More Painting.

We had heavy rain in the night, a few showers in the morning and for the rest of the time it's just been windy.

I have spent the day painting shields, 22 small ones and 2 large. Only the central bosses to stick on and then I can go back to adding to our costumes. Although I've based the shield designs on Viking shields, so easy to do research now we have the internet, I've snuck in some LOTR designs for the large shields. Any fellow fan will recognise our Rohan shields. Peter's shield is a simplified version of Théoden's shield though to make it more 'Viking' I've added runes. But not any old runes, they're dwarvish runes that spell Pete. You would have to be a real fan to work that one out. I've just looked up the runes I painted on some of the small shields and saw they are X, W, T and Q. A truly random choice.

 

Enough of the sweet peas that I planted out survived for me to pick flowers every day for the utility room. Their scent is absolutely gorgeous. (Can't bear hyacinths or paperwhites.)

Shield Painting.

Last night's heavy rain eased off in the morning with the sun making an appearance by the end of the afternoon. It's been windy but still warm.

Pete went into town to sort things at the bank. One of the things in his wallet was his newly bought senior railcard which had cost £35. I'd looked on line and if you lose it a replacement costs £10 which at least is better. But when Pete went to get the replacement because he had a crime number having reported his missing wallet to the police, there was no charge. A bright moment in all the drama and worry. He's also been to the pub and they're going to check the CCTV just in case they see anything. 

In the meantime I was at home busy painting Viking shields with the simplest designs I could find. Next step will be black gloss paint around the borders. From the on line chatter there seem to be all sorts of ideas going on for the boat including oars that will be moved by string and even dummy Vikings to go in the boat. I'll just do my bit and see what everyone else comes up with.

The only bit of gardening I did today was to tie in the rapidly growing tomato plants.

Windy.

Today has been cloudy, windy and warm. In town in the shelter of all the buildings it was very hot but once in the wind it was much cooler.

 

Somehow I managed to miss seeing Pete and the rest rowing the boat back yesterday. Maybe because they came on the far side of the buoys and were hidden by the waves while I thought they would be much nearer the shore. The row was good but to spoil the memory Pete has now realised that he must of dropped his wallet in the pub. He didn't realise this until he came home from working in the RNLI shop this morning. He's searched everywhere and even gone back to check the shop but there's no sign of the wallet. So he's lost cash and all his cards including his driving licence and has had to spend the afternoon on the phone ordering replacements. It's a shame especially as here quite often lost wallets are handed in but no such luck. In case the same thing happens to me I've photographed all my cards and will email the photos to myself. That way I can have all the information where ever I can access my emails.

 

While all that drama was going on I was in town shopping. I followed my usual route starting off with Morrison's then popping into Charlie's to check out their plants. I was tempted by a small hardy geranium with dark purple flowers but didn't get it as I wasn't sure where I would put it. I had a look at the reduced section which is where the purple petunias came from but there was nothing much in there today.

In town I tried on and rejected five pairs of shorts in Sports Direct (my current Adidas ones are far too large) and then found a suitable pair of black sports shorts in a charity shop. In another charity shop I found yet more green glass blobs and some tiny bright blue ones. I also bought a cheap paintbrush to use (and then throw away) with the black gloss paint on the shields. 

Walking around wasn't so bad for my toe but driving was so I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting outside reading.

A Pleasant Discovery.

It has been sunnier today and quite hot at times.

My toe was painful last night which was a sign (as the scar doesn't look inflamed) that I had been doing too much yesterday. So today I tried to take things a bit more easily and so far my toe feels a lot better.

That said I still painted some more shields and did some gardening. I cleared more of the campanula and have begun cutting back the flowering stems of the stachys. Mainly where they have grown right over other plants. I've still left a lot for the insects and you never know, cutting back the stachys might encourage it to put out more flowers. 

For a lot of the time I've been sitting out on the terrace reading or doing more darning of the delicate scarf. 

I've also done a lot of looking through my binoculars trying to spot Peter and the rest of the crew as they row back from Aberdyfi. They went up on the train to collect one of the boats that had been borrowed by the Aberdyfi rowing club for the regatta that didn't happen. I know they had to wait for the tide but so far there's hasn't been a sign of them. I'm not at all worried as they have radios and all the safety equipment and Dave, one of the crew is the RNLI operations manager.

This was my pleasant surprise. On a whim I Googled Dingles and came across this website for their holiday accommodation. They've replaced the old stone woodshed and large Leylandii that were next to it with an open fronted double garage and holiday bedsit above. It all looks very smart and costs from £350 per week. Some work has been done on the gardens and the old orchard/ chicken run which I dug over and turned into beds for propagating the plants has been changed to raised vegetable beds. 

It was good to see as I hadn't wanted to check the place out ever since I saw that the people who bought it from us (and were selling up) had chopped down the wisteria, honeysuckle and roses that were growing on the house walls. From the photo above it looks as if the wisteria on the end wall is starting to grow again. I was also pleased to see that the azaleas, bought as tiny twigs from Tesco's (probably reduced) are doing well on the bank by the side of the drive.

Sunshine.

Lots of sun today, and wind too which kept the temperature down but made for a perfect drying day. By the time I hung the second load out on the line the sheets were ready to be brought in for ironing.

While Peter took a carful of bags of garden waste down to the dump I had a fairly relaxed morning. I painted more shields including some with a darker green that I made by combining two of the paints I scavenged from the dump. The larger shields are bowing slightly so I'm thinking that if I paint the reverse sides as well they might even out.

Out in the garden I began removing the smaller campanula (a save from the original garden) from one of the raised beds. It has grown too well swamping the other plants and looks messy. If I can think where to put it I may take some to the zoo.

 

While sitting by the scree garden with a cup of coffee I suddenly spotted a humming bird hawk moth visiting the flowers. With the wind and the waves I couldn't hear the distinctive humming of its wings which to both me and the camera were just a blur but there was no mistaking the large moth. It spent its time going round and round the lavender bushes with the occasional foray to the thrift. I'm always happy to see more visitors to the garden.

With my thoughts turning to butterflies I've been trying to see where I might fit a second buddleia in the front garden. The one I have is a descendent of one I grew at Dingles and has almost magenta blooms which seem to shine or fluoresce. Maybe because of the orange centres of the individual flowers. My neighbour has a gorgeous nearly black flowered buddleia which looks even darker than Black Night and I know she would let me take cuttings. If I do plant one it needs to be where I can reach it to cut it right back each year.

I also baked a Bara Brith for Pete. I had forgotten to stock up on the bags of mixed nuts so used almonds and hazel nuts instead.

I finished off the afternoon sitting outside suitably clad for the wind. I read and then made a start on mending a much loved but very old headscarf. It's one of those versatile very light Indian scarfs with a fringe and thin silver strips that catch the light. When I was in my twenties I would wear that type of scarf peasant fashion. I've had this one for many years but now it's so delicate it tears easily and already has a number of darns done with sewing thread so maybe this is its last repair.

Cooling Down.

Well we've reached the first of July and the weather has been quite gloomy and not very warm. The patch of blue in the photo below was the one and only moment of brightness in the whole day. The final photo is a better match for the rest of the day. It began warm and muggy but then got noticeable chillier when the wind swung round to the north.

I didn't wake properly until 8.30 which might have been due to taking an antihistamine (for the insect bites which are driving my hypersensitive skin crazy) earlier or simply tiredness catching up. The good thing is that if we need a slow start to the day we can have one. 

Since I've been unable to get out so much I've been making an effort to keep up my piano and guitar practice as quite often it gets left out on a busy day and then I feel cross with myself. Today everything got done.

Look! A pond skater on the pond. Apart from the water snails (there's one in the water just above the pond skater) which I introduced, this is the first pond dweller that has arrived under its own steam in our tiny water feature. I've just been looking up some information and found that they can fly. There are 9 UK species and the common pond skater is also known as a pond strider though I found them referred to as water dancers which sounds much nicer. 

Other jobs done today include painting a second coat of grey on the shields and altering another yoga top. It was at least three sizes too big so I'm guessing I bought it in sale at Tesco's back in Devon. (Where I got most of my 'active wear'.)

The final event of the day was walking down to the surgery to have my stitches taken out by the nurse. There was a bit of an intake of breath when she took off the dressing. Not so much at the bruising on my toe but (I think) at the lack of finesse in the stitching. She remained professional and her only comment was that the stitches looked very tight. But out they came without a hitch. Although I had been hoping to return to Pilates next week her advice was not to do any of my activities for a few weeks yet but let my toe heal up completely first. I shall have to content myself with exercising at home.

It's a good thing that I walked to the surgery as currently the High st is closed due to roadworks and I wouldn't have been able to get as far as the surgery. To get to the other end of the mile and a half long village would involve a diversion of about 10 miles. But they are only digging a trench along the edge of the road and unofficially they've said (so I've been told) that once they go home people can move the cones that are across the road and drive through. (The actual trench has its own set of barriers.)

A Good Morning.

The day began warm and carried on getting warmer and warmer. Right now I'm very glad of the breeze which is blowing in through the window next to me. Having open doors at either end of the house also helps.

Once I'd been revived by the tea helpfully brought to me by Peter I had a very good morning. I had just got up when one of the builders arrived at 8.00 to reposition the porch letter box. For the sake of an hour's work and one extra concrete block we now have a letter box at the front of the porch. And the letters will land on the bench seat that is going to be built across that end of the porch. It sounds like the rest of the porch is being delivered to the builder this week so hopefully work will continue soon.

Then as we were eating breakfast Peter spotted a dolphin fishing close to shore. It was in such shallow water that it left a wake on the surface as it circled the fish it was hunting. I've not seen the dolphins that often this year so the sighting made the morning special.

After breakfast we headed off to Mach to meet up with our friends to practise our Welsh. It's been a while since we met up in the library since even with only four of us it's hard to find a mutually convenient time. 

 

Afterwards we went to the Café Owain Glyndwr for lunch to mark the end of our fourth year of learning Welsh together. Next year our lessons will be three instead of two hours so we should progress a bit more quickly. For lunch Peter had ham, eggs and chips with really nice ham and I had a bowl of carrot and sweet potato soup. Unlike last time when I found the bacon and lentil soup too salty this soup was perfect with a good kick of black pepper which is one of my favourite spices. 

Afterwards Peter went to play pool while I drove home. I took a chance and did some washing which has almost dried out on the line. 

Then I painted some more shields this time using paint for concrete floors. As it is not water based I didn't want to waste a paint brush but used an old toothbrush to dollop on the strange grey paint. I think it might be textured because it feels as if there is a lot of sand at the bottom of the tin. It doesn't matter so long as it works on cardboard.

I did some dead heading and used up the water from the water butt in the back garden which was beginning to smell stagnant. That butt fills very quickly with the water from the garage roof, one night of rain and it will be full again.

I did some sewing too, gathering the neckline of a top and even found time to sit outside during a sunny and very hot spell.