Glasgow School of Art and Renfrew Square Gardens

Earth Hour, and more progress

Earth Hour is serious....as we are using the resources in twelve months that Mother Earth can renew in eighteen months.

However it can also be fun!!


The Pirate now has his treatment schedule.   One appointment on Wednesday to plant gold seeds for internal triangulation markers.  Then in a fortnight a CT scan and small external triangulation markers.
After that he will be "zapped" for 15 minutes each day, five days a week from  May 5 to June 25.     No more cancer, hopefully, but continuing hormone therapy, with its side  effects.   Just look on Wikipedia.   He has them all, with a vengeance, apart from nausea, thankfully.  Roll on Autumn 2016 and then the slow return to "normality"...hopefully.  Luckily we have a doctor friend who is the same age and just over two years ahead of The Pirate in treatment.  He gives us hope and inspiration.

Some of you may have noticed that my website had disappeared....its back, thankfully.  A spur to get on and update!!

mugs! and progress

I'm gradually refilling my Etsy shop..its a job to find time to do everything!

The weather is gradually improving, so we are beginning to get lawnmowing and gardening work at last.
  Just as The Pirate's treatment moves to the next stage...radiotherapy. He did have the choice to stay on hormone therapy for life....
However the doctors' choice coincides with his...treatment aiming for a cure.
They plant the gold seeds that help the beams zap the correct place, next Wednesday. one other locating appointment, then he'll be off on his seven and a half week, thirtyseven, twenty minute dose treatments...Monday to Friday with weekends off.
Then carry on with the hormones for three years total. So roll on October 2016!!

We're aiming for the World Masters Games in Auckland, New Zealand in 2017....

a bike day

 Today we sent off the riders, at minute intervals on the Ayr Roads Cycling Club's Hill climb time trial.     This is looking back down from the Nic o' the Balloch as the last spectator breasted the climb by the finish.....and this is the view the other way from the top.

 and here they all are, with the finishing times being read by the top timekeeper.

Then The Pirate and me went to Glasgow for a session on the velodrome....hard work and preferable to this morning....warm and dry!!

blogging hijack

Anyone know where to report an hijacked blog....looks like "The Idle Duck" has been hacked and is being used to sell items on Am....

printing begins

First print....not bad.    I think the lines could be wider and/or deeper.

Trying to remember back forty years, techniques I enjoyed.    Consistency of ink, how much ink, different paper, which cutter for which line....its coming along ok.

Laura Ashley started in her kitchen.....

Spring?

The "May" is definitely NOT out....and the Equinox gales are roaring around the house and puffing down the chimney despite the new cowl (although that has made an improvement)

The shop re-opens....and life

I'm gradually refilling my Etsy shop (see link on the right hand side).

Just as the postal rates rise yet again!!!   Wish me luck!!

I also need a computer geek HERE, not just three and a half hours away by road and on facebook.....I've been given another printer (one which doesn't bend the paper/card in processing) as the last one's brain went AWOL.

As I use Linux, instead of wundows or mac, I need a different download....but as it doesn't come via the Ubuntu software centre (but is still free) it is a bit more complicated (for me) to install....
I'm not brave enough to do this stuff!!!

Meanwhile the Pirate has had his "bits" scanned after having an infection there....painful and worrying...and his (Housemaid's!!) Knee.   All ok.  The worst part...the waiting....and worrying...is nearly over.     His first "meet and greet" appointment at the West of Scotland Cancer centre in Glasgow (The Beatson) for his radiology is in a week's time.   We'll have a day out on the bus for free at the same time as his appointment isn't until 5pm.

The weather? Ah, the weather...like last year apparently ( not that we'd know by personal experience as we were in New Zealand)  and then it turned nasty and windy  and snowy...and even in New Zealand the snow damage on the Isle of Aran made the TV news headlines!!

The BDO Four Day Tour of the Northland is off and riding the first stage as I write....how we would love to be there riding or even just helping. 
We're planning to be back there in 2017 for the World Masters' Games in Auckland....if not before!!!!!!

cutting edge technology...

Thankyou Andrea for your comment on the last blogpost.     It may be forty years since I did this last, but I enjoyed it then.....

Thankyou also to Yeractual, the handle of the tool for pushing fruit pulp through a sieve is also good for rubbing the back of an inkjet printed image to transfer it to the lino.


One's fellow bloggers are there just when one needs them!

First printing tomorrow, then the final cutting if needed.

technology

At times defeats me.   Now the printer is refusing to print, and it looks like a brain malfunction, not something physical.

Just when I thought I could produce something to bring in some income, use my images for an exhibition.....


I'm  warming some lino....back to basics!!

a beautiful wee beastie

Wish it was working now....and that the greenhouse was still there.   The grapevine still lives, even with the winter weather a year ago. I wonder if we'll get some of that this year?

Ayr

 We walked a guid Scots Mile, in all...and saw an abandoned boat....the boatyards now have housing built upon them.

 Now this is for Soub to explain!!

 I love wynds...alleyways

  chimneys and pots...bet the seagull hopes this lum wont reek!

 Town Hall....fantastic work on this building and many others in Ayr

 Just rewards!

 Typical dormer window shape here...

A good day, with plenty of sun!!

 We're paying for it today, with fog and mist but The Pirate has been doing his soul good with some digging!

cards in production at last!

After much experimentation and struggling to understand and learn new computer programmes..not to mention getting the computer and printer to talk to each other!!...I have started production!

In a couple of days I'll have supplies of envelopes and cellophane wrappers, then they'll be going in my Etsy shop.

It is always surprising how much the presentation changes how you see the card and image.

Lets hope these catch the Spring/Easter market in the local shop, where they'll be selling at £1.75 each!!  Online they'll be £8.50 for five, with free P+P.

I've been going through my stock of images and quickly printing off ones that catch my eye.  Most of them seem more suited for exhibition or gallery work rather than for use as cards.    
This is teaching me how I look at things!!

While I've been busy printing, The Pirate has made a marvellous stirfry for supper..
it goes beyond words, to have someone to work with and who is willing to care for you and be cared for.    "caring is sharing.." as they say in New Zealand!

cars!

The trials and tribulations....the car is now sitting in the garage waiting on parts on back order from Peugeot....the top strut plate is rather vital.  One is just hanging on by one bolt, the other is showing corrosion.    

So no car for a week....at least.

Saves on fuel and if we need to go anywhere we can go by bike, walk or bus!

Thankfully we seem to be in for nearly a week of dry(ish) weather!!

up in the air

Rooks in the air above the farmyard where we live...the wind has been blowing a hooley all day, but at least it hasn't rained!

Dumfries and back

 Gracefields Arts Centre.     Galleries Outside and In!!

 Moniaive for a late lunch, and a little walk..up a little hill....

 a steep little hill...and said hello to a horse..

 and saw interesting dressed stone gateposts, all with bench marks...

 looking back down on Moniaive, with the way home straight up the valley ahead

 Say no more!!   It is also the site of the oldest pub in Scotland, possibly (The George) and the Green Tearoom.

and back home via Carsphairn, last village in Dumfries and Galloway before you return to Ayrshire.   Notable for its free public toilets, which you find in hardly any of Ayrshire's villages!!