"I don't have a..."

 

Seen in a friend's workshop by his woodburner...

Selling and making

 I was set to thinking by Betty's comment...why don't I do garage sales?

I don't think they are common around here. There is a car boot sale on Sundays at Ayr racecourse. 

For one thing at a car boot, you wont get a realistic value, as with fleabay auction, most people seem to expect to get something for pence.

Mind you some things go for silly prices...I bid realistically on something last year and the end price was more than a new item! I was glad not to get that one!

I look at the new price, and the going asking and selling prices before I set what I ask for "buy it now" with a reasonable minimum.

Another thing to consider is that I feel very uncomfortable in crowds, especially crowds of strangers.

I can manage selling my own work at a craft fair or market stall..just!

Today we have a beautiful sunny morning, so Pirate is out on his bike for an hour or so while I pack up the latest couple of sales and list a few more on Etsy...if I can find the photos!! If not that will mean taking new ones.

A load of washing is ready to go on, awaiting his return with sweaty kit..

And I have done a little more on my new mitts...doing the fingers with 20 stitches, 5 on each needle plus the active needle...and the stitches in waiting on two further needles..is like knitting with a hedgehog!! It does mean though, that when I have finished knitting, it is finished..no seams to sew, just the ends to tidy.

Coffee is needed for concentration!!

Sort of snowy

 Hello Gladys! More wind, and added snow showers..nothing is staying here, but a little higher than us there is a little lying snow.

Twenty-five miles north of us they do have fairly serious snow.

 We have been staying in, sorting Stuff...and grabbing a short weather window for a quick walk!

We were lucky late this afternoon as we saw a pair of dippers on...and in! the river.

  I have been reviewing what is on fleabay, and moving some items to Etsy, hoping that they may sell better there.

Incentive to sell better on the latter..and to make some new prints. As I can't make new pots...yet!

I have begun to look at my collection..what do I really want to keep?

A difficult job... Now I am looking at things I have collected over the years and appreciating them more!!

Perhaps I need to move the fleabay stock out to the stock shed and bring the collection in and have it on display!!

Look for the....

 We went for a sunset walk...turned into a dusk walk, Roamin in the Gloamin as they say!!

When you go where there are no street lights, you realise how light what you assumed to be dark, is.

Then you walk back through a scheme with street lights and house lights and realise how much they all miss.

No comments on the politics. Just a plague on all their houses. And as ever companies and governments selling armaments to both sides.....politics and big business.....

Air in Ayr

 

It will be cold tonight!!

Franklin

 We got up early this morning.....VERY early....by 1am, to watch the Scottish (sorry, GB.😎)

Women's Curling team win gold in the Winter Olympics!

 I was up again by 7.30 am, and it was still blowing a hoolie with added hail!!

The latest storm has been rattling us all day...but no worries with good coverage of the beautiful closing ceremony.  We caught the end of the ice dancing too. Where it looked like most were dancing their favourite party prices and having fun!

At last the wind eased a little and we ventured out for a walk. It wouldn't have been safe by bike!

No dippers or wagtails, the river was so high. But we did see Robins and Wrens. Blackcaps and Chaffinches. No swans on Hannahston pond this time. Just a solitary Coot.

Blurry pictures...it was difficult to hold the tablet still in the gusty winds!!

We did get caught in a hail shower..but not for long!

The day after

our nearest snow! Just a couple of miles as the proverbial crow flies. 

It was a beautiful fresh sunny springlike morning.

A pleasant walk to get the Saturday newspaper in one of our local shops...then tea made in a billycan over the fire! 
 

Now tonight it is raining....again!

Eunice

 We haven't had it too bad here...some rain, some snow. But mainly cold and blustery, while friends a little higher twenty miles away had a couple of inches of snow!

Yesterday's walk had two bird occasions to remember..

A herring gull trying to tack against the wind...it gave up after a while.

Then a sparrowhawk trying to hover, unsuccessfully.

Mill walk

 

Lunchtime, so what do we do? Go for a walk as it was dry!! Bright sunshine....and a cuttingly cold gusty breeze.

We walked around our usual road route, taking it clockwise this time to get a tailwind up the last hill!

At Millmannoch they have cleared the lead, the  flow to the millwheel being on the left of the picture, the overflow on the right

Then looking over the road the overflow is left of picture.

Pirate found that the farmer had moved out and old seed drill... hopefully not for scrap...

We got home with only one sprinkling of hail...but I think we will get more than that tomorrow!

I am thinking of my daughter and family....in West Wales on an Amber wind alert...and from 7am, the Carpenter and family are in a Red weather alert area with possible wind strength of 90 to 200mph., As is the Oily One..and his lady lives in Cardiff Bay....

Teeth!

 A busy in bits day today...rattling through the housework before going to town with Pirate. Today was Tooth Day! Our usual dentist had thought that this tooth should come out...next March..a large important molar....it was mended three years ago by a dentist in Whanganui who did a really good job..but for the past two years we think that it has been affecting his health..

This called for some hard decisions. Which meant jumping ship to a cycling friend who is a dentist. To get things done meant going private....one sick nerve and an abscess came out first..that put paid to the nagging long term earache....then a temporary filling to keep him going...and today the job was finished!   Two more nerves out, then the equivalent of Rawl plugs before the fixings to build the top of the tooth.  When you think about all the work £500+ doesn't sound too bad!   Thankfully the bike bits selling will take care of a fair chunk of that.

Lunch afterwards for me in our favourite bookshop then home via our favourite tree...which is no more..

It's one that I used for a print..I am glad that I have a record of it now.

Then home for a quiet afternoon walk around Hannahston and a relaxing evening.

Tomorrow we finish tying things down before Storm Dudley

Birthday and preparation

Glasgow today, for Pirate to have a couple of hours riding on the track ( not continuously!!) And to give a friend a birthday present...hiding in the blue bag is a bottle of whisky!! He was 84 a couple of days ago....and we got a rare smile!!

Typical though....the one day we get a day fit to go out on the bikes is the day he rides indoors!! But couldn't be helped as it was booked a week ago.

Now we have to check everything and tie things outside down more securely...two more storms on the way and the highest wind speeds so far this winter....if you can call it winter!!
 

A bit of winter

 

At least the days are getting longer...the showers are cold and hard, but we caught an hour mostly dry at dusk. We could just see Arran...and it looked as if they were getting a heavy shower.

The new mitts are growing slowly. Last time I used the pattern I turned a flat pattern to one knitted in the round...I can't find where I wrote the changes.....So this time I am recording it as I go!

I am not complaining about the wintery weather. As the climate changes, we aren't having enough of it and when it does come it is short sharp and destructive.  Flowers are a month to six weeks ahead, birds are getting twitterpated, and even have fledglings already...so if we do get some real winter weather you can imagine what will happen.

Rouken Glen Walk again