Then 7.40am
The birds waking...and the commute starting.
Then breakfast with one of the three apples my tree produced
Then the sunset..
I managed an earlier start today..easing back to good habits . I don't like wasting daylight!
Washing done...and before too long bedding brought in before it dried too much before ironing!
Then off and out!! I was aiming to pay the deposit for Pirate's Scottish Celebration in the previous village where we stayed. ( Which up here means where we lived...) One manager of the community café and hall was on holiday....the other helps at a good bank on Mondays.....but I had a really good cup of coffee and a look at the hall....
Then on to the village up the valley where we stayed before that....a book for a pound! They sell secondhand books to fund the public toilets in the village. In most villages in South Ayrshire there are no longer public toilets....
A chance then to have a leg stretch and check the wild cherry trees...hardly any fruit this year...and no fault of the birds, all the trees look to be suffering from the weather and possibly aphids, with the leaves mottled brown.
Back to the previous village to call by a mutual friend if ours for a cuppa and out the world to rights. Auntie B did catering for Pirate at the events he organised....his commissary he called her! She only came into the local cycling scene because her daughter started cycling......and ended up doing cakes and sandwiches for over twenty years!!
Then home for lunch as it was getting hotter....an unbelievable 20⁰ today!!
It won't last long....but I'm enjoying it!!
Garden and workshop pottering....planted out some squash plants, put a layer of old compost on the new compost heap....cleaned off a dozen heads of garlic...they aren't dry enough to plait and keep yet, but I need some for the kitchen.
And rest!!
I have decided to give up on the tv ... I don't watch the news and most programmes I like end up on U tube.....and I can use my time...and TV licence money...far better!!
Another beautiful sunset...from different angles...
A similar shot with colour..it was a bit more orangey pink than that.
It was a really cold night and a frosty windscreen morning, with bright sun.
I went to see the Sunday car boot at Ayr Racecourse. Rather disappointing...but I did find these two....
They will be good to use.
I couldn't find a wheel or tyre and tube for my barrow...a certain DIY store had sold out...it probably isn't the right time of year to be looking for them!!
Then sunset just now...I found how to get the truer colours... gradually sneak up on it, then delete those that didn't work!
After our picnic lunch we carried on to Portpatrick, the far end of the A77 and initially intended as the main port for traffic to Ireland....until they realised that the harbour had insufficient shelter from storms and they moved to Stranraer....and have since moved the port up the mainland coast to Cairnryan as Stranraer needed a lot of dredging maintenance to keep it open. Cairnryan has deep water berths.
We headed straight for the far end of the harbour through the town crammed with tourists and motorbikers, to the monthly market (1st Sunday every month) held by the lifeboat station.
We caught up with our friends the maker of Pirate's bench, manning his stand with wife and spaniel. Their day had nearly done...the market finishes at 3pm..and when Pirate tried to buy a Robin nest box....he gave it to him as an early birthday present!!
We had intended to have a bike ride next..but couldn't find a parking space out in the lanes heading up to the North Rhin of Galloway...and it started looking very hilly... so we just enjoyed the countryside instead.
Not realising how far the northern tip was, we went on. And on. Then decided to turn back to Stranraer...had we carried on to Kilcolm we would have found the cottage where son in law's mother's grandfather died....my daughter received a copy of his death certificate yesterday...He was an Agricultural Salesman originally from Ireland...so now she has his parents' names to research....
But we turned short of there and found this....
Built on an 2500 year old hill fort...a folly tower to remember a local member of parliament in the mid 1800s.
Pity it was so misty!
A steady drive home, and thought maybe of a chip supper...but in Girvan our favourite chip shop and cafe had a queue out and round the corner!
So home for supper instead.
The garden is steadily looking tidier..Pirate wants to open the curtains in the morning and see a tidy garden...not Work In Progress, constantly!!
I took advantage of a beautiful sunny day (shorts!!!) to wash twice..bedding and clothes...and get everything dry and ironed.
I have started netting the fruit as well...the small bed is done, the big bed just over the top of the old polytunnel frame. I will close the rest in as soon as possible.
The plants in the greenhouse are really coming along, and I have set aside a few as gifts to friends.
And at the end of a nice day....a nice sunset. A peregrine falcon was hunting over the rough ground behind the bungalows opposite...but with this tablet even at full stretch it was just a small speck. And yet with our eyes we could identify it.
I managed to get to the garden at last today..in the greenhouse as the wind is still chilly! It's no wonder that the runner beans are not running with it being so cold and dry!
Potting up time for cucumbers squashes and tomatoes..and...drum roll, Steve, six red lupin seedlings!!!
The chard has just germinated..relief as we eat quite a bit of that..but the parsley and coriander are still no shows.
I will take a wander around the garden for you..
The garlic planted last year is going well so far, and I've sown carrots too..but they take an age to germinate.
The compost bin construction is coming along slowly, step by step and is now working..in the second bin are the pallets I will use to make shelves for my empty plant pots...
Which are cluttering up the polytunnel...
It is indeed a sorry object too because the plastic is rotting....Pirate believed what he was told when he phoned the importers..that it would last five years....no, this stuff does not!!
Himself is off to bed..he runs out of steam by nine...and I have a quiet Me time...clearing the washing up, making sure the greenhouse is closed and everything vaguely tidy for the morning, and a quick Duolingo lesson...I try to to a quarter-hour every day.
Then the sunset...and it's ten o'clock already!
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