Down day

 We had our jags yesterday evening at the local community centre...flu in one arm and the new double covid Jag in the other. I wanted them both in the arm I don't sleep on, but they need to know if you have a reaction, which one is causing it!   So far so good anyway. A little tenderness, but that is to be expected.

We are so fortunate in Scotland that we just have to wait for our blue envelope, instead of chasing appointments.

So today is a down day...late up after a cuppa in bed, and take it easy all day.

The fleabay bookwork needs bringing up to date..just a couple of sales to go in the accounts book. And the study needs its tidying finished before a friend comes to stay on Wednesday.

There is no incentive to get busy in the garden anyway, it is chill and damp...forecast overcast all day and heavy rain by tonight. I have sorted the best of the garlic cloves to plant now for next year's crop.

Now to make lunch and carry on with some light kitchen re-arrangement.

The aim is to have plates, tools and food in easily accessible and sensible places!! Not easy in something that is a glorified galley kitchen/utility room/larder all in one...

Catching the weather

 Yesterday we managed to catch a weather window!!

The wind was still cold and cutting sharp..so a mask was very useful.

Read those photos in reverse... Blogger just surprises you just when you relax...!!

We were aiming to see how the bird population was, but the smaller birds were mostly absent, apart from a couple of wrens in a sheltered spot, one buzzard that looked to be hunting mice or something, and a buzzard being chased away by a crow.

We think that this is the route of one old track between farms, and we explored further along it to where it crossed with another.

We came back by an old smallholding, Carlavrock..a Laverock is a lark.

And saw a different, noisy type of bird...

Heading back up to our village we saw the weather window closing..

Home before the light sprinkling of snow....on a frozen car...

Last night the frost had thawed, early this morning there as no frost...until we got up and the car was frozen again!!

Today we have been sorting more Stuff!!

We have two lawn mowers that we need to shift...Pirate hauled them out of the shed so that I could photograph them.  Then hopefully we can find someone in the Old Lawnmower Club who might like them and give them some TLC!! 

No point having a mountain of mowers when you only have a small patch at home to cut!!

Inside and out

 It is straight and level!  Not permanently in its place yet, just checking. We hope to get the bricks finished tomorrow, and the wood that goes between bricks and frame has been painted .

I have been dispatching a few more sales, which is great, apart from eBay, Etsy and artwork all demanding the same place in the study!

The new design has been finished as far as first pencil rubbing..next step a trial print.

After sorting the printing desk!

Job started! Tomorrow we will change the lampshade to a downlight instead of an uplight, and put a stronger bulb in it, to make working possible in these short dark days.

The work starts

 Blackberry with elderberry cordial to start with. I have added a little citric acid as usual, and this time a touch of pectolase to prevent the cordial making jelly as it is processed!

I extracted the juice over a water bath this time but I would like to try cold extraction some time as it apparently gives more flavour. With that process you can add pectolase to help break down the cell walls and aid juice extraction. Quicker and safer I think than using fermentation.  It would be a process to try when the kitchen isn't full of all the other jobs queuing up..including small bike bits being sorted on the two feet at the end of the kitchen bench by the back door! 

With fewer bike bits around, Pirate will have a workbench in his workshop!!

Autumn is definitely here, officially, meteorologically since the first of September. 

So today we have heavy rain showers, and strong Southerly winds, rising stronger tonight. Time to list more on eBay and Etsy and get that bottling done!!

seeing and sorting

With one eye done, Pirate is already seeing more....dust, wrinkles, ageing...scaring himself by looking in the mirror!

But also things in the distance, shades of colours not just "green" fields.  Things that he'd also never notice as a driver, he is seeing as a passenger.

He has started reading again too, but has to slow down and not rush.

With reading, as with anything visual, the brain picks up signals quickly and links that to what it knows..so mistakes can occur!
Who remembers the cartoons by Haro, so sparing in line? You'd see it quickly then on a second look realise how much your brain had assumed.

Now we are having a second day at getting all the sheds' contents unmixed...it could be a long job!!

under the spreading chestnut tree....

The grass is still growing!!     Every time the temperature lifts above 5 degrees C, it is off again.

Yesterday we tidied a hedge and cleared away the cuttings. ( The Pirate was supervising ONLY!!!) and I painted a gate and a shed...today it is rather damp.  Not too damp to use a ride-on mower on a lawn that looked more like a paddock, and around a farmyard.

It gets dark and chilly so early, by 4.30 it is clocking off time.
Time for tea, catching up on the incoming mail, and for The Pirate , shredding a mountain of old bills and the like!

belongings, alias "stuff"

I've just read a post by Milkmoon about moving home..

Since 1998 we've moved five times to progressively smaller homes....each time we've had to reduce what we have.
Now I'm leaving home and going to share a one bedroom, one living room cottage......

HOW do I reduce what I have still more....HOW do I pare down my belongings, my book collection, my pot collection?

I already have garden plants to move, and a workshop  to pare down to bare essentials- not easy after so many years.

Living here in New Zealand for a while has shown us that we need far less than we think, but reducing all the things that have memories attached will hurt.

head down busy

Backing The Pirate, getting him back fit to ride and confident that he can do a decent performance in October.
The combination of moving , working too hard and a month with minimal bike riding put him physically and mentally back.  We might be short of time to get him back to medal contention, but at least we've been working on his skills on the track to make the most of what he has.
Even over such a short distance as 750 metres, where the last 200 are timed...a la Sir Chris Hoy....getting the right line for the build-up and last 300 metres took a second off his time with no extra effort.    
In fact he said it felt better and easier.    So at whatever level you are, whatever discipline on the track, technique to make yourself efficient is important.

Meanwhile there has been much tidying of allotment-just about finished, and some sorting of house-just about started!!   Also some sorting of car-this has taken time due to one injured person, one reluctant person and another working more than usual!
Booking it in to the local garage has prompted one of those to have a look at the problem this morning...with any luck it wont need to go to the garage on Monday!
Said garage was rather reluctant as the problem is possibly with the cv joint boots that were replaced two weeks ago-yes, we should go back to the garage that fitted them- but we wont be there for over two weeks and nearly 1000 miles......

Also I'm filling in my jobhunting forms for officialdom to reassure them that I am looking for work, however temporary.....there isn't much about of any sort. As usual any jobs I'll get will be by word of mouth, so keep looking and talking.

The weather has turned  mainly cold and wet since the Equinox, but at least we are better off than York in  England where the river is 5 metres higher than usual and rising....and the flood defences will cope with 0.2 metres more....

packing

Sorting and packing for someone else isn't easy, when you don't find it easy to do your own!

At  least papers will be with papers, bike stuff with bike stuff and so on. Even that is reducing how much space it all takes.    

It isn't easy to move from somewhere that is a double and a small room and a loft bigger.....but together we'll do it.

At  last we're getting more practical help too.  Just a week now until Moving Day and vans will appear and furniture moved.

steady progress

I'm slowly getting fitter- we rode round the local 10 mile time trial course together...after 2.5 miles I just sat behind on The Pirate's wheel!!  I was glad to finish...those who race will know what "pursuiter's cough" is like....lets just say I used more of my lungs than usual, which is good!!

Progress too on the downsizing of Stuff.....equipment has been given and sold and sent to store, but there is yet more... It DOES look worse before it gets better....but at least we are down to floor level from shoulder level!!

Yesterday we measured our new home...incentive for The Pirate to Get On With It!!!!

It is an absolutely beautiful morning, sun, breeze, the second lot of washing about to go out....and despite that I've just got a midge bite!!!! Well, this is Scotland!

going up for a change

This morning's ride went up to Loch Bradan, now the water supply for Troon.
Home is at 150 metres above sea level (about 500 feet), and once we reached the main valley road  at about 110m, it was steady, but thankfully not constant climbing....I only walked two short stretches!!

"keep right on to the end of the road"...well, the metalled bit anyway.

We climbed up the bank a little way to see what we could see- the "lump" on the right is at 376m and was in the way!  You can just see the hills to the north of the road between Straiton and Dalmellington (once a coal mining town)

sheep....never stay and have their portrait taken!!

A pretty flower growing in the boggy ground...I'm sure someone can tell me its name....

Then an exhilarating....no, scary!! ride back down the steep bits...and then we went straight on to Straiton and The Buck for coffee....and The Resident Dog decided that I wasn't to go anywhere...and placed her paw firmly by mine!!

The Pirate needed a few more miles under his belt but I chose to go back home..and arrived at the same time as today's rain showers..

Having recharged our batteries we have tidied more, found things that were being searched for and given away two good spare beds.
The rubbish bag is filling slowly and we can see more floor! 

There is still a lot to be sorted but we're seeing the light, thankfully.

results

In between kiln checking and tweaking, yesterday's sunshine got me inspired...as well as the lack of housework help getting me riled....

The kitchen is mostly de-cluttered although still waiting for some electrickery and carpentry.
The hall and stairs have been painted Incarnidine Red...that was chosen just over a year ago after much pachwork painting of test pots!

I ran out of time to take a load to the local recycling centre, even though it closes at 7pm....

I've peeked in the kiln-

and it looks good...but is too hot to touch!

I'm pleased with this little dragon jar- I hope the lid isn't stuck!   If it is ok when it comes out of the kiln, this one is going to a friend who loves dragons although he isn't Welsh or Chinese...I'm not sure, but he might be a Dragon himself!

more de-cluttering

The kitchen is looking better, I don't have to move anything to do something, or put something down!

The living room is livable. I have sofa, chairs, coffee table, I will have a dining table once I've decided which six pots get to go to North Wales.

The shelves and boxes of pots, the stack of storage boxes full of stock, the trays and files of paperwork. Well, it has to be a stockroom and office as well as living room. It is called trying to make a living, so that justifies them.

The Room of Doom.
The Carpenter is doing his best, The Oily One clutters it. My stuff there is at least sorted on shelves and I can't face it yet. I will be painting walls SOON which will reduce some of the clutter.

My Room.
Is looking a lot better. Sorted paperwork to return to the Living Room Office Shelf.

The Bathroom.
Is clean and tidy, although still waiting for the next set in up-doing

The Workshop
Is Next

The Greenhouse and Shed can wait a bit!!