And one step back

 Up and out on time this morning, just after 8am, to take cardboard, a bag of green waste ( brambles), the old ripped polytunnel covers and a "dead" vacuum cleaner and fan heater to the cowp...the tip, or recycling centre.

It is run by a private company for the council.

Unload all that, then fill my four bags with free compost (council bags, £2 each then yours to use again) ..no more than four at a time,  but as many visits as you want. Since lockdown you have to book every visit, but that is no big deal.

It isn't perfect, you do get a certain amount of woody material..and are advised to use it 1:1 with garden soil. I do that, plus using it as one of the layers in the compost heap.

A quick visit to the nearest small town, Cumnock, the home of Kier Hardie, for a small top up shop....

And back to see how Pirate was getting on.

The district nurse yesterday had advised a doctor's phone call...and thankfully the doctor asked him to call by the surgery..verdict, fluid on his lungs.  Not surprising, with a serious bout of pneumonia 70 years ago, plus covid two years ago, plus weather too cold and wet to keep walking after his op....luckily there is an alternative to penicillin (which he can't take)...

Picked up the new meds..we are so fortunate to have a medical centre and a pharmacy in our village, just 200 metres apart.

Then he had a bright idea....lunch out!  The first place in the next village was full....we should have thought before going on to the next place..a garden centre cafe....it wasn't overfull, but he couldn't relax and eat even half...

Back home, him for a nap and me to do some research...which was confirmed by next door's daughter who is a nurse...I am doing the right things!

Then our daily walk, this time IN THE SUNSHINE!!!! and the walk was slow but steady, not painstakingly slow any more.

It does feel like Spring..even if we are heading for a cold snap.

Hopefully I will be able to get out on the garden and be destructive and constructive tomorrow... weather permitting!!

Already?

 Spring flowers

Iris Sibirica with surrounding Herb Robert on its way...and Snowdrops potted up when I divided some clumps last year.

Autumn

 Autumn is here, and like the swallows we must fly.

I will post about our trip out yesterday when we have arrived in Scotland..I must conserve the battery in my tablet for now!!

Everything is packed..just waiting for our lift to the airport.

Looking forward to Scotland......not looking forward to leaving Aotearoa NZ.

Seasonal Decs

Last Rose of Summer?

Equinox

Or should it be equilux?

The light it is that affects us, whether it is insufficient daylight, or excess illumination at night.

We have yet to catch a glimpse of the Aurora, even when it has been seen as far south as here. Not just clouds, but the glow of unnecessary street lighting.

We grew up with having a lamp to carry if you went out at night and stars in the sky....now if you do get real dark, people are afraid of it. Something tangible that yet cannot be touched.

Today has felt different..a little lifting of the heart maybe.

Something to carry us on through the next forecast snow/heavy weather at Eastertide.

light

Full Moon last night from the rear of the house...and light pollution from the front, looking towards Prestwick. 

Luckily we don't have street lights directly in front or behind the house, but the glow permeates everything but the thickest of curtains, making sleep uneasy.

Sunset was at 7.13pm and Moonrise at 7.14 pm. I happened to wake at about 4 am, and she was still traveling through a clear sky.

The Summer Solstice seems only a short while since, yet we fast approach the Equinox.

Winter....Spring....Winter....

We've just foraged about a ton of dead elm tree from a verge (here that is fair game for anyone...you just don't go the other side of the ditch,wall or fence...)

It is sad to burn elm, a beautiful wood. However this is full of bug holes, and bootlace (Honey) fungus so no furniture maker would have wanted it.
One more year there and it wouldn't have been good for firewood either.

The rain and snow are still here and the sun tempts us out...and sometimes we believe it!  The wind is sometimes scary..especially with a rather aged looking ash tree by the gate. We hear of bridges closed or with speed/traffic restrictions, of ferries delayed or canceled....we're itching to be traveling,to be out and away...watching the weather and counting the pennies....

seasons

 One day it is all Autumnal and conkers, the next the weather shows its true colours as the tail end of the US Hurricanes turns into a storm.....

Today it is Samhain/Calan Gaeaf  So Winter is here and I'm sitting here in front of the woodburning stove all cosy as the wind roars in the chimney and the rain lashes down....

and who forgot to lock the car, and whose bike is sitting in the car after today's ride.....erm.....me!

I took advantage of the good weather we had at lunchtime to go for a bike ride with my daughter on her last day here.
I managed the first flatter part of the ride with her-then told her to go on!

Total ride was sixteen miles, but the last eight were uphill to the summit, where The Pirate rescued me!!   Then we drove to Newton Stewart and had coffeeand scones together, before going tohunt for her husbandand The Boys.
He had forgotten that he had saaid"if you feel ok at the arranged meeting point, carry on the next 16k to Newton Stewart".....)

We found him back here!!   All came out in the wash and nobody died!!

Sad to see them leave after only three nights up here, but The Boys are now in school and one gets fined if one takes time out in term time.

May already!

                                            "  Wheat and oats and barley grow..."

and a young hare waits for the tractor to finish fertilizing His field

We mended the side of a "stick shed" in exchange for several trailerloads of its contents...good dry forewood.

This door hasn't worked for twenty years!!

Then we tested the firewood....

Ooops!!

We look after another garden, lawns and veggies.  Everything is growing nicely, apart from the Dwarf Beans. It is still damp and cold-so that is probably the reason.

First week of treatment nearly done.  I'm not sure if it isn't the commuting making The Pirate feel tired as much as if not more than the "zapping"....100 mile round trip for six minutes actual lying still....to think that many people drive this and more and work a full day.   That doesn't feel like any kind of life.
However The Beatson is the cancer centre for the whole of the West of Scotland, and it is a very big, busy and good place.....with awful parking!!!

seasons

We drove past a field last week, near home in Ayrshire...the straw was sitting in round bales ready to go to the barn. It seems no time ago that that crop was a ploughed field with a green haze of new shoots at the end of April.

Now the Equinox has passed and the year is fading away imperceptibly.  Yellow leaves, blocked drains, greenhouse clearing and hedgecutting are the order of the day rather than grass mowing, in the main.

harvest

I'm enjoying working in the walled garden!
nearly ready.....
Today is the Equinox.

Gathering on the Common. I had to turn off the car engine and wait- no bother. Good to sit with window open and breathe the mountain air