Camping in the Glen

On Friday we all decided that we were going to go for a big hiking and camping trip on the Isle of Arran. We packed our backpacks full with our tent, sleeping bags, food, clothes (with our waterproof jackets of course), cooking supplies, etc. We even packed the kids their own little backpacks so they wouldn't feel left out.
We took the ferry at 3:15 from Ardrossan to Brodick. These ferry's go to all the different islands in Scotland, so signs inside the boat were labeled in both English and Scottish Gaelic. The ferry only took about fifty five minutes to get across and we were on our way.

The day was absolutely beautiful and surprisingly warm, we just hoped that the wind wouldn't be too threatening but threatening enough to keep the midges away.

It took no time at all to hike up to the start of the Glen Rosa trail. There was a traditional camping area with facilities where people normally went to go camping, but we felt the need to hike the full trail and camp along it during the night so we could finish it in the morning.

The trail kept going and going and we saw some suitable dry flat areas that we could camp at but went by them and thought that we would be able to find some more good areas further up. Unfortunately we didn't find a suitable place, the ground kept getting wetter the further we went into the glen and the trail came to an end where it had been washed out by the river. We had no choice at this moment in time to turn back and head for the places that we had spotted before. It grew darker on our way back, so Paul put on his headlamp and the kids and I had flashlights. The kids loved the full day of hiking, there's something about kids and nature that go together. They were well behaved, started using their imaginations and saw many things they had never seen before.

A three inch long caterpillar we saw along the trail
Hiking with the darkness falling upon us gave the glen a different feel to it. The moon was high in the sky giving us a good amount of light, different bugs began to emerge, as well as a frog which I mistook for a mouse at first that gave me a bit of a fright(it was getting dark, okay). My son was making stories about ghosts even though he could not tell us what a ghost was. We looked behind us at the mountain and noticed a couple of lights far up the mountain which we assumed were campers, how they got there we don't know because it was at least a couple miles past the point that the trail stopped for us.
Trecking along with flashlights actually reminded me a lot of girl guides. The kids enjoyed that part of the journey the most. Soon enough we got to the point to put up our tent, the kids held the flashlights and Paul and I quickly put the tent up. It was really simple to construct and in no time we were all ready for a good night sleep.... however, it didn't quite end up that way. The kids fell asleep before the wind picked up. Our tent held up great, but there was a cover at the top of the tent that would not stop flapping, no matter how much we got out and tried to tie it down. On the bright side, if we didn't get out to deal with the tent we would not have seen all the stars and how amazingly bright they were. With all the opening and closing of the tent, we let a lot of midges in. Midges are as tiny or tinier than a fruit fly but they've got bite! I saw one on my arm and thought it was a fruit fly, then went to flick it away when it bit me and hung on until I had to brush harder at it. They're nasty little things and unlike most mosquitos, they like to go for the mouth, nose and eyes.
Anyway, at some point we finally fell asleep.

The waterfall near our campsite
We woke up and took down the tent, then walked a little way to a bench and cooked our porridge for breakfast. It was nice to sit amongst the scenery like that with our little portable cooking stove. we couldn't see too much of the mountains though, because the clouds had rolled in overnight.

We made our way out and along the shore to a play park for the kids, in which we all dropped our bags and hopped on the seesaw, to the relief of Paul and I's backs and legs. Despite the long hike, the kids were still filled with energy in the play park and even more so when we sat down at a picnic table for an early lunch of steak and guiness stew as well as chicken and dumpling stew.

When we saw the ferry coming in from Ardrossan we got some chocolates from the little shop along the way... I got one that looked like a frog because it reminded me of the one off Harry Potter when his frog chocolate jumps out the window...
Our next camping excursion will most likely be in an area more sheltered from the wind.... that camp site at the beginning of the trail might have been a little more ideal after all, when we went by that area the wind didn't seem so strong... we'll see for next time.

Paul's away and a walk to the beach

Today Paul set off on his week long adventure to the Keith Kilt Making School. Hopefully he likes it there, they teach traditional kilt making there but some of the local's he has talked to have said that they've recently been teaching stitching methods on the sewing machine which Paul is not too happy about. I guess he will see if there is any truth in these rumors and if there is, I do not think Paul will be staying there too long. The reason why is because he believes that a true traditional kilt should be sewn by hand if it has any merit as being called "traditional", which is what he's going up there to learn and what was advertised to him when he signed up. I personally don't think he should have any troubles with the place, it should be a good experience for him. He is camping the whole time out there and preparing most of his own meals (we shall see about that).


Anyway, with Paul gone it has become a little boring around the house. The kids and I decided to take a nice stroll down to the beach and the park. It was a beautiful sunny day out and very hot. By the time we got down to the park we realized that the sunny day had brought with it all the families from Glasgow and beyond! I've never seen a park so busy! There were long line ups to the slides and very few things for the kids to go on without another kid waiting to go on it as well. So we left the park with very few tears, they were so well behaved! Then we ventured on down to the beach for a bit of a dip to cool off our feet. However, this ended up as a full on battle of "who could get the other the wettest" and "let's go splash mommy". It was great fun! We eventually left the beach, with tears and scrambles through the sand just for an excuse to go back into the water to clean the sand off. I put a stop to that by getting them to rub the sand off in the grass and deal with whatever else remained. We got some icecream with a flake and that was about it for the excitement.... except for me seeing another funny sign and giggling to myself..... I love the english language sometimes.

Oh yes, I can just imagine myself finding a fly in the middle of the night and tipping it over as it slept...... all of this getting caught on CCTV.... I didn't know those cameras were that good, if they can take a good enough image to witness a fly getting tipped over. Where is the world coming to... my oh my!

Spiders and Tea

So I was very innocently knitting in my bedroom when I saw a big black dot on my wall through the mirrored doors of my closet. I turned around and it was a big ugly hairy spider, I swear that it looked like a baby tarantula how hairy it was! Now, I don't know what it is about me and spiders but if they are outside they are fine but if they're inside...... I freak out and there's nothing I can do about it. I'd say that today I had an extreme case of arachnophobia. It's really something about their eight legs and the way that they move them. I just can't stand to look at them crawling. If it were a six legged insect, I would have just stood up on the bed , reached up and squished it, or let it free out the window. I also hate how spiders like to lurk in places where it's really hard to reach them, like they want to fall on you as you're trying to kill them. So I honestly stood there for half an hour shaking with goosebumps all over me equipped with my running shoe, tissue and sandals for my feet in case it took a dive for the ground and set off on a run. I was watching it crawl around on the crown moulding and when it got too close to where I didn't want it to go I made a noise with the door and it stopped. I started talking to the spider and (I admit) myself... saying things like, "okay it's only a spider, I'm much bigger than it, there should be no problem killing it", and to my amusement I said "I kill you!" a few times to the spider (I think I intimidated it by saying that.....). It had stopped moving for quite some time when out of the corner of my eye, another spider the same size crawls across the front of my dresser drawer! So I reach out and give it a quick wack with my shoe and killed it instantly (I'm accustomed to the ones that pop back up again after you squish them and keep running but this one didn't) so I regained my courage by the first kill and focussed on my original target. It must have seen the other one because it started down the wall. I lunged forward and splat! The dead ones don't scare me as much so that's about it. I had a tea after to calm me down a little though.

Yes! Yarn success!

The first process into turning a freshly sheered fleece into yarn is to wash it. The wool I have was in bad need of a wash. Wool is tricky to clean though because too much movement will felt it. So I filled up the tub with hot water, put some detergent in until the water felt oily (making bubbles in the water causes problems so I didn't do that). I set the wool in after that and let it sink down and soak for awhile making sure not to let the water cool (that can cause the lanolin to clump). I gave it a couple detergent baths and then a few rinse baths until the water ran clear. The first soak made the water so brown that my daughter thought it looked like chocolate milk. Anyway, then I hung it all out to dry (not without curiosity of my neighbors).


I gathered the dry wool in Primark bags then began the picking process by pulling the fibers apart and getting miscellaneous bits of vegetable matter out to get it ready for carding. I decided to dye some of my wool that red colour that you see in the left of the picture above, my hand carders are sitting next to them. At first I thought I might have to get some wool combs for the sheep wool but I was mistaken, I can just make regular rovings out of my carded wool with no problems at all. I'm actually glad that I don't have to get wool combs because they are pretty sinister looking instruments. I would probably have to lock them away to prevent the children using them on each other as lethal weapons. Now that we're on the subject of wool combs I have a little fun fact to share after researching these vicious looking things. There is a patron saint of wool combers, Saint Blaise, he was martyred by being beaten by a set of iron wool combs and beheaded..... so he's the saint of his own instrument of torture, I found it ironic? I'm not sure if that's a usual occurrence. Anyway, I encourage you to look up wool combs in google images, it may give you a different impression of the whole wool process altogether.


So getting back on topic here, the rovings I make get spun using my hand spindle I made out of a dowel, a cup hook and a plastic holder for fishing line. I think I might make some little mittens using this yarn, then I'll be up to making kilt socks out of the white wool.