A Walk At Tynygraig.

Dry, sunny and chilly in the shade today.

This morning as I sat outside a light easterly wind flattened out the waves creating a rippled effect on the surface of the water. That made is relatively easy to spot a dolphin doing a bit of fishing a couple of miles away in the bay. I was especially pleased at the sighting as I haven't seen many dolphins this year.

 

The walk this afternoon started at the village of Tynygraig. I was glad I was being driven by somebody else as the directions we'd been given were a bit vague and we ended up having to stop and phone the walk leader to find our way to Y Felin (The Mill) but we got there in the end.

The first part of our walk was around the gardens and grounds of Y Felin. This included the old Manchester and Milford railway line.

We could have gone into the railway tunnel that lies just outside the property but it looked too wet inside to bother.

There was a large vegetable garden with raised beds, poly-tunnels and green houses (the owners have lived there for 45 years). I was most impressed with the triple section compost bin. The boards at the front slide out making it easy to remove the compost. 

This is the old mill pond which now runs a turbine that provides electricity for the house, along with a roof covered in solar panels.

The owner told us that he has plans to restore the original water wheel as all the parts are still in the wheelhouse though currently in a dismantled state.

We then went down to the 100ft waterfall cascading impressively down a sheer rockface. 

Going back along the river we came to an adit, an ancient mine entrance. The tunnel was slightly higher than head height but very wet underfoot. Some of us went in about 6ft as far as the tree trunk placed there as a barrier.

From there we climbed back up to the house and gardens and the thirteen of us ate our lunches perched along a couple of raised beds. Then we were invited into the house for cups of tea and fresh baked Bara Brith. We spent a long time there sitting around a very long table, chatting and admiring the art works on the walls.

Then a neighbour of our hosts took us across the fields to the small church of St Gwnnws. The church is fairly modern the original medieval church having been restored in 1829. The circular churchyard wall points to the site being a pre-Christian sacred place or possibly a fort. 

We were not able to get inside the church but in the entrance porch was the Llanwnnws stone, an ancient grave marker dating from the ninth century. It was moved to the porch for security.

From there we walked back down through the fields to the house and then home.

A Golf Ball And A Pea.

You know that autumn is here when you have to add wiping the condensation from the bottom of the windows to the list of morning jobs as was the case this morning. Not surprising as yesterday evening the stars had been shining in a cloudless sky. 

It did feel cold this morning and I'm glad all the tender plants are either in the porch or in the cold frame.

The day itself has been sunny with not a drop of wind so it wasn't worth moving the washing from the drying rack in the utility room to the outside washing line.

Today was a good day for working on the garage windows. This job has been a series of underestimations. (The photos below are of the worst window.)

Firstly before I had seen the windows from the outside I underestimated just how bad the damage was. Still worth trying to repair.

Next I underestimated how much of the wood moulding I would need. Fortunately it only came in 2m lengths and as I replaced the missing or rotten wood along the whole length of three panels I ended up with just 1cm left over. I also put in a 13 inch piece of bigger wood in the corner.

My next underestimation was of the amount of the wood filler I needed. I used the whole of a 1kg tin and a bit more I had left over from before but I still need more. I've ordered another large tin just to be on the safe side. At £26 for the bigger tin it's not cheap but it does the job and saves having to put in new windows.

My final underestimation, though that's stretching the meaning a little, was not realising the clear liquid I used to harden the wood earlier would leave white marks all over the tiled sills. It would have been easy to just wipe the tiles at the time but instead I had to give them a scrub as I don't like to leave things messy.

By the end of the afternoon the less damaged window has been filled and sanded and new wood put in the other window. The bottom piece for that window has been filled (mostly) and I just need to repair the upright pieces.

 

And the strange post title? Those are the measures given to mix the wood filler. A golf ball sized lump of the paste and a pea sized squirt of the catalyst. A very sensible pair of measures as everyone knows how big a golf ball is and peas are more or less the same size. You can't mix up too much at a time as it hardens quite quickly. 

After reading about specific (and expensive) black spot/algae remover for concrete tiles I had a go at seeing if bleach would do the trick. And by gum it does. I did a bigger section overnight and you can see from where I missed a corner how effective it is. There are only 20 of those very textured slabs at the bottom of the terrace steps and considering that even with the pressure washer I can't get them clean, this is a good solution.

I bought some reduced spare ribs yesterday and they've been simmering away in the slow cooker for our dinner tonight. I wondered if it was safe to cook meat on the low setting as per the recipe but a check with the meat thermometer showed that the temperature of the meat was in the 70s well above the recommended 63C.

Peter has been out rowing this afternoon (they're the tiny dot in the photo below) so I'm guessing he's looking forward to dinner too.

Windy.

Bright and breezy today.

I haven't been sitting outside early in the mornings so much recently but I really enjoyed watching the world wake up this morning.

The flocks of seagulls making their way southwards looked black in the early morning light and at first I wondered if they were rooks or even the large local flock of jackdaws. As they flew lower I could tell by the shape of their wings that they were gulls.

It's interesting trying to make sense of all the different lights from across the bay. Blue lights in Tywyn (8 miles away ) surely meant an ambulance so my thoughts went out to whoever that was for. 

More mundane were the orange flashing lights coming along the coastal road towards Aberdyfi. They didn't carry on through Aberdyfi but went up into the hills so my guess is a tractor.

At the stables I was greeted by the kittens and Halen had a long snuggle in my arms. I was going to take photos of them afterwards but there was a sudden downpour, the only one of the day. 

There were just four of us in the lesson and I rode Cody. Because I see how relaxed horses are when ridden bitless I tend to try and ride with a light contact which I get 'corrected' on. Of course it's different with school horses rather than your own and I will admit Cody went a lot better once I shortened my stirrups and my reins. Most of the lesson was in sitting trot which also helped.

Afterwards there was the usual round of dump, Hahav where I dropped off some houseplants, Morrison's, town and Lidl. On the way home I stopped at Huw's and bought a long length of moulding (wood) to use in the window restoration. I bought a pumpkin in Lidl (55p) not for décor but to make more soup as the last lot was so delicious.

By the time I got home all I was fit for was putting the washing in the machine (which is having an hour on the line for the wind to blow through) and collapse in front of the tv with tea, painkillers and an ice pack. In other words my usual Friday afternoon routine. 

 

Wet.

I generally greet Thursday mornings with a groan as I remember it's Welsh class day. To be fair I don't mind the actual lessons, our tutor pitches them at the correct level and we are making progress. It's more the fact that four hours (preparation plus lesson) is a big chunk out of the day.

At least today I was more organised with the other things I needed or wanted to do. I didn't get up especially early as Peter's snoring last night had sent me to the tv in the sitting room for an hour but even so I got a Bara Brith in the oven before breakfast.

Afterwards in view of the rain we could see and feel approaching I broke my routine (so hard to do) and left the washing up until after loading the car with shopping bags, my riding stuff and a number of house plants. They were taking up too much space on the utility room windowsill which gets used for cuttings and (in the spring) sowing seeds. I can't throw out plants but I'd asked in Hahav and they said they could take them to sell in their shop in town so that's where they're headed.

It was only after I'd bagged up some large pheasant grass plants which I'd allowed to grow 'in case' that I came back inside to wash up. I'm not good with changes of routine. Shortly after down came the rain and it's been raining ever since.

 

After class I did the 'would like to do' job of giving the utility room window and sill a clean doing my best to avoid any spiders. It looks so much better. Now I've got some time to relax before going off to disco aerobics.

I played around with this photo to try and get the correct floer colour with mixed results. In reality the leaves aren't as green and the flowers are an even deeper shade of purple. Very similar to the purple of the fuchsias above.

Washing Day.

More sun and wind today so a good day to wash the sheets.

Having cleared most of the plants from the terrace it was obvious that the terrace needed a going over with the pressure washer. This time instead of going all the way down the pavement and then carrying the pressure washer over the shingle garden I gave in and pulled it through the house instead. I had been worried that the wheels would mark the floor but luckily that wasn't the case.

It is always satisfying to see the film of green disappearing from the stone terrace and I was able to get rid of most of the black spots as well.

I carried on to do the the steps and most of the red paving slabs by the side of the house. The ones that lead to the garden steps are very textured and it's impossible to remove all the black algae (?). I may try one of the specific black spot removers that you can buy. 

It was a hard session on my back and I still had the ironing to do. But now I can look forward to crisply ironed sheets tonight after I get home from choir.

 

Going out in the garden to hang up the washing I noticed one of the new clematis flowering. It had snuck up behind the trellis so I hadn't even noticed it was there.

Windy.

Today has been windy and apart from once when a cloud released a few drops of rain, dry. A good drying day.

Before going down to the zoo I painted lots of wood hardener on the rotten soft parts of the wooden garage window frames. 

I spent a happy four hours weeding at the zoo, still plenty more to do next week. At one point another volunteer asked for some help in opening the gate to the giant tortoise run and bit later he couldn't move the bolt to the tortoise house. Hopefully he now knows that when bolts wont open first try lifting the gate (that worked for the gate) and if that doesn't work jiggling usually does (and did). While I was there I hand fed some cabbage to one of the tortoises which was outside. It was interesting to note just how strong their bite is (on the cabbage not me). It was making a kind of huffing noise, a bit off-putting as I didn't know if that was an angry or a happy sound. 

Once I got home I had time to take a break for an hour before going off to Pilates. It was a good session. I was a bit worried about my shoulder but that was okay. Peter is out at a meeting so I'm going to watch 70 Up which he wasn't interested in. 

Now for a few more snippets from St Ives.

This is Barnoon Hill which is on the route I took into St Ives having misheard the Satnav. I had offered to drive the last bit as Peter gets stressed in narrow streets especially when there are people wandering all over the road. Faced with this view I was pretty stressed too and yes the way got even narrower at the bottom. I drove very slowly in first gear and breathed out a big sigh of relief as I turned onto a slightly wider road. 

(Above) That's the view looking up from the bottom of the hill.

Naturally I made sure to check out the three charity shops. This one was a vintage charity shop and looked more like an Aladdin's cave. There were small signs on the shelves saying Yes we are a charity shop, as it really didn't look like one. I believe it is for the local hospice. I bought Peter a pack of vintage playing cards as he finds modern cards difficult to shuffle. The old ones slide between each other much more easily.

Finally, this is Seal Cottage which could have been my home had my mother wished. Mrs Sanders was a good friend to my mother and when she left the cottage to the St Ives Arts Society to be lived in by artists she stipulated that my mother had first refusal. But by that time we had moved to London and my mother turned down the offer.

The other side of the cottage sits on Porthmeor with a handy door onto the sand. I can remember sitting at that window being taught to play solitaire on a wooden board with marbles. Mrs Sanders also left me her piano and I had that piano for over 30 years until we moved out of London.

No Fool Like An Old Fool.

Photos are all evening light on Porthmeor.

I really should have known better than to drink (non-decaffeinated) coffee in the afternoon. Not only did I have a fancy coffee in the café but a while later I had a small cup of Syrian coffee. (Black and no sugar but I'll give anything a go.)

By the time I put my head down at midnight my mind was buzzing. Thoughts raced around my head until I put ear buds to listen to the World Service at 2.00 and I didn't get to sleep until after 4.30.

I was up again at 7.30 and sat outside watching the clouds in the east turn from a subtle purple/pink to plain grey. Nearby sparrows in a neighbour's hedge almost drowned out the gentle shushing of the waves.

But I have still had a busy day. While we were away the neighbours cut back the tamarisk trees by the garage giving me room to get to the windows. And what a state those poor windows were in. A combination of woodworm and the weather has rotted out a lot of the wood. 

Really the windows should be replaced but as it's only the garage and they aren't opening windows I'm going to see if I can restore them enough so that the glass doesn't fall out or rain gets in. 

My first step was to scrape and brush off all the flaking paint. Then as they were going to need more than the small amount of wood worm treatment I have left I ordered some from Screwfix in Aber. Along with a resin wood hardener and a large time of resin filler.

I jumped in the car, still in wellies and my paint spattered work clothes and headed to the industrial estate. When I got to Screwfix it turned out that I'd ordered the 5L tin which was far too much even for these windows. Unfortunately they don't sell 1L tins and neither did Toolstation. 

After dropping off our old house phone at Hahav I then went to Charlies who did have a 1L tin.

As soon as I got home I gave the window frames a though soaking with the woodworm treatment. That's step 2 done.

But my work wasn't quite finished. The windows at the front of the house had so much sea spray on them it was like looking at a foggy day. Nothing for it but to give them a wash. After which I sat down and watched 'Help We Bought A Village'.