It works!

 A short run in the car to collect a set of training rollers ( things you use instead of a turbo trainer) that I'm being given to sell...then the longer way home just to get used to the car and driving again.

Then the rest of the day cleaning and sorting bike bits. The bike/sewing room's floorspace is expanding!! The living room' s space definitely isn't!!

But at least it now looks a decent amount..two boxes of stuff to sort and then I need to go through identifying and pricing.

It will have to be done anyway, as what stuff doesn't sell will be for sale at the Manchester Bike Creche cycle jumble in four months time. 

Just before 5 I decided that a change of air was needed..and a walk...so I went to one of our favourite foraging spots for some nice apples and plums!!

Its back!!

 I had a day in Ayr today, finding a new café which is also a coffee roastery...Rocket Monkey!! Recontacting a small shop/gallery, ordering a new book!!!! 

Wandered through a shopping mall...

And French conversation group in the library in the afternoon...

I couldn't miss that shot of the blinds...or the window above the stairs....

It is one of the Carnegie library buildings so should be safe from closure.

Then home to ....the car!!!!

I picked the key up from my neighbour over the road and had a good natter....it is one of her grandsons who mended the car.

I'll go down to his garage on Monday to pay...no way am I going to Ayr tomorrow as the Ayr Air Show is on this weekend!!!

Yeccch!!

 

Yesterday all day......

But also...

Shinyyyy!!!

Bits are being cleaned and sorted, mushroom trays, crates and boxes being employed...

I need to clean a couple of frames a well, but that shouldn't be a big job.

The car is at the garage outside Ayr.....

The cycle jumble is on a week Saturday....

Not the best

 A wasted day on one way.

Gallery duty day. Out at 8.20am

Damp, chilly, late buses.....

The barley field by the path on the way down 

But...talking to people, encouraging artists....

I find it hard work, all this "peopling" even though it is doing good for others, which is satisfying....

Thirty-five minutes wait for the bus... instead of nearly twenty-five.  Missed connection so almost another half an hour.

Home before 7...just.....

Heat up cooked potatoes and runner beans, add salad and fluffy microwaved "omelette..more like a mini soufflé....

Dishes done... correspondence checked...bed by 9.    Duolingo....then lights out.

Home day

Trying out a new block..

And printing more cards to restock my bit of the gallery 

 I kept the dehydrator on overnight...I know the plums were juicy...but this is six pounds of plums!!

Lunch was mainly from the garden...

And when the cards were done it was time to "change the air in your lungs" as grandma would say!

Onions weeded

Then lifted..they may not dry very fast now that autumn is here...but they will be out of the rain!

A step in the right direction

 Today's housework was.... starting to declutter the bathroom and vacuum floors downstairs....

Later one of our friends came by with contributions for the cycle jumble...and doesn't want any of the proceeds! There is some cleaning involved, but that is no great deal.

Then just after midday my car was lifted..its first step on the way to a garage near Ayr and a new clutch!!

The next quick job was halved and stone six pounds of plums!! Three layers of the dehydrator...with empty layers in between which will speed the (slow and steady) process....then off on the bus with slightly orange hands!!

I went to thank the travel agents for their well done work...and talk about the next trip....to the same place but aiming for nearer my destination to avoid giving my Friend a long drive back from an airport... Bordeaux is 2½ hours from home on a good day...

Then a little shopping..and a phone call from the son of Pirate's old opponent and eventually good mate...to say that he had died..when I saw who the missed call was from I guessed. He was a couple of years older and hadn't been in good health for quite a time...but like Pirate had still carried on riding his bike. 

Busy cleaning

 A blustery day....strong enough to dry the grass patch at the back so that I could push the mower over it. Half the cuttings were taken by the wind!!

Then a picking of beans....

Duolingo lessons..still going....I find some tenses confusing, but I'm building vocabulary.

Then a day spent cleaning bike stuff!

I now have eight mushroom trays, two small cardboard trays, and a small crate , all with clean and sorted bits, a small stack of mudguards and half a dozen handlebars with stems and levers that need sorting....

That is the living room done....a good start towards the Glasgow cycle jumble on the 13 September.

I also have wrinkly fingers after a day spent in vinyl gloves!!!

Back here

 Gallery duty on Friday....at least I didn't get wet on the way from the bus down to the gallery..about 15-20 minutes walk...or on the way back up the hill to the bus stop...but the rest of the day was Washing Machine weather....fewer than 50 people through the door and two sales....then the bus back into town was late...missed connection.....

Saturday morning was better! Kitchen and bathroom floor steam cleaned and doors and windows open letting the sun and (slightly chilly but fresh) breeze in....

That didn't last....it ran out of dry weather before I could cut the grass!!

So defrost freezer...oops, should have done that before cleaning the floor!! Then start freezing plums....

Just under four pounds of stoned plums done...I need to decide quickly what I'll do with the other six pounds or they will spoil.

Keeping busy again... Started cleaning and sorting bike bits for sale....

But I wish I hadn't had to come back......

Jungly!!

 After two weeks...the garden needs a little attention!!..but first there were things to arrange...

My plinth in the Carrick Artists' Collective exhibition at the Barony Centre in West Kilbride....there for a month...

Home via shopping...and then just to check the garden..(somehow the pictures landed above not below!!)

Visiting neighbours with gifts of runner beans for a chat...so not much work got done!

Then supper...

The plums are a gift from another garden