The Everyday - and a Saturday Morning Walk in Redcastle

Just over a week this time since I last posted - and this time I believe there's even more photos - 13 in all. Haven't been up to anything much exciting - just the usual everyday things, though seems that I keep busy enough with just them. The weather is soooo unpredictable - we've had about a week of rather cold weather. If the sun comes out it's not too bad, but once you're out of it, you'd nearly think it's winter. The children are even in fleece pjs at night - whereas a few weeks ago they were in short pjs! I think Scottish summers require a full winter & summer wardrobe, as you never know what season it will be from one day to the next. :)

Here's Abigail wearing a skirt and matching shirt that I made for her the other week. I've recently found out about fabrics from an American company called Painting Red Rhinos (tho unfortunately I think they've recently gone out of business). Anyway, they made lovely children's clothing - sort of speciality shop stuff and also sold their fabrics. The unique thing about the fabrics is that in addition to the cute & colourful prints, they all come with a white background and you can easily dye them to any colour you like, but the print is just as perfect & bright as ever, un-affected by the dye! They do knits, cords, canvas, cotton etc - all very sturdy - I think someone told me Carters in USA used their fabrics/sort of fabric for their knits/sweats. Anyway, long story short (I hope) - last month someone here in the UK was selling off lots of their fabric stock and had loads of the PRR. I think I ended up getting about 10 metres of different fabrics, so I have lots of fabric for sewing children's clothes (well, at least 10 outfits). So, the outfit I made Abigail was from one of the fabrics I got, which I dyed with a lilac Dylon dye. I've got everything cut out to make Benjamin a short & shirt set from a fabric with trains, which I dyed a dark green. He was so excited about the trains on the fabric, so I really must get it stitched together before the few warm days are gone for the year!

Abigail & Benjamin playing on the front porch (a pieced together photo, tho they were both in the same area, just taken several minutes apart). Benjamin looks like he's thinking "haha, look what I've got!" He likes to pick my flowers, not to mention walking & sitting on top of them as well! Tho amazingly, I still have quite a few alive - the slugs are the worst thing for small seedlings that are in the ground (as opposed to the flowers in a pot in the above pic).

I thought this was an interesting angle to take a photo from - looks like he's got flowers up to his head! Though you can see from the photo above it, my pot was only about waist high on him. :)

Last Saturday morning we went for a walk around Redcastle (Milton of Redcastle). Peter knew there was a derelict castle in a private estate, so we set out to find it! :) BTW, there is (broadly) unrestricted access to private land here in Scotland as there is not a formalised public footpath system, such as occurs in England. As an American, I find it rather weird to wander around someone else's land, but having done it quite a few times since being married ;-), it doesn't seem quite so odd anymore. LOL

A view of the firth (I think) as we were walking along the single track road looking for a way to get into the stone walled estate.

Benjamin, Abigail & Peter - stopping along the road for a photo. It was very warm & sunny that morning - just lovely!

A beautiful & lush green field (inside the estate)

Looking down to the water which is along the road we had been walking along.

A pretty & unusual farm house, with brightly painted red window frames - almost right next to the castle.

At last we found the castle - Redcastle. Have a look at this page here: http://www.clan-mackenzie.org.uk/clan/castles.html#Redcastle and you'll see a very different looking Redcastle in 1950. As the page says, a more recent owner took the roof off to avoid having to pay taxes on the castle!! And now, 40 years later, the castle is derelict and dangerous to enter. It's sad such a beautiful building was just ruined.

A beautiful bridge just beyond the castle - well, the bridge isn't anything too fancy, but the green trees made it look very peaceful.

Back around in the "village" of Milton of Redcastle, Abigail standing beside a Victorian post box that's in a stone wall.

Just along from the post box was this boat filled with flowers - I think the villagers love flowers and it was a lovely & bright place.

Perhaps an old mill stone?

Well, guess that's me finished for tonight. I should get some sleep while my children are sleeping. Goodnight. :)