Good morning! Wow! I really enjoyed your myriad button views! It was fascinating to read through all your comments and I really appreciated hearing so many different perspectives! But it was especially intriguing to me that the blue buttons came out so far on top. I kind of agree with the majority view: the blue…
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There’s been a fine spell of weather in our part of Scotland, and we’ve been doing quite a bit of work in the garden over the past few days. It is wonderful to see things sprouting and growing – especially the resilient blooms of flowers and plants in whose cultivation I’ve had no hand. I…
Read MoreAs anyone round these parts will tell you, it has not (so far) been a vintage Scottish summer. One must make most of the fine weather when it appears, so we headed out for the hills, and enjoyed a lovely day’s walking. A favourite tree Dog on log Falls of Falloch I love the rich…
Read MoreGood morning! Here is today’s yoke from my new book – Bluebells. In the 1950s and 60s, there was a particularly popular style of sweater featuring a rather narrow circular yoke. In such garments, the sleeve and body shaping tended to be a little more neatly tailored than other circular yokes, and the colourwork motifs…
Read MoreHere is another yoke — this one’s name is self-explanatory — Foxglove. One of the things I’ve really enjoyed about my first year of rural living has been the wildflowers that grow around my home. Just a few yards from my front door are a wide variety of environments from heathland, bog and lochside…
Read More1: Bruce loves the beach 2, 3: Great photoshoots in my favourite locations 4. tasty crabs claws at the Port Charlotte Hotel 5, 6, 7: Discovering Billy’s Bench near Bowmore, and a Scarlet Pimpernel growing through the shingle at Portnahaven 8. Fine weather for walking 9, 10: The first time in four and half years…
Read MoreOne of my great pleasures at the moment is observing, photographing and finding out more about, the wildflowers where I live. I’m surrounded by lots of different kinds of environments – hedgerow, water, woodland, heath, mountain – and these are full of so many wonderful flora, some of which I had never noticed or knew…
Read MoreI am currently working on a bluebell-inspired design for my forthcoming YOKES collection. I am certainly not short of inspiration, as you currently can’t move for bluebells round here. Discovering these lovely flowers blooming in the woods and hills around me this Spring has really been an unexpected delight. On every walk, I seem to…
Read MoreIt is a while since I’ve known a spell of weather like it. The verges have bloomed into wildflower meadows. Everything seems sharper, brighter, a dappled world of light and shade. The evening air is soft and fragrant. Folk stroll about, bare-armed, leisurely. Inside, the new rooms are cool and clean and very pretty. Bruce…
Read MoreWinter really felt interminable this year. It seemed that, for weeks I passed the same corner every day looking in vain for the snowdrops that always appear there, heralding Spring. “I don’t know what I’d do if it wasn’t for those” said one of my neighbour-buddies, indicating a single patch of struggling crocuses that provided…
Read MoreI am working hard. The designs for my new collection are in all in process, and I have spent the past few weeks writing patterns and knitting . . . lots of pattern writing, and lots and lots of knitting. This sort of work requires the kind of concentrated focus I haven’t felt for quite…
Read MoreTea. A new book. (Thankyou, Nic!) OK, Bruce, enough of the fleece dogs already . . . Work. Walk.
Read MoreHiya, remember me? My name is Bruce and I am 18 months old. Today I am telling you about what I think may be the best place in the world. The place called Yellowcraigs. This weekend the Tom-human is away visiting the other human that they call The Mule, although he does not walk on…
Read MoreI am increasingly enjoying photographing wild plants and flowers – and spent quite a bit of time doing this while on holiday in Ireland. I particularly like the matt grey-green tones of coastal plants like sea holly (above) or frosted orache (below) I also love the humble sheeps-bit, whose purplish-blues and pinks are really quite…
Read MoreEverything is so very green here at the moment. After some much-needed rain yesterday, my locale seems even more verdant. Some things are already past their best: while others are reaching the height of their powers. Down at the lade today, I saw three spectacularly bright kingfishers flitting in and out of the bank-side —…
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KDD & Co 