Creatively destructive

 Today our Fife friend came over and stripped down five bikes!! ( He has worked as a bike shop mechanic) 

Now I have to clean, i.d. and price that lot!!!

The garden has definitely gone up a gear..heat plus water....

Time for bed!

One thing done

 Gallery duty today.

That, is all...plus washing up.

I don't like commuting.... however I do it. But, being in the group is something I need.

And I get to see the eyes in the sky while waiting for the second bus...

Buses today, disrupted by The Orange One on his private visit (?!) to his golf course further down the coast. 

Left home at just before 8.30..got home 18.45...then zoned out I think is the phrase? For an hour. Fed, washed up, bed.

Fresh start in the morning 

Easy day?!

 

Ok, blogger is being contrary again! Read those pictures from the bottom up!!

The first beetroot of the year!!

Today was supposed to be ",day off" ..well there wasn't any pot making...

I packed the greenware in plastic mushroom trays, with shredded paper.

Tools got sorted a little 

And returned to the workshop.

Non bike stuff went up to my study, making room to work on bikes on Tuesday in the living room.

A chilly damp day, so no incentive to do anything outside.

Evening occupation was patchwork sewing while listening..and some watching..to interesting history on YouTube!!

Learning curve

 Lesson... Don't do the commute two days running...even if one was a shorter day!!

Thursday was duty day ...and of course with Turnberry village shut down the bus had at least a reason for being late...so bus connection missed....and from shutting the doors on the gallery at 4.35, I was home at 7.50.....

Today I was tired....so it started late....at least the washing up got done this morning!

Believe it or not the mid-day bus was ten minutes late!! So connection missed to go to Prestwick for shopping.... change of plans, Lidl to shop  and a late lunch in a café before French Conversation/ discussion session...and home again.  To supper and an early night!!

Paperwork

 Or rather computer work...to the gallery by bus as the glass artist added the pots that will be in an exhibition in August to an Excel spreadsheet.

We have to use that...and a couple of people insist on using word documents....which, if like half of us you are on android or apple or Linux....you can't open!!  He'll send me a copy in PDF form later!!

A nice bit of exercise as it is a twenty minute walk from bus stop to gallery.

Going past the barley field on the way back to the bus stop at lunchtime....

Harvested and the straw rowed...waiting for the baler.

Then back home after lunch in the café in Waterstones bookshop.  Shopping can wait!!

A quiet afternoon...sorting and pricing bike bits and more sewing...almost finished half  corner number three.

I gave a bag of assorted electronic liquorice and two dvd players to a younger man in the next small village..he is starting a business mending tech goods and spare cables will be handy.

This and that

 A bitsa day..bits of this and that... housework, trying to keep the place clean and vaguely tidy...

Bread in the machine...five minutes then it takes care of itself!!

Power bill arrived... relief...I'm using just over £1.50 a day, including the daily standing charge. 

Then finishing four "wee'uns" that I'd already thrown....

Teatime, and time to sort through and price some bike bits. I've set aside a couple of things to clean next.

Then sewing while watching Travels on Scottish History on YouTube ...while messaging youngest son and friend in France...multitasking indeed, helped by using the tablet for entertainment and the phone for messages!!

Why is it that important conversations arrive at the same time?!!!!

Having fun

 For some reason sleep was again elusive... until later on....so today started rather late!!

And housework didn't get done ( apart from brushing up bits of threads from sewing!)

But I did have fun in the workshop...

These..well three of them...became....

Dragons chase dragonflies.... don't they?!!!!

And I threw four more...

The clay is nearly settled enough to "collar in" when making a closed in shape like a bottle or vase. 

It is raining again...started fine at 8pm..steady now. Other place have had much more, and flooding in several places, waterspouts seen over the sea as well.

Long working weekend

 

I've pressed on with getting as much clay ready to use, as it does need to rest/mature...even though it must be at least seventeen years since I bought a ton of this clay!! What was finished today makes another five bagsful.

This afternoon's throwing...bud vases/bottles.. They will have lugs added, possibly tomorrow, depending on how fast they dry, with the raised humidity at present.. although the workshop is quite warm.

In the garden the tomatoes are slowly producing...these two ripe ones...

The Russian Black is quite sweet. 

The Costeluto Fiorentino is not quite as sweet, but is beautifully tomato-ey!

And the plant that I thought was an onion squash... isn't....!

In the front garden the flowering "buffalo" currant has been affected by something...but is the only plant along the wall to be like this 

Although the leaves are brown, scrape any branch and there is green living tissue.

The rest are steadily on the way to providing bird food. In fact thd blackbird was busy eating the rowanberries when I was standing there!

It has been quite a concentrated weekend, getting back into making ...but trying not to overdo things. The body knows what to do...it just hasn't done it for a while!!

Saturday evening was a nice break, going with a friend to a mutual friend's 50th birthday party in a village church hall!

Several generations of family (all cyclists) cycling friends, work friends and other friends..about forty of us!!

Today after a morning wedging and kneading three bags of clay, I went for a walk after lunch..checking the weather radar first!! Plenty of places are reporting heavy rain and thunder..All we had was some light showers Saturday lunchtime...then heavy rain Saturday evening.   On Sunday the radar showed what I could see from the upstairs windows..rain passing both sides of the village!

While I walked the air was warm and close...

And you could see rain towards Arran

The rain arrived after my walk...good timing!!

The day was rounded off by a little sewing...

Just two corners and small border to add to Our Shirts....

O

It may seem like I'm too busy..but there is so much to do. I've decided that I can do a little on several jobs every day.. enough at least to see progress.  Then I won't be feeling guilty about neglecting anything. If something is near to being finished it will be worth pushing on with that.

A special day

 Pirate would have been 86 today..so I did things that would have made him happy.

Cleared the garden path...he used to look out of our bedroom window first thing every day and always wanted the path clear....

Picked my first "Russian Black" tomato 

Heard from his eldest daughter that her son passed his degree with a 1st...and it was cap and gown day today

Bus trip this afternoon to the travel agent...I have my boarding passes for the French Trip and I will get them in an email as well...all eventualities covered.

I practised small bag packing... I think that I have everything in...now to see if the vacuum packing bags will work to give a little more packing space. Putting a light cardboard box inside the bag looks to have worked..to ensure that the bad doesn't bulge ..I have no wish to be charged...about £50...each way!!

No pretty coloured sky tonight...but still a beautiful one

The flap of skin that got pushed up in the scrape looks to have stayed down...Aloe Vera gel has helped as well.,

Hard work morning

 This morning's work was kneading clay...two bags again....it took over an hour and a half, but worth doing well to have the firm and soft mixed evenly.

I counted the bags...I have put two more in the soaking bin..

There are twenty, stiffer bags...and six possibly half bags that are completely dry.

I could do with moving the small chest freezer to the workshop for a clay store, but there isn't room for it yet...so.it will have to stay cluttering the kitchen! 

I managed to scrape the back of my hand on the rim of a plastic tub....mad dash to clean up and slap two plasters crosswise on my hand to keep it clean. So no throwing in the afternoon... probably a good thing after the morning's work!!

So I finished cleaning off the biscuit mould...

Lunch was had sitting on the garden bench in the sun...while the bread machine was the source of lovely kitchen smells??

I saw the late Paddy over the road's son...Patrick...now called Paddy!...at the house over the road...he has a garage in Ayr, but works on his own..so doesn't do clutches.

He returned a handy side table that Pirate had given to his dad...and gave me a small carved wood table...which will be very nice as a present for a friend's birthday next weekend!!

A bit of weeding then quick supper and chat online with another friend. Online socialising might not be ideal but it is keeping in touch.

Then time for bed....from a watercolour sunset last night to a peachy one tonight 

Rainy day

 St Swithin's day... apparently it is now supposed to rain for forty days and nights..it certainly started with a vengeance in Glasgow with five days worth of rain ina couple of hours.....

I ventured out in what looked, according to the radar maps, the most likely time to stay dry...a quick two bus journey, no wait on the way out and ten minutes wait on the return...and a mile away from home a cloudburst started!!.. luckily at my bus stop it has just subsided to light rain...just 200 m to walk!! But even in that short time the puddles were starting around the house 

Today's job has been just finishing yesterday's three bowls and small platter..

Despite it being cooler and wet much of yesterday they had dried well..a little too well!!..but a quick spritz and wrap saved the day.

I discovered some new biscuits in the shop...not sure where they are from...

I am making a biscuit mould!! I've done similar before...it had to be fired with the biscuit!!  Then you take the mould to make another impression...and THAT becomes your pattern stamp!

Watercolour sunset..10.20pm