Wick (Moss & Diamonds): Week 12, 2 March

This week, I am pleased to say that the computer is sorted out.  Everything is back where it should be.  The most difficult application to rectify was Lightroom, where the program hadn’t been able to open the photo catalog.  This is not a disaster, as the catalog does not contain the photos themselves.  Various internet remedies were tried, most of which involved putting the catalog in another location or changing the file permissions.  Modifying permissions on the Lightroom folder didn’t work, but I was able to connect the program to a different copy of the catalog.  Finally, I thought to change the permissions on the folder where Lightroom resides, and Bingo! 

Glorious Sunshine

With the weather being vastly improved, I’ve been able to go on a couple of walks.  The foothpaths run east or west.  East is towards the harbour, and there are two choices – either along the North Head path or along the South Head path.  The North Head path goes along the top of the cliffs, past the North Baths, the WWII gun emplacement, and the ‘Soldiers’ Tower’ monument.  The South Head path starts at the harbour‘s end and continues past the lifeboat shed and the old quarry.  At the end, there’s a stairway up the cliffside where the path continues to the Trinkie pool and the Castle of Old Wick.  Both North and South Head paths are part of the John o’Groats Trail, which runs from Inverness to John o’Groats. 

Gnarly Hawthorn

The path towards the west starts at the edge of town and follows the edges of fields for about a mile and a half, where it ends in a hillock.  The wide margin of marsh between the farmland and river means there’s only a few places where the river is directly alongside.  This path more often taken, partly because it’s more scenic, and also because the prevailing wind comes from the west, and I like to head out into the wind and come back with it.

Lybster Lighthouse

The Gansey Group in Lybster met again this week.  It’s a welcome extra session of knitting, as I sometimes must skip knitting in the evenings when I’m out.  One of the ladies was wearing ‘Wick Leaf’, which we published in The Knitter magazine a few years ago.  She had made it in Herring Girl Pink, which showed the pattern extremely well.  It’s a nice pink, too – pink without being brash or girly. 

Lichen on willow

The sleeve on the current gansey is well under way now, and I am very pleased with the progress.  The four pattern bands, which come down to the forearm,  are finished, and they follow the same order as the bands in the yoke.  This means that, serendipitously, the pattern at the start of the sleeve matches the first band on the yoke.  The yoke band ends at the centre of the gusset, and the sleeve band begins there.

For the next two weeks, I’m slipping the bonds of Caithness and am heading south for a bamboo pipe workshop in Devon.  On the way, I’ll be visiting friends.  See you on the other side, and enjoy the spring weather.