steps in the right direction

 Good in the greenhouse...shallots sprouting roots...they'll go out when they really start growing. cherry tomato and hot pepper seeds have been chitting...and we have roots! So they have been put in small pots.

The best of the kale plants got planted out and beetroot and radish sown.

Bad in the greenhouse. One pane properly broken. But it had been on the way out anyway. I have a spare.

On the studio front, I have brought in most of my small tools and stamps...and bits and bobs....fifty years of accumulation needs sorting!!

These are not all...

and relax...sort of!

 Four or five years ago on this day we were mowing the grass for the first time that year...wearing shorts, jandals, sunnies and hats!!

This morning I looked out....no way, too cold!!! 

But the grass did need a trim...and the clouds stopped hiding the sun....

A square of garden  was sorted, loosened and rows made for tatties....all are now planted.. I tried mowing the grass, but my mower has no catcher.  I'd forgotten that I was supposed to have been looking for one...What grass cuttings there were went on the tattie beds.

Then a weeding job, pulling the grass which had submerged the Alpine strawberry ground cover in the currant, blueberry snd goosegog beds.

A nice job in a fairly sheltered corner, sitting in the sun.   The sky stayed clear until sunset.

Another chilly night!

looks like spring

 It still doesn't feel much like spring most of the time!!

A day at the gallery today, and most of the time I had company as we battled to get different items of technology to speak to each other!! 

Success in the end. And enough sales.

The day was capped by the first bus home being four minutes late...enough to miss the connection which has been up to now at least five minutes late going out..but not today !! At least it was only half an hour to the next one (and the one after that is another hour later...) during which time one could observe people of all ages in their finery...and various states of inebriation...as it was Race Day in Ayr today..possibly the Scottish Grand National event. (horses)

I got these two shots on the way down to the gallery.    "tramlines"

and who remembers learning the name of these flowers as "wooden enemies"?!!

comment problems

 I'm getting the little sad face instead of a comments box...or it sits there saying Publishing. ...but it doesn't.

Sometimes copy, leave then return and paste works.

Sometimes going to the web version works, especially with Steve's blog.

Sometimes I just give up!! 

So, Tigger's Mum..I was intending to publish this comment...and it wouldn't even let me add it as a reply to another comment!

"replying here as I'm getting the sad face instead of comments box!

They are so quick and elusive. We saw fleeting glimpses when on group bike rides from Blenheim.

Have you seen the Kāhu or Swamp Hawk? We used to see that heading either south on the edge of town past the trading estate or. going towards Rarangi"

Normal service will probably return soon enough..this is Blogger after all!!

Anniversary

 Pirate left two years ago..it seems an age yet no time atall.

So not much done today. Being quiet.

I needed and wanted a walk..but the weather didn't agree until teatime!!

I didn't go the whole way round..it was muddy enough where I did go!!

Photo #5 is the classroom for the local school and groups. The last one is the hide with bird feeders to the left. A pity they didn't make it two sided as deer go across the space behind!

gothic?

 gallery duty today....good sales...including one of my bud vases!!

rain means...

 Working indoors again..getting this place slowly presentable..even if no-one will visit, I've got to live in it!! 

Ironically son#2 will be in Scotland on May holiday weekend...and up in Dundee as well so I wont be seeing him. He is one of a team of four going up for a bicycle polo indoor tournament.

rain also means rainbows

Anyone having trouble with paypal from the USA...they are telling a friend there that they can't send money to the UK ????

Learning

 French conversation this afternoon.

I arrived half an hour early...and so did our tutor!! It was good to chat...in French.

I find it much easier one to one, rather than in a class ...and no pressure to "converse" !

Also the room in the library isn't small with hard surface walls. like the Alliance Française...you can imagine what that did to my ADHD brain!!  

Learning about how I function ..or not as the case may be!!

Only six of us this time, as three

 are on holiday. Our homework for a fortnight's time? Using the various ways of saying "many"....write some sentences.Should be fun!!

Just before the bus stop, my next village up friend was in the car park with her husband ..and I got a lift home....very welcome indeed.Despite the sunny periods today the wind is chilly. Now it has been rising steadily for a few hours..not up to gale force yet...and we are forecast overnight rain.

yo-yo weather

 From low mist in the morning..through rain showers..to sunny intervals..and a couple of almost hail showers...and back to mist in the evening!!

Indoors jobs....moving a small chest freezer to the studio...and turning the bench 90⁰ because despite careful trimming with a saw...the gap was 1 cm too narrow!! Then floor cleaning...mopping there and steam cleaning the kitchen and bathroom floors..Despite the showers, this dried nicely..a quick vacuum through and lunch while everything dried! 

Bread maker set to work after lunch..

Tried to sort paperwork...at least I have the bits of paper together to note stock levels in the stock book ....

Eventually got around to 30 minutes on the turbo, after message chatting with sono #2...

curry from the freezer....and yoghurt on the way in the yoghurt maker overnight.

It sounds a lot....but it wasn't really.

gallivanting...sort of...

 Just the need to be OUT !!

Bus to Ayr first...then as I had time to wait, a  Long Black and a very decadent Brownie in a fairly new coffee place..Puck's. They know their coffee and make the best cakes!

Next to the Smiddy Gallery at Culzean.

Not just to top up my cards, but to give the person on duty a toilet break and a chance to fetch her lunch from the café...

Another wait for the (hourly) bus back to Ayr, which was a good excuse to visit the secondhand bookshop near the gallery...and spent £7...on three books and two Willie Nelson CDs!!

Back in Ayr....where next???? 

The next bus was the slow bus to Glasgow. No time to go all that way (it takes 2 hours, twice that of the express service) so just to Kilmarnock. Which was a grave mistake...I hadn't been properly for three years or more. It does have a new bus station...but the streets are full of boardedup shops, both our favourite cafés have disappeared..one appeared to have been destroyed by fire along with two other shops....

but I did find a very reasonable Italian chip shop...selling real (not prepackaged) chips...

Back on the bus again, arriving in time to board the wee bus home at the same time as my friend from the next village up!

Then home to relax...

pictures of cat politics this morning on the way to the first bus, the old High Street in Ayr and Coltsfoot at Culzean

what a change!

 A beautiful day today...still a little touch of chill in the breeze this morning, but then it myst have been 10 degrees or so warmer by this afternoon!!

Shallots were planted in pots in the greenhouse, a small bed weeded....aand lunch was al fresco on the garden bench!

The Daisies were blooming in the grass....first time this year..it must really. be spring!!

Oops....not sure what I've done!!!

I took my car down the hill first thing for its annual MoT test of fitness ...and it passed well. I'd only done a little over 6,000 miles since last year, so I went to the NFU Mutual office at the mart to sort the insurance.

I was in the up to 20k miles bracket...so brought it down to 8k to give me some leeway...and saved £28 per year...not a lot, but every little helps.

As it was near I went to the garden centre for my "free" hot drink...as a member...which has just risen to £15 p.a....you get two free drinks a month.  Which made sense when we did call by often....and 10% off plants and seeds looks good until you see the prices!

So I went to the family garden centre near home and got 4 bags of topsoil and a bag of potting grit. Not something you can do without a car!!

A funny note...no plum tomatoes..seeds or plants!!

As it was still warm and dry and I have a tub of fence paint...the outside of the back fence was painted....exercise and fresh air!!

hibernating

 Most of the weekend has been indoors!! But at least today it turned cold and dry....so the washing went out on the line and dried!!

I've finished more batches of cards ready to top up stock at the Smiddy. I'll have a day out by bus if I can get a dry day this week.

This was last night's sunset

My new phone has difficulty focussing with shots like these... The lights are runway lights at Prestwick Airport.

what a day!!

 Plenty to do indoors today....the cards are coming along well..and I did another half hour on the turbo!

at 5.30 it was a beautiful morning...birds shouting about it, clear sky....

Then at 6am the first hailshower landed ..and it was rinse and repeat all day !!!

northwest

southeast

dark clouds coming over again.

Gallery day...and cards

 Yesterday I did my first gallery duty day.

Travelling by buses....no point using the car if you have a bus pass and not a lot to carry!

I makes for a long day ..but it makes sense.

I topped up my cards...but found that I was down to one which is a view of Arran through a Culzean courtyard archway. and the chook cards had all gone!

Both were remedied this afternoon after I'd done half an hour on the turbo...I'd waited in for a delivery while it was sunshine and showers...and it was getting windier and colder!

View from the turbo...with bread trays protecting the garden from feline attention!

I'll write the backs tomorrow and possibly do batches of red grouse and rook cards as well.  After that I need to think of more designs for this size (150mm square ) and the smaller (100mm) square cards for the smaller shop, the Dancing Thistle.

It looks like it will be a wet and windy weekend so I doubt that I will be going anywhere. 

It is lovely reading about all the family gatherings...and the Kent Possees keep in touch..I have found out what two of mine are up to...50% success...but they all have their own lives. I'd like a little more contact though.

Sunset

 Not a lot done today apart from writing the backs of the cards ...."original handprinted design....website address... made in Scotland"

A bit of tidying around...inside not out as it is turning cold again and it was showery this morning. It is even cold in the greenhouse, where only one broad bean has started to germinate!!

The sunset was spectacular....This hardly does it justice.

The lights in the middle are Prestwick runway lights.