The Magic of Life.

With the forecast correctly saying it would be a rainy day today's walk became a visit to the Magic of Life butterfly house in the Rheidol valley.

Looking at the lush planting including tropical plants such as bananas, angels' trumpets and birds of paradise around the butterfly house it seems that Cwm Rheidol sheltered by the hills on either side must have its own microclimate.

 

Before we even entered the butterfly house our attention was caught by tropical fish, corals, poison frogs, tarantulas, giant beetles and an impressive collection of stick insects. The largest ones were the giant katydids that were longer than my hand.

Eventually we went into the butterfly house, temperature 37C and humidity 85%.

There were butterflies everywhere we looked, some more elusive to photograph than others.

You could get the butterflies to sit on your hands by dipping your fingers in sugared water.

So of course I had to go for two and then three butterflies at once.

All the butterflies come from responsibly sourced pupae farmed in the Philippines and Costa Rica and their natural lifespan is only two to three weeks.

Afterwards we had a quick look at the power station visitors' centre before going for a walk up the valley.

We found a tiny chapel now converted into a place to watch the birds on the river outside. There we had a quick snack but most of us didn't sir down as the benches were covered with droppings from the swallows' nests up in the eaves.

We carried on along the road hoping to cross the river and return along a footpath but the steady drizzle made us decide to cut our journey short and head back to the car park. Some rams with impressive curly horns were grazing on the grass by the main reservoir and nearby lay another on its side. On closer inspection we could see that it was in fact dead. At first we felt sad at the sight but then one of the group pointed out that it was a better end than being bundled onto a lorry and taken to an abattoir. No prizes for working out that most of us don't eat meat. I do eat some but for various reasons find it harder to chose to eat any animals other than fish. 

With Strictly back on our screens for our Sunday evening viewing it feels that autumn has arrived. Increasingly we don't know who most of the celebrities are but it is fun to watch as we once again become armchair experts on Latin American and Ballroom dancing. So Da Da Da Da Da Da Dah......

A Hunter in the Garden.

We've had quite a lot of sun today and with a steady warm wind it's been a good drying day. The kite surfers have been racing over the waves all day though the wing surfer didn't seem to be doing so well. 

I didn't have an early start. Friday as usual had taken it out of me. Once the usual routine was done and washing out on the line I began with the back gate. The gloss paint had dried but with a residual tackiness that makes me think it still needs to dry out properly.  It's an oil based trade gloss that once it has dried should be hard wearing. It was dry enough for me to carefully scrape off the paint from the glass panels at the top of the door. Then I tried fitting the other side of the door handle but couldn't get it to sit flat on the door. I think the bar that goes through is slightly at an angle but I can't undo the handle plate on the other side as already one screw has snapped off in situ. Instead I went with plan B and used some of the resin filler to fill the gap. But not wanting to stick the handle to the door permanently I did it over some baking parchment. Once the resin dried the paper peeled off and I've been able to trim it down and paint it with some black Hammerite. The last job of the day was the ironing and that was me done for the day.

I had a few breaks to enjoy the sunshine and watch the wildlife in the front garden. As well as ants and spiders in the shingle there are all sorts of flying insects.

This is a hoverfly but with over 270 British species I wasn't able to identify which particular one it was.

These furry bumblebees are carder bees, probably brown banded carder bees. Only 24 species of British bumblebees to pick from this time.

And here is the hunter, a female vagrant darter. (57 species of British dragonflies and darters.) I was feeling quite sad that the bees might be in danger but they actually eat much smaller insects and the larvae of things like midges. That's okay by me.

Not Wet.

The sun has been shining all day, sometimes it's been warm and sometimes a little chilly. Hardly any wind so the sea has been covered in gentle ripples with only a hint of waves.

As the air cools the visibility gets better. Out on the horizon I could just make out the hills of the Llyn and at their end (centre of the photo) Bardsey island. 

A bird was flying towards me that looked a bit like a seagull but the wing movement was different. It's funny how each species flies slightly differently. As it passed over me I saw that indeed it was not a seagull but a heron. Something different every day.

As I sat there enjoying my coffee with Speedy on my lap it was interesting to see the garden in its late summer colours. Gone are the subtle purples, blues, pinks and whites of the main colour scheme. Most of the flowering plants only have seed heads and the hydrangeas, no matter what their summer colours were - blue, purple, pink or white, are now a muted red like faded theatre curtains. Red too are the ice plant flowers, the low growing sedum and the leaves of pennisetum fireworks. The seed heads of the pheasant grass create a red haze next to the bright orange stems of the carex by the pond. Eventually most of the flower heads will change to gentle sandy colour echoing the yellows of the shingle. And I expect, making me all the more determined to change those old red slabs for the same buff coloured ones that I used for the path.

Today I rode Cadno as the girl who part loans Margaret rode her in the lesson. It wasn't a terribly exciting lesson as we did a lot of leg yielding something Cadno does very well. We did do it in sitting trot and if I had been more on the ball I could have asked to work without stirrups for a while to challenge myself  or rather those hard to find core muscles. But good news - the day ride next Tuesday is definitely on and I shall be riding Cadno. Something I shall look forward to whatever the weather.

After riding I did the usual round of shopping though I didn't bother walking into town. At home, once I'd thrown the washing in the machine and had a cuppa I gave the back door/gate another coat of blue paint. Now all I have to do is wait for it to dry, clean the paint off the glass panels and fit the door handle. Lastly I put away some stuff in the loft, a job I'd been meaning to do for a while. I did manage to take a small chunk out of my thumb below the nail when I caught it on the loft ladder. That was after I took some skin off my finger when I scraped it on the little door that goes over the car's petrol cap when I went to fill it up.

At that point I gave up and went to do some more sitting outside. I had to laugh at the story unfolding in front of me. There were two men fishing from kayaks out by the reefs. What they couldn't see but I from my higher vantage point could was that just behind them was a large shoal of fish stirring up the surface of the water. Something was chasing the fish because I could see lots of splashes as they jumped out of the water in panic. I hoped for dolphins as I haven't seen many this summer but there were none to be seen. I assumed the fish were being chased by larger predatory fish until ....... a little while later I saw a seal looking out of the water. It was so near to the beach that at first I thought it was a person swimming until I looked more closely.

Sunset last night.

Wet.

More rain and fewer rainbows today.

I still made it down to Cake and Cultivate as this is my last time for a while since Welsh lessons start up again next week. We did some weeding in the polytunnel before retiring to the Watershed for a cake with butter icing and plum jam. I shall miss these Thursday chats though I do see some of the others around the village and at other activities.

On the way home I met someone who was able to tell me why those three police vans had been in the High st three weeks ago. It wasn't a chimney fire after all (just a lot of very black smoke) but there had been an argument between an older resident and some contractors which had resulted in the police being called. Three van loads of police does sound excessive. 

 

I seem to have spent a lot of the afternoon making adjustments to the straps on my riding hat. The hats now have straps that go around the back as well and for some reason, even though my hat was properly fitted in the shop, it does tend to come down low over my eyebrows. In the lesson I keep having to push it up and putting my head down to belt through the trees in the forest I could see very little. I tried all the different adjustments you can make then ended up sewing part of the soft leather on each side over to shorten it and keep the hat sitting more upright. Hopefully that has done the job.

Off right now to disco aerobics.

Windy.

It's been a day of sunshine, heavy squalls and the occasional rainbow.

We had to be up and out reasonably early as Peter had an appointment at the hospital for an injection into his knee. Parking at and around the hospital is so dire that it's best to simply drop off the patient and drive down into town. At least this time Peter had the correct phone number to ring me on though the text he sent me giving me a 15 minute heads up didn't get through to my phone until an hour later. Luckily his phone call did get through and he only had to wait a few minutes for me to drive up the hill.

While I waited for him I had a quick look around M&S and Tesco's as I don't often go in either of them. Both are more expensive than Morrison's and Lidl and I dislike Tesco's business ethics. (I expect Morrison's isn't much better but I have to shop somewhere.) M&S no longer keep active/ sports wear in the shop here and my goodness the autumn clothing was so miserable. It seemed to be all bland browns and beiges. Not that I need any more clothes. In Tesco's I thought about buying myself a pastry but all their bakery stuff was in packs and I certainly didn't want to buy more than one. I was momentarily tempted by the factory made cakes but apart from the guilt I feel at eating such sweet items I really don't want to eat highly processed foods filled with unnecessary additives. But then my resolve failed when I got to the Polish section. Tesco's is the only place that sells 'cow' fudge which was a Lithuanian sweet treat my mother would sometimes buy. So yep, I bought myself some and they taste wonderful.

With the frequent showers I still couldn't risk painting the gate and instead decided to do some baking. Peter had almost finished the last Bara Brith and I wanted to try another version of the recipe that used yoghurt. I swapped the cherries (which had been a swap for blueberries) for dates and pecans and instead of the vegetable oil (which Peter said he could taste and didn't really like) I used melted butter. It's a nice enough cake but I think that the yoghurt and lemon juice in the batter probably go better with a fruit as the dates and pecans overwhelm the more delicate flavours. But before I could bake I had to get some eggs from the local shop. I should have checked before we went into town. But at least that encouraged me to go for a short beach walk. I was letting the waves clean off the sandy foam that I'd been kicking into the wind when I discovered that one of my wellies has a small hole that let the water in. I may try mending it with a puncture patch or some superglue.

Baking done I continued with writing up my journal and at last it is all up to date. And I've come to the end of the book. That's seven years of memories in this book and eleven years in the first one. I have three more blank journals which should be enough for my needs.

There's no choir tonight. I had an email from our choir leader saying that she wasn't sure she would be back in time as she would be returning from a holiday on ....... Lundy. My favourite holiday place, not that I have much to compare with. I realised that in the last 35 years apart from a few weekends away in the camper we've only been on holiday three times each of those being on Lundy. When I mentioned this fact to Peter his response was "So?" as if I'm far too demanding in expecting a few more holidays. Mind you for the first 20 years there wasn't the money for five of us to go on holiday and we already lived in the country just a short drive from good surfing beaches. Well I'm working on it. If Peter doesn't want to go on holiday I may well go off without him.

Wet.

A very windy and grey morning made me put off painting another coat on the door. I had hoped to paint that last coat before breakfast but you have to be mindful of the weather. A good thing too as by the time I drove back from town later in the day the rain began and soon became a torrential downpour. Much later in the afternoon the rain stopped though the wind has continued to blow.

My trip to town in the morning was for a visit to the hygienist at the dental practice. Usually I get some moments of sharp pain as she she reaches the exposed parts of the teeth where the gum has receded due to aging. This time however she rubbed a numbing gel all around my mouth and it was so much better. When she had finished I let her know how much better it was with the gel and I shall make sure that the gel gets used in future appointments. 

Afterwards I had a quick look in the charity shops and at last found a GCE revision guide for Welsh. I've been looking for revision guides for all the languages Peter is currently studying ever since the exams results came out as I guessed that's when the unwanted books would make there way into the charity shops. I shall continue to look for German, Spanish and French course books too. I also found a couple of the Welsh story books written for learners, one at the level we will be at soon and one harder one. Not bad at 50p each. 

Since the rain stopped all other work I spent the afternoon writing in my journal. I've still a few more sections to write but at least the end is in sight.

Luckily the rain had stopped when it was time to walk down to the hall for Pilates and it was still dry for the return walk.

Windy.

Conditions were pretty wild and windy this morning. The dark grey skies made me wonder if we were due for a day of rain but by the afternoon we had some blue sky and welcome warmth.

This morning we were back at the library in Mach to work on our Welsh language skills. They keep rearranging the furniture in the library and for now both the 4-person round tables are near the children's corner. One was reserved for us and the poor lady at the other had to put up with our chatter in both Welsh and English. I thought we might be disturbing her as she worked on her paperwork but she actually spoke to us in Welsh complimenting us on our skill and dedication. A bit later on a chap came over to talk to us. He is on the first year of the same course that we are doing but face to face rather than on-line and has set up  a small group of his classmates to read the books written for beginners. It was nice to be able to exchange notes with a fellow learner. 

In order to prepare for the start of our zoom classes next week we went over a selection of questions the answers of which involve past, present and future tenses as that is what we guess we will do in the first class. Then we returned to a beginner's book of stories which we had attempted last year. In fact I think we had abandoned the first story as simply being too hard as I didn't recognise any of it. It was quite satisfying that this time round we sailed through and between us managed to get most of the vocabulary with only the occasional resort to our dictionaries.

Afterwards I had my usual skip around the charity shops but bought nothing.

It had been lovely and sunny in Mach and although when we got home the clouds were beginning to gather it was nice and windy. I took a chance and gave the back gate its first coat of blue paint. It looks a bit patchy over the white but I'm hoping that it will only need one more coat of blue.

 

Wet.

Today has been wet, mostly very wet with the wind picking up later in the day turning what were just ripples across the sea into wild waves.

While the rain was still only a light drizzle I went out and fitted the new door handles to the back gate. As soon as we have some dry days I'll be able to paint the street side of the gate/door a bright royal blue.

After breakfast I began by sticking yet more shiny bits onto the trainers I wear for aerobics. Just a bit of fun to catch the coloured disco lights that shine on the hall floor.

But for most of the day I've been sat at the kitchen table writing up notes for my journal. All that's left to do is to practise the font and actually start writing in the journal. Just one quick trip outside to dispose of a dead rat that Speedy had left on the terrace.

And here are a few photos of last night's pretty sunset.