Op day -1. Busy!!!

 I thought we had an early start today...but after several more Fridays upstairs...and another toilet visit....we were off at 9.30am.

Just as we left the rain came down...ah well, the washing on the line could wait!

Plenty of time for him.....he wasn't due to clock in until 10.30. I was supposed to be in town and at the dentists by 9.55.....

He phoned the dentist as I drove, to forewarn them....dropped him at the hospital door....got every traffic light green and a parking space straight away before five minutes walk....and stairs to the second floor...I was only ten minutes late and they were 100% understanding !!

Teeth checked....new dentist..a cycling friend of ours....and only one small filling..relief!!

A cuppa to celebrate in our favourite bookshop....and a text arrived..Pirate had left one of his array of meds on his bedside cupboard....no hope of gallivanting! 

Back to the hospital with his meds..and I kept him company in the day room until his bed was ready...at 2pm. They are SO busy...but always cheerful.

Back home to almost dry washing on the line..relief...and no more showers forecast..I checked the radar report..full speed ahead on sorting drawers, finding odd socks and lost ( mis-filed) t-shirts and trousers...and doing ALL the washing...a grand achievement.. and not overdoing things atall.

A quick trip to the local feed merchant for wild bird supplies..Pirate loves feeding the birds...

Then all the ironing....

And to crown the day, a phone call from the gas kiln specialist in a kiln company..I have started the ball rolling towards getting the kiln going again.

He will email me a couple of ideas on Wednesday...and he has a kiln visit coming up in Scotland.. hopefully he can do a diversion to here to see what the kiln situation is. Far easier than phone calls, emails and photos.

So all in all, the Lunar New Year has brought positive moves on many fronts.

Let's hope that carries on with a successful op for Pirate tomorrow and before too long a working kiln!!

At least I don't have the problems if a fellow potter about an hour from here.

She is a brilliant maker..and is disabled. Her business has been growing slowly..but due to illness she has had to claim Universal credit benefits.

She is supposed to prove every three months, to the departments satisfaction, that she is doing enough to grow her business.  They seem to want her business to grow at a fantastic rate...when on benefits firing the kiln takes too much money...so to keep her benefits she has had to withdraw all her work from  galleries,  pull out of potfest shows, stop selling online.

Universal credit system destroys artists. What does that say about our society 

Hacked!

 If anyone follows my Instagram account it has been hacked...I am trying to retrieve it. But in the meantime, I have started a new one.

I thought I was chatting on its messaging system with a friend, who had obviously also been hacked....it seems that it is happening to a lot of artists accounts as probably have plenty of contacts.

So far people have recognised a message about bitcoin investment as spam!!

Connecting and rambling

 Today's adventure was by bus..just into Ayr, by myself!! Pirate was busy here, helping stack logs for our neighbour and fettling bikes.

It was a relief to see most people wearing masks, if not all correctly.

It was a sunny breezy morning to start with, a relief after yesterday, but it wasn't going to last! Luckily I went prepared with a good coat.

It made a change having a mooch around , checking on our usual shopping haunts. Although busy, people were mostly leaving each other personal space which made for a more relaxed time. 

After a cuppa in our favourite bookshop cafe I aimed for the main purposes of the trip..to check out the Ayr Makers stalls in the old Grain Exchange...ok, very nice but I wasn't impressed by anything...and to get a few food items that pirate had requested.

I was about to go into the next shop when a sign on a window caught my eye...Art Exhibition in here!!!!

In what had been a department store, various people are trading...mostly clothes and one linens and furnishings...or Manchester as my Kiwi friends might call it.

But right at the back in a large space a group of artists have a selling exhibition..painting, sculpture, drawing, prints....and I met two, plus the person who is running the building. (There is a cafe upstairs and a performance space by that)

It looks as if I could join in with this group... hopefully.  They contribute to Ayrshire Cancer Support organisation too, who have helped pirate and myself in the past, which is a good bonus too.

It could be the incentive needed to get things moving again and get making properly.

After I remembered, thankfully, the shopping, the weather had turned wet, and as the bus made its way back to our village the rain was bouncing off the road and begining to flood the gutters.

Back for lunch then the tedium of fleabay researching before listing. It does take time, but it is worth it to get things correct..and paid off well this afternoon with a sale within five minutes of listing!!  Sales keep you going on..and it is good to see the pile of bits reducing!!

That's a bit of a ramble...but it's been a rambly day..and pirate rambled down to see a lovely sunset after all the rain.

Surprise!

 We arrived home from our gardening day, to a surprise on the mat...

A present of a card from Fresca, a friend from blogland , who has also bought my work....and the linoprint on the card reminded her of that!

I don't think that I can reproduce the card here... copyright etc...but here is the artist...

And the publishers..

Now that looks like a really good thing that is happening there.