Too cold to snow?

 Just found a quote with this explanation 

"This saying is because less cold air (around 0c to 2c at the surface), is usually associated with more frontal activity. Whereas colder temperatures of -5c and below are usually associated with low humidity. This is most true in the UK, where the source of snow is from atlantic moisture and slightly milder temperatures. However in more continental countries, such as eastern Europe and the central northern US, snow occurs more often at colder temperatures."

Which doesn't address polar snow....but it is a start!

Postponed

 Today the garage man wasn't happy with the calipers from his usual supplier....or the price....so they are going back and he will get others elsewhere.

So no travelling until at least the middle of next week... probably best to postpone for a full week, but I will see what the weather will be up to!!

Which gives me more time to get on with things.

I went on the bus to town to get some de-icer..and was pleased to get trigger spray bottles, not cans. 

The snow had turned to cold rain showers....but as I did some sewing tonight I heard what sounded like hail against the windows...I was NOT going to investigate!!

I am mending a long sleeve cycling top of Pirate's, which will either be nice for the retro cycle ride at the end of May...or if it is too big for me will fit our Friend in France...who was also Pirate's clubmate over fifty years ago....

An odd placement of a club badge....

Pirate fell off his bike!!  Many years ago.....good thing he kept it.

Still cold...with dandruff

 This morning it had been so cold overnight, that the car windscreen was frozen outside....and inside, like a sheet of little pimples..I should have taken a photo but was too intent on getting it clear so that I could drive  down the hill to the garage!

That left a day to get busy indoors..and today's exercise was going up and down stairs! 

I moved Pirate's papers back upstairs to a sideboard and small chest of drawers. There are still two stacks of boxes in the living room...one is bike bits to be cleaned , priced and sold. The other is three boxes of things from his display in his Celebrations..and a box of things to go to his nephew which need cataloguing and photographing.

The long sideboard is looking a lot better too..still a bit cluttered, but some of that is things to go, like the growing group of things in the kitchen..an iron, two kettles, one usual size one two cup size. A two espresso cup filter machine...or one mug...water in, coffee in, switch on and go...empty and wash the filter afterwards...things I don't need..or don't need multiples of!

I called garage at three...he wasn't happy as the parts had been put on the wrong delivery van at the motor factor...and ended up in the wrong direction at Falkirk!!  They should have arrived just before he finished tonight, so my wee car will have a night in his garage ready for first job tomorrow.

The living room carpet has been vacuumed, the place looks reasonable..and at four in the afternoon we had our snow shower... described as "dandruff" by a friend in the middle of England who has a fair bit more!!

Cold

 We have the coldest start to Winter for a while.. yesterday I stayed indoors all day, it was not just cold, but had a dank feel to the air...so just this and that.. recovering from Sunday's flu and covid jags, letting my body do it's work.

Today has been dry underfoot, so once the landfill bin had been collected I ventured out on nice warm buses!

A pleasant chat on the way into town with a woman who moved here five years ago. And a bus connection straight away. I had hoped to do a little fresh food shopping in town, but the co-op is having a refit and won't be reopened for another ten days.

A small bagful of fresh items... some reduced...and I just missed the return bus. I wasn't going to stand there for 25 minutes, so I walked back into Ayr from the nearer edge of Prestwick. Luckily I was wearing a buff so brought that up over my nose to keep the cold air and traffic fumes out.

Just over half an hour later and the bus passed me just before the bridge over the river Ayr.

Then luckily the bus home was ready to leave the bus station!!

Back home to make soup from the leaves and stalks of last week's and this week's (organic) cauliflower, a couple of leeks from the garden, tatties and coconut milk for a nice creamy soup!

I lifted a yellow beet as well....not sure what to do with that for supper... possibly just in a salad!

Now it is cold and getting colder... possibly too cold for snow, but we might get some during tomorrow. Plenty of places in all directions have had snow already.

I'm snuggled up warm on the sofa with a three ginger tea...supper needs to be something quick to make..it's too comfortable here!!

Kitchen

 Instead of one long blog post I am doing three!!

Today's steady job has been sorting the kitchen....apart from going for a walk before getting the jags (flu and COVID) at the village community room.

So here is the evidence!!

Step one....with encouragement via WhatsApp with my daughter!!

Most of the whisky boxes folded and in the box...now with packing materials upstairs. 

I'm keeping the kettle up there to use on the workshop stove.

The Highdome pressure cookers just need the safety valve, then I can bottle fruit instead of freezing it all. Unfortunately when Prestige changed hands, that valve changed shape and dimensions...I have a new rubber gasket , but no use without the valve. The ones I bought purporting to be the old style, weren't.   I think I will hang fire on that. A new stainless steel one costs £45-£60...and if I can find a second hand one....

The other corner has been done, I'm happy with that...drinks corner!

Plastic storage boxes sorted and all the odd boxes and lids are in the recycling bucket.  Just the baking shelves to do now....how many tins and trays do I keep?!

Yes, Tom....thanks for the nudge! Now I have to keep rolling, room by room. 

It will get easier when I've sold the bikes that I don't need. 

Red sky

 In the morning...7.05 am

7.35

8am

7.30 the birds started... mainly starlings

And at 8 o'clock the gulls turned up!!

We have a weather warning approaching, snow already on Cairngorm and the ski slopes and Shetland, the odd hailstorm in the Western Isles..here by lunchtime it was icy cold steady light rain..we might be on the edge of tomorrow's snow. We shall see...for now the temperature is dropping below freezing point.

Bridge

 Those of you who have driven along the toll motorway by Birmingham will have seen an apparent Bridge to Nowhere.....

It is a canal bridge, constructed at the same time as the motorway, ready to reconnect a length of canal.....

The years have gone by, but at last the land ownership either side has been sorted. 

This is the article in the group magazine....

The Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust is doing fantastic work...Canal have a look and see what they are doing...and they are just one of many groups working hard to revive the canal system.

They are on farcebook too.

Cleaning

 Friday was bike maintenance day..with the help of a friend the "new" saddle went on, height adjusted and pedals off one of Pirate's bikes. I will take those to use on a borrowed bike in NZ along with my shoes..these are things that can cause problems if you don't use your own!

Now all three bikes that I use are sorted, so no regular swapping of components.

Today has been cleaning.

This took far longer than expected. It was always Pirate's job to clean our bikes after a ride while I prepared a meal...but he never wore his specs to do the job...and with cataracts as well he was obviously missing bits....ok, missing most!! 

I haven't ridden this bike for a three years...so the crud was well solidified!!

I haven't done a perfect job, but it is respectable enough to be seen in public!! I will get a proper degreaser when I can...then clean with that, a wipe with an oily rag and you are ready for the next ride.

Next object for cleaning was the little brass box with a wooden liner...now is Indian...tigers...or Japanese...lady in a Kimono and a man in Japanese looking garb.

The designs are the same on opposite sides.

Any suggestions?

Whilst cleaning I have been watching films of potters made by the Goldmark gallery..... getting inspired!

Afternoon

 I have got this far with the kitchen 

Still cluttered...but getting there. Oh for a proper larder!

And a dishwasher!!

Next step is to review the contents again.  Not to hide things....well yes, to hide things that aren't regularly used and it makes sense to have them not crowding out the bench!  Things that are heavy will have to stay though.

Time to get brave and actually learn to use the bread maker ....and if that doesn't suit I can sell it! 

It didn't stay nice and clear....so no gardening. 

I found a print of an old photo of Nantlle in Eryri where we used to live..eldest was born in hospital but the other three were born there...you can just see the roof, farthest away on the right. 1, Tai Baladeulyn.

Tai means houses...it is a row of six.  Bala is where the water leaves a lake...Llyn....Deulyn, two lakes. One lake is a field's distance behind our house...the road leaves the village on its way to the sea and used to go straight on, past Chwarel Dorothea...a 600 foot deep slate quarry, now with over 400 foot deep water in it. Not just rain, the river broke through from where it runs beside the quarry...there are still the remains of a Cornish beam engine used to pump the water back into the river. People practice diving there..and every so often lose their lives.  It is very deep, dark and cold.. dangerous even for skilled divers.

When we had our earthquake in the mid 80s the quarry was between us and the epicentre out to sea...we heard the tremors in the 600' deep loudspeaker before feeling them.

They made a new road with a bridge over the Bala...pont y Bala....and the second lake was drained and the river diverted further from the quarry.

On the left, opposite the Chapel on the right were footbridges over a stream and as far as I know a communal drying garden for washing.

You can see the road going into the trees, and a quarter mile further on was another part of the village and the school.

It took fifteen years fighting to get a path up on one side of the road which was slate walls on both sides...long after we moved...we used to walk the children to school in groups for safety. 

Go up that road and you get to Rhyd Ddu at the foot of Yr Wyddfa, the highest peak...the peak is 8 miles away....and the seaside at Dinas Dinlle is 8 miles the other way.   We didn't often go to either...never been up the mountain even on the railway....that was for tourists.

My daughter wants the print...good...one less thing here!

Morning

 

The difference an hour makes

The first about 7am..and no birds....and the second one the starlings were up and busy.

Still foggy

 It is still dank and chill...friends in Devon had a lovely sunny day!!

Indoors jobs today....sorting shoes and boots, mainly Pirate's.

Our Friend in France may need some...his feet are the same size as Pirate's!!

Some fit me..with an added innersole...the difference between 42 and 43!

A nice pair of winter cycling boots... unfortunately the country and western style half boots have a hole, with the upper coming away from the sole.

If anyone can mend it it will be our regular cobbler in Ayr...but I'm not holding out too much hope.

Most are too big for me..or I wouldn't wear them, like the Ghillie Brogues....made to go with a kilt...the kilt, socks and jacket went to a friend...but his feet were too small for these 

Not much else done today apart from bottling and processing 7 bottles of pear and apple juice, and bottling 5 bottles ( the small flat flask shaped bottles that had maple syrup in them ) of sloe vodka.

The latter had been sitting on the fruit for two years....it is quite potent!!

So its do my lessons and have an early-ish night...

Weather

 This morning....at 7.30, a beautiful sky...makes you glad to get up and get on with it...but by the time I was waiting for the bus and hour later the colour had faded.

It was a brisk chilly day, but the sun was nice and bright.

Two buses...a lucky change in Ayr so no waiting 20 minutes in a draughty cold bus station!...and I was in Prestwick after an hour. Visa sorted, messaging done ( the WiFi on the bus hadn't worked) and I met with a friend for coffee and catch-up. I brought her a couple of chard plants and garlic to plant now. 

Great to relax and chat. She had driven over from her town five miles further on as there is no café with safe bike parking, sadly....and going out later would be safer..no icy corners... 

Before I headed back I browsed the op shops...there are decent ones there! And found a potato ricer....I can use that with clay.....

A couple of bars in Prestwick..

Twenty minutes until the bus, so today's exercise was walking a mile or more to my usual supermarket for a few things..then the bus from there to town and another back here.

Straight to the garage...the non functional handbrake is not because of the cable, but because what the cable tries to work had seized....he has ordered the parts...and made it so that it will work enough...and hopefully the parts will be here in a week's time... meanwhile I'll only use it in an emergency.

No big deal.

Back to finish mincing and pressing the pears...and now the mixed pear and apple has been filtered again through four layers of tea towel and is sitting settling more fine particles overnight at least.

And by 4pm we had fog....even the Arran ferry was cancelled...

Juice

 Today's pressing is good so far...the apple is quite dry which will balance the sweetness of the wild pears...

The gutter man came and vacuumed the gutters..with a strategically placed camera up top and his phone by the handle...so you could watch the progress! And no ladders., so a lot safer...and you can't use a ladder around the greenhouse.

I am trying to find the identity of a small box.. possibly Japanese? 

It needs a slight clean...the brass is around a wooden box liner. 

I'll take a few more photos tomorrow.

Now it has gone late... chatting on messenger and WhatsApp with friends and there was the time gone!!

'Night all xx

Decluttering

 The process is slow...

I realised today that my de-cluttering started...with the help of my 4 children.with kicking out, deservedly, of their father in 1997. 

But every time you move you sort a certain amount....run out of energy and repack it in boxes ( if it indeed came out) .

I've moved, sometimes had to move, many times since then. It knocks you "back to square one"

The good thing about decluttering is that it gives you more space, physical and mental.

The bad thing is that it takes time away from doing things...but doing things needs the physical and mental space...so it carries on going around in circles.

Keeping too much can be a reaction...I'm like my father in that...a reaction to people who clear out your precious things regardless...

My mother....and my ex....

I have always valued history....and things which prove it....

So I get together with Pirate, who had some of the same experience....and then we moved together, the contents from two three bedroom houses going into a one bedroom one living room (plus small bathroom and kitchen) that we call a"But 'n Ben" !!

We were slowly sorting things...being busy doing gardens for people as well as racing and training doesn't leave a lot of sorting time!...but now I have to sort and reduce for the two of us.

And it has started..one cast iron casserole, never used, sold...a few other things listed..on top of what has already gone to Op Shops.

And not the mug to come from any but an only child.....he put that at the back of the cupboard when that arrived! ( He had three kids...)

Sold...

There's a few more things to clean photograph and post online tomorrow.

Then there are my friends the books.....

Grey

 Grey, dull, damp and chill.

It isn't actually that cold...but I have had to put the central heating on.

A little garden tidying done this afternoon. I should put those chairs in a shed....but they are all full! I think I have a tarp to tie over them.

I retreated to kitchen sorting, looking out what will sell and what can be dumped...quite a few old bidons are now in the plastic recycling bucket....

And I have sold a new cast iron casserole that we never used...to a friend!!

Next step will be coordinating meeting to deliver said item...they live 150 miles away.. but Gretna is halfway and I go through there when heading south....

A definite incentive to look at what else can go!!

Slow progress

 But steady progress. There is so much to do, sometimes I feel like a rabbit caught in headlights....and get nothing done.

Wednesday I went on the bus to town thinking to sort the travel insurance in person as we have done before.... they stopped that after covid.....I ended up having an afternoon on buses....with a leg stretch between each one! Nice to travel around with someone else doing the driving, and with an elevated viewpoint compared to a car!

It was successful though...I managed to locate something special I've been hunting for to give as a present.   

I took some more photos of the bridges in Ayr...two foot bridges, two road bridges and two rail bridges...but one of the rail bridges only has the piers now, no trackbed.

And the Carnegie library 

Insurance sorted yesterday and campsite booked for May. Now to get the tent from my brother...

Still cloudy and grey today, but good enough to half dry this morning's washing. 

This afternoon's job was to start clearing rubbish out of one shed and clean the bike I'll start riding next week..I have been promised a hand with some mechanicing.

And now it has gone dark...at 4.50pm.

Brave

 A little outing on buses to Troon today for the health food shop...and I saw these...one bird at least on every ridge tile...

Then back to Prestwick to the travel agent...

Tickets booked and paid for...all that needs doing is the online check in 48 hours before, both ends...and she will do that...and renewing my visa..we couldn't do it today as incredibly the last one is still valid!!

Then home and supper and enter Velo Retro at the end of May ...a 30 mile ride based at Ulverston in the Lake District. I will ride Pirate's Eroba bike ( dated 1961) so I need to get fit enough...plans are in hand for that!!

Now do I camp then or not ????

The eyes have it

 Today wasn't inspiring either..still grey and getting chillier....but at least I got the sheet and towels wash on the line and half dry!

A text arrived to remind me that it was eye check time...I phoned them and they had a slot free this afternoon!

I managed to fit in lunch and dealing with the wild pears before going...they were washed and de-stalked and put in the freezer. Freezing means that I'll get more juice from them. And the stalks clog up the mincer!!

The eye examination went fine..no change needed to the specs I've had for about six years...just a slight change in my eyes from last year but no worries. They did my hearing check as well - passed with flying colours! And no change since the first one two years ago....that I'd had to get Pirate to have his checked!!!

Then a walk around town...a bit of exercise while I waited for the bus.

That's the Auld Brig... From the 1700s I think...that had a rebuild in the 1700s.

The new one from the 1800s is to the right of the top photo...and that had to have a complete rebuild quite soon after it was first put there!!

Cross day

 Friday and Saturday were nothing to write home about...so I won't...!!

Apart from meeting the club bike run at the end coffee stop...that was good, even if I did go by car. 

Today I went to watch a cyclo cross in Linlithgow...good practice sorting a route..the non-motorway route was ten miles shorter! And interesting, even though it did cross various bits of moorland. The weather was damp and drizzly.... until a couple of miles from the town! And the same on my return three and a half hours later!!

Luckily the races were running late and I was in time to see the 50+ and 60+ riders doing their practice lap...then catch the bag of our Fife friend as they lined up ready for the start, with his and a friend's jacket in it...

Then they get ready the riot act..i.e. Behave!!

Then ticked off the list as they go up to the line

After lining up, the 60+ go off a short while after the 50+

The course devisers had been creative....using zig zag taping to get the length of course in...the course is supposed to take a top rider about eight to ten minutes and be 90% rideable, with a couple of obstacles..some pick up their bike and others "bunny hop" over them. 

Each race is for a time not a distance, and after the first  lap or two the commissaires can judge how many laps will be needed for the time and the lap board goes up... there's a bell for the last lap...and when the leader finishes, everyone that comes in behind has finished, whatever lap they are on. Every rider has a transponder on their ankle, so the number of laps completed can quickly be read off the transponder.

Our Fife friend was second in the 60+...and his friend beat him!

The juvenile ( under 12, 14, 16) races and the 40+race had finished by the time I arrived, but at the same time as the 50/60+ race was on, the under 8s and 10s were having fun on their own separate and easier course 

Then the womens' race was on ... seniors (18+) and juniors (16-18) together, but with prizes for the age groups. Good to see about thirty riders.

No photos as I was having lunch!! As well as the usual coffee carts

There was a van selling burritos... so I had one with vegetarian haggis, rice with lime, guacamole, salsa and black beans....even the smallest "regular" size was a decent meal.

Then the podiums...

And the "yob with the gob"... keeping up a commentary all day!!

I didn't stay to see the main senior race ( ie not specifically veterans who are 40+, but if they think they are capable they can ride the open event) as I wanted to get home in daylight...and it was 65 miles..

But a nice day out, good to see quite a few friends and enjoy the craic.