Summer Sheiling

Around Beltane, back in the day, the  older women and children of the village would move to the moorland pastures with the livestock, to take advantage of the  better grazing - and to give the in-by land a rest.  While there, they would make butter and cheese, spin and knit, sing and tell stories. They lived in very simple dwellings or shelters known as sheilings, built from stone and turf.  Those left behind in the village were busy with the growing, fishing, peat cutting, hay making, harvesting and all those other activities of crofting. This system of transhumance (to travel across the earth) was once common practice amongst pastoral societies all over the world, and it happened here even as late as the 1950s. Some people still maintain a moorland sheiling today- perhaps for use at peat cutting time, as a fishing hut, or just simply as a retreat.
I mentioned Alice Starmore's writing in Earthlines magazine last week.  In this article, she writes most movingly about her own memories and experiences of Summers spent at the sheilings; her words and images have been haunting me since I read them..  At the same time, I have been dipping into Dr John Francis's book - The Ragged Edge of Silence.  I mentioned him last week too; during his 22 years of walking across America, he became silent for much of that time - as he did this, he found that he was then truly able to listen - and to learn.

These writings have come to me at just the right time.  I had been wondering about where I was going with the blog.  I have come to a point where I feel I am going over old ground - struggling to find something to say. Furthermore, there are so many other things happening that I need to give my energies completely to. I have been posting less over the last few weeks, and I have not been responding to comments or visiting other blogs as much as I would like to.  I don't want to stop blogging  (I don't think I could do that anyway) I do love coming here most days and seeing what emerges.  But -  I  am feeling a need to step back a bit - to spend some time in my own sheiling, if you like.  Working away at life - immersing myself in the countless projects I seem to acquire, but also to take some time, thinking, reflecting, meditating, and re-membering. As well as this, I would like to explore the idea of silence. The physical world is a noisy enough place at the best of times, but this online virtual world seems relentless in it's clamouring, twittering attention-seeking demands. I find myself losing precious time - time I will never get back - being sucked in - often to inspiring, enriching places, but sometimes to those that disturb my soul and my peace of mind.

So, I am taking myself off to the sheiling for the Summer. I will still be posting though -pictures only, or perhaps a haiku or something like that - comments disabled. I plan to use this space as a silent journal of my Summer retreat. I hope you will all put up with my latest notion. It will be strange not to read all the wonderful comments that readers so kindly leave. I know I will miss the conversation, and the validation too. I am not even sure what I am trying to achieve here - only that all my recent thoughts and wonderings have coalesced into this - and it feels as if it is the right thing to do - for now. I hope to begin my posts from the Summer sheiling in a couple of days - much love xxx

How to make a mosaic banner

I have been asked a few times how I make my photo banner for the blog, and usually I respond with a very long, rambling explanation, which I always think must confuse the recipient more than it enlightens them.  So, when the lovely Mama from Only in Louisiana asked me the other day, I suddenly had the idea of doing a photo tutorial.  Anyway,  here it is - not sure if it explains things any better than my multi-page email would, but let's see how it goes.  For the purposes of this post, I made a new banner (above) and documented the process.  

Before I go on, I will say that I use a couple of programs to do this - one online and the other I have downloaded.  Both of them are free, but they do look for donations.  It is always nice to buy these guys a coffee now and then, as they do good work.  Also - there are similar products out there, but these are the ones I know and use.

Ok - lets do this...

First of all - create your mosaic.  I use a website called Big Huge Labs - this is their home page, and in fact it is very easy to navigate and work out.  We want to select Mosaic maker here - see it bottom left as you look at the screen?

You then come to this page, which allows you to choose the shape of your mosaic, and to upload your photographs.
For the banner, I will choose a layout of square tiles, 4 columns and 1 row.  I leave the space between images at the default of 5. I select my images individually, and then I choose the first photograph in my mosaic by clicking on the first square.

When you click the box to upload your picture, a series of options appears - upload (from you own computer), flickr, or facebook.  I normally use Flickr - selecting this option brings up your photostream* and you can then scroll along until you find the image you want - click on it and the photo appears in the box.

*The first time you chose Flickr, you will be asked to allow Bighugelabs permission to link to your Flickr account, so there will be a short process to go through. Once your account is linked, your photostream will show everytime you chose the flickr option.

You can also upload directly from your computer, as I have done for picture 3, which wasn't on my flickr page. It can take a wee bit longer to upload that way, but not significantly.
I don't have facebook, so i can't comment on how that works, but I imagine it is just the same.
Once you are happy with you selection, hit the create button.

And there is the mosaic.  I am happy with this, so I will "save" it - it is then downloaded to my computer, and stored in the Downloads folder. If I wanted to change it, I would just click edit and change the images again.

Now I am going to add my blog title to the banner.  I do this using a program called paint.net.  It is free to download (although they do accept donations), and I find it very user friendly, and effective.

So - I open up Paint.net, and using the file tab > open > select the mosaic.
Then on the Tools tab, I select the T (text) button.

I select my font type and size, and colour and then place the cursor where I want my title to be.

You can move your text around until you are happy with it - just click on the white box and use the little grab symbol to move it .... no - I think I will change it back to where it was.

If you want to add text somewhere else - say a blog description perhaps, then select the  Text tool again and add your spiel wherever you want that to be.  Take your time - be creative and have fun.  You can always undo anything before you save it for keeps.
When you are happy with it all, then save - almost done!

Now - off to the blog we go! Just for information, I am using the Simple template on blogger

Select the Design tab > edit header.

Remove your current image.

Select the placement as "Instead of title and description, and also shrink to fit.  Then upload your mosaic file from your computer.

Woohoo - save and you are done!

And there we are!  

I hope this is  helpful - it really is much more simple than I have made it sound - and the programs are so easy to follow. If you do try this, do let me know so I can come along and admire your creative work. xxx

Loving and Giving - A Giveaway.

It is three years since I began this online journal.  Initially started as a garden organiser, gradually incorporating more and more of myself in the words and pictures. I had no idea how much I would come to love my little space on the web, and how many wonderful friends I would meet here. Or, indeed that I would find myself writing to you today from a croft in the Western Isles, worrying more about cattle and sheep breeding than how my sweetcorn plants are germinating!

As a celebration then,  and a thank you for making this such a lovely place,  I am hosting a little giveaway.  I had great fun putting together a Hebridean lucky bag for my 300th post giveaway, so I thought I would do something similar this time - maybe with a more festive theme.

 If you would like to enter, then please leave a comment below. I am happy to ship worldwide (as before, followers will be entered twice). I hope you will join in.

You can leave comments until Monday 21st November (my birthday!) when we will draw the winning name.

Thank you all again for following our little adventures.  I am always delighted to have your company.

x♥x

Self Portrait

This is me as I am sitting at my laptop right now - "talking" to you live, so to speak.  Not a great photo, as all the light is behind me and it is a dull drizzly day.  I don't often appear here - except for my toes :). It is not that I am particularly camera-shy, but as the house photographer and blogger, I use this space to record life through my eyes.  My slightly techno-phobe husband is not as snap-happy as I am, and I have to specifically ask him to take a picture of me.  James has begun lately to sneak off with the small digital, and I find it later with random images of cushions, me cooking, or blurred shots of his crushed car collection (surely every small boy has one of those?)
So this is how you will find me, most days as i sit down to do my computery stuff. Hope it hasn't scared you all away ;)
Thanks to Courtney for resurrecting this meme, which I missed last time around, and to Tracey for reminding me about it.

 ♥Look out for more beautiful bloggers on my sidebar.♥

Tricentennial Giveaway

So - this is my 300th post!  I started this blog, then known as The Interrupted Gardener,  back in November 2008 as an encouragement for me to get back to the land.  Who knew where that intention would lead??  In the beginning, it was a very wordy affair - not many pictures, and very bad ones at that - but time moves on and, I hope things have improved a bit.
I love sitting down every night or so and sharing snippets of our world with you all - trivial though it may be, in the grand scheme of things. I am so happy that people read my musings and even take time out to respond to them - very humbling indeed. Thank you - thank you so much,

When I was a child, I used to take my Saturday threepenny bit down to the local grocer's shop to buy sweets.  A favourite purchase was a Lucky Bag - a paper bag with a selection of different sweets, a small plastic toy, a balloon, and if you were really lucky - a packet of transfers (fake tattoos).

As a thank you to everyone for reading and following our exploits, I have made up a special Hebridean Lucky Bag Giveaway -

So - inside this very desirable shopper from the foody heaven that is the Cross Stores in Ness, I have packed a choice selection of various handmade Hebridean crafty goodies, cards, and books. If you would like a chance to win this lovely bag full, then please leave a comment at the end of the post.
If you are a follower, your name will be entered twice - feel free to join us. Comments can be left until 22nd July, when my grandson Finlay will be asked to draw the winning name!
I am happy to ship this worldwide.
Thanks again for reading and best of luck. xxx

New Beginnings - New Name!

I love this time of New Year. I know it is a bit unfashionable, and there are so many other times to celebrate a new year, or beginnings of another cycle, and there are the negative associations of excess. and drunkenness to be considered, but maybe because I am Scottish, and this is really our holiday, it could be in the blood, this date still resonates within me. Calendars may have changed and days been lost in history, but there is something to be said for the general feeling of goodwill that is evident among neighbours and the community in general as we collectively reflect and anticipate the change of year.

I love the feeling of hanging up a brand new calendar -  as yet unsullied by scribbled appointment reminders and things to do. A whole clean year dangles there in front of us - what shall we do with such a resource?
Diaries too - 365 slots waiting to be filled with the stuff of life. But I was never very diligent at keeping a journal.  As a child, I used to find the Brownie Guide diary in my Christmas stocking every year. Invariably there would be one entry - "1st Jan. Went to Gran's" - which we did every year. that was all until the next diary - different year, different colour, but only one event ever recorded.

Now blogging has cured me of my chronicling reticence, (as you may have noticed) and I find it important to come to this space and write about life as it happens to me. In the last year, there have been immense changes in my life. One of these has been our long, slow move to Lewis, in the Western Isles, and the purchase of a Croft. I have been feeling that the blog now needs to reflect our new lives, hence the name change.  I will miss The Interrupted Gardener - she was such a good and patient friend,( and I always loved that name,) but now we have moved on and- dare we call ourselves Crofters?

 

Just before we came down to the mainland for Christmas, we were fixing up some gaps in the fence when our neighbour, who comes from a long line of ancient crofters drove by with his wife.  They stopped the car and  called "You look like a proper crofting family!" (in a Lewis accent)

So - there we are - proper Crofters! (he also in a much quieter voice mentioned that we were putting the fencing on upside down, but no-one needs to know that)

The Barefoot Crofter came to me last summer as exactly the right name for the blog.  You may have noticed the different url earlier, but now, as we take our first tentative steps into 2011, I feel this is a good time to make the rest of the changes.  

Why barefoot?  Certainly it is not because we are able to go about in our bare feet very often in this land and climate!  It fits on a number of other levels though :

We are so new at this - we have no history of crofting, or even farming  in either of our families.  No experience apart from what we have learned from our gardening, and John's long ago summer holiday job on a sheep farm.  Although we have plenty of help and guidance from the community around us - who know what works and what doesn't, still we are able to make our own plans, try out our own daft ideas, and learn from our own mistakes. In a sense, we are barefoot, because we do not have to put on our fathers' shoes - we can run free. 

We are also barefoot because we wish to tread lightly on this land.  Caring for our land and livestock, environment and community in a sustainable and nourishing way - is there any other way?  

So - we have many, many plans - some of which may take a season or two to achieve.  Lots of hard work -  and fun ahead.  It is  such an exciting time, as I contemplate my new calendar.  I do hope you will join us for some of the journey - kick your shoes off and run along.

 Or keep your wellies on if you like. xx

Posted missing.

I missed out this montage from my previous post, but it was too late to sneak it  in after I realised.  Anyway, it deserves a post of its own.
Late on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, a postman knocked on the door with a couple of parcels and a pile of cards.  A visit from a postman - any delivery man, in fact, is such a rarity here, in Central Scotland, nowadays.  Since the start of this long Winter, we have had only about 5 deliveries in total from Royal Mail.  I am still waiting for items posted at the beginning of the month. I cannot imagine the chaos that must be going on in the sorting office.  I asked the postman how things were going, and he gave me a strange, haunted look and went off muttering.  Poor man.
Back home on the Island, we live next door to the post office.... (dreamy sigh...)
Enough - enough!  What was in those parcels?  Presents and love from lovely Blog ladies were there!

Pippa (When I get the time) sent a beautiful lavender filled heart, she had made from the same material as my kitchen blind. I love this fabric. Thank you Pippa - I will take this heart back up to the croft and hang it in my kitchen there.

On Liz's blog (Just hang on a minute), I won the Christmas candle in her giveaway.  My first ever blog prize.  It is a glittering handrolled beeswax candle scented studded with cloves.  How lovely is that?  But, somehow, a little Robin, made by Liz herself, must have flown into the parcel too.  Just in time to go on the Christmas tree. xx


And then cards - another little Robin from Liz - her blog was so full of inspiring Christmas crafts this year, and a fabulous card from Claire (Border Stories) - drawn by her younger son Felix.  I love it, and it makes me smile whenever I see it.  In fact, Mr Mosaic maker has kind of chopped the end off the photo, so here is another one.

Santa looks very warm and comfy there I have to say.

I love the connections I have made in this blog world.  People whom I would never ever meet in real life, but they just somehow click with me, and I know that were we to meet up, we would just carry on the conversation. 
I have met a few blog Mums at TM camp, and it was just like that.  We knew about each other - recognised the children - ice already broken -  natural and friendly. People would refer to things we had blogged about, as if we had chatted over a cup of tea the week before.  I loved it. It reminds me, though, how much we touch each others lives when we blog.  Thank you all for touching me with your kindness and friendship.

I am going to be making a few changes to the blog over the next week or so, as we get ready to head back (at last) to the croft.  Just cosmetic stuff, to reflect our new crofting/farming lifestyle.  A new name too!!  ??
xx