Showers.

Quite a few short sharp showers in the morning but by the afternoon the sun began to appear. There was even the tiniest bit of wind which helped part-dry the washing I hung out on the line later in the afternoon.

In a change to my usual weekly schedule I went to the stables for a riding lesson this morning. The reason being that they are holding a fund raising even this Saturday and in preparation lessons on both Thursday and Friday have been cancelled.

As usual I arrived early and had time to play with Pupur the tabby kitten. There was so much purring as I stroked him down by my feet that I took a chance and picked him up. He carried on purring and I made sure to let him down as soon as he wriggled. Being farm cats they weren't much used to people before they came to the stables.

Luckily two other people from my class were free to come for a lesson today. Three is the smallest number in a class before you start paying private rates (double) but with so few of us it was like a private lesson anyway. Part way through the hour the rain outside was so bad that C, who was teaching a beginner outside in the arena, brought her student into the school before they both got completely soaked. (C is eight months pregnant.) It didn't make any difference to us as we were working in trot and are used to carrying out the exercises independently. 

Because it is Wednesday we had Joyce, a long time member of staff, teaching us. She is a very good instructor and we all enjoyed the lesson. After warming up in trot she asked us if we thought our horses would benefit from some canter warm-up work. I answered honestly and said I didn't know about Cody but I would enjoy it. Lots of short (or not so short) cantering and every transition was beautifully smooth which makes a change for me. I was so pleased.

I noticed there was less emphasis on getting the horses on the bit and more on our positions and posture and working in circles to achieve bend. The final exercise was riding shallow loops with 10m circles at either the start or the finish or both. And of course changing diagonals with each change of bend. Two of us tried to avoid doing that by riding in sitting trot but were politely instructed to carry on with rising trot.

 

Afterwards I went shopping, took some last items from the garage to the Climate shop and found this brand new print in a charity shop. A bit cliched but he's so sweet and at just £2 how could I leave him behind? I think he'll be going in the main bathroom. 

Once home and the shopping unpacked, clothes in the washing machine and self showered I crashed out for an hour with a big mug of tea and some pastries from Aber Surplus. I had time to sew a row of sequins around one armhole of the latest sparkling creation and should be able to finish the whole thing before disco aerobics tomorrow.

Off in a minute to choir and hopefully all the singing I did as I sewed has fixed 'We are the Earth.' in my head.

Sunny, eventually.

After a night of heavy rain we had a few morning showers which eventually gave way to brighter weather, at least for a while.

With so much humidity and it not being cold enough to put the central heating on (thank goodness) it's been hard to dry the washing indoors. Today I gave up and put a clothes rack in the porch which heats up as it catches the sun. Not the best look for the front of the house but needs must.

 

As soon as the showers were over I drove to the zoo for another weeding session. I generally have a plan of which areas I'm going to be working in but sometimes other things take priority. 

Today my attention was diverted to first tidying up a flower bed which was looking messy after a new fence had put in and then while things had been dug up I saw it was a good time to dig further and remove some established nettle roots. Lots and lots of them and as my gardening gloves had holes in them my fingers are quite tingly at the moment. 

As usual I took the weeds to the pigs and now I know pigs absolutely love nettle roots. Today they ended up with three tubs of weeds to tuck into, mostly nettles and grass.

I also cleared a path only used by the zoo staff which had been in my sights for a while but other areas had taken priority.

I'm off to Pilates soon and in the meantime I'm working on adding more sequins to the back of the top which is just plain black.

Bonus Crop.

The day began warm and wet then progressed to warm and grey and finally the afternoon turned hot as the sun shone down through the gaps between the lines of clouds.

At least a dozen sparrows, adults and youngsters sat waiting in the hedge for their morning snack. (My neighbour has numerous bird feeders.)

 

Since it wasn't actually raining I thought I'd see how far I could get with the drains at the front of the house.

The first thing I did was to see if I could get the old metal manhole cover off even though the little bars had long since rusted away. I used an old table knife to scrape out the weeds and dirt between the cover and the frame and then carefully using two small pry bars managed to lift the cover off. 

I cleared the rubble and dirt out of the drain at the front and by pouring water in saw that it was indeed running into the main drains. That was a massive relief as it would have been a major job (builders!) to get the downpipes emptying into the main drain.

I sawed off the small pipe sticking out of the wall as we no longer have a sink in the bedroom. Using my small collection of left over drain pipes and fittings I was able to aim the white down pipe into the correct drain. I still need to get a proper bend fitting for the black pipe instead of the spout that I put on for the time being.

I cleared out the other drain which connects to something going under the house. Whether that's a drain leading to the main system (unlikely) or a soakaway we don't know. (Originally the kitchen sink emptied into a soakaway.) Much better to have all the water from the roof going down the drain I know leads to the main system.

While I was out there I also cleared all the weeds growing in the narrow strip of gravel between the house and the street.

Peter was going to cook some chicken tonight (he's since changed his plans) and needed potatoes. Happy to do my bit I dug up the last of the potatoes from the bed where I haven't planted potatoes for at least two years. I might as well throw some of the tiny ones back in for next year.

While we had some sun in the afternoon I sat outside on the terrace. Now the sun has moved round (you know what I mean), I had to squidge into a corner of the terrace though there was plenty of sun down in the garden. Soon I really will have to choose between view or sun.

I ended my working day by finishing off the green sequinned top. Lots of cut sequins on the floor but at last it is done. Now I'm thinking about my original idea of two rows of sequins criss-crossed over at the back. But not today.

Tick Alert.

Today's walk was a bit wetter than anticipated due to the low lying clouds that sometimes came right down to ground level. (We were roughly 360m above sea level.)

I met my fellow walkers at the large layby just before Nant yr Arian. We left some of the cars there and drove in a small convoy a few miles across the hills towards Ystumtuen.

For the first part of our walk we made our way up on to the ridge of Hen Riw (Old Hill) which can just be seen on the left in the above photo.

Up on the ridge we had stunning views across the Cambrian mountains.

One side of the ridge was quite steep so I renamed it our version of Crib Goch (photo from web below). Crib Goch is something I would never attempt even with all the correct mountaineering equipment.

Once we got to the edge of the ridge the plan had been to follow sheep trails round to the other side of Pwll Glas (Blue/lush pool) until we got back to a track which would bring us back to the road. However some of the group were uncomfortable with the fact that we were not on an official footpath even though it was unfenced moorland. There was some debate over if this counted as 'open access' land but I've since checked and it doesn't even though it is over 600ft. I'm sure the local farmers wouldn't have minded but to keep everyone happy we tried to stick to the rights of way.

Crossing over the small road we then climbed the ridge on the other side of the road through very wet heather and bilberries. We stopped at the crest of the ridge to eat our lunch but after one person found sheep ticks on her bag and trousers most of us chose not to sit on the ground.

I was wearing shorts and constantly checked my bare legs to make sure they were tick-free. I think spraying my legs with mozzy repellent earlier helped to dissuade the nasty creatures from coming near. The little poodle type dog that was with us wasn't so lucky. By the end of the walk his owner had to pick out a fair number of small ticks from his golden fur and he was due for a thorough going over and a bath once they got home. Not surprising as for a lot of the time he was walking through vegetation that was higher than he was. 

After all the fuss over not being on an official path we then found ourselves with not even a sheep track to follow but were simply trampling through the bushes as we attempted to reach a cairn known locally as a fairy ring.

We never made it as once we hit the path it was too far to go right to the cairn. Instead we turned and made our way down past another small lake. These lakes are all man made, constructed centauries ago to provide power for the many mines dotted about these upland areas.

As we came down between two ridges we had to cross what at first glance looked to be a bit of level moor but was in fact an extremely boggy patch. (Below.) Water could be seen glinting under long grass and sphagnum moss but even the tussocks of grass and rushes mainly sunk down into water as you stepped on them. I found the best way to cross was to go as quickly as possible shouting (not quite) expletives each time my foot went down into the water after yet another tussock proved to not be as substantial as hoped. Fortunately my boots are waterproof and by moving quickly my feet didn't get as wet as they might have. I suppose by now I should be used to the way water collects in these dips in what are almost the highest points of the local landscape.

More fun and games as we made our way carefully down a steep slope through tall wet vegetation. Many of the bilberry bushes had fruit on them. I ate a few but between the large pip and the skin these tiny fruit do not have a lot of goodness in them. You would have to pick an awful lot to use them for food.

Eventually we found the path and then the road back to the cars. 

Wet.

While the weather is still warm for the most part today has been very wet.

As usual on a Saturday it takes me a while to emerge after my busy Friday (and disco on Thursdays). But luckily it was still dry when I went down to sit in the garden with my coffee. From my perch on the garden wall I was able to watch the waves splashing up against the end of the concrete outflow.

Only minutes after I went back inside the rain started and continued for the rest of the day.

 

With my plans for outside work scuppered I've been doing very housewifely things; cleaning, cooking and sewing. The sewing consisted of replacing the elastic in a pair of new black leggings which I haven't yet worn but have been in storage for so long the elastic perished. (Who knew of that happening?) and doing a bit more work to the green sequinned top. I was going to wear it on Thursday but realised the sides needed altering first. So far I've done the sides but still need to shorten the front.

On the cooking side it's been tomato sauce day. My big metal casserole dish doesn't work on the induction hob so I can't to do all of the frozen tomatoes in one go. But there are still plenty of tomatoes on the plants and I'll do a second batch later. Once the sauce is cooked down it will go back into the freezer in small tubs to use throughout the year. Much better than supermarket sauces with a whole list of dubious ingredients my sauce contains only tomatoes, onions, garlic, herbs and seasoning.

While my brain is still in prepper mode I'm thinking of getting a Kelly kettle. Being able to boil water for hot drinks or things like cous cous and noodles sounds like a sensible idea to me and we would always be able to get small driftwood from the beach. (I have a feeling I've been watching too many disaster movies.) There are some gas cannisters for the camping stove up in the loft and the barbecue as well. Okay we probably will never need them but it's reassuring to know we have options.

Shopping Around.

Although the forecast was for a sunny day this morning the only sun to be seen was shining down on the hills of Snowdonia (or at least some of them). Later the sun broke through the clouds and brought some welcome warmth which increased as the day went on.

This morning I had Cody again but maybe because I made sure to lengthen my stirrups to my preferred rather long length, I was a lot more comfortable and doubt if there'll be any after effects.

Today we worked on shoulder-in. At times I found it difficult to communicate clearly with Cody but we eventually got there. I prefer to aim for gentle co-operation with the horse rather than using strong aids which I guess are needed when you're working with a school horse rather than your own but that's just the way it is. 

Somebody posted on the Borth FB page looking for two people who would be willing to exercise a couple of local horses regularly. While that initially sounds ideal and is how I rode horses in London when I was in my twenties no doubt you would also have to commit to mucking out and generally looking after the horses as well which I know would be too much for me.

 

After riding I did the usual round of dump, shops and town. I've started buying extra following govt. advice to stockpile two weeks supply of food in case there are supply difficulties. The suggestion was also to have food you can eat even if there are power issues. They're stating that extreme weather could cause these problems but who knows what the Russians will do or even have done already? Since I'm able to buy extra each week I might as well to be on the safe side.

For immediate consumption this afternoon I stewed another large bag of apples to go on our morning porridge. We do like a bit of fruit with our porridge Currently we add blueberries or blackberries, stewed apple and banana with sultanas and chia seeds cooked in the porridge.

A few days ago I got a letter from the RAC with details of my automatic renewal for next year's breakdown cover. When I ploughed through the figures I was shocked to see that it was going to cost £377! We haven't called them out for over 7 years and yet the price continues to rise every year. Since we've always had older cars it has been a sensible precaution to have breakdown cover. I know that a few years ago when the renewal was nearly £300 I got a quote from the AA and it was almost identical. But I thought I'd try the AA again and was astonished to find I could get cover from them for £76. That was for basic roadside assistance so I added on 'take the car to any garage we name not the nearest one and take the vehicle's occupants to their destination' and 'replace broken or lost car and house keys' which brought it to £92. That's a massive saving. I know that the price will jump next year but I can shop around again when the time comes.

Wet.

The day began warm and grey but dry enough for me to spend some time in the garden.

I've begun cutting back the crocosmia before I move them over to the other side of the garden as they didn't do well in the raised beds during the hot weather. Also the big lace cap hydrangea that forms part of the hedge is getting too exuberant and is being cut back as the blooms finish.

Next I pulled up all the mint that has happily been growing through the herbaceous beds. It gave the garden a cottage garden feel and provided food for the bees and butterflies but now it's time for it to go. I don't mind if more appears next year to add to permanent mint bed and a number of planters of different varieties of mint.

 

By the time I finished with the mint it was raining steadily so I retired indoors to play the piano, do some paperwork and generally potter about. Luckily the rain has stopped for the moment as I'm about to head down to the hall for disco aerobics.