Tidy? And a touch of Winter

 

I was not about to go out in that!

And I didn't...apart from taking some recycling to the recycling bucket stack.

Because I worked on tidying the kitchen and clearing the first half of the bench...just about done it..

The living room is over sofa-ed...with work in progress stacked...

Organised chaos....

And this is the rug that was asked about..well, half of it!!

A present from my mate Big Pete. Apart from being a part time potter...and gardener..and art mover (his business) he did house clearances. 

There are a some family heirlooms on the old sofa. I'm digging them out to give to Daughter when they come up for a couple of days next month. A still life oil painting by grandpa, and also by him a picture in enamel of Christchurch (England) harbour. Then , made from shell casings, a vase and a teapot. There is a small box as well but she may already have that.

Calming the state of the place, so that I can do things without having that sitting at the back of my mind. 

She has taken on Pirate's genealogy research too..she is good at that! But I need to organise what I have.

She is following up all sorts of leads on my family tree. Nothing concrete yet on the French leads...but that is problematical, with genealogical DNA testing being illegal in France. What we need is documentation...which for refugees then as now is difficult.....

Not a lot

 No photos today...no going out either...

We haven't got any snow in the village, but I can see the next one 200 foot higher up, just over a couple of miles away, and the snowline is at the top of that village.

I've done a little bit of kitchen sorting.. empty jars and cordial bottles up to the Sewing room aka Room of Doom...two trays of apples now on a shelf under the kitchen bench so that they are out of the sun..when it does come through the kitchen window!

Paper plastic and spare bottles to the recycling buckets. Fife friend gave me a bag of empty wine bottles with screw caps..

These have been cleaned, de-labelled and soaked in a Milton solution for 15 minutes then drained. They are now ready for the next batch of apple juice production...When I get Roundtoit....

Creativity has ground to a halt...not surprising really as it is at freezing point during the day and apparently going to get down to -8⁰C the next two nights.

So many things that I SHOULD be doing....

So much I need to do.... hopefully tomorrow....

Wet and dry

 A day of showers..and ear and eye tests...and paying for new lenses (£120) and new specs (£119) and having an ear test...all good!

The small art and crafts shop. The Dancing Thistle, took four smaller prints, tiny bowls a berry bowl and two other various bowls plus a couple of bud vases... brilliant,!!

Waterstones lunch to celebrate everything. Then I did the rounds of the op shops...and the ones in Prestwick...looking for curtains. 

Practically all had nothing!!

We had heavy showers.. luckily I was on a bus

But later the light was fun

We did it!

 Through the front door on its back....up end and turn..walk it through the living room door...walk it to its place set down and....

                   Voilà!!!!

The covers need replacing....but it looks like the bed part has never been used.... so worth every penny.

My helper went away happily holding a jar of homemade chutney...made with the plums of another member of the cycling club!!

It has been a beautiful..but cold..day....and the primulas and primroses are still flowering. Last January's -10⁰C hardly checked them...and they haven't stopped....

Ending

 Housework done, I drove to Fife friend's house late morning, and waited for him to walk back from chapel ( which in Scotland means Catholic...I wonder why it has ended up that way round here)

Then to Dunfermline where the sofa bed resided that I was buying....

The owner has said that it was 5 foot wide..

It was.. BETWEEN the arms...

I now know that I can get a 6 foot sofa in the back of a Berlingo with no rear seats and the passenger seat as far forward as possible!!!!

We were about to give up when it decided to cooperate!

Back through Dunfermline...and there were lots of people walking away from a park....and Xmas floats....and Papa Smurf driving in the other direction on a motorbike!!

We both needed a coffee after all that!!

Then a good drive home...and arriving just as night fell.

Picture tomorrow to prove that it was done!!

Beginning

 The sliver of new moon has disappeared as the sun rises in a clear sky.

A new season starting frostily and Robin and blackbird are shouting a warning..a local cat slinks by.

Time to hang the washing out on the line...it is forecast to be dry today.

Stock

 Gallery duty today...and time to change stock around a little....plus to consider what might sell in the small art and shop in Ayr that is relocating.

Fresh work in the Smiddy Gallery.

My prints are coming from there too, and the smaller ones will go to Ayr.

The Dancing Thistle, although moving to bigger premises will still be a small shop...I'm looking forward to seeing how she arranged the shop for opening on Monday.

After supper I reviewed my stock of runner beans...taking the beans from the pods

More had spoilt than I had hoped..I think that next year I need to get a lot of different seeds sown earlier, and have them finish sooner in the year...

Getting these ripe and dry has been a problem. Hopefully an earlier start will solve this.