots with crochet flowers. We did the same for blanket 2. I made the 'rusty' flower–my first attempt!

Blanket 2

DD edged this one with blue and green

We think the crochet edgings 'bring theblankets together'. I really like these blankets and hope the knitters do too when I show them on Monday. I'd use either of these in a child's cot or on a pushchair.

Garelochhead Oasis production line

The blanket knitted almost entirely by 'GR', is now finished. Slightly fuzzy photo but you can see the colour arrangement. GR kept saying while she was knitting the strips that she wasn't sure the colours would 'go'. I kept saying: "It'll be fine". When she had finished and I had sewn the strips together and crocheted a border, she took the blanket home to show to her home helps and other people. The next time she saw me she told me everyone thought it was fabulous. It'll go into a sale of work at the Oasis in the spring.

Along with the hat knitted by 'GE':

mutlicoloured tassle hat

I have begun to sort through some of the strips knitted by 'M1'. I think there will be two or three small blankets for the sale out of her production line!




And then there's this lot:

DerbyshireDaughter has said she'll help me sew pieces together and crochet borders on my next visit in February.

The knitters and natterers

As well as blankets, the Knitters and Natterers group at the Oasis in Garelochhead have made a couple of sensory bands. These give people who have dementia or Alzheimer's something to do with their hands and this apparently has a calming effect. To the right is the second one we have finished, showing the outside.

As the name 'band' suggests, the item is a cylinder.

Inside various objects with different textures are attached. Such as:

a piece of sponge

a couple of beads on a keyring

a couple of shells with no sharp edges

a piece of soft leather

a short chain of keyrings
and toothbrush markers
attached by one end

A green and yellow one was completed as well but I didn't get any photographs of that.
Next up will be a flat sensory mat so it can be visual at as well as tactile. I'm collecting bits of textured fabrics – plastic pan scrubbing cloths, faux fur, velvet or corduroy, etc.

A knitted patchwork blanket

This week I finished sewing together squares knitted by users of The Oasis Day Centre in Garelochhead. DerbyshireDaughter, who was here on a visit, then speedily crocheted an edging for the blanket. Teamwork!