Winner announced & Another day trip!

Congratulations SIOBHAN you are the winner of my mystery package give-away.  All entrys were split into coloured groups and placed in a basket.  My daughter then chose the winner which was Blue, this contained Natalie, Michelle, Siobhan, Tracey and Mary.  All these names were then placed in the basket and my son then chose the winner. Depending on the mood of my tempremental email box Siobhan, I will be in touch soon. Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to enter my giveaway and it was great to learn more about all you lovely people who take the time to visit my blog. It really brightens my day.

Thank you to everyone for the lovely comments on my Stitchy Witch. I have decided to go without the mat.  My needle has been out of action the past few days as I just haven't had a minute to sit down and stitch.  I am late on choosing the SAL chart for May, sorry Elaine, I will do it soon and I need to get into my box and decide on my next project. Can someone add an extra day on this week please.

On Sunday we went for another drive and our first stop was at Threave House & Gardens. The house was built by Wm Gordon a Liverpool businessman in 1872. It was passed over to the National Trust for Scotland in 1948.  The trust has maintaned and developed the 24 hectares of garden. The gardens are used as a school for other gardeners from the National trust all over the uk. As you can see it wasn;t too bright a day weather wise but here are some images from the beautiful gardens.

Our next stop was Kirkcubright, which sits in the estuary of the River Dee at the north Solway shore. This is a harbour town which has housed generations of artists and craft makers. MacLellans castle was built in 1582 by Sir Thomas MacLellan, Provost of Kirkcubright.

After visiting a lovely coffee shop over looking the harbour we then went to Broughton House. This is a beautiful 18th century town house, home of the artist E A Hornel. Over the years I have visited many National Trust properties but I have to say this was one of the best. The house had a wonderful collection of art, ceramics and furniture. You were able to visit Hornels studio and the gallery had an amazing collection of his paintings. My favourite part was when we started to walk up the stairway to the upper floor. All the walls  were covered with Samplers.  I could have spent hours their just looking at them, they were amazing.  They were all stitched early 1800's by children from age 6 - 14.  Even though this was their pastime, it is still quite unbelieveable that children of this young age were able to do such intricate work. Ian had to drag me away as people couldn't get up and down the staircase for me ooohing and aaahhingg..lol. I would so loved to have shared pictures with you all but you are not allowed to take photographs inside any historic houses, castles etc. But I did get some lovely pictures of the garden. It was designed and inpired by Hornels visit to Japan.

The Marina picture above is the view behind the wall of the rear of the garden.

Our final stop was to this beautiful costal landscape in the sheltered Urr estuary. It was so nice to just sit here and relax in the piece and quiet with the lovely view. Hope I haven't bored too many people with my photos as I know some people just like to read about stitching. Be back soon. Hugs!