Disappeared day...

 Yesterday sort of disappeared, doing all those bitty jobs..

This was the final version of this year's card...they won't all arrive for Xmas, but it will be contact maintained..

It was good to start the day with some blue sky...and it did improve, nicely sunny with a bitter wind....the foretaste of this weekend?

And this morning...it was Friday... somehow although I've kept track of the numbers, the days left me behind!! This morning's job has been making the living room a welcoming place...things have been sorted so that each variety of Stuff isn't here and there...

Which is a great improvement...but I've reached the point where every surface is covered...so it is coffee and toast time then the last push..even if it all goes in a tray To Be Sorted this weekend as if the forecast is correct, I won't be going anywhere!!

Recycling collection missed...but not much to collect so that can wait.

Thankfully no appointments missed..as I checked straight away!

And if the weather doesn't turn pear shaped early (80 mph gusts forecast for Saturday) I can go out tonight to see friends.

One step forward

 The car has been mended.....but I don't get it back today...the rear calipers fitted, back brakes bled..but the nipples on the front are rusty. Hopefully by lunchtime tomorrow.....

I did two lots of washing last night so as not to waste daylight...the first and half of thr second dried so much overnight on a rack in the kitchen that they didn't need to go out on the line! 

Yet more sorting......more rubbish in the wheelie bin for collection tomorrow morning ( landfill goes out once every three weeks).

Yesterday's loaf is a decided success...next time I will increase the proportion of rye flour...I do miss baking, but there are so many other things to do!!

Including a session on the turbo....

I had thought of a ride outside until I cleared the ice off the car before taking it to the garage!

Decorations are up....

That'll do!! 😄

Improving

 Today started clear and still..and was even at 7⁰ at lunchtime!

Still a trifle fresh..so I concentrated on reducing Stuff... starting with a boxful of all sorts.....that could just have been chucked out...good thing I didn't.

I found our original wedding certificate that I've been hunting for for years...a few addresses on bits of paper that will go in the address book at last... important souvenirs of my racing career... useful things that will go to the workshop...mostly sorted properly now, and a carrier bagful of bits in the bin.

I've gathered two more small boxes of things to sort ... mostly important, but that have been "put on one side for Ron"....meaning later on!! I'll look at them tomorrow.

My bedroom is looking better...one box of "should I mend this" and another of various sewing things are now with sewing and fabric in another room.

After a nice chat on messenger with a friend yesterday and half an hour on the turbo I had a reasonable night's sleep, only being awake at one point for a short while.  A tidy bedroom should help that too.

After yesterday's bread disaster...it looked as if I hadn't added yeast, but that is the first thing that is measured out...

I changed from 50/50 white and wholemeal to 75/25 white and rye...as that is what was in the cupboard! 

Getting somewhere now!!

Today's turbo ride was a lot better too..it helps to have the right music...a request programme with Gary Innes on Radio Scotland... traditional, country, pipe music. I loved the title of one piece"the dashing white eejit" !!

Tomorrow's weather looks hopeful, so I've done the washing already..well, the machine has!! 

It all sounds busy busy...but not really....the sorting has meant a lot of sitting down.  The bread machine did all the hard work making the bread.

It is only 9.20 pm....time for a short Duolingo lesson then bed and book!

Indoors

 I stayed indoors all day, with just a couple of trips outside to put recycling in the buckets..enough to change the air in my lungs? Possibly not!

The clouds were scudding along, with 50+ mph (80kmh) gusts!! At least the rain stopped by 11am.

I'd found all the socks and base layers that we had sorted out of Pirate's tallboy...in my suitcase!! I thought it was heavy!!  A third for the bin, a third for the op shop, under a third possibly to family and a few bits for me.

Now I have started sorting a box of bits and bobs... useful "gubbins" as Tigger's mum would say...

I found an old diary from 2020...with not a lot in it...a couple of birthdays, our friends' marriage in Blenheim NZ...we wondered why they had said to arrive in the afternoon! ( He already had Parkinson's...now with added dementia he is in a home in Essex. They had about twelve years together like us)

My 67th birthday..and the price of a new camera...which I didn't buy!

Not much else...

I tried a different setting on the breadmakers...which should have been better....

Not much lift in that! And yet not solid enough to be good Dwarf Bread!! *

I did half an hour on the turbo after message chatting with a friend..and listened to football games' "post mortem" on the radio to take my mind off it!

Miles, resistance and time....

Supper was a trifle late as I couldn't think what to make...it ended up being pasta pesto with veges and a lump of soft cheese!

Ten o'clock.. definitely bedtime..a bit later than usual to allow for digestion of course. 

*See Discworld by T. Pratchett 😎

Back on the bike

 We went to Dalrymple by car today,as I had a parcel to post.

Then off on the bikes, for me the first time this year! We met up with three others for a gentle ride...it wasn't so gentle for me!! However I rode up the hills, and we didn't go up any huge ones!

Over to Straiton then down the Girvan valley as far as Dalry . By then after about twelve miles my legs had that rubbery feeling every time we saw a hill...even a small one!! We crossed to the other side of the valley there and at last had a tailwind as we headed for Maybole and lunch in a café.  I was very glad that although we had four miles left to go, there was only one hill to climb...and not a huge one either.

We both need to ride more and walk more...but I think having nearly a whole day out at the moment is a luxury!!  Things are beginning to move on the workshop front and I am steadily decluttering and selling.  Pirate is sorting bike stuff...and it is happening quicker than previous times. The aim is to be able to do what we want and need without spending time moving other things...to go straight to a job or occupation with no fuss or waste.

A Dream? Maybe..but it is a relief as it gradually begins to happen!!