Friends

 We managed to get out for a day... eventually...mornings are not easy for Pirate.

Lunch was a gift from a friend in Dumfries..a local church there has built a new community centre about four years ago...gym, meeting rooms, hireable conference/office rooms, a really good cafe Monday to Friday...and a church.

They have employed a full time chef and the food is good....and there is plenty of parking, unlike our favourite bike cafe by the river in Dumfries.

Then our original reason for going to Dumfries....the Abbey Sewing Machine shop....he was initially trained by Singer in Clydebank, Glasgow...and has a lifetime of working on sewing machines..he services machines from far and wide as there are so few doing this now. He also sells secondhand machines.

I took two electric machines that I had....and found out their worth...and discussed what I needed....I initially he didn't think he had what I needed....

But then remembered the last one of a batch of Bernina machines he had.... older style ones, not the modern all plastic jobs....

My mother had a Bernina in the 1960s...and I was supposed to get that when she wanted to change it but she part exchanged it for a Janome instead of letting me buy it....This one doesn't have all the embroidery stitches..which I never used on the old one..but it runs well and sounds just like the old one!

Sweet!!

He gave me a part exchange rate that I would have got by selling them on any online marketplace...which was a good deal. 

He did have a Husquvarna Viking machine.....but that was another £150 above the price of the Bernina...worth it, but I don't have that spare!!

To celebrate we went to see Phil McMenemy at the Gallery at Lauriston...celebration should be done with friends! 

Cake sharing....Ginger and Lemon Drizzle...with a proper hot chocolate that doesn't need the mug to hold it up!!!!

And now he has requested new curtains.....I do have some light tweed material....now to investigate the fabric stash ... Do I have lining material?

Now for some sewing mathematics......

Cake progress

 Getting there!

cycling in the sun!!!!

Eventually....the bikes were ready before 10am....several showers later, at 12.40 we started out!!
It was chilly, the roads damp, the wind strong but at last the sun was shining for more than five minutes!

We were both road rusty, having just been riding our bikes on the turbo trainers...set up his and hers together in the living room!

The first four miles took us over 20 minutes...The Pirate was considering turning for home....but then he thought "it's a lovely sunny day......"
We hadn't realized that the main road to Stranraer, A77, was closed in Maybole...and the diversion was past Culzean, just the way we were taking!!
All the A77 traffic, the coach trips out,the Sunday drivers, the lorries...
We had thought of turning right off this road for a short diversion.. plans changed with all this traffic.Straight down to the cafe in Maidens village.

Sitting in the cafe we looked across the green to the harbour, where  we could see the waves were breaking high across the bar.  They have been over the harbour cob wall on previous visits....

We turned back,but not along the A road but by the road near the beach, through a caravan park to the western end of the Culzean Estate.
Through the estate in the shelter of the trees , forgoing another cafe stop, and up to the main road at the main entrance.   A short hop of a mile along the road to look at something down a side lane...then the bright idea of heading along the coast road to avoid the traffic...

Unfortunately much of the diverted traffic was coming the same way.....at least less than had been heading West...
Still,it was good to have an amount of wind assistance for a change!

Just before the edge of Alloway we transferred to the cycle / footpath,a nice wide smooth clean route...an ex-railway thanks to Mr Beeching.
Through tunnels and over a river bridge to come up by the Burns Experience Museum in Alloway.   Then a quick hop over the bypass to the lanes to Dalrymple.
The shorter way was over Ballycoach and Guiltree Hill...but the longer valley route was chosen for the last five miles home and we were very glad to be going with the wind for the last three...

A steady ride of just over 40 miles, but all in the sun.

A great change to this morning when at 6.45 am it was chilly,the car lightly frosted,the air still and the sky red.
Within an hour it was back to blowing a hoolie, with rain and snow thrown in for good measure .We're even having to keep our house door locked to stop the wind blowing in!

Back to coffee and Hawthorn's luscious malt loaf in front of the fire before a session on the turbo.

Then some more linoprinting, of which more later.....

preparations

 My brother (the hairy one on the left, with the Tipi) is the advance party of those staying here and locally for The Pirate's Birthday.
 The gazebo is my present to The Pirate.

 The Cake!!  Made by "Auntie Beryl", mum of one of the Ayr Roads Cycling Club

 The Pirate mending his pew, which came from Maybole Church, and will be taken to The Club Hut ready for the party.....and mowing the grass by the hut!!

No, not the field,...... really!!

We've been busy sorting B&B accommodation for friends and family, working out what food to buy when, cleaning the house and finishing off all our grassmowing jobs.....we'll need a holiday after this!!    Still, he isn't 75 every day!

wood!

The Pirate chainsawed firewood this morning, building up a stock of cut wood for when he can't work.  My job is handsawing and lopping the smaller pieces, then stacking.

The weather tempted me to use the washing machine, which then decided not to spin properly. (the brushes on the motor are not contacting properly)  Then the weather decides that it will start playing at showers....we have bought a "new" machine, but it is sitting ten miles from here....

However the carrot cake made last night was voted a success by two friends who visited us for tea and cake this morning.

Winter weather prompted winter fare for lunch and Celeriac and Leek soup filled the bill, with wholemeal bread and Crowdie cheese.

Yet more sawing and stacking until the afternoon turned chill and the light began to fade, at only 4.30pm.

Now we're sitting in front of the warm wood stove, having a well earned break.

a day ending in cake!!

Today started with high finance, shuffling money around in order to pay for things and get the Etsy shop up and running again.  Now I need a decent camera to photograph pots as the one I was borrowing is back in Wales....!!
If you use a basic digital camera, you get basic images.......and it looks cheap and unprofessional.

Then a fitting at the dentist. I lost a lot of front teeth in a crash in the 1970s and the previous dentist hadn't renewed the plastic ones for many years. Your teeth move, your jaw changes and plastic wears so they shouldn't be left unchanged for more than five years.   I've found dental care here in Scotland fantastic. Perhaps I've just been lucky to find this one, thanks to The Pirate.

Onwards to collect firewood from a friend. We'd felled a dead tree and our payment is the wood.  Rowan burns well!

Time was tight, so lunch was "bun on the run" as we took turns driving to Dumfries for The Pirate's physio treatment on his shoulder. ( absolutely bamjaxed in a crash on the track in Sydney in 2009, when an ex-pro rider in front of him had a tyre roll off.  Result, collar bone through shoulder blade.....)
Then back again to get home (almost) in daylight.  It is getting dark so soon, it seems.

Whilst heating up supper, we made Carrot Cake...I mixed, he grated, we baked!!
Now we're ready for a visitation from cycling friends tomorrow.

If no-one comes I'm sure we'll have earned ourselves a goodly portion after chainsawing and splitting and stacking firewood!

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!

cake!

A little late perhaps, but today I have made two Black Buns!
Like a very fruity dark christmas cake. Just that it comes in a pastry case, and is for the New Year!!

That made the kitchen nice and warm for few hours, just the thing that was needed after a chilly farmers' mart. Sales were not brilliant, but at least costs were covered. I need to make four times as much sales to make a living.

I tried to add pictures to the laptop computer, but unfortunately I can't remember how!! This is not on Linux, and I find it difficult to use. I can't remember the sequences. I need an idiot proof set of instructions!! So unfortunately, no pictures yet.