Expanding

 Today's foray to Ayr and Prestwick's op shops yielded two pairs of jeans, one pair of trousers and two long sleeved tops. I collected my order of 4 bras(the expense!!!) from M&S...most odd, you type in a number on a touch screen and a person scurries out through a door next to it clutching your items in a sealed bag....

All of said clothing is, of necessity, yet another size bigger....

Discussion has been had with daughter...

I am eating sensibly....but look at calories just in case...

Blood tests have been done..all ok and nothing even marginal.

Get back on the turbo for half an hour a day....meh!!...so I did it....as she said, if she can do it with chronic pain.....

Now to do it every day....

A convenient occurrence...the potters supplies people will be at Potfest in the Pens in Skirsgill Auction Mart in Penrith, 23-5 October...and I'll be passing by on the 24th...so that will be my first stop on Saturday!! I'll be able to collect my missing glaze ingredient...and maybe others...then!!

I'm looking at my squashes....and wishing them to hurry up and ripen!!

Daughter suggests some bubble wrap....not close around them, but enough to protect against a frost. That sounds like a good idea.

Sunday sales

 No photos again today..

what was the one thing that I forgot?...My phone!!

I woke early...before tbe alarm, thankfully, and decided to get on with it!

Once out, first job was to defrost the windscreen...and of course the internal fan decided to sulk. I had to drive the first ten miles with the screen wipers on and the windows open!

However a start at that time of day in order to be at the velodrome by 8am, meant that I saw an absolutely awesome sky...totally clear and colours from red on the horizon through to a clear blue above.

Set up and selling by 9, nothing big, nothing over £20...and after paying for the tables, about £200 in the bag after 4 hours.

A reassuring amount of sales, and as far as I could see more vendors but no dealers.

Packing up was well organised as I'd kept most things in the mushroom trays...brakes in one, stems in another etc..

As we were all leaving coaches were turning into the overflow velodrome car park and a wave of people were walking from the station...traffic was almost at a standstill coming towards Celtic Park, over the road from the velodrome. 

Fitba'.....Celtic playing a home game,!!

I unpacked as soon as I arrived home..and I arrived to the front "meadow" cut short as my neighbour had given it its autumn trim at the same time as doing his own.

The stock is far more organised now and doesn't appear to dominate the room upstairs. I could even get back to selling on fleabay!!

slow saturday

 For some reason  I woke far too early...before 5...but at least the radio programmes were interesting. Walking and farming on Radio 4 then from 6.30 an hour and a half of "Out of Doors" on Radio Scotland.

I did hear most of it...honest!! but it is easy to drift....

I packed the car ready for tomorrow's Velojumble...doors for stallholders opens at 8,  so I need to be on the road before 7.

I checked the ingredients that are needed for the clear glaze...one short...only needed for 4%of the ingredients...but I was certain that I had some. I checked the price of a kilo...and the price of carriage...

I'll be going near one supplier a week today..if they open Saturdays I'll be able to collect it and save an average of £6....

I need to relabel many of the tubs of glazes and ingredients are fading.

It gets chilly in tbe studio now, especially as next door's laurel shades most of the back garden by 3 as the winter sun is lower.

Change jobs...sorting books to pass onto new homes on my travels!

peopling

 I had the jobs lined up...drive into town on quiet back roads, get specific things from two shops then collect my laptop.

Very nicely, with the extra work they did on it , they didn't ask for anything above the initial quote, which they could have done.

Then a late lunch in Waterstones....and a short blether with a friend in tbe small shop on the high street where she works.

Did I fancy another three hours in Ayr until the Italian evening?....I could have gone to the library and joined in on the Italian conversation group that alternates with the French one....  

I need to socialise a little more, but...

I escaped  instead!!

Back home I carried on hunting for tbe drawing book with glaze recipes...instead I found the notebooks with daily records of the pottery work I did from 2007-2012.

How I did all that...and worked part time..and had two allotments...two of my sons were still at home...

I wonder where all the pots are now?!

marking time

 The morning started absolutely sodden..but thankfully the wind had abated.

Getting up isn't easy on a grey morning as sunrise becomes later and later...but on the commute to the gallery the sun peeked through the clouds!!

It was a long and chilly day...with one sale after three quarters of an hour....and noone from just after four until 4.28 when two women mooched in...mooched around.,.and sloped off, all without saying a word!!

One feels rather deflated after a day  like that!  The high point was restocking my section of the card stand, as they are selling slowly but steadily.

Onward to tomorrow!!!

planning

 Out on the bus today...saving fuel...and after two buses the first stop was the travel agents....

Tickets for the biennial trip to Aotearoa NZ sorted...and this time going from Edinburgh instead of Glasgow to avoid a 9 hour stopover in the wee small hours!Return to Glasgow as usual. 

I see no point in going from anywhere outside Scotland, as then I'd have extra fares to pay!! Here the buses are free for 60+.....

Argos...very nice lad checked the website...agreed that getting a repair via that , wasn't possible. He gave me the customer support  of the manufacturer....Yes, I know, and so did he, that the onus is on the shop.... .

But...we'll see.   If that doesn't work I can try a consumer help site...maybe Martyn Lewis' money saving expert?

A text arrived as I was on the next bus, a short ride into Ayr...the computer shop...

Off one stop early to walk to see them.

They needed to contact my brother...so they could check if the remote access app was working between him and my computer....

A couple of shops to look at then home on the next bus....

After a cuppa , down to glaze preparation...stirring out where they had settled since last time...

I need to check for a clear glaze as well..I can't recall seeing a tub ready made up, so I'll look through the recipe book for that.

The wind was roaring around the studio, no rain yet...and whistling around the back door in the house. Yet it doesn't feel that cold.

I'm supposed to be at the gallery tomorrow but I'll need to keep an eye on the weather forecast. If the wind gust level is going yo be over a certain speed for a few hours the Castle and grounds are closed. There are a lot of tall trees...and thanks to  storms over recent years there are fewer than there were.

Overall a useful day with things falling into place without any big fuss!

Shuffling

 I started tidying the sewing room today. 

I had thought of early lunch and a walk...but the weather saw that thought and said HA!!!

Every time I put my nose out of the door thinking there was a break it started raining and blowing again!!

I found yet more bike stuff...I hope it will all fit in the car...and that a lot less will come back after the cycle jumble!!

The material for the patchwork cushion cover turned up, so that has been washed.

That is to make a cushion cover with the zigzag patchwork squares that I started in Mātangi in February '24!! I bought the cushion and this other fabric last year!!

It will be done....eventually!! If I can afford to go again I should take it with me to show the fabric shop in Mātangi!!

Anyway today the internet has been fair company..keeping up with friends and family afar.  Sometimes I'm sure that I spend too much time on there...but quite a bit is useful time spent.

Plus there is learning French and keeping up the learning with news emails and reels .

I'm reading a Brief History of France..a little every night...it is fascinating how the roots of so many things that we take for granted are actually in France. 

And a small interesting fact....the company producing the seeds that I bought in a Limoges supermarket...was started in 1734...