Sunday 31 August 2014

more incentive....

I've been loaned a "new" steed....it lives up to its name, even with just my heavier training wheels in it...here's hoping I can live up to it!!

Friday 29 August 2014

incentive

Many thanks to Elaine of Bramble Rambles for her kind blogpost....I needed incentive, with everything that has been going on lately.

We're getting ready for some important pre-Masters World Track Championships racing and training, and it isn't long before we head to the Manchester Velodrome for the big event.

We've got all our regular lawns and hedges up to date luckily before today's twelve hours (and counting!) of rain.
Today we've been confined to barracks by the weather..at least the housework mountain has been reduced!

I'll be putting more in my etsy shop as soon as I can..and updating my website..high time!!
  I've been reviewing some of the black&white work by pegging it up on the wall above my computer....

We are making more enquiries about somewhere to move the workshop contents to ,up here...hopefully we've found the right person to talk to this time.
I'm getting much from using my new camera and making cards from my own images, photo or drawn. However I've come to the conclusion that I'm really more a 3D person.
So much to be done..

Saturday 23 August 2014

sorting the shed....

At last!!

Not sure how much less will be returned to the shed...but one can but hope!!

A day at the seaside

Today we went to Maidens Harbour Gala Day.

Our friend Rosie sold some flowering shrubs and plants, and fifty pots of home made jam and marmalade!!

I sold three small mugs and seven small herb plants......ho hum!!

Being beside the sea we had icecreams and the Pirate treated himself to a barbecued mackerel caught this morning half a mile away!!

The Pirate was great moral support to both of us- and it was he who sold the mugs!!
However he is feeling low- the combination of hormone therapy and yet more antibiotics is not conducent to feeling good in oneself.

He has even admitted to feeling officially old. Very unlike him.  He needs to ride his bike every day to feel good about himself, and we've just had two bike free days.....hopefully tomorrow's ride should sort that.
There is reiki therapy booked for next week for him, which we know has helped him over the past years.  I think I might just need it too.

Our funny peculiar weather is no help.  Autumnal weather in August, chilly nights and all!   Fruit has been ripening earlier than usual over the past couple of months, yet the sugar levels in the fruit seem low when you make preserves.

Thursday 21 August 2014

Ailsa Craig...again....


Last week on a whim....a takeaway supper, sit in the car to avoid the strong wind and marauding seagulls...and watch the sunset....a happy evening with no cooking for me and no washing up for the Pirate!!

back on track

literally!    

We had two hours on the track in the velodrome at Glasgow....life feels much better somehow!!

Saturday 16 August 2014

Meh!!

I am feeling decidedly dissuaded.

The printer I'd been trying to acquire is apparently the USA version of a photo printer here in UK....but there, it will do card thick enough for greetings cards, as well as print photos.   At least the enquiries department dealt promptly with my email. 
The company is also linux friendly.

Back to the drawing board.  All I want is a printer that feeds through instead of through ,turn 180 degrees and back.  The latter process means it wont take over 190 gsm card, and you really need 300 to 350 for decent cards.

I've just upgraded to the latest linux ,Ubuntu 14.04 thanks to my brother who also found me another secondhand laptop, so I should get fewer computer problems.  A few things have changed...more stuff to learn when I just need to get on with it!!

The weather,thanks to Hurricane Bertha is definitely NOT what it should be mid-August.
Now on her tail she is pulling in cold wet weather from Scandinavia.
We were lawn mowing this morning, which took longer than usual. That meant that The Pirate got soaked as he tried to mow lawn#3...that will wait until dry weather!!

Now we are home with the woodburner nice and warm and the de-humidifier is dealing with yesterday's washing.

The Pirate's treatment progresses. The radiotherapy finished at the end of June and the effects of that will be with us for another month. The hormone therapy will carry on until October 2016.  The side effects are depressing and include depression...not surprisingly.    We're assured that he'll be "back to normal" gradually after then...meanwhile his girth is increasing and his muscle bulk is decreasing. He eats healthily and not excessively...
He is back on his bike, thankfully!
This was approved by the specialist nurse in the local hospital as he has a Bloke Specific Saddle!! He uses the crosstrainer as well, to help the rest of himself.

It is hard mentally and physically dealing with what he is going through,for both of us.   We're hanging on in there and at least he realizes that it is hard for both of us.

I'm torn between just training hard on the bike , which I know pleases The Pirate and keeps him happy to see me doing what he cannot do at present. And trying to produce something to bring in an income, be it cards or herb plants.   Still no hope of a workshop or studio.  And keeping our home tidy or at least vaguely sorted.   And then there is looking after His Nibs as well....

So much to do ... so we'll just muddle through.

At least I managed to win a Silver Medal in the Masters National Track Championships, which I doubt I'd have done without his backing.
Now to enter the Worlds in October in Manchester...

Rant over....hopefully back to normal service now!!

Wednesday 13 August 2014

water


Not to be trifled with

Monday 11 August 2014

Bertha

She came to visit...luckily for us we just caught the edge of hurricane Bertha as she petered out, comparatively speaking, mainly over England and the East of Scotland.

As it was, we've had a lot of rain and fairly strong winds, but nothing like the tornado in Hull, and the washout near Nairn that took a whole lane.

Last night we even fired up the woodburning stove it was so cold indoors and wet out.  No chance unfortunately of seeing the largest full moon this year and the Perseid meteor showers.

Friday 8 August 2014

The Commie Games










We had a day out for the last day of racing at the velodrome in Glasgow...great fun and good weather too. It was good to see the Paracycling events...with partially sighted/blind stokers on the tandems..in with the other events instead of on a separate day.

It was a little different a week later for the road racing!





                                       Exactly so!!
 Montrose Street,THE Hill on the course...the women went up it 7 times,the men 11 I think...and it is as steep as it looks!!

One lap to go....and a good result, Geraint Thomas of Wales (and previously my old club CCCardiff) winning, and a Kiwi second!!

Thursday 7 August 2014

The Pirate's Birthday Bash

 With families,friends and Charlie The Dog. Also presents and The Cake!!