Windy!!

 Still showery...with added wind!!!

Bro went off on a camping rally weekend..fortunately this year not on his motorbike ( electric Energica if you are into motorbikes) with a tent, but in his new Kia electric van with a bed that he has fitted into it.

I headed to Ayr to the computer shop..and the problem of the ubuntu password was solved..now they can work out what is the matter with it. 

Coffee was then in order....

Beastie Brews...well worth a visit, if nothing other than to see one mural which reminds me of the artist Tom Hickman!

Beastie as in "to a mouse"...

then on my way...

I had difficulty standing still enough to show the lamp post waving!

Home via the electric gubbins superstore to buy a keyboard to go with the tablet that I bought the other day. 

I bought a black one..tidy, always looks clean...and £5 more than the pink one they had plenty of stock of in the shop...a company still thinking that women like pink...and pink tools....and realising that they have made a mistake!!

I had planned a walk this afternoon but....

Instead I stayed warm and dry, photographed the sofa that is too big and needs to go...

Then researched prices of cards, envelopes and packing , then packing and reinforcing for selling prints. I have stock that needs selling, so I must get organised!!

more pootering..and a walk

 The tablet progresses..case and glass screensaver ordered...much better than plastic ones that get scratched!

The laptop that I bought two and a half years ago is refusing to turn on and work....so we returned it to the shop ..luckily in Ayr.

Then lunch in Waterstones café followed by a drive to deliver a book of Pirate's...going to a daughter of one of his Ayr cycling clubmates. She loves Arran , gies there walking a lot and has a collection of books about the island. It is a book of walks on Arran.

On then to Troon...why not?! for a walk along the shore, looking down on the woodyard and out to sea where a ferry was off to Arran.

They are going from Troon as the harbour is about to get a long awaited upgrade now that the government has bought it from Peel Ports.

Then around to the harbour and the old harbour cottages where the harbourmaster and others lived.

Then home on the back roads to avoid rush hour and road works!

pootering

 Bro was busy today working on peoples' websites that he maintains...so a nice slow day for me!..

We grabbed half an hour between showers for a walk before lunch..just made it!! It showered heavily last night, but during the day the heavy showers skirted around us.

4pm and we needed OUT!!  And I needed a new tablet as the old is only Android 8 and getting rather slow. Only really useful for doing things offline...

Back home and I bottled the pickled plums and made supper. 

Then it was time to get the  new tablet going...all his work!!

A few days this and that

 I've been busy doing bits of all sorts of things.

Like a computer with too many tabs open!!

Friday was good...arranged for the local fencing Teuchter (Highland Man!) to come and give his opinion and quote for my front gates and fence. That will be Monday morning.

Then a shopping run with a vengeance..just Sainsbugs (fuel for me and the car!) and Lidl.

Friday lunchtime is NOT a good time for me to shop..both of them were heaving!! Still, a conversation with an older man about the merits of the special offer figs was worth it!

They were 35p each...and huge....! We discussed fig preserve recipes ...

Then French conversation, with just six of us and our teacher....reading out in turn the same passage of Fontaine's fable about the Lion and the Rat....written in 1668.

(I discovered yesterday that he lived in Limoges at one time....as did Voltaire...and Molière..)

It was interesting to see how we are all progressing.   

The teacher is also a brilliant artist and draws on the whiteboard easel so we remember things...like how to say "ou"....

Loup Garrou ...is a werewolf!!

From there we went to the French evening. Not just the class, but nearly twenty in all, French people, Scots with French blood, French learners...

I found it a bit overwhelming...but did some talking...

Yesterday was gardening day..

lifting the rest of the tatties. I thought that I'd been clever, planting them closer in closer rows...and not removing any of the eyes. I was aiming for more and smaller ones....

They are now stacked in three more trays under the kitchen bench!!

I started tidying the workshop ready to glaze pots..but that was enough for the day.

Today was grab the chance day..wash..and dry!!  clothes while it was fine. Then prepare chutney ingredients...plums and apples both foraged and onions from the garden...

I put the rest of the plums in the freezer, two boxes minus stones and three with. 

Better there than rotting on the bench!!

blogger's latest quirk

 My following list hasn't been working for two days....

I'll catch up with you soon enough!!

sunny day

 A most pleasant day today ..washing done and dried, ironing not done yet...

Study floor has been cleared...then my brother can decide if he wants to sleep there when he comes or on the sofabed. I need to get new curtain rings for the study....ones that the screw in eyes ( that you clip the curtain hooks into) don't pull out of the ring.

Later on I went for a walk through the nature reserve. Where the top exit to fields is there is an apple tree...not ripe yet! Although there were a few handy windfalls.

Across to the next apple trees...past some inquisitive young cows....

I was lucky to see our farmer friend on whose land I forage. I hadn't seen him since Pirate died. He said I was looking well anyway...and so is he at 85, checking round the sheep that are on his fields for grazing, on his quad bike with sheepdog!

I picked another bag of plums and found a different apple tree with plenty brought down by the winds that we've haf the past few days....then home before the bag got too full!

Then the first five foot long row of tatties was dug...and berries  picked from the elder tree that I grew from a cutting.

Making food

 Days at the gallery leave me feeling washed out the following day.possibly because it is a day without much moving around, let alone exercise. Because of that, I don't sleep well..which compounds the problem.

So today was, shall we say...low key. I wasn't a day for much walking either, with sudden showers!

I did a little tidying in the greenhouse. Taking out the tomato plants that are going nowhere, taking off leaves that are past their best.  Hoping that the blight stays out of the greenhouse!

The squash are making the greenhouse all jungly!! the squashes are only large marble size...but it shows what is possible, if I get them going early enough.

The plums that I'd foraged were crying out for attention....Three and a half pounds are now being pickled..a sweet pickle..this takes over a week after the first cooking in the oven, each day boiling up the vinegar syrup then pouring it back over the plums.

I had bought some limes, reduced  to pence..they are now being pickled on the windowsill in a large glass jar.

As the oven was warm...a batch of granola went in. 

None of these were a lot of work...and plenty of breaks were had!

The last job, start a batch of yoghurt..that looks after itself overnight.

Then to Duolingo. The course finished at level 129, I've gone back to the beginning...

We'll see if I remember enough!!