neighbourly

The weekend's garden job...I weeded, he washed...

This will pay for some travels....
We've been bartering too, old henhouse shed walls for metal roof sheeting...

his shed has a more weatherproof roof..

and the chooks over the road have a new summerhouse!!

drawing and 3D jigsaws

making bits to fit and finding ones that fell out...

drawing practice

I've joined a daily drawing group on fb....a good incentive to work on eye, hand,brain co-ordination .A nice way to see other peoples' work and have honest comments on my drawings.

Now the kiln has been vacuumed out, time to get mortaring...

No longer grey!

The swallows and martins are back!
We went by car today twelve (hilly) miles to Kirkmichael and had a cuppa in the village community shop and cafe.

Well fortified, we rode down the Middle Road to Girvan and back along the valley road...the main A77 was obviously out of the question! Just over 26 miles and just under two hours on a beautiful Spring day..bluebells, wood anemones, dandelions, violets...blackthorn blossoming and the May in leaf.
It was so warm, we could have worn shorts...but didn't trust it to stay warm!!

Back home,Pirate has swapped some old hen shed panels for four metal roof sheets, to add to his shed roof and keep the rain out. He has worked out where they will go...now we need a bit less breeze to fit them!  The breeze was useful to dry the washing, so no complaints. Our neighbour made a small chicken coop/nesting box from the old hen house panels!

I cleaned out the kiln ready for mending.  The next step is to work out the size of ply needed, and what we can use to press the bulging wall back together once it has been kiln cemented.
A reverse clamp is the nearest description..in building terms it would be an acroprop, but we need to press horizontally not vertically.

what to do on a grey day

 Be thankful for the plants that survived Winter...and thankful for today's rain...it is needed

 and discuss kiln mending strategy with a fellow potter in Somerset...facebook chatting has its uses!

He has given me advice, support and encouragement...all much needed!  Potters stick together!!

kiln design and mending

I'm working on the design for the kiln flue,using what we have already.
One piece of ceramic fibre and mesh flue I've never used, as it didn't fit the previous site...luckily I kept it...

Its a bit battered at one end,but I do have some spare CF blanket...
The main problem is working out what is needed for the damper section, and the join between this fibre flue with an internal of 6" x 7"....and a round stainless steel flue of 8" diameter...I have two 45 degree bends to turn the corner to the vertical flue.
Unfortunately the old damper section went for scrap, as it was rusted through, and the CF join to the kiln went with it

However as we still have the straight section,  its a guide to making another to go on a section that will have to be manufactured from new.

The kiln itself needs quite a bit of tlc, after its "lying down" antics....

This job needs temperatures of over 5C for the kiln cement to work...luckily it has been stored in the house while we were away!   Looking at the weather forecast I should be able to get on with this by the weekend if not before.
I'm not sure how to bring the back of the roof arch up again-that was subsiding in 2012 before the two moves...but once we're on to the job hopefully a solution will appear!

Meanwhile I'm busy with pen and paper....

Winter is hanging on..

The wind here is "Baltic" !!
We've had two days of shortish rides and had hoped to get a ride on different roads yesterday.
The bike shop in West Calder had organised a day of rides, including e-bike tryouts, stalls from half a dozen manufacturers,including childrens' bikes, plus the Paris-Roubaix professional race on screen in the shop...plus a coffee cart!
The wind was so strong and cold the bikes stayed in the car!

Apparently the bike shop is in what was originally the West Calder Cooperative Society's building....very impressive!
If anyone hasn't found out...Philippe Gilbert won the Paris-Roubaix race.

Also a Flahute is apparently a Flandrian's real Flandrian....