Victoria Plums...and weather..positively

Spicy Plum Chutney so far, ready for the Winter....

Today has been progressively wetter...so no ride out on the bikes today.

However today has been positive, despite the rain. The scaffolders have reached our house, and a large pile of poles and planks awaits them for tomorrow.
Home Energy Scotland has been organizing insulation and our home is about to be wrapped and rendered..that should hold it together for a few more years.
The schemes were built in the 30s, 40s and 50s with a twenty year life expectancy...metal frame and single skin brick...

Then a friend of the Pirate called by and ended up leaving, after coffee and talk, with the rocking chair that I'm always tripping over and some air mechanics memorabilia...and the offer to construct the exit flue/ damper section for my kiln.

I've been pushing on with lino printing, using linseed oil based inks this time.
Messier, but worth it for the better finish .  Enough to inspire me to cut some more....

lanes and bridges

 Down a steep short hill in Stair, sharp left and..

 sharp right over the narrow bridge which crosses the river Ayr.
Looking downriver there are the remains of a footbridge

 Turn up a little lane and there is a herd (?) of alpacas!

 This is a new lane for us (even for the Pirate after 27 years here!) and makes a big loop across to another road we know.
Down to another bridge across the Ayr...

 looking across to a railway viaduct, then back across the road bridge

 Up out of the valley then turn onto a smaller road....

 Just because the water wasn't piped into the houses, and the privies were outside....a community was destroyed

 A railway bridge this time, leading to Killoch coal washery

 This is in the village of Springs, just along from Woodside

 House names that have proper meanings....

You can see Arran,  there is a cairn on a hill/mound....
and Woodside....in Welsh....??
I wonder why.

A short ride with many bridges, the last one a mile from home that goes over the main A70...and with only 4 metres headroom large lorries make a detour through our village.

touring, briefly..

 We headed for warmer dryer weather...and started in Newton Stewart..over the bridge to Minnigaff and up the Cree Valley. We passed the Youth Hostel which surprisingly, for a bank holiday weekend, looked rather sad and closed.

A photo stop, at a waterfall I've used for a lino print...could get inspired with this one again...

 A happy Pirate

 more water..

 at the foot of this....so I walked up!

 We rode up the eastern side of the valley as far as the road to Glen Trool, but turned away to cross the valley and up onto the moors , crossing the Southern Upland Way to the Knowe Road , then back down the western side of the valley to Newton Stewart.

You can see we've been having plenty of rain...

walk up Brown Carrick Hill

 A row of beeches along the line of an old road

 then looking out over the Heads of Ayr over to Bute

 and down to Ayr itself

 Tormentil Heather and Moss

 looking inland to the uplands and rain clouds

 looking back down the hill then along the old road...and theres our car!

on top of the hill....

garden progress

 From here with his birthday present, to here, in a month....

 and thinning the onions in the previous bed, after today's pootle round the lanes.

cars....can't live with them...

and can't live without them....

We've just had the bill for keeping ours on the road...£525...for parts and mot...£140 for labour....

Had we had an idea how much it was going to be we would have scrapped it, even though it was just before a trip, two months ago. Now we have to keep it,but anything major going wrong means the end of the road.

At least having taken this long to give us the bill (due to ill health, his and wife) he isn't demanding the payment directly, we can split it.

No more trips away to races this year then, travel by bus/bike/foot unless necessary .

We WILL win Lotto tonight......

Culross Walk with friends

 Longannett power station...coal fired...now closed

 Grangemouth...refineries

 Three lads on a walk

 Culross private pier, built where centuries ago there were piers and much trade

 old cobbled lanes, and an exhibition by the Cone 8 group of potters...a lovely unexpected bonus on our day out!

 al fresco table tennis...and there are games painted on other tables

 the public toilets!

 and some gates to a large house

and along the Firth of Forth,the bridges in the distance.

A much needed day off,even if it meant yet more driving!

no photos..long weekend

We went as support crew to a national time trial championship...and I forgot to move the camera battery back to the camera from the charger....

However...I wouldn't have had a chance to take any photos.

It was a 12 hour time trial, Pirate was handing up drinks and food every hour, I was driving.  Our rider was riding well and riding tidily.
I'm glad in a way that we didn't see what came next..Pirate is stressing enough as it is.
After 175 miles, with our rider on course to a 70+ age related british record, a young lad overtook something,cut in and wiped out our rider with his wing mirror...at 65 mph this sheared off.
Result, miraculously, just a complicated ankle fracture and stitches in and out of the arm that took the impact and a lot of road rash.

We can't praise Addenbrookes NHS Hospital in Cambridge highly enough.

Our rider "escaped" by midday on Monday with foot in Moon Boot and on crutches...and I had to drive the 400 miles or more back to the Kingdom of Fife in a Jaguar XF Estate...with a bike rack on the back containing £15 grandsworth of bikes....scary....don't think that having automatic everything makes life easy!!  I'm glad to get back to my little old Citroen!!

We're back to the usual, dodging the showers to mow peoples' lawns, trying to keep the house presentable, keeping up with the washing...

Our rider?  Back home being organized by his big sister who is in her eighties!!
No riding or driving for at least six weeks, no racing at least until April...andd feeling very fortunate to be here.

All because someone behind the wheel of a ton of car wasn't paying proper attention.....

on the bus again

We are trying to limit our car use...not so easy when you live out of town, but at least we have a decent bus service from 7am to 5pm...it gets a bit sketchy after that!

 bridges...from another bridge...

 demolition and clearing still progressing.  This was Woolworths...

The oldest building left in Ayr...now the tourist information office.