ehh... Hi there!

If you're new to this blog: Welcome! I haven't posted in a while and there is a good reason: I've been on holiday. Maybe it is old-fashioned now but I used to get the advice not to announce my absence on the internet and I still kind of follow that. Sometimes, I write blog posts while I am on vacation but often I don't. And I don't post on Facebook until I am at least almost on the way back. I often feel kind of guilty about doing that to the readers of my blog though...

Anyway, I'm back now. I've been in Austria for two weeks and after that, I've been very busy getting started in a new job. This time, I didn't blog while I was on holiday because I was too busy doing things like this:

E and I have been keen hikers for years (we also did quite a bit of hiking in those weeks) and for the past two years, we've done a lot of indoor climbing and had instruction in outdoor climbing a few times. This holiday marks the first time we have actually done any proper rock climbing on our own though. 

In case anyone is interested, Tirol is a great place of rock climbing. Even for beginners who can really only climb sports routes (which means, with bolts drilled into the rock to which you can clip your rope), there is a lot on offer and the bolting of the routes is really thoroughly done. Lots of shiny new bolts and good anchors. We used the (free) app from this website, which I recommend but only if you can read at least a bit of German. 

We also made a trip to München to see this:

The last World Cup Bouldering this year. Top-favorite climber Shauna Coxsey was really impressive. 

We've been watching these events on youtube for months but it was really cool to be there for this one.

Of course, we didn't just do sporty things, the weather wasn't good enough every day ;)

We also went to this place:

Kufstein fortress, in the town of Kufstein. It is an impressive castle which was in use for centuries. I'm showing it here because of one little exhibit in the part which houses the local history museum.

Elements of traditional costume: Hats, combs and those brown squares at the top...

Those are printing blocks! I'm actually quite curious if these designs are still used for "Trachten" (folkwear) in that area but I haven't been able to find out.

Obviously, after this little intermezzo, I plan to return to my regular, sewing and vintage fashion related, blogging.

Scottish fabric!

This will be the last post based on my holiday, I promise. There is just this one more thing I wanted to show you and I think you can relate to this: I bought fabric. I know a lot of sewing bloggers make a habit of buying fabric as a souvenir but I have done that before. Most of my holidays just don't take me to places with good fabric shopping.
This time, I knew I was going to in Edinburgh on the last two days of my trip, so I googled for fabric stores there beforehand. That way, I found Edinburgh Fabric,  which promised a great selection of, among other things, Scottish wool. The store also happened to be conveniently located along the main road between our bed&breakfast and the town center. 
So, I went fabric shopping when on holiday... Poor E was content to just stand about while I pondered the huge rage of fabrics on offer. I was immediately drawn to the wools, both because the weather was starting to turn autumn-y and because there were some many British and even Scottish varieties. There were really tempting crepes and gorgeous handwoven tweeds but in the end, there was only one kind of fabric I could really pick as my souvenir from Scotland:

Tartan. Proper, 100% wool Scottish made tartan. I just had to pick from a large selection of different designs. Having no family links with Scotland myself, there was no obvious choice.
I picked this sett purely based on its look and colours (the background is actually a rich blue, not grey like it looks in the picture. It's nearly impossible to photograph fabric properly and the colours of my fabrics are much richer in real life than they look in this picture). It was labeled "Holyrood", which I thought was appropriate because I used to take a lot of long walks in Holyrood Park when I was living in Edinburgh as an exchange student (only for a single semester) years ago. 
The sett doesn't appear in the book of Scottish Clans & Tartans which I also bought (there are 150 in it) but that would make sense because Holyrood is, as far as I know, not the name of a family or clan. Historically, the Palace and Park belonged to the royal family so it's unlikely that another dynasty took its name from it. That makes it likely to be a fairly modern design made either to celebrate something about Holyrood or just to sell to people like me.

The other fabric is a thin wool in a rich bluish purple. I love that colour and because it was in the remnant basket it wasn't expensive.
I have 1.5 meter of each, so now I only have to decide what to make with them.

History and sewing!

Despite the fact that our route didn't take us to any of the historical weaving mills (another thing for my 'next time in Scotland'-list), I did come across something sewing-related. And purely by accident.

I already mentioned the "meet the Redcoats" event at Corgarff castle previously. What I didn't tell yet, was that we wouldn't even have known about it if the steward at Balvenie castle (which we visited the day before) hadn't mentioned it to us (this small, recently added event wasn't on the event calander. She also recommended the app, which did announce it).

Although the history of Corgarff castle goes back further, it now shows visitors how it would have looked in the 18th century when it housed a small garrison of Redcoats, English soldiers. They had been posted at strategically placed locations throughout the Highlands to keep the population under control after the Battle of Culloden.
One floor of the tower house has been furnished as a barracks, which it was at the time. But last week, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, there were also three soldiers, an officer and his wife (there was joking about how the arrival of Redcoats might influence the referendum...). Members of Pulteney's Regiment (13th foot). (Which is part of a larger society of reenactors called Lace Wars. They also have a group of Jacobite reenactors, in case you were wondering.)

They all really looked the part and were very knowledgable about their era. Both about the overall situation and about the details of the everyday lives of their characters.
And there was sewing. Downstairs, in the officer's room, the lady was making him a casual coat. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures but we did have a nice chat about period silhouettes and the start of uniform regulations.

Then, we went upstairs and met the soldiers in the barracks room. They were happy to show the various tools of their trade and even to let visitors (it wasn't busy, we were the first visitors that day and while we were there, two other couple arrived) handle them.

And then I saw one of them sewing. Finishing pocket edges with a blanket stitch, to be precise. So, I wanted to know everything about the uniforms.
As it turns out, soldiers in the 18th century would be given uniforms but they had to care for them themselves. To save a bit on the cleaning and mending, they would only wear the full uniform for parades and battle. The outfit worn by the soldier in the picture with E and the musket was the normal look at the barracks.
These modern reenactors however make their own uniforms (not everyone has all the skills necessary of course, so people may make things for each other). This particular gentleman couldn't only sew, he'd also learned leather working and metalworking. 

These uniform coats are made from thick wool and lined with the material in yellow. Only the part of the bodice which doesn't show when it's worn is lined in a thinner, cheaper wool serge. The sleeves were lined with muslin but he explained it isn't known whether or not sleeves were lined at all. The coat was carefully tailored to fit him, which is why, as you can see, it doesn't fit E at all.
What I found very interesting is the way the coat functions: There are no separate summer and winter uniforms. These wool coats would be worn all year.  However, the yellow contrast bits on the bodice can be overlapped and closed for warmth in winter. The same goes for the tails which are normally connected at the corners (with a hook and eye) displaying the contrast lining but cover more when they are allowed to hang loose. 
I suspect one might sew such the seams which don't show on the outside by machine but this one was entirely sewn by had (he mentioned he had to because his sewing machine broke down).
The whole thing is trimmed in distinctive white and yellow tape. Which would always have to be applied by hand anyway.

So just imagine how much work must have gone into this coat. Part of the outfit of the regiment's drummer, the only soldier to wear the regiment's colours the other way round. 

And here is the soldier's coat, worn by its owner and maker, in action. The musket, by the way, is a modern reproduction and they are shooting blanks.

The meeting was quite interesting and a lot of fun. We'll definitely try and catch another event next time we travel to the UK.

I'm back!

Hello!
I'm back in the Netherlands after two wonderful weeks in Scotland. We were extremely lucky to have great weather for all but two days (in fact, the first week and a bit were so warm and sunny, we thought we would run out of summer clothes. E did. The two souvenir t-shirts he bought have been worn already).
I always thought we would like Scotland as a holiday destination but oh my, 'like' doesn't even begin to describe it. I fully understand it may be a bit harder to love the place when it's shrouded in its more usual garb of fog and rain, but what's not to love about a country where the rich history is served up in thick slices and every turn in the road reveals a whole new, stunning view?

There are things I will blog about later and in more detail but I thought I'd share  some little tips now:

First of all: If, like me, you like history and enjoy exploring castles, ruins and country houses it's always worth checking (even before you travel) if there are any package deals available which will save on your admission fees.
In the UK, the vast majority of historic sites is cared for and run by large charities and as a member you don't have to pay admission. On previous holidays in England, we've had short-term memberships of the National Trust and English Heritage, depending on the sites we wanted to visit. 

This time, Historic Scotland was the obvious choice, since the castles at both Stirling and Edinburgh (both major tourist destinations we were planning to visit anyway) are in their care. They offer an 'Explorer pass' for tourists and/or occasional visitors but we opted for the full membership.

That way, we also got to see other sites, like the amazingly located Kilchurn castle (this is actually and unmanned property so you don't have to pay admission but there are many other castles where being a member will save you money).

Oh, and even if you don't want to join, it's worth taking a look at their free app. It helps you find historic sites near you and you get the latest news about those. 

Like events. I didn't expect much from those but we were very impressed with the, rather modest, 'meet the redcoats' event at the grim little tower house of Corgarff. This was not some silliness for children but a very interesting display by nice, knowledgable and skilled reenactors (costume post in the coming week).

Secondly: It's hard to visit Scotland and not see or do anything related to whiskey. E likes whiskey, so I had in fact planned on visiting a couple of distilleries.
I can recommend it though. Although the vast majority is now owned by big companies, plenty of them are still at their historic sites and there is still clear craft and skill involved in the production of this stuff. And that is something we can all relate to.
In a lot of hotels and guesthouses (especially in the Speyside region) you can pick up booklets with lists of distilleries which are open to visitors (including opening hours and cost of a tour). At some large ones, tours are free but if you're not obsessed with whiskey, a tour at a small facility is much more fun. 

This is the Dalwhinnie distillery, located in the middle of nowhere (Ok, next to a very small village) on a kind of plateau in the Highlands. If you go there, you can sign up for another club called 'friends of Malt Whiskey' (which is free). This basically means you can do the tour at the other distilleries which are owned but the same company for free. We did this and ended up visiting several. 
Out of those, I would recommend Royal Lochnagar. A small distillery next door to Balmoral palace with the most enthusiastic, nice and knowledgable tour guide of all. Of course, there are more guides than just the one we met, but they limit the amount of tours each guide does per day to three to allow them to be spontaneous and personalize the tours. Which has to be a good thing.

Other than visiting castles and whiskey distilleries, we've also had a great day climbing with a guide, we hiked and explored nice towns. We will definitely go to Scotland again. We realized, while on the way, that we could even travel to all the same places again and yet see all different things. And then there are still so many places we haven't visited...

I'm back!

Hi everyone! Work should be really finished (although I did get a text from my former boss during my holiday about a bride whose dress is the perfect length and yet she wants it shorter... sounds very odd. I didn't investigate. I'll have to deal with that if and when I hear from her) and I've just returned from holiday.
E and I spent a lovely week in Austria. We planned this as our 'active' holiday, with lots of hiking and other assorted activities. 
We arrived on a wonderful day. Sunny and about 20 degrees Celsius. We kept hearing that the weather might change soon but, apart from a drizzly Tuesday (on which we went hiking anyway) that didn't happen.

 We went canyoning in the Almbachklamm with these guys. Canyoning is basically walking and swimming in a gorge, and jumping into the deep pools from the rocks. When you do this wearing clothes and go with a guide who knows the place, it's a lot of fun. I think I'm the jumper in the picture. Only the girls had yellow helmets and I was the only girl doing the higher jumps.
It also gave E the first real opportunity to try out the waterproof digital compact camera we bought last year.

Which made pictures like this possible.

We also went paragliding. It's one of those things we'd been looking at from a distance before and now decided to try. A tandem flight, obviously. 
People usually assume paragliding would be scary but it actually isn't (of course, knowing that control is in the hands of a seasoned professional helps). It's exciting and peaceful at the same time. If you don't have a fear of heights, of course. 

We booked a short flight this time, but we're already thinking about doing a longer one, starting higher, next year.

We did a lot of hiking as well. One of those trips took us through this place: the Kitzlochklamm. A spectacular gorge cut out by a small river, made accessible with footpaths, stairs and walk bridges. 

It's an easy route which we walked as part of a round trip and the landscape is great. 
Other hikes were more challenging and took us up some of the region's smaller mountains.

And we went rock climbing. Another guided event, of course (booked via the same people as the canyoning trip). This took place at a small bit of rock face where hooks had been made in the rock, especially for the purpose of climbing. We've done some indoor climbing in the past, but this was our first time on real rocks. More fun.
I don't have pictures because rock climbing is a two person activity. One climbs, the other holds the rope to catch the climber if necessary. Our guide said he was impressed with our teamwork :)
Another activity we'd love to do again.

On our last day there, our legs were tired and we figured we wouldn't really enjoy another hike, so we went to a spa instead.
And then, yesterday, we drove home again. It was a great holiday.

Today we're just getting some groceries and doing laundry. From tomorrow, I'll try to reclaim my full sewing mojo and look into options for work.


P.S. We paid for all of the activities with our own money. Any endorsement given here is only an expression of my appreciation, nothing else.