Rant.

My lovely, lovely car has failed it's MOT big time.  This is one car that I have loved.  I do not do big mileage, but then I do not do much maintenance either, so.....the entire exhaust system, brakes, bit of suspension, I could go on.  The garage did....
  
Though I wonder how it passed last year.


So the search is now on for a replacement.  Just what I need when I will be paying out for the wood burning stove due Tuesday, the fitters and the plumber - latter required so it will heat the water as well as the downstairs of the house.  
Just have to console myself with all the savings that will be made on the liquid gold (oil)  and then what happens?  


It is June, heading towards Midsummer's Day (and our Wedding Anniversary) and it is FREEZING.  I have four layers on and a blanket round the nether regions but I just have to press the forward button and put on the heating.


After all I am old and get my Winter Fuel payment from the government, which actually went down last year while the cost of electric, gas, oil went up.


So the Wedding Anniversary gift is the wood burning stove and my Christmas present and birthday for the next ten years, should I live that long, is the 'new' car.


You may well ask why do we need two cars.  Him and Hers.  Well if one breaks down and we only had the one we would be marooned out here, there are no buses, unless I wanted to hail the school mini bus and then I would presumably not be allowed without the necessary police checks.  


When the family descend we need two cars to transport them from Aberdeen train station, and still some of them have to get on a bus.  Okay - should never have had four daughters, who then procreated....Aaaargh.


I think I will just say a fond farewell to the lovely Honda in the way I know best.  Cheers.

What have you done today (Heather Small song)

Well, I made a poster.  About six attempts before it pleased everyone.  The Cockerel, is not oil, sod it.

I also did a press release for two local papers (weekly and one daily, the Press and Journal.)  Now this sounds as if it was easy peasy, did it off the top of my head.  Well it's not.  


And before I put in 'exhibition' on the poster some (very kind) person   - asked "Are they workshops?"  No!  It is an exhibition!!   Hopefully the press releases, which I laboured over have not upset anyone, but then, much later I realised I had not mentioned one of the artists as they were on holiday when the photograph was taken and I may not have given them mention.

Sorry, Doreen Macrae.  Who has done the stained glass which is so awesome.

Today we were back at the Lighthouse Museum for a master class before we do the Childrens Activity Mornings in July.  Have to be at least one step ahead.  Above is where our classroom was.

Isobel showing us how to do stained glass windows, well, not really, but pretty like.

Stained Glass Windows, a la Isobel Gregory.  This involved double backed sticky tape, wool and kitchen foil.  And sharpy pens.  You want a master class?  Well move to Fraserburgh.

We all paid attention. And concentrated.  As we were educated in the art of Zentangle.

My god, they are all quiet.  Never happened before.  Spooky.

Show and tell!   Good are we not? 


After lunch at the Lighthouse museum and lots more chat......


 Down the shed and  the opera on full blast and painted two sails on my boat picture.  I re-arranged the shed/summer house.  And then I opened a bottle of wine.


Then, before I had me second glass I did another press release for our next project.....


The garden waits, 
The bird feathers under the bed waits.  (I will throttle that cat)
the cleaning waits,
painting the rest of the garden furniture waits,
the - well just everything waits till I cross everything off my list.
I am really enjoying my retirement. 
Retired, must look up the meaning of this in the dictionary.  Confused.
I seem to much more today and every other day than when I was working, sorry, paid for working.

Activities.

Not much going on here on the beach at Fraserburgh.

Please dont talk when I am interrupting.

 The crafty group plotting our next venture.  Action stations!


Now then, does anyone know anything about sheep?

There has been a lot of activity on the road outside our house.  With transporter loads of sheep going one way.  And then another load of sheep going the other.  

Are they all just out on a trip?

Activity at the Art group - and down the shed.  Trying to paint these three boats.  Not easy.


So at the moment, total inactivity beckons.

Botanics.

Speak quietly so as not to annoy the gods.  But today the sun has shone here in the North East of Scotland.

I have been pottering and potting.

With the help (hindrance) of Sith.

I keep intending to cut the Paeonies and float the heads in a bowl.  But by the time I get to them when the rain has stopped,  or they are not dripping dew, they are way too 'blowsy'.

The rose bush is a mass of buds.  Patience yet again before I cut them.  This rose is heavily scented once open.

The Dawn Patroller brought out the lawn mower.  Re-sited the solar powered water feature.  (Hopefully now passers by, cyclists, horse riders and tractor drivers, who can see in over the hedge can note there is method in our madness of not cutting the grass.)

Without any help from humans Nature goes her own sweet way.

 Cuckoo Flower.

Northern Marsh Orchid

King Cup/Marsh Marigold.

Wild Pansy.


All four above plants growing in and amongst the sand dunes between Cairnbulg and Philorth Nature Reserve.


Beautiful Botanics.  (Not forgetting that the nicest drink is made from plants in one form or another.)

Pot Pourri.

Because of this foul weather, mist, or is it cloud, my feeling foul also,  I looked around and then looked again.  And really it is quite awesome.

A Goldfinch.  If you peer hard.

Lots of Tree Sparrows on the feeders.

Wander round the house.  My notice board in the bedroom.  

My 'office' in the bedroom.

Then I drift into the kitchen and say hello to my plants.  We moved from a much larger house than where we are now and these plants were still lost there.  Not now!  Even the camel looks squashed.

Then Sith comes in and tells me he has been chased, terrified, scared to death.....

By Big Daddy Pheasant.


What a wimp.


And do you know what happened then?  

The sun came out!

Bugs!

Not sure whether I have or have not.  The computer is being very slow and seems to be doing its own thing.  My emails are coming in so tiny I cannot read them so have changed servers (?)  Not sure if that is the right word.  I certainly cannot find how to make yahoo bigger on internet explorer.  I could do with a magnifying glass.  How stupid is that? 

 Or the web sites I go on to read as a newspaper.  Such teeny print.  Where did that come from?

Its putting stripes in my blog.  

And I wont go into how long it is taking to download anything.  Just when I am struggling with doing posters for an upcoming art exhibition, picture labels, biographies of artists and oh the whole gamut.

I do have computer protection and it scans every day which really p***** me off as it slows everything down, even worse, while its doing it.

Stay calm.

Furthermore I did not feel too well this morning, which has continued throughout the day.

No, I do not drink the wine from a glass like this, but I am using it as a tummy bug prevention.  And a comforter, and oh any excuse.


The weather here is bloomin awful.  Mist, damp and cool.  Three days of it now we have had.  June.  Huh.


What I have, I have diagnosed, is an overload bug.  Taking on too much, doing too much, thinking too much, worrying too much.  Now moaning too much.


There is a button on the computer which you can use and switch it off.  I wish I had one.
Oh - just found it!

The silver darlings - herring fishing boats.

I do hope this is not boring  but my next painting task is sailing boats, and I thought I would like to do something local.  So as is my wont I began to research.  I know nothing of sailing.  The DP does, but apart from a brief lecture on where the word lugger (lugsail)  (does that mean shape of your lug = ear?) comes from, which apparently is different down South, it describes the sail on the Zulu, Skaffie and Fifie.  Mainly used for the catching of the herring.

The Skaffie

From the beginning of the 19th century a class of boat called the Skaffie appeared. These were favoured mainly in the Moray Firth region. The early skaffie boats were small with rounded stems and raked sterns. They were two-masted with a tall dipping lugsail and a mizzen sail. Their short keel gave them good manoeuvrability in good weather, but they tended to be unstable in bad weather. They were usually crewed by around six people. Above all, though, they were light enough to be hauled up on to the beaches. The boats were un-decked and provided no shelter for the crew. Because of the vulnerability of the boats, they stayed only a few miles out to sea in full view of the land. These boats were gradually built bigger and could be around 42 feet (13 m) long, and partially decked. This came about because the harbours that were constructed from the mid to late19th century meant that the boats no longer needed to be beached. Skaffies were not built in any great numbers after 1900.

[edit]The Fifie

Fifie sail drifter - Reaper

The "Fifie" then became the predominant fishing boat on the Scottish east coast. They were used from the 1850s until well into the 20th century. Fifies had a vertical stem and stern with a broad beam, which made them very stable. Their long keel was a disadvantage, especially manoeuvring in confined spaces. These boats were two masted with a main dipping lugsail and a mizzen sail. The masts were set quite far forward and aft to release a good working space. Fifies built from 1860 onwards were all decked, and from 1870s onwards the bigger boats were built with carvelplanking, i.e. the planks were laid edge-to-edge instead of the overlapping clinker style of previous boats. Some boats were now being built up to about 70 feet (21 m) in length and were very fast.

[edit]The Zulu

A Zulu at Catterline.

In 1879, Lossiemouth fisherman, William "Dad" Campbell came up with a radical design for his new boat. It had the vertical stem of the Fifie and the steeply raked stern of the Skaffie, and he called this boat Nonesuch, registration number INS 2118. She was relatively small, 52 feet (16 m) overall with a 39-foot keel length (12 m). The Nonesuch had her registration closed on 12 January 1901 after having been broken up. The Zulu War raging in South Africa at the time gave the name to this new class of boat.

The Zulu boats were built to the carvel method of planking, which was much stronger than theclinker system. The shape of the Zulus gave the boats a long deck but a shorter keel, which greatly improved their manoeuvrability. Zulus were two-masted boats and carried three sails - fore, mizzen and jib. The sails were very heavy and difficult to haul, and the masts had to be very long and strong. Masts could be 60 feet (18 m) tall on boats of 80 feet (24 m) in length. Their design produced very fast boats that became invaluable to herring fishing fleets. They got to the fishing grounds quickly and returned swiftly with the catch. Because of these qualities, the Zulus rapidly became very popular along the entire east coast. As the 20th century approached, steam capstans were introduced, and this made the hauling of the sails and nets much easier for the crews. One of the best of those was the capstans patented and built by MacDonald Brothers of Portsoy, in 1908.

All the above is from Wikepedia.

Just look at how many of them there were in the past!  This is Fraserburgh Harbour when the herring boats were in.  Usually on a Sunday as the fishermen were in church.

There is so much more, history of the families, their way of living, all the way from then to now.  The fishing still goes on.  Perhaps I will show you the boats they use now - somewhat different.  

Fraserburgh is now the biggest port for shell fishing, prawns, langoustines, and for white fish, in Europe.  And we still get herrings.  The Silver Darlings.