Lest We Forget ...

There are many tributes to the fallen to be seen around the Borders this year - lots of yarn-bombing tableaux, and poppies fashioned from unusual materials. 

But this must be unique! Though I suppose it has been adapted for Remembrance Day by the addition of the poppy. The naval uniform is genuine, it belonged to an officer whose family have commissioned an upholsterer  to make this very striking armchair. Everything is genuine apart from the gold braid on the arms, apparently.

We were having an early lunch in our favourite cafe when we got into converstation with two ladies at the next table and they pointed it out in the window of a shop opposite. 

One of them is the mother of the woodworker who took over Tim Stead's workshop after he died, and  he still makes furniture in the style he learned as Tim's  apprentice. 

You may have seen Tim's work in the National Museum, if you have watched the huge clock/automaton in the foyer as it strikes the hours. Fascinating. We were instructed to call on him the next time we're passing Blainslie - he'll ask you in for a coffee and show you round the workshop, said his Mum :-)