Chilly.

First thing in the morning the day looked quite promising though there was a distinct nip in the air. (Something to do with the Polar Jet stream I believe.) But later on the day got greyer and colder with rain arriving mid-afternoon.

When I got to the stables this morning I found that I was riding Seren (Star) which was a surprise. But then I saw I'd been originally assigned Margaret but she was needed for the next lesson.

Because Seren is well behaved she gets used a lot for hacks and beginner riders so she isn't used to doing the more advanced work we do in our lessons. That made it a good challenge for me to get her to understand what I was asking her to do. By the end she was doing reasonable turns on the forehand (pivoting around the front feet), decent leg yielding (moving forwards and sideways at the same time) and was coming on to the bit (neck arched and more energy). It was a good lesson.

Seren and Pac Man - they only stay in these stalls when they are waiting to be ridden. I had taken Seren's saddle off as she wouldn't be needed again until the afternoon.

Here's the boot room with tidily arranged long and short boots in all sizes. Hidden by the bench in the foreground are rows of tiny jodhpur boots too. They have a thriving pony club, the biggest in the country and also take children out on lead rein rides around the fields.

Horses grazing in the fields of the Vale of Rheidol.

I didn't find any plants to buy at the supermarkets or Charlie's but I did give in and buy this riding top which I've been eyeing up for a few weeks. It's close fitting which will be a good incentive to maintain my current healthy weight.

I had planned to go out and do some gardening when I got home but then the rain came so I've done indoor jobs (mainly tidying) instead. I have to admit to feeling rather tired now.

 

Cloudy.

Another fairly chilly day with a choppy sea.

Having our Welsh class in the middle of the day meant that I had to split my gardening into two short sessions. That's probably a good thing as digging the soil out of the dumpy bag to bring into the garden is quite taxing on my back. Today I dug up, split and replanted two hardy geraniums already growing in the one of the the borders so that I should end up with a good spread of each geranium. That done I emptied out several large pots of star flowers and planted the small bulbs individually all around the hardy geraniums. That way there will be (hopefully) a large swathe of the light blue stars before the hardy geraniums begin to grow. That corner bed is turning into a 'blue' corner with the dark blue hydrangea, bluebells, blue irises, star flowers and nigella. The hardy geraniums are, I think, a pale lavender and an ordinary pink variety. I also planted London Pride along the edge of the bed so that the leafy rosettes can spread and make a solid boundary between the shingle and the the soil.

The garden chairs were snapped up in less than 12 hours. When the lady, who lives in the village, came to collect them we immediately recognised each other from Pilates as she is usually behind me. (We all tend to stick to roughly the same spot each week.) The money from the chairs has now been put away to spend on plants for the garden when I go to the plant fair in a fortnight.

The final event of the day was disco aerobics which was fun as usual. At the end of one track our teacher makes an attempt at doing the 'splits' and some of us try as well. I surprised myself at almost being able to achieve this gymnastic feat. All the more surprising as it isn't something I did in my uncoordinated childhood. 

 

A Busy day.

It was another of those days when the grey morning didn't give much clue as to the weather for the rest of the day. The grey eventually gave way to clouds and by the evening there was barely a cloud to be seen.

The seal returned this morning and if you look closely at the photo you should be able to see that he is munching on a flat fish he caught below the cliff.

My first job of the morning was to brush down four folding teak garden chairs that have sitting in the garage since we moved and then give them a coat of teak oil. I've now put them up for sale as although they're great chairs they are too heavy for me to move around easily. I much prefer our light aluminium bistro chairs that can be picked up with one hand. Perfect for chasing the sun/shade around the terrace. We've still got the round table that came with the chairs and a side table that I made out of the lazy Susan and metal stool legs.

Once that was done I was back in the front garden, moving plants around and topping up flower beds with the new soil. I didn't get a lot done because in the afternoon we went to see Dune II at the Arts Centre in the university. There weren't too many people in the cinema (no noisy rustling), our front row seats were comfy and the three hours flew by. I really enjoyed the film, the plot had none of the complexity of the books (which I read in my youth) but the special effects were excellent and you do have to be in a cinema with a good sound system to get the best from futuristic battle scenes. All in all a good afternoon. Peter had the rowing club AGM to go to as soon as we got back to Borth so I dropped him off on the way home and then it wasn't that long before it was time for me to get ready to go to choir. Only fifteen of us tonight but we had a good session as always. We finished with one of our favourites Grace, move in me. 

 

Nearly Done.

It was wintry grey again first thing and we even had some light drizzle. It wasn't until later in the afternoon that the wind picked up (a lot) bringing clear blue skies.

I had an early start today and by 8.00 I'd done the morning routine and was out using the pressure washer on the slabs by the back door. My plan was really to wash the slabs in the front garden but the dirty water from the path outside the utility room would run all the way down to the steps and make a mess of the slabs in the front garden so needed doing first. I was making such an early start because the soil delivery was due today and once the bag was inside the gate I wouldn't be able to get the pressure washer past it. As it turned out the soil and some wood didn't arrive until later in the afternoon just as I was putting the pressure washer away after cleaning all the remaining slabs in the back garden.

The builders turned up this morning to fit the rest of the balustrade but as the eagle eyed will have spotted they couldn't fit the last glass panel. The company had forgotten to include the fittings with either of the two deliveries that brought the glass and metal work. Each time I asked the driver to check if there were any extra boxes which there weren't. The parts are being sent tomorrow by courier after which the last glass panel can be installed. After baking another Bara Brith as the stocks were getting low I went out to continue the pressure washing. This involved quite a lot of shifting of paving slabs and concrete blocks so I'm glad I've got Pilates tonight.

Mrs Blackbird enjoying a bath.

 

Chilly.

The view for most of the day was very wintry with silvery grey sea and sky and a cold wind blowing down from the north.

The fish must be returning as I'm seeing increasing numbers, well two or three, fishermen fishing off the rocks under the cliff. This morning I saw what at first I thought was a dolphin but turned out to be a large seal. 

It was really hard to make out and in this photo below it looks more like a dog. I got some (tiny) views of its tail as it dived down and it was definitely not a dog, though maybe a dogfish.

I spent my day having a good tidy up of the paving in the front garden including sweeping up as much of the red dust as I could before rain turns it into red sludge. Then there were half a dozen heavy 2ft square street paving slabs that needed stuff chipped off them before I could stack them up in the corner to possibly become a platform for a water butt. I did a bit of moving around of plants too. Having only grown daffodils in grass I hadn't realised how messy the leaves would be in the raised beds by the steps so those bulbs have all gone down into the main borders. I also managed to move a fennel plant which if it survives will create a summer screen between the neighbours' sitting room window and our garden. 

And now for the second half of yesterday's walk when we took a circular route along lanes and footpaths.

Having got a bit higher up we were able to see Aber in a gap between the hills (the white building is Maes Y Mor the assisted living place by the harbour that we sang carols at). Also visible was the coast to the north with the familiar outline of the hills above Aberdyfi and Tywyn.

It's lambing time so the fields were full of lambs. Beyond in the far distance to the east were the faint outlines of the Cambrian mountains.

Dramatic windswept trees.

The next place of interest was this grand farm and mill. It now belongs to the university, one of many farms acquired when the university had a large agricultural department.  The house that was behind us on the other side of the yard is privately owned. As we approached a pack of dogs; three sheep dogs, a Jack Russell and a Labrador, came rushing out and up the lane barking quite ferociously. The Jack Russell was the loudest but there was some nasty growling from a couple of the sheepdogs. It's a public footpath but I would have been concerned if I had been walking alone. At least with nine of us it evens the chances a bit.

The dogs followed and carried on barking as we stopped to look at the back of the building and the remains of a waterwheel which would have driven the mill machinery. We had our lunch a little further up the lane perched on a pile of gravel by an un-scenic open sided barn. However the sound of the birds was lovely and included the tapping of a woodpecker and the rough cry of a raven.

 

A Woodland Walk Near Llanfarian.

The other day I was bemoaning the fact that I don't wake up early enough to see the sun rise but even though it was a pretty dawn this morning all I did was feed the cat, take a photo and my tablets and go back to sleep. After all it was only 5.30.

When I did emerge to start the day properly we had a bit of a drama. Let me set the scene- I looked out to the terrace and there was Speedy frozen in stalking mode. A couple of feet away from Speedy a male blackbird was lying on its back twitching and feebly waving its legs in the air. I burst through the door shouting at Speedy who promptly shot off down the steps in pursuit of Big Ginge the cat from up the road. In Speedy's defence if he had been the one to bring down the blackbird I would have expected him to have it firmly in his mouth as he knows from the few occasions he's caught something, that I will do my very best to take it from him. With both cats out of sight I picked up the blackbird and placed it in a box which I then put in a quiet room either to die in peace or to make a recovery. And both surprisingly and happily it did. When I checked on it an hour or so later it was standing up looking for a way out. I should have checked its wings before releasing it as when I took it back to the garden it scuttled off rather than taking to the air but I did see it holding both wings out. It ran under the bushes where a little later it was chased by a pair of blackbirds. It was out of my reach but finally went upwards into the hedge where I hope it was able to fully recover from its ordeal.

Todays walk of just over 4 miles was from the village of Llanfarian a few miles south of Aber. It was in two parts, the beginning and end of the walk were through a wooded valley above a narrow stream.

It was an overcast day so the flowers weren't sparkling in the sun but in every direction a carpet of spring flowers covered the woodland floor.

Mainly yellow celandines and bluebells interspersed with stitchwort and wood anemones with the occasional primrose, dandelion or wood violet. 

When we walked this path two years ago the wood anemones were at their best and as far as the eye could see the ground looked as if cherry trees had been shedding their blossom but today the wood anemones were confined to smaller patches with the celandines being the stars of the show.

As well as all the flowers we came across a big patch of young gooseberry bushes and a little further on a patch of young blackcurrant bushes. We wondered if there had once been a farmhouse garden there or perhaps the seeds had been deposited by a greedy bird?

While wood anemones are mainly white occasionally we came across some pink ones.

Less pretty but quite interesting was the fungus King Alfred's Cake found on some dead wood. They can remain in place for years and really do look like very charred buns.

We had a pretty sunset tonight which hopefully means we shall have another dry day tomorrow.

Slab Cutting.

It's been sunny all day long. The first photos were taken before breakfast and and the last at about 6pm.

At last everything was in place for Peter to do a day of paving slab cutting. Up till now it's either been the weather or his arthritis that meant the work couldn't be done. (The cutter is too heavy for me to use.) Before Peter could get started I had to chip away a concrete ridge from about half of the slabs. Knowing that there would be lots of concrete dust everywhere I covered over not only the pond but the plant beds around the pond and the rockery. It was good that I did that as the red dust went everywhere. Just a shame that I hadn't noticed that the plastic dust sheet I put over the pond had dried paint on it. When I took it off there were lots of white paint flecks floating around on the water. It took a while to fish out the majority of the white specks.

Once all the slabs had been cut it was my job to lay them as best as I could. The ones in front of the rockery are on sand which was relatively easy. The rest of the paving isn't perfectly level so my amateur efforts don't stand out and it is good to have the gap filled.

There were also two spaces by the steps that needed slabs cut to size and one of the stone stepping stones in the shingle needed squaring off. That done I could finish planting the thyme and thrift in the shingle and I brought some more lamb's ears round from the back garden. Tidying up afterwards was my hardest job of the day. I swept up as much of the dust as I could and made a start of tidying the remaining oddments on the paving.

The first clematis have begun to flower in the back garden though Thursday's frost caught some of the petal edges.

Evening sun.