And relax....

 

Today me and Bro have been sorting "electronic liquorice"....all the dead and outdated....but despite all that, a whole desk drawer, a basket, a box.... tidying stationery into said desk, sorting dead spare bulbs...you can hardly see the difference!!

Our friends from Troon called by on their way home from the club run...and for a warm and dry and a hot cuppa..they got rather wet this morning!! We'll be setting a time when they can return to help strip the components from the vintage frames as frames and parts will sell better separately.

And relief...the other potter in the collective has offered to do my duty in the gallery tomorrow! 

Between May and June I have six duty days, most have five... perhaps someone thought more chance to learn!! So now I'm back to five.

Hopefully they will be able to sort the car as promised in the next few days!

To celebrate we took a walk to the shop...the rain had stopped and it was before the wind got up again...and we bought CAKE!!!!

and a cauliflower.... isn't it beautiful..

A long day

 Last night's sunset was pretty....but the camera couldn't see the sun as red..so just imagine it!!

Early doors today and a steady ride....and much walking....18 miles should be quicker than 2¼ hours...but it is a nice ride. The big hill up Craig's road must go to somewhat over 600ft...I start at just over 400, but there is a down and an up before I get to it.

It is a nice view!! In one direction I can see the next village and that is at 600 feet..and I was just higher than that, across the valley.

It wasn't very busy in the gallery..just six sales...but 78 people in, and I had some interesting chats.

Then clean and lock up after closing at 4.30...and two hours to ride home...the easier side of the hills, plus a tailwind!

And my brother had arrived before me, bearing pizzas for supper!

Luckily he did as the garage mechanic called round to say that my car will be done next week...and had a good chat with Bro about motorbikes! Bro arrived on his Energica electric motorbike...from Somerset, about 500 miles in two days.

And good news from the Oily One....the flue section is ready!!

Practice

 The car is still not in the garage..I know that he needs help on this job...to get the car down the hill..at least it is down and only 500m...plus having been knocked off his motorbike last year one arm won't work above his head...which makes changing a clutch difficult.  But I'll stick with him..he is a good honest worker and does a good job. Which is why he is always busy!

I'd rather my car sits outside here, not in the busy yard..not in his way, and safer from knocks.

This means that I'll have to travel to the gallery duty by bike. On Friday, because there is a bus strike (large company playing divide and rule, wanting lower pay and worse conditions ( despite offering a limited increase) than other drivers in other areas not too far away) On Sunday because the bus times do not coordinate. I don't fancy getting the 7.30 bus and having just under a two hours wait for the connection. Then coming home, as it is a Sunday the connection leaves five minutes earlier...yet another two hour wait...

Today was check the bike and the body to see if it was possible! Just twelve miles to the village shop and café in the last village that we lived near. The place where Pirate's Scottish Celebration was held. I'd told the manageress that I'd get there by bike.. eventually!

The large mug of hot chocolate...and generous cheese and salad roll was welcome!

The return journey was ok....a tailwind this time..and I still walked up a couple of hills..but  I did it..and I've an idea how much time to leave to do it tomorrow!!

Tuesday walk

 Eventually the hoolie-gan winds eased, and I went for a walk around Hannahston.

I've tried to put more small videos of all the birdsong I heard, but the phone isn't cooperative at the moment! Needless to say there were all sorts of Little Brown Jobs shouting their heads off, plus a few I could recognise...chaffinches, great tits, a cock pheasant and rooks...plus a jay and a young heron.

Weather, gardening and housework!

ladybird/bug...soon to be busy eating aphids!

I photographed the fruit bushes yesterday 

 I hope I can beat the birds to more of them this year!!

I did get the first strawberries!

After a night of 50mph wind gusts . It had subsided to only..!..40mph ones !! No walk or cycle today...I wouldn't feel safe out in that.

It is a cold wind still.  So I took it out on the house ....Bread and yoghurt made, kitchen and bathroom floors steam cleaned. And the shower cubicle too. Carpets vacuumed downstairs.  Bikes and wheels reorganised in the spare bedroom.

Gardening was in the greenhouse before supper, when the wind had eased a little.

I sowed more seeds....radish and mooli...and potted on a couple of plants. Litre plant pots were sunk in the earth by every tomato plant, where they will be watered.

Then more sewing while watching videos of canal restoration... fascinating!

A different sunset tonight...

Wet weekend , and birdlife

 Looking out of the upstairs windows this morning on my slightly scruffy garden...in the back, a horde of at least twenty sparrows lining up on the washing line while a small rabble of starlings deal with the seeds fallen from the bird feeder...flying up as a fat pigeon walks over...and a pair of collar doves sit snuggled up together on the polytunnel frame...

At the front a couple of LBJs are going for last year's seed heads in one corner, and blackbirds and starlings have started on the first berries ln the hedge/ meadow half and poking at the lawn on the cut grass side.

Jackdaws and gulls seem to be sitting tight elsewhere..it is rather windy!

On the downhill side to me....a tidy garden, half slabs half lawn with some plants in pots at the back....and at the front chippings and some plant pots and a couple of shrubs......and no birds atall.....

The first photo was taken a while ago....this is yesterday...

Sideways rain, thunder and lightning...as my Friend in France asked...."What are you doing with Our weather?"!! 

They have been having the same this past day or so!!

The Auld Alliance? L'Entente Cordiale?!!

Half an hour on the turbo trainer yesterday...and although it is lifting and the sun is shining to tempt me out....it will be turbo again today..and progressing with Our Shirts patchwork...

Half a corner laid out ready for pinning and sewing.

Now for my "leçon" accompanied by café allongée.....

I wonder why a Long Black is called Lying Down Coffee in French ????

Two good days at home.

 The past couple of days have been profitable.

I've done some garden tidying 

Bean poles are all in, onions weeded and hoed, grass mowed and the clippings used as mulch on the tatties, strawberry plants from the Carpenter planted...and bread trays out over them to dissuade cats and birds!

That was done before the rain came and it turned cold again.

The waterbutts now are completely full, and the garden is growing apace.

Indoors I have been getting on with a new block...

Paper first....then I inked the lino, partly to obscure an unused design, then drew and cut...

Doing the fiddly bits first...just in case...

Printed a small batch...then added the details...nostril, grey legs and beak and dark brown eye. Finally wrote the card backs and added the title.

This afternoon friends from The Isle of Lewis called by on their way South... good to see them...and they left me a present...which I have now planted in a big pot, surrounded by geraniums and placed by the front door.