Sunny.

Still sunny. 

While Peter got on with de-nailing the wood from the pallet I had more fun out in the front garden. I'm almost at the end of the bramble marathon. Today's targets were growing through the slabs under the old garden bench. I got most of the roots out but there were a couple of enormous roots going straight down which I shall douse with strong weed killer. Sadly, the old bench which I'd hoped to restore, fell apart when I moved it. Both the side supports and some other sections had rotted away. All I could do was break up the bench which now forms a small pile. Then I got on with more bashing and clearing but was foiled by one section of the wall where the cement holding the three blocks together was too hard for me to break. Other blocks have been stacked, the soil relocated and more Vinca planted under the hedge.

With the sun still shining and the low tide even further out Peter joined me for a walk along the beach. Lots of people out enjoying the beach with children running in and out of the waves. It was warm enough for us to go out wearing body warmers rather than jackets though once we were out Peter did mutter that he should have worn his jacket. After yesterday's walk I realised I'd caught the sun on my face so have started slathering on sunscreen (factor 30) to minimise sun damage. 

Take a look at the houses in the photo above, just to the right of the green post is a roof much lower than its neighbours. This 10 ft wide property recently appeared for sale on the local FB page. One bedroom up in the loft, one shower room with toilet, a second bedroom/living room on the first (US second) floor with a wooden walkway overlooking the beach and a street level kitchen looking on to a tiny yard and high block wall (to protect against high tides). All this could be yours for a mere £250,000. I couldn't put in a link to the details because they're no longer on the web presumably because the house is already under offer.  Very nice so long as you don't mind the risk of flooding from the sea at the front and occasionally from the rivers behind. 

 

Sunny.

Bright and sunny today. A bit on the chilly side in the morning the sun soon warmed things up.

This is yesterday's 'treasure'. I still haven't worked out how to show it as we found it yesterday with the sun making the centre sparkle like golden glitter. In fact for quite a while I was convinced that somebody had been messing about with glittery nail polish but no, it's a natural mineral. Don't think it's pyrite (fool's gold), maybe some sort of quartz. I will try and find out more.

Even before breakfast I was out working on the drive dismantling the large wooden pallet the trellis had been on which the delivery driver apologetically said he couldn't take away. With the right tools, mini crow bar and hammer, gloves and my trusty knee pads it was easy to prise off all the planks. Some of the split planks are going to a neighbour across the road who has a wood burner. Once I've de-nailed the rest of the planks, something I didn't have time for today, I'll store them in the  garage as no doubt I'll find a use for them.

The boss builder came round this morning to go with Peter as he drove the camper up to the farm and then drop him back home. Peter tells me the camper is now in a lovely big barn with plenty of room for manoeuvring and it's only 10 minutes away.

While he was off out I did more gardening in the front garden. Another hard to reach bramble dug up and then I began work where a retaining wall had partially collapsed. All I'm doing is separating the decorative blocks and stacking them neatly. Once again having the right tools helps, this time a bolster and small lump hammer plus safety glasses for some happy bashing. There was soil to be cleared up and roots including nettles to be disposed of.  Gone are the days when I could carry on for the whole day but a bit at a time will still get the job done. I baked a batch of cookies for Peter before settling down for a break at the tv with a coffee.

The low tides continue getting lower and lower with the furthest out being on Monday so off I went for a wander around the rock pools.

Lots of marine life including sea anemones but no open ones yet. The one below looks like a green strawberry anemone but I really need to see the tentacles to identify it properly.

Being such a lovely day and the weekend brought what seemed like hordes of people to the beach. Mostly walkers with dogs and/or children. People in the water too, body boarding, swimming or just playing, some in wetsuits and some just in swimming costumes. The water temperature was 7C/44F according to the tide timetable site. A bit too cold for me I think.

Right in the centre of the photo above is somebody driving a 4WD on the beach. I'm not sure if that's actually allowed. Last Thursday I was passed by a girl riding a bike on the beach followed by her two dogs. (No dogs allowed on the beach between May and Sept.)

It was so lovely I carried on walking or rather strolling for an hour and a half. That's about the limit for my back at the moment.

 

Sunny.

Sunny again today with the usual clouds over the mountains. Right now at the end of the afternoon, the clouds have cleared and it looks like another pretty sunset will be tempting me to take even more photos.

Early this morning I heard a vehicle pulling up in the street and thinking it was our builders I leapt out of bed quickly getting dressed before having a look outside. Nobody! It must have been somebody stopping to post a letter in the box which is across the street from us. No builders at all today which is a shame. They don't seem to work on Saturday's so that's it until Monday at least.

I spent my morning working in the front garden, digging up a big bramble clump from a very awkward position right under a hydrangea and a mound of honeysuckle. Then I moved on to clearing some of the fallen soil at the top of the garden below the terrace. It's good soil but rather than put it to one side I've dumped it under the street side hedge to improve the soil there. I also moved some Vinca to under the hedge as well. That's the first bit of planting in the garden as so far it's all been clearing and chopping. 

In the middle of the day the trellis arrived for the back garden. There was only one chap with the lorry so we had to help unload the 12 large and 4 smaller panels and then carry them through to the back garden. Because they are of a sturdier construction (fixed at all the junctions and pressure treated) they are heavier than other more open trellis panels but I'm very pleased with them.

The tide was very low today (the range of the low and high tides varies during the month) so Peter and I went out for a mooch around the rock pools in the sun.

Still looking for open sea anemones. Saw three closed ones of a greenish colour but no idea which species they are yet.

Sandpiper tracks?

We saw a few of these periwinkles moving across the wet sand. This one had disguised itself with a sandy blob on top of its shell.

We also walked along the beach where there was a strip of sand covered with broken crab shells, bits of seaweed and shells. I'd love to study the sea and wind forces that cause certain size or type of shells or stones to be left in specific areas on the beach. I collected a bag full of large whelk shells which I plan to hang on a full-size driftwood Christmas tree that I will make and put by the gates at the bottom of the front garden. I found another 'treasure' on the beach but the photo I took didn't quite do it justice so I'll try again tomorrow (it needs sun to look at its best).

 

Sunny.

Sunny though a little colder today.

It wasn't even eight o'clock this morning when I heard a van pull up outside. Sure enough this was soon followed by the sound of workmen up on the scaffolding and then some very loud banging. 'Oh good' I thought, 'they're taking down the scaffolding'. But then it all went quiet. Had they come across a problem or perhaps they thought it was too early to be disturbing the old people? Then comes a text saying the indoor builders were on their way. They turned up before nine and went straight up onto the roof where they worked for the rest of the morning. No idea at all what they were doing. Then the two chaps came down to work in the utility room where so far they've put the worktop on the base units and made a start on the doors covering some pipes at the side. They went off at five thirty and hopefully will be returning tomorrow.

Peter and I, well mainly Peter, had a go at putting up the curtain poles in the sitting room. At my suggestion we began with the pole over the window as it would be easier to correct any problems there. Sure enough something went wrong with the measuring and the finished pole was at a definite slant. Luckily it was possible to redrill just one of the three screw holes to fix the problem. Having put up the pole I've no idea where the curtains I want are as they were packed away when we left Dingles. I noticed that Peter's hands were hurting him after that job so we didn't try and put up the pole over the French doors and if possible I shall get the builder to put the pole up.

Being such a lovely day I went for a long walk along the beach where the low tide had exposed lots of sand left by the recent wild seas.

I had a bit of fun wandering around the rock pools where my attention was first caught by the blobs of bubbles and their shadows in some of the pools on the sand.

There are some good sized pools on the rocks below the cliffs but I don't expect to find a lot of marine life in them because of the amount of sand that sometimes fills them up and probably scours out the pools with the action of the waves. Also there is a lot of fresh water from the cliffs running into the pools nearer the cliff which must affect the salinity of the pools.

With so much exposed sand I was able to have a long easy walk along the water's edge. I thought the clumps of sea foam resembled the clouds above but I didn't manage to translate that into a photo.

Along with everyone in my age group today I got a letter saying that I should go on the website to arrange my vaccination. However I'm not rushing to look on-line as our surgery had posted on the local FB page that they would be ringing up to arrange for vaccinations at the surgery. That would be much more convenient than driving into Aber for both jabs so I shall wait until I hear from the surgery.

 

Grey.

Grey again today but with much less wind.

Today I ventured into Aber for some shopping. I needed to buy petrol, for only the second time in the 5 months we've been here, so planned to only go to Morrisons out on the other side of town as there's a petrol station there. In the end, because there was a complete lack of any multi vitamins in Morrisons I ended up going back to Lidl, no multi vitamins there either and then walking up the main shopping street where I found some in Superdrug. I think that people must be making an effort to stay healthy and boost their immune systems. I like to go to Morrisons once in a while as they have more choice. Today I found sauerkraut (only one jar on the shelf) in the small Polish section and half price mixed trays of spring rolls, prawn toast and chicken wontons. I went to buy oat cakes but the space on the shelf was empty however when I checked out the reduced bakery goods there were two packets of oat cakes, hooray.

I'd planned to go to Charlie's (outdoor stuff) but they were closed because of the lockdown. My final planned stop was B&M where I usually moon over the fluffy throws and while they were open a lot of the shelves including throws and cushions, were closed off. But I did find this set of decorative steel balls for the garden for £10. I do like spheres in the garden and still regret not buying some large terracotta garden spheres that I saw many years ago and have since failed to find anywhere. 

By the time I got home there wasn't time to do much else apart from hand wash the 'cat' tea cosy which I'd left soaking after one too many tea spills. The passage by the side of the house still needs a general tidy up and the slabs pressure washing but it's nice to see the flowering bulbs.

This morning while I was putting out the recycling I saw my neighbour and asked how they'd got on with the plumber. He was really happy that Ron had fixed their leak and because it was just a matter of tightening up some nuts had only charged £10. No call out charge which is pretty amazing. I'm glad we were able to help.

 

Stormy.

A wild, warm day today with spells of heavy rain. There are weather warnings out for rain and flooding for today and tomorrow. This morning the clouds in the sky looked like one of those early films when the painted backdrop would be rolled along behind the actors. Such a relief to not have those loose chimney pots above us. At one point in the day we could hear somebody working on the platform on top of the roof. We thought it was the scaffolders come to take the scaffolding down but the scaffolding is still here. Maybe they were just making sure the planks up there were secure in view of today's gale force winds.

The indoor builders were supposed to turn up in the morning but sent a text to say one of them wasn't well so we shan't be seeing them until Friday by which time they should have the new window for the toilet. I haven't actually seen the design of the window but at nearly half the price of the one from the window company I don't really care. All I stipulated was that the handle to open the window should be at the bottom so that I can reach it and for a similar design of frosted glass.

While it was still dry in the morning I went out to tackle an outside drain that wasn't draining properly. It only takes water from the kitchen sink and the kitchen roof gutter but stagnant water still smells horrible. I had some heavy duty rubber gloves and my kneeler pads and just got on with the job. I cleared out a lot of fine gravel that had accumulated at the bottom, this was an arm length straight down and then the drain took a turn. The bend was too tight for our drain rods but a hunt around the garage yielded up my strong fence wire and a length of hosepipe which were more flexible. Unfortunately even with the wire I could only get about a foot along the side pipe before coming up against a dead end. No amount of jiggling or poking with the wire helped the water drain away at more than a very slow rate so it'll have to be a job for a drain company or the builder. After all that I was very glad to have a hot shower to freshen up. We had thought about putting up the curtain poles in the sitting room but we both felt quite tired and only got as far as taking the poles out of the cardboard box they came in.

Now for some sunny wave photos from yesterday. Enjoy.

 

Sunny.

Beautifully sunny and warm today. Out on the cliff the edge of the grass is sprinkled with daisies.

Every day there's more sun in the front garden and on a day like today it was a real pleasure to be working out in the garden. I finished thinning out the hedge at the end and also went out to the street to trim the hedge from that side. It wouldn't be nice for a passer-by to be poked in the eye by a twig or slapped by wet branches. Working in the street gives me a chance to chat to our neighbours and although the lady with the dog that bit me made a quick retreat up the street when she saw me I had a good chat with a chap that lives up the road. He was waiting for the postman to empty the post-box opposite as he'd mistakenly posted a letter with an old Christmas stamp that only was a 19p stamp (much less than either of the current rates) and wanted to put an extra stamp on the letter so the recipient didn't have to go and collect the letter from the Post Office and pay an extra £1. The box is supposed to be emptied at 11.00 but the postman was very late today and Rob was planning to go out so was getting worried. Later when I'd finished gardening the postman rang our doorbell with a parcel for us so I asked him 'Have you seen Rob?' which had him and another passing neighbour laughing as she'd just asked him the same thing, as had a number of other neighbours. He had, and the letter was fully stamped and on its way.

Early this morning the Boss builder and two other workers turned up to take down the old chimney. Apparently the cement around the chimney pots was so loose the builder was able to lift them straight off. I'm so glad they are now safely in the back garden. It was quite unnerving working at my pc and hearing the banging and rattling as the brick chimney was dismantled and bits of mortar went rolling down the roof. I've saved all the bricks too as I'm sure they can be used in the garden re-modelling.

Naturally I took myself off for a beach walk in the afternoon. Gone were the more sophisticated subtle shades of grey and instead we had summery blue skies and sunlight sparkling on the sea. It was lovely and warm and I saw a number of people either carrying their jackets or having them tied around their waists. One young lad had his trousers rolled up to his knees and was paddling in the waves.

I often see single shells of this large bivalve but today was the first time I came across a live one. Before we came here I hadn't seen this type of shell but after much hunting on-line I found out that it is an Arctica islandica aka ocean quahog, mahogany/black clam/quahog, an edible clam that is commercially fished.  It certainly felt as though there was a decent amount of protein inside but I left it for the tide to cover up. I used my sunglasses (dark ones today) to give an idea of size. They take 5-8 years to grow to maturity and then are very long lived. One was found to be 507 years old and another 374 years old and are commonly found to be 150 years old. How can you eat something that has taken so long to grow? 

I took lots of photos of the sun on the waves and will post more tomorrow when the forecast is for rain once more.

We were waiting for a different builder to come and cover the chimney hole and re-tile the roof but in the end the morning team came back and did the work. That's one important job done.

 

Mild.

Mild today with a mix of light rain and sunny spells.

I'm glad we don't live up on the hills as there are usually clouds sitting on them like frosting on cupcakes.

I didn't go out for a beach walk but instead did some gardening. A few more brambles dug up and then I turned my attention to the hedge at the end of the garden. The spikey bush (Eleagnus) does a good job as a windbreak and providing privacy from the many passers-by but other than that it is fairly boring and spikey.  While I was digging up brambles I noticed that an escallonia and a cheery yellow euonymus were being smothered by the hedge so thought I'd give them some space. Starting on the left I began freeing up a hydrangea on the end and working my way along. I got as far as the centre of the hedge which now looks rather brown. Hopefully new growth will spring from the cut branches. 

And that's been about it for today.

Evening colours.

 

Wet.

Another wild and windy day with non-stop rain. The wind has swung round and is bringing warmth from the south.

I can't say I've been in a good mood today. We were supposed to be going to look at the chairs below which I found on the local FB selling page. Obviously they wouldn't fit in our little car and I needed Peter to drive the camper with me to pick up the chairs (subject to them being free of woodworm and fairly sturdy) from an antiques place 20 miles away. Although he quite liked the chairs he wasn't sure if we would be breaking lockdown rules by going to get them. He rang the police yesterday and was told that technically we shouldn't be driving but if we were stopped we should explain that we've moved to the area and were picking up some furniture. It would come under the click and collect category. This would fall within the discretionary guidelines and at the very worst, if we were stopped by a grumpy policeman, we might be asked to return home but it would probably be okay. Lots of debate and finally Peter said no. A shame as they look like a nice set of chairs to replace the three mismatched kitchen chairs we have at the moment. And they were only £80 for the lot. If I'd had any experience driving the camper I would have gone by myself but I will be going on a camper handling course once lockdown is over and then there'll be no stopping me.

Even though it was raining lightly I still took myself off for a walk along the beach. The winds have brought large waves again and the weekend surfers were out first thing. Not too many walkers, I think the rain has put them off.

There's quite a lot of Vinca growing in the front garden and I'm thinking about moving it to under the hedge as it can grow in part shade and drier conditions. I'm also going to move much of the honeysuckle that is currently sprawling across the grass so that it can grow up into the hedge to create more of a countryside feel.

Wild.

Very wild, wet and windy all day long. A few surfers are out in the water now but I haven't seen them catch any waves.

I woke this morning feeling a bit rough and when I took my temperature it was 37.1C which while technically not a fever might be for me as I have a quite low 'normal' temperature. This is probably due to my sinuses though I have been checking my O2 sat levels which went down to 96% but are now back up to 98% so no worries there. So I've taken things easy mostly working at my pc or making tea for the builders.

The indoor builders turned up in the afternoon and have been making up the flat pack cupboards, fitting skirting boards and cleaning the floor tiles. They've also been attempting to level the tiles with a small sander but I don't think that they've made much of a difference. I can't bring myself to insist that the floor is redone but it is disappointing to know that it could have been done better. One difference is in the hall by the front door in that with the flat packs moved out it's possible once more to open the coat cupboards and put the coats away.

Windy.

A very windy day with some sun and a lot of showers. Too choppy for surfers but several kite surfers had a good session skimming over the waves.

No sign today of the indoor builder but the boss builder came round to go up on the roof and see what tiles he needs to get. Luckily the previous owner had kept 'useful stuff' which included some spare ridge tiles which will now come in handy. All being well work on the roof and bay window should start next week. There's been a delay with the trellis for the back garden which will be arriving next week rather than tomorrow as expected. I've asked the builder to give me a price for some basic concrete block raised beds in the back garden to add support to the neighbours' wall. Our neighbour called round this morning to ask if we had details for a plumber as he had a leak. We gave him the number of the chap who's been working here and is very good but we've not yet heard how that has turned out.

In the morning I went out in the front garden and dug up three more brambles, one of them with really thick stems and roots. They were all tucked under another hydrangea bush which meant working on my knees digging away with a trowel. 

Later once the rain had stopped I had a walk on the beach, very handy for cleaning the mud off my wellies. Above are the cliffs showing why all the houses above have cracked walls and/or render. We're not too concerned about the stability of the cliff though there's always a little worry at the back of my mind. Instead of worrying I shall continue to rejoice in the fact that I can walk on the beach whenever I want.

After a little explore under the cliffs I turned and had my usual stroll along the waters' edge looking out for anything interesting such as this bit of seaweed.

This bundle of rope couldn't be left on the beach so once I'd taken a photo I picked up one end and hauled it up to the bin by the lifeboat station. When I turned to look I found it stretched out for about 5 ft behind me and included some of the really nasty fine netting.