Rug Washing.

The day began grey and muggy and then later in the morning the hazy clouds cleared and it's been hot sun all the way.

I had intended to cycle down to the zoo but something I did yesterday set my knee off and I was in no state to cycle let alone spend several hours (or more) kneeling and weeding. Instead I washed the two rugs that had been covering bare floorboards in our bedroom. I hoovered them thoroughly first then a quick change of the Vax's basic parts and I was ready to wash the rugs. I briefly contemplated using the washing machine but decided against as the weight of the sodden wool rugs would probably have destroyed the washing machine, that was if I could even fit the larger rug in. Instead I laid the rugs on the swept drive and used the Vax to take out as much dirt as possible. I love the simple design of the Vax which is ideal for both dry and wet suction. Very handy too for tackling minor household floods.

Once washed the rugs were hung out and I think are already dry. I'm not sure yet what I will do with the rugs, Peter might have the bigger one in his study.

I did a few other things including sorting the sagging washing line and baking a Bara Brith before getting out the sun lounger and spending the rest of the afternoon reading in the sun. Might as well enjoy it while it's here.

The buddleia that I moved to the bottom of the garden is doing well and the bright purple flowers should soon be attracting butterflies. Growing up between the buddleia and the hedge is a verbena bonariensis which is at least 7ft tall. It came as an tiny accidental seedling in a pot containing a rockery hardy geranium given to me by my neighbour. I thought it might be a verbena bonariensis, planted it in one flower bed and then moved it when I put the buddleia in. I wasn't expecting it to be so spectacular.

Off soon to Pilates.

 

Midsummer's Day.

I was up early this morning for a change and though it looked as if we were going to have a sunny day I could see cloud over the river being blown towards me. It was only a a layer because behind me the sun was beaming over the cloud/mist? keeping the terrace nice and warm. But eventually the cloud covered the sky and we had an overcast though warm-ish day.

 

The first thing I did this morning was to go round to the neighbours' garden and cut back the escallonia hedge from their side. That poor bush gets almost no chance to flower as it needs regular trimming so that it doesn't spread too much. 

My other outdoor jobs were not so much fun. Starting with tidying round the bins which are kept on the path that runs down the side of the house. It was just sweeping all the odd corners and sorting out the plastic plant pots which seem to grow more quickly than the plants themselves. Some I'll keep and the rest can go in the 'hard plastics' section at the dump. Then there were the storm drains at the bottom of the drive to clear. Again not that much to do but all the leaves that had blown in there had composted and weeds were beginning to grow. I did a little pottering about in the back garden as well.

As promised here are more photos from around St Michael's Church, Lledrod.

I've been researching yew trees in churchyards and found some interesting facts. The average lifespan of a yew tree is 400-600 years and there are 407 yew trees in Wales that are over 500 years old. There is  yew tree at Defynnog which is possibly 5,000 years old though some experts think it is more likely to be around 1,500 years old. Another tree at Llongernyw is said to be 4,000 years old. The oldest yew tree in the UK is the Fortingal Yew in Scotland which is thought to be 2,000 - 9,000 years old. Ancient yew trees have girths of over 5m so the ones in the churchyard yesterday are probably only hundreds of years old.

It was a shame that there were no paths mown between the graves and the slate gravestones were worn and covered with lichen so we couldn't read the inscriptions on most of them.

This stone tells a tragic story of a family devastated maybe by the last word-wide pandemic. The headstone tells us that in the Jones family Mary, the wife died in 1887 aged 54, a year later son John aged 24 died and the following year another son Daniel aged 38 died. Two years later the daughter Anne aged 32 died and Morgan the father died in 1894 aged 68. The stone doesn't give the cause of death but the Russian Flu pandemic ran from 1889 to 1890 plus there was an unexplained disease circulating in cattle 1870-1890 which may have spread to humans. The Asiatic or Russian Flu, possibly a coronavirus was one of the deadliest pandemics in history killing over 1 million people at a time when the world population was around 1.5 billion.

This imposing granite monument was for a church elder who died in 1890 and his wife who died 32 years later.

I just heard on the radio that it's Midsummer's Day, err what summer? and that it has been the hottest day of the year. Not here it hasn't.

 

A Walk From Lledrod.

Looking out this morning we were greeted with sea mist. We could still see across to the village but the steady drizzle forced me to sit just inside the door with my (not so) early morning cuppa. By mid-day it was warm and looked as if the sea mist was about to lift. I hoped that inland the sun would be shining but as can be seen from the photos it stayed grey with light rain falling every now and then.

Today's walk started by the church of St Michael's Church in the village of Lledrod by the River Wyre.

The church is 19thC built on the site of a medieval church which may have been built on a pre-Christian site. 

Our route took us through the church grounds (more photos in the next post) passing yew trees that must be hundreds of years old.

Coming out of the graveyard we walked through a stunning wildflower meadow and into a wooded valley.

Looking back at the meadow from the trees.

There was an intriguing elaborate tree house built on the side of the valley. Some of the group went down to have a look but I stayed back with those who thought we shouldn't be intruding upon private property. 

Instead we pondered on how this beech tree has some sheep fence going right through the middle of it. Looking at it more closely I don't think the fence is old enough to have had the tree grow around it and I suspect that two sections of the fence were nailed into the tree on either side and the bark has grown around it making it look as if the wire fence goes right through the middle of it.

Down in the valley we crossed over the River Wyre (Welsh rivers like some mountains can be considerably smaller than expected.)

Coming up the other side of the valley we could see a large farm complex which on closer inspection turned out to be a free-range chicken unit. And yes, we could smell it too.

Turning our backs on the industrial farming we made our way up an ancient farm track,

which led us up to an old farm which is in the process of being restored. I've found a survey that states 'Berthdomled was a carefully planned farm of 1870' with the courtyard of farm buildings being referred to as 'stables'.

From Berthdomled we followed a track to the main road which we followed briefly.

Leaving the road we continued uphill through farmyards and sheep fields before sitting on the remains of a stone wall for lunch.

From there we could see right across the valley to an iron age hill fort. Apparently it has impressive ramparts on the far side but there is no public access. The previous owner would probably have been amenable to granting us access but his son is said to be vehemently opposed to anyone coming onto his land.

It was wetter on the last leg of our circular route so my camera was put away safely in my backpack. On my way home I called in at one of my fellow walker's as she had forgotten to bring along the tomato plants she had offered me. I only needed two more to replace two that had not thrived and it's fun to have some different varieties. I also came away with some grey leaved sedum for the shingle garden and some orange hawkbit (fox and cubs) to go where I took out the montbretia. If it grows the bright orange flowers should blend nicely with the yellow Welsh poppies and red fuchsias in that corner. In return I gave my friend plenty of groundcover sedums and stonecrop.

 

Dolphins.

The sun was back again today with enough wind to blow two loads of washing dry.

Having got up at 6.00 to let the cat in and feed him I went back to bed and had a few more hours sleep. I'm finding that by Saturday I need to allow myself a bit more time to rest.

Breakfast was interrupted when Peter spotted a couple of dolphins. Abandoning my porridge I grabbed my camera and rushed out onto the terrace. You can see by the photo above just how near one of them was. I called out to a couple of holidaymakers walking past and they were delighted to watch the three dolphins fishing in the bay.

I had plans to do some sewing sitting outside but then changed my mind about the whole project. A while back I had unpicked the fleecy underblanket from the slippery fabric which was constantly coming untucked with the thought that I would stitch it onto one of my stock of new cotton fitted sheets. But when I eventually found the fleece (after searching through most of my clothes tubs) I thought that it was just too old and compressed to be worth the effort. My next thought was to buy a replacement underblanket which no doubt would also be on nylon, unpick the fleece and stitch that onto a sheet. But why go to that effort when I could simply buy some fleece and stitch that on? Because it would cost 2 or even 3 times the price of the new underblanket. And then do we really need a fleecy underblanket? So the project is on hold for the time being.

Instead I repositioned the three sea photos as although I put them dead centre between the mirror and the window it was bugging me that they didn't line up with the edge of the kitchen units. I also attempted to put up another small print but that came to an end when the wall was so hard the picture nail bent. That needs the drill. 

Since I knew I had an ironing session coming up I gave up trying to do jobs and sat outside to enjoy the sun. The weather is so unpredictable or at least predictably unpredictable that it's best to take advantage of the good weather which in my case means getting out the sun-lounger and reading in the sun whist pretending to be on holiday.

One thing I did do was to order the freezer. I rang the company and yes they do offer a recycling service. I'd just missed the tick box before clicking on 'buy now'. That save me £75 but yesterday's post brought two letters each demanding money. One from the vets, the £100 was just for the injection, that's extortionate, and I still need to pay for the flea drops. The other was from Teacher's Pensions from whom I get a very small pension on top of my state pension. Apparently there was a miscount of all the days I worked (lots of short term contracts as well as supply work) and it was 4 days too much. 4 days! And now they want £50 back for the overpayments covering all the years since I took early retirement due to ill health.  There's no way anyone would have records of days that I didn't actually work while it's perfectly possible that days could have been missed off. Or have they found a sneaky way to factor in leap years and are taking days off everyone's pension? I might give the union a ring to see if this has been done to everybody.

 

Grey.

Well that was a nice summer's day we had yesterday. A shame that today has been mainly grey. Reasonably warm but grey nonetheless. It is only now at the very end of the afternoon that the sun has begun to break through.

I rode Margaret again today, what a surprise. She went really well and I think it's the best I've seen her 'on the bit' with a beautifully curved neck. I asked if someone had been working with her and it turns out that she is on 'part-loan' to an experienced rider who has been doing a lot of work with her. I knew it wasn't my brilliant riding that was the main factor though of course I still needed to be able to give the correct aids. Today we worked on 10m circles which are part of the dressage test some of the class will be doing. About half-way through the lesson it was suggested we ride in sitting trot and though it was optional I was determined to carry on with it right to the end of the lesson. I find sitting trot quite comfortable but it does mean absorbing the bounce of the trot through the weakest part of my back. I'd already pushed myself in aerobics last night so once I got home after the usual shopping I applied some Voltarol and took things easy.

The view at the side of the house is not very inspiring, just roofs and not even gardens to look at. (From the window over the kitchen sink I can see the Cambrian mountains through a gap between the houses which is better than nothing.) Recently the view has been made more interesting when some gulls built a nest on top of a small flat roof just behind the tall chimney. And now there are three chicks wandering about looking like dusty balls of grey fluff with very long legs.

At Morrison's I found another Festuca Glauca to add to the shingle garden. In my morning musings I worked out that I need two or possibly three Festuca right at the end of the shingle to soften the boundary between it and the  flower bed. I'll need to keep my eyes open when I go shopping at Morrison's as I don't want to pay £10 each at Charlie's.

I was going to place an on-line order with Curry's for the new freezer but then I found that I could save almost £70 if I buy from another firm. I just need to ring them tomorrow to check they will take the old freezer away. I thought their website said they did but when I was placing the order it wasn't an option.

 

Summer Solstice.

After the sun went down last night the sky was streaked orange and pink for several hours. I had another very late night due to a combination of a sore back and Peter snoring. Even though I was tired watching tv was a better option. Before finally turning in just before 2.00 I stood out on the terrace watching a couple of small bats flitting around hunting in the light of the cliff top lamp post and was amazed that I could still see some light sky away to the north. Well it's the Summer Solstice  today so I guess from now on the days will be getting shorter and the sun will set a little more to the west each night.

I still woke early this morning and found blue skies and a flat sea. Proper summer weather. It's been very hot and by the time I sat outside in the late afternoon the digital thermometer on the table beside me read 36C/96.8F. It would be really nice to have more days like this.

As the library is shut on Thursdays we met up at our friend's house in Pennal, a pretty village tucked under the foothills of Snowdonia. It's only on the other side of the Dyfi River but there are some small hills between here and there so we can't quite see across to each other. Getting there involves driving up to Mach, over the new bridge on the smart new road and then doubling down the other side of the river. We had a good session going through the work that we were set for the summer holiday. There might also have been cake, biscuits and a walk around the garden too. 

On the way back we stopped in Mach and I showed Peter the culinary delights in the Royal House Café. We weren't the only ones having a hard time trying to pick which of the delicious looking options to buy. In the end we choses two minced lamb pasties which we ate tonight and a portion of beef lasagne and a slice of vegetarian potato and onion pie. (Can't remember what the other ingredients are but I know it will taste nice.)

At home I filled another bag with honeysuckle prunings and weeds from the back garden before spending some time relaxing in the sun with Speedy with of course sunscreen on both of us to prevent getting burnt. I finished my day with disco aerobics. Even in shorts it was a hot session so the gentle breeze blowing from the sea was very welcome as I left the hall to walk home with a couple of friends. 

 

Sunny.

Last night's sunset (made more dramatic by the camera).

I got my head down in good time last night and woke nice and early this morning to find the sun shining through the windows. I had set the alarm just in case as Speedy had an appointment at the vets at 9.30.

As I sat outside this morning I heard a cat calling out as it walked down the road. I knew it wasn't Speedy as he was tucked up in his cosy nest after a very small breakfast. A moment later the cat I call Little Ginge came sauntering up the garden path. He checked out the usual sniffing spots and then proceeded to have a good old munch on some catnip growing in a tub. Apart from occasionally sleeping in the middle of the catmint bush in the back garden Speedy isn't interested in either catmint or catnip but Little Ginge obviously likes it. So much so that I had to send him on his way before he ate the whole plant.

On the way to the vets and once we were in the waiting room Speedy did his 'I'm at death's door' croaking and I had to explain to the other people there that there was nothing at all the matter with him and he was only there for his yearly injection. He managed to stop croaking once I began giving him Dreamies which he only has on special occasions (a trip to the vet or medicines). One quick injection into the scruff of his neck - £50 and six month's worth of flea & tick drops another £50. It's never cheap when you go to the vet. 

Once we got home I headed out to the garden and gave the top and street side of the hedge a trim with the electric cutter. I took up to 12" off the top keeping it above the eye line of people walking past and giving us a better view out to sea. Our neighbour on that side came out and offered to take my bags of trimmings up to his farm as he was planning a bonfire this afternoon. That was very helpful as I've already got a load of bags to take to the dump on Friday. 

Later I dug up a lot of the montbretia that I had planted under the hedge. My plan had been to cover up a gap so that I wasn't looking through the pierced wall blocks at the street beyond but the montbretia had grown too well and the 4ft leaves were swamping a skimmia and the fuchsia at the front of the raised bed. I've left some of the montbretia that is right under the hedge but now will have to think of something I can plant in that dry spot which is full of bluebells in the spring. Perhaps I'll let the Welsh poppies spread with their cheery yellow colour.

I've been researching upright freezers and though a Beko freezer seems to be top of the reviews the one we're getting rid of is also a Beko and we don't want to repeat our mistake. Instead I think I'll pay more and go for a Bosch freezer as the reviews are also good and I trust the  brand more.