Not a lot sort of day

 I woke up late...I must have needed it!....After hearing the six o'clock news...after hearing something at 3am.....

Without the radio on very low, sleeping can be difficult...when I am awake I can hear it, quite low....which gives me something to focus on. However it is a double edged sword....when it does get interesting one relaxes and falls asleep!!  

I am gradually sleeping better...good sleep won't come overnight (ha ha!!)

So, make a small pot of coffee....grab a small cupful and take the car down to Davey for a check over after two long trips.

Then back for a late breakfast and consider the jobs that need doing...

A bit of sun....so washing in....and on the line!!

Collect the car at lunchtime. I knew the offside dipped beam was out on the headlights...but the bulb was broken..most odd. Anyway, all fluids topped up and everything checked....worth the £20 for peace of mind.

Back to the house and let floor cleaning commence!! Downstairs anyway...even with taking outdoor shoes off ( most of the time...) it is surprising how much gets in. So, vacuuming and steam cleaning the hard floors done...and it looks much better.

It didn't actually rain, but the air felt really damp... clothes in, on the rack and dehumidifier on...

And the day just goes in bits and bobs.....when dusk creeps in, you don't feel like doing much.

So the evening's occupation was sewing ( accompanied by YouTube....some Time Team and some Robbie Cummings of Canal Boat Diary. )

That is how I carry the patchwork....one square block...the strips pinned up in order, sew one strip and place it at the bottom of the stack. 

When all are done, the strips are in the correct order still, hopefully, to be pinned together to make the block. 

A down day

 It is hard, learning how much is too much..Pirate has had a bit of a down day.  Late up and a long siesta after lunch.

I've caught up with some mending, tidied a little and experienced the great Meta server wibble....some wag suggested that Mr. Z tripped over the plug....

Wastebook and Insta are back....the rest, not yet apparently.

If only there was a viable alternative...on the other hand anyone starting out could see how big it could grow...

It was my phone's turn to be rung...for a change!!...A call from the daughter of a good friend...and her mother was with her...contact details refreshed..and a good chat for twenty minutes or more!! So much to catch up on...and even more when we can get together in the summer.

I made a cross between risotto and soup for supper...rice in one small pressure cooker, veges and water in the other...combine the two with a dollop of yeast extract and a tin of black beans....a quick supper and plenty of individual portions to freeze.

Thankfully we found  interesting TV programmes after supper. First the Paris Nice highlights , then about how ordinary people lived in the 1800s...which kept him up and awake for another hour..you can have too much time in bed in 24 hours. It doesn't recharge your "batteries" the longer you stay in bed, too much and you end up even more fatigued.

Pirate wanted to watch the next programme on London's Bridges...it is fascinating...but he was ready for bed.

Now to tidy the kitchen, do a little Duolingo lesson and bedtime with Sudoku to relax and wind down.

Op +7. Here and there

 Here and there indeed...catching up on phone calls, rescheduling my Shingles Jag that got missed in all that has been going on...finding out what time the fitters will be here for the boiler....

And the realisation that I'd missed the post collection this morning...dash on the bus to the post office to post an anniversary card to youngest son, The Carpenter...they married on February 29...and this year they have a whole day to celebrate!! Instead of approaching midnight on the 28th, blink and it has gone!!

Phone calls and messages from Pirate...he is being signed out and moved.....

A quick lunch, just as the District Nurse called by...a bed has been earmarked for delivery....a week tomorrow....

Waiting for more information....and a call from him saying Come at the usual time...

Off to see him on the usual bus....which was late as usual! 

Well, he was still in his usual bed, having a rest..the physio has had him practising stairs....it looks like they will keep him there for now as everywhere else is full...and he will be back home on Friday as long as the central heating boiler installation goes ok on Thursday.

As the Sister agreed, everything has just happened in the same week, with his op being sooner than we had dared to hope...with the grant work being weeks sooner than expected..(but good as the boiler has almost given up.)..and our booked weekend away being this weekend coming....and the car needing work done.

Into town on the next bus ( and a very considerate driver paused his departure so that I didn't have to wait in the rain) and a nice chat and mooch around the Red Cross op shop...trousers for me for £4!! Then the bookshop..two mindfulness books for Pirate...he likes to give them to other people, but finds help in reading .

Then back home...and chill out!!

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 

Busy weekend

 

With a special deal for sellers on fleabay this weekend I have been busy researching, pricing , photographing and listing bike bits...and got one sale just after I listed the item just after 10pm on Saturday night!! 

This afternoon I got round to using some plums that we had been given...Plum and Apple Chutney!

And the Cucurbits are taking over....

Back to getting on with it

 Yesterday we went by car to Irvine Harbour where we can park for free just off the National Cycle Route up the Ayrshire Coast...just a steady potter on the bikes up the cycling/walking path for five miles and back. 

We had been busy doing Stuff around the house all day so a break and a dose of fresh air was needed.

At the top of the road down past the harbour, by the train station is a café....Vanilla Joe's...with the best gelato we have found so far!  Two  hot chocolates and two waffle cones did come to £14...but both were far more generous than most places!! 

It could be because the ices are made on the premises...and they have two cafés there....and they open quite late,... whatever it is they deserve to succeed!!

Where we parked we saw a fitness studio's Ute....

You don't usually see a missing apostrophe, generally it is the Greengrocer's apostrophe added!!

I made another small lino block..a turtle to start with. It will be a set of four, like the four birds and four trees that I have already done, maybe eel, dolphin and salmon to join it?

I think that one is ready for printing...

I have started a batch of bread dough so that is looking after itself. Pirate is having his afternoon siesta and we will have a walk afterwards..it wasn't the best of cycling weather this morning, all cold and almost foggy hence the indoor day so far. 

He is gradually tidying things around the garden as we hope to have friends calling soon.

We won't go far on our walk, but we can call by our village shop for some eggs...bread means a baking session while the oven is on.  We are being even more careful with our power use with the rising prices, but so far we are trimming and adapting without causing hardship. The next step there will be to get our landlord to upgrade the roof insulation, which is still at 1970s level...200 mm less than it should be!!

It is keeping everything ticking along.  No sadness, just getting on with life as best we can.

Sharing work too...he has some bike chainrings to start cleaning for me so that I can sell them on fleabay.  As he always says..Sharing is Caring...Caring is Sharing.

While they are away...

 Pirate and our Fife friend have gone to London...a return gift from Pirate as Fife friend took him to Brisbane four years ago....

I am, therefore, having a holiday at home!!

This gives me a chance to go around clearing up all that backlog of little jobs......

Two loads of washing done, and nearly dried....we had some welcome rain today.

Two lengths of moulding varnished twice....these go on the outside corners of the workshop and are untreated wood so cannot just be left bare.

 The main job today has been making bias binding and starting to use it on hand towels made from a larger towel...one down, five to go!!

I am trying to find where my machine was made..I know it was May 1922...and it is a 15K....this might mean that it was made at Kilbowie, Glasgow.

Its first owner survived the Titanic sinking...her great granddaughter gave it to me as her daughter was not interested.

Now what shall I find to do tomorrow?!!

Productive Progress

 A dry day today, but cold and windy. At least the washing dried quickly until it caught a shower!

 Pirate had a good ride on his bike outside in the sunshine.. keeping moving to keep warm!! On his ride he saw nine persons...and eight had dog/dogs!

I carried on at home, getting home a bit tidier and cleaner. Then cooking..a good way to keep nice and warm.

The apple pulp got sieved...time consuming!! And made into apple butter, and of course it caught the bottom of the pan...just. Isn't that how you know that it is ready?!!

Clear the kitchen again, then making more mess, juicing two trays of apples. They have been making the living room smell good, but the job needed doing. Now we are steadily pressing the pulp to extract as much juice as possible.

Pirate is busy tidying his Man Cave , sorting all the bike stuff that we will no longer need.

Eventually it will be a room for two turbos and a place to set up a spare bed for a visitor, but there is a lot of work to do first, including decoration.

Now it is getting towards 10pm, it is cold and windy outside...and the moon us beautiful.

Indoors day

 After a long rainy night, it rained most of the day, with added blustery wind. Not a day for outdoors!

A day for a bit of this and that...a sale to pack up, work to list, business cards to make-still by hand as I haven't found the programme on the computer that does a sheet of repeats. 

Doing them by hand was quicker!!

Half a small carrier bag of windfall plums got destoned and cooked and they are now in the freezer in four small boxes, ready to make crumbles and pies with some apples.

Pirate managed to work out how to use the gizmo and fixed the bottle cage to my Hobbs road bike and I helped construct a mudguard from two pieces...three pop rivets and some glue and there we have free mudguards!! Now those jobs are done, the bike has returned to its usual home ...we can't have bikes in every room in the house!!

The plan is to ride the steel Hobbs for most of the year, but in the wetter colder winter weather ride the aluminium Giant. That won't rust!

After tea I double"glazed" a kitchen window with special plastic cling film before bringing in some of the house plants from the greenhouse. The pelargonium, avocado and money plant are still in the greenhouse for now, the latter has been there all summer, but the other two are getting a bit too wet outside now!

I printed an item and price list to go to the exhibition tomorrow, plus a history/artist statement and contact list. All that needs doing now are labels.

Pirate is cleaning a pair of tandem wheels that we hope to sell...keeping the wheels going round, metaphorically for us and actually for whoever buys them!! It's not the nicest job linked with selling, but it means that you can show the item at its best..and get a better price! Some things that get posted on fleabay are grubby. How can you tell the condition if something is like that?

So good clean items, good crisp photos and accurate descriptions should mean hassle free sales.

No more work tonight..a quick risotto with veges from the garden, blackberry and apple crumble and the Women's Tour on the TV!!

Getting things done!

 A beautiful apricot coloured sunrise for a start...then on with the jobs!!

Washing, then as our neighbour came for his cuppa and putting the world right...I left him and Pirate to it and finished off stripping the sofa..in said neighbour's garage, a very generous offer!

Would you believe it, I found the missing fire safety label...inside the sofa!!!! Inside it's construction, not just slipped down under a cushion.

The leather got packed up , the seat frame will be a small cold frame for me, the rest of the wood, mostly ply, will be firewood for our neighbour's workshop stove.

The webbing will go to Pirate's elder daughter for upholstery, the foam padding will be packing for parcels. I am not sure where the polyester pads will go, but they are clean...and the feet we have already used to raise our present sofa 10 centimetres, making it easier to use.

Then more packing , sales this time, not just some bike bits but an electric guitar case as well...that took a fair bit of construction!!  Pirate had a session riding his turbo trainer while I packed.

With a couple of family birthday cards, that all definitely justified the trip to the post office.

Back home again in time to sell a wheel locally..the best way to do business.

Pirate has been working on my bike, it now has a rack for pannier bags that suits it, we have an old set of mudguards to be fitted and today's "fun" has been working out how to fix a bottle cage with a gizmo...that's what it is called!! It's taken a while, but now he has worked out that the zip ties which hold it don't go the expected way.

It's been one of those days that no photos were taken, but plenty of things got done.

Pause...

 

Printing paused at present. Waiting for the lighthouse prints to dry and the printing table is full of bike bits being cleaned.

The car has had two new boots and an alternator...tracking being done today.  My bank balance will be saying OW!  As will the other account that the  pots prints and bike bits money goes into...I am buying a secondhand cage for my gas bottles..£150....but would be £700 new.

At least I will be legal and they will be safe.  

I am still trying to source ceramic fibre, adhesive and stabiliser to finish the flue section.

It's either out of stock or they don't reply.....keep trying. I may have found the manufacturer....

Busy walk

 Today's walk was very busy. We went on our two mills route, as we hadn't walked that way for a while...and wished we hadn't! Auld Byres farm was having its grass crop lifted and hauled off in a relay of large tractors and bigger trailers, past the stud farm on our route. Easyjet was flying training circuits from Prestwick Airport. The hedges were heaving with mobs of small birds..we saw a bullfinch near Millmannoch.

It was good to see plenty of walkers still walking too.

And the sun appeared from behind the morning mist!

Juiced

I am waiting for the last of the juice to finish its final filtering...the jelly bag fibres clog up with the fine apple particles. 

The wild apples have produced a nice , quite sharp but pleasant tasting juice.

They will need water bath processing, but it is a satisfying result after lugging bagfuls of apples, juicing initially in the machine, pressing the pulp and filtering at least twice!.

We might even go again, after finishing the apples with a batch of jam, mixed with something from the freezer...I haven't decided which berries yet!

Today's job before bottling was a run to our local(!) Post office, ten miles away to post sales and some essential shopping.  Otherwise I haven't done much.

Pirate had another hour's walk before yet another beautiful sunset..keeping well fit!!
 

Being busy

 Make life easier... smaller gears! The strawberries are beginning to colour up

 After today's ride, the kitchen got busy... Elderflower and Rose Petal....then a batch of lime Cordial after that

The bread deigned to rise just enough..I have started a new starter, wheat this time. The Rye starter is safe in the fridge.  Hopefully it's reluctance is just youth and the chilly weather.
While the oven was hot in went a yoghurt lime cake. Bean mushroom and chestnut savoury loaves, flapjacks , fruit crumble and baked potatoes..
All very industrious, but you then think of the listings not done. Seeds not sown, family history still not followed up....let alone any more done on the patchwork started in NZ.

Today's projects

 Yesterday we supported our local family owned garden centre and took advantage of the usual Spring special offers

Then did a little hoeing and weeding

And this morning the jackdaw lovebirds were eyeing up our eaves where the soffit needs mending...

He is scarifying the lawn...just don't tell him that is the patch that is destined to be the next vege bed.....
And I have at last reached the sewing table..now to see if the tension is ok.

Too busy!

Guess what...I'm wallpapering...in the kitchen!! 
The paint used in April was not right, although it did need to be lighter there.
I've picked up a bargain in paper, tiles, MDF windowsills for shelves in the shallow cupboard and on one wall.
The idea is to have a tidy,sorted,kitchen and storecupboards.   if a son,or two,will be coming to house-sit, they have to be able to find things,and have room to use them!

Meanwhile the gales are roaring outside, and North West Scotland has had up to 95 mm of rain in a  couple of hours. Luckily we haven't had quite that much, but there are plenty of flooded fields around here.
We haven't been able to finish the lawns we've promised to do...which has given us a little more time..but on the other hand getting work done in our own garden has been a problem!  Garlic is in, but the beans and onion sets still await dry weather...which we are promised tomorrow.

We're working on keeping the car legal before we go, if not completely mended..this is taking even more time out of each day.

Arrangements have been made for our camper car for our first two months of travel, internal flights bought....
Its beginning to feel real....

brief visit

Our friends' visit was far too brief, but they have spent much time in Ireland researching their mother's forebears...MacDonalds...and they hope to return next year!
They arrived at 11.30 am on Sunday and left at 11.30am today..we stay with one sister and her husband in Whanganui...and they stayed with a friend of ours here.
Her sister and husband stayed near central Ayr and had two days leisurely wandering and resting.

We showed our friends where we've lived around here, where we married, and places they'd heard about..great to spend two days in their company.
We showed them buildings, narrated history and talked and talked....

Hopefully we'll see them next visit to NZ...but we'll have to find new places to stay as they'll be downsizing as soon as they can-funding their next travels!

We're tired out...but happy...I've been nursing a sore throat for a couple of weeks...now its taking over!!  Doctor's surgery visit tomorrow.....

indoor day

View...what view ???

They say it was 9C at today's high point at 5pm,but feels 5 C..it really felt a lot less than that.

Today has been sorting,tidying, cleaning..and a little printing...

more hopes

 Two I've listed on ebay, the others I need more boxes and bubblewrap..

 This is tempting to hang on to....but would I use it?

I'm a potter..I've got plates I can use!!

When we get some decent weather I can get on with sorting the workshop and mending the kiln.

Keeping busy while watching friends do well in the Commonwealth Games track cycling...even saw the Pirate cheering them on!! He is meeting up with Kiwi friends there too, its good to hear.
Just over two weeks and he'll be back!!

What you do on a Monday..

Send invitations, check the jewellers, pay the balance of the registrar's fee..
and go home to paint ceilings!!

For light relief..a turbo session with fellow cyclists..sadly the last of ten,now the clocks have gone forward.

That was at the beginning of the warm-up. They decided on a change of view,with the lighter evening...

and at the end...

you could see we'd been working hard...

Rewarded with mugs of tea, hot sausage rolls or macaroni pies and homemade sponge cake, to revive us for the journey home.