Grey.

It's been overcast today, not much wind so it didn't feel cold until later in the afternoon when a light sea mist chilled the air.

From tomorrow dogs are not allowed on the beach until October so the dog walkers were taking advantage of the dry day. (I can see 8 dogs in the above photo.)

The sea was flat so I was surprised not to see the usual paddle boarders and kayakers. Only Peter and his fellow club members rowing round to Ynyslas. 

I have spent my day gardening. Mainly in the front garden where I didn't quite finish filling the end bed. Nearly there but my back started to twinge so I was sensible and didn't push on. Instead I weeded in the back garden. It needed doing especially as the forecast is for rain tomorrow. We could do with it as the ground is as dry as a bone. I'd been tempted to keep the feverfew and Welsh poppy seedlings growing in the herb garden but in the end cleared the lot. Apart from some garden foxgloves which I transplanted for fun in the herb garden are; lavender, fennel, rosemary, sage, flat parsley and thyme. I'd still like to get dill as I'm not having much luck with dill seeds and some different varieties of thyme. I also have three varieties of mint growing in pots and chives in a raised bed.

 

Windy.

Sunny today with a chilly easterly wind.

We're beginning to see more boats out in the bay from working fishing boats putting out lobster pots to fancy speed boats and utilitarian skiffs. 

Peter went off to town and the dump this morning while I escaped to the garden. First I loaded up the trolley with the last of the rubble from the back garden and pushed or rather held on to the trolley going down the slope of the pavement and round to the bottom gate.

I did some rearranging of the blocks I've used to make the cross walls in the side bed and then carried on transferring the spoil heap to the bed. Another day or two of work and I should have filled the end section. The planting plan for that section is bluebells, daffodils and the several varieties of crocosmia that survived the double move with maybe a ceonothus or perhaps just some honeysuckle to go up into the hedge.

I sat out on the terrace for a while though I was wrapped up like the Michelin man against the cold wind. The shelter from the hedges makes it much warmer down in the garden but of course there isn't such a good view. Speedy turned up to sit on my lap until I noticed a tick on his head. I have a little plastic hook thing that makes removing ticks easy and Speedy was happy with his treat of a few Dreamies.  

 Last night's sunset.

Cloudy.

Cloudy and a bit chilly today.

Today has mostly been about working on the raised beds with a break in the middle for our Zoom class. In the morning I heaved the last of the old concrete blocks into the raised bed and levelled them off with subsoil from the spoil heap. 

After class I planned to use mortar to fill in the holes and cracks in the under terrace wall. However it was only when I mixed up some ready mix concrete that I realised that it had rough aggregate in it. That turned out not to be ideal for filling cracks though I did manage to fill a few of the bigger holes. Giving up on that job instead I cleaned up some bricks. I say bricks but although they are brick sized and shaped they are made of concrete. That makes them very heavy but when cleaned up they will be ideal for stacking planters on.

Not much else of interest today. Class was fun and it certainly helped that we had gone through the questions thoroughly on Monday. Peter is out with some of the rowing club members for a curry. I chose to stay home with a chocolate brownie for a treat with my supper.

 

Zoo Day.

The day swung from blazing hot when the sun was shining and quite chilly when it hid behind the clouds.

When I got to the zoo I was asked to clear the docks from around the silver foxes' pen. There were some across the front of the pens which were quite easy to dig up even though the roots were up to 12" long. It was when I tackled the docks growing by the side of the pen my job was much more difficult as their roots went down between hard packed stones. Much tougher on the hands despite the thick leather work gloves I wore. It took me three hours but I was buoyed up by the thought that the more roots I got out the longer it would be before the docks regrew. One of the two silver foxes is happy to sleep at the front of the pen. He came to watch me as I worked but wasn't brave enough to sniff my hand through the mesh.

I love the woolly pigs' curls.

When I got home the builder was just finishing off fitting the new/old gates. I'm glad we were able to reuse these galvanised gates which had been across the step in the garden. 

Peter had also been busy when I was out. He'd brought down all the bags of rubble from the back garden and tipped them into the raised beds. I moved more of the spoil heap into the raised beds as well before taking time to rest in the sun on the terrace.

 

Cloudy.

It was bright and sunny this morning but all too soon dark clouds covered the sky and the easterly wind had the temperature plummeting.

With the builder due to be here later my first job of the day was to shift all the blocks that had been in front of the small raised bed. Some went in the bed under the terrace and the rest were stacked up at the back of the side bed. Then when the builder arrived he kindly moved the heavy concrete planters in front of the small bed giving me access to the two dumpy bags of soil. The builder was here today to put the galvanised gates across the entrance to the garden. These have their own posts and the builder needed to dig a couple of two foot deep holes. It would have been quicker if he didn't have to go through the base of a brick wall that once went right across the garden.

I was about to have a break when I remembered that I'd put the oven trays and grilles in to soak last night. The dishwasher tablets had softened up the baked on grease on the grilles but it still took me two hours to scrub everything clean. Not my favourite job especially when it's mainly Peter who uses the oven. He would be happy to leave the grilles to turn black but I prefer to keep things clean.

A close up of the wool I bought yesterday. I'm thinking I might make some fingerless gloves, a very useful item.

Yesterday's walk around Mach took us to this charming walk which we intend to explore another time.

The few trees in Borth are mainly stunted by the sea winds so it was nice to see some really tall trees.

And at last, the fresh green of the first Beech leaves. The hedges on the way to town are mainly hawthorn or gorse so I have missed seeing that first flush of lime green that was a feature of the Devon hedgerows.

 

Machynlleth.

Another bright and sunny day today.

We were off out again to meet up with classmates in Machynlleth. It was a lovely drive there with the sun shining through the fresh green leaves on the trees and lambs in just about every field. 

Once again we met in the Caffi Alys in the stunning medieval Canolfen Owain Glyndwr. There were five of us today and we had a purpose - our holiday homework, which was to to go through these 52 questions and be able to come up with sensible answers. Between us and Google translate (which is not too good for Welsh) and with the help of some Welsh speakers in the cafe who were being subjected to our attempts at the language, we managed to make progress. How much I will remember when it comes to the zoom class on Thursday is another matter. 

After much chat, hilarity, coffee and cake our group disbanded and  Peter and I went for a stroll around the town. There has been a weekly market here since 1291 hence the very wide street.

All the buildings are interesting with tempting views down the side alleys.

The building fronts and shop windows tend to reflect the quirky alternative style of the inhabitants. These two seemed a little exhausted from being permanently on view.

I had a long browse in the excellent card shop and bought a suitable card for an upcoming birthday. We went in one hardware store and bought this flexi-bucket to try out as another option for soaking the oven grilles and trays while in another hardware store I bought a cheap but just what I needed wire brush/scraper tool. I also visited a couple of charity shops One had a selection of interesting multi-coloured, fluffy ,sparkly and/or textured wools. Somebody must share my magpie instincts. Although I liked most of them I refrained and just bought these three for £1.

When we got back home we saw that the builder had been and replaced all the broken slabs with whole ones and made the step down to the lawn safe. I wasted no time in getting out and scraping off the loose paint from the under-terrace wall with my new scraper. That done I shifted some more rubble and subsoil into the side bed. Little by little the spoil heap is decreasing. 

Sunset tonight.

Sunny.

A lovely sunny day with a brisk easterly wind. 

Prefering not to have a weatherworn face (I've enough wrinkles already) before I went out to work in the garden I slathered on factor 50 sun cream, the kind made for children that goes on blue so that you can see where you're putting it. I think I should have reapplied it during the day as my cheeks look a bit red right now.

Peter came out for a while and helped me remove this concrete wall plaque from the front of the terrace wall. It's sweet enough but not my style. I posted it on the local FB page in case anyone wanted it and one of the volunteers at the zoo asked for it straight away. I'm glad it will have a new home rather than going in the bottom of the raised bed. Peter also drilled a hole in a block wall at the side of the terrace so that I can fix a hosepipe to the bottom of the water butt that sits at the side of the house. That will come in useful for watering the front garden. That done I carried on filling the raised bed with blocks and subsoil.

I've had to stop filling the terrace bed until I paint the terrace wall. But before I can paint I need to scrape off the loose paint and fill in the holes. What I did do today was to use stump killer on the few roots remaining inside the raised beds. There was the remains of an elder bush which needed cutting away first. That was hard as it was growing in an inaccessible corner between concrete blocks.

I haven't quite cleared the original small raised bed but at least now I can see the plants growing in it which included this pink aubretia and a few weeds.

After an early shower I sat out in the sun for the end of the afternoon. I even worked on our Welsh homework which is to familiarise ourselves with 52 conversation type questions to use in the next lesson.

 

Windy.

It was a bit on the gloomy side this morning with a few spots of rain making polka dots on the paving but brightened up as the day went on. The wind on the other hand increased through the day and my washing out on the line dried quickly.

I carried on working on the raised beds, stacking blocks against the terrace footings and filling in the gaps with subsoil from the spoil heap. Peter worked in the garage first and then came out and shifted all the paving slabs that had been stacked against the blocks. He also moved a whole load of broken slabs into the side bed. The builder turned up at mid-day and used some sand he had on his truck to fill in the ditch in front of the side bed so that we don't trip into it. 

I did as much as I could, had a break to pedal on the exercise bike and then relax on the terrace before bringing some of the rubble in the back garden round to dump in the raised bed.

Yesterday, just after the sun had gone down and it was dark I spotted some red lights shining in the distance. A closer look with the binoculars showed that it was a large fire on the Llyn Peninsula which is 30 miles across the sea from us. A friend who lives further up the coast posted a photo and in the comments other people reported seeing the lights of emergency vehicles and enormous flames but I haven't been able to find anything about it on-line. Maybe that's because at the same time and running into today there was a major forest fire inland. 

A poor photo taken in the dark with automatic exposure because I forgot how to get to the night time setting.

 

Windy.

Mostly cloudy today with a mild south-easterly wind. Not many people at the beach, perhaps they're all on their way home after a pleasant holiday.

The builder didn't make it today but has left a message to say he'll be here later or tomorrow. Meanwhile I took down the old gutter around the terrace and made a start on filling the raised beds with rubble, blocks and subsoil. It'll be nice to clear all that away. 

We're used to hearing fighter jets training over the mountains on Tuesdays but this week they've been flying every day. Possibly preparing to defend the skies over Ukraine? This morning four jets flew over several times in slow formation.

Hoping that I hadn't done too much for my back in the front garden I finished off in the back garden by planting clematis in the concrete planters I painted the other day. One clematis is deep red and the other red, white and pink.

I ended my afternoon sitting out on the terrace. The sun came out for a bit and it was wonderfully warm.