A Working Break.

We're back again from another trip up to Borth. One reason why we tried to have a few restful days beforehand. We drove up on Monday or rather Peter drove and I cowered as I worried about every possible collision. I'm not confident on motorways preferring to set off in the early hours of the morning to avoid the constant congestion. It took 4 1/2 hours to get up there, a good time especially considering the horrendous conditions we encountered around Bristol while still on the M5. The light rain suddenly became torrential and we were trapped in the fast lane by lorries which threw up even more spray. The visibility was so poor that the traffic slowed though not as much as I would have liked or I suspect road safety experts would recommend. The rain eased up before we crossed over into Wales and from there on the miles seemed to fly by. There are a lot of very well maintained roads in Wales compared to the pothole ridden Devon roads. As usual the clouds thinned out as we got to the coast and having unpacked the car we relaxed outside with cups of tea and the wonderful view.

After the drive Peter went down to the pub for some networking and off the cuff Welsh lessons. Once you get into Wales all the road signs are in both languages so we have fun practising the Welsh versions. Peter is a natural linguist and has already been asked if he knew Welsh when he was younger as he can manage a basic conversation. I'm content with one or two new words each visit and working on those awkward ll and dd sounds. 

My gardening goal this trip was to make a start on the middle section of the front garden. There were a couple of elder bushes trees one of which I cut right down but the other, full of elder berries I left for the birds until next time. You can tell the birds are eating the dark purple berries by the purple splats in the garden.

I also cleared the steps and tied back the montbretia that had sprawled across them. One of the first things I did when we arrived was to go down the steps and knock a chunk out of a toe on one of the concrete corners. Ouch!

Peter's first job was to break up the heavy concrete of the fireplace with a sturdy hammer drill and dump it into the skip, our fourth so far.  

Although we could stay longer as Speedy's feeders would cover six days, we find several days of heavy work about as much as we can manage. The return journey costs us £50 in petrol which is only a fraction of the money we're saving by doing the prep work ourselves. We wouldn't have minded having it done for us but it's been a matter of fitting in with the builder's schedule. 

This time we took more food with us including some very indulgent (meat and cheese sauce!) cannelloni from M&S and a tasty chorizo frittata all off which could be heated in the microwave and went well with our usual salads. We also had fish (& chips for Peter) from the chip shop. Naturally I had to test a variety of the locally made cakes available at the corner supermarket.

We leave a lot of stuff in Borth so unpacking back here gets easier each time. Everything has been put away, Speedy given lots of cuddles (home is the better option as he hates the cattery) and our work clothes have already been washed and nearly dried out on the line. It's been a sunny day but grey clouds are looming so I've hung the washing in the conservatory. The last thing to do is to have a welcome shower and then sleeeeeep.