Postponed

 Today the garage man wasn't happy with the calipers from his usual supplier....or the price....so they are going back and he will get others elsewhere.

So no travelling until at least the middle of next week... probably best to postpone for a full week, but I will see what the weather will be up to!!

Which gives me more time to get on with things.

I went on the bus to town to get some de-icer..and was pleased to get trigger spray bottles, not cans. 

The snow had turned to cold rain showers....but as I did some sewing tonight I heard what sounded like hail against the windows...I was NOT going to investigate!!

I am mending a long sleeve cycling top of Pirate's, which will either be nice for the retro cycle ride at the end of May...or if it is too big for me will fit our Friend in France...who was also Pirate's clubmate over fifty years ago....

An odd placement of a club badge....

Pirate fell off his bike!!  Many years ago.....good thing he kept it.

Quilt decision made, and mending

 

Last minute fussing over details done...proper chart drawn up....

7 colours...each strip of 7 pieces. 7 strips with the colours stepping one along each strip, to make a square.

4 squares set diagonally to make the centre.

Each corner is two half squares put side to side.

I've pinned the strips for the first square.

Not a lot else got done today, apart from pinning two mending jobs...a section of jacket lining hem and the hem on a light pair of sports trousers for walking.

Four months on and I'm still doing his mending...and re-mending.....

The difference is that I'll be wearing them. 

Time ...

 One jeans patch done, two more pairs to save from their doom!!

This has taken an hour....enough time for sitting. I enjoyed the hand work though.

That was after doing the washing up and a bit of tidying and sorting..preceded by half an hour on Duolingo.

It would be so easy to sit here all day!!

I was hoping for a little more sunshine after a break in proceedings yesterday afternoon, but we are back to rain and wind.

Nevertheless it is time to venture out!!

There is paint for the workshop on the shopping list and delivering the huge suitcase filled with surplus clothes and bedding to a charity/"op"  shop.  I think Shelter Scotland, as all over the world people need homes and help.

Unfortunately this means using the car...but as I haven't used it for a week it probably is a good idea to give it a run. I don't want it sulking when I do need it!!

Using the car also means making a list and a route plan to save time and fuel.

I like going by bus, but carrying heavy things to and from town, plus the fact that it would take several different buses in and out of town in various directions to the edge means that the car has won the day.  Shops moving out of town has a lot to answer for. Yes it takes car and lorry traffic out of the centre, but it also kills the centre, and all the closed shops in many towns evidences that.

Kintsugi

 I think that is the right word...

I stand corrected, Kintsugi!

I have a Buckley pancheon that I found 24 years ago...complete...went back to pick it up the next day and someone had thrown a brick in it....

Now pirate is mending it and I am tempted to highlight the mends in gold! It is a beautiful honoured hardworking object.....

Greenhouse jam...

 

You can just see a snow covered Ben Lomond...80 miles away by road or 51 miles as the crow flies. (Do crows fly in straight lines?)

Greenhouse traffic jam....potting on and potting up due and it is still too cold to put them out. They will have to go in the polytunnel on the staging that I built using old pallets.

The washing machine is running again at last! New brushes and the door tweaked so that it properly triggers the switch put in last time.

Off to the Land of Dennis the Menace!

 Yesterday we had another trip to Dundee for an hour on the velodrome...a long way to go, but every time we come home a different way, and aim to do more than just the one thing.

We drove up through hail showers, but luckily we trusted the weather forecast and after twenty minutes wait it gave us a dry hour!!

We drive round Dundee to the Tay Bridge past the home of DC Thompson, the publishers of The Beano comic magazine...and Dennis was 70 this year.

This was after we arrived home..and no that isn't a twister in the distance, it's the steam outlet from the chipboard factory in shadow!!

Today has been mainly bright sunlight...but still cold wind...and the washing machine is hopefully being mended. Probably just in time for the next band of showers!

Shed mending

It is surprising how much damage half a ton of clay does when it leans against a wall....

Now the clay and kiln bricks are in the right shed.???and his is mended!

Mending

It's a lovely can to use...worth mending.

mended kiln

 this is before the kiln cement...a bit of a jigsaw!

 the first section will sit on these bricks, go through the shed wall and sit on a similar pile before turning up vertical

Now to draw the plan of the first section that takes the damper...a friend in the village has offered to make it for me from steel.

House mending

This is why our home needs insulation....single skin brick, built about 70 years ago.

The "tiles" are at least not the original, which were basically roofing felt..and the jackdaws attack those, as we see on next door's roof. However they deceive the eye...they are metal sheet wrapped in a thin skin with grit on it.  When we can, we'll have to insulate the roof space.  What is there is a couple of inches thick and in bad condition.  There should be ten inches.

 A late House Marten nest, too late for a brood. They will have to remove this for insulating the walls.

The jackdaws and starlings are being evicted as well....