Stiff and stuff

 For much of this morning my lower back has been saying You Should Not Have Done That!!! So it has been a relatively take it easy day. Not just sitting still...that would have made it worse!!

After a night full of high winds...only down to 30 mph gusts by the morning..and driven rain...I opened the curtains and couldn't see Rankinston!!..only a light of an engineers yard by Sinclairston. It was a relief when the clouds lifted and the sun shone brightly by lunchtime. Mid afternoon the wind abated for a while, which gave me a chance to use the 'half moon" edge trimmer on the paths .

Doing the runway as well so that I can see the edge when reversing in!!

One squash is still growing nicely in the greenhouse

but the other may need more support than string!

I wonder if they will ripen?

The tomatoes are on the windowsill and have just started showing colour other than green! They are a really tasty variety..but I doubt if they will taste half as good as the fresh ripe ones we eat in August last year in Limousin!!

I finished off the afternoon indoors as the wind picked up again..and made Fig and Date chutney with the Fresh Figs that I'd bought in Lidl.

That should be nicely matured by Burns Night...which is also Diwrnod Santes Dwynwen. The Welsh saint of lovers...so if that one is missed they have a second chance on Valentine's day!!

Breezy

 A definite understatement!!

At least I got a lot done before the rain returned..but today's wind means business.

A modicum of housework done , I finished packing the back of the car with three of the four builders bags of prunings and some scrap wood. All to go to the recycling centre eight miles away at Skares which is on the back road to Cumnock. All that to the relevant skips and four bags filled with free compost....back home for brunch and a rest before going to Ayr by bus. 

The cormorants were in the middle of the river on the pillars of an old railway bridge, drying their wings.

 

I thought that I had to pick up my laptop...but the email I'd received was an automated one! Hopefully the required part will arrive today.

I'd needed to go to Ayr anyway.. and it was a good excuse for a hot chocolate in Beastie Brews!!

They have a good mural..

There is a crack in the glass...obviously the mouse did it!!

Home, then I strimmed the edges of the grass at the front and the grass at the back. Enough for a good four inch layer of grass cuttings on the compost heap.

If the wind hadn't been "up" and  feeling ominous  I could have just done half..but who leaves half a job undone??

A long day

 The gallery is only open from 11 to 4.30...but it does feel a long day when you add 1½ hour's total travelling on top..and that is the quickest, in the car!

Still...a long time ago...I was doing 8 hour shifts....

Thanks to Fresca in Minneapolis (of Astronave blog) I have an idea for a print.

I'm not sure whether to make this bigger or stick to the 75mm square...

It's a wee bit blustery

 Understatement!! It was also rather wet today too..so the only exercise was half an hour on the turbo, watching the Weather go by, to the sound of live baroque music on Radio France!?

Washing was done...drying on the rack by the dehumidifier...

Washing up done....

Leçon done....(and another short one once I've done here..)

After late lunch, adapting a line drawing of Zola, a friend's Wisla.   Not so easy as Inscrutable Indeg my daughter's Stealth cat..

Daughter advising..well she is a graphic artist with a leaning towards printing....

Working on quilting designs for Our Shirts quilt with her as well

She has been organising her FiL's finances, along with her husband...a certain Scottish power company was holding several thousand pounds of credit...plus he had just been ripped off by people who got the job of cleaning his drive.....

Not for nothing is she not called the DD....but the MD !!

So this afternoon she helped organise cheaper fuel bills  for me, still with the same company and variable direct debit....nice one...so I still pay for what I use and no more!!

One of our longstanding friends died yesterday in Leith. A true friend, coach, mentor, competitor, a brilliant photographer. He'd been unwell for a few years, but that doesn't make it any less sad.

If you ever saw track events televised from Glasgow velodrome...he was The Man in Black...on the derny pacing motor.

EEK!!

 Stationery items were needed...and there is no longer anywhere to buy much in the line of price labels, year planners , notebooks et al.  WHSmith is no more...

Bus riding today..after delivering cards to the Dancing Thistle...and a copy of a couple of chutney recipes for someone I see working in Lidls..we'd been talking about the fresh figs!!...,then off to Glasgow on the bus. Which was late leaving....not just heavy traffic and roadworks....more passengers!! the £2 single fare has started here....in under 5 miles of the 40, the bus was full and having to drive past potential passengers! (there would have been another close behind as he started 20 minutes late...on Saturdays it is reduced to a 30 minute frequency)

I walked down the hill to Sauchiehall street to Ryman's...found everything I needed...and came out of the shop thinking...coffee would be nice....then looked along the pedestrianised street. Wall to wall people...in both directions....straight back to the bus station, onto the bus and away!!!

And home again just before the rain set in!!

Meeeeow!

 picked a few more apples....juicing soon...

and printed a few cards...

Of course blogger decided that today they'd be the reverse way around 😄

This afternoon's French Convo was supposed to be a film....but not one of us could find either of the films recommended !!...unless we went to Netflicks ...the library has no subscription...or to Chanel France 5+....and the library has no VPN....!!

So....we conversed!!...while our teacher is still in Italy on holiday...but her French friend who also comes regularly deputised well.

From chilly and wet this morning, it turned out to be a sunny afternoon by the time I'd arrived in Ayr...but over dressed is better than under dressed! Who knows what the weekend will bring.

Harvest 2026

 Not a lot...bu seeing as I only sowed the seed in the second half of May after returning from Limoges...not bad at all,!!

The big ones are a French variety..the packet is out in the shed and I can't recall the name...I think that next year they get sown much earlier, but also the trusses get supported. They were bending their stalk where it came off the main stalk....

The small ones were saved from a particularly nice supermarket tomato...

Note to self...make sgraffito labels next year by painting the labels and scratching the name.  Everything else fades whatever they tell you!!

I've been laying low since yesterday evening.

It appears that my body doesn't like bread made with yeast . I'd had an inkling a little while ago and had been buying proper sourdough loaves instead of making my own..but with Bro here and no time to go and  buy bread, I baked.

Time to resurrect my sourdough starter maybe.... but first return to buying bread just to check.... 

oops..

 We had a good morning, sorting computer stuff, trying to teach me how to use a new system to edit photos for the website.

Unfortunately my laptop wont be ready until tomorrow (hopefully!) so Bro will do more remotely from his home.

Meanwhile with a warm if humid day the washing dried!! 

The greenhouse inhabitants are doing well with the warmer days..as long as it lasts!!

We decided to have lunch out at The Coo Shed....then down to Girvan for a walk....

Back home, Bro went in his van to recharge it at the village charge point...and I stayed and got the ironing done ... and forgot to check my phone....

I was supposed to collect something in Ayr at the same time that we'd arrived home. Had I checked my phone then we could have gone straight away.....oops.  I hate letting people down ...

sun!

 

gallery day

Not much...

 A quiet morning, then walking down to get my flu jag after lunch. Good to get it before any trip. Plus there is a flu resurgence already.

Bro arrived just after I'd walked back up the hill..good timing!!

We spent the afternoon sorting and clearing a few things. Electronic liquorice!! Working out what leads go with anything he is taking away to see if they are any use..old laptops and a couple of televisions. 

Taking out a long redundant phone wire which went from the front of the room where the power points are...to the back where it had been fed through the wall!

 This involved unscrewing a pair of tall narrow shelves full of cassettes, CDs and maps .....screwing them back, the screws pulled through the hardboard! 

Four washers will sort the problem. A job fir tomorrow morning before I go to the gallery.

Meanwhile the contents are spread around the living room in boxes....

Things always get worse first!!

once again...

 Into Ayr...which is not delightful...it is shabby and rundown like most towns nowadays.

I had one card to buy and two to post!!

Then inspiration this evening...I had used drawings from my sketch books to make cards with an inkjet printer....and they sold reasonably well....

I made a linoblock of one....I think I'll do more like this...

pootering and pootling

 The computer shop has succeeded in turning the offending object on!!

the contents will be safely cleared off ready to on a much bigger capacity hard drive..and the Ubuntu will be updated!!

I'd taken my external hard drive down in case they could use that..but to be honest that needs renewing..they don't last that long, no more than five years.

We rely on these things...but more and more I'm beginning to think that hard copies printed on acid free paper (as the acid is what degrades the ink) are what we need to return to, especially for important things

Then a walk around Ayr on the way to Waterstones and then to the bus.

but I saw this first.....it is a bit sad, but looks as if it is in line for renovation...

Tbe town hall

Auld brig

Hope street or Back o'th Isle..houses on the left were built on the old market place

Newmarket street where the plan is to restore the old shop fronts

the Grain Exchange..now council offices and soon to be an area used for teaching youths

High street with the clock tower

the entry to the closed Kyle shopping centre

and the wee shops after it

the Gaiety theatre...still hanging on in there

and new local housing association flats

Windy!!

 Still showery...with added wind!!!

Bro went off on a camping rally weekend..fortunately this year not on his motorbike ( electric Energica if you are into motorbikes) with a tent, but in his new Kia electric van with a bed that he has fitted into it.

I headed to Ayr to the computer shop..and the problem of the ubuntu password was solved..now they can work out what is the matter with it. 

Coffee was then in order....

Beastie Brews...well worth a visit, if nothing other than to see one mural which reminds me of the artist Tom Hickman!

Beastie as in "to a mouse"...

then on my way...

I had difficulty standing still enough to show the lamp post waving!

Home via the electric gubbins superstore to buy a keyboard to go with the tablet that I bought the other day. 

I bought a black one..tidy, always looks clean...and £5 more than the pink one they had plenty of stock of in the shop...a company still thinking that women like pink...and pink tools....and realising that they have made a mistake!!

I had planned a walk this afternoon but....

Instead I stayed warm and dry, photographed the sofa that is too big and needs to go...

Then researched prices of cards, envelopes and packing , then packing and reinforcing for selling prints. I have stock that needs selling, so I must get organised!!