Carnival Day.

Hedge cutting yesterday took its toll on my sleep and resulted in having to stay up until 2.00 to take another painkiller and then still not sleeping properly until a final tablet was taken at 4.00. Not the best before a busy carnival day. I have a feeling I'll be out like a light tonight.

By 10.00 I'd walked up to D's house where a group of us transformed the skiff into a watery scene with lifeguard themed flags and bunting. I went and registered us as 'Cardigan Bay Watch celebrating 25 years of lifeguarding.' Not the usual pithy name but one that reflected our location - Cardigan Bay (we wore silly cardigans too) and Bay Watch / lifeguards. I'm glad we went for the new Bay Watch outfits of blue tops the same shade of blue as the rowing club colours as a large group of walkers had also chosen lifeguards as their theme and were in the traditional yellow tops with red shorts.

Above - having pulled the skiff round to its position with all the other floats we retired back to D's house for drinks and snacks. 'Pamela Anderson' was there with her dog Ziggy and Jake accompanied his shark costumed owner.

 

Above - The judges (in orange vests) came round quite early and we did our best to explain all aspects of our float. We emphasised the fact that lifeguards have been keeping us safe and there hasn't been a single shark attack in Cardigan Bay in the last 25 years (okay we don't have sharks that attack but you never know). 

I took a few photos of the activity before the start of the carnival but will rely on FB to see and share the other floats, walkers and decorated houses.

It's a long walk all the way down the High Street but the crowds, music and general atmosphere made it enjoyable. It was even nicer when people I knew waved or came up for a chat. I had the bubble gun and did my best to keep a steady stream of bubbles floating over the boat.

The float behind us had taken 'The Sound of Music' as its theme and had speakers playing the main songs which kept us dancing along and often joining in. 

At the end of the carnival we pulled the skiff straight to the rowing club's compound rather than the main boat park by the beach. We took time to have a proper break before taking everything off the skiff. 

Peter and I then carried all our stuff home. After unpacking and an ice-cream I went back down to 'The Field' to wander round and take in the party atmosphere.

You really need to be with a group of people to enjoy the rest of the afternoon there. I walked round, had a long browse at a stall selling cheap plastic tat including lots of 'squishies' which are a bit of a draw to someone like me who responds to tactile stimuli but there wasn't anything that was just right. I did buy a metallic green, small jointed 3-d printed dragon for £2 but wasn't going to buy any of the expensive food on offer. Maybe not so expensive if you're making an occasion of the event but I was happy to wait until I got home and we'll have something to eat later.

Carnival Preparations.

Sun and wind today.

The butterflies were back on the lavender this morning. About a dozen of them including a single hummingbird hawkmoth and plenty of bees. Not wanting to disturb these seekers of nectar I've taken to walking over the shingle to get to the end of the garden rather than along the stepping stones close to the lavender.

After breakfast I drove to the other end of the village for the first stage of preparing the skiff for the rowing club's carnival entry. The sun was shining on the many holiday makers thronging the village and the bunting strung across the High St fluttered gaily in the wind.

We are fortunate that one of the club members has moved to the far end of the village and has space round the back of his house where we could put the skiff. Although all the painted cardboard can't be fixed on the boat until the morning in case it rains in the night we got a long rope tied round the boat and were able to work out how everything was going to be put in place. Much better than having to do it all tomorrow morning.

When I finally got home Peter went off to do the shopping and I cut all the hedges. All that earlier hard work reducing the height and width of the hedges certainly made today's trim much easier. Usually I have to spread the work out over several days but although my back was hurting by the end at least it is all done.

Nature Reserve Walk.

There was the very occasional shower this morning but the day has mostly been characterised by strong winds.

Maybe not the best day for a walk but as it's so rare that we manage to find a time that suits both of us to go walking we took a chance anyway. And it stayed dry.

 

I've been wanting to try the boardwalk around Cors Fochno (Borth Bog) for some time as it's so close and gives the chance to be right out on the raised peat bog which once covered all of the flat land between the hills and the sea here. 

It is possible to drive right down to the start of the nature reserve 

but as the boardwalk is only one mle long we decided to park just off the road and walk along the half mile track to the reserve. On one side of the track were blackberry bushes with already ripening blackberries. If we get a sunny day in the next few weeks I might go down to pick blackberries for the freezer and look for more wildlife at the same time.

The first part of the walk takes you through light woodland, mainly silver birch and willows. It was lovely to hear the wind rustling through the branches.

Then the boardwalk takes you right out onto the bog, a vast expanse of heather, bilberries and sphagnum moss. Over time men cut the peat turf for fuel and later dug drainage ditches to create dry fields at the edges of the bog for stock. 

The raised peat bog is full of specialised plants and small wildlife. Adders are common, too cold today though I did catch the swish of a lizard's tail as it scurried off the path. You can read more about the flora and fauna here.

A red-veined darter.

This noon fly was almost one inch long.

Back home I gave the concrete by the back gate another coat of paint. The brick-red paint which I'd got from the dump had dried to quite a vivid red which I'm not that keen on and is possibly why the can had be taken to the dump. Always up for a challenge I mixed in some black paint which has dried to a maroon brown. It still doesn't fill me with joy so next will be either black or dark grey. Even better, I've just been to check and another of my dump finds is a tin of navy blue which should do the trick.

I had been planning to go to choir tonight but in the afternoon my knee began to be very painful. I'm sure that's not from the walk but maybe either from working on my knees to do the painting or one of the random exercises I've been doing to make up for the lack of exercise classes this month. Peter's gone off for a quiz night with the rowing club and I shall be at home with an ice pack on my knee and some ice-cream inside me. That should take my mind off the pain.

The Trials Of Curtain Making.

It's been a day of heavy showers between spells of great warmth. I only hope this will be enough to damp down the tinder dry vegetation that has been such a fire risk for the countryside.

As it was too wet to work at the zoo I thought I would get to grips and finish the sitting room curtains. As usual things did not go quite to plan.

 

I've always made or at least altered curtains and to be fair they've got to be the easiest item of home sewing to do. Almost as easy as a simple cushion cover. 

Initially my thoughts were - cut 2 pieces of fabric, hem one, pin them together and cover the raw edges with the curtain header tape and sew 2 lines of stitching with the sewing machine. Yesterday I'd done the first steps and thought it wouldn't take long to finish off today.

That was before I decided to pin and press the sides of the muslin (which I'll probably hand sew), narrowly avoided disaster when I stabbed my finger with a pin and began to drip blood and right at the end when I went to trim the loose threads discovered a tangled mass of threads on the 'good' side of the curtain.

That sorted I hung the first curtain just to check I hadn't made any serious miscalculations and saw ..... that because the black-out fabric blocks the light the curtain is a very different white to the wall. More of a 'bright white' than a 'soft white' as light bulbs are described, or even very light grey.

I'm very aware of colours and this stood out a mile but what was I to do? The black-out fabric only comes in white or black and changing the white muslin for cream would be too yellow. Then I had an idea. Look carefully at the bottom right hand corner of the curtain. I pinned some cream muslin behind the white and Yay! it adds that little bit of warmth to the colour.

Off I went to order some cream muslin but even that wasn't without problems. Not many places had cream muslin, one was too narrow and the other took some sorting to get through the payment page. Hopefully once it arrives it won't take too long to finish the curtains though I will have to unpick the curtain headed tape from the first curtain (or maybe sew the new muslin below the tape).

 

Later I did some minimal gardening between showers when I topped up the pond from the water butt and pulled out a few errant montbretia from under a hydrangea.

Rain !

Photos from yesterday's walk.

Quite interesting weather today. It was a little cloudy in the morning but then suddenly became very warm indeed. After our Welsh practice at the library in Mach I had my usual stroll around the charity shops (didn't find anything today). Each time I came out of a shop (they didn't have air conditioning) walking outside was like jumping into a warm bath. An unusual, for the UK, and pleasant experience.

 

 

Back home by the sea the air temperature was not so dramatically warm but not cold either. Then the sky clouded over and for a short time we had rain. It didn't last long here though inland the clouds were very dark so maybe they had more rain.

The first thing I'd done on arriving home was to bake another Bara Brith as Peter was down to the last slice of the one in the cupboard. This time the Bara Brith didn't have so many nuts as somebody had been munching their way through the packet that had been in the cupboard. I did add some extra walnuts from the tub of walnuts we keep to have with breakfast.

Afterwards I'd planned to do a bit of outdoor painting but as it had turned wet by that point I decided to do some sewing instead. 

I had thought it would be simple to get two basic curtains sewn but I only got half-way before stopping for the day. Although I only need to sew six seams it was the careful measuring, cutting and pinning of the 140cm wide fabrics that took time. Knowing my tendency to make silly mistakes I measured and re-measured several times for each of the four large pieces of fabric. 

I've hemmed the muslin which is now pinned to the black-out fabric so all that should be left to do is to pin and sew on the curtain header tape. I've left the sewing machine set up so with any luck I'll finish the curtains tomorrow and won't have to keep climbing on a stool to fix the throw across the window to block out the light escaping around the edges of the venetian blind.

Castell Bwa Drain.

The day began well with a dolphin sighting close to shore before breakfast. Though I got annoyed with the kayaker who decided to try (unsuccessfully) to paddle closer. There are signs all over the beach telling people to remain 100 yds from the dolphins so as not to disrupt their feeding.

After our usual leisurely Sunday breakfast I just had time to add a final coat of paint to the metal gates before giving H ( a fellow walker) a lift to J's home where J drove us to Bwa Drain near Nant Yr Arian.

 

This week's walk took us to the iron age hillfort, Castell Bwa Drain (Thorn Arch Castle) which overlooks the Rheidol valley.

Once again I was walking some of the same route I'd ridden the other week including this road passing through Bwa Drain farm.

On our way to the hillfort we passed the ruins of Pen Castell (Castle end/head/top), a large 19thC ruin. There was much speculation on the purpose of the structure comprising six stone pillars each with a niche for a large beam on the outer side. 

Many years ago some of our group had been to parties at the nearby home of Michael Wilding (son of Elizabeth Taylor) and there was talk that this ruined building may also have been a party venue.

The house is in a sorry state and has sunk into further disrepair after a number of large trees had fallen across the building. Below is how it looked when we walked there only two years ago.

Reaching the well preserved ramparts of Bwa Drain it was easy to see why that site had been chosen. A thousand feet above the Vale of Rheidol there were views inland towards Devil's Bridge,

and in the other direction right out to....

Pen Dinas, (centre of photo below) another iron age hillfort crowned by a more recent monument celebrating the Battle of Waterloo.

According to one site I read these hillforts were more "a symbol of power within the landscape while their function may have had as much to do with ostentation and display as defence." Though I think having a line of sight between those and  other hillforts also played a part in their location. 

Following a lunch stop on Bwa Drain we made our way westwards along the brow of the ridge to a copse around the ruins of a building which seems to have been mostly constructed from white quartz rocks. I have yet to find any further information about the building.

After our walk we stopped at the home of another group member to have tea and admire the work she has done on her garden. Our visit was cut short by H and J getting alerts on their phones. They have recently joined the coastguards in Borth and were being paged to attend an incident. 

As this incident was to guard some ordnance found on the beach at Ynyslas, a very common occurrence, we headed back to Borth though not with the same urgency as if it had been for an incident involving people. During the summer the local coastguards are called out about four times a week but over the year it averages to one a week.

Chalkfest and By-The-Wind sailors.

A lovely summer's day for the start of August. The breeze was refreshingly cool in the morning but later died down and was much warmer when it returned in the afternoon. 

As usual Friday had taken it out of me and I didn't get up until 7.00 having closed my eyes again after I first woke at 5.00. 

Too often I've been working hard, (usually hedge cutting or painting) and feeling sorry for myself when I hear and see people enjoying themselves on the beach. So having drunk my tea on the terrace I decided to put work aside for once and went out for a beach walk shortly after 8.00. 

A number of people were out running mainly on the road but apart from a couple of people fishing the beach was almost deserted. Though of course there were a couple of people walking their dogs despite the fact that there are plenty of signs saying dogs are banned from the beach. I did my civic duty and asked both dog walkers if they were aware of the ban. Yes, said one, That's why I come on the beach early. What an attitude. He may or may not pick up his dog's mess but it still contaminates the sand. 

Notable today were the many by-the-wind sailors (velella) in the strand line. At first glance their colour and size gives them look of mussel shells but on closer inspection the upright sail and their jelly-like nature can be seen. They have stinging tentacles which are at the worst a mild irritant to some people but are not classed as jellyfish. Sad to see so many blown ashore by the wind which is their only means of propulsion.

Sad too was the sight of a dead cetacean rolling about at the edge of the waves. Long dead it wasn't possible to tell if it was a common dolphin or a harbour porpoise. I took photos and  sent a report to a group which keep records of all cetacean strandings in Wales.

Not so benign was this lion's mane jellyfish (as far as I can tell) which has a very unpleasant sting. 

My plans for the day were to finish off some bits of outdoor painting and then get out the electric hedge cutter to tidy up the hedges. But painting a pair of metal garden gates as well as some brickwork at the bottom of the garage wall and around an old drain cover with brick red paint (free from the dump) took up most of the time and the hedges had to wait.

It was only at the end of the afternoon that I was able to walk to the other end of the village to Chalkfest. The annual chalking of the back of the sea wall is part of a fortnight of village activities and events that culminate in the Carnival next Friday.

Anyone can have a go and there were lots of interesting entries.

Some of the submerged forest that sits under the sand.