Highs and Lows.

First thing this morning it was bright and sunny but by the time we had breakfast it had clouded right over with only a few tiny patches of blue. The clouds cleared later in the day making everything much more cheerful though with a chilly wind.

The tulips are looking quite bedraggled but I don't have the heart to cut them down yet. 

While sitting on the wall drinking a coffee I amused myself watching a bumble bee. The blue lithospermum has been the favourite with the bees for a while and now they're moving on to the aubretia.

I've had a good day. After a busy Friday I enjoy having the whole day (without commitments) to get on with things in the garden, house and kitchen. I've managed all three today.

Painting the knots was my 'house' job and that came with highs and lows. Finding a half-full large tin of white vinyl satin paint was a high but when I gave it a stir the unpleasant smell told me that it had 'gone off'. That tin will have to go to the dump. I've marked on it that it is off to stop anyone taking it home to use. They have two large cages for paint tins at the dump and nearly all of it is white paint so I'll have a look there first before buying more of the vinyl satin. They don't mind people taking paint from the cages. Last time I got a half full tin of black Hammerite which is always useful, a medium sized tin of red floor paint perfect for around one of the outside drain covers and grey paint for carnival stuff.

In the garage I found a tin of white vinyl matt paint to use on the knots for now as the dark brown knotting solution will need a number of coats of white to cover it. That was a high but then as I was about to paint I was surprised by a very large spider sitting on the side of the tin. I put her outside in the garden as I didn't want her crawling on me while I walked through the house to the garage. Painting was fine until I discovered two more knots that hadn't had the knotting solution and even worse one more knot that still needs rubbing down. The knots have had two coats today and I shall keep on going until the brown is covered over.

My house or rather kitchen job was to make another jar of vinaigrette dressing for this weeks salads which was quickly done.

I spent the afternoon cutting back the escallonia hedge. It now looks very bare on our side, just brown sticks. I began by thinking 'yeah, it will grow back' which then became a slightly more worried 'I hope it will grow back'. I have cut it back hard before and escallonia puts out leaves from old wood so fingers crossed.

Fly Your Kite.

The morning was grey and full of showers but by the afternoon when I took my photos it was bright, sunny and very windy. Perfect conditions for the kite surfers.

When I got to the stables the list had me down as riding floaty Griff again but then Iola (the boss) said I should have Cody instead. Cody is an experienced dressage horse but he has been off work for a couple of months. This was to be his first time back in a lesson so I was asked to keep him long and low to start and nothing smaller than a 20m circle.

Katie was teaching but she and Iola spent a long time watching Cody to check how he was going. I thought there was a difference depending on the direction we went round the school and his trot didn't feel as even as before. Cody was pronounced okay but despite the girl who has a private lesson after us asking if she could have him instead of Griff one hour of work was deemed enough as he needs to build up his muscles.

Afterwards I did the usual shopping including town where I collected more pastries and rolls from Porthi Aber. I've put most of the sweet croissants in the freezer as they are supposed to freeze okay. I also dropped off another bag of clothes at a charity shop. I'm slowly paring down my clothing reserves though as my weight is forever going up and down I feel the need to keep a selection of sizes just in case.

When I got home before having a shower followed by tea and pastries (I can't lie, I had an almond croissant -mmm, and a maple and pecan plait, usually my favourite but not as good when just past its 'best by' date) I cleaned up the result of one of the milk bottles leaking in the cool bag, put a saucepan of apples on to stew, sanded down a couple of last knots and then painted all of the 52 knots with knotting solution. After all that sitting down with my tea and pastries was so good. (Salad for supper tonight.)

Lesson Day.

It has stayed dry all day, sunny in the morning and grey in the afternoon.

Peter and I did some Welsh lesson preparation together after breakfast. I find it helps to go through the next few sections in our folders before the class, fewer rabbit in the headlights moments. 

In the lesson we began with more work on those pesky prepositions and then turned to a much more entertaining section about animals. Plenty of opportunities to chat and to learn new vocabulary. We had our tutor stumped when somebody asked what the Welsh for chicken run was and she had to resort to her advanced dictionary. Obviously not a term used in colloquial Welsh. There were some fun animal names, hamster - bochdew [bok d ow] / 'fat cheeks' and guinea pig - mochyn cwta [mok in coo ta] / short pig. Others were easy , eliffant, jiraffe, mwnci and teigr. I decided we might as well call flamingos - pink birds.

 

During the break and after class I sanded out the last few knots and washed down all the woodwork that will need repainting.

Salad has been made for supper and shortly I'll be off to the Hall for an hour of happy dancing.

The female blackbird in particular is fond of these fruits on the end hedge (can't remember what it is). This hedge is also full of powdery mildew which goes everywhere when I cut it especially with the electric trimmer. There's not much I can do about it but at least it seems that each species of plant has a powdery mildew specific to it and it shouldn't spread to any other plants.

Waiting for ............... .

........... a Spitfire.

After yesterday's anniversary flyby was postponed until today there was much anticipation in the village for today's appearance. It rained in the morning, take off from Valley was moved from 10.00 to 2.00 by which time the sun was shinning.

Peter and I stood on the terrace enjoying the warmth of the sun straining to catch a first glimpse of the Spitfire and two escort planes but to no avail. After an hour the weather closed in again (torrential rain) and we heard that take off had been moved to 4.00.

By that time Peter had gone out but I kept watch eagerly. I and others in the village thought the planes would come swooping along the coast from the Llyn Peninsula but that was not the case. All of a sudden three planes appeared high in the sky from the direction of Mach. As they reached the flat land behind the village they turned and headed off southwards. I managed to take four photos which is better than nothing.

 

Here is a  FB video taken by Kevin Talbot who was up on the hill behind the village.

In between waiting for the Spitfire I completed and sent my Welsh homework and also got on with more sanding of the paintwork. There are still three more knots to do in the hall before I can move on to the next phase.

I'm off to choir soon and for once I've found a bit of time to practise the Sing For Water songs. Luckily most of them are ones we sang two years ago.

All About Birds.

After a cold, wet night the day didn't look too promising either. Yesterday when I'd heard that there was a possibility of frost I'd brought all the succulents and trailing geraniums back into the kitchen. Now they're saying things are going to warm up so out the plants have gone again.

With the rain beginning to clear up and the forecast for tomorrow looking quite dire I went to the zoo this morning (with a jacket in case of rain). 

There I weeded over the small play area, the paths in the grass maze and most of the gravel by the ferrets. Mr Pea, the peacock has been allowed to roam free again. As I weeded the gravel on my knees up he came, as close as he could and spread out his tail feathers in a beautiful display. The shine on the feathers and the bright blue of his neck and body were just amazing. Then, as I had no grapes to give him (his favourite treat) he closed his tail and wandered off again.

It was quite busy at the zoo today. One family came in with a toddler who made a bee line for a large puddle where she jumped happily up and down until her leggings were completely soaked. Her mother wanted to get her into dry clothes immediately but the granny sensibly suggested waiting until the end of their visit.

 

Earlier at home I'd been amusing myself watching the garden birds. While the female blackbird gathered nesting material the male blackbird guarded the small handful of seeds I'd put out. A pair of sparrows had to wait until he'd had his fill before they could come down for their share. When a second pair of sparrows attempted to join in there was much angry chirping and a squabble in the hedge which resulted in the second pair having to wait their turn. No sharing in the bird world.

The lone cormorant in the bay only had to share his fishing spot with a chap fishing from the rocks. I suspect the cormorant had more success than the human.

The latest flowers to join the spring display are the snow-in-summer tumbling over the edge of one of the raised beds. It won't be long before they are joined by the many self-seeded aquilegias.

We had a good Pilates session. We were doing bridge with one foot on an exercise ball (about the size of a football) when the suggestion was made that if we wanted to increase the difficulty we could raise the other foot off the floor. I don't think many tried that though I managed about a micro second before losing my balance and having to plonk my foot quickly back on the floor. I'll try anything once.

Showers.

We've had sunshine and heavy rain today. While you expect to have showers in April what I wasn't expecting was an intense hail shower. My poor plants.

Knowing that rain was due later I got straight out into the garden this morning. I needed to move two plants, an azalea and a spirea. The spirea had already reached its promised height of 1m and was blocking out the small azalea that was behind it. 

The azalea wasn't hard to dig out with all its roots but the poor spirea got rather rougher treatment so will need some tlc in its new position nearer the wall.

I had enough time before the rain came to carry on thinning the escallonia hedge and the first section is now cut back to the width I want.

 

Then came the showers, lots of them with sunny spells between when I stood out on the terrace enjoying the warmth. That was my cue to work indoors carrying on with sanding the paint from the knots in another doorframe. Because my hands and knees can only take so much I have to do the sanding a bit at a time. Hopefully I only need to do one more sanding session.

I've also done all my usual routine including piano practice and washing the blue loo floor so I'm feeling satisfied with my day.

A house sparrow drying himself off after the hailstorm.

Now as promised here are some photos of the chapel at Salem. Originally built in 1821 then rebuilt in 1850 and extended in 1864 for the miners coming to work the new mines.

The Grade II listed chapel has recently been sold and despite objections by local residents planning permission has been given to convert it to a four bedroom home with a small extension.

I wondered why they need an extension as the building is large and high enough to make a second floor but perhaps it would be easier to have drains going to an extension rather than into the listed building.

And what will they do with the graveyard which has 308 graves? In some places the headstones are placed around the perimeter but then all you could is have grass or a wildflower meadow. 

This family grave is relatively recent (1975). The parents lived to 81 and 83 but their son died in 1941 aged 21. How sad.

Salem.

Today has been mostly dry and windy with brief spells (literally a couple of minutes) of rain.

Today's walk began in the hamlet of Salem near penrhyn Coch, (contrary to what Wiki says there are at least 2 villages called Salem in Wales and of course countless chapels also called Salem).

 

We began our walk by visiting the derelict Salem chapel (photos tomorrow) before following footpaths down the side of the valley to the Afon Stewi which we crossed before meandering along the other side of the valley and back round to Salem. With of course a lunch stop where we sprawled in a glade surrounded by gorse and other flowers.

Coming down into the valley we passed a well maintained farm? house which had a number of buildings around it. The building above looked to have originally been a barn possibly later converted to a dwelling.

They had kept some of the buildings as ruins and created a garden around them.

Back across the very small river and up through fields of sheep. The lambs are at the age where they are playing together in small groups. Such fun to watch.

We had a steep haul up the side of the valley before failing to find the final footpath which would have brought us back through the fields to Salem.

Instead we followed the road along the ridge and then downwards where we met two gorgeous Valais blacknose sheep. They were very friendly and I was too busy feeding this one gorse flowers to take more pictures which is a shame. It had the softest face and incredibly white teeth.

On the way home a rather scruffy looking fox ran across the road ahead of me.

The sun was shining when I got home so I sat outside with a cup of coffee planning my next moves in the garden.