Bright.

There have been moments of sun today but generally it has not been very warm. I've seen a few terns plunge diving in the distance and in the morning a seal was fishing very close to the beach. (My photo of its head is quite boring.)

After breakfast Peter went down to the boat park to meet up with members of the local council to discuss the removal of the derelict boats, trolleys & kayaks there. This has been an issue for some years but at last something is being done. People will be given 30 days to move their rubbish stuff after which it will go to the dump. Then people who have seaworthy craft will be able to use the space.

While Peter was out one of the rowing club carnival committee came up to the house and we discussed ideas for the carnival and set up a WhatsApp group so that we can keep in touch. Neither of us could work out how to get me back on Spond which is the usual way the club members communicate.

For the rest of the day I've either gardened or did more  research for our holiday. The nearer stables got back to me and they only do 'walk' treks so it will have to be Odysseia stables. As it's an hour's drive into the mountains I used Google street view to familiarise myself with the route. (Love being able to do that.) Not all of it but going through the villages and then up the rough mountain road. I know I'll have a Satnav but being ever cautious I've written down a full set of instructions just in case. The last section reads like something from 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt.' - past houses, over a bridge, ignore brown sign on the left, past chapel on the left, keep on going up, up, up.

Last night's sunset.

Panic.

Cloudy and cooler in the morning but eventually the sun came out for the afternoon. Pretty good for a Bank Holiday weekend.

This morning's RNLI crew training included towing a jet ski, something that's needed with the increasing numbers of  jet skis taken out on the water by inexperienced owners.

Not only did last night's heavy rain give the plants a welcome drink and make it easy to pull out any weeds but it left leaves and petals bedecked with water droplets that glistened like crystals in the morning sun.

I have spent my day working on our holiday itinerary (got to have things written down in a notebook which never loses signal or runs out of power) interspersed with some light gardening and more serious sitting in the sun and viewing the world.

I had one moment of panic when I decided to do a preliminary weighing of my cases and found that one alone weighed nearly 12 kilos! Then I realised I was looking at the pounds not the kilos on the dial. Panic over when I realised it was only 5 kilos. I may even be able to shove my riding boots in my case rather than have to stomp around the airport in them.

Tired.

Although it hasn't rained today (yet) we've gone from a hint of warmth to a touch of chill as the sea mist creeps in.

I'm feeling really tired today. I bought a large bag of potting compost yesterday and I think lifting it in and out of the shopping trolley, twice so the bar code was at the top, and then in and out of the car boot has strained the thigh muscles in my right leg. The pain stopped me from sleeping properly last night despite extra painkillers, Voltarol and an ice pack and it's still sore today. At least I know I'm lifting with my legs and not my back.

This morning I re-potted the trailing geranium cuttings into large pots for the summer and I still have the original plants so there should be a good display on the terrace.

I allocated the weekend to a relaxed gathering and packing of all the things we need to take on our upcoming hols. We only take the basics but by the time you add in toiletries, medication and technology the weight begins to add up. I'm not looking forward to seeing how much it all weighs. Last time there was a limit to the weight of the carry-on case (which didn't get weighed anyway) but not on the under seat back-packs so everything heavy went in those. This time with KLM there's a combined weight limit. Last time we took stuff we found we didn't need but there are also some things it would have been useful to have.

Then came more stress (I struggle with executive function at times) as I tried to Street View the road to the stables that I want to ride from. It looked to be an awful lot of mountain dirt roads which I find a bit worrying to do on my own for the first time. Yes, the hire car has Satnav but I never take that for granted. I prefer to do a virtual drive first and will have the road map of Crete by my side. My suggestion that Peter came with me the first time on the route did not go down too well.

Wondering if the journey was going to be too long I even looked at a couple of other 'horse riding' places nearer to where we are staying but they seem to cater for tourists who have never been on a horse before. Not quite what I'm after. I'll look at it again with fresh eyes tomorrow.

Out in the garden these aquilegias must have got the dress code memo for the 'blue' bed. (Blue iris, bluebells, a deep blue hydrangea and almost blue hardy geraniums.) Elsewhere in the garden the aquilegias are deep purple, very pale blue and soft pink.

People have come down for the Bank Holiday weekend se they're going in the sea despite the lack of sun. Children never seem to mind the cold.

Another beaver was spotted on the beach this morning at the far end of the village. There were concerns as it looked exhausted from running into the sea to avoid people on the beach. It may also have not been well as I read now that it has been captured to be checked over. Sadly yesterday there was a dead beaver on a beach down towards Clarach. Will update if I find out more.

Rain.

I was up early enough to see the sunrise. And true to the old saying the red sky was a herald of rain.

It began raining just as we were about to lead our horses into the school and then to add insult to injury the overhead sprinklers in the school carried on for much longer then usual. 

But the rain was much needed as for the past three nights wildfires have been burning in the Elan Valley (photo from the web) and at Teifi Pools and yesterday there was another wildfire. The Hafod estate has been closed to the public as a precaution and people were being asked not to drive on certain roads.

 

But here all was peaceful as I sat gazing at the view. Everything was quiet as the seabirds, bar the odd one or two, had left the area. The farmers are muckspreading at the moment which generally yields a good bounty of worms and other invertebrates.

With few birds to watch I began to notice more subtle details around me such as the ever changing cloud formations. There's so much to see once you start looking.

Down at the stables I had my lovely Tex again. I was there early and gave his mane a good brushing. He has a thick mane which usually flops on both sides but today by the time I brushed out the hidden tangles I was able to get it all over to one side. 

There were only four of us in the lesson and after doing lots of work on 10m circles we ended the lesson with some a lot of cantering. I didn't ask Tex to canter from walk but was satisfied with him cantering from trot every time I asked. Earlier in the trot work he came nicely onto the bit too. I couldn't help laughing (as  did Chloe who was teaching us) when on being asked to lengthen his stride down the long sides his little legs went ping, ping, ping all the way.

After the usual supermarket shopping I went into town where I donated a bag of clothes to a charity shop. And came out with this party dress form Next for £4. (£42 on eBay.) It's too snug on the hips to simply shorten it for a disco top. I'm thinking slits up the sides after shortening as well as a bit of alteration to the top. The green sequins look blue from different angles, mermaid/ peacock?

Before coming home I drove to Tal Y Bont to pick up four more small pallets from the car park behind the hall. The printing company there often leaves out pallets for people to help themselves. I have plans to use the pallets to make a two level compost bin in the back garden. That should save some trips to the dump especially as our neighbour takes the hedge trimmings to burn on his farm.

PS. Tonight's sunset.

Warming Up.

Lots of sun today. The morning's easterly wind brought a distinct chill but by the afternoon the wind had swung round and brought some welcome warmth.

I had my dressing gown washed and dried in no time and spent a happy hour later on brushing back the fluff into the now not so fluffy fleece. As well as the brush I use I've found that for the really flattened areas (around the cuffs etc) a metal nit comb does the job if slowly. Next time I must remember not to brush my fleece whilst wearing a black top. 

This morning a pair of stonechats made a rare visit to the garden. A far more regular visitor was the woodpigeon marching up the path to hoover up every single seed put out for the birds. 

There were only six of us in our Zoom class today. We continued with learning the 'short form' future tense which is the 'future simple tense' in English. "I will .........". (I looked it up and there are resources for teaching all four future tenses to primary age children. Yes, learn to use them but I'm sure you don't need to know the terminology. Nor fronted adverbials!!)

Afterwards I escaped to the terrace with my dressing gown and brush where I covered myself in grey fluff and in half an hour I'll be marching down to the Hall for disco aerobics. I'm wearing shorts today as it's so warm.

Sunny.

Lots of sun today but still with a chilly wind. A good day for drying the washing.

After yet another stressful moment of emails not forwarding in a readable format and then disappearing we finally got our homeward air tickets printed. Then came the problem of how to comply with the request to scan our passports. In the end a helpful chatbot took our details and filled in whatever it was they needed and we're all set.

It was a bit windy for hedge cutting but that's what I did anyway.  That was once I'd retrieved the contents of our black bin bag which had blown down the road and all over the cliff after the seagulls decided to rip it open.

The hedge trimming was my main job for the day though I had to spend some time tying in all the clematis shoots that were waving around in the wind. With the ironing done I was able to enjoy sitting out on the terrace for a bit longer than usual. For so many years I've spent most of my time working on one project or another and now at last I have more to relax and enjoy the view.

This evening I went to choir where we revisited that old Welsh favourite Calon Lan as it has been added to the Sing For Water programme. It's generally popular with audiences too as it is sung a lot in schools.

Bottle Kilns.

 

Whilst I was familiar with the sight of bottle kilns I'd never thought much about how they worked so it was interesting to look inside. (I think the iron bands are recent additions to maintain the structural integrity of the kilns.)

So- inside each bottle is a barrel shaped brick kiln that stands on a platform/ base inside which the coal fires would have burned. There are openings all around the base through which more coal would have been shovelled onto a bed of fire. The temperature of 1,000C would have had to be maintained for days at a time for the firing of the pots. Imagine the heat and fumes while all that was going on.

The pottery was fired in rough clay containers and in order for the factory owners not to lose money by letting the kiln cool down the men had to carry out the heavy containers while everything was still red hot.

Sunset last night.

Gladstone Pottery Museum.

Cloudier and colder today. Nice when it was sunny but the sun never lasted very long.

At the zoo I spent most of the time weeding by the ferrets' enclosure watched by two little furry faces peering at me through the wire. It was very quiet today, no visitors at all just some pupils from the secondary school on their animal handling course. 

Back home I did some more gardening and baked a Bara Brith which got a little overdone as I became engrossed in a bit of sewing. Not long and I'll be off to Pilates.

Sunday- 

After a good night's sleep we went off to have breakfast at the Green Dragon, a large and very old pub that happens to be a Weatherspoon's. Not being a pub goer or a visitor to restaurants I was quite impressed with breakfast menu. I had eggs benedict on black pudding and Peter had a traditional breakfast fry up. 

Afterwards I sent Peter off to set up the satnav while I had a wander around Leek with my camera.

St Michael's Church, Leek.

We then headed off to Stoke to the Gladstone Pottery Museum. The above photo shows numerous bottle kilns in just a corner of the city. No wonder Stoke is also known as The Potteries.

Fellow fans of 'The Great Pottery Throwdown' will no doubt recognise the entrance through the tunnel where the workers would have punched their time cards.

It's an excellent museum and we learnt a lot about the processes involved in industrial pottery production in Victorian times. Interesting but terrible conditions for the workers.

The noise from just a couple of machines was horrendous and that was only for a few minutes until we moved to another area of the museum. Add to that the diseases cause by the toxic chemicals (lead etc) and the dust not to mention the sheer physical hard labour. It made for unpleasant reading to see that many children under 14 worked in the potteries and in 1861 there were 593 children just 5 years old working !! in the potteries of Stoke.

Moulds for making items that were not of a regular shape such as handles and spouts. Below is the chemist's room where new glazes were developed. There was so much to see in the museum including rooms of tiles, baths and toilets (the aromas in the air around the very earliest toilets were too much for my hyper sense of smell).  

We finished off with tea and cake (for me) and a Staffordshire oat cake with cheese (for Peter) before the three hour drive home. 

Here is a video (not mine) of the museum.