Evening and morning

 Last night's Sunset..I wonder if it was Sahara dust or just the angle of the setting sun that gave the colours?

A similar shot with colour..it was a bit more orangey pink than that.

It was a really cold night and a frosty windscreen morning, with bright sun.

I went to see the Sunday car boot at Ayr Racecourse.  Rather disappointing...but I did find these two....

They will be good to use.

I couldn't find a wheel or tyre and tube for my barrow...a certain DIY store had sold out...it probably isn't the right time of year to be looking for them!!

Gardening

 

Started...hoed between the garlic and I will do a little mowing to get a mulch ( thanks Dave)

I was given a full tray of lettuce seedlings..I  think neighbour showed a whole packet...I gave a clump away this afternoon and have potted up six more clumps.

Now to find a home for the rest!

Paperwork proceeds. I have started the closing down of Pirate's phone , and saved £5 a month on my tariff. ( A different company)

I think that I have notified all official that I need to...and the subscriptions.

It has been such a fine day that I just ended up starting the day taking a car full to the cowp and returned with 4 bags of free compost....and apart from phone sorting and a visitor for afternoon tea ..I have been outside!!

I should be upstairs sorting through papers and photos.....

Walk and acquisition

The Isle of Arran with the Clyde shining

Marsh marigolds

Young beech leaves, just the right time to make Noyeau

Wood anemones..did you say them as Wooden Enemies first?!

Gean..wild cherry blossom

Blackthorn...hoping for sloes

Celandines 

 

Not sure what this is called....Garlic mustard?

I was pleased that our usual walk still only took an hour... after such a long break I thought I would have been slower.

Then yesterday I acquired a "new" lawnmower for £10.....

Job done, what grass there is is tidy and the compost heap has just enough for one layer.. exercise done and no fuel used!

Paperwork proceeds slowly...but Pirate is now accepted by the Glasgow medical school for research... carrying on helping folks as he did throughout his life.

I have the unenviable job of searching through his papers for photos and matters for a display and for use in a printed item...his Celebration day in Kent is in just under a month...so I need to get on with RSVPs....and up here we are arranging his usual big birthday ride...which he had every five years!

He had been aiming to have a Possee party in Kent in May, then his birthday celebrations....just a pity that he ended in a rush and couldn't make these in person..but his spirit will be there at both.

Eventide

first from the front..the hill in the background is actually the Northern end of the Isle of Arran by Lochranza.

Then the moon rising from the rear of the house.

 

After the rain, a breath of fresh air

 

It has been mostly a beautiful week..a relief to get out and relax between carrying on with the tidying and sorting that we started having a real push on two years ago.

Steady progress, no rushing..the worn out shoes...the piles of till receipts...I'm glad that we had started already as doing this from scratch now would have been hard.

Then late this morning until mid afternoon it gently rained...and now it is warm, the clothes are out on the line and birds are singing.

I have met with friends at the coffee stop at the end of their cycling club run yesterday..all twenty! But they split into two groups to make it easy for other traffic and also the ability and fitness of the two groups.

They always meet at the end...which makes it easy for those who miss the run or just want to catch up with friends.

Now I have a relatively tidy living room, the next job is to sort photos and cuttings.

I need to get proper acid free albums with Glassene (sp?) between each pair of pages..

And when the mammoth job of sorting Pirate's photos has been done..I must stay on a roll and do mine!

One thing that I will do is scan all the photos and email them to every family member so that everyone has a copy Then keep the originals together in one archive instead of splitting up the whole.

Gone

 But never forgotten, our Pirate, Victor James Possee, "Vic", Man of Kent.

17 July 1939 - 15 April 2024

Always thinking of others...Caring and Sharing.

With our Fife friend who has with others been going above and beyond to help us both.

Getting help.

 Pirate is now in a palliative care assessment bed in a village ten miles from here...much happier as it doesn't feel like hospital.

Hopefully they can rehydrate him and get meds into him....then we will see.

Probably two weeks there.

Once there he had charmed the staff...and he hasn't lost his sense of humour!

A couple of friends who are also cyclists have rallied round to help us both.

Hopefully I can sleep tonight... shouldn't be too difficult as I am tired!!

Pirate

 As ever. On the phone, a few days ago.

Our Fife friend, his mate, his Bro...is with us to help. 

Our District Nurse calls every day.

We are still here

 I discovered yesterday that Avus is no longer with us in blogland or real life.

Sad. I miss his blog, and his daughter used to do a picture a day blog from Australia...I miss that too.

Pirate isn't too good at the moment. Reality is sinking in and he isn't a happy bunny.  He has had a life if being put down and his efforts belittled..now he is worried about being a nuisance and no good for anything.

He is doing marvellous things, encouraging people on the phone if not in person. He has just had a FB. Video call from a good friend north of Brisbane..you don't get that without being worth it.

I am doing my best to keep ordinary things going. And Fife friend will be back over again late this afternoon to help him and give me a hand too.

Like Pirate, he lost a brother at this time of year, so he finds it hard. Unfortunately he has been brought up not to show it.

Slowly does it

 Pirate had a visit from our own doctor on Tuesday...I can't take her portrait....but she arrived having had a haircut...from long red hair in a plait to a shoulder length bob!! Almost like a schoolgirl, with a leather Gladstone Bag!! She drives to work in this....

And in her time off rides a Clydesdale horse!

She approved of the medications regime we now have...and the way I have made a list to tick each dose off...a good way to keep track of that.

Our Fife friend came to stay on Wednesday, the idea being to help me in the garden...and it showered all day....with rain in between!!

Not just that, but first thing I realised that we had a gas leak!! If course within an hour then gas was officially turned off.....

We did get the deep beds moved...

Luckily the night was warmer it has been....and eventually I was successful in locating not just a plumber, but one who lives in our village!!

Today, thankfully it was a nice dry day....time join two wind battered polytunnel frames together.

Next step is to find some heavy duty pegs to anchor the frame down...

Under the white cover is the garlic patch, growing nicely thankyou.

It is a relief to get those jobs done, and two of us have done more than twice what I could have achieved on my own. 

Plus Pirate came out to supervise in his FedEx jacket and a beanie, getting some good fresh air, as the plumber and his mate came and replaced a badly soldered joint that had been done a long time ago...and had very very slowly been increasing...

We waved Fife friend off, as our favourite district nurse arrived! It was all go this afternoon.

We have missed her....seen most of the others in our local practice...but she has had pneumonia...so we are very glad to see her back and looking well.

My turn then to have a break...off to collect a new wet and dry vacuum cleaner from the outskirts of Ayr, get a bagful of reduced goodies from a big supermarket then hunt for heavy duty pegs... unsuccessfully....

Nice to have two hours out on my own as Pirate had a well deserved fresh air fuelled nap!

Buddens and Doulton Lambeth

 Thanks for your request, Dave...this is something I need to pass on to my daughter who is doing our family history research ( I am working on Pirate's history)

Buddens, Doulton Lambeth

My Grandmother, Ethel Mary Webster was a tweeny for her great aunts, Alice , and Alice's cousin Mary. 

I will have to see what my daughter has on them...the easiest open access site to check is Tribal pages...it is free(under a certain capacity) and she has an account...but all you have to do is search on the main tribal pages home page by surname.  She has found a few cousins..and been found too!

Turning a corner?

 The meds started working yesterday, thankfully... And his system started working...but to keep him safe I had to get up with him every time he did through the night...but come the morning, it was all systems go...and he started to be more himself again, at last.

I have a Systems drinks bottle...which holds 800ml...he has drunk just over 2 litres of sports rehydration drink today.....and proper food for three meals too.  He won't be 100% straight away...but we are going in the right direction.

Even I had a nap on the sofa this morning!! We had a TV and radio day, with minimal "news".  Having messages and calls from all his friends is bpvery heartening for him.

Not just a pirate portrait..with his Saltire buff...

In front of him the Canterbury, a present from our late friend Big Pete...full of books.

On the wall, a map of NZ. On the top shelf a Denbyware jug, and nearer, an earthenware puzzle jugs that I made in Porthmadog Pottery in the old Snowdon Mill in about 1996.

Below that a teapot made by Mick Morgan who was a year ahead of me at Cardiff College of Art and is still making lovely work, near Carmarthen I think. On top of it a small white teacup made in NZ. (Crown Lynn?)

In the bottom shelf and earthenware pitcher..from Devon? And on top of that a small bowl and jug from Eastern Europe.. possible Romania.

Then at the end of the mantelpiece an oil lamp from Doulton Lambeth..where grandma's great-aunts, the Misses Budden worked as paintresses.

A collection of things..which give a little of me?