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.