Job Done.

Lots of clouds in the morning until by mid afternoon a heavy fog rolled in wetting the ground but not much more. A shame as we could do with some proper rain to put out the wild fires that have been burning recently in every part of the UK. Some have been burning for the last 10 days and there has been much anger over the lack of resources to fight the fires. Here in Wales the NRW down graded the contracts with fire fighting helicopters so that they didn't have priority and the helicopters were already being used in England. Another cost cutting exercise with disastrous results. And of course there are numerous reports of life threatening fires from all over the world but there's no such thing as global warming, is there?

This morning we had some 'dragon's breath' clouds over the hills of Snowdonia. Once the sun broke through I watched the clouds for a change. Under the high cirrus a lower layer of clouds was being blown inland by a steady south-westerly wind which was quite mesmerising.

With the waves barely breaking on the shore it was very quiet this morning. A typical relaxed Saturday morning feel. A lone swimmer swam laps unhindered by any surfers who arrive very early when the waves are up. Later on families came to the beach until the fog arrived.

Overhead a line of geese flew southwards having spent the night on the saltmarshes.

I was out early painting the last sections of the garden wall and later on a second coat which thankfully was dry before things turned wet. It was very satisfying to give those scruffy walls a crisp white finish. 

I need to fill in the gap at the edge of the paving and then find a way to protect the oil line that runs along the base of the wall. Either by putting the old metal gates back or leaning large tiles against the wall. 

The wooden panels on top of the wall are our neighbours' and do block some of the light to the bathroom and Peter's study. When one blew down in a storm they agreed not to replace it but although I said I would prefer it if the other two also weren't there they remain. That's their prerogative and I'm not going to fall out over it.

I also painted the pillar at the side of the garage door and said good-bye to the last traces of the peach colour.

The curtain fabric  was delivered in the afternoon. It would have been the perfect time to get the curtains made but there was a problem. I'd ordered 3m of each which was the exact amount I needed. Just cut each piece in half, hem the muslin and attach the muslin to the black-out fabric with curtain tape behind and job done. 

But .... the muslin had been written on with biro making about 10cm unusable. Thinking they had probably given extra to make up for that I measured the muslin and found they had only sent 2m80cms. Not enough. I've sent an email with photos and hopefully replacement muslin will arrive soon.

Instead I altered the exercise top I bought yesterday and made a start on turning a green and black sequinned dress into another disco top. This one is going to need a lot of work as the dress was a very snug fit. Peter had to help me peel myself out of it after an initial try on. I think I'm going to have to cut a panel to add on to the front of an existing exercise top and leave the back plain. 

Birds.

The weather has been variable today. Sometimes hot and sunny and at other times very windy with grey clouds in the sky. Peter went rowing at 8.00 this morning and unluckily for them a squall blew up as soon as they got out to sea and dropped when they returned after a hard row. Peter didn't have it so bad as he was coxing.

Sitting outside this morning my attention was caught by an unfamiliar bird call. I can't call it a song as it was more of a raspy grating noise. With the sound bouncing off the house walls on either side it took me a while to spot 3 or 4 black headed gulls far out to sea.

This goldfinch observed the garden for a while from atop the street light before heading off to another garden that provided more suitable fare than the handful of seeds I scatter on the paving. Another passing sighting was of house martins swooping over the cliff as they chased small flying insects.

I think the oystercatchers are nesting out of sight below the cliffs but I certainly heard them this morning. They were making lots of noise, probably alarm calls when bigger birds were too close.

My regular garden visitors, Mr Sparrow and his two fledglings.

The woodpigeon turned up of course and hoovered up all the seeds as usual and this morning he was accompanied by a rather nervous blackbird.

At the stables there were only four of us in the lesson. I had Betsi again which was fine. There were some rather soggy patches in the indoor school as they have been turning the sprinklers on during the hot weather to cool down the horses. But Betsi would rather not go through the soggy bits. Nothing dramatic but when we were supposed to be doing shallow curves off the long side and back again instead of going through a wet area and maintaining a nice curve she simply did a half-pass back to the track thus avoiding getting her feet wet.

Swallows nest in the rafters of the indoor school and towards the end of the lesson one family of fledglings were practising their flying going from the side walls down to the ground and back up again through the horses. Luckily the horses are well used to the small birds fluttering around and take no notice of them at all.

Pacman, whom I sometimes ride, went to the Royal Welsh Show again this week and achieved Champion of the trekking class.

After riding I dropped some stuff off at the dump and did the usual shopping. In one charity shop I found another exercise top (I'm just taking it in at the armholes as it's a bit big) and this little geode in Craft. I did wonder about the green colour and thought maybe somebody had tried to dye the stone but my researches tell me it's a fluorite or fluorite and amethyst geode. Some of the crystals inside do shine green when I shine a UV torch on them. I like pretty sparkly stones.

I kept my eyes open for the missing hub cap but it was nowhere to be seen. I asked at the dump and a couple of the charity shops that do that sort of thing but no one had any hub caps. You have to buy a full set and prices range from £25 -£70.

Sun and Wind.

We had quite a pretty sunset last night. 

It has been sunny again today with the wind picking up in the afternoon creating whitecaps all across the bay.

When I sit out in the garden in the mornings, apart from letting my mind wander into nothingness I'm often thinking about the garden. Which is the most urgent job that I should do next and more recently how to create a garden that can cope with the increasingly hot and dry summers. Apart from two brief showers we have had no rain for 36 days and it shows. The plants in the shingle garden are all fine while those in planters or the raised beds have gone over quickly and have needed watering just to keep them alive. Now I'm wondering if I should change the raised bed plantings to more drought resistant plants. I can also see that one side of the garden is drier than the other so some plants will be moved when we start getting rain again.

And of course there is always the problem of keeping the garden looking good all year round. The bigger grasses such as the stipa and the pheasant grass are great in the winter but they're getting quite big and starting to overpower the smaller plants. Oh well, more things to ponder.

Peter took the car for new front tyres in the morning. They forgot to replace the cable ties on one of the hub caps and now it is sitting in a hedge somewhere between here and town. He also called in at the garage and had the rattling exhaust pipe secured and the clutch adjusted to make it easier on the gears.

My main job today was to give the bedroom carpet a clean. I tried some foam carpet cleaner but it didn't have the magic result I was hoping for. I'm not sure if the result was much better than hoovering twice would have been. In the end I scrubbed over the grubby areas with a damp cloth and now have the windows open to dry the carpet.

For the rest of the time I've been having a tidy up in the back garden. At one point I thought I would start putting mortar between the big (street sized) paving slabs to stop the weeds that I keep having to prise out but by the time I'd put things away and weeded the cracks it was too hot to do more.

I've now got an hour to sit outside before it will be time for disco aerobics. 

Something has bitten me multiple times on one leg. 9 times up the back of the calf and another 3 times on the front. They are small bites so I'm wondering if it was an ant. Luckily only some of them itch.

Foggy Morning.

This morning the view was quite dramatic with the fog gathering above the River Dyfi and then blowing out to sea. 

To start with it was cloudy and somewhat chilly. The morning felt like a typical UK summer's day - cloudy and cool but at least not raining but at some point away went the clouds and back came the heat.

Yesterday I had thought Peter was going to the dump and then to buy sand and cement from the builders' merchants on the same industrial estate but instead after the dump he drove into town to do some shopping at the supermarket. And then came home without my building supplies. Let's just say the atmosphere was a little tense yesterday. However Peter went out early this morning and was back by 9.00 ready for me to start work.

And I've had a productive day. Two coats of cement later and all the holes in the render on the garden wall have been filled in. I even found an rough piece of stone to add some texture to the surface of the mortar to help it blend in with the bumpy texture of the original render. I also filled the many cracks in the wall with builders' adhesive, the sort that comes in a tube. I thought I'd come up with the idea but when I looked on-line to see how to patch render on an outside wall that is exactly what was advised for small cracks.

I used the last of the mortar to fill in some random holes around the paving by the garage. Not the prettiest of finishes but better than before.

And that has more or less been my day plus some washing and ironing and a spell sitting out on the terrace. Later I'll be off to choir.

Cycling Again.

It's been hot today but not to the same degree as last week and the clouds are beginning to gather.

I went to the zoo in the morning and because Peter offered to take a whole load of stuff to the dump and get me sand and cement I cycled. I think it's the first time this year. Up til now it's either been too cold, too wet, too hot or I've been too tired for me to contemplate cycling but I'm very glad I did it.

It isn't far, maybe a mile and a half and either flat or downhill on the way there. I noticed people smiling when they see me in my wellies and yellow high-viz waistcoat and wondered are they thinking 'Oh bless, look at that old lady doing her best to cycle.' or is it more amusement at my wobbling progress and look of terror  when a car passes me.' (I'm exaggerating a little.)

I was just pleased that I made it up and over the level crossing without stopping though on the way home I did get off and push across the uphill turning and again by the house where it really is steep.

At the zoo I gave the gravel garden a tidy over, a few tiny weeds there and plenty of dry leaves from the nearby trees. Then more tidying of some flower beds and to finish I pulled up the ragwort that was growing in the willow circle and the very large ragwort plants growing by the turkey enclosure. Those did not go to the pigs who generally get all the weeds I pull up.

Being the school holidays there was a steady stream of families, mostly with younger children.

Back home, once I'd recovered from my cycle ride I did more work on the garden wall and also chipped away at the concrete surrounding an old drain cover by the back gate. At the moment the gate/door opens easily but in wet weather the wooden door swells and catches on the concrete when I try to open it. What should be done is take the door off its hinges, cut 1cm off the bottom and seal or paint the bottom edge to keep the wood dry. But this door has been there for 30 years and the hinges' screws are completely rusted. No way to get the door off without a lot of damage. That's why I've been levelling the concrete. Today I finished off that job so that when I start cementing the garden wall I can also repair the cracks in the concrete by the door.

I'll be off to Pilates in a while to unwind all those twinging muscles.

Parched Hills.

Schools are out, the sun is shining and it feels like holiday time.

This morning it was a paddle boarders' sea with barely a ripple on the mirror-like surface. By mid-morning the wind had picked up bringing small to medium sized breaking waves. Just perfect for the families thronging the beach and water. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? More of the same I expect. 

In the morning we went to Mach library where we competed against the noise of small children but we're quite rowdy ourselves. It's good to keep up with our Welsh especially as we have such a long summer break before the new term begins.

One thing I noticed on our drive to Mach was how brown everything has become. Even the trees are beginning to lose their green in the heat. This weather might be good for the holidaymakers but the ever present threat of wild fires is worrying. Only last week a 200 acre fire burned for days on the mountains near Harlech and today there are reports of another major fire near Wrexham.

Snowdonia.

(Below) Looking across the bog to the Cambrian mountains.

Yet again I didn't manage to do any more work on the garden wall which left me feeling a bit dissatisfied with my afternoon. 

Instead when we got home from Mach first I hung out in the sun some things to air that had been stored in a wooden chest and I'd realised yesterday smelt a bit musty. I then spent the rest of the afternoon hand sewing a tape onto a throw to create a temporary curtain for the sitting room window. 

While I get fed up with Peter's insistence that we watch the tv with curtains drawn and the lights off (he likes the cinema experience) and to be fair he has compromised in accepting that I have one of the main window blinds raised enough so that I can see the sea and in the winter we have a table light on even I have to admit there was so much light escaping around the venetian blind on the side window it was hard to see the tv screen. 

Last night it was so bad that I pegged a large throw up which cut out the offending glare. Today I used shower curtain hooks to hang up a smaller throw. The sewing was time consuming and even that is only a temporary solution. (Later) and AARGH it turns out not as effective as the larger throw hung up with a couple of clothes pegs.

A better solution will be to make proper curtains using black-out fabric under white muslin (to match the main curtains). I tried to order the fabric earlier but the website failed at the payment stage. I'll try again tomorrow or have to look for another supplier. Patience grasshopper.

Last night's sunset.

I can't resist a good sunset or the dramatic way the camera shows it.

Going down behind Bardsey Island. (Already tonight the angle has changed and the sun sank down to the left of Bardsey.)

Bright and Breezy.

A windy and sunny day today, great for drying the washing.

Yesterday I had woken at 4.00 then gone back to sleep for a few hours and as a result had difficulty in falling asleep until after midnight. So this morning when I saw that it was 5.15 I got up and was in time to see the dawn lighting the sky. 

It felt a bit chilly to start with and I was glad of my dressing gown as I sat outside with my tea but as soon as the sun hit the terrace it turned hot despite the wind. 

This person had taken their chair right to the water's edge for their bit of morning 'sea' time. I guess if you live inland you might want to savour every moment by the sea.

The sparrows brought their fledglings to the garden. The youngsters did come down and peck at the seeds but mainly sat in the hedge waiting to be fed. Earlier I'd caught a glimpse of something brown and furry by the pond. Too small to be a rat, even a young one and too big to be a house mouse. My best guess is that it was a wood mouse.

My plan for today was to continue removing loose paint and render from the final section of the garden wall. But then a reel popped up reminding gardeners to remove any clematis wilt asap One of the clematis had wilt last year and I cut some of the affected stems off but then hoped it would go away. Today I gave the two affected clematis a very good trim. It was a shame as both had plenty of flowers and that included my favourite clematis with purple bell shaped flowers. One of the clematis was growing with a honeysuckle that had reached the top of the trellis and was getting out of control so at the same time I gave the honeysuckle a severe cutting back. Quite a few bags later I only had enough time to do a little work on the wall before I gave in, had a shower and went and sat outside with Peter for a while.

Last night's sunset.