Back To Mach.

It was a bright but chilly morning. In Mach, sheltered as it is from the sea winds it was positively warm. The afternoon back in Borth was much cloudier and greyer.

In Mach we almost had the library to ourselves though the town itself was busy. As we went through last week's homework I discovered a number of mistakes in the homework I'd already sent to our tutor. Oops. We practised our prepositions using the card game that I'd made which now has a home-made dice (I know it should be die but who says that?) with he/she/ they etc to get us used to the different forms of the prepositions. Then we carried on translating a book of short stories but there were so many unexplained idioms that we couldn't work out we've decided not to carry on with that book.

Afterwards I had my usual trawl around the charity shops. One thing I've been looking for was a bum-bag for when I'm riding on holiday to at least put car keys in and today I found one. Not your average nylon one but a soft leather one. Only £2.50.

Back home I got on with a few small jobs- another dab of paint on the knots, bringing down our cases from the loft as we're going up to see Romas and Laura, putting new batteries in some of the garden lights and washing some of the stuff from the back of the car. Friday's milk spill had leaked out of the bag which I hadn't noticed until I opened the boot yesterday and got a whiff of sour milk. Hopefully it's all dealt with now.

Now for the rest of the Sunday walk - Llanafan and round Trawscoed Mansion.

 

From Black Covert Woods we crossed the road and went past the old vicarage. Pete F. remembers being given a lift as far as here by the vicar back in the 70s. It's up for sale, details here. I reckon the roof needs to be repaired. You could see it bowing and there looks to be damp in the upstairs rooms. But the garden is gorgeous.

We stopped and chatted with the owners for quite some time and he told us about the strange mound in a field further up the footpath. We'd speculated about it the last time we walked this way and my guess that it was a bunker was correct. 

We carried on through semi-abandoned farm buildings,

and then reached the point where we could see the mound in the field. The chap had told us that it had been a bunker for the ministry staff, a nuclear fall-out shelter? He said his children used to climb in there and also said the hatch was sometimes locked and sometimes wasn't.

In 1947 the mansion house became the headquarters of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in Wales, and the home farm is still occupied by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and managed by the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER).

Naturally we diverted from the footpath to go and have a look. Sure enough there were no locks so I lifted up the metal hatch. A metal ladder went down about 10ft and although some people wanted to climb down we could see it was wet and dark at the bottom so decided not to. I didn't take any photos as I was holding the hatch up and we had disturbed an ants' nest.

Carrying on it wasn't far to the village of Llanafan where we had our lunch at the picnic tables by the football pitch.

From the edge of the village we could see Trawscoed Mansion in the distance, quite a long way from the bunker.

We had a gentle stroll through the once landscaped countryside swinging back round to the mansion from where it was a quick cut through the wood and the car park.

Black Covert Woods.

A crisp morning turned into a lovely sunny day.

It's always nice walking in the sunshine and I took so many pretty photos today that I shall spread them over a few days.

 

Ten of us plus a cute eleven month old cockapoo called Benjy met up at Black Covert Woods (Gelli Ddu) near Trawscoed, about 45 minutes drive from home. Bluebells and other spring flowers carpeted the floor of the woods.

We are really lucky to have so many of these woods and nature reserves all over the place. Usually there's a small car park and picnic tables with well maintained paths. It did seem a shame that this new picnic table has had to be bolted into the ground but that's modern life I suppose.

Our route took us along the Ystwyth river which runs down to Aberystwyth. (Aber - mouth of). The clear waters looked inviting though no doubt they were too cold for swimming or paddling.

The trees were covered with fresh green leaves and the air was filled with birdsong. 

The Ystwyth.

We stopped for a pre-lunch break (some one was hungry) right by the newly repaired bridge.

This is known as the swinging bridge and it certainly does that. As soon as you start walking on it you can see the base undulating ahead of you. Then as you approach the middle of the bridge it also tips from side to side, quite unnerving.

Part Two to come ......

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.