Wednesday 29 August 2018

carry on...

garage says the "new" beam isn't good enough....scrappie says he checked it before taking it off the scrapped car....stalemate...£85 credit note...

and carry on. its safe enough and all legal.

I'll get the Oily One's view on it tomorrow.....

Monday 27 August 2018

car t.l.c. and ideals

We took the car over to the garage that used to care for my old 405 estate...
They don't mind working on old cars, they listen...and they talk to me as well, not just the Pirate!! After all,it is my car.....

It's getting a secondhand rear axle ("beam") as it has rather sick bearings on one side. Apparently its a known fault of psa vehicles like mine..I'd hoped that The Oily One would have been able to do it, as he knows how to recondition and replace the offending bits, but time hasn't allowed that. The bearing worsened so also I wasn't going to drive it 400 miles to get it done, even though we will be heading south soon anyway.

As we delivered the car two days early...they're going to start work on it tomorrow!!

Back to bus travel, no complaints. I much prefer to use public transport whenever possible, if not bike or foot.  Luckily we can go by bus for free in Scotland, both of us being 60+ years old...however going to see family is a problem as the car works out cheapest financially.
Ideally one lives near enough to family...but which bit?!! and why would we ever leave Scotland????

photo catchup

 so far...not sure whether to cut more or start afresh.

A walk in Prestwick

 then a walk by Ness Glen
 A panorama in two halves from the Dark Sky observatory

 and a bridge at the foot of Ness Glen, over the Doon River



Sunday 26 August 2018

Ness Glen

Where we walked yesterday, although we didn't walk down the gorge.
http://www.ayrshirescotland.com/ness-glen-walk.html

Saturday 25 August 2018

progress

Yesterday was too wet to go out...
study bookshelf 1 emptied and moved down to the living room.
study bookshelf 2 emptied and moved 90 degrees.
Hawthorn berries and Wild Apples from the freezer cooked up and set to drip through a muslin...

I discovered my copy of Joe Finch's Kiln Building Book and started reading it...flue design here we come.

Today we have had lovely weather...
After breakfast the Wild Apple and Hawthorn Jelly cooked up quickly...dark and tasty!
A bedding wash and a clothes wash, out on the line in the garden and both dried.
Pirate worked more on the "new" back axle for the car, taking out bolts , cleaning, saving garage time that would have to be paid for.

Lunchtime out, we went to the Roundhouse Snack bar and Osprey viewing by Loch Doon.  We walked up to the Dark sky observatory above Ness Glen(unfortunately closed) and back, then drove to the end of the metalling near the loch head before returning home.

While Pirate mowed our front lawn,and next door's front and back lawn ( a thanks for looking after our garden every time we go away), I moved the books back into both bookcases.
The study now has a little more organization, and sorting other things there will be easier.

Tomorrow is forecast wet...looks like more indoors work to get the study into order!

Little steady steps to get things sorted and make it easier just to get on with it!

Friday 24 August 2018

inertia

I have so many things I should be doing...adding content to the website, selling on Etsy and Ebay, researching family history...I haven't read a book in ages..plus all the household things like preserving...

With a throat spray and nasal spray the health problems are subsiding. It doesn't answer what triggers it each time,but at least I can sleep better and that improves everything! I just musn't squander energy doing a mad catchup when I get more!!

Perhaps a list might help? At least that would stop it all hamsterwheeling round in my brain!

1. Work out how I build the flue on the kiln and mend the bricks and arch of said kiln.    Measurements and photographs have been made and taken and diagrams done of the kiln and shed its in.

2. New garden beds. Needed so that the fruit bushes are in the ground instead of pots.  Needed so that we don't lose more next time we are away for any travelling.

3. Ebay.  Perhaps de-list what is left. No sales for a while . Some vintage things could go on Etsy...which would be cheaper...

4. Etsy.  list some pots. list the bigger print.

5.Printing.   Organize the last batch of small prints for sale.   Print some more of the A4 print thats waiting.   Finish the latest bigger block..thats nearly done but its not quite right yet.

6.Study.  Its disorganized. But its also the room visitors stay in on an airbed or fold up single bed...tidying it for them means stacking things away....

7. Exercise.  Needed daily. Needs time. see 8

8.Organization.  Lacking.

9. Car..needs mending..hopefully done this week coming ...but its taking money needed for travel tickets,to keep it legal....why couldn't it have waited a couple of months,then it wouldn't have needed to be dealt with until next spring.

10. Website. needs expanding...I need to feel brave enough to do it.

11. Artist Statement for gallery/exhibition. See 10.

I could go on...

I've got things and life far better than many. I'm not pitying myself atall,I'm annoyed with myself.

Be Thankful and Count Blessings.

Get on with it but don't rush.


Once I find the right bit of electronic liquorice I'll have pictures from my phone for here!



Tuesday 21 August 2018

brief visit

Our friends' visit was far too brief, but they have spent much time in Ireland researching their mother's forebears...MacDonalds...and they hope to return next year!
They arrived at 11.30 am on Sunday and left at 11.30am today..we stay with one sister and her husband in Whanganui...and they stayed with a friend of ours here.
Her sister and husband stayed near central Ayr and had two days leisurely wandering and resting.

We showed our friends where we've lived around here, where we married, and places they'd heard about..great to spend two days in their company.
We showed them buildings, narrated history and talked and talked....

Hopefully we'll see them next visit to NZ...but we'll have to find new places to stay as they'll be downsizing as soon as they can-funding their next travels!

We're tired out...but happy...I've been nursing a sore throat for a couple of weeks...now its taking over!!  Doctor's surgery visit tomorrow.....

Saturday 18 August 2018

camera fail and friends visiting

This is the last image I've been able to get off the memory card...and that only showed up via the computer,not the camera.

I too kit to the local good camera shop and we tried all ways to diagnose the problem. It appears that its the camera not talking to the sd card or its own internal memory.
Luckily there is a specialist camera repair shop in Hope Street in Glasgow. Five minutes walk from the bus station,or half an hour from the velodrome.

Meanwhile I'm back to film camera. I bought a secondhand working OM10 last year.

This has to happen when we have friends visiting!

The first ones stayed here overnight, and we were hoping for a ride together before they left.  The weather was decidedly wet, so we visited a gallery and had hot drinks  and cakes.

Thursday 16 August 2018

Caterpillar I D

I asked on the downsizer forum..here's the reply...

"
Did you sniff it? It ought to have smelt strongly of goat, since it is the larva of a Goat Moth (Cossus cossus). It had probably been feeding on the Goat (!) Willow, leaving large holes, with exit holes near the base. When ready to pupate (after several years as a larva) they leave the tree for somewhere to pupate, but I've yet to find a suggestion of what sort of place that might be!


Nice find."

Wednesday 15 August 2018

caterpillar

Back in the hills today..getting the rest of the grass there to look like a lawn!

We saw this....
yet to find out what variety..but it makes a change from white butterflies!

Day out at Glasgow Green part two

 In the Winter Gardens,part of The Peoples'Palace


 looking tall...and by its foot,Taro
 Yucca
 Lime..see the thorns!!
 Passion Flower
 going up!!

 What this performance was, we have no idea..a slow procession...
 community policemen,helping..






 car park mural...one of many around here




 time is running...
 real greenery to keep the air clean
 and a bus to ride home

Day out at GlasgowGreen...part one

 We travelled up by bus..7.30 am on Sunday, many people using it to travel to work..and the next one two hours later..change buses in Ayr and arrive at 9.45.
 This is the lifeboat launcher on the Clyde..with the Albert Bridge for scale.
We walked down from the bus station, picking up a coffee to go and arrived in time to see the riders in the European Championship Mens' Road Race on their first lap of sixteen..nearly 230km or over 145 miles...


 Peter Sagan,the World Champion..
 On a wet day, around Glasgow roads...more punctures than Paris-Roubaix!

 We watched the screen on Glasgow Green..

 Peter Sagan's supporters (read the shirt) shouted for everyone!..Even after their hero called it a day after about ten laps..under the weather literally and metaphorically...still tired and carrying a shoulder injury after the Tour de France..but ever willing to speak to fans of all ages afterwards.
 This is Montrose Street, aka Col de Montrose..The race comes in from the left just at the bottom of the hill, and turns right just at the top....
It was a hard race and had a worthy winner from Italy....only 51 finished from 136 starters...

More later...we're off to the hills again gardening, possibly more grass cutting if its dry enough...

Saturday 11 August 2018

a lawn in the hills

We travelled 26 miles just over the top of the hill, seeing rain in this side valley and that,hoping for sun. We had, at least,no rain...
 I know, I should have taken a "before" picture. It was long enough that the Pirate cut high first and I raked..and barrowed it to three very happy Tamworth pigs!  Then a lower cut with the catcher,as the sun came out and dried everything off.
 Last year the forestry around was clear felled. This can be bleak..and nearest proper neighbours about six miles away both ways.
 Supervisory boss cat and chief mouser
 "I'm Not Here, you can't see me"....
 miss Piggy...
 After six hours of hard work...
 Just in case?!