Skip to main content

A much anticipated annual event

This is the third year we have visited the studios at Allanbank Mill Steading, in the Borders, which opens it's very special doors to the public over the first weekend in August, every year.

 Allanbank Mill Steading is the home and studios of Pauline Burbidge (quilter extraordinaire) and Charlie Poulsen (sculpture and drawings) http://www.allanbankmillsteading.co.uk  It is a beautiful place.  Apart from Pauline and Charlie's skills as artists, their home offers clever gardening, tranquility, attention to detail and masses of creativity.  It really is a treat to visit.
Everything in and around the steading buildings is decorated and painted in an interesting way.  Even the door mats have been given a little extra something!
Despite all the human effort to display so much creativity, for me the whole show was stolen by these little chaps!  Five fledgling swallows, all lined up on a rafter in one of the steading outbuildings, eagerly awaiting the next flying visit from their parents with afternoon tea in their beaks!

It barely seems possible that, in a few weeks time, these young birds, hardly out of their nest, will be embarking upon a journey of thousands of miles to spend wintertime in South Africa.  These little fellows will travel across western France, over the Pyrenees, down eastern Spain into Morocco, and then across the Sahara. Little miracles.


Comments

  1. Rambler14 August 2017 at 00:27

    Gorgeous photos as always. I thought the bees on the thistle heads couldn't be beaten, but those baby birds waiting in line for their food, then the exact moment that a parent bird stuffed food down an eager throat - outstanding!!!! Thank you.x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sally14 August 2017 at 09:52

    Beautiful photos but those swallows are just so cute.
    On my walks here in Oz, they are swooping and diving around me as the dogs and moi walk our regular haunts. I love them...so quick and so sweet....great photos of them. Well done you.

    xxx

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In a vase on Monday - colour

The intense colours in my vase this week come from nasturtiums, sweetpeas and a single glorious zinnia! Their beauty and love of life speak for themselves and need no further words from me! Enjoy!
8 comments
Read more

Coastal walk from Gullane to North Berwick

By the time I have walked about four miles, my toes are screaming at me - it's the arthritis, you see.  One of the joys of being that little bit older than I was.  However, for a long time, I have been keen to walk along the beaches, and follow the coastal path, between Gullane and North Berwick. So, having worked out the tide times, I decided today was the day, and off we went. Below is our starting point, the bay at Gullane.  It's a lovely beach, very popular with dog walkers. This is looking east, the direction Tilly and I were going to take. Looking back, up the Forth, the unmistakable bulk of Arthur's Seat, and Edinburgh's skyline, just clear enough to see. For most of the walk, there is the choice between wandering along a series of beaches, or following a path along the top of each. There's no denying it, at heart I am a shell-seeker.  I have loads of shells at home.  We lived on one of the out islands in the Bahamas for a just over a year, ...
7 comments
Read more

Possibly the last post and a sizzlingly hot vase on Monday

The border in our tiny garden is in an in-between phase at the moment and not very colourful, but elsewhere there are pops of high summer colour and I have brought them together in my vase today. The running wave uses Blogger as it's vehicle and they are changing the way a post is created but unfortunately I cannot make the new format work. I can't progress beyond the title! I cannot navigate to the main body of the post to create text. The new template has no prompts for adding photos, weblinks, to format the text, change font etc. It may be my old MacBook that's as fault but I can't do anything about that!! Are any other IAVOM bloggers who use Blogger having the same problems? I have tried, three times, to contact Blogger through their 'Help' prompt and received no feedback or contact whatsoever. This post is using the old 'Legacy' format, which no longer permits any kind of formatting of text, and so after four attempts I have finally manage...
15 comments
Read more