Bread!!

 I got brave last night and mastered the screen of my "new" bread maker...

And the result was tried this morning..with homemade marmalade if course!

A nice extra after breakfast to get energy for a trip to town on the bus.

I went out as near to the bus time as possible...and got quite damp in five minutes!! Thankfully it was dry by the time we reached town..and stayed dry.

Posting done..with quite a wait.. people need to use the post office all year round, not just before Christmas!!

Then I had time to walk around town... today's exercise..the co-op shop's refurbishment is still ongoing..re-opening due on Friday. I didn't need much there so waiting is ok. A walk up to the top of the town followed. There is supposed to be a new art and craft outlet opening..but no sign of it.

I'm not to worried about that, as the proposal is apparently renting a shelf plus a percentage of sales. As it isn't in a part of the town with much footfall I am wondering how successful they will be. 

A little different to the gallery and circle I used to be a member of...now in Frogmore street in Abergavenny, moved in from the outskirts.

There we did shop duty once or twice a month..those doing two had a smaller percentage deduction from their sales. 

I found a small arts and crafts shop selling materials and finished work..not in an obvious place, but with a surprising number of people passing by..

The owner is friendly, and we have a fair bit in common..so I must get some stock out and take it there, even if just small prints to start with.

There used to be an art and craft and office supplies shop elsewhere in town, and she told me the latest news of the building...the rear now a yoga studio, the front and upstairs a gallery and artists' workshops...

No time to look today, I can look at that next time.

Back home for a rest, then give the cutlery and kitchen tool drawer a good clean and sort out...you don't realise just how grubby they get, even though you are putting clean items in !!

After supper... risotto from the freezer...some gentle mending.

I can't just sit... sitting quietly in good company is one thing. Sitting alone is a completely different matter.

Plans disruption

The garage man has hurt his back..so no work for at least a week..could be just a little twist..but I think that it is linked to when he was knocked off his motorbike by a careless car driver.

So any travelling plans are on hold, even locally.

I sorted a few small electric goods that I don't need..an iron, two kettles, a coffee machine, a couple of fan heaters and a few other kitchen things.

They were collected today by Recycle Ayr, so if they all pass testing they will either go to people who need them or be sold to raise funds.

It has been colder and windy all day, with yet more showers ..the weather system is stuck over the Northern Isles at present, but tomorrow should see some dry and colder weather.

Which is fortunate as I have a fleabay sale to post...some handlebars will be on their way to Bristol.

All packed...my method is the "get out of there without moving will you " method of taping!!

Duolingo French lessons are proceeding...and why did they never teach us celui ci and celui là in school?!!

Stay in...warm and dry!

 Because it is cold wet and windy out there!

This morning I re-waxed my wax jacket. It has  hung in the warmer living room and all day...I just hope I have done it evenly enough.

As brother is sorting my website I ventured out to the stock shed to see if I could find some pots to photograph....I brought a couple in, but I need dry weather so that I can bring boxes out....

And then there is fleabay ...I have been stocktaking!!  And then making new lists for the files so that I don't have to hunt for the listings through a wad of pages!  I've managed to do our late friend's items so far. Pirate's and mine tomorrow.  His is down to four sheets of paper ( every listing is at least three lines, with the accurate descriptions.

While it was light enough.. hopefully..I photographed some more of his to list...

All sorts of bits and bobs!

I need to sort out the descriptions and weigh and measure them all, then see what the going rate is for them...it is a fair bit of work, but saves time eventually by answering questions people may have and also less comeback to claim that it wasn't as described!!

Indoor day

 

There hasn't been a lot of snow here, mostly the icing sugar variety..and this afternoon fine cold rain. Not what we want before tonights freeze.

Pirate splashed out ....he is an old softie...

He is cutting about an inch off the stems every day..so now they have gone from a Doug Fitch jug to one of my puzzle jugs vintage 1997.

Yesterday we saw our doctor who looked at the MRI results from last May...only T3 then....so what we remember was confirmed at least. He had full spectrum blood tests...and got the results today over the phone just before the district nurse visited.

All normal, even PSA minimal as it was about six years ago..so the radiotherapy in June worked....pulling Charlie back from his prostate...

Only the iron levels a bit low, which is easy to sort. 

So he is a healthy man with a wee problem 😄 well...not so wee...but just the one!

I have been researching a Campagnolo chainring that I am to sell for our Fife friend...I have narrowed it down to post 1978....when they put Brev instead of patent. Especially as it appears unridden, even if it might have been on a set of cranks briefly, getting the model correct could mean double the value..

Now we are waiting for the clubmate who is using my best track bike to arrive. Pirate is organising a new bottom bracket for her, so her cranks need to be sent away to match with the correct angled spindle...and she is borrowing another set of cranks until the others return.

She is doing really well..so this is long term planning towards her riding the masters world track championship in Roubaix in October.

And while I wait, sorting which books to put on fleabay. I listed this set last night...

A productive and sociable day

 A bright and early start today..fleabay work meant other things to do had been neglected....so first thing all yesterday's washing up and ironing from a few days ago was done and all kept!!

Then it was back to making shiny bits of metal shine properly for a little during our morning neighbourly cuppa...and he came bearing gifts...two fresh eggs from his new hens. 

A quick lunch and two friends dropped by on their way home from a nice bike ride out...just in time for a cuppa! And of course other friends phoned Pirate at the same time!!

Pirate decided to join in the selling, if he isn't using kit, there is no point just having it sitting there. So the afternoon's job was cleaning four chainrings, while he started on mincing apples ready to be pressed for juice.

After supper...which included runner beans, garlic, sweet jalapeno peppers and courgettes from the garden...I cut up the rest of the apples to be pressed and am getting them pressed now.

Hopefully bottling tonight and processing first thing tomorrow.

Fleabay and friends

 I posted three sales this morning...these could be collected, by courier or parcel force (post office) but I prefer to back our local post office, which has reopened in the next village. Only two miles away, but the footpath is only on the first mile...and the last third of a mile, on the other side of a busy A road. The backroad way is ok for walking for 1½ miles, but then you have the country "rat run" for a mile before you cut through on a decent footpath and small road.

Everything I needed to do today got disrupted..but I am not complaining about friends visiting!! Eventually I got new items photographed, just before the clouds rolled in and the good light went...but listing didn't happen until after supper!!

One thing I listed today was a vintage  Karrimor rear bike rack... beautifully sturdy and simple...like they say, they don't make them like that anymore...now there are fiddly plastic bits which break, and they are difficult to fit...

I have apples that need juicing, beans that need freezing, ironing to do......

A slow day

 We started late..and a lie in always unsettles me, even after a late night.

Pirate vacuumed the stairs...he has to do his share, and insists on that...then had a nap...very sensibly. He wanted to do more, but I said No!! 

A friend called by on his way back from a bike ride..it was good to have a cuppa and natter, the three of us sitting in the sun.

Another short nap..and lunch.

While the light was good, I photographed a few more items...

The day was heavy and humid..but the washing still dried, before we took a walk over the fields to pick some good apples...and some plums on the way back!

That was today's exercise as well..all the better for being in the fresh air, and back before the rain.  Looking at the clouds, and the radar maps, any heavy rain went each side of us. The garden needs rain, but not heavy rain.

Being Tourists for a change

 Friends from near Dundee were heading for Stranraer, so we suggested meeting for lunch near us..as they would be passing...

Just off the A75... the Burns Experience..they had never been and we hadn't for a few years. A good lunch outside, then a wander around the museum.

Our friend's mother's family is Burns from Ayrshire...who knows if there is a connection..but his father was Polish, and brought him up as a good Caithness lad! (Having met his Ayrshire wife in Glasgow)

We picked up on something we had missed previously...Burn's father spelled his surname Burness..and that is a name from Eastern Scotland. Something for further research!

A wander then over to the cottage where Robert Burns and three of his siblings were born, before they moved to Mauchline.

A willow sculpture of Tam o'Shanter

A long cottage with the byre on the left, then two living rooms with the sleeping platform above where the children would have slept..and the garden as it would have been.

A willow sculpture in the orchard, where many fruit trees, mainly Scottish varieties, have been planted

And a woodland walk

Next to the Brig o Doon (bridge over the River Doon) which features in the poem about Tam o'Shanter

We missed the mausoleum...but that was ok...it meant that I got a picture of the gates!!

So we had a really relaxing four hours in the sunshine....and added to that, they are taking a pair of wheels back to a purchaser in Inverness!! The best...cash sale, no fees and no postage!!

A fine weekend

On Saturday we went to meet friends at an event..The Georgetown Cup.

Only a short individual time trial..7½ miles...but a team event!

There were 151 riders going off at minute intervals on a side road with a halfway roundabout turn. At the same time the annual Flying Scot Association meet was held, with at least forty Flying Scots...and at least a dozen ride the time trial as well. The Flying Scot frame was first built in the early 1920s by Rattrays until the 1970s.  The oldest one at the meeting was dated to 1939.                                                                                           

             

                                                                                                         

 

This was near Erskine, at the back of Glasgow Airport. Being so near it gave us a chance to go through the lanes to Bridge of Weir and to see another friend that we hadn't seen properly for months.

Then head for home, with a stop for an ice lolly!

Unfortunately Pirate insisted on giving the meadow its final cut and lift..and not stopping before he had finished..learning to split jobs is a hard lesson.

Consequently today was a very slow and painful start for him.

The good side of that is that I get a chance to quietly get on with things..washing, making breakfast, packing two fleabay sales..all sorts of little jobs.

I have listed a number...well, quite a lot! ...of chainrings today...and another good sale just waiting for payment.

The Tour of Britain started today, so we had an afternoon of cycle racing on TV!

It was such a beautiful afternoon, we went for a short walk over the fields by The Big Hedge to check on future foraging.

And happened to meet the farmer on whose land this is. We say thanks with apple juice, jam and chutney, and he likes to give us eggs.

At 82 he no longer runs a dairy farm or chickens on a large scale..

He lets his fields out to grazing sheep..and keeps a regular eye on them, thanks to his quad bike.

It was a good meeting, as with Pirate's health problems we hadn't seen him since before we went to NZ last time. He has family in NZ..so it was good to chat.

Then home for more bikes on TV , the highlights of the Vuelta Espana, and supper.

On and on

 One day just merges into the next at the moment, keeping up with the ordinary, trying not to miss appointments. 

Pushing on with cleaning and describing bike bits, with the occasional...should be more often...sale. Some different shape chainrings this time..the oval being an idea that it was more efficient, that you never had a dead point in the circle....an idea that has returned many times in the past hundred years!

Doing bits in the garden..tonight we had our own beans and carrots in our meal!

I rummaged through the freezer and made a large batch of mixed berry cordial...ten 330ml bottles! 

I cool them on their sides..apart from ensuring that the cap is properly processed, it shows any that leak..and get used quickly.

Another batch of chutney made with our friend's dark plums, foraged apples, home-grown shallots...and the finishing touch of homegrown jalapeno peppers!!

And we have, at last, the first butternut squash!! Only an inch long so far.....and a bit late...must start earlier next year....and find out why there have only been male flowers until now!!

Pirate has had one bit of good news... PSA level halved...so it looks like the radiotherapy has done some good.

We met the regular District Nurse today....she is a nae messin' cracker!

A farmer's wife...a long time nursing...and means business..she takes no prisoners and cares for her patients. 

She also knows Pirate's specialist nurse well..so communication should be even better from now on.  With her about, he now feels more confident in dealing with what is happening to his body. And I feel that I am working with someone who is backing me too.

Bike bits and foraging

 Cleaning and sorting continues...I have got this lot clean, just needs checking, describing, pricing...as do nearly thirty chainrings that have had their first clean.

It takes time... but it is worth it.

We have been on one forage

The greengages and cooking plums came from a friend's garden.

Today should have been apple day.... But I couldn't face getting soaked getting through grass and bracken on the way to the trees!

The apple trees are in the area in the foreground, between the promenade and the dunes.

You can see Dunure Castle and the Heads of Ayr behind in the distance and the Carrick Hills hidden in the clouds

We are both looking forward to Pirate's reviews...so many questions to answer...what did the treatment achieve, why the pain, how long for, what next? I hope they will give him some sort of scan to compare before and after..how else will they be able to judge?

Another day out...with bikes!

 We eventually got on the road....just in time...to post a sale, on the way to my mammogram appointment...in a trailer hiding in the corner of a supermarket car park!!..and the nurses have to use the shop toilet....

Feed the car, buy a picnic lunch and off.....heading around Glasgow, through the Clyde Tunnel and up to the foot of the Campsie Hills...and over them on the Crow Road, through Fintry to Kippen.

This was the easiest way to get to see the course of the Elite Mens' time trial in the World Championships, because of closed roads. 

We managed to park, had our lunch and found a spot to watch on the shady side of the road..as the sunshine was quite warm...after today's wet and chilly start!! The crowds gathered, lining both sides of the road, with marshalls and a few police wandering around and chatting.. everyone anticipating the arrival of the riders....with police outriders, commissaries cars, service vehicles....and the riders...who started at 80 second intervals...

We saw them at about the 27km mark, and they had 20km or so to get to the finish in Stirling.

The first rider..the slowest although still an elite rider..was from the Refugees Cycling Team...a great thing to see.

We slowly walked back to the car.....hoping that we wouldn't be in the mad rush out of the village...we did catch that a little, as the road is very narrow.

Then back over the fells,through a heavy shower ,to see a friend at his bike shop....and home.

Wet

 It's been a weekend of wind and heavy showers..and a few bits of sunshine revealed as the clouds scud across the sky.

We had a trip to Mauchline yesterday to see our friends at Nae Sae New...old things and antiques in an old friend four storey feed mill. 

The gear changing had got a bit stiff on the way there...and when it came to leaving I had to be pushed backwards around a corner, so that we could carefully go home...thankfully only just over seven miles. 

Garage first thing Monday...

Today Pirate hasn't been feeling too good...it is odd in a way, his body has decided to be active at night, and in the day he is really tired, unsurprisingly.   The after effects of working shifts for many years, compounded by present problems.

So today I have been concentrating on fleabay....five pairs of pedals, mainly from the 90s, and all but one completely new in their boxes!  I have handlebars to pack and send as well..with any luck listing things more regularly will attract more sales.....

This evening we shared the job if chopping veggies and fruit for a cucumber, onion and apple chutney.

Pirate did the onions..and not one tear..perhaps a useful side effect of having his cataracts operated on?

And now I am listening..and watching..a Promenade Concert from the Albert Hall in London, on BBC4, as the light slips away outside.

Day after day

 Little improvements...but it is hard work for someone impatient and emotional to be ultra patient!!

Pirate is now aiming to walk a little every day.  Working around how he is feeling every day , we are managing it!

Today we thought...take the parcel ( a sale!) to the post office, in the car...and find somewhere different for a wander....

We ended up going for a nice wee ride....in the car....what parking spaces there were...were taken!!

Followed by a short walk around a bit of Hannahston, our first " off-road" walk.