Sea Fret.

It's been hot again as was most of the country but here at the coast we've had a sea fret (mist) to contend with too. First thing in the morning it could be seen as a haze in the distance and then it rolled right in at 5.00 almost emptying the beach, rolled back out and quickly returned. Always something new with the sea.

I went into town to collect my new swimsuit which thankfully fitted fine. No, that's not me. Just a photo from the ad though of course in my mind that's exactly how I look. 
 

Coming home from town I saw that for once we had waves that were good for bodyboarding which is a very rare occurrence. On went the new swimsuit, I brushed the cobwebs from a bodyboard that had been lurking in the garage and down to the beach I went. NB. there's nothing like walking down the road in only a swimsuit and flip-flops to get you holding in your stomach.

I don't go in the sea very often here but bodyboarding is my thing though I reckon it must be at least 10 years since I last went bodyboarding. The waves were coming in even and clean at waist to neck height and I had plenty of nice runs even if they weren't terribly long. My only problem was that my beach shoe kept coming loose and even floated away at one point. I had to put my other foot on top to keep the loose shoe in place. Tempted though I was to take the shoes off and leave them on the sand the thought of the weaver fish which are around this year, made me keep my shoes on. The shoes have a couple of loops that I can put a strap for future swims. 

By the time I walked home and had a shower the waves were already beginning to die down showing how lucky I was to catch the right moment.

I had planned to start painting the frame of the garage door but instead sat out in the (very hot) sun and pricked each sloe before getting this year's sloe gin started. Morrison's had run out of large bottles of gin but then I found some 'Pink Gin' for the same price which had some sort of fruity flavour which should this year's sloe gin interesting. I follow a recipe, sort of, but I suspect I had a lot more sloes than the recipe called for. Still should be fine. At the moment the jars are in a kitchen cupboard because cool and dark does not describe the garage at the moment.

Eclipse Day.

It has been another very hot day. Above is the temperature on the terrace at 6.00. Fortunately with doors and windows open the house was 10 degrees cooler and it was very pleasant sewing at the kitchen table with a light breeze blowing through the door.

We woke this morning to a light haze and in common with most of Ceredigion and further afield a strong smell of burning. People were so concerned that they phoned the fire service but it turns out the smoke was from wildfires 70 miles away in South Wales. 

The chart shows this morning's wind, temperature and concentration of particulate matter (smoke) in the air.

 

You would think that with such high risk of wildfires not to mention that grass everywhere has frizzled to a brown crisp it would be utter lunacy to be out cutting grass on a ride on mower. But this was the sad scene today by the entrance to Bow Street station (halfway between us and town). A council mower was blazing away with the flames about to engulf a small grove of silver birch trees. But someone in the council must have thought it was a good idea though I expect everyone is now busy passing the buck.

For me it has been a good day and I will admit to enjoying being constantly warm. The first good thing was that the car passed its MOT with flying colours, maybe not such a surprise as we only drove just over 4,000 miles last year.

Before getting on with any jobs I hung out some clothes from my storage box stash to air in the sun and at the same time managed to cull out more to give to the charity shop.

Then I finished painting by the path to the gate. That included the steps into the utility room and the garage which had also originally been painted red.

After that I retired to the cool of the kitchen, hand sewed the sides of the blackout curtains and did the alteration to a lightweight cotton top. I only reduced the width of the back panel by 6cms but that did the trick and I like the way this top goes with a cotton skirt I picked up at a jumble sale.

So that's a number of jobs done and out of the way.

Then came the eclipse, not quite a total eclipse but nearly. We sat up on the terrace to watch while other people watched from the cliff and even the sea. We had bought those cardboard glasses so that we didn't burn our retinas (hopefully). They came with a filter to put over your phone camera but all I got were blurry images and I didn't dare risk my big camera.

Fingers crossed for a clear night to watch the Perseids which will be at their peak tonight.

Another Scorcher.

Another hot day. 

I cycled to the zoo, well I couldn't have driven as Peter took the car to the garage for a service and MOT. We haven't heard back yet (Peter missed a call when he was out rowing) so we don't know what if any work needs to be done on the car.

At the zoo I did some general weeding including prising weeds out from the gaps in some concrete which I think might be the reason I have a new lump on the joint of one finger. (Update - it's gone down after some pressure so I'm guessing another ganglion cyst.)

At the zoo I also went into the silver foxes enclosure to help S (who is not as tall as I am) to cut back a bush that was growing too close to the sides and roof of the enclosure. This involved some dramatic balancing on the top of a rickety step ladder and the larger branches of the bush on my part.

Afterwards we sat on some old logs and I fed grapes to Blue the male fox. He will take them from S's hand but couldn't quite gather up the courage to take them from my hand even though he really loves grapes. I had to drop the grapes on the ground in front of him. The two foxes (Blue and Lily) are 8 years old and poor old Blue is deaf which I think makes him even more nervous.

I spent four hours at the zoo which included a rest break where I sat in the shade with a plastic bottle of blackcurrant squash. With a bucket of tools next to me, my boots off and my soaking wet socks draped over the wall of the rabbits' enclosure to dry I must have looked like an elderly bag lady swigging wine. I don't care.

After I finished at the zoo I went up to check out the blackthorn bushes in a nearby lane. There was not a sloe to be seen on the first few bushes but then the remaining bushes had sloes hanging like bunches of grapes. It was hot work but I eventually had a few pounds of sloes ready to make sloe gin to give as Christmas presents.

I also looked for blackberries but since these lanes are a regular dog walkers' route as well as a pleasant circular walk away from the bustle of Borth's one street there were not many ripe blackberries to pick. I'll need to go to more out of the way places if I want to pick a decent amount of blackberries.

I thought cycling was getting easier until I reached the two uphill sections on the way home. It was too hot to be worth wearing myself out and I pushed the bike instead. 

Even pushing the bike up the short stretch by our house wore me out. As soon as I got in I changed into shorts and could do no more than lie down on the cool tiled floor of the utility room before I 'came over all funny'. It was good just to lie there and recover. And there was a bonus to my mad action - because of the bend in my upper spine I was advised at Pilates when I first went to put something under my head when we do exercises lying on our backs. I usually roll up my zip-up fleece into a makeshift pillow.

Today I was so desperate to lie down I didn't bother with something under my head. At first I held my head up with my hands but then did a very low 'bridge' resting my hips on my hands. This allowed me to keep my shoulders down and put my head on the floor. Gradually my back eased down until eventually I was able to put my hands by my sides and lie completely flat on the floor. That is something I never thought I'd be able to do. Perhaps if I do this for a few minutes each day it will help my spine to straighten up.

Eventually I recovered, threw my clothes in the washing machine and had a welcome shower. A few small household jobs got done and then I was able to relax out on the terrace with some crisps (for the salt) and a big mug of tea. I finished by unpicking a seam on a light summer top that goes perfectly with one of my skirts but is a little too full in the back. Now that I've unpicked the gathered piece from the yoke I can add a centre seam and re-attach it back onto the yoke which should make it less billowy. 

Nearly Done.

The wind is now coming from the north-east which gives it a bit of a bite but it has been sunny all day. Good for the washing that went out on the line.

My first job this morning was to hoover the bedroom carpet and then wash the grubby bits. I really should have had some bound runners made to go beside the bed as it's such a shame to see the carpet looking less than pristine in those areas. Though I have to say that Peter now takes his outdoor boots off in the utility room to save tracking in dirt. 

I'm in and out of the house so often that my strategy is to take off any outdoor shoes either in the utility room or at least before I go in the bedroom. At the moment I spend a lot of time with bare feet indoors. It's surprising I haven't stood on any of the pins I've been scattering around the place as I go from the sewing machine in the kitchen to my work surface on the spare bed in the study or to the ironing board which I sometimes set up in the sitting room and sometimes in here.

 

Most of my day has been spent working on the black-out curtains. Above you can see the difference adding the cream muslin makes. On the left the curtain has definite grey tinge while on the right the extra layer softens the white making it closer to the wall colour. 

I still need to hand sew down the sides which I left for another day as I had ironing and then supper preparation to do.

Another Curtain.

Today has been sunny but not too hot and with just enough wind to dry the washing.

It's always nice to look out and see a yacht moored in the bay. It adds to the general holiday atmosphere even if it is only Freddy's yacht that he keeps at Ynyslas. 

Freddy is part of the RNLI crew and this morning's training session seems to have been  'boarding and towing a vessel in distress'. 

I decided not to go on the Sunday walk but finish off the curtains instead. But before I got to the black-out curtains I had a more pressing sewing project - making a muslin curtain for the terrace door. With yet another heatwave predicted it's handy to keep the door open to let air into the house. But that also lets in the flies which are not wanted in the kitchen.

I had a length of white muslin (the one that wasn't quite 3m), some left over black-out fabric and a long 2" wide strip left over from making the silly seagull curtains, everything I needed to make the curtain. 

But before I did any sewing I had to create a second curtain pole which I did using some plastic tubing that I cut notches into to fit over the existing curtain pole brackets.

I used the strip of fabric at the top of the curtain to strengthen the flimsy muslin and a wide band of black-out fabric at the bottom to add weight and also so that the muslin wouldn't catch on the threshold.

It all took lots of pinning and checking before two rows of stitching at the top and two at the bottom and it was done. 

I didn't carry on sewing as I had ironing and supper preparation to do but I left the sewing machine out on the table for tomorrows endeavours. And I still had time to sit outside for an hour with a cuppa.

As I was sitting outside I heard a clatter and when I looked down there was a crab claw dropped by a seagull or maybe a jackdaw. A nautical version of manna from Heaven perhaps?

Although I didn't go on the walk today I still got to see the countryside .... on the tv. I iron in front of the tv and today I thought I'd try watching Am Dros to see what I could understand. This is a reality show where four people go for walks in Wales. They take it in turns to lead a walk that is local to them and tell the others some facts about the area. They also provide a picnic lunch and organise some sort of game. At the end they score each other's efforts to make it a bit of a competition. It's more about seeing different parts of Wales and for me it's a chance to tune in to basic Welsh conversation. I can understand more now but I still had to refer to my dictionary and guess to understand what they were saying. Once I've seen the whole programme I'll watch it again with the (English ) subtitles.

The second walk today was around Bwlch Nant Yr Arian taking the route that goes past the Big Chair and on to Llyn Melindwr and finished with the red kite feeding. Places I know well and fun to see on the screen.

Shh !

It's been a lovely sunny day today though by the time I went to sit outside in the afternoon it had clouded over and become cooler.

I slept straight away last night and didn't wake until 8.00 this morning. Late as it was the village was completely quiet. 

Apart from a couple of swimmers the beach was empty and almost nothing was stirring in the village. A result of people partying in the field or dancing the evening away at the Star of the Sea. My heart would have loved to be dancing too by my feet would not. 

This morning I drove to town to Next to collect a swimsuit I'd ordered. I have a perfectly serviceable Speedo swimsuit but after seeing so many lovely swimsuits advertised on FB, (worn by slim young models and would not look good on me.) I had a browse of M&S and Next's swimwear and chose one that I hope will be flattering. (Not the £210 I liked from M&S.)

But although I had an e-mail saying it would be there to collect after 3.00 Friday it still hadn't arrived in the shop this morning.

But I did find this pretty cream jug which matches two small coffee mugs I already had. Although the same blue calico design as the Burleigh mugs the jug was made by the Heron Cross pottery which means it was dates from before 1900. 

Back home I cooked up a pot of apples and painted the concrete bit by the back gate grey. Not wanting it to look just like concrete I lightened the grey paint (which is oil based) with white water based paint which created a marbled paint and then did my best to create a muted mottled effect to mirror the grey ceramic tiles of the drive. It might need a touch up before I'm satisfied with the result.

A few more photos from yesterday's carnival.

Sunset last night.

Carnival Day.

Hedge cutting yesterday took its toll on my sleep and resulted in having to stay up until 2.00 to take another painkiller and then still not sleeping properly until a final tablet was taken at 4.00. Not the best before a busy carnival day. I have a feeling I'll be out like a light tonight.

By 10.00 I'd walked up to D's house where a group of us transformed the skiff into a watery scene with lifeguard themed flags and bunting. I went and registered us as 'Cardigan Bay Watch celebrating 25 years of lifeguarding.' Not the usual pithy name but one that reflected our location - Cardigan Bay (we wore silly cardigans too) and Bay Watch / lifeguards. I'm glad we went for the new Bay Watch outfits of blue tops the same shade of blue as the rowing club colours as a large group of walkers had also chosen lifeguards as their theme and were in the traditional yellow tops with red shorts.

Above - having pulled the skiff round to its position with all the other floats we retired back to D's house for drinks and snacks. 'Pamela Anderson' was there with her dog Ziggy and Jake accompanied his shark costumed owner.

 

Above - The judges (in orange vests) came round quite early and we did our best to explain all aspects of our float. We emphasised the fact that lifeguards have been keeping us safe and there hasn't been a single shark attack in Cardigan Bay in the last 25 years (okay we don't have sharks that attack but you never know). 

I took a few photos of the activity before the start of the carnival but will rely on FB to see and share the other floats, walkers and decorated houses.

It's a long walk all the way down the High Street but the crowds, music and general atmosphere made it enjoyable. It was even nicer when people I knew waved or came up for a chat. I had the bubble gun and did my best to keep a steady stream of bubbles floating over the boat.

The float behind us had taken 'The Sound of Music' as its theme and had speakers playing the main songs which kept us dancing along and often joining in. 

At the end of the carnival we pulled the skiff straight to the rowing club's compound rather than the main boat park by the beach. We took time to have a proper break before taking everything off the skiff. 

Peter and I then carried all our stuff home. After unpacking and an ice-cream I went back down to 'The Field' to wander round and take in the party atmosphere.

You really need to be with a group of people to enjoy the rest of the afternoon there. I walked round, had a long browse at a stall selling cheap plastic tat including lots of 'squishies' which are a bit of a draw to someone like me who responds to tactile stimuli but there wasn't anything that was just right. I did buy a metallic green, small jointed 3-d printed dragon for £2 but wasn't going to buy any of the expensive food on offer. Maybe not so expensive if you're making an occasion of the event but I was happy to wait until I got home and we'll have something to eat later.