Warm.

The day has been dry and quite warm. By the early evening it felt even warmer and it was only much later that the rain began.

My day began with Covid and 'flu jabs, one in each arm down at the village hall on my way to the zoo. There was tea or coffee with biscuits to be had while you waited 15 minutes before driving but I went off straight away to drive down to the zoo. Naughty me. There I spent four hours weeding the larger play area which was so overgrown I only managed to get half of it done. The consequence of too many weeks when either it was raining or I didn't feel up to weeding.

Afterwards I drove round to the lane by the community gardens to search for blackberries. As I'd only been able to pick half the amount of sloes I needed for the sloe gin I had thought I would add blackberries to the mix. A great idea but the weeks slid by and suddenly I realised that I may have left it too late. Not only were most of the blackberries shrivelled up but in the last few days the farmer had cut back the hedges and verges all along the lane destroying most of the brambles. I had a wander around the allotments checking out the bramble thickets in the abandoned plots finding a few blackberries here and there. By walking all along the lane towards the railway I found just enough blackberries to make the Christmas present sloe & blackberry gin.

Finally back home I put the sitting room shelves in place. I'd painted them again in the morning before I went out but as I wanted to give the battens one last coat of paint I went over the shelves too. After all that there was just enough time to sit down for half an hour before going back to the hall for Pilates.

This was how the corner of the sitting room looked when we came to view it back in 2019. The fake wood panelling was also on the wall with the window but covered over with thick wallpaper.

Now with the carpet and all the furniture removed.

Tempting as it was to keep the open fire I'd had enough of chopping wood and cleaning out the wood stove so we had it blocked up. It turned out that the chimney above was in poor condition, not great in the face of stormy winds so we had that taken down.

Since we moved in the shelves were low on our list of priorities but at last they are up. Now all I have to do is go up in the loft and find some nice things to put on the shelves.

Sunny.

Today has been sunny with just enough wind to make it worthwhile hanging the washing out on the line.

Since we were otherwise occupied yesterday we had our 'Sunday' breakfast this morning listening to The Archers Omnibus with croissants and fresh coffee. We also ended the day in Sunday mode eating in front of the tv and watching Strictly. 

                                  

In between we got on with more diy. Peter finished off putting up the battens in the alcove while I sanded and painted the shelves, filled in all the extra holes in the wall and painted a final coat on the battens. Not to mention all the clearing up, hoovering and wiping down. I also got two coats of the anti-mould paint on the wall of our wardrobe. Then because the wind keeps blowing over one of the still to be connected water butts I fitted the diverter to the down drain pipe. There are two other water butts waiting to be connected up but I thought it wasn't worth doing until the rendering and painting were done as it would be a bother to have to empty out the water butts before moving them away from the wall. Hence the delay even though I'd already bought the diverters. It wasn't as if I needed to look up how to fit the diverters as there are step by step instruction printed on each packet. The one I did today is by the garage wall and won't need moving. And later the ironing needed doing. A good day's work.

One bit of good fortune today was finding my missing gold sleeper in the oddest place ever. I always wipe inside the double seal round the washing machine door opening after every wash and then wedge it apart with a piece of wood so that it can air. This I did today and then had a look to check that it was all clean which was when I discovered the sleeper in there. I'd been quite sad to lose the sleeper as it was one of the pair with which my ears were pierced nearly 50 years ago.

Even though I set the dash cam to 2 minute clips they are still too to put on the blog. All I can offer is a screenshot of when we were heading south with Cadair Idris on the right. And of course that lovely snowy egret.

Up, Up and Away!

Today at last the dry, albeit slightly hazy conditions were good enough for Peter to have his flying lesson. We were up early to get everything done before setting off for the two and a half hour dive up to the flying club on Anglesey. (I haven't gone through the dash-cam footage yet.) Much further north than we've been before though we did have a holiday with friends in North Wales when Vytas was a baby. I wasn't sure what to expect in the way of scenery but had thought there would be a bit more in the way of mountains but of course the road followed the flatter lands around Snowdonia. For most of the way it was a good dual carriageway but with an awful lot of roundabouts. 21 to be precise, 18 of them in a comparatively short stretch.

 

We found the airfield without difficulty and while Peter went up for an hour of flying, dual controls obviously and not take off or landing I walked from the airfield over to the Anglesey Showground where an antiques fair was being held. But I didn't feel it was worth paying £5 to look around the stalls since we are in the decluttering stage rather than the acquisition stage of our lives. There was one chap with a stand outside and I chatted to him for a bit. He was being charged £50 while the stallholders inside the building had to pay £200. That sounds like a lot to me.   

From the showground I had a good view of the other side of the mountains on the Llyn that look like islands when we look out from here. 

Once I'd walked back to the airfield, had half a cup of coffee and played a game of scrabble on my Kindle in the car (I could have had tea or coffee in the clubhouse) Peter was back on the ground and we were ready for the next stop on our trip.

This was to Trearddur Bay about 15 miles further up the coast, a place that a friend had recommended to us. It was a rocky bay with a lovely sandy beach. There were lots of people walking on the beach and a football match going on next to the beach so it was a real shame that the public toilets were locked up. Maybe due to vandalism but an essential facility. The rather smart restaurant had a sign up saying their toilets were only for their customers. We bought fish and chips, from a chip shop not the restaurant which we ate sitting above the beach. They were absolutely delicious but I really shouldn't have eaten them as I'm not used to so much greasy food. Thank goodness for Gaviscon.

Afterwards we had a walk along the soft sand. That's something I miss here as the dry top part of the beach was covered with hundreds of tons of shingle twenty years ago as part of the village's flood defences.

There must be plenty of fish in the rockpools because first I saw a heron and then a snowy egret out fishing. (I got some lovely shots of the egret so expect more later in the week.)

At one end of the beach there was an area of preserved peat and tree stumps that looked to be about the same age as the submerged forest here in Borth.

By the time we got home we both felt quite tired. I think this has cured my wanderlust for a while as the time in the car was about my limit especially as Peter doesn't like to stop when he's driving and he doesn't like being driven by me either. It was lovely to be back home and to be able to stand and watch the calming view of the sea. Speedy was very glad to see us as it was waaay past feeding time, at least half an hour and now that he's older he does like company in the afternoon ie a lap to sit on.

Cold.

We had a very pretty sunset last night which darkened to what I call a 'tropical' sky. I did go out several times to check for signs of the aurora but even looking through the camera on my phone there was nothing to be seen. 

It was chilly this morning as I looked out across a sliver sea. It stayed cold all day with the wind picking up later on and just one brief but heavy shower which had me running to bring in a muslin curtain from the line.

The builder came and had a good look at the render on the outside of the house. Some sections need complete re-doing while others are sound enough for just a bit of patching up. Now we wait for the price, gulp, and then no doubt more waiting for the work to start. But it has to be done. When the builder first came he told us he'd seen a group of ducks wandering up the road. I didn't know who they belonged to but made a guess at the young family that lives a few doors up. Sure enough a minute later the older of the two girls appeared herding the ducks and a stray chicken back into her garden.

For us it's been a day of doing things around the house. Peter made a start on putting up the battens for the sitting room shelves. In theory it should have been a simple job but of course it wasn't. The screws needed to go through new plasterboard, a space, the old plaster/plasterboard and then either brick or heavy duty concrete bricks. (I believe Peter found both.) Despite my earlier drilling many holes we couldn't find any wooden studs which would have made life a lot easier. The battens for the first shelf are almost done but then I decided that the scaffolding plank shelves were too rustic. So I used some of the resin filler to fill in the worst of the holes.

While Peter was working in the sitting room I tackled the mould inside our wardrobe. As suggested I removed the layers of heavy wall paper and some thin polystyrene tiles to let the wall breathe before spraying with the expensive mould treatment the damp man had sold me. There was also some mould in the corner of one of the windows so the whole window including the venetian blind needed to be cleaned and treated. I hand washed the muslin net curtain as well. Whilst not showing signs of mildew the other window could probably do with a general clean too but by the time I'd cleared up, hoovered the carpet and then put the sitting room back to rights I was ready to stop.

More sun and lots of wind made for perfect conditions for the kite surfers while I was happy to sit indoors watching the waves through the windows.

Cold.

Being Friday I was up nice and early in time to see the sky start to turn pink.

The sky was pretty but outside it was very cold. This was the first morning that I had to go round wiping off the condensation from the windows. That's another job I'll have to add to my list of morning tasks. Before going out with my coffee I had to add extra layers to stay warm while I listened to the sea, the birds and a cow lowing somewhere inland. Later in the morning we had some drizzle but by the afternoon there was hardly a cloud in the sky.

 

This morning when I checked the list at the stables I saw that there were just two of us in the lesson. We were going to have to work hard. Instead of the owner teaching us we had Katie, one of the two teaching staff. I rode Margaret and Lesley rode a pony that was new to her. There was a bit of excitement when Margaret spooked after spotting a cat walking past the arena, silly horse. After some work in trot we went on to work on smooth transitions into canter as that's what I've been finding more difficult on Margaret. I'd got so used to Cadno responding the minute I gave him the lightest of aids that it was hard to change to giving really clear aids with my legs that aren't so strong as they used to be. 

After the lesson I did the usual round of supermarkets and town. Nothing of note to mention though I did have two conversations with people I know from my various activities. Town is full of students which is always nice to see.

The builder cancelled coming today as his wife is in hospital, that's a good enough reason, but should be coming tomorrow morning.

Speedy came home in the afternoon triumphantly carrying a dead young rat. He may be old but he's still a good ratter. I rewarded Speedy with a few Dreamies and the rat went over the cliff.

Mostly Dry.

Another wet start to the day but once those first showers dried up it stayed dry all day.

Peter took a car full of bags of garden waste, at least ten bags, down to the dump first thing so I did his morning job of dry mopping the floors. That made it impossible to ignore the fact that the skirting boards were quite dusty so they all got a wash down too. Usually I try to ignore those little cleaning jobs otherwise I would spend all my time keeping the house spotless. Nice to look at but I've got better things to do with my time.

 

Being Thursday it was Welsh Zoom class day which I did to the noisy accompaniment of the privet hedge across the street being cut. This was no ordinary trim but a serious reduction from about 15ft to 10ft. (Our neighbour likes his privacy.) It's a lot less gloomy in my study now. During the coffee break when I was catching some fresh air out on the terrace I was surprised to see our neighbour dumping wheelbarrow loads of branches over the cliff into the sea. 

After class I gave the battens for the sitting room shelves a final coat of white paint and also gave a concrete dragon a first coat of white. Initially painted red it had been used for many years as a doorstop at Dingles. Here it has been living outside in the back garden but then I realised it would work as a doorstop for the kitchen door. The red paint was very worn so I thought white would suit our décor better. Or rather white with a few details coloured in.

Right at the bottom of the garden the Michaelmas daisies that I transplanted are doing well. They haven't reached the 6ft they were in the back garden but are already brightening up the far corner by the hedge. Off in five minutes to disco aerobics and that will be me done for the day.

Showers.

After a wet morning it's been a mainly dry day with a few light showers.

My back isn't too good at the moment and I've been feeling quite weary so I didn't go to the zoo and have even pulled out of choir tonight. Instead I got on with some small jobs including painting the shelf battens and cleaning the mildew off the legs of a wooden stool and giving it a polish with Brywax. I did that outside as the wax has quite a strong smell but of course no sooner had I finished than another shower arrived.

Last night I discovered that as long as I include some street or house lights I can get my camera to take photos of the stars. (I've tried the night setting on the camera without much success so far.) I'd gone out to stare at the world when I noticed what looked like a line of lights which appeared to be moving. My first thought was one of the Starlink arrays but even though it was very faint it didn't appear to be in a straight line nor were there enough lights. Now I'm wondering if I was imagining the movement and it was actually Betelgeuse or some other constellation.

Here are a few photos from our trip to Mach last Monday.

One of the most impressive reminders of the town's medieval origins is the Owain Glyndwr Parliament Building. Originally built in the 1500s it was extensively rebuilt in 1900s. Until we moved our venue to the library we used to meet in Café Alys on the ground floor. It's now the Café Owain Glyndwr and we treat ourselves to lunch there at the end of most terms. 

The Royal House, which sells delicious food, was built around 1560 with many later additions over the years right up to the 19th century façade. Only a few houses away stands the town clock built in 1874. It was paid for by the townspeople to celebrate the 21st birthday of Viscount Castlereagh. A bit of major sucking up to the local gentry?

 

Being a prosperous tourist town there are a number of antique shops and more to my taste at least five charity shops which are always worth a visit as they often have some very good stuff in them. Two other shops I also visit are a large old fashioned hardware store where you can buy items in ones and a gift and card place where has a large range of really nice greetings cards.

Somewhere I would like to shop at is Red Shoes where you can buy made to measure shoes. Those would be perfect for my broad feet but they cost at least £1,000. A fair price for the work but out of my league.