Thursday 28 March 2024

A bit of a mess

 And that's an understatement!!





I need another pair of hands to help me move a deep bed and a polytunnel frame...

That I can't manage on my own..and I am not dismantling them!

Then the workshop









You should see how much of Pirate's stuff I have shifted out ..shall we say his sheds are full to the doors....and Stuff has gone to the cowp ....

The kiln shed is now clear of non kiln things, I will be discussing strategy with another potter from up the coast....







So much to do ..but at least everything is inching in the right direction.

Monday 25 March 2024

Carthen. For Joanne

 Please excuse the colours..not taken in daylight..but I have tried to tweak the images to nearer the blue yellow and green that they are.

A carthen is a traditional Welsh 8 heddle double sided blanket made from wool.





Saturday 23 March 2024

Equinox, weather, friends

 

There always seems to be stormy weather around each equinox.

Eleven years ago we were in NZ and people here were saying to us "don't come back now"..with heavy snow and the telegraph poles along the western side of Arran snapped like matchsticks...

No snow here, but we have been having days of "washing machine weather", four seasons in a day, hail yesterday...we might get a break in this for a short walk.

Pirate now has diuretic tablets..that and non penicillin ABs are working slowly..but worryingly his appetite is still low..if it's not one thing....

Getting there slowly. We will see what the stoma nurse says at his review on Monday.....

I have a sale to post! The six books in the series "Earth's Children"by Jean Auel . I must get more things listed, a sale is a good incentive!

Yesterday we had a friend visit from France. When Pirate came out of the RAF sixty years ago, friend was a 13 year old, getting into racing and noone else in the club they were in then was willing to help. Pirate encouraged him, and for the years that he did race he enjoyed it. He kept on cycling, became a mechanic and ten years later was working with British Cycling squads. I met him at Lilleshall on a Women's Squad training weekend...but I hadn't seen him again since then!

So a good day of reminiscing for us all. 


Wednesday 20 March 2024

And one step back

 Up and out on time this morning, just after 8am, to take cardboard, a bag of green waste ( brambles), the old ripped polytunnel covers and a "dead" vacuum cleaner and fan heater to the cowp...the tip, or recycling centre.

It is run by a private company for the council.

Unload all that, then fill my four bags with free compost (council bags, £2 each then yours to use again) ..no more than four at a time,  but as many visits as you want. Since lockdown you have to book every visit, but that is no big deal.

It isn't perfect, you do get a certain amount of woody material..and are advised to use it 1:1 with garden soil. I do that, plus using it as one of the layers in the compost heap.

A quick visit to the nearest small town, Cumnock, the home of Kier Hardie, for a small top up shop....

And back to see how Pirate was getting on.

The district nurse yesterday had advised a doctor's phone call...and thankfully the doctor asked him to call by the surgery..verdict, fluid on his lungs.  Not surprising, with a serious bout of pneumonia 70 years ago, plus covid two years ago, plus weather too cold and wet to keep walking after his op....luckily there is an alternative to penicillin (which he can't take)...

Picked up the new meds..we are so fortunate to have a medical centre and a pharmacy in our village, just 200 metres apart.

Then he had a bright idea....lunch out!  The first place in the next village was full....we should have thought before going on to the next place..a garden centre cafe....it wasn't overfull, but he couldn't relax and eat even half...

Back home, him for a nap and me to do some research...which was confirmed by next door's daughter who is a nurse...I am doing the right things!

Then our daily walk, this time IN THE SUNSHINE!!!! and the walk was slow but steady, not painstakingly slow any more.











It does feel like Spring..even if we are heading for a cold snap.

Hopefully I will be able to get out on the garden and be destructive and constructive tomorrow... weather permitting!!

Tuesday 19 March 2024

Speeding up

 Pirate is at last walking slowly instead of at a snail's pace!

No walk this morning...when it was beautiful... waiting for the weekly nurse visit..which didn't happen until 3pm...and then Pirate needed a siesta....by which time the clouds had come back in, and you could only just see  Arran through a luminous mist.

But the birds were singing well.


And while he was having his siesta.....I loaded the car with rubbish to go to the cowp....and the bags to collect the free compost (made from the green waste)..slot booked for tomorrow morning. 

Monday 18 March 2024

On the prom

 Another delayed walk...but we got to promenade on the promenade!


Busy cleaning the beach after the winter storms, ready for the tourists 

People are mucky....
And the sea throws everything over the green stretch between the houses and the prom as well!
Oystercatchers...no oysters here 
The rain missed us....just!

It was a trifle windy..so we walked against the wind to start with, to get a tailwind back to the car!



As I write the wind has risen further and it is still raining....but there is hope for a walk tomorrow morning.



Sunday 17 March 2024

Maybe it is nearly Spring




 First walk today, just before lunch.

The second, late afternoon was even shorter...


As the rain came in again.

But it isn't about quantity now..after exactly a year back here of little exercise and much disruption, we must both set our pattern again to regain health.