Chalkfest.

The day began damp and grey which did not bode well for Chalkfest. Luckily it slowly brightened up during the day and by the end of the afternoon you could almost say it was sunny.

After a leisurely breakfast when we got a real thrill out of hearing and understanding Welsh being spoken in The Archers the cleaning bug got to me and I grudgingly cleaned the oven. If I don't do it then it doesn't get done and I can't bear the thought of the grease getting welded on. It puts me in a grump, as I've probably mentioned before, because it's not me that cooks and eats meat. 

To improve my mood I took myself off for a walk along the beach to see how Chalkfest was faring. There were plenty of holidaymakers on the beach and in the water but I was more interested in watching the newly fledged seagulls. They'd been parked at the edge of the sea where they waited for their parents and amused themselves by pecking at odd items on the sand, practising flying and squeaking for food.

Sadly some of the artists had given up after their work had been washed away yesterday but other gamely repaired their chalk pictures.

I didn't do much when I got home apart from moving a few things into the garage and tying the sugar snap peas up as they don't seem to have got the hang of climbing up the supports I've given them.

 

Wet.

All change with the weather today, grey with frequent drizzle and rain. Not much fun for anyone who has come here for their holiday. A real shame also for Chalkfest, where a stretch of the concrete sea-wall is transformed by artists both professional and amateur, which is happening over the weekend.

This morning we put up my home-made hat rack in the utility room. We could do with the same again elsewhere as all those hats are mine but not that's not all of my hats and of course Peter has a couple of hats too. For the time being the extra hats are put away in a cupboard.

While it was too wet to work outside I went up into the loft to 1 - sigh over the limited section that was boarded over over and 2 - try and sort out some of the stuff up there. Several boxes of old sound systems are now on their way to the dump, hooray! and I took up a couple of the paintings from my study up. Down came a framed photo of earthrise from the moon which Peter printed when he was working at the Geological Museum (he's just reminded me that he got to handle a piece of moonrock then). 

Initially I went up to the loft to see if we had a box for the tv that's currently in our bedroom. When we were in Devon we would often watch tv in bed but here we've only watched one programme in three years. It's just so much nicer to watch tv in the sitting room so why spend extra money on an unused Sky service? We're also cancelling the Sky house phone as it's expensive to use and all we get are scam calls. Instead we'll stick to our mobiles. Cutting those two services and Sky cinema which never seems to have anything we want to watch has cut the Sky bill in half. In these times every saving helps.

Eventually it cleared up enough for me to go out to do some weeding. I had a good clear out of the weeds popping up between the paving slabs in the front garden. They'll grow back again either from the roots I couldn't get out or the seeds that are everywhere but at least it looks tidy for the moment.

 

Sunny.

Not quite a Borthbados day but lovely holiday weather with lots of sun and a gentle breeze.

With nothing on my schedule I was determined not to fritter away my day and end up with nothing notable done. Instead, while Peter went off shopping I glued the other loose bracket on our coffee table, cleared most of the worktop in the utility room and then set to work on the hedges in the front garden.

The hedge trimmer makes it a lot easier to get a neat finish but the overall shape of the hedge is still a work in progress. My goals are still to get it as low as possible while maintaining our privacy especially when we're sitting out on the terrace. It's that lower dip that still looks a bit odd. The plan had been to cut the escallonia that makes up that section of the hedge into a ball shape similar to the hydrangea but unless I took the top much higher it didn't quite work. I went out earlier to check just how high the 'high' section really needs to be and it could come down another 6". That will involve some sawing back of the very thick stems so I think I'll wait until next spring to do that.

I also levelled out the hedge across the bottom as my last effort with the secateurs had left it sloping down to the right.

Below is a reminder of how the garden looked in July 2019 when the hedge had spread right into the garden. I like looking back over old photos to see how much progress we've made in three years.

It was a lovely warm afternoon so after my gardening efforts I got out the sunlounger and had a most relaxing rest with a coffee and a book. It was so nice we ate our supper outside too though unlike yesterday evening we didn't see any dolphins.

Humid.

Rather humid today, mostly overcast with some spells of hot sun and even a few spits of rain.

(If you enlarge this beach photo you may spot two girls on horses and someone in a beach wheelchair amongst the beachgoers.)

I cycled down to the community gardens for our Thursday get together. Although I have a basket on the front of my bike it's not that large (I used to have a supermarket wire basket on the front of my old bike and you could get plenty in that) and I found my cake container wouln't fit in it. Luckily my next-door neighbour drives to the gardens so I was able to ask her to bring the cake along. 

The sitting area has been improved by the addition of two new benches  bought with grant money and put together by one of the garden members. They're good solid benches with higher seats which is better for some of our less flexible members.

Before 'cake and chat' some of us got to work cutting back the brambles that had grown over the paths around the herb spiral and the solar panel. The solar panel is mainly used to charge the battery that runs the electric fence around the chickens' run. There was an electric kettle and some other items in the watershed but they had to be removed due to mis-use by (youngsters ?) in the evenings. Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy the peace of the gardens so it's a shame when a small number of people spoil it for everyone else.

The chocolate marble cake, one of my staples, went down well. Eating al fresco always makes things taste better in my view.

Back home the weather couldn't make up its mind if it was going to keep raining or not so I've been pottering about indoors doing small jobs that have been waiting to be done for ages. I also spent a lot of time on the phone, Peter's phone as calls are included in his package while they are expensive on our Sky house phone. I was trying to sort out some final banking buisiness with my old bank. I say trying because to complete the transaction they needed to send me a code on my dumb phone, except that no text arrived. Eventually I noticed I had no 'bars' and while the helpful lady on the other end of the line waited I went out on to the terrace and then round the back and even up the road but no signal could I get. Eventually we gave up until I could try again another day. Then I wondered if I'd been cut off again for non-usage so I rang the service provider's help line ready to give them an ear bashing for leaving me without a phone again. But no, my phone was showing active and eventually the problem was traced to work being done on the mast hence no signal.

I finished off my afternoon with some more gardening. As I only have 6ft canes the next lot of sugar snap peas have been given those to climb up and I'll have to find some sticks for the dwarf french beans.

Today's photos are all of the community gardens. 
 

Dry.

Dry today, mainly overcast but sometimes sunny.

I cycled down to do my usual weeding stint at the zoo. I ended up weeding the gravel by the wolf-dogs and watching the many visitors. The wolf-dogs get quite excited when visitors' dogs are brought up close to the glass and wire barrier of the pen. I notice that they respond more to the bigger dogs. But the dogs tend not to react. There was a pair of beautiful huskies who were more concerned with looking behind them at the goats while Zeus and Cosmo bounced up and down in front of them. I felt sad to see that the wildflower meadow has been strimmed out of existence apart from one tiny corner. I found out that it hadn't been a mistake but that one of the owners felt it was too big. I only wish something had been said to me. I'll stick to weeding in future.

Having more or less finished for this year in the back garden I turned to the front garden and cut back some of the new growth on the inside of the hedge. I need to wait for a day when it's not windy to run the hedge trimmer over the hedge from the street.

I sat out on the terrace for a while reading my kindle. I see the neighbours and their kids are in residence, either that or there are some very young squatters next-door.

 

Windy.

It has been windy all day long. The morning was cool and grey but by early afternoon it was sunnier and warmer.

I didn't sleep well last night so I haven't done a lot today.

First thing I walked down to the pharmacy. Last week the midges had bitten me on my ears and the back of my neck and to quote fronm the film 'it burns us.' I really needed some sting relief cream and anti-histamines before I scratched my neck to pieces. There was also Peter's prescription to collect.

Once I got home I baked a chocolate marble cake. I made up double the amount and baked it a ring shape. Half will be for Thursday's community gardens group and the other half is for home consumption.

I finished off the afternoon out in the back garden, weeding and doing some general tidying.

 

Windy.

Wild and windy today with frequent showers. It didn't brighten up until 6.00 and it looks as if we're going to have a glorious evening.

This morning we went to Machynllyth to meet with our fellow language learners for coffee and a brownie (me) or bacon sandwich (Peter) and to practise our Welsh. It was helpful to go through all those yes and no variations though I still get confused. We also had a lot of laughs translating a couple of chapters of a simple storybook. While we laughed and chatted another customer came over and spoke to us in Welsh as she was also a learner and was meeting some friends to chat in Welsh.

I still get a thrill out of the way instead of just visiting the medieval building as a historic site or museum we are using/inhabiting the building for a practical purpose. For me a visit to Caffi Alys which once upon a time was the reading room of the grand house generally involves going up the winding staircase through magnificent halls to the toilet - ty bach (little house).

Afterwards Peter went back to wait in the car as his ankle seems to be going into an arthritic flare-up (possibly triggered by the weather) while I had my usual trawl around the charity shops. The only thing I bought was a book of Welsh names which will be handy when doing Duo Lingo which only uses Welsh names. Sometimes we have no idea if they are for a boy or a girl. It turns out that some can be for either including Celyn which means holly.

There were a lot of visitors in town, well it is the holiday season. I also went into a shoe shop that sells hats in my perennial hunt for the perfect hat. I like hats and there is one particular style that I've been hunting for a long time. It's a safari hat and although I have several similar hats they don't have the dip at the front and back I seek. I have one in leather but I really would like a fabric version for summer. Also I need a large size and many hats only come in one-size. Writing this I feel bad for having such a first world problem but when I do find such a hat I will treat myself but today wasn't the day.

We had showers on the way home and into the afternoon. At least I was able to screw on the hooks to my new hat rack but Peter needed to rest his ankle so we couldn't put the rack up in the utility room.

Instead I pottered in the back garden which apart from some tidying up is just about done, at least for this year. The last veg bed has been levelled but it's late for planting veg. I planted two more rows of french beans as the ones that came up are under attack from slugs I think.

The everlasting pea has gone wild and needed a lot of tying back before it ends up on the ground while most of the other climbers are doing nicely. I'd be a bit worried if everything else had reached the tops of their trellis already.

Speedy, the seaside cat.

 

Warm.

Today has been warm but very wet. It rained heavily in the night and on and off all day. Peter's row today was cancelled due to the heavy swell which never really developed into good surfing waves. Much to the disappointment of the surfers I'm sure.

I had a late start to the day after a poor night's sleep. That was annoying as I'd put my head down at 11.00 and fallen asleep before the end of the quiz on R4 only to wake up just before midnight. Didn't get back to sleep until after 2.00 and still woke again in the early hours. At least that doesn't happen every night.

 

I had hoped to do some work in the back garden but it was hard enough to find a break in the rain to run into the garage to get the paint and brush to finish off painting the wall in the sitting room. That job at least is done and my hat rack had a coat of satin paint. I also made a start of fixing the wooden bracing pieces of our large oak coffee table which originally was a full sized table until I shortened the legs.

Then it was time for more Welsh. I had suggested that we work on the different yes/no options  tomorrow when we meet and each turn up with a list of questions that use a mix of six ways to say yes or no (more if you count the different ways to respond to you singular (familiar) and you plural (formal) for some of them). I wrote out my list and then attempted to remember which yes/no to use. That was very helpful for me. Some of my questions refer to 'Owen' a character used in Duo Lingo that seems to have an odd relationship with parsnips. Apart from simply liking them he also sells them in his nightclub and wants to buy them in Norway. 

Going through my Duo Lingo section on 'to go' I'm finally getting to grips with the past tense. I realise now that part of my confusion was the odd way we use different ways to say 'go' in the past tense. If it is a statement we say I went which stems from the old english word wendan but if we ask a question we revert to the did you go? form which comes from gan. How on earth do people learn english?

 

Wet.

Very warm today but for most of the time with light drizzle that sometimes developed into rain. 

Peter went out for a row this morning when the drizzle was very light and the sea not too rough. Right now I can see great big rollers coming in, an indicator of rough weather out to sea.

I thought today would be a good day to tackle the corner of the sitting room wall which has dried out as far as it's going to after all the hot weather. I still think that we have some rising damp. The house walls are single brick not cavity walls and the builder (the first one) didn't use the insulated plasterboard on this small section but plastered straight onto the bricks. I gave the paint another scrape down to remove any loose flakes before painting with watered down paint for a primer coat and later a second coat. Still needs another coat tomorrow.

The next overdue job was to drill a couple of holes in a piece of wood that I'm going to turn into a hat rack and that got two coats of paint as well. Then as it was raining I got out the sewing machine and made a bag/cover for the fabric bit of the big parasol using an old curtain that had been demoted to being a dustsheet. That will make it easier to store and keep it clean while it is in the garage. Let's face it I don't think there will be many occasions when we need to use it.

Finally I was able to go outside and build the supports for the last trough by the street wall. That's now been filled and planted up with montbretia and nasturtium seeds.

Last night's sunset.