Swedish Afternoon

 We were on a roll this morning...two washes done, Blood Orange marmalade done (tasty!!) , clothes and sheets ready for ironing....sun and stiff breeze meant that didn't take long!!

Pirate went to have bloods taken at the surgery here....and on returning, decided that we were going out.....to a certain Swedish Shop!!

It was a lovely day to be out, but I'm glad we were in the car as that breeze was cold.

First a good (and very reasonably priced) lunch, then to slowly make our way around the shop...following the arrows as that makes life easier!

We had hoped for a quiet Monday shop.... unfortunately it appears to be half term...cue a lot of grannies with grandkids....so we missed one thing we were looking for.

I gathered a few things in my big yellow bag....plate shelves to stand plates on on the kitchen bench instead of one stack of plates and bowls....a loo brush and holder, a mattress protector...Pirate took a shine to a large wooden spoon x spatula, a pair of roller blinds for my study....and then Pirate realised that what he wanted, a mattress topper, was upstairs....

Off he went... bravely as he Does Not Like Shops....back up the stairs...only to find that what he wanted was downstairs on the warehouse shelves....and he had difficulty finding his way back down.....one rather stressed Pirate later, we found the beast, an assistant got us a trolley and shopping was Done...and he felt Done In !!

Then the joys of rush hour traffic...and a roll home, seeing the crescent new moon in front of us, and thinking that without the clouds, the sky would be surprisingly light.

The topper feels good... hopefully it will give us better sleep.

The old mattress is still good after 25 years...it was apparently very expensive then...even if you take out time spent in NZ it must have done 18 years work. It shows that a good bed and mattress is worth the investment, but we looked at the price of a new one and gulped!!

He has had an early night tonight, unsurprisingly.  Pirate is still doing what he can, but Charlie is pulling him down..he has worries about the op, but hopefully it will relieve symptoms even though it won't remove the problem.

Most people are understanding and do what they can to help...but a couple of his relations are being rather callous, almost accusing him of " crying wolf"...as he has been here before with prostate cancer..."here we go again"....but it is serious, it is terminal...people he cares for too. So unfair.

At least I have a quiet time to unwind after the day, blog a little, read others, do my Duolingo lesson... especially as I missed this morning!!

Night all xx

News

 No radiotherapy...as he got zapped for prostate cancer 9 years ago..just surgery.. apparently by the top bod...good to hear that. Sometime in the next two months..well they did say, should be by his birthday!! Then a long convalescence. That will test his patience, being a patient patient again!!

I did the shopping alone today. Normally Pirate likes to do one stop shopping....this was five stop shopping, plus one to get cards to print on....but it saved about a third on what it could have been. With 19 % inflation just on food, speaking as an average, and income going down due to tax changes, despite pension rises...this must be done.

On some things...like tinned beans for example....prices have doubled.....

Before I left the village I checked in on our mechanic with a soft tyre...he pumped it up again and said bring it back when you have done the shopping!! It may be just the valve... hopefully...we will see tomorrow. He looks after us well, not doing what isn't necessary... doesn't overcharge...so he gets homemade marmalade and chutney as a thankyou as well as paying the bill!  He likes our wee Berlingo!!

Then before watching the Giro d'Italia on TV tonight I planted out the first dozen runner bean plants. Slugs beware...there will be slug patrol!!

Onwards and upwards.....

Glad to be here

 We are definitely glad to be here. It just feels like we are back home.

Giving our friend a hand around the house and garden. Visiting mutual friends.

The hills there appear to have snow on them...or was it just the sunshine?

Christchurch harbour is the other side of them.

Then we had the delights of the Westfield Mall in Riccarton.   It is huge! Not my idea of fun atall, but we did miss the rain while sorting pirates NZ phone.

Reflections.... 

Callander House

 We went to Falkirk today, Pirate helped a friend who was racing in a national series Cyclo-cross in the grounds of Callander House....he was the pit bitch!!  Bucket and Brush and spare bike at the ready... thankfully not needed.

It gave me a chance to see the latest small exhibitions there...one on graphic magazine covers produced by hand locally in the 60s to 80s, and one of local art and craft...very good quality indeed.

Our lad done well..3rd 60plus...

The rain then set in...so no bike ride for us.  A good reason to celebrate his 70th birthday and drink coffee with a friend in his bike shop!!

Then home through Glasgow...but to avoid the football traffic, had a diversion to Ikea....a good supper and buying a much needed bedsheet!!

So we left in the dark...and got home in the dark!

Time ...

 One jeans patch done, two more pairs to save from their doom!!

This has taken an hour....enough time for sitting. I enjoyed the hand work though.

That was after doing the washing up and a bit of tidying and sorting..preceded by half an hour on Duolingo.

It would be so easy to sit here all day!!

I was hoping for a little more sunshine after a break in proceedings yesterday afternoon, but we are back to rain and wind.

Nevertheless it is time to venture out!!

There is paint for the workshop on the shopping list and delivering the huge suitcase filled with surplus clothes and bedding to a charity/"op"  shop.  I think Shelter Scotland, as all over the world people need homes and help.

Unfortunately this means using the car...but as I haven't used it for a week it probably is a good idea to give it a run. I don't want it sulking when I do need it!!

Using the car also means making a list and a route plan to save time and fuel.

I like going by bus, but carrying heavy things to and from town, plus the fact that it would take several different buses in and out of town in various directions to the edge means that the car has won the day.  Shops moving out of town has a lot to answer for. Yes it takes car and lorry traffic out of the centre, but it also kills the centre, and all the closed shops in many towns evidences that.

Getting on with it

 

The delivery arrived...how he managed to get the ton bag and two small pallets of slabs down perfectly in the 40+ mph gusty winds I don't know!

 Very skillful.

I have been listing more items on Etsy...my work this time.

The red dumpy candlestick is on, the small biscuit jar..for small biscuits?!..will go on tomorrow.  Just like fleabay, little and often works better than a huge number at once.

This afternoon we had a birthday present to send to a friend, so that was the first job on a trip to Ayr. Then banking followed by a cuppa in our favourite bookshop...and  an up to date map..and a book of course!

A quick hop to a local supermarket for food shopping and then fuel from Sainsbugs....£1.48 a litre, not so bad as some places.  We decided that from now on we will shop more often and travel by bus as we won't be able to carry so much. We have been doing a main shop once every fortnight..but that is only possible when using the car.

So unless we have a journey that has to be done by car, bus it will be...and bike once more pleasant weather arrives.   It certainly hasn't been pleasant for the past couple of days. Strong and gusty cold winds with rain sleet and hail.

Tomorrow we have bricklaying and oggin spreading to do... hopefully there will be pictures!!

Connecting and rambling

 Today's adventure was by bus..just into Ayr, by myself!! Pirate was busy here, helping stack logs for our neighbour and fettling bikes.

It was a relief to see most people wearing masks, if not all correctly.

It was a sunny breezy morning to start with, a relief after yesterday, but it wasn't going to last! Luckily I went prepared with a good coat.

It made a change having a mooch around , checking on our usual shopping haunts. Although busy, people were mostly leaving each other personal space which made for a more relaxed time. 

After a cuppa in our favourite bookshop cafe I aimed for the main purposes of the trip..to check out the Ayr Makers stalls in the old Grain Exchange...ok, very nice but I wasn't impressed by anything...and to get a few food items that pirate had requested.

I was about to go into the next shop when a sign on a window caught my eye...Art Exhibition in here!!!!

In what had been a department store, various people are trading...mostly clothes and one linens and furnishings...or Manchester as my Kiwi friends might call it.

But right at the back in a large space a group of artists have a selling exhibition..painting, sculpture, drawing, prints....and I met two, plus the person who is running the building. (There is a cafe upstairs and a performance space by that)

It looks as if I could join in with this group... hopefully.  They contribute to Ayrshire Cancer Support organisation too, who have helped pirate and myself in the past, which is a good bonus too.

It could be the incentive needed to get things moving again and get making properly.

After I remembered, thankfully, the shopping, the weather had turned wet, and as the bus made its way back to our village the rain was bouncing off the road and begining to flood the gutters.

Back for lunch then the tedium of fleabay researching before listing. It does take time, but it is worth it to get things correct..and paid off well this afternoon with a sale within five minutes of listing!!  Sales keep you going on..and it is good to see the pile of bits reducing!!

That's a bit of a ramble...but it's been a rambly day..and pirate rambled down to see a lovely sunset after all the rain.

A grey day

Today's weather was grey...and wet, very wet. But at least it was forecast, so we could say that it was doing what it said on the tin!!

We had a necessary journey today.

Posting sales and returning a new , completely unsuitable phone that vodaphone sent Pirate...when he said that he needed a smaller type of phone, with buttons..a phone that is a phone for calls and texts...they send him a touchscreen very thin, over six inch long smartphone....not something that will survive piratical treatment in back trews pocket or rear pocket of his road cycling top....

Then a visit to the Mossgiel Snug for local organic milk for yoghurt making, good  sourdough bread and local tatties. The dairy has opened a café and coffee shop and are beginning to sell local produce and working towards having as much as possible of it organic as well. 

A few necessities from the Co-op shop ...and home again through the rain. 

The idea had been to carry on with the new drawing...but first there was encouraging a friend in Cornwall who has been inspired to start making in clay...then there was cleaning shiny bits of bike in order to sell them.....

 Ah well, tomorrow is another day!!

Helping others.

Power washing next door's patio.
One advantage of ghastly wet and windy weather...her grandkids will not be playing in the garden!

We are at present getting the tail end of a storm that has come over the Atlantic...I welcome the rain, but I am worried about the polytunnel. After all it is no more than a tent!!

An advantage of himself being out there? I get time to concentrate on ordering online from our usual health store company and wholefoods company.
I don't find it easy.  I have been putting it off. Silly really as they could take two weeks or more to be sent out...and who knows how long to get here.  However now I have started the process it should be easier to do it again.

Next to face putting more on Etsy.

An online artist acquaintance has started selling postcard size original paintings in her shop....perhaps I could do that with drawings? She charges £20 post paid, which is a bargain for her work.
How much would you pay for one of my drawings, postcard size?  Be honest!

Still busy

We went shopping today..or rather Pirate ride shotgun and I shopped...armed with a list, us shoppers did the trolley dance around the shop...and luckily I got nearly all of The List!
Also three boxes..as Pirate is organising and mending his shed !

I have sold two packs of cards on Etsy..ok, to a fellow maker and blogger, but it is still a sale!! Incentive to carry on. More have been posted and shared and I will put more in the shop tomorrow.
My big job today after shopping was a baking session...pictures tomorrow as they haven't cooled down yet!!
We are both tired...but satisfied...an easy day tomorrow, and also we are promised someone to come and mend the soffit where the jackdaws have been trying to get in.

day out

We planned an hour on the velodrome in Glasgow today...ho hum,they are preparing for a race meeting (Revolution) this weekend...so us ordinary bods can't use the track. Back to the turbotrainer.

It is still cold..our indoors hall, even with a heavy sheltering curtain was 9 C this morning....so despite the inviting sunshine a walk,not a cycle, is on the cards,plus a visit to a Certain Swedish Store to stock upon picture frames .  So we still have to head for Glasgow.

It is snowing in Aberdeenshire, where the Scottish National Cyclo Cross Championship is to be held near Banchory. The roads from the town up to the course are still closed today....
A thaw is promised for the weekend...so it looks like anyone going will have a mudfest to watch or compete in!!

cabin fever

Hemmed in by wind and rain.

Cluttered up by Stuff.

The "Dominos" are poised, with jobs in line,  but until one workshop gets up, nothing moves from the house. Until the wind abates, no workshop goes up.

The rainwater drainage needs cleaning so that the runoff doesn't soak the garden..back and front are like an over sodden sponge! At least the grey water drains look to be running ok.

There is another, thankfully local, cycle jumble in two weeks....The Pirate is sorting bike bits for that. If nothing sells, they will just have to go.....

At least then a small dresser and desk will leave the living room and my heavy real wood desk will migrate to its corner there. It is too heavy to carry upstairs!

The transmitter and receiver of the WiFi boiler controls don't seem to be communicating..I think we'll leave that to a heating engineer as it probably isdue for a service. Meanwhile, the on/off switch works!

Teething problems adding more un-needed stress. Which inhibits the Pirate's healing....but we are getting there slowly.

Yesterday he bought me dress and shoes to wear at an award ceremony (I won a national championship last year).
Buying goes against the grain with me...even worse,buying new!! Still, he  does have good taste!!

paper dilemma

The linocut block is on the right,on the previous blogpost, the paper on the left is chip shop paper...
i.e. newsprint without the print....which does yellow quickly but is very useful short term.

I need to know what paper I'm using for printing, when selling.
However I need sales before I can afford better paper.....

The matt comes precut A4 to the art/craft/stationery supplies shop in Ayr, 240 gsm. Annoyingly they had no matt this time, so I'm back to 190gsm smooth, which I have in stock...so no need to buy more.
I want to back our local supplies shop (12 miles away), as Glasgow (45 miles away) Castle Douglas (50 miles) or online are the options.

shopping!

I'm learning how to shop...and I can't say I enjoy it that much.

However I managed to buy a pair of boots yesterday.

Then today I went with Daughter and family and braved Cardiff!! So I couldn't chicken out without getting what I needed and we had time out together.

Result- proper sized underpinnings after being professionally measured and fitted. A pair of smart shoes that look good AND that I can walk in! Two tops and a cardigan. Also I know what style trousers I need.

I think I should get sewing again! If nothing else it saves braving the heaving hordes!!