Lockdown - week 6 - Saturday

Well, I made this one. I don't like orange, so I used this material in case I messed it up. Which I didn't exactly. But it took quite a long time - partly because I kept having to check things on the instructional video and partly because my sewing machine really didn't like sewing through lots of layers of material to make the pleats. Then Mr L tried it on and it was a bit frilly at the sides - because I had to make big side seams (because of the above problem). I didn't enjoy making it very much, though I could see that I would get faster with practice. But then Daughter 2, on seeing a photo of it over WhatsApp, pointed out that the dressmaker who made her wedding dress is currently making scrubs and - tara! - very similar masks! So we ordered some of hers over the internet, thus supporting her business and saving me from having to toil on more of these. Now I can continue making quilts. Win, win. I will confess to my friend that I didn't make them!

And then we, yawn, sorry, went up on the golf course again. These hellebores have lasted an amazing time. I must try to get some, though of course there's no room in my little garden. (When did that ever stop me?)

The course is a bit busier at weekends, but only this busy, so not a problem.

And so we walked about, admiring the now-leafy trees

and the long views up what Mr L tells me are the fairways



and the glimpses of the town. How I love this place. (3 and a half miles today.)

And also this place: the countryside around Crieff, a bit north of here, where I've been going for holidays on and off since I was three. I've decided to blog-visit holiday places I've loved to cheer myself up. 

This is Drummond Castle, near Crieff, which has these amazing 17th century gardens.

These are photos from 2009, but it won't have changed much. Apart from being, currently, closed.

You feel Alice might be lurking round the corner with the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen.

But no: it's Son-in-Law 1, larking around. This was pre-grandchildren.

And there's my lovely little mum. 

Happy days. I'm sure we'll be back, though sadly not with my mum.

We've just had a family WhatsApp with our lot and my brother's, making a date to go to Crieff next summer. Well, not a date. But a plan. It's something to look forward to. Which one needs.