Sunday 4 December 2011

Christmas Shopping

Well.......... winter is definitely here!  I woke up the other morning to find the garden pond frozen all the way across.  The ice was no more than 4 or 5mm thick and I was rather worried when Maggie (one of our cats) thought it might be interesting to walk on.  I managed to persuade her that it was a bit foolhardy.




As I drove out to the studio I saw there was snow on the mountains - not just the tops, but down to quite a low level.   The temperature, according to the car thermometer was 2°C.  Once I arrived at the studio it felt more like -20°!  I switched the heating on right away, but it took a good couple of hours to warm up and I spent the morning do things that involved moving around rather than sitting still.
Earlier in the week Mary and I had spent some time rearranging the shop area.  Now that all our craft fairs are over, we no longer need to keep packing and unpacking our stock.  The shop is well stocked and open for business.  And to make things easier for our customers, we now have facility to accept credit and debit cards.
In the shop you will find almost all of our range.  There were a few things that we sold out of at the various craft fairs.  Our corset belts are all sold but we hope to make some more over the next few days.  And we only have one of the tweed-buckle belts left - more to follow soon!

The mannequin looked cold so we decided she could have both a wrap and a Hebridean hood.  Here you see her standing beside a rail of some of our tweeds - so if you don't see the colour you want in the things that are already made, you can choose your own tweed and we will make it up for you.  At the moment we can still get things made in time for Christmas but put your orders in as soon as possible.

On the agenda for this week is making some of our muff purses - but we are going to try lining them with real sheepskin rather than synthetic fur fabric.  It will put the price up, but they will be much cozier and more luxurious - so.. watch this space!

In the meantime, all our other products are available - either by shopping in person or through the on-line shop.   We have bags & purses, hats and scarves, wraps and hoods, wallhangings and cushions, Christmas decorations and various other bits and pieces.

If you are looking for a present for a creative person, why not get them one of our vouchers for feltmaking classes?  These are available in multiples of £10 and classes can be arranged at a time to suit the recipient.  We give the vouchers in small hand-made felt envelopes and these can be used afterwards as a glasses case - so a very practical present.  See the website for more details.

Opening times
We should be open 6 days a week up till and including 23rd December, but then we will close the studio for the Christmas holidays.  We will definitely be there between 10.30 and 3.30 each day, but usually I am there between 9.30 and 5.30.  However, if you are travelling a distance it is worth phoning just to check.

Real snow! The weather is fairly changeable just now - nice sunny days interspersed with wild storms some days and snow on others.  We had planned to spend last Thursday taking photographs for next year's catalogue but the horizontal sleet made it impossible.  This photograph was taken on the Tuesday.

Sunday 13 November 2011

Christmas Craft Fairs

Today is a very driech day and I am sitting in the foyer of the Birnham Hotel (near Dunkeld in Perthsire) during a quiet lull at a craft fair.

This is me now half way through the run of Christmas craft fairs.  Despite the recession the fairs are all going well.  People are perhaps cautious with their spending, but I think people are choosing to spend their limited funds on things which they know will be valued and will last.

The weather today is conducive to selling hats.  I have just had a friend from Inverness call at my stall and she says that they left Inverness in beautiful sunshine this morning, but here it is dull, grey,  drizzly and cold.   Various styles sold at this fair - Catriona, Morag, Callum, Angus and Mairi have all proved popular and I will have to make more of each before next weekend's craft fair at Eden Court in Inverness.

Top seller at this fair - and indeed the last two - are definitely Shetland Angels.  These are made with Shetland wool that I tie up with hand-spun Shetland yarn - and yes, I do the spinning myself too!  They have been fairly flying off the Christmas tree yesterday and today.

Two more Craft Fair events -

18th to 20th November - Eden Court Theatre, Inverness.
2pm to 9pm on the Friday and 10am to 5pm on the Saturday and Sunday.

25th to 27th November - Brodie Castle, Moray
10am to 4 pm all three days.

If you can't make it to the craft fairs you are welcome to call at my studio at Inchmore, just 6 miles out of Inverness on the old Beauly road.  And if you can't visit the Highlands at all, remember there is always the on-line shop.

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Commuting to work

One of the downsides of my new studio is that I can't go to work in my pyjamas!  However, I am finding the commuting less trouble than I expected and on days like today it can be a real delight.
The weather has been very changeable recently and the temperature has been up and down like a yo-yo but today was warm - even at 7.30 in the morning.

The sun was just rising when I left the house and the sky looked as though it was on fire.

The reason for the early start is that I when I have to take the bus I have a choice of 7.40 or 9.30.  A lot of work to do at the moment as I had a really successful craft fair last weekend in Glasgow and sold out of some things - need to make more for this weekend's event at Strathpeffer Pavillion - Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th November, 11am to 4pm!

The bus was on time and almost empty so I was able to have my pick of seats.  I chose one that would allow me to take photographs along the way.  It is a bit tricky taking pictures on a bus that swings round corners at 60 miles an hour, but what follows is a selection of the more successful shots.


The end of the Caledonian Canal at Clachnaharry

Looking back towards the Kessock Bridge
Looking towards the north shore of the Beauly Firth

Next Craft Fair dates are as follows :
12th & 13th November - Birnham House Hotel, beside Dunkeld in Perthshire
18th to 20th November - Eden Court Theatre, Inverness
25th to 27th November - Brodie Castle near Forres, in Moray

Tuesday 30 August 2011

Buying Tweed on the Isle of Lewis

I am currently on the Isle of Lewis visiting my mother and buying more tweed for our business - Anna Macneil.
I intended coming across on Sunday evening but only got as far as Marybank when a text message came through on my mobile phone telling me that the ferry was cancelled due to adverse weather.  The crossing on Monday morning was a bit choppy, but didn't show much evidence of the storms from the day before.  It was a dreich day when I arrived and the view across the moors was decidedly grey.

I found Mother in good spirits, but tired, so she elected not to come with me that afternoon when I visited the mill at Carloway.  I spent a pleasant hour choosing some beautiful tweeds.  There were a few that I wanted but couldn't get because they had barely enough left to take with them to exhibit at Premier Vision in Paris in September.  

I hope to get hold of them later in the year. 
In due course I will get the tweeds photographed and added to our swatches page, but in the meantime, these are a couple of beautiful tweeds I bought in heather colours.  The heather is in full bloom just now and the moors look fantastic - even with the Scotch mist driving across them.
This morning we called in at the Calanais Visitor Centre to deliver an order of hats, scarves and bags.  The rain was not heavy, but it was cold, and I suspect that this lot of hats will sell every bit as quickly as previous deliveries - I will need to head back to the studio and start making more as there seems to be no slowing down in visitor numbers to the standing stones.

This afternoon things brightened up considerably and I went up to the Butt of Lewis to visit Callum Maclean and collect some interesting tweed he had woven for me.  I have yet to unroll the bale and see all the interesting combinations he has created, but they are  stripey pieces where he has used up lots of different colours of yarn to create bands of colour that change along the length of the tweed.  It will make for some very different wallhangings.  Watch this space.......!

The sun was shining so I made a brief detour up to the lighthouse and in amongst taking these photographs I found some lovely field mushrooms - which I cooked with onions and cream to make a lovely sauce to accompany our pork chops.
Tomorrow I will do one last round of tweed buying and also fit in a visit to the museum in Stornoway to see the Lewis Chessmen - normally these are in the British Museum in London, but for the last while they have been on tour in Scotland.

Then on Thursday I head down to Harris to make another delivery, this time to The Harris Tweed Shop at Tarbert before catching the ferry across to Skye and heading home.



Saturday 20 August 2011

Felt making evening classes

Evening classes start on Tuesday 13th September, 7 till 9pm in our studio at The Workshop, Inchmore.  I can take a maximum of 5 people, so booking is essential.  Email me at info@annamacneil.co.uk if you want to sign up for these classes.

This will be a six week structured course that covers all the main techniques of felt making - wet felting, nuno felting, needle felting, 3-D felting, cobweb felting and many different ways of creating pattern in felt.  At the end of the course students will have a good knowledge of how and why things work that they can apply in their own projects.  The aim is to get students making lots of samples that they can use as reference at a later date. 

If you prefer to just go straight into a project, why not come along for a one day or half day session?  These sessions are proving very popular.  Some people come on their own for one-to-one tuition.  Others come in groups of two or three for an enjoyable day out.  Phone me or send an email - it is just a question of asking for a particular date.  If I am free, I will fit you in.

The studio is equipped with tables that are electrically height adjustable - no sore backs in this sweatshop!   All materials and equipment are provided and I have a wide choice of colours and types of fibres.  There are 3 needle felting embellisher machines available and sinks at which to do the rinsing.







These are all photographs from classes that have been held over the summer.

Sunday 3 July 2011

Moving House

It has been a while since I posted - largely due to the lack of time and energy because we have been moving house.   However, this morning I find myself wide awake with time to spare.  In our new house this morning, at 5am we were woken up with the sound of an alarm going off.  We knew it was from outside but couldn't figure out where it was coming from. The sound was reverberating around a small courtyard area between kitchen, garage and shed.  Wherever we listened it seemed to be coming from somewhere else.  Eventually the police turned up - the culprit was a discarded smoke alarm amongst a pile of rubbish that still had the battery in it!  Too late in the day to go back to bed, so I decided to blog.

People tell you that moving house is stressful.  My past experiences certainly were but they were a long time ago, once when our first child was 3 months old, it was the middle of winter and we were moving from Dundee to Aberdeen to a house I had not seen.  The next time was 3 and a half years later when I had 2 toddlers and was 7 months pregnant with Mary when we moved from Aberdeen to Inverness.  Both these were stressful.

31 years later and I have to say, this move has not been stressful.  It has been physically exhausting, has taken much longer than we wanted (still some clearing to do in the old house) and I don't ever want to do it again, but I have not felt stressed.

So what has helped avoid the stress?  Partly a recognition that it was time to move on.  Partly that we have moved into a house that suits our present circumstances very well.  Partly that we didn't have to vacate the old house on the day we moved into the new one.

We booked the same removal company that had transported all my things out to the new studio a couple of months ago.  They had done an excellent trouble-free job with that and they quoted a very reasonable amount for the house move.   Four men turned up at 8.30 on the Thursday morning and started packing up china, glasses, books and kitchen things.  We had done a lot of sorting out beforehand and made seemingly endless trips to the local recycling centre and to the store for the Highland Hospice charity shop.   The aim was to take two days to make the move, one van load being taken on the Thursday, the next on the Friday.    By 3pm on the first day they were ready to head to the new house - just a few minutes along the road.  Our son-in-law, Steven, has been doing some improvements around the new house for us and we knew things were not finished so we phoned him to warn him that we were on the move.

When we arrived, Steven (the plumber), his friend Angus the joiner and Brian the electrician were still working on things - and then 30 minutes later two plasterers arrived to fill up the various holes made by doing the work!  5 tradesmen working in a 5 roomed house with four men carrying in boxes that there was no room for - quite amazing to see.

We had planned ahead - we had booked into the Lochardil hotel for dinner, bed and breakfast.  This was probably the thing that most contributed to the lack of stress.  At 7.30 we simply stopped unpacking, locked up the house, went back to the old house and fed the cats, then up to the hotel for a lovely relaxing evening.

The removal men turned up again the next morning and before mid-day it was all over with.  We collected the cats and brought them round to the new house.  They were in their element with boxes to jump in and out of (favourite pastime!) and seemed quite happy to explore around the house and garden.  We resorted to a take-away dinner that night, but I had found and unpacked the plates and cutlery so it was a civilised meal, eaten at the dining table - and Steven had got the dishwasher installed, so we didn't even have to wash the dishes.

In the small hours of the morning I got fed up listening to the sound of Maggie (our female cat) meowing outside the bedroom door and I brought her dowstairs, shutting the living room door so that she couldn't get back up.   Next morning - no cats to be seen.  All day no sign of either.  We went back to the old house in case they found their way there - no sign.  Went to bed that night making plans for trying to find them, but were woken up a couple of hours later by the wanderers having returned and wanting fed.   Since then Mungo has had another 24 hour disappearance (he has done it before on a few occasions) but otherwise, they seem to be as settled in their new house as we are.

We have done a lot to make the house our home - bringing things from our last house that we really like, such as the living room light fitting that we had specially made about 10 years ago and the stained glass window that I had made for the front door 13 years ago.  The window is now fitted into new garage doors that we had specially made.  This was a bit of extravegance, but it was the only way we could use the window because none of the windows in the house were the right size and shape.  Our new doors have to be the poshest garage doors in town!   We have still to sort through all the pictures and decide where to hang them.  There will not be room for them all, so we may have to devise a rota system.  We did get rid of some of them, but most are pictures that we have because we like them and many have sentimental value.  There are watercolours painted by my father, a painting of Aberdeen overlooking the harbour that we were given as a wedding present, family photographs, funny cartoons, paintings of places we have been on holiday and that sort of thing.

The joiners made such a good job of the garage doors that we went back to them and asked them to make a larder cupboard for the kitchen.  There is wasted space on one wall - where all the boxes are in the picture above.  We found we were quite able to walk around those boxes for a couple of weeks, without getting irritated by them or tripping over them, so filling the space with a practical cupboard seems a good idea.  At the moment my larder is in a shed in the garden.  What used to be my "feltmaking studio" is now the "utility room" housing the washing machine and drier, the big fridge and freezer and storing lots of things that haven't yet found a proper home.  Before the winter sets in we will have to insulate the shed so that we don't have the water freezing, but at the moment it is working well.

I have been busy in the garden - mostly just trying to keep the grass short and trimming the hedge, but I have planted the edge of a raised bed with herbs - parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme!  (plus mint, chives, oregano, dill and a few others that I can't remember, but they don't make such good lyrics.)   Hedge trimming is something I haven't done since I was a teenager.  Len bought a rechargeable trimmer and I tried it out for the first time two days ago.  Wow!  20 minutes and it was all done with virtually no physical effort at all - worth every penny.  However, I will know better next time about preparing to do the job.  Picking up the clippings from the gravel below took longer than cutting!  Next time I will put a sheet down first.

I found an early purple orchid growing in the grass a couple of weeks ago - not sure how it comes to be growing here, but I carefully avoided it when cutting the grass.

We have still to get our pond sorted out.  We got someone in to clear up the garden and dig out a hole for the pond but they only managed to dig down about 40cm when they hit something rock solid.  So, the plan now is to build up the sides so that the ponds sits in the middle of a rockery.   We plan to make a water feature out of an old chimney pot that we got last week.  We took some of the furniture and some bits and pieces across to Auldearn Antiques and came back with a cheque and a chimney - a good deal.   We brought part of the root of our lovely pink waterlily and it seems to be happy enough in its new home, even though the pond is not yet deep enough.  It seems to be a fairly hardy plant - in its last home it survived almost drying out when the pond got a leak, and then several months in a plastic bucket while the pond was repaired, so I hope it will survive the move.

Of course, one of the things that made this move so much easier than it might have been was the fact that I had moved my work to the new studio.  Not only did this mean that there were three empty rooms to use for sorting and packing, but I had somewhere to retreat to.  Going to work was always a rest despite being incredibly busy.   Orders just seem to keep coming.   The shops we supply keep asking for more things, galleries are selling wallhangings and we are getting quite a lot of passing trade.  Local people are beginning to find us and holiday-makers are stopping in to see what we do. One visitor recently got inspired by what she saw, but wanted something a bit different from what we had available.  She spent some time browsing amongst our selection of tweeds - this is a photograph of the bag we made for her.

Yesterday evening I was busy hand-stitching a large pile of Morag hats which will shortly be heading to Skara Brae on Orkney.  Over the next few days I should be finishing off an order for Canongate Jerseys & Crafts in Edinburgh.   We are being kept busy!

I have managed to fit in offering some felt making classes at the studio.  Last week Kira and Pamela came to make mobiles.  Kira made three lovely exotic red birds and Pamela made some sheep.  I now have to find time to do some felt for myself.  I think a large hanging for my new home would be a good idea.

Kira (opposite - making a start on her red birds) is a ceramic artist and offers ceramic painting classes.  I have had a couple of enjoyable mornings at her studio in Beauly painting tiles for above the basin in our upstairs loo.  They have still to be fired, but I am pleased with the design - two intertwined Celtic birds painted in a mixture a reds and oranges.  This is a try-out (just 14 tiles) before planning for the kitchen.  The kitchen has a very wide window and space between worktop and window for two rows of tiles.  As the kitchen is quite bland - maple look units, beige worktop, white walls - I want to introduce some bright colours.  Tiles seem like the way to go.  But I will need about 100.  At this rate, I may not have time to work!

Monday 18 April 2011

Felt making classes

Last Monday evening saw the first of our felt making classes in the new studio.
This was a one-to-one session with a student who has come to me in the past.  He seemed to enjoy the bright and spacious workshop.

The project for the two hour evening session was to make a pair of baby booties for the baby that his granddaughter is expecting.  He decided to make the booties with white fleece, but they were decorated with a flag on the side of each - one was the Scottish Saltire, the other the Norwegian flag as his granddaughter is half Scottish and half Norwegian.

He was delighted with the results - now we have to hope that his granddaughter is equally delighted - and that they fit the baby!

The next scheduled workshop on offer is a two day class - Celtic Felt and Stitch - 14th & 15th May.  This will involve making felt that includes a Celtic design and then enhancing the design with stitching and needle felting.  I can only take 4 people for this, so booking is essential.  Visit the website for details.

I am always happy to offer classes at times to suit individuals.  There is a choice of 2 hour classes, full day, two day and evening classes and these can be one-to-one sessions or for small groups. Click here for details.  I take a maximum of 5 people at a time, ensuring that everyone gets individual attention and that we all have space to move around and access the various colours and types of fibres.  Email me at info@annamacneil.co.uk or telephone (01463 831567) to request a session or visit the website to see if there is a scheduled class that is suitable for you.

In the centre of the studio we have two large, very sturdy tables which have electrically operated height adjustment.  This means that at the press of a button we can change them from sitting height to standing height - and choose heights suitable for different people - so no back-ache!

Also available are Babylock Embellisher machines for fast needle felting and Bernina sewing machines for further decoration and enhancement. 

We keep a large stock of fibres and colours including things to add interest to your felt, such as Angelina fibres, silks and synthetics.  We also have a large stock of yarns that can be used for further decoration.

Thursday 7 April 2011

Anna Macneil @ The Workshop

A week ago I was at the workshop all evening clearing up after the work had been done to make it suitable as our new textile art studio - Anna Macneil @ The Workshop. It took several hours to clear the dust sheets, gather up the rubbish, clear away the left-over bits of wood and plasterboard, cables and screws and then wipe, dust and vacuum everything ready for the removal men the next morning.

The removal was amazingly smooth and fast - well worth paying the bill to have the job done professionally. Mary and I had spent three days parcelling up bales of tweed and fleece, sorting and packing threads and yarns, rationalizing our stash of "useful" fabric and so on. I had 35 boxes of varying types of fabric - silks, tartans, cottons, cords, velvet, lycra, jerseys and more. I decided it was time that I was sensible about whether I was ever going to use some of them. I filled 8 black bin-bags with things I know I am never going to use and then emailed a friend who works as an occupational therapist at the local psychiatric hospital - she was delighted to relieve me of them.

The removal took just over three hours start to finish. At the time my big machines were being lifted downstairs I was making a visit to the local recycling centre - probably as well I missed that bit! I think my heart might have been beating a bit fast if I had watched them carry the machines downstairs. By noon I was left in my new studio with things more or less in the places they should be. Mary came out to help get everything put away but we started by going to the local pub for lunch.

There were some hiccups - I couldn't get the laser cutter and the big embroidery machine to talk to the computer - the only change was that I had swapped the cables round and used the long one to connect the embroidery machine because of where it had to be sited - so...... another £40 to get the "right" cables, but they did send it so that it arrived the next day.

And then there was the saga of the printer....... Moving out of the house meant that I also needed a new printer, so after a bit of research, found one that was suitable. It would work on the network from both my Mac and my Windows PC, would do duplex printing and print on card. It was due to be delivered on Monday but didn't come. On Tuesday, the company I ordered it from phoned to ask why I had declined to accept delivery....... I told them nobody had come to deliver it and after a few phonecalls back and forth it transpired that someone in the distribution chain had put the wrong address on the courier label. I was promised it would be there on Wednesday. I saw the delivery van drive past the studio without stopping, so phoned the couriers - no printer - it had been returned to sender because I had refused to accept it! Phoned the supplier - promised it would definitely be here today. This time they were right, it did arrive, and I managed to get it all set up and working.......until I tried to use the duplex facility! It will work from some applications but not the one I really want it for. A two hour phonecall to the OKI tech support people and I am no further forward, but they are looking into it for me.

One week on I am still waiting for someone to fit the vinyl on the kitchen floor, but otherwise everything is done and we are back in full production mode. The embroidery machines have been happily stitching away and the laser cutter is working well.

I spent some time doing a little bit of felting today. In the past, that involved going out into the garden and working in a cold, small shed. Today I was able to do it in a warm, bright studio and keep an eye on the embroidery machine while I was working..... what a difference!

Another great thing is the mobile shelving system that I have bought for storing our folded lengths of tweed. Small pieces are in boxes according to colour, bigger pieces are hanging on a rail that can be moved on castors and the longer lengths are on new chrome shelves with big wheels that can be easily pushed from one end of the studio to the other.




And from the visitor's point of view.......... we now have a shop!

It is a very small corner of the studio, but we can display all our products - hats & scarves, wallhangings, wraps, bags & purses, phone pouches and Christmas decorations. So, if you are in the area, please call in to see us. Between us we aim to be at the studio from 9 till 5, 6 days a week, but the shop itself will only be open Wednesday to Saturday from 10.30 am to 3.30 pm. That gives us the option of fitting in other things - like the visit I will shortly have to make to Lewis to buy more tweed.

I am waiting....and waiting....!!!! for my husband to modify the website - when he has done so there will be a Google map link to show you where the studio is, but you can see the village on Google's Street View if you put in the postcode - IV5 7PX - you have to search around at the east end of the village, north side of the road until you find a wooden building that looks like a Swiss chalet. The photographs are out of date - still have the signs for the previous business! If I remember I will photograph our new signs, but I have been rather busy and keep forgetting to do that.

We also have a new phone number because it is a different exchange from our previous address - 01463 831567. It is always worth phoning to check that we will be there before travelling a distance, but if you let us know you are coming we will give you a warm welcome.

The Workshop, Inchmore, Kirkhill, Inverness, IV5 7PX, Scotland, UK

Wednesday 9 March 2011

All white - inside and out

Last week, during some almost balmy spring weather, the joiners were hard at work in the new Anna Macneil studio building a partition wall and putting up new shelves. It is looking good.

This week it is back to winter and we woke up this morning to a blanket of snow. The studio seems to look even more like a Swiss chalet when it is covered in snow. I spent the day out there trying to make the inside white too. The painting has to be done before the heating goes in, so it was rather cold and I had to work hard to keep warm.

The morning was spent removing the nails and screws that were all over the walls and filling in the resultant holes with filler. Then a mug of hot soup at lunchtime thawed me out a bit and I got going with the painting. Last week I bought a "Paint Pod" system and I have to say it is proving to be a good system - very clean compared with the traditional method of rolling. By mid afternoon I had covered up all those bits of wall that were yellow.


It will need another couple of coats, but it has already made a difference.

Work has had to go on around getting the new studio ready - last week we sent off a big order to Canongate Jerseys & Crafts in Edinburgh and it included this wallhanging - inspired by the Pictish Stone in Elgin Cathedral. The red panel beside it is one that I painted many years ago. The only reason it is in the picture is that when I wanted to photograph the wallhanging, the easiest place was hanging beside it - there is a convenient nail in the wall which usually has a calendar on it.

Next up I have to make several large wallhangings for various galleries and we have bags, hats and scarves to make for Iona Abbey and Stirling Castle. I need at least 36 hours in a day and 10 days in a week - preferably hours and days that other people don't have! If the rest of the world would just go into suspended animation for a few days I might be able to catch up.

Tomorrow I will spend a couple of hours at the computer and then head out to put a coat of paint on all the walls. I shall leave the ceiling for Mary to do on Friday!

Tuesday 1 March 2011

Commuting on a spring day

Work has started on getting our new studio ready to move into. One of the drawbacks of this move is that I will have to become a commuter again - something I have not done for many a long year!

However, on a lovely spring day like today, there could be a lot worse ways to drive to work. The road from Inverness to Inchmore is along the shores of the Beauly Firth. Just as I was leaving Inverness - over the railway bridge at Clachnaharry, I was met with a wonderful view of the end of the Caledonian Canal, so I pulled into the lay-by and dug out my camera.


A little further along the road I stopped again and looked back towards the Kessock Bridge.
Then, once I was at the studio I found a few more things to photograph, like the front of the building and then as I stepped into the studio, the texture of the wooden threshold caught my eye. The building is very old, and you can certainly see something of this in this piece of wood.



It was lovely to be out on such a beautiful day, so I walked around a bit taking more pictures - the view I will see out of the windows once we are working here, and then from the next lane, a view looking back at the studio through the trees.

I don't suppose that every day will be as lovely as today - nor will I normally have time to stop and enjoy it. It would not surprise me if we still have winter weather to come, but today was full of the promise of spring and encouraged me to look forward to the next few weeks of hard work whole we get the studio in shape.

A good bit of news yesterday was that BT confirmed my telephone number and connected the line - so if you need to contact us at Anna Macneil, the new number is 0(+44)1463 831567. Email and web address remain the same. The postal address is:
The Workshop
Inchmore
Kirkhill
Inverness
IV5 7PX