Sunny Afternoon.

Much celebration as Peter found out, from a couple of forums (fora?) how to remove the redirect thngy (apparently greyware not malware but who cares?) My computer problems generally cause a lot of discord because Peter thinks I should deal with them as it's my pc and blog and I shouldn't be going on FB or Blogger anyway. That's like telling somebody they could avoid car accidents by never driving on the roads. Meawhile I think that seeing as he was an IT systems analyst sorting out problems in surgeries and health centres for years, he should sort any IT problems here. Still it's done now. 

If anyone has the same thing happen you need to; go to Layout, go to Footer edit and remove/delete the gadgets unless you know what they are and need them. Job done.

The day began with scattered showers in the morning and brightened up in the afternoon.

My main job of the day was to dig a second post hole in the back garden. It wasn't too hard to dig through the soil and clay using a weeding tool like a large screwdriver and a plastic cup to scoop the soil out. I managed to get 21" down which should be deep enough. The bright object bottom left is my foot to give an idea of size.

While I still had energy I dug out the weed roots from the rough patch I cleared on Thursday. Mostly creeping buttercup roots and some mind-your-own-business. It won't be so easy digging out the very old ivy roots that are right up against the wall. 

My last job was to find some brambles still growing in the front garden, cut them and lay them over the dry compost in the raised beds to deter the cats. Natural barbed wire.

I finished off my day by sitting out on the terrace, alone at first and then joined by Peter. As usual more chatting than reading though we do take out Kindles out with us. 

 

Wet.

Wild, windy and frequently wet today. The weather report says it's Storm Evert with winds of up to 70mph on the south coast.

Fortunately for me it wasn't quite so wet in the morning when I went to the dump. I had hardly any wait though they're still operating the even/odd dates/number plates rule as the person behind me found out. I only had three bags of garden waste and one of rubbish unlike the nine bags I took there the other day but it's good to get rid of stuff from the garden.

From the dump I went over to Morrisons. That was a slow journey due to the large amount of traffic on the road. Very different to wintertime when I generally had a straight run through. At Morrisons I couldn't resist going through all the clematis on offer and found two more unusual varieties. I so need to get on with the back garden or at least pot up the clematis into bigger pots.

Then on to Lidl where I overcame my natural reticence and challenged a maskless lady or at least asked her where her mask was. There were two young women (Aargh, just moved my coffee cup because Speedy was walking across my desk and he trod right in it.). Back to incident, these Eastern European women were with three youngsters and were not wearing masks. Where I asked one of them where her mask was she looked at me blankly, then said she didn't have one. When I told her she needed to have one she said she couldn't breathe and when I asked her where her lanyard which is what you get issued with if you have a medical or other exemption she said it was at home. I really believed that but simply said she needed to wear it or else people would keep asking her to put a mask on. Mask wearing might not be compulsory in England but it still is here in Wales thank goodness. I think it's up to us members of the public to remind people of the rules here however embarassed we might feel.

Back home I finally got round to fitting screws to the wooden slats of the airer so that the slats don't slide out at either end. I had wondered why there was wire wound around the slats when I took it apart. My final job of the afternoon was to sew quick release clips to some straps to hold the two guest beds together. I saved these from an old backpack before I threw it out and they are just right for the job.

 

Strange Happenings.

At the moment I seem to have picked up a redirect malware thingy that stops me from viewing my blog. Thankfully one of my anti-virus whatsits stops anything from happening. Peter has been trying out various things including wiping all the many trackers and cookies I've picked up in the normal course of things. In an attempt to tune my reasoning process, which seems to work in a very different way to his I drew a little diagram and suggested that we see if he could see my bog from his pc. He has the same anti-virus protection so eventually he tried and hey presto he could see my blog without any problem so I guess the rest of you can too. So the problem must be with my pc.

It's running a bit late so I'm just going to throw on some photos from yesterday.

The zoo opened to the public last Saturday and are only allowed to have 'domesticated' animals on display hence the arrival of a variety of chickens and ducks. They'll be having special days when the public will be allowed to see some of the exotics/wild animals and hopefully will be able to reapply for a lisence in a few months.

With it not being beach weather there were a lot of families visiting the zoo (or should I say animalarium which is the offical description) which felt rather strange. People can buy cups of vegetables to feed the pygmy goats which was very popular. Having the peacock wandering about gets the children excited though many children thought the Guineafowl were turkeys. The peahen and her chicks are still in a pen, I asked and found out that the chicks were accidental. They didn't want to have chicks this year and kept removing the eggs so the peahen hid her nest offsite and simply turned up with her chicks one day. She'd been wandering around the zoo as normal beforehand, maybe the eggs didn't need to be sat on all the time.

I also asked about the wolf-dogs. They are not straight 50/50 wolf/dog but about 65% dog and 35% wolf. They had been bought as pets and when their wolf traits began to develop came to the zoo. They were also very poplular with the visitors a lot of whom called them wolves despite the information boards. 

This was my work place. I'm very proud of the way I managed to clear nearly all the weeds from the gravel. While the bit around the bench was the worst the whole area was full of large weeds. The hand hoe I bought a while back came in very useful. It was tempting to carry on to get the whole lot done but my back had reached its limit.

There was a real change in the weather yesterday, lots of wind and good surfing waves. The kite surfers and surfers were out until late in the evening.

Today I finished making a fitted sheet for the guest bed and have found some straps from an old backpack which I can use to strap the two beds together. At last I was able to roll the smaller bed back underneath the other and return my study back to normal. Luckily the topper folds in half and fits on top of the 'under' bed. Then I made Peter a cushion from a rolled up pillow as he found that my one was just right for his back which is playing up at the moment. He spent the morning volunteering at the lifeboat shop. In the afternoon I filled several bags with gone to seed valerian and poppies from the back garden and some weeds ready for the next trip to the dump. Hopefully we'll get this re-direct problem sorted soon and in the meantime please excuse any typos as I usually pick them up by reading through the blog once it's posted.

Warm.

It's been warm but there's a definite change in the air. First thing this morning the sky was a hazy white making the calm sea a matching silvery white. When it's like this everything seems very quiet as sounds become muffled by the haze. Later we were back to blue skies with large clouds building up. The weather report spoke of heavy showers, thunderstorms even but we've seen nothing of that here.

I took myself off for a beach walk after breakfast again. With the tide high there wasn't much sand to walk on but it was good to be out. On my way back I called in at the shop for some new potatoes. 

Back home I carried on with work on the mattress topper, hand sewing the cover for the extra bit on to the main cover. Then I ironed yesterday's washing washing. All very sedate activities that don't put too much strain on my back.

I was finished in time to spend some time sitting out on the terrace and there was yet another 'first' to be seen out on the water. There's a surf school that we see quite often but today instead of the big crowd of youngsters they had just one student on a surfboard. This was a specially adapted board with a seat on it on which they took the young person out to ride small waves. One instructor stood on the board behind the seated person and two instructors walked by the sides. There was also another child in a wheelchair with sand tyres and a section of board so that the child in the chair could be taken into the shallow water to experience the sea across his/her legs. Nice to see the sea being made accessible for those who might find it otherwise difficult to enjoy. (No photos for privacy reasons.)

 

Warm.

While not a scorcher today it was pleasantly warm for most of the day. Right now at 6.00, the haze covering the sky has made it feel a lot cooler.

I think this is the first water skier I've seen here. This boat was out for several hours.

I decided to start my day with a walk along the beach. There is a lot more sand on the beach at the moment. Normally there is a ridge of giant rocks covering the stream outfall but it's currently hidden by the sand. (Note the barrel jellyfish in the foreground.) Although the beach was quite crowded once I'd passed the lifeguards' flags it was almost empty.

I got the sheets washed and out on the line early but the ironing can wait until tomorrow. 

My job for the day was to alter the foam mattress topper. I cut 10cms from one side and used the sewing machine to alter the cover. The piece I cut off  is almost a perfect addition on the other edge to make the topper fit over both mattresses of the single beds plus the space between them. Next I made a cover for that piece which included a full length zip from my box of useful sewing items. I've still got to sew it on to the cover of the main topper and although I could have done it with the machine it was so difficult getting the foam topper to fit into the cover I'm going to do it by hand. I finished the afternoon with some pruning in the front garden before some time reading on the terrace.

 

Back Again.

Back on-line after a fantastic weekend with Vytas and Sally. Over 18 months since we last saw them so it has been wonderful to be together at last. 

They arrived on Friday evening and were able to go for a walk on the beach after their long drive. (Photos are from Saturday.)

Saturday morning they went for a walk along the coast path before we all had a hearty cooked breakfast. Then we drove down to Ynyslas for a walk along the boardwalk through the dunes after a quick visit to the visitors centre.

We've been trying to find time to visit the dunes and they didn't disappoint. It was surprising to see so much Oxford Ragwort around but a check on-line showed that though toxic to horses and cattle when cut and inculded in fodder they don't eat it if it is growing. Us oldies then drove home leaving the youngsters to hike back all the way along the beach. We had a light lunch (so much delicious food eaten this weekend) and then Vytas and Sally went for a swim. Although there was some wind there weren't enough waves for bodyboarding or I might have joined them. Dinner was a takeaway from a Chinese restaurant in Aber that we'd used before. It is very rare for us to have a takeaway but it was worth it, lovely food and no stress. The lemon sorbet I'd made was perfect after such a generous meal. Afterwards we sat outside chatting and watching the sunset. This morning Vytas had another run along the cliff tops and they left mid-morning for their 5 hour drive home. Let's hope there'll be many more such visits.

After a week of blissfully hot days the weekend was disappointingly cooler, even a short shower on Saturday morning but nothing like the heavy showers and thunderstorms the forecast had been promising. Naturally it got a lot warmer today after they left. 

On Friday evening I'd noticed a slow but steady drip in the bathroom. This I eventually traced to a dripping bath tap which had been soaking the boxes stored in the bath, probably for months. This afternoon I cleared out the boxes and surveyed the damage. Most upsetting was the box of boxes of my mother's slides of her art work. After wiping down the small plastic boxes most may be alright but others I think are beyond rescuing. Another box held small framed pictures of other peoples' pictures which I fear are also destroyed. Oh well, it happened.

I also put two loads of towels in the wash which dried nicely in the wind and I've worked out how to solve the problems of the mattress topper and the lack of headboard for the trundle bed. More sewing and carpentry coming up.

 

Hot.

Another very hot day but there's already a weather warning out for heavy showers/thunderstorms from tomorrow.

Once again I woke just after 5.00 though I listened to the radio for an hour before getting up and starting my day. Two machine loads, weeding in the back garden and my daily cleaning routine all done before breakfast.

The camper needed to go to the garage for some welding but we didn't want to leave the car at the farm so I went up with Peter and then followed him back down in the car. 

The farm is on the hill behind us only a mile or maybe two away.

It was surprising to see how quickly we were back in the countryside. On the way up we passed through an interesting looking wood with large pine trees and signs for bridleways through it. Definitely worth an explore on another day.

I followed Peter down to the garage but as the guy hadn't arrived I left the car with Peter and walked back home past the crowds heading out to the beach. Back home while Peter went to the dump and then to Morrisons for shopping I began my culinary preparations for the weekend. Soup has been made, bread rolls, biscuits and meringue nests have been baked. Whisking by hand takes a lot longer than using the electic mixer so I sat down in front of the tv. Shame I made such a mess with the icing sugar. I don't think I had the right setting for the oven but the nests are finally done if a bit golden.

I finished tidying up my study, it's amazing how much stuff you can get under a bed, and the bed made up with new, white bedding. A good thing I put clean dust sheets over the bed as Speedy is now sleeping comfortably on the duvet. 

I shan't blog while Vytas and Sally are here so will be back on Sunday.

 

Zoo Day.

It was cool at 5.30 this morning while the sun was on its way up but for the rest of the day its been another scorcher.

Off to the zoo for my bit of volunteering. More weeding (that bit of turned over ground), this time in completely dry bark chippings. I'd turn over a clump of grass and then proceed to bash it with a hand fork to get the bark and soil off which I thought would be theraputic for anyone with anger issues. It was very hot so I made sure to keep taking breaks. While I was working it was still shady on the steps of the playhouse and there was a lovely cooling breeze too to cool me off as I drank my squash. While I worked I was joined by the peacock having an energetic dust bath in the chippings. After he'd gone I levelled off his dust hollows as they were close to the end of the slide and had clumps of weeds around them.

When I arrived the vet's car was in the car park and all the staff were near the entrance. I asked one of them what was going on and was sure he said they were moving the leopard. Hmm, I didn't know they had a leopard. As I came back to collect a muck bucket to put my weeds in I asked another member of staff and it turned out they were moving the lechwe (small South African antelope) as they can't be on show to the public right now. Blame my dodgy hearing. Later the vet came and looked at one of the ponies which is lame with laminitis.

For the time being it's mostly domesticated animals on show.

I didn't have any nettles for the rheas today.

I was very hot, sweaty and tired when I got home so it was a shower for me and all my clothes went straight in the washing machine. After a rest and some of Peter's crisps (US- chips) to replace any lost salt I set up the trundle bed in my study. All went well until I put the topper across the two single mattresses. I solved the problem of the gap between the mattresses with a rolled up throw but the combined width is more than the topper. For the moment I've got the topper turned sideways which makes it a bit too short and a bit too wide. My thought is to slice a bit off the width but I'm going to see what Vytas and Sally think as they'll be the ones sleeping on it. Then came the bedding, I have everything new except the bottom sheet. I found a flat sheet in my stash but as it has been stored for a long time I'll give it a wash tomorrow. The only other thing I've done today is to make some lemon sorbet which is in the middle of being whisked every half an hour. It's such a shame my electric whisk stopped working. It was a wedding present so it has lasted 45 years.

Last night's sunset.

 

Hot Again.

Another hot day. I'm not complaining.

While Peter went off for a meeting at the Lifeboat Station (he's voluntering in the shop as he's 'too old' for shore crew) I went out and cut a bit more of the hedge. I wanted to create more of a slope from the low to the high sections but because I had to cut some big branches even lower it just looks like the low section extends further. 

Also done were a number of smaller jobs; moving the pc tower back to its original position under my piano, sticking clothes pegs on the right hand side of my pc desk to hold various leads (the removal men knocked the old ones off and they were on the wrong side anyway), sticking my swivel stool to the thin carpet type doormat it had been sitting on and cutting off the excess, washing down the bodyboards and replacing the bits of baler twine with new wrist leashes and ironing a duvet cover which is so thin it needs to go in the dustsheet stack and generally putting away all my sewing stuff. After all that there was still time for an hour sitting out on the sunloungers.

Yesterday's sunset. The other night somebody mentioned the sunset green flash but nobody has ever seen it and the consensus was that it was a myth. However I found this so now we're all looking or claiming to have seen it.

Yesterday's lifeboat rescue seems to have been a bit unneccesary. One of the fishermen had holed his kayak by getting too close to the reef. He'd swum/climbed onto the reef which is only 500m from the shore. There were a number of paddleboarders around who could have given him a ride to shore and the beach lifeguard got to him before the lifeboat.