More walkies

 I had a parcel to post (fleabay) and a special shop to go to in Troon.....

Bus to town, post parcel, buy sandwich, cookies and water...bus to Prestwick Airport....and start walking.....

Bye bye bus...

After a mile the path leaves the main road

But it is still a bit noisy....you can hear birds and cars..the video is at the end if this post...it doesn't want to slot it in the middle !

Two kinds of lines in the sky....

And two kinds of planes.... British Airways plane doing "circuits and bumps", doing the approach...but as soon as it reaches the first end of the runway, doesn't actually land, but goes up again...and round....every ten minutes!!

This is for trainee pilots and for trained pilots to keep their certificates, they take turns as it goes around...and round ...and round...

And a wee 'un...sounding like a tractor... probably with a similar engine...

And another flier.....a hover fly on honeysuckle flowers

Lichen on a dead gorse bush...such colour!!

Along by the railway line which links Glasgow to Stranraer, via Ayr and Girvan, with golf courses both sides....and to the road into Troon...

I buy my multivitamins and minerals in one, tablets here...ones that I can swallow without gagging!!

With luck, the shop is almost opposite the bus stop...and in five minutes, the hourly bus is there to return to Ayr....

I eat my sandwich on the bus....I was not going to risk having it taken by a gull!

Time for a cuppa in the best bookshop in Ayr, then home for a rest, then a little garden tidying in the sunshine.

Thinking of flooding in all parts of the globe....Japan, Europe, USA, Asia...and now New Zealand...

Op +6 Monday. Walking, planning, bits of this and that

 This morning dawned frosty..we had -2⁰ early on! 

After a breakfast phone call with Pirate and a phone chat with our district nurse, it was so bright and clear and blue...time for a walk!

Just half an hour around the village..the Mill circuit is twice as long and much of it on open roads....so not yet!

You can see where there has been trees freshly planted.

The sun was so bright!

Back home and the purple crocuses were sun worshipping!

I did a little more tidying and sorting in my workshop....and found the burners for the kiln!!!

A panful if soup next...an onion from a neighbour's garden, leeks and bay leaves from mine, squash and dried chillies from my store cupboard...and kumera  and red lentils!  A few more spices....

Off to see Pirate on the bus...so fortunate to have a cross country service to the hospital..

He is wearing his own pyjamas! And practising walking together..with me, not a nurse today.  He still isn't ready for home...but he is making progress.

It looks like they want him out during Wednesday....but so far no bed and struggling central heating ( hopefully to be sorted on Thursday) and no car either as that will be in the garage getting attention...

So I don't know what will be decided.

Back home on the same bus route.. and to a present from our lovely neighbour across the road...a card for him and a box of chocolates for me!!

She is a lovely person, a little older than Pirate,.once at least as tall as me..now bent over with scoliosis and walking with a walker or two sticks.

She has done a few different jobs,,. including in a carpet factory...and a no nonsense barmaid in a pub in Ayr!! Well known and loved.

Still walking

 We had a little sunshine this morning, so went for a walk with my bro.

Without Pirate we had a brisker longer walk....our local lane walk out of the village and back...was two ( derelict) mills but Mill o' Shield farmhouse was demolished a few months ago...the mill went many years ago.

A pleasant hour out in the fresh air...and we saw the results of excessive speed...

Had they been a little to the right they would have been end on to the "sitting bench"...a good four foot diameter three metre plus long tree trunk.

Back for lunch...and the much mended washing machine will no longer spin, just sits there turning the washing over slowly....it was second-hand nearly eight years ago.....so I ordered a new one !!!!! 

We are just waiting for the email confirming that we may collect it.

Starting the year with a bold and positive move!!

Keep on walking

 Into the new year!

After my daily half-hour on the turbo trainer and lunch, we went out for a walk around Hannahston, our local nature reserve.

It was rather wet and muddy, unsurprisingly, but it was good to get out in a brief respite from the rain.. although everything was rather chill and damp.

Two spotted woodpeckers..hard to see as had I got and nearer, by leaving the hide, they would have flown away. After they have pecked at the peanuts, the other smaller birds move in to eat.

A buzzard on the prowl...all the gulls and jackdaws and crows moved on quickly!

And a perch for humans!! 

Owl box

Bat boxed 

Now just putting our feet up and relaxing.

Tor Tour

 We got adventurous today...Pirate did something for the first time in 84 years...and I did for the first time in 50 years..so I should have known better!!

We walked up the footpath towards the South and steeper side of the Tor

which leads across fields...and meets a road where there is no waymarker!

We went left and in a quarter mile found the two disabled parking bays at the foot of the climb. I had looked for these unsuccessfully on websites and maps..

I hadn't ever been up this side....I can't say I felt too happy..not being that keen on ups with steep downs and no handrail and just a narrow concrete path.....

At the top we were almost in the clouds...and it was definitely Hang onto your hat!!!

Down the slightly less steep path that comes out by the Chalice Well Gardens..and if we had parked in the blue badge bays we would have had to walk back up that lane to there!

By the path end

And an old sign on the main road 

An achievement...nearly five miles walking..a good start to getting fit again!!

Slow progress

 Monday's walk was a little too far...but it was an achievement.

Now the plan is a little every day. A change in meds that was supposed to be an improvement, wasn't...two steps forwards, one back....but now that has been got over, we are back to plan A, keeping gently active, resting enough and a little bit more every day...and be very, very patient!!

The garden is waiting for a bit more warmth, but the rain is welcome. 

There are hardly any beans on the running and climbing beans...not too many tomatoes set...and few female squash flowers..but...the cucumbers are going crazy!!

Here is our garden from above..

The greenhouse is under the bottom left hand corner of the photograph.

I have been researching the details of a batch of the handlebars and stems from our late friend's collection ready to sell. This is what takes time..but that is a dozen more items to list.  The real incentive is clearing all this, so that I can start using my workshop for claywork...and my share of the profits will pay for materials to get the kiln and workshop stove going..as well as hopefully our fares on our next visit to friends far away!

A nice expensive parcel has just been packed ready for posting...relief that something worth a lot has been sold..and for the asking price too! And making it worth carrying on.