Horses Again.

Today there couldn't have been a greater contrast with last Friday's weather. Getting soaked by the rain and having to keep one eye out for falling trees last week while today I was driving with the car windows open under warm, blue skies. In town people were walking around in t-shirts and quite a few in shorts as well.

Town itself was very crowded, with the roads and car parks full and people everywhere. It's half-term so all the kids are off school and there are lots of holidaymakers in the area too. I went into Tesco'a, something I don't usually do, and there were at least 20 people queueing to use the self-service checkouts. I ended up going to a normal checkout despite only having three items.

I spent a lot of time looking for either button batteries or led tea lights for my Halloween pumpkin. In the end I found some Halloween ones in M&S only to find the ones I really wanted in Lidl. 

This morning there were only four of us in the lesson and to my delight I was riding Tex. Grumpy, chunky, hairy Tex. He wasn't too pleased to have his breakfast of hay interrupted by me wanting to put his bridle on and did his usual thing of threatening to bite. I just tell him off and he's never actually bitten me or even come close. It's more of a warning or expressing how he's feeling. At the end of the lesson I'd dismounted and was standing next to him giving him a good scritch under his mane. That's his special place. It was so funny because one of Tex's ears was pinned back as if to say 'Why did you make me do all that work?' but the other ear was forward and his lip was wobbling in sheer delight as if he was saying 'I'm loving this, please don't stop.' He's such a character.

In the lesson itself I mainly worked on keeping my shoulders, neck and head in the correct position ie square and upright, something that is a bit of a challenge for me with my rounded upper back.

 

When I got home I noticed some riders with their horses out on the beach. I think is the same group I saw last year but with different horses. My camera battery ran out before I had a chance to photograph some quite athletic vaulting from the older girls. 

I think every young pony girl's dream is to ride in the sea. The smaller pony wasn't too keen on the waves and needed a couple of girls walking next to it to give it the confidence to try again. The larger horse was a little wary at first but then went in up to its tummy.

Red sky this evening so hopefully I can spend the day working outside tomorrow.

PS The horsefly bite has finally stopped stinging and the red patch although the same size is a lot paler.

A Sad Tale.

I went round to the family up the street that has some poultry to tell them about the fox but sadly I was too late. A few nights ago the fox had broken into their duck house and killed all bar one of their dozen ducks. It had taken one away and took the heads off the others leaving an unpleasant scene. No doubt last night it was on its way back to collect one of its victims. The houses on the road at the end of our street back onto farm land with plenty of rabbits but I guess the fox fancied an easier meal.

We have grassy paths that run along the back of our gardens and recently somebody had cleared away all the brambles blocking the path up at that end. That had made it possible for the fox to break into the duck house/run with unfortunate results. The remaining duck is safely tucked up inside the family's house.

Today's weather was dry and often sunny so it's not surprising the air was filled with the sounds of people working.

Next door some workmen put covers over the gable boards and removed the old metal tv aerial bracket. As builders are wont to do they had their radio blaring away while they worked. (You can tell I'm not a fan.)

Behind us more brambles were being cut with a petrol strimmer, I could hear a mower elsewhere and as usual there was a steady stream of trucks delivering scaffolding and building supplies to houses in the next street. 

Meanwhile I was out finishing painting the garage windows. Close up it is not a very tidy job but I've achieved my goal of getting them watertight and stopping the glass from falling out. My other justification for not being meticulous is that you can't even see the windows for half the year when the plants put on their summer growth.

It wouldn't have taken much for the glass to fall out of the windows, they were in such poor condition.

A combination of replacement wood and resin wood filler has brought the windows back to a reasonable state.

Off now to a Halloween themed disco aerobics.

Sea Mist.

My hopes of finishing the garage windows were dashed when I looked out of the window this morning and saw the miserable state of the weather. It was more on and off sea mist with occasional rain but definitely wasn't painting weather.

Instead I fished out the rest of the frozen tomatoes and made a pot of rich tomato and onion sauce which is now in the freezer. Great for soups, stews or simply on pasta. 

As the recycling lorry comes on Wednesdays I started the sauce before eating breakfast so that I could get rid of all the onion and tomato skins and not have them festering until next week. I also disembowelled the pumpkin that I'm going to make into a lantern. That's a really sticky job which I've never had to do before. As my neighbour said to me 'imagine making a lantern from a turnip,' That would be a lot harder and possibly hazardous.

 

After breakfast I had a short beach walk on my way to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription and get a 'flu jab. Hopefully I won't get any side effects from that.

I got home just as it started to rain. Once it had stopped I treated myself to an afternoon of gardening. At last it was time to give the lavender its autumn trim which means we can now walk down the path without brushing past wet foliage. From there I cut back the aquilegias, a fiddly job as the spring bulbs under them have already put up lots of leaf. My final job was to cut down the montbretia and ox-eye daisy growing by the pond. 

Off now in a minute to choir.

Update - just driven home and before I turned into our road a fox ran across the street. I stopped and looked down the grassy path where the fox had run and there it was staring at me. Definitely not a cat. I don't know if the family up the road still have chickens and ducks but I'll let them know about the fox.

Mostly Sunny.

Today has been mainly sunny with plenty of wind and a single shower later in the afternoon. It's dry now and I hope it stays that way while I go down to Pilates as the other week I got soaked on the walk home. The waves this morning were enormous, a sign of stormy weather out at sea.

I'd seen on FB that the recent storms had brought down a tree and some branches at the zoo so I brought my loppers with me along with the few basic tools I take each week. Sure enough the loppers came in handy as though the broken tree had already been cut down there was a big pile of branches on the gravel garden. I cut those up and distributed them to the goats who love both the bark and leaves of willow trees. The remaining large branches and a piece of trunk went to the wood store as they will come in useful in the animal enclosures. The rest of the time I went over the gravel garden weeding and removing all the leaves and little cones from a nearby tree. I wouldn't have minded if that tree had fallen down in the storm.

There were quite a few visitors at the zoo as it's half-term. Though it's reasonably warm it's not the best of beach weather and there isn't much else to do in Borth for visitors.

 

Came home just before the rain and did a few things before giving myself an hour off. 

It seems I'm still not going to taste the stew tonight but will have to make do with salad again. I enjoy my salads but I was put out because plans or at least my expectations keep getting changed and for me change is very stressful. 

Originally the beef stew was going to be made on Sunday so I was looking forward to a tasty supper then but when I came home from the walk I was told it was being made on Monday. A day of enticing smells and looking forward to the meal only to find out it wouldn't be ready on time. It will be nice for tomorrow I said but this afternoon I found that most of the stew is in the freezer and the rest in the fridge because eating after coming home from Pilates is too late, apparently. Which will also apply to Thursday after disco and I don't eat supper on Wednesdays because of choir. Yes I could still heat up the stew when I get home tonight but it was the change of plans that threw me. A good example of me finding a change of plans difficult to cope with. I'm sure the stew will taste very nice when I eventually get to try it.

Off in a minute to Pilates. Oh no, I can hear heavy rain on my study roof so I'll be driving the car to the hall this evening. Even heavier now, sounds like hail and it's set somebody's car alarm off.

Wet.

The day has been mild and generally wet. Too wet for finishing painting the garage windows but once the rain eased I went out and washed all the salt, sand and seagull bombings from all the windows, porch and balustrade.

I didn't put any seeds out for the birds until the afternoon but even before I'd gone back indoors the dunnock was down there pecking at the seeds. 

Peter went into town this morning and returned with two big gas cannisters for the barbecue. That's something we would use anyway and it gives a cooking method if the electricity goes off. There's more and more on the radio etc about being prepared for loss of power or interruption of food supplies that we feel it's worth taking seriously. 

Yesterday on the walk we talked about the issue and how those of us who either are or have been living in the country have always had a supply of foods for those times when the roads were flooded or too icy and keeping the basics come naturally. It's the town dwellers who really need the wake up call.

We've got a wind up radio on order and Peter has bought a second larger power bank to keep in the house. I reckon we're just about sorted.

While Peter was out I used his pc to write up my Christmas letter. I'm sure nothing exciting is going to happen in the next month. Then as there wasn't much else to do I did all my Christmas cards. Nothing is sealed down but they are in neat piles according to when they need to be sent or hand delivered. Some cards go to friends whom I haven't seen for many years but we enjoy reading their Christmas letters and it's a nice way to keep in touch. I've even had a look through some of the Christmas decorations but that was to look for the led tea lights as I'd like to put one inside the pumpkin I plan to carve. I knew they were out of power but I wasn't expecting a spare battery to be duff as well. I'll just have to get some more on Friday.

I'm pretty sure the bite on my side is from a horse fly. At the time I just thought it was another bramble or thorn sticking into me. The red area doubled in size quite quickly but from what I read it should be gone after 48 hours.

I've also had a simmering sore throat for the past week which along with a constant sinus headache makes me think I'm fighting off a cold. I hope that it doesn't go on for too long. If I wasn't on a diet I'd be curled up on the sofa with a coffee and plenty of biscuits. Oh well, Peter has got a beef stew going in the slow cooker which smells delicious.

Bitten ...

or stung, that has been my fate this afternoon Towards the end of this afternoon's walk I could feel a sore area on my thigh. When I got home it wasn't as I'd feared a tick bite (though they don't usually hurt) but something had definitely got me. I have a painful red area about 2 inches across with a red spot inside. Bite cream has been applied and an anti-histamine taken but it's still very sore. Hey ho that's my body's usual hyper reactive response to such things. Photos have been taken just in case.

It has been wild and windy all day. This morning all the windows including those along the sides of the house, were 'frosted' with salt. At least yesterday's rain washed off the sand which had stuck to everything. I went out to do a quick wash of the kitchen window so that we could at least see out while we ate our breakfast and was almost blown over by the gusting wind. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow?

Today's walk was in the hills behind Tal Y Bont towards Bont Goch. I picked up J and we met the others at Tal Y Bont. There we jumped into B's car and drove a few miles further inland. 

As we  parked by the side of the road we were passed by two cars and were greeted by the driver of the front one. She lives not far from us and often stops to chat. Not only that but she also knew another member of our group. Okay it's a small world here. They drove off but then we noticed both cars stopped in the road a little way up. Initially we thought they'd stopped to let someone pass but after a bit they reversed back and were then attempting to push the first car back to the side of the road. Naturally we all went to give a hand which got the job done quickly. It turned out that they had just collected the car from a farm but the engine had cut out. After our walk the car was still there being sorted out by a chap with a mechanic's van. That was something different.

Our walk took us up the side of the valley along a not often used path with many brambles growing across ready to trip up the unwary.

Somewhere along the way we came off the official footpath and ended up in a small wood.

There we found a well built shelter which looked as if it had been set up for Forest School type activities. There was even the frame of a pole lathe though B said it wasn't one made by him. 

As there were some folding chairs in the shelter we decided that it would be a good place to have our lunch.

We then made our way down through the woods where I managed to knock a tree over. Not really a tree, it was a rotten trunk about 5ft high. I put my hand on it and it broke off with a snap and hit the ground with a loud thump thankfully missing the person in front of me.

Back on the road we passed an interesting looking willow tree.

We picked up the footpath above the woods and then swung back round though some fields.

A parallel line of  old beech trees marked what was once a green lane.

Behind us we had views to the hill above Craig Y Pistyll waterfall.

While in front we could see as far as the sea. The hill on the left has an old hill fort, Pen Dinas Mynedd Gorddu, on top.

We got back to the cars just as a heavy shower began. Perfect timing.

Storm Boelo.

This morning.

 This afternoon.

No sooner did we get through one storm (no damage thankfully) than the next, Storm Boelo arrives. This one has brought a great deal of rain with not so much wind at least until later in the afternoon. Apparently all down to changes in the jet stream. Anybody still a climate change denier? 

While we're stuck indoors I thought it would be fun to share a video of The Climate Shop one of my regular charity shop haunts. In it I can see Peter's old wetsuit with the yellow legs hanging in the doorway. Hopefully somebody will find a use for it one day. Everything is priced in 'trees', 5 trees equals £1 which is the cost of planting new trees in Kenya. You can read more here.

While the weather has kept me indoors I've still had a very busy day. First I baked two Bara Briths to put in the freezer towards my Christmas hampers. 

Then because the state of the window sills has been bothering me for a while I decided to clean all three of the window sills in the kitchen/living room that house my various collections. Once I'd taken everything off the sitting room window sill I realised I needed to clean the Venetian blind first. And if the plants were all coming down then I might as well give the air plants their weekly swim a day early and clean out all the green algae from inside the hanging containers.

Let's just say it took a long time to get everything done my reward being to see it all looking nice and shiny again.

It would of course be more efficient not to have all those little collections but how boring. Each of those collections is a very carefully collated group of memories. As above - I could tell you where each item was collected (- Devon, St Ives, Stoke, Marazion, Plaka & Borth). 

Maybe I do take after my artist mother who often used stones in her installations (above - at the Berlin Wall) as well as oil lamps in raku fired bowls (below), and other things too.