Strimming!!

 There is actually rain forecast for the next three days...but no promises as to how much or exactly where and when!!

That meant that garden tidying couldn't be postponed any longer...and it also meant strimming... Around the edges at the front and tidy the elder. I wish to be able to reach the fruit!!

Then after coffee, round all the edges and paths in the back garden, including to the back gate.  Openreach should be here tomorrow morning to fit a fibre broadband cable. The main pole for 12 properties is by my back gate!...the one that the birds take turns canoodling on it...

and after all that....late lunch and rest!!

Escape!

 A bits and bobs unsettled morning. 

At least I found gate hinges in the agricultural supplies shop by the mart and priced up a decent extension lead to go from house to studio/kiln shed.

I still can't find the pyrometer and thermocouple..I know I put them safe...too safe. Having checked the price again it us even more important to find them!

I made the decision to have an afternoon out ...so why does it take nearly two hours to actually spring (?!!) into action?!!!

The view on my way out..the knapweed is looking good and attracting plenty of insects

So off in the car, Just Because!  I find doing things that are frivolous very difficult.

I never was any good at playing or doing things just for fun....

I need a bit of practice driving to prepare for any trips. It has been a while!

Down to Galloway to see a photographer friend who runs a gallery in Lauriston...

Coffee, Craic, Cake and Craft!! Although being mid afternoon a decent hot chocolate fitted the bill! 

Then as they weren't too far away, called past potter friends..luckily as they were about to have a teabreak in preparing for Potfest in the Park near Penrith this weekend.

Good to chat .

And the long way home via lanes we'd cycled over some ten years or more ago..

busyness and frustration

 and sadness too. Daughter's cat was falling down and failing. so she was put to sleep in Daughter's arms. She was 21 years and 4 days old...almost half daughter's life...she is 44. 

This morning I made a lust on a post it note of things that need doing...even with small writing that little square was full!

So what got done? A modicum of kitchen tidying ...washing,, drying..very quickly on the line! ironing and keeping everything tidy.

unearthed my small dough mixer in the workshop to find what weight extension lead I will need ( must measure the length needed)..found that the company us still going in Bolton!

started moving timber around the studio out of the way of the stove...ready for its return after refurb. With any luck this timber will soon be used and out of the way!

Pinned the hem of a fitted sheet ( n.b....look for corner elastic) and spent a long time trying to get the handraulic machine sewing correctly. Tension problems as ever..

I think that I've threaded it correctly now.

But the tension still isn't right.

At least I've stopped it looping at the back...now the under thread isn't working properly to make a stitch....

Enough for today!!!

skies

 Different colours every night..last night

and tonight, albeit a little later

After yesterday's exertions I went to the gallery by car instead of by bus.

This gave me almost an extra two hours in the morning....the luxury of a lie in to the time that I usually leave the house!!

bike!!!!

 At last I'm back on my bike!!

With the bike in the back of the car ...shopping in Prestwick, park by the Sailing club....and off up the National Cycling Route..NCR 77 I think...

Arran

A beautiful sunny afternoon, I could hear the gorse seed pods popping as I rode. along by the golf course ( another good reason th wear a helmet!!!)

and the aim of the ride?!

It is worth every penny!!

Then back past the Twa Dug ...

I was glad of an almost tailwind back to the car....and I'm thinking of adding some pipewrap to my handlebars to cushion my hands. In some places tree roots across the path are lifting the surface in ridges, making riding hard (and painful) work.

 I haven't got the knack of taking a selfie...the others were worse!!

Fruit!!!

 Defrosting day for the tall freezer...which fortunately didn't take long.. What did take time was sorting the contents!!

Repacking some in boxes that would fit better, and finding just how much fruit is in there!!

Not only have I not baked properly for two years I've hardly preserved anything properly, just froze it.

We always had a fruit crumble in the fridge for dessert too.

All the currant crop from the past week has been processed and is in the freezer before it was lost.

3 pounds (it is an old recipe book!) of gooseberries and half a pound of onions are now a very hot and spicy chutney!

ha!..in reverse order just to surprise me!!

There is over 3kg of blackcurrants to deal with tomorrow!

Old, older and new

 

town hall spire

new plaza and exhibition building where Woolworths used to be

going up to the original Auld Brig

the "new" brig....about 200 years old!

Ayr...on the way to French conversation group in the Carnegie Library. 

I wish that it was every week instead of fortnightly.

just before 10pm this evening. It is still a little light half an hour later.

Pirate would have been 87 today.

It isn't easy without him, but his memory is strong and I can imagine what he'd be saying about what I'm getting on with!!