impatience and Valentines Day

I'm itching to get a workshop...but nothing looks even half likely.

The landlady wouldn't play ball, even though we wanted to pay more rent for a patch of land for the caravan/workshop..
She knows we're looking elsewhere...but it gets tempting to find somewhere else to live AND work.    So we look...and there is nothing anywhere near here- unless we want to pay three times the rent!! 
We could move further South..but The Pirate's treatment is going along nicely, so we don't want to leave Ayrshire.  Besides which, we like our village and people like us!!  Why should we leave?!!
If only we could get at our capital and buy.....

So today we have vented our frustrations on a fallen beech tree....collected another carful of lengths, then cut and stacked it...

and at least the sky was blue....

Which means that now the sun has set it is getting very cold again!

Tonight we will be walking down to our village cafe  for a special Valentine's Supper. The chef has made us a special Veggie Meal for Two as well.
The cafe has just been moved around a little and now we're up to 20 covers from 16...and tonight is fully booked!!

keep on walking...just round the block....

 Guiltree Hill    (guil probably means yellow)

 looking back down towards Kirkmichael

 looking towards the Carrick Hills

 property boundary

 hedging and.....the hedges here are trimmed immaculately here, pity about the ditches....

 We've noticed that many of the newer farmsteads/bungalows are built without a windbreak. When you consider the older farmsteads, as here, built in a square with the stables and barns as a strategy against hard weather, it is curious.

 Catkins!!

 and sheeps...

 Where the ditches have been cleared you can see just how much rain has fallen so far. 

 Ayrshire has beautiful stone bridges of all sizes.

 We are actually having major road resurfacing, AT LAST!!!!  There are three weeks worth of road closure in progress...made possible by the fact that we have back roads and lanes!!

 footpath construction....just like Kiwi roads!

 Meeting fellow members of the Ayr Roads Cycling Club on the road.

 In Kirkmichael, the fingerpost is still standing.

 On the shelves in Jock's Cafe and Community Stores. Kirkmichael.....
tealight lamps by me, on sale at £15.

and  where a very welcome cup of real coffee was drunk!
Then homewards for the last mile...and never arrive home empty-handed....

day out continued

We surprised the Pirate's daughter with supper out in the Kirkmichael Arms..finished off with a chocolate fudge birthday cake topped with brandy chocolate truffles.
 I think that Isi Nimmo from Jock's Cafe in the Kirkmichael Community Shop excelled all expectations with that cake!!

Today, Sunday, we took daughter to Glasgow airport for her journey back home.
We look forward to seeing her again!

As we were already in Glasgow....ok, Paisley...how many airports are really where they say they are?!!..we went to watch friends getting muddy as they competed in cyclo cross races in Strathclyde Park near Motherwell.  Now I remember why I don't compete in this discipline.

Homeward bound by four in the afternoon, we avoided traffic jams by heading South a little and going across country via Muirkirk.  Some would call it bleak, but it feels open restful and welcoming to us.

The skies were cold blue, yellow and peachy colours with high mares tail clouds in wispy patterns.

We arrived home a little after sunset, to the light of a half moon and the stars.  It feels like anothrer freezing night outside, as we have supper in front of a wood fire in the slove.

Night all!

day out

 Today started leisurely...then was delayed by snow and hail showers!

This was not a day for the bikes, so we ventured forth in what The Pirate calls "the Tin Overcoat"!

We went to the trig point on top of the Carrick Hills to show the Pirate's daughter the view...of squalls coming over the sea to Ayr.

 Looking towards to top, there were some beautiful cloud formations.

Down to Maybole Shore again and this time we could go on the beach.

weathered rock on the beach

 Thence to the visitor centre at Culzean Castle for much needed coffee and cake to warm us after the windy walk by the sea.

We investigated the second-hand bookshop (open every day!) and found a treasure trove of old Ordnance Survey maps...

Then to the Swan Pond, snack bar unfortunately closed...

 with pond....(and a few ducks and swans as well as these)

 and pagoda, which will be 200 years old next year.

 Early on, they kept monkeys here..and the handrails are tail-shaped

Then back to Kirkmichael and Jock's Cafe in the community shop for a late lunch.

And it is only almost half-past six, plenty of time to have more adventures....