Cold.

Flowers in my bouquet.

The sun was shining this morning but there was a real bite to the wind. A good day for drying the washing out on the line. By the afternoon the wind was bitterly cold and my thermometer on the terrace read 6C/43F. During the Zoom class our tutor who lives in the north of Wales was watching snow falling past her window. Energy bills are going up by 50% tomorrow! People are turning their heating down or in many cases not having heating at all. Thank goodness for all the extra insulation we put in this place. Next month council tax will also be going up, car fuel prices have been shooting up as have food bills. 

This morning it was time to say goodbye to the 6ft stem of my pitcher plant. It had taken two years to grow, developed sizable pitchers and produced a large flower spike. Now that the pitchers are beginning to dry up the plant will be putting its energy into the next stem which already has two good sized pitchers.

Today's Zoom class had more questions and answers. I found it hard to get my head around the fact that does/is and does/is not look and sound very different - mae [my] and dydy [duh-dee]. On the other hand it was good to have the reasons for the different ways of saying the - y, yr, 'r, explained. I'm doing a section in DuoLingo on 'The' and could not work out which one to use. I thought it might be down to position in a sentence or if the noun is masculine or femminine both of which do affect other things. But no, it's if the letters before and after are vowels or consonants. Maybe I should have read my course book more thoroughly.

After the class I thought about going for a walk on the beach but changed my mind and ironed and cycled instead.

 

Cold.

Vinok, a Ukrainian flower crown worn by girls and young women on festive occasions to symbolise purity and fertility.

And here are my flowers. A beautiful bouquet from Vytas and Sally was waiting for me when I got home from the zoo. Vytas likes to buy from local businesses but they  had a supply problem and weren't able to deliver on Sunday (Mothers' Day). When I looked at the 'care' card I realised that it was from the same florists where I had bought the air plants and white jasmine.

This morning there was a severe drop in temperature and the world had turned grey. Apart from the occasional rain drop it stayed dry all day. Listening to the forecast as I write there is much talk of snow, ice and frost overnight.

The drain man eventually turned up last night. I stayed well away but there was much talk between him and Peter as they investigated the drains. We ended up not getting the drain cleared due to there being a man hole with a right angled bend in the drain around which the cleaning tool wouldn't go which had been covered over by paving slabs. It was 7.00 by this time and too late to start removing the slabs. So that was a £90 call out fee to pay and nothing sorted. This morning Peter phoned the builder and asked him to bring a grinder so that he could cut out the slabs as Peter felt it would be too much to do himself. But before I left for the zoo I suggested seeing if it would be possible to prise up the paving slabs as they went down 30 years ago. Lo and behold, after all our dark mutterings about the foolishness of paving over the top of an manhole cover it turned out that the four slabs had been laid over sand and it was a simple job to hook them out and remove the sand. While I was out Peter got the cover up and used the drain rods to clear the blocked drain. Hooray. Our builder will be fitting new covers, eventually.

At the zoo I finished off weeding this gravel path to one of the enclosures which now houses a friendly white rabbit. I carried on around the corner and dug out the brambles growing there.

That done I moved to an enclosure currently housing the guinea pigs. There I cut back some buddelias that had not been touched for a few years. Those branches were given to the pygmy goats who lost no time in eating the leaves and stripping off the bark. You can see why these goats have been a major factor in the spread of the Sahara desert.

The cold seems to sap my energy so when I got home I sat and watched tv for an hour before pedalling on the exercise bike and doing some DuoLingo.

Later there was the merest hint of sun which changed the colour of the sea to duck-egg blue with a hint of green.

 

Sea Mist.

No Ukrainian photo today because each time I try to copy anything my pc says it can't be downloaded securely and to be safe I've deleted them. Will need to check further. 

The day began with blue skies but very quickly a sea mist deveolped and gradually moved closer until it reached us at about 5.00.

I was awake very early and was up before it got light. I'd had a bad night, mainly I think because I was worrying about the state of the drains. What if they got worse and we ended up with no working toilets? What would we do then? Knock on the neighbours' door or run down to the public toilets by the lifeboat station? As soon as he woke I got Peter to agree to ring the drain company and up the call to an emergency call out. In the end that wasn't necessary because Peter used his plumbing experience to get the two rusted down manhole covers free (impact technology with a wooden post) and we were able to ping them up with crowbars. That enabled us to see that there was no problem with the sink and toilet in the 'blue loo'. What a relief, in every sense of the word. Peter tried to get the drain rods into the other drain but would have needed to climb down the manhole to do that. The drain company assured us they would be here today to use their power jet to clean the drains though we're still waiting. In the meantime Peter put boards over the open manholes and I put a notice on the garden door warning of the open drain on the other side of the door. Today's builder has measured up and will see about getting replacement covers as the handles have rusted out of the old ones.

The two lads worked all day and have finished the kitchen roof apart from one tiny bit of fascia board which they plan to do tomorrow. In the meantime I pottered about in the back garden which was still sunny, and brought up some more of the pebbles. It may look like a bunch of hay but that is actually a blue ornamental grass planted in a hole in the concrete.

Although I had a bad night my early morning walk to the shop (just after 8.00) to buy milk cheered me up. The blackbirds perched on the chimney pots were singing away as was a dunnock in the brambles on the cliff while the waves whooshed soothingly over the sand. The older children were making their way to wait for the school bus to town and a few dog walkers were down on the beach.

Later in the afternoon it began to feel chilly indoors but I snatched half an hour sitting out in the open before the sea mist and now a few drops of rain arrived. The weatherman is talking of cold air with sleet and snow or at least rain. Yuck.

Sunny.

No good news yet from Ukraine.

Street art in Prague.

Blue skies again today though I just caught the end of the weather forecast and it talked of dropping temperatures and even snow in places!

We were still in bed this morning when the other builders turned up to begin replacing the flat roof over the kitchen. The amiable boss of that lot is not good at communicating with his customers which can put his lads in awkward situations. I thought they were just going to stick a new sheet of rubber over the old new roof but today they put down another layer of boards. They've spread out the rubber sheet over the boards and will be back tomorrow to stick it down and replace the gutters and fascia boards.

Now we have another problem. There is some sort of blockage with our main drainage system. Peter has phoned the drain company and they will be coming sometime this week. Hopefully it won't get worse in the meantime.

Peter had another go at cutting the concrete in the back garden but as fast as he attempts a repair on his ancient grinder he runs into a new problem. He's been on the phone to the company and it's all a matter of the old models being millimeters different to the current ones. He's waiting for one more part after which he'll admit defeat and buy a new grinder. (Cheaper than paying a builder.) I did what I could to dump hardcore and gravel where the paving slabs are due to go but I really need to wait until the concrete is cut.

For the rest of the day I've been making coffee for the builders, DuoLingo, pedalling on the exercise bike and admin. I posted the photo of the horse jumping on the local FB page and was given the information to contact the rider. She was very happy to have that and a few other photos sent to her.

 

Mothers' Day.

More is coming up in the news about people, reportedly many thousands, being deported from Ukraine to Russia.

Ukrainian folk art.

Here Mothers' Day has been bright and sunny. The clocks went forward this morning but it didn't feel like a hardship to be waking an hour earlier than usual. It got a bit more confusing later especially when my clock radio showed one time and Peter's another. However I am looking forward to watching the setting sun as we eat our supper.

This morning after breakfast we went for a long walk along the beach. I knew that the lifeboat people do their training on a Sunday morning but when we saw this speedboat being brought back driven by a lifeboat man my mind came up with all sorts of exciting senarios ranging from engine problems to joy riding but really I'm sure that they were simply part of the training exercise.

It was very pleasant walking on the sand. The low tide wasn't a very low one and before long the tide had turned and we had to go round over the stones behind the rocks rather than getting caught in the deep channels by the witches' hats.

Then up behind us came this young lady on her horse. She had a lot of fun cantering across the sand and then jumping over the (clean water) outfall. Through posting the photo below I've found out her name and sent her the photo. I must say it's a textbook illustration of the perfect jumping position.

No sooner had we got home than the phone rang and I had a lovely chat with Romas. Vytas phoned later in the afternoon and it was great talking to him too. Sally has caught covid, poor thing and Peter has just informed me that the builder that we were expecting tomorrow has tested positive too.

The sun was still shining so I did a little work in the garden. I moved two buckets of pebbles from the front to the back garden which unless I halve the amount of pebbles in the bucket will be all that I can manage at one go. I also did some more on the soon to be paved area. I was hoping to sit out in the sun on the terrace but by the time I got there the clouds were increasing in size and looking very grey underneath. 

This is the latest sea glass suncatcher I made. Currently hanging below the blue glass globe I may find a better place for it.

The first jetski of the season was out doing doughnuts in the bay.

With the change in the clocks sunset came after supper. The red (which the camera doesn't show) sun drew me out to the cliff to watch as it sank below the horizon.

Sunny.

Ukrainian Folk Art.

Sunny again today with just enough breeze to dry the washing I had out on the line.

I spent some hours working in the back garden, mainly bashing out concrete with a lump hammer and bolster and digging soil out of the future paved acer garden. 

Eventually I'd had enough and retired to the terrace to enjoy the sun as you never know how long the fine weather is going to last.  One last indoor job was gluing sea glass to fishing line to make another sun catcher.

Look at the state of my wrist. Those three red and very itchy marks plus several more hidden by the rose were caused by something biting me at the zoo last week. It's only today that the itching is beginnng to die down even with much application of sting relief cream. It happened when I had just pulled up a handful of grass and other weeds and from the sudden burning sensation I assumed I'd brushed against a stinging nettle. I carried out the traditional remedy of rubbing the area with a scrunched up dock leaf but by the next morning it was obvious something had bitten me. Looking on-line it seems that the culprit was probably a spider or in my case a battalion of spiders. At least now it's not burning constantly.

And now for a few more photos from yeaterday's walk.

Walking through fields of sheep towards the local boatyard.

There was much sighing over the boats, of all sizes, from Peter. As I get sea-sick and can't swim well I'm not that keen on boats.

Looking back across the marshes towards the sand dunes these three horses were having a lovely sleep in the sun.

Finally we reached the salt marsh where the River Leri (Leh-ree) also flows into the estuary. When the railway was built (1863) the river was re-routed from its original meandering route coming out just beyond the village, into a straight run which constantly threatens to flood properties at Ynyslas and the back of the village.

A fisherman going to put out his lobster pots.

Last night's sunset.

 

Sunny.

Another view of the Carpathian mountains. You may be able to view a video here of Russians protesting against the war in St. Petersburg 10 days ago.

Here the high clouds did not stop it from being a lovely day. Warm with light winds.

It seems the builder is planning to come on Monday so we were able to go ahead with our day out. Not the RSPB nature reserve I was hoping for but  the sand dunes at Ynyslas (in- iss- lass) and then back through the fields and the salt marshes. An easy 2.5 miles. The change of plan was down to Peter's lack of spirit of adventure and the fact that it costs £6 each to visit the reserve. I'd chosen it because it was somewhere new and had a couple of 1.5 mile walks through a salt marsh and a woodland on well laid paths which I thought would be better for Peter's ankles and knees which give him trouble when we walk on the beach. Never mind, I shall go there on my own as it's not far and sounds interesting.

Parking on the beach (£2) we could see across the River Dyfi to Aberdyfi and the route we walked on our visit last week.

They were doing some repairs to the deck around the visitors' centre but in general the board walks and paths are well maintained. Just thought, I should have gone into the toilets to see the mural of the water cycle painted by Dean, one of the owners of the zoo.

The paths on the far side of the visitors' centre have been resurfaced with broken seashells, the same kind that were common on the beach at Aberdyfi. I wonder if they were collected from there? The paths looked amazing as the shells sparkled in the sunlight. 

The sand dunes are very reminiscent of Braunton Burrows though much less extensive.

This time when we got to the beach we turned left which gave us the view back to Borth.

Turning towards Aberdyfi again there were a few more people on the beach though being near the mouth of the river there are signs saying No Bathing and also No Digging in the dunes beacause of the possibility of unexploded ordnance. Still one small child was having a great time splashing in the pools between the shingle and the sand while his parents looked on

This time our route took us back across the dunes and the golf course then through the fields to the boatyard (photos tomorrow) and back along the saltmarsh. There we sat on one of these large rocks to have our coffee and some apple cake before returning to the car park.

Back home I sat on the terrace for a while before going out to do some work in the back garden. I made a cloche from two pieces of perspex (a shame the builders damaged them when they took the terrace railings down even though I'd asked them to save the perspex) and planted a short row of mixed lettuce. I also planted some ornamental grasses in the holes in the concrete so that I can start bringing up the small pebbles from the front garden. Then I did some rearranging of my gardening stuff in the garage which hopefully won't have interfered with Peter's workshop plans.

Last night we had a pretty sunset. The clocks go forward this weekend which will give us more sun on the terrace and sunsets at supper time. Worth getting up an hour earlier for.