Foraging, preserving

 We had a day out foraging today, not far away from home, and by the Clyde.

A quarter mile walk, along the cycle route again then Pirate saw a path into a harvested field....and we were there for a couple of hours picking blackberries/brambles, elderberries and sloes.

Deposit those in the car, then we walked a mile up to the local Co-op shop to buy lunch. Lunch in the car after walking back as it turned chilly for a while. 

A walk in the other direction took us along the Lang Scots Mile a little, then down onto what was beach and dunes and now has been colonised by all sorts of plants and trees.

There we found rosehips and apples!

A small detour on the way home up to the trig point on Brown Carrick hill..and unfortunately the trig point itself has been stolen. But the views are still good, including looking over to Ardrossan where we were two days ago!!

Plenty of preserving to do, including plum jam for our neighbour who supplies us with eggs and tomatoes!

Along the coast

 Just the thing to have by your back gate...until the trees grew...

 peeking through..and over the golf links

 Sustrans Route 7 on the left. Railway from Glasgow through Kilwinning or Kilmarnock to Ayr, Girvan and Stranraer

 I followed route 7 to the edge of Troon,then bypassed Troon and Barassie on a local cycle route. A short hop by road to Loans then back by lanes ,past a rugby club with people playing boules in the sunshine.
Past the wind vane (top photo) and back to Route 7 for the return to Prestwick Sailing Club and the car.

 and the clouds..

 and good views of the snow on Goat Fell on the Isle of Arran and back north up the coast.

 In the car...and the rain came.

Travelling the first 10 miles by car avoids main roads and heavy traffic.

re-stocking the Etsy shop.

New cards are gradually going into my Etsy shop...one is pulled two ways...to gradually fill it up...but that means a lot of stock is tied up , capital just sitting there.
You then need to make even more to have saleable work in hand and to take to other physical (as opposed to virtual) places.

 There will be cards from my photographs going in soon.

Every day we take a break  and collect windblown firewood...mainly ash

 A chance for a breather, get half a day's wood and some exercise together.

 Looking over the local barley field, across Ayrshire fields to the Galloway Hills, which will possibly be white with snow again on Wednesday.

The cafe cards went down well with Murray's cafe owner...lets hope they are selling too!

I've tried out a few more shots of their Salt and Pepper pots...great fun!
An indoor shot taken in our village cafe, Jock's, has gone there as a card too-can't say I'm not trying!!

Meanwhile we've been knocked back on a possible site for the workshop caravan. That project is running out of time as soon the owner will need it off his site to prepare the ground for a new van.   Something will turn up....I need to get back to pots!!

ironwork for Soub

village water pumps along the street in Crosshill ( described in the 1800s as a mainly Irish village) It is on the edge of the Girvan coalfield and was a weaving village.

coal mining

We had an afternoon out on our bikes last Sunday and went down through Old Dailly in the Girvan coalfield...of which one token bing (tip) and winding gear is left.

By the village shop is a small park....

That is a long time for mining to be here...over 500 years, yet there is little to be seen, and you'd be forgiven for believing it to be solely an agricultural area.

We called past a pottery, but no-one came to talk when we called, except the guard dog.....

and so on to the cycling club's clubroom aka hut, for lunch as a light rainshower fell.

then home through Barr and over the Carrick Hills (mountains!!) via Glen Ala, the so-called easy route!!

My strategy?   Bottom gear, watch the cadence on the cycle computer and synchronize breathing and pedalling.  I only walked two short sharp sections during the whole ride.  
It was breathtaking to be up in and on the hills again and I was quite proud to find that the promised ride of just under 40 miles was actually 10 miles further!.

We even got home before the rain and the washing on the line was dry!!

maybole

Maybole is our nearest small town, blighted by the main trunk route to  Stranraer going straight through the middle, despite the bypass plans having been agreed four years ago.

Everything shakes as the monsters pass....

The Pirate likes to walk on the kerb side of the pavement when we walk together.....here, he insists upon that!!

Looking the other way, you see the Town Hall.

This was built in 1887, grafted on to a higher 17th century tollbooth tower which was once part of the town residence of the lairds of Blairquhan (by Straiton).

There is another old building at the bottom of the high street opposite the post office and that and many of the older houses along it are blighted by the heavy traffic.

Many of the roads around here are potholed and badly patched.    You would never believe that when Mr Macadam invented his road surfacing that the aim was then to have the roads in England as good as those in Ayrshire!