Grey.

Grey, dry and mild today.

Thank you for all your kind comments yesterday. It was sad to lose Speedy and now the house seems quite empty. In the past we always had a number of cats and dogs at any one time and this is the first time since we moved out of my mother's house that there are no animals around at all which feels very strange. It might take a while but I think I'll have to remedy that. 

At least this morning I got my 'horse' fix. There's nothing like putting your arms around a horse's warm neck. Today I got to ride Cody for the first time. I saw on the list that originally I'd been assigned Hazel but I think that because there ended up being 8 of us in the lesson and she's not yet used to everything plus she can be a bit fizzy is why I was given Cody. Cody was lovely to ride. He's the highest level dressage horse they use for lessons and can do things like a half-pass. Not that we were doing that in our lesson. But we did do quite a bit of cantering and like Cadno you only need to think 'canter', give the lightest of aids and he's off. He's more forward going than Cadno which was fun too.

Afterwards I went shopping which included a stop at Halford's. Yesterday I hadn't realised the windscreen wiper was stuck to the ice on the windscreen and consequently the rubber tore when I turned the wiper on. I bought a new wiper at Halford's yesterday but decided we could fit it ourselves instead of paying £6. That was a mistake as none of the videos I looked at made sense. It turned they had given me the wrong wiper anyway and it took two men to figure out how to remove the old wiper so the £6 was well spent. 

I went to some of the shops in town as well. M&S was very tempting as they had made further reductions and there were a lot of sequinned items that might be fun to wear for disco aerobics. I tried on and rejected some sparkly trousers and very nearly bought a flapper style silver shift dress covered in sequins, crystals and dangly bits reduced from £80 to £11 but I would have had to do quite a lot of alterations to turn it into a top for aerobics so put it back. Instead I went to Accessorize and bought some stud earrings in their sale. I need to wear something in my ears to keep the holes open but recently broke one of my sleeper earrings and only had one of my original gold sleepers left. I have lots of dangly earrings but of course can't wear those when riding so thought I would look for some studs as I didn't fancy any of the pairs I already have. I ummed and ahhed over the vast selection in the shop then as they were quite cheap bought two sets.

And then I had a quick look in some of the charity shops and found this 6kg kettlebell. Not only was it purple, that's a good sign but it was only £1. I could hardly say no to that. It felt quite heavy carrying it back to the car and I think I'll ask Rachel our teacher, if I should continue with the 4kg one for a while or challenge myself with the heavier one.

Farewell Speedy.

Sadly by this morning it was clear that Speedy was in heart failure. His breathing had worsened yesterday though he happily ate the posh cat food and downed a bowl of milk, normally a forbidden treat but by this morning he only ate a handful of Dreamies. By the time we got to the vet it was clear there was only one kind option to take.

Taken this morning.

Below is a photo taken in 2011 not long after we got him. Originally he had been a stray in our nearby town of Barnstaple and aged 6-9 months had wandered into a local pub where he promptly collapsed. Not only was he thin and starving but the vet thought he may well have been kicked too. He was taken in by the landlady's sister but it wasn't an ideal situation as not only did she live in a flat but she had a free flying African Grey parrot. She knew that Pete lived out in the country and that we had a number of cats, 4 I think at that time, and asked if we would take him in. To which I replied 'of course'.

 

Speedy got his name from the eager way he rushed around everywhere including straight into the pond through the duckweed. He was always getting into scrapes and had an adventurous life catching rats and other small creatures. (He caught a few rats here too.) When we moved into town with just Speedy and Patch, Speedy managed to scrape along the back of one foot probably from climbing over the rough concrete garden wall. Being on his foot he had to wear an extra large cone on his head in attempt to stop him from licking the scrape and even so it took over a year before the skin healed. He was confined to the house during that time though he did jump out of an upstairs window once. Luckily he would come when whistled. Recently I trained him to come to a dog whistle which he learnt pretty quickly.

Because he had been a stray he had not retained a meow after kittenhood and instead communicated with us by croaking. Any time I took him to the vet he would utter the most plaintive wails when there was nothing at all wrong with him but this morning he was quiet which was another bad sign.

Another photo from 2011 where he had jammed his head inside some sort of food container.

I brought him home and buried him in the front garden. I know he was only an animal but even their short lives gives them a place in our hearts.

Sunny.

Lots of lovely sun today.

There was a light breeze blowing so I optimistically hung some washing on the line only to find when I went to bring it in in the afternoon that it was a wet as when it went out. I guess that was because the back garden was mainly in the shade.

 

Nevertheless it was a perfect day for going to the zoo. Three hours of weeding with my back being warmed by the sun, (no coat needed) and the large play area is finally weeded. That was the last of the grass that had grown over the autumn and a once over everywhere else to remove all the grass that had grown in the last few weeks. Mr P the peacock came and joined me for a while and showed off his new plumage with the 'eye' feathers over halfway to their full length.

On the way home I stopped at the shop to buy Speedy a dish of the fancy cat food which he ate with relish (I'm trying not to think about tomorrow) and took a few beach photos while I was there. 

Choir was due to start up again tonight. I literally had my coat on and was heading out of the door when I thought it would be sensible to check my emails and found that unfortunately choir is not on tonight. Our leader has a nasty throat virus, there's a lot of that about, and has to have a few weeks off. Such a good thing I checked. I do my emails on the pc rather than the phone. I can get them on my phone which I take with me in the car but a monitor screen is much easier to read.

Grey.

It's been a day of light but persistent rain. Too wet to go to the zoo but fine for indoor cleaning.

Today I got the dining area just about finished and then went on to do all the wiping down in the sitting room. I also baked a Bara Brith for Peter. And that's been about it for today. I'll be heading off to Pilates later, probably in the car as it's so wet. Hopefully Rachel will go easy on us as it's been weeks since our last class. At least I did those extra half hour on-line sessions though I didn't manage to do them every day.

This time I took the precaution of photographing each shelf before take the stuff down to wash making it a lot quicker to put everything back. Even the air plants had a soak in a tub of rain water before being placed back on their piece of drift wood. (I see one has jumped down in a bid for freedom and needs putting back.)

Grey.

We were back to the grey weather today and a lot warmer than recently. There was a reasonable amount of wind and with only a 10% chance of rain I put some washing out on the line hoping it would dry. I don't know if the 10% didn't include sea mist but that's what we had later in the afternoon. Peter heard my anguished cry when I spotted that the terrace paving was wet and we both rushed out to bring the washing in. That meant the ironing took longer and some things are now on the dryer in the utility room.

Today's house blitz job was to turf out the contents of the big wooden cupboard in the dining area. I'm still trying hard to only keep things that are useful or really beautiful and did manage to sort out a small pile of items to give away. 

 

Here's Speedy supervising the work. I've made an appointment for him at the vets because he's getting picky with his food again which might be trouble with his teeth but also more worryingly I don't think his breathing is quite right. He has a heart murmur due to thickened heart muscle, something quite common in cats, which might be getting a lot worse. The appointment is not until Thursday and in the meantime I shall try not to worry. Otherwise he seems all right in himself but then cats are like that.

Sunny.

It was a lot warmer today and sunny too. There was a light dusting of snow on the very tops of the hills but for the most part the snow had gone.

This week's walk began at Nant yr Arian or at least we parked there. Unsurprisingly since it was such a lovely day the lay-by was already full by the time I got there but I didn't mind paying £3 to park in the car park. After all on my last two visits I'd been able to park for free in the lay-by.

Instead of walking around Nant Yr Arian we took the same route that I'd ridden in the summer, crossing over the road and going through the fields up on to the next crest.

I well remember riding Cadno across this field starting from the bottom left of the photo.

Once on the crest we had stunning views across the valley to the wooded slopes of Nant Yr Arian (above) and westwards along the valley right out to the coast (below).

From there we ambled along the top of the hill for a while before dropping into a valley on the far side to look at the ruins of an old lead mine.

These ruins date back to the 18thC though mining for lead, copper and silver in West Wales dates back  2,000 years. The waste in the spoil heaps is so toxic that little grows on it and there is constant monitoring, by official bodies and concerned groups, of the local waterways.

A wheel pit for  the large water wheel that would have provided power for the mine machinery.

After eating our lunch spread out on a damp slope we swung around in a loop back to Nant Yr Arian including through a field with some friendly horses. I was happy to make friends with a large black horse while keeping it away from a couple of more nervous members of our group.

Back at the very warm visitors' centre we took over part of the café area for yet more chatting before I finally headed home.

Sunny.

It's been cold and crisp with lots of sunshine today.

We were a pair of old crocks this morning, Peter had woken with a cough and a sore throat while I had a muzzy head which has stayed that way all day. Winter germs are such fun.

 

But having the sun shining outside lifted my spirits and helped me get on with the final stage of cleaning the kitchen - sorting out my floor to ceiling larder. A lot of the contents of the larder is stored in white plastic tubs (very Marie Kondo) which made giving everything a clean a lot easier but I still had old or random stuff that needed sorting. I'm not sure why I have so many different teas which I hardly ever drink and apart from a very occasional family visit nobody comes to the house to be offered a vast choice. My frugal past makes it hard to throw stuff out but out the green tea went. Bought to try as it's supposed to be good for you I did not enjoy it and have yet to meet anyone who does. I've also reduced the number of clean glass jars since I no longer make jam. There is still a collection of interestingly shaped jars should I need one in the future. And at least the spare ones will be recycled. 

Ice in the birdbath.