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A very busy week.....

It's been a busy week...... On Monday I dismantled the computers and tidied up the cable spaghetti that connected everything together. It's all in the one box - I just have to hope that I can figure out how to put it all back together.
 
Then I set to work and put the first coat of paint on walls and ceiling of that little part of the studio. On Tuesday morning I went back in and painted the second coat. 
 
Then I went and collected my sister off the bus from Glasgow and together we headed over to the Isle of Lewis for a couple of days. It is now a full year since our mother died and we had various loose ends that needed tying up - plus friends to visit and tweed to buy.... 
 
We were blessed with beautiful, calm, sunny weather and managed to fit in a walk across to
the other Calanais stone circles - which Susan had never been to before despite over three decades of visiting the island. She spent a happy hour or so taking photographs from every imaginable angle, trying out the new lens which she had bought when we stopped off at Ffordes on our way to the ferry.
 
We also had a farewell walk on "mother's" beach, Coll Sands. Mum lived just across the road from here and always considered it her own personal beach.
On Thursday afternoon we caught the ferry home and then on Friday it was back to work. 
 
Rachel and I made a start on painting the woodwork - which first of all involved clearing away all the cobwebs (a bit embarassing just how grotty it had got - must buy a cobweb brush for The Workshop!). I am not sure when the woodwork was last painted, but we didn't do it when we first moved into the studio 7 years ago, so it is possibly 10 or 15 years since it was last done - in a rather grim dark reddish brown eggshell finish.  I have always hated it but never had time to do anything about it till now.
 
We got a lot of the boring grey undercoat done on Friday. I was slightly hampered by the porch light having blown, so first task this morning was to replace the light fitting with a nice bright LED fitting, and then I finished off the undercoating (at least as much as is currently accessible), then treated myself to painting one window and the front door with the lovely turquoise paint I had got. Looking good, but it might need a second coat.
Rachel made a really neat job of this window - but it took a long time to be so careful.  This morning I bought a paint scraper for shaving the paint off glass - tested it on a little bit of stray paint on the door from yesterday and decided it was going to be quicker to be careless with the painting and scrape off the excess afterwards.











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