Stormy Weather.

I cannot believe that this storm, which raged all evening, through the night and still continues has not been given an official storm name.

Yesterday while I lay on my mat in class (we were doing a stretch class with some Pilates exercises thrown in) over the ambient music I could hear much roaring and hammering. Indeed I thought the music had a waterfall or thunder component but it was just the rain and wind on the metal roof. I did keep my eyes on the roof to check that there wasn't any untoward movement. Which there wasn't though the back doors blew open at one point.

By the time I got home I found the lid to the water butt had blown off, luckily only to the other side of the road, and in just a few hours the extra large water butt had filled to the brim.

This morning it was just as wet and windy (my in-house sea dog Pete reckons 40-50mph.) which was not the best thing for recycling day. Most people put their re-cycling out in the council issued plastic bags but those wouldn't have stood a chance. Even my plastic tub with three heavy terazzo tiles and then another two inside began to blow away down the road forcing me to put it by the side of the porch instead of out on the pavement. 

At least it hasn't rained so much during the day but the wind has not stopped and is howling and whistling around the house even now. In the photo below those white blobs are a sea foam blizzard being blown right up beside the house. 

 

Once the tide had turned and there was some sand to walk on I wrapped up well and took myself off for a beach walk. I knew it would be windy and possibly wet so I was fully dressed in waterproofs but I hadn't realised just how cold the wind was. As I walked one way up the beach one side of my face turned to ice in the chilly north-westerly wind and then the other side froze as I came back along the beach.

I haven't done much else today though I will be off to choir tonight. I did a stint on the exercise bike and thought I would work on my Welsh by watching S4C with Welsh subtitles. A good idea but not when the subtitles lagged a couple of sentences behind the words being spoken. Instead I indulged in a few episodes of The Other Bennet Sister.

The Rain Is Back.

This morning the sky was grey and it felt as if it would be raining anytime soon. It had rained in the night and the water butt by the street already has a couple of inches of water in it.

Luckily the rain held off until the afternoon when things turned quite stormy.

I managed to get a couple of hours at the zoo during which I cut back the last buddleias, shared the cut branches between all the different pens of goats, weeded a short gravel path and weeded a flowerbed by the wolf-dogs. 

The ewes in the field on the other side of the zoo's fence have been busy. Last week there was only the occasional bleating of a lamb in the distance but this week the air was filled with the high pitched bleating of many lambs and the deeper replies of their mothers.

When I got home I disconnected a small water butt that I don't need at the moment to reuse one of the fittings and the connecting hose to make an overflow pipe for the large water butt by the street. That's two less things to buy. 

I'll be off to Pilates this evening and I suspect that I'll be driving. There's no point in arriving absolutely soaked.

 

Granny's Phone.

The sun tried to make an appearance today but it is definitely turning colder and feels as if rain is on the way.

In the morning we went to Mach for our usual Welsh language practice with our friends. We haven't met up for a while as Anne went on holiday to NZ for three weeks. Lucky her. 

The first thing was to go through all the lessons Anne missed. Oh, those wonderful prepositions. It was really helpful to go over it all and explain each exercise to Anne. We finished off by translating another story from a book for learners. We only got half-way because we couldn't stop laughing at the story line. Granny had passed away two years previously but they still celebrated her birthday with a cake. That was odd enough but then there was the matter of the phone. Granny had been very fond of her phone, constantly phoning or texting her friends and family. So fond that the phone had gone with her into the coffin. And mother and her daughter continued to send Granny texts on special occasions. At that point we were laughing so hysterically that we just couldn't carry on. Wer're an immature bunch.

 

On the way home we stopped at Glaspwll for some honey. At £5 a jar it's a fair price for what it is though more expensive than the honey in the supermarket. But after listening to The Food Programme on R4 about how that honey comes from China where the bees are kept in warehouses and fed on sugar alone we would prefer not to buy that honey.

While Peter spent the afternoon playing pool I got on with things at home. First up was the kitchen sink. I'd noticed it wasn't draining properly so decided to check the U-bend. Not an easy task when the fixed  cupboard shelf is almost touching the bottom of the U-bend. When I finally got the U-bend off I found that although it was clear there was a build up of gunk at the start of the pipe that leads off it. I got it all cleaned up and put back together and felt quite proud of myself.

Next was those pesky water butts. Peter had found me the hole boring attachment which was another obstacle overcome. First I had to rearrange the piles of paving slabs that went under the water butts to get them high enough. Plenty of heavy lifting there. Finally all I had to do was drill holes in the water butts (one too many in one of them.) and cut the drain pipes to fit the diverters. It seems I'm incapable of cutting in a straight line at least when cutting drain pipes in situ with an old wood saw. I practised on the one behind the house first before doing the one by the road. Everything is now fitted though I need to finish off the overflow pipes, just a couple of things to buy for that.

The rest of the photos are from yesterday-

Felicia is an avid gardener and her garden is stunning. There's a cottage garden in front of their house, (which used to be the kennels for Nanteos,) then a large kitchen garden and beyond that a woodland garden.

At this time of the year the garden is full of many different varieties of hellebore.

A sad story about the pond. Every year a pair of ducks come and build a nest at the edge of the pond. They then eat all the wildlife in the pond, tadpoles, newts, water snails and other invertebrates. Then the ducklings hatch but before they are big enough to walk to the stream on the far side of the field it only takes 2 or 3 days for the buzzards and kites to eat all the ducklings. The end result is no ducklings and an empty pond.

Nanteos Mansion.

There was a glimmer of sun this morning but for the most part the slightest of mists gave a clammy feel to the air.

Today's walk began at Coed Penglanowen, then around Nanteos mansion before heading to Coed Tamsin where we had a long break admiring Felicia's amazing garden. 

Afterwards Bob took us on a shortcut back to the mansion which involved climbing over two very rickety stiles. Not only were the stiles in imminent danger of collapse but so too were the fences on either side. With my long legs I was able to step over without putting any weight on the stiles but the others who needed to climb on the wooden planks required people holding up each side of the fence.

 

The Nant Paith runs through the nature reserve with muddy trails on either side. Apart from the trees that had been brought down last year by the storms there has been a lot of clearing of the invasive rhododendrons. 

Celandines were everywhere shining in the thin sun and here and there the first wood anemones were opening their delicate white flowers.

White blossom on blackthorn trees in the distance.

The lodge house.

When we last walked around Nanteos Mansion just over a year ago it was still being run as a country house hotel but shortly afterwards it closed and was put up for sale. It is still on the market at a bit over a million pounds. This is the only information I can find on-line but I believe it is being offered for sale outside of Wales. 

The crumbling stable block reminds me of the stable block at Arlington Court near our old home in Devon.

At Coed Tamsin all 15 of us sat around a large garden table enjoying tea and biscuits with whatever packed lunches we had with us. There were even ice-creams. I'm currently doing my best not to eat sugary foods so I stuck to coffee and oat cakes. Afterwards we had a walk around the garden but more of that tomorrow ...... .

Hazy.

The haze has stayed with us all day. Once again if you were in the sun it was relatively warm but the shade was definitely chilly. Less wind today so the washing wasn't quite dry when I brought it in.

I woke at 6.00 then decided to have a couple more hours of sleep for once instead of sitting out on the terrace. But before breakfast I sat out in the front garden enjoying the sun. (All the photos apart from the last one are from the morning.)

That was after I'd put out the seeds for the birds who start hanging around as soon as they see me. The RSPB are now attributing a major decline in the populations of chaffinches and greenfinches to infections being spread at birdfeeders. The small handful I put out each day only attracts a few house sparrows, dunnocks and blackbirds at a time and then a fat woodpigeon who hoovers up the remains. 

Behind me as I sat on the wall I could hear the coastguard's hammer as they set up for a morning of  jumping over abseiling down the cliff training. Next to me a bumble bee searched the arabis flowers. Then two serious runners came along in 'proper' running kit. The morning peace was shattered by one of them playing music really loudly. I'm afraid this grumpy old woman said in a loud voice ' Put your headphone in.' as they went past.

I had hoped that today I would finally be able to set up the last two water butts but that didn't quite happen. I find it very disheartening when a plan doesn't work. I had - two drain pipe diverters, two taps, two fittings to use for overflow pipes and an assortment of washers and jubilee clips should they be needed. But what I didn't have was the drill attachment to cut holes for the overflow pipes. (I've found that the diverters' bit that closes when the water butt is full stops working after a while.) No problems fitting the taps but now I have to wait until we get a 2.6cm hole cutter thingy to finish the job.

Then I moved onto the next garden task which was to shift a large plastic tub from the back garden to next to the porch. I'd already removed the dead acer but still had to dig out all the soil before I could lift the tub and carry it to its new spot. After which the tub had to be re-filled with compost and soil. I made sure not to carry too much at a time but any carrying is not good for my back. The last thing was to plant the tub with corms of crocosmia mansorium (giant montbretia). The porch will shelter them from the wind and they will go nicely with the montbretia growing in the planters all along the garden wall. 

Next I got the pressure washer out and cleaned the last stretch of paving that goes from the utility room door out to the drive.

I also planted the new fruit bushes and then finished my gardening by cutting back a sage plant which had nearly filled a raised bed and was smothering the other plants. I hope it's not like the rosemary which died back to just one branch after I cut it back (a bit) last year.

Paddington Bear has had to be mothballed, encased in plastic until next year after I discovered that the scarecrow competition is happening when we will be away. Talk about being ready in advance!

By the time I went to sit on the terrace with a cuppa at the end of the afternoon the sun had dipped behind our neighbour's house and it wasn't exactly warm in the shade. I sat there looking at the sun on the beach and feeling cold when I realised I could go and sit on the little wall on the cliff and be in the sun too. Duh. Which is what I did, and had a couple of conversations with people I know.

Not a bad day and those water butts will get done eventually.

Hazy.

There was more blue sky to be seen early in the morning than for the rest of the day after the haze had settled in. There was a bit of a bite in the air though in town plenty of people were walking around in t-shirts (optimism maybe?) and some even in shorts.

There were six of us in the ride today and of course I rode Tex. I found out that unlike many of the other ponies he is not currently 'on loan' as the girl who had him has grown away from riding. The stables has a scheme where you 'loan' one of the horses or ponies on Sundays when there are no lessons. (All horses get the day off on Mondays.) You can do whatever you like, hack out, use the school or the fields with their permanent jumps and generally look after the horse during the day.  Much as I would love this unless we win the lottery, which we don't do or win on the premium bonds, which we intend to buy, my state pension isn't enough for me to afford it.

I had a good ride today, Katie had asked us to work on getting the ponies going with more energy and Tex certainly went up a few gears even breaking into canter when I asked him to lengthen his stride down the long side. He also comes onto the bit, at least at halt. Now all I need is for him to maintain it when we move off though there were a few moments in trot.

 

Next stop after the stables was the dump where I got rid of a carload of garden waste. And since I was on the industrial estate I called in at Hahav. There I found this nicely engraved tankard with a pewter and zinc lid all for the princely sum of 25p. I thought it would be handy for Peter so that the flies don't get in his beer when we sit outside.

On the way in to Morrison's I cast my eye over the plants and came away with three interesting fruit bushes. Although I don't really have room they are part of my future proofing plan of having fruit bushes in the back garden. Less work in the years to come. It's worth a try at only £6 for all three.

By the time I'd got the shopping put away and the apples stewing I was ready for a sit down with a big mug of tea. Looking out of the windows the sea was almost completely flat and an interesting silvery grey colour. For at least half an hour this dog had a wonderful time racing in and out of the sea. No people swimming today as it was verging on chilly.

Later there was a delicate pink sunset to enjoy.

Still Nice.

A bit hazier today and not quite as warm as yesterday but still a very pleasant day.

No sign of a sore throat this morning and my back has settled back to its normal level of soreness so that's good as well.

 

Being Thursday most of the day has been spent working on learning Welsh. As often happens I needed to do my homework at the last moment. This was the wonderful Robin Radio where we have to listen to a conversation, answer questions and do some translation. 

The class itself wasn't so hard today unlike last week's brain fog. Mainly because although it's still conjugating prepositions this week we only had to remember one - am which can be either about or for (in certain circumstances). We did have an amusing interlude where after being in a breakout room where one of the discussion topics was things we did not like about our area the subject of dog poo came up. And of course we didn't know the correct word to use. Our tutor gave us both versions of the word paw = poo and the other stronger word that we wouldn't use in polite company. But as she said we are there to learn the language. And if you for example drop a stone on your toe you might well use the phrase cachu hwch - sow's sh** as an expletive. 

Of course I did manage some time sitting out in the garden. I have a penchant for counting things and already the flower count is up to 22 different varieties just in the front garden. As I sat outside I could hear lawnmowers busy in other people's gardens and when I walked down to the Hall for disco aerobics the air was filled with the smell of fresh cut grass. Even nicer was finding it still light as I walked home afterwards. That's the first time this year. And I had a pretty pink and grey sunset to look at on the way with a single star in the blue sky above.