Memories and photos

 Pirate's dad, his eldest brother as a boy and in the RAF (killed in action March 1945) and Pirate in 2000 having won a Masters track medal.

I have been sorting photos... yesterday pulled out a shortlist....now today I have a shorter list 

I am going to take a break to plant the tomatoes in the greenhouse earth....

Then I need to choose a very small selection for his Celebration leaflet....and write a resumé of his life...a tall order 

Walk and acquisition

The Isle of Arran with the Clyde shining

Marsh marigolds

Young beech leaves, just the right time to make Noyeau

Wood anemones..did you say them as Wooden Enemies first?!

Gean..wild cherry blossom

Blackthorn...hoping for sloes

Celandines 

 

Not sure what this is called....Garlic mustard?

I was pleased that our usual walk still only took an hour... after such a long break I thought I would have been slower.

Then yesterday I acquired a "new" lawnmower for £10.....

Job done, what grass there is is tidy and the compost heap has just enough for one layer.. exercise done and no fuel used!

Paperwork proceeds slowly...but Pirate is now accepted by the Glasgow medical school for research... carrying on helping folks as he did throughout his life.

I have the unenviable job of searching through his papers for photos and matters for a display and for use in a printed item...his Celebration day in Kent is in just under a month...so I need to get on with RSVPs....and up here we are arranging his usual big birthday ride...which he had every five years!

He had been aiming to have a Possee party in Kent in May, then his birthday celebrations....just a pity that he ended in a rush and couldn't make these in person..but his spirit will be there at both.

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......

our wedding

 "Woodchip" my granddaughter..sheeps!!

 our young piper

 busy kitchen at the Black Bull in Straiton,Ayrshire,where we were married in the garden..the first actual wedding there.

 piping in

 Wilma,our registrar..when the Pirate was using the Ayrshire Cancer Support Transport to get to his Radiation therapy appointments,her husband was on them too,but didn't survive a brain tumour..but he always talked about the Pirate and enjoyed his company

We added the old Celtic tradition of Handfasting,using a gold ribbon as we had no cord..and the knot that ends up in the ribbon represents the knot we have tied

 done it!

 signed it

 our best men...The Carpenter,my youngest and Woodchip's dad...and Pirate's nephew, The Joiner !

 Rogues Gallery...five 80+ riders, and the Pirate...80 next year

 Hannah and Fred..good to have another potters' family there!

and the Carpenter's stepson..looks the spit of him at that age!

 for Mrs Boxes and Bellows..

 cake! complete with pave (cobbles) and riders and Llongyfarchiadau/Congratulations on the banner..made by son in law...

 Pirate's shelf of memorabilia

 and mine,including a photo of me riding a 2 up time trial with my dad

 cards

 the Saltire given to the Pirate after the Manchester Commonwealth Games, now signed by the 2018 Scottish track cycling team at the Brisbane Commonwealth Games

 the banner says it all...

and this is Arthur Goodall, absent friend.

Pirate's clubmate in the 60s, tandem partner, best man at his first wedding.
Since we've been together we've been visiting Kent a few times a year, and seeing Arthur. He had been seeing more of his cycling cronies too,for tea and gossip. He was well pleased to see Pirate happy and that I'd let him go to Australia for a month.

He died  while Pirate was in Brisbane and the call arrived on the phone we got in New Zealand a few years ago,as the uk phone locked him out.

On his return here, he unlocked the phone..two days before he died, Arthur left a message on it..."Hi,I'm still in the land of the living.Hope you're having a lovely time in Australia"

Thirty riders had a nine mile ride together in the morning, and after the ceremony and the food, about a dozen of us did Straight Line Sprints on the grass at the Recreation ground.

Then back to the pub where we were married, for supper from the cafe over the road... veggie curry and mostly veggie nibbles and some gluten free for our coeliac friends, and talking well past 11pm!!

Friends and rellies stayed for a long weekend and it was a change to be a tourist for a bit!.

We've been tidying up the house, sorting who gave us what..when taped on cards fell off...moral,write on the paper!!

We asked for no presents,just health and happiness.  We've had some lovely useful gifts, plus a LOT of cash..which as helped towards the cost of the pub...the bill was a lot more than we'd thought...and shop vouchers..which will help ease the bank balance after all the expense!!

Then after the high of the weekend..and three days of beautiful weather..we're back to cold wet and reality.

Next step, a Rixon family annual get together in North London and a Possee Party for those of the Pirate's family in Kent who couldn't come.

we're dreamiing...

Of a white christmas...but we're getting a wet christmas.
Some family has visited before hand...

A  pair of Possees!

and for Xmas and Hogmanay...Pirate, Wizzard and his partner.

We've been walking instead of riding...whether wet or icy it has been safer!

Thanks to the Wizzard I've recharged my garmin, and have even logged a walk on strava!!

Meanwhile we've opened presents and are keeping warm.  Wizzard and partner were supposed to be camping, but forgot to pack their tent! (which is a winter suitable one) they are now trying to organize three nights in a pod ( read "wooden tent"!) by a mountain biking trail in the borders...before returning here when the weather turns wet again!!

It is good to have them here.

The Pirate's Birthday Bash

 With families,friends and Charlie The Dog. Also presents and The Cake!!