portfolio, promotion, stuff & nonsense...
Yup, the next card and pressie time of year is nearly upon us so… I though I should make good use of a valentinie replicake photy by turning it into a card.
It is available to buy at Redbubble.
Some of the matching heartshaped cakes are still available in the wee planetaye Folksy shop.
A seasonal selection of festive Folksy’ness, chosen to reflect decoration rather than gifts for ME! (don’t say I never give you anything!)
So lookee here for wee helpers, wintery characters, mini mouthfulls, stars, holly, misletoe, conifers, seasonal sentiments and all the colours of the xmassie rainbow! …and a wee dog under the misletoe ♥
click a pic to see more on the item!
Santa Gnome
"Bumble & Cosmos"
Green Ninja with Throwing Star
"Lilley's"
Tree Charms"KarenJoanna 3"
Origami Paper Flower Ball
"Little Green Caravan"
Fir Cone Firelighters
*rAiNbOw*fAiRy*dUsT*
Evergreen Fir Tree Soap
"Fraoch Highland Inspiration "
Fimo Cany Canes
"Vintage & Original"
Fused glass snowflake
"Caro Fusion"
O'Cruel Is The Snow That Sweeps Glencoe "Hole in My Pocket"
Reversible Lavender Robin
"Blanketstitch"
Geometric Paper"
Hand printed by David"
Snowman Cake Topper
"Amys Clay Critters"
Santa and Rudolph Ring
"CutiePies"
Edith the Festive 'Dave'
"Dalemune"
Copper Star Decoration
"The Owl and the Pussycat"
Christmas Holly Wreath
"Diomo Glass"
Misletoe Mutt
"Millicent"
Nick the Santa Snail
"The Snail Emporium"
Here are the latest six goodies planetaye has put onto the wee Folksy shop. Pretty peg faeries all got up in their party wings and lotsa jolly pens to practise the old snail-mail thank-you letters, hope you like…
After a couple of false starts with melting and “exploding” varieties of pen I finally found that the local Pound Shop had the right stuff. So all the back to school displays can be worth having a look through!
And I have to say I am now hooked. Yes, I know every new method or technique that I master (or at the very least enjoy and have a little success with) become my obsession, for a while.
These are my first 9 plain Bic stick pens, finished. Jolly! Now I am off to get some more done in a more organised fashion and hopefully they will be in my online shop(s) soon. 
My middle of June was busy. A visit to the Borders Book Festival followed by the first few days of the Melrose Festival. In all I managed four events at the first and saw a couple of the second. All my summer socialising stuffed into 5 days!
But back to the birds… oystercatchers in particuler.
One of the smaller flat roofs in the town has, for a few years now in the spring and summer, played host to a visiting pair of oystercatchers. Therefore what better than to dress up as one of the black and white birdies for the Melrose Festival fancydress parade. I have a wardrobe full of black/white/red clothes so sewing on paper feathers and a few modifications to make wings and creating a big beak was all it took. On Tuesday this big bird fluttered off down the street to join a growing crowd of children and some couples and groups of adults, all dressed up and ready to go. We were duly judged in our respective groups and set off to parade round the town following the pipe band! And very jolly we looked too. (p.s. guess who came first in her class? mind there was only one entry)
A few days after this giant oystercatcher posed in the garden a funny thing happened… the real thing appeared. Tiny and fairly helpless a chick made its way from the relative safety of the nest on a neighbouring flat roof. It seemed to have wandered over the edge and across our flat roof and dropped unscathed into our garden. Spotted in the morning running and calling to attract a parent, around the bergenia and hosta plants.
Eventually the adults found him and flew down to comfort and feed the noisy toddler. A worm was deposited in front of the wee yin and was gone the next time I looked, the parents performed the same ritual all day – not sure if another chick remains on the roof, mibbe? because they went between the two places all the time. The mother would also sit in the flowerbed and the chick would climb into her feathers. So the garden 
was more or less out of bounds, the birds got a bit more used to us being close as the day wore on.
Nightime was quieter and only punctuated with the chicks’ peeping call when left alone.
Unfortunately around dawn either jackdaws or crows found and attacked the little chap. I found him near a small shrub later, he had been far too small to defend himself and sadly the parents had been out the way.
On a lighter note, we have found that a blackbird is sitting on a nest (a second clutch?) of tiny babies in another corner, here’s hoping they all make it.
Speckled Wood butterfly, behaving exactly as described here.
Very fluttery and quick but I stalked them till they sat still for a moment. The male could be chasing another male or a female, either way they make a wee walk more fun., ‘specially the bit where you lean too far over the edge of the path and nearly slide downhill into the undergrowth… eek!
Another spring, and despite the “smog” took a set of photys around the top of the hill. Comparing them with those from last year (about a fortnights difference), the same plants are out but there might be a bit of cross over with the primroses still in flower.
After ten years I have finally caught the fabled Duke of Argyle’s Teaplant, the winter conditions and the warm dry spring must have prompted it into flower. Or I have just wandered past it for all those years? Nahh!
The number of orange tailed bumblebees took me by surprise too. At first I was sure that only one was following me around till I came to the whins – there were more than a dozen of them! but would they sit still for me, of course not.
I have included the sign describing the castle, click on it for a large, readable version.
And here is the song Another Spring performed by Nina Simone… enjoy
I have to admit that last years photys were brighter and more colourful. Sunnier day, or sunnier photygraffer?
Female Orange Tip butterfly, only showing the green and white pattered underwing, but how fluffy and perfect is she? Glad I left the Honesty to flower and it is already making the lovely seed “pods”.
Quite unnoticed by me the forgotten pot and bucket of grape hyacynth (muscari) had grown, multiplied and bloomed! So jolly and springy. And today it promises to be warm again. The daffs are out in the street too so here’s hoping they are left alone for us all to enjoy.
A bit straggly I know but has made me feel more optimistic about restoring the wee flower bed and rejigging the space in the coming months.
The deep glowing blue of the flowers is not represented accurately, my wee camera does tend to freak out with some colours but I didn’t want to fiddle with the pic.
Also awake is the first wee violet, these lettle devils are impossible to move so I’m just letting them grow wherever unless they are a nuisance.
forsythia – pruned last year to get rid of the longest straggly branches, this has forced the flowers in nearer the base.
Here is my stall all set up and rarin’ to go. Actually by the time I took the photy I had sold 2 wee bags of mixed badges, a tiny lemon meringue pie and a chick’n'pie!
A fairly good day with a steady stream of visitors as the building is right on a main street.
