Culross Palace, textiles and painting

 

Paint!

 After a busy day...a bike ride to post a letter (morning collections in our village are ridiculously early!!)  and see friends who run a second hand shop.

They are now in an old mill, a historical four storey building in Mauchline..and the business us going from strength to strength!!

I bought an old tenon saw, a couple of knitting patterns and a mini vice. Pirate found an unused jigsaw puzzle of The Broons!!

We dodged all the showers and as they cleared away I got all the holiday washing done!

Then as Pirate had his well earned siesta I started work on the workshop sides, taping up before painting.

This is supposed to be one coat paint, but I think it needs two. No point skimping and tough expensive it is supposed to last ten years!

Himself joined in and helped, peeling off the tape before the paint dried.

Now that is better, looking more of a piece instead of a mixture of odd bits...which it is!!

And Pirate insisted I go the other side of the camera for a change!!

No more painting.. please?!

The sheds are finished, the back fence and gate painted as much as they will!
It has been another sunny but chilly day.

Shopping today done for a couple of weeks, we concentrated on getting the painting done..Pirate has a couple of hours to go to finish the fence painting job for the neighbour.  That will pay for more than a week's shopping!

I have been painting day after day..and I have had enough!!

Gardening is a must tomorrow, getting chitted seed in compost and pricking out seedlings to individual pots. Then the exciting bit. Choosing which seeds to sow next!
As Pirate finishes the neighbours fence, we can get the polytunnel up again after moving the old frame to one side.  This time we will strengthen and secure the polytunnel much more than last time!!

Too busy to be bored!

 This is our view most mornings...from our turbotrainers, after a cup of coffee..
We have a half hour or so ride before breakfast..so that it is well earned!
You can see the sheds..now all the same colour to match the kiln shed on the right. Far easier that way as it is coated metal!
The workshop doors started to get a refresh today..just top coat tomorrow, then the back fence and I will have had enough of painting to last me a long time...until my workshop gets its verandah of course!!

 My little fig tree is still growing.. luckily it was in the kitchen while we were in New Zealand. Now it is outside, but I will get it back in if frost threatens. I had thought a year ago that it was just a dead stick as the growth that was to the left at the base was dead. Tragedy as the original cutting came as a gift from our late friend in Abergavenny, as did the present of a rug which you can see.

At last another return to drawing...makes a change from painting the sheds!

Hopefully there will be time for gardening tomorrow..it is set to be fine if going back a little colder.
The leeks and beans have germinated..at last..time to get a lot more seeds in and seedlings pricked out.. thinking of food!

And thinking of food I have a shopping list...or is that a wish list?!...for first thing tomorrow morning, when we head for the Pensioneers Shopping Hour and the Trolley Minuet!!

now to wait...

 watching ink dry....

 Pirate got painting...refreshing our garden seat..

Luckily that dried before the rain returned!

achievements...

Yesterday I went to the Arts Society in Te Aroha- there were about half a dozen women there, not so many as usual as it is nearing the end of term, and next week they will be hanging the christmas exhibition of paintings.

Various media were being used, oil, watercolour, oil pastels and acrylics, and I did a drawing in ink and pencil of the view through the front window. Surprisingly most members seem to be originally from the British Isles, and all have been here at least twenty years. However they are all of the lend a hand and share mentality, not the do it the British way wherever we are sort!!

While I was doing that, The Pirate walked to the top of the mountain with T's labrador dog!!
He had good phone signal on the way up, so I knew of his progress...but signal disappeared on the way down....a combination of the company and the clouds. (my signal was fine)

He couldn't tell me that it was steeper than he remembered at the top...so it was a good thing that I wasn't with him!!     He couldn't tell me that he was having problems with his reactolite spectacles-as soon as he went back under trees he couldn't see.
He couldn't tell me he was taking much more time coming down than expected.....so I was sitting in the Domain (park) for an hour longer than expected....more sandfly bites on my legs.

We both slept well last night...and the dog did too!!