A good day

 New specs!! Well..new lenses in one as the frames were good..no point wasting them!!

I found an op shop to take the clothes and crocks..in a larger village out of town , where the charities take turns week by week. Then I went to the village where we used to live and I used to volunteer in the shop. The shop and cafe are now in the village hall..the McCosh Hall in Kirkmichael...and I arrived as the local knit'n'natterers had settled in...great to catch up with four friends!! I might start to join them in the future....

The large bag of books went there as they have a book exchange/charity sales corner.

Then home for lunch...and to make a start on painting..

It is a slightly paler and brighter yellow than that...but warms up the room nicely.  I think that I will leave the chimney breast in the "Ivory" that I painted in 2018...when Pirate and Fife friend were in Brisbane for the Games...a lads month away just before we got married. They worked out how to do video calls on messenger....I managed to sit every day so that they had no idea what I was up to!!!

After a warm morning it is blowing up a storm again....up to 50mph gusts due overnight....and force 12 gales due over the Western Isles.

Waiting .....

 No pickup for the sofa today.. probably because of the weather....but he could have told me that he definitely wasn't coming!

I've suggested the weekend....that is the next decent stretch of dry weather. Let's hope that it happens! Meanwhile the way is clear for its removal...and I can easily just leave everything as it is until it gets moved.. whoever by!!!

I've culled my bookshelves a little....I'll take a large shopping bag full tomorrow..and I've started putting clothes aside to go as well. I'll have another check in the morning.

My new specs have arrived!! So I have to go to town anyway...time to be confirmed in the morning.

It has been a good quiet day pottering around getting small things done around the house. Including some more of the type blocks..not finished yet, but definitely going in the right direction.

So I'm happy with that even though the sofa hasn't left yet.

Carry on..

 Keep on keeping on!

I've found a taker for the sofa...a relief!!

That should be collected tomorrow evening.

This morning was a slow start. Dark mornings don't help...I need light to function!!

Today's light and exercise was brought to you by.... shopping!!! Out by bus... everything still white and frosty at 11.30! To post a parcel to a friend's daughter...some CDs that she will like..and I won't get round to listening to.  Then home to recover from shopping!!! 

Then something useful... sorting things that got tipped up and muddled up when we moved here...

I think that there are three sets there.....

All this decluttering is getting to me....and winter.....but the end of the day was pretty seen from the kitchen 

A lot..but not much

 At dawn....

Crow lovebirds on the pole that holds many phone and broadband lines at the bottom of my garden!

It has been quite a busy day...washing out early and more than half dry by 4pm... today's exercise has been going up and down stairs!!!

The sorted (sort of) prints cards and printing tools and materials have all gone back up to the study. 

Non print stuff has been coming out.. mostly to the Room of Doom, but some things to the pile of Things for Op shops...

Son#2 will get these 

Gifts to the attendees at the British Cycling dinner and awards ten years ago...we had ours...and other people were just leaving them...so picked up two extra! 

Son#1 prefers handmade...

I think I bought these in an op shop in NZ...I'll have to check.

There is still much to sort out of...and in..the study...but I'm getting there slowly!!

A Break

 A break in the showers yesterday...so I managed a three quarter hour steady walk around the village here. I didn't fancy going "off piste" and getting wet and muddy!

Arran only just visible..then I think the clouds of steam from the paper works further up the coast

Crows in the trees.

And a miniature forest

Hawthorn berries in silhouette 

Someone small has been busy!

Then back home before the rain..just!

I spent the afternoon sorting printing tools, lino, inks.... and found that I already have a bigger awl  !  They'll both be used on the next batch of berry bowls.  Far easier on my hands than using simply a drill bit on its own.

There is still more sorting to be done in the study... getting the "decks" clearer . Decluttering to make thinking and working easier.

Ochiltree

 Lunch in the village Hub in Ochiltree today..they have a café and also local art, gifts and produce is sold there. 

Maybe another outlet?

Then a post-lunch wander. 

For Fresca...its a plan!!

 

Vaguely to scale!!

I dream of changing the kitchen and bathroom at least...but, not my property.  I'm sure that if I had the cash and asked the owner, he'd say, Well it's not worth doing anything on that sort of house...and he would probably be right!

I'd love to find a secondhand kitchen that would fit though....

But...how much baking do I do now? Practically none.  Not worth it for one person...and there are other things to do.

Having cleared half a kitchen bench....it is now full of boxes of things to sort, that were in the study.  Some to go to op shops for charity, some to fleabay.

I managed a short walk today as the temperature warmed...

From the edge of the village, a clear(ish) view of Goat Fell on Arran. Just a touch of snow on the tops.

When I'd had enough of moving boxes I went on the turbo...just turning my legs over, with enough resistance added for twenty minutes. 

Now at 8pm the wind is whistling around the house and it is raining...looking at the met office map, there is a large patch of hail showers due around midnight. 

We'll see what tomorrow brings....

Tidy? And a touch of Winter

 

I was not about to go out in that!

And I didn't...apart from taking some recycling to the recycling bucket stack.

Because I worked on tidying the kitchen and clearing the first half of the bench...just about done it..

The living room is over sofa-ed...with work in progress stacked...

Organised chaos....

And this is the rug that was asked about..well, half of it!!

A present from my mate Big Pete. Apart from being a part time potter...and gardener..and art mover (his business) he did house clearances. 

There are a some family heirlooms on the old sofa. I'm digging them out to give to Daughter when they come up for a couple of days next month. A still life oil painting by grandpa, and also by him a picture in enamel of Christchurch (England) harbour. Then , made from shell casings, a vase and a teapot. There is a small box as well but she may already have that.

Calming the state of the place, so that I can do things without having that sitting at the back of my mind. 

She has taken on Pirate's genealogy research too..she is good at that! But I need to organise what I have.

She is following up all sorts of leads on my family tree. Nothing concrete yet on the French leads...but that is problematical, with genealogical DNA testing being illegal in France. What we need is documentation...which for refugees then as now is difficult.....

Not a lot

 No photos today...no going out either...

We haven't got any snow in the village, but I can see the next one 200 foot higher up, just over a couple of miles away, and the snowline is at the top of that village.

I've done a little bit of kitchen sorting.. empty jars and cordial bottles up to the Sewing room aka Room of Doom...two trays of apples now on a shelf under the kitchen bench so that they are out of the sun..when it does come through the kitchen window!

Paper plastic and spare bottles to the recycling buckets. Fife friend gave me a bag of empty wine bottles with screw caps..

These have been cleaned, de-labelled and soaked in a Milton solution for 15 minutes then drained. They are now ready for the next batch of apple juice production...When I get Roundtoit....

Creativity has ground to a halt...not surprising really as it is at freezing point during the day and apparently going to get down to -8⁰C the next two nights.

So many things that I SHOULD be doing....

So much I need to do.... hopefully tomorrow....

Wet and dry

 A day of showers..and ear and eye tests...and paying for new lenses (£120) and new specs (£119) and having an ear test...all good!

The small art and crafts shop. The Dancing Thistle, took four smaller prints, tiny bowls a berry bowl and two other various bowls plus a couple of bud vases... brilliant,!!

Waterstones lunch to celebrate everything. Then I did the rounds of the op shops...and the ones in Prestwick...looking for curtains. 

Practically all had nothing!!

We had heavy showers.. luckily I was on a bus

But later the light was fun

We did it!

 Through the front door on its back....up end and turn..walk it through the living room door...walk it to its place set down and....

                   Voilà!!!!

The covers need replacing....but it looks like the bed part has never been used.... so worth every penny.

My helper went away happily holding a jar of homemade chutney...made with the plums of another member of the cycling club!!

It has been a beautiful..but cold..day....and the primulas and primroses are still flowering. Last January's -10⁰C hardly checked them...and they haven't stopped....

Ending

 Housework done, I drove to Fife friend's house late morning, and waited for him to walk back from chapel ( which in Scotland means Catholic...I wonder why it has ended up that way round here)

Then to Dunfermline where the sofa bed resided that I was buying....

The owner has said that it was 5 foot wide..

It was.. BETWEEN the arms...

I now know that I can get a 6 foot sofa in the back of a Berlingo with no rear seats and the passenger seat as far forward as possible!!!!

We were about to give up when it decided to cooperate!

Back through Dunfermline...and there were lots of people walking away from a park....and Xmas floats....and Papa Smurf driving in the other direction on a motorbike!!

We both needed a coffee after all that!!

Then a good drive home...and arriving just as night fell.

Picture tomorrow to prove that it was done!!

Beginning

 The sliver of new moon has disappeared as the sun rises in a clear sky.

A new season starting frostily and Robin and blackbird are shouting a warning..a local cat slinks by.

Time to hang the washing out on the line...it is forecast to be dry today.

Stock

 Gallery duty today...and time to change stock around a little....plus to consider what might sell in the small art and shop in Ayr that is relocating.

Fresh work in the Smiddy Gallery.

My prints are coming from there too, and the smaller ones will go to Ayr.

The Dancing Thistle, although moving to bigger premises will still be a small shop...I'm looking forward to seeing how she arranged the shop for opening on Monday.

After supper I reviewed my stock of runner beans...taking the beans from the pods

More had spoilt than I had hoped..I think that next year I need to get a lot of different seeds sown earlier, and have them finish sooner in the year...

Getting these ripe and dry has been a problem. Hopefully an earlier start will solve this.