DONE !

The weather did not look too promising this morning (and I'd had a dreadful night) but I was determined to empty that bag of soil and yes, at last the garden restoration/ redesign is done.  All was done by the afternoon which is when the heavy rain set in.

It has taken three years to get from this poor overgrown garden,

with the help of the builders to put in foundations and solid block walls,

to this. (The angle of the photo makes the paving look much bigger than it really is. It is actually a lot less than the length of the shingle.)

The landscaping has been done and all that remains is to add more plants and wait for them to grow. There are a couple of tiny jobs left to do but it is such a relief to have got to this point. Now we have; a spacious terrace to watch the ever changing sea and the world go by, mature hedges to provide shelter form the sea winds and privacy from passers-by, raised beds for when my back gets worse, herbaceous borders for the plants brought from Dingles (and a few more), a tiny pond (after all doesn't every garden need a water feature?) and of course the shingle garden since I love stones of all kinds.

Now for a bit more from yesterday-

Above is a map of Gogerddan in 1765 showing the woods we walked through to the north of the house. The Pryce family had owned the estate since the 1500s. By the 1800s the estate was nearly 30.000 acres. You can read more about the history of the family here. We only caught a glimpse of the back of the house, which is now owned by the university, and the remains of a water wheel which would have provided electricity to the house.

As we sat eating our lunch I noticed what was obviously a fairy door in one of the trees and couldn't help adding a few details. The woods are popular with families so maybe this will delight a young person before the rain washes away the pen marks.

 

Tiptoe Through the Bluebells.

The bright morning promised a fine day ahead and that is what we got. Still a chill wind (which dried my washing beautifully) but out of the wind it was verging on warm.

Our walk today was through two bluebell woods, starting at Crwn Wood then through the university fields and into Gogerddan Woods.

As far as the eye could see both woods were carpeted with bluebells. (According to the Woodland Trust they are an ancient woodland indicator plant.) Stunning to see on our gentle afternoon ramble.

Only five of us started the walk this afternoon then our numbers reduced to four as one member had to turn back due to a back issue. 

Walking through Crwn Wood our path followed a gently meandering stream. We did manage to see a couple of trout in one of the deeper pools.

Leaving Crwn Wood we crossed fields where the university agricultural research department has experimental plots of legumes and maize and on to Gogerddan Woods.

The woods were once part of the estate attached to Gogerddan Mansion. I've been looking further into the history of the estate going back to 1500 but it's too late in the evening for doing more research today.

We stopped in a woodland glade to eat our lunch and I took the opportunity to amass a bundle of sticks suitable for supporting the hardy geraniums in the garden. They're getting to the stage where right now they have formed neat clumps of foliage but once the rain comes, as it inevitably will, everything will just collapse in a soggy mess. As soon as I got home the sticks went in around any plants that needed them.

A couple of photos from yesterday's stunning sunset.

 

Cold Winds.

The weather has been much the same as yesterday's, a bit chilly and staying dry until the afternoon. There was enough wind to make it worth while hanging up the washing on the line. It was nearly dry when I ran to bring it back indoors as the first drops of rain fell.

I like Saturdays as I usually have the whole day free to work at home in the garden and today was no exception. Gardening jobs today included potting up the tomatoes and sorting out the corner bed (with the bird bath). Weeding necessitated crawling under the hedge, at one point lying flat out, to get the last of the montbretia corms dug out plus a couple of tiny brambles. I do have montbretia in several places in the garden but I don't want them spreading out to take over the herbaceous beds. I finally got that corner bed into some sort of order with more stachys and ground cover sedums planted along the front edge and star flowers, a coneflower, a tall white campanula and a purple salvia further in. I also planted some blue-eyed grass in the shingle. Once all that was done I went back to carrying buckets of top soil, topping up the raised beds and the beds around the shingle. Possibly one more day should get the dumpy bag emptied and my back will get a chance to recover from all that heavy work.

I don't know why Speedy has to drink out of the pond when he has a perfectly good bowl of water in the kitchen.

The azalea I moved seems very happy in its new spot between two hydrangeas.

 

Chilly.

First thing in the morning the day looked quite promising though there was a distinct nip in the air. (Something to do with the Polar Jet stream I believe.) But later on the day got greyer and colder with rain arriving mid-afternoon.

When I got to the stables this morning I found that I was riding Seren (Star) which was a surprise. But then I saw I'd been originally assigned Margaret but she was needed for the next lesson.

Because Seren is well behaved she gets used a lot for hacks and beginner riders so she isn't used to doing the more advanced work we do in our lessons. That made it a good challenge for me to get her to understand what I was asking her to do. By the end she was doing reasonable turns on the forehand (pivoting around the front feet), decent leg yielding (moving forwards and sideways at the same time) and was coming on to the bit (neck arched and more energy). It was a good lesson.

Seren and Pac Man - they only stay in these stalls when they are waiting to be ridden. I had taken Seren's saddle off as she wouldn't be needed again until the afternoon.

Here's the boot room with tidily arranged long and short boots in all sizes. Hidden by the bench in the foreground are rows of tiny jodhpur boots too. They have a thriving pony club, the biggest in the country and also take children out on lead rein rides around the fields.

Horses grazing in the fields of the Vale of Rheidol.

I didn't find any plants to buy at the supermarkets or Charlie's but I did give in and buy this riding top which I've been eyeing up for a few weeks. It's close fitting which will be a good incentive to maintain my current healthy weight.

I had planned to go out and do some gardening when I got home but then the rain came so I've done indoor jobs (mainly tidying) instead. I have to admit to feeling rather tired now.

 

Cloudy.

Another fairly chilly day with a choppy sea.

Having our Welsh class in the middle of the day meant that I had to split my gardening into two short sessions. That's probably a good thing as digging the soil out of the dumpy bag to bring into the garden is quite taxing on my back. Today I dug up, split and replanted two hardy geraniums already growing in the one of the the borders so that I should end up with a good spread of each geranium. That done I emptied out several large pots of star flowers and planted the small bulbs individually all around the hardy geraniums. That way there will be (hopefully) a large swathe of the light blue stars before the hardy geraniums begin to grow. That corner bed is turning into a 'blue' corner with the dark blue hydrangea, bluebells, blue irises, star flowers and nigella. The hardy geraniums are, I think, a pale lavender and an ordinary pink variety. I also planted London Pride along the edge of the bed so that the leafy rosettes can spread and make a solid boundary between the shingle and the the soil.

The garden chairs were snapped up in less than 12 hours. When the lady, who lives in the village, came to collect them we immediately recognised each other from Pilates as she is usually behind me. (We all tend to stick to roughly the same spot each week.) The money from the chairs has now been put away to spend on plants for the garden when I go to the plant fair in a fortnight.

The final event of the day was disco aerobics which was fun as usual. At the end of one track our teacher makes an attempt at doing the 'splits' and some of us try as well. I surprised myself at almost being able to achieve this gymnastic feat. All the more surprising as it isn't something I did in my uncoordinated childhood. 

 

A Busy day.

It was another of those days when the grey morning didn't give much clue as to the weather for the rest of the day. The grey eventually gave way to clouds and by the evening there was barely a cloud to be seen.

The seal returned this morning and if you look closely at the photo you should be able to see that he is munching on a flat fish he caught below the cliff.

My first job of the morning was to brush down four folding teak garden chairs that have sitting in the garage since we moved and then give them a coat of teak oil. I've now put them up for sale as although they're great chairs they are too heavy for me to move around easily. I much prefer our light aluminium bistro chairs that can be picked up with one hand. Perfect for chasing the sun/shade around the terrace. We've still got the round table that came with the chairs and a side table that I made out of the lazy Susan and metal stool legs.

Once that was done I was back in the front garden, moving plants around and topping up flower beds with the new soil. I didn't get a lot done because in the afternoon we went to see Dune II at the Arts Centre in the university. There weren't too many people in the cinema (no noisy rustling), our front row seats were comfy and the three hours flew by. I really enjoyed the film, the plot had none of the complexity of the books (which I read in my youth) but the special effects were excellent and you do have to be in a cinema with a good sound system to get the best from futuristic battle scenes. All in all a good afternoon. Peter had the rowing club AGM to go to as soon as we got back to Borth so I dropped him off on the way home and then it wasn't that long before it was time for me to get ready to go to choir. Only fifteen of us tonight but we had a good session as always. We finished with one of our favourites Grace, move in me. 

 

Nearly Done.

It was wintry grey again first thing and we even had some light drizzle. It wasn't until later in the afternoon that the wind picked up (a lot) bringing clear blue skies.

I had an early start today and by 8.00 I'd done the morning routine and was out using the pressure washer on the slabs by the back door. My plan was really to wash the slabs in the front garden but the dirty water from the path outside the utility room would run all the way down to the steps and make a mess of the slabs in the front garden so needed doing first. I was making such an early start because the soil delivery was due today and once the bag was inside the gate I wouldn't be able to get the pressure washer past it. As it turned out the soil and some wood didn't arrive until later in the afternoon just as I was putting the pressure washer away after cleaning all the remaining slabs in the back garden.

The builders turned up this morning to fit the rest of the balustrade but as the eagle eyed will have spotted they couldn't fit the last glass panel. The company had forgotten to include the fittings with either of the two deliveries that brought the glass and metal work. Each time I asked the driver to check if there were any extra boxes which there weren't. The parts are being sent tomorrow by courier after which the last glass panel can be installed. After baking another Bara Brith as the stocks were getting low I went out to continue the pressure washing. This involved quite a lot of shifting of paving slabs and concrete blocks so I'm glad I've got Pilates tonight.

Mrs Blackbird enjoying a bath.

 

Chilly.

The view for most of the day was very wintry with silvery grey sea and sky and a cold wind blowing down from the north.

The fish must be returning as I'm seeing increasing numbers, well two or three, fishermen fishing off the rocks under the cliff. This morning I saw what at first I thought was a dolphin but turned out to be a large seal. 

It was really hard to make out and in this photo below it looks more like a dog. I got some (tiny) views of its tail as it dived down and it was definitely not a dog, though maybe a dogfish.

I spent my day having a good tidy up of the paving in the front garden including sweeping up as much of the red dust as I could before rain turns it into red sludge. Then there were half a dozen heavy 2ft square street paving slabs that needed stuff chipped off them before I could stack them up in the corner to possibly become a platform for a water butt. I did a bit of moving around of plants too. Having only grown daffodils in grass I hadn't realised how messy the leaves would be in the raised beds by the steps so those bulbs have all gone down into the main borders. I also managed to move a fennel plant which if it survives will create a summer screen between the neighbours' sitting room window and our garden. 

And now for the second half of yesterday's walk when we took a circular route along lanes and footpaths.

Having got a bit higher up we were able to see Aber in a gap between the hills (the white building is Maes Y Mor the assisted living place by the harbour that we sang carols at). Also visible was the coast to the north with the familiar outline of the hills above Aberdyfi and Tywyn.

It's lambing time so the fields were full of lambs. Beyond in the far distance to the east were the faint outlines of the Cambrian mountains.

Dramatic windswept trees.

The next place of interest was this grand farm and mill. It now belongs to the university, one of many farms acquired when the university had a large agricultural department.  The house that was behind us on the other side of the yard is privately owned. As we approached a pack of dogs; three sheep dogs, a Jack Russell and a Labrador, came rushing out and up the lane barking quite ferociously. The Jack Russell was the loudest but there was some nasty growling from a couple of the sheepdogs. It's a public footpath but I would have been concerned if I had been walking alone. At least with nine of us it evens the chances a bit.

The dogs followed and carried on barking as we stopped to look at the back of the building and the remains of a waterwheel which would have driven the mill machinery. We had our lunch a little further up the lane perched on a pile of gravel by an un-scenic open sided barn. However the sound of the birds was lovely and included the tapping of a woodpecker and the rough cry of a raven.