we've arrived

Like the swallows we've flitted- and been given two much needed sideboards in the process!

Unloading in progress....and we've been lucky to have three days of good weather whilst many others in the British Isles had a lot of rain.

Just before our last load last night, the full moon rose over the head of the Girvan valley and she was stunningly beautiful. 

We're surrounded by boxes and bike wheels, but we're beginning to make sense of things.
It was a relief to have a good night's sleep in a house that wasn't damp and wake to the morning sun.

Now we're doing a final clearout and clean up at the old address.

moving in

In progress!

for the confused

moving week starts here...and it is wet, of course.

The Pirate is moving about six miles from here as the tied cottage is needed for a shepherd.
Then we'll be on our travels and I'll be officially there next year!

the Pirate moves!!

Rent paid, cottage checked and photographed, paperwork signed!!!!

Moving day Monday!!

Now to concentrate on the Straiton Fun Day tomorrow, day off on Sunday and start moving Monday morning.

Posting will be even more irregular, but we have progress :-)

packing

Sorting and packing for someone else isn't easy, when you don't find it easy to do your own!

At  least papers will be with papers, bike stuff with bike stuff and so on. Even that is reducing how much space it all takes.    

It isn't easy to move from somewhere that is a double and a small room and a loft bigger.....but together we'll do it.

At  last we're getting more practical help too.  Just a week now until Moving Day and vans will appear and furniture moved.

visitations

We have just had a visit from (I quote her blog) a grumpy woman and her Eve- it was good to see friends and talk until late by the light of a log fire in the hearth.

steady progress

I'm slowly getting fitter- we rode round the local 10 mile time trial course together...after 2.5 miles I just sat behind on The Pirate's wheel!!  I was glad to finish...those who race will know what "pursuiter's cough" is like....lets just say I used more of my lungs than usual, which is good!!

Progress too on the downsizing of Stuff.....equipment has been given and sold and sent to store, but there is yet more... It DOES look worse before it gets better....but at least we are down to floor level from shoulder level!!

Yesterday we measured our new home...incentive for The Pirate to Get On With It!!!!

It is an absolutely beautiful morning, sun, breeze, the second lot of washing about to go out....and despite that I've just got a midge bite!!!! Well, this is Scotland!

coal mining

We had an afternoon out on our bikes last Sunday and went down through Old Dailly in the Girvan coalfield...of which one token bing (tip) and winding gear is left.

By the village shop is a small park....

That is a long time for mining to be here...over 500 years, yet there is little to be seen, and you'd be forgiven for believing it to be solely an agricultural area.

We called past a pottery, but no-one came to talk when we called, except the guard dog.....

and so on to the cycling club's clubroom aka hut, for lunch as a light rainshower fell.

then home through Barr and over the Carrick Hills (mountains!!) via Glen Ala, the so-called easy route!!

My strategy?   Bottom gear, watch the cadence on the cycle computer and synchronize breathing and pedalling.  I only walked two short sharp sections during the whole ride.  
It was breathtaking to be up in and on the hills again and I was quite proud to find that the promised ride of just under 40 miles was actually 10 miles further!.

We even got home before the rain and the washing on the line was dry!!

maybole

Maybole is our nearest small town, blighted by the main trunk route to  Stranraer going straight through the middle, despite the bypass plans having been agreed four years ago.

Everything shakes as the monsters pass....

The Pirate likes to walk on the kerb side of the pavement when we walk together.....here, he insists upon that!!

Looking the other way, you see the Town Hall.

This was built in 1887, grafted on to a higher 17th century tollbooth tower which was once part of the town residence of the lairds of Blairquhan (by Straiton).

There is another old building at the bottom of the high street opposite the post office and that and many of the older houses along it are blighted by the heavy traffic.

Many of the roads around here are potholed and badly patched.    You would never believe that when Mr Macadam invented his road surfacing that the aim was then to have the roads in England as good as those in Ayrshire!

one step back....

Just when I'm sure that I'm on the mend I have a long day and end up back overtired again. 
Still, paperwork permitting the Pirate does have a new home  and not too far from here too.
Also my car has been finally mended- £120 for what the Oily One could have done for nothing....and The Pirate's car sailed through the MoT test and not even one advisory comment!!

So I have been grounded...in bed and only to get up to go to the bathroom and the only job I'm allowed is last night's washing up.  

I'm feeling a bit better after three hours extra here...but what the ** is wrong?  All the tests were thankfully normal, and there were a lot of them.

Rant over.    I was enjoying riding my bike again....

It is another sunny day, even though the cool nights and misty mornings feel decidedly Autumnal.

stair rods!!

It was a bit damp today.....raining "stair rods" as they say!!    Therefore our lane flooded.....

and I have my doubts as to where this overflow came from.....

We went for a ride on our bikes....on  turbo trainers, side by side in the parlour!!

After lunch, yet more sorting of Stuff and house hunting online.  

The waters had mostly subsided by mid-afternoon and we took the chance to look at real houses instead of virtual ones!!


Maybe.....

going up for a change

This morning's ride went up to Loch Bradan, now the water supply for Troon.
Home is at 150 metres above sea level (about 500 feet), and once we reached the main valley road  at about 110m, it was steady, but thankfully not constant climbing....I only walked two short stretches!!

"keep right on to the end of the road"...well, the metalled bit anyway.

We climbed up the bank a little way to see what we could see- the "lump" on the right is at 376m and was in the way!  You can just see the hills to the north of the road between Straiton and Dalmellington (once a coal mining town)

sheep....never stay and have their portrait taken!!

A pretty flower growing in the boggy ground...I'm sure someone can tell me its name....

Then an exhilarating....no, scary!! ride back down the steep bits...and then we went straight on to Straiton and The Buck for coffee....and The Resident Dog decided that I wasn't to go anywhere...and placed her paw firmly by mine!!

The Pirate needed a few more miles under his belt but I chose to go back home..and arrived at the same time as today's rain showers..

Having recharged our batteries we have tidied more, found things that were being searched for and given away two good spare beds.
The rubbish bag is filling slowly and we can see more floor! 

There is still a lot to be sorted but we're seeing the light, thankfully.

walking the course

Looking up from the village

Straiton beach!

going up.....

and up....

this is where the junior fell runners will turn back, and the others go on up.....

and this is looking back down...

from here

The Galloway Hills

this is why the monument was erected...

and it was initially on the hill over the valley...but as it kept on being struck by lightning it was moved to the present site!!

risk assessment done!!

then back to work, helping cut grass.

back on the bike again

I did a circuit from Straiton today...10 miles in forty minutes, plus a stop for the picture above so that you can see today's weather....absolutely beautiful!!

The village cafe.
While I waited outside for the lunch we had ordered, the mobile fishmonger stopped nearby.   The village runs the community shop, and the post office calls there so we have a PO for part of the week.  There is a pub too, and a village hall.
Most importantly.....adorned with flowers, we have the village public toilets....

maintained by the village, not the council

Then back home to wrestle with a different system of transferring pictures...I've started using  a real camera for a change!

Lammas Day walk

The valley of the Water of Girvan.

We had a walk after tea- curtailed again by yet more rain!   If nothing else it enforces much needed rest after driving from Mid Wales.  
Indeed, the total mileage from Cwmcarn was indeed nearly..."500 miles" !!

Upon which note, did you realize that The Proclaimers are twins, and have been singing together professionally for thirty years?

Aberystwyth Alleys