999.

It's been a hot sunny day with a good drying wind.

You're probably wondering why the 999? A small drama happened this morning. I was out on the terrace washing the windows when I thought I heard somebody shouting for help. The bay was much as the picture above, nobody to be seen because of the strong offshore wind. I quickly grabbed my binoculars and went down to the cliff edge from where I could see a paddleboard. In the water next to it was a young girl, aged about 12, sobbing and calling for help. I called down to her and told to stay in the water keeping hold of her board as she was panicking and wearing herself out trying to get back onto the board. Luckily she wasn't caught in a rip tide and her board was steady in the water. I thought I heard a voice nearer shore but when I scanned the beach I couldn't see anyone going to alert the lifeguard on duty. Reasuring the girl that help was on its way I went back and rang the coastguard from the house phone. That was the first time I've ever had to call the emergency services on 999. By the time I got back to the cliff edge the girl had managed to get herself and her board to a little bit of beach under the cliff and two of her friends had turned up on another paddleboard. I told them to wait for the lifeguard who was paddling out on his surfboard but they decided to paddle themselves on one board back to shore. By this time the lifeboat was also out but their help wasn't needed.  I later heard from our neighbour who was on the beach at the time that the girl still looked quite shaken up when they returned to shore. She was given a proper check by a paramedic to make sure she was okay. It really wasn't the right conditions for anyone to be out on a paddleboard and the advice is to wear a lifejacket of some sort (few do) and to have a mobile phone in a waterproof case for emergencies. At least it ended well.

While all that was going on Peter had been out taking bags of tiles from the bathroom to the dump and then went on to do some shopping. Once I'd finished my housework I went down to the front garden and cleaned off more of the concrete blocks. 

The last event of the day was going, on my own, to try a community choir in the next village. I've just returned home after a hard two hours singing. I say hard because unlike the old choir which had 70 members there were only 11 of us singing so I couldn't hide within the crowd so to speak. Plus it was all new songs but it was made a little easier by having the words on display. The songs were a similar mix of african, ukranian and a first for me - korean songs and a couple of english ones. A welcoming group of people and I think I shall enjoy singing with them but I don't think it would suit Peter. He's hoping that the village sea shanty choir will start again after covid. That's more his type of singing.

 

I'm Back.

No blog yesterday because something in my pc blocked the whole of the internet. Peter returned home yesterday evening after a post rowing drink to find me bouncing up and down unable to blog, do my Duo Lingo or check for messages from Romas about a possible visit. It's at times like those that I realise how much I do on-line; emails, keeping in touch with friends and family on FB, Welsh class and Duo, voice warm ups and so on. My big problem is that I only have one way to access the internet which is my pc. So if my pc goes down everything goes off. ( I get the internet on my Kindle but it's quite limited) I have thought and I'm sure said, that it would be sensible to have a lap top as a back up and after yesterday Peter has already ordered me one. Now to find out how to work Windows 11. Peter let me use his pc last night to do my Duo as it makes a big thing of doing it every day, I'm on 204 continous days which is probably since Christmas when we visited Vytas but I'm not allowed to visit my regular sites on his pc. Peter worked on my pc today and the problem seems to stem from Skype which I thought was off years ago, but has been trying to connect and blocked up all my hard drive. 

A couple of photos from yesterday - the stack of cleaned blocks is growing nicely.

Today - nice and warm with plenty of sunshine right up until I went to sit out on the terrace.

At the zoo today I went round all the flower beds weeding and cutting back stems which have finished flowering. The mint is survivng even though the ground there is bone dry. I had a couple of wet nose sniffs from both of the wolf-dogs through the grill while I eased my back for a moment.

It was busy again at the zoo so instead of weeding the gravel by the chickens where I have spotted weeds in one half I did the whole of the gravel by the wolf-dogs. Not only was it less busy but there was an intermitted breeze to cool me down.

Mr Pea is looking quite bedraggled at the moment. He needs to grow new tail feathers.

Back home I did my Duo straight away in case of any problems and then retired to the terrace. It was still warm but not as sunny as before.

 

Warm.

Hazy and warm today. Being a Bank Holiday weekend and the last weekend of the school summer holidays Borth was packed. Cars parked in every corner and almost continous lines of people walking along the coast path.

While Peter went off rowing I headed inland to meet up with the walking group for a great walk up in the hills. We met up in the same village as last time but then combined in two cars to travel a few miles further along tracks back into the wilder countryside. 

It was peacefully deserted, we saw one resident outside a cottage but not a single other person out on the hills.

We followed the old tracks from one deserted and often ruined farmhouse to another.

Eventually we found ourselves at the ruins of an old lead mine where we stopped for lunch. 

I should have taken more photos, too busy chatting, but this is the slot where the waterwheel that powered the mine machinery used to be. Below are some of the walls of the old mine buildings.

Although some of the clouds above us looked a bit grey it stayed dry and warm for the whole walk.

Eventually we retraced our steps back to the ruined farm where the cars were parked and then drove back, through many gates, to Tal-Y-Bont.

I've tried to see exactly where we went on the map but unfortunately our route was half on one OS map and half on the other and OS maps unlike road maps don't overlap. I thought I might do better on Google maps but the area is too islolated and it doesn't name the abandoned farms or the lead mine.

The hollow base of this old tree was big enough for a supple adult to get inside but the person who went in last time declined to go in again.

By the time I got home there was only time to do my Duo Lingo before the usual evening routine.

 

Sunny.

Sunny and warm today.

I spent the morning chipping cement from the big blocks in the front garden and got quite a few done. As I worked I heard some voices shouting for help. Looking at the bay I saw that the shouts were coming from two people in the water just off the the sandbank that runs between the first two breakwaters. The lifeguard on his board soon reached them and had them resting on his board while he radioed for another lifeguard to come and take the second person back to shore. Both the rescued men walked up the beach with the lifeguards so my guess is that they were non-swimmers who had stepped into the deeper water (there were no signs of them being caught in a rip tide) and panicked. Well done to the beach lifeguards.

Later on I cycled down to the railway station for a talk on the submerged forest by Dr Martin Bates. He is a geological archeologist and in his excellent talk which was mostly on the beach, he took us from 30,000 years ago when glaciers covered the area through the melting of the glaciers, the silting up of the rivers, reed beds and then the forest which grew 7,000 years ago but only lasted for 1,500 years before reverting to grasslands and then bogs before the sea level gradually rose covering the land. Interesting fact, at the end of the last ice age the sea was 125m lower than it is now.

I don't walk on the beach so much in the summer, too many people and too much to do at home so I hadn't realised that the tree stumps of the forest turn green as the seaweed grows on it.

Back home there was just time to sit out for a while after an early shower before heading off to a party at a neighbour's. When we checked the invitation this morning I realised that we weren't being asked to bring food along and I needn't have gone to all that bother making the hummus. Hmph. I called in at the shop on the way back from the talk and bought some fancy apple & rhubarb and apple & ginger juices to take along as I rarely drink alcohol. It was a lovely party, quite a few people we already knew, amazing vegetarian food and much music making and singing including lively fiddle music. Even I was persuaded to play the digital piano and I've agreed to join a second small choir. Life is getting busy.

 

Wet.

The day began grey and gloomy, then we had heavy showers for most of the day with the sun breaking through later in the afternoon.

I started with a quick walk down to the shop to buy some tahine (to make hummus) and cottage cheese for supper. I left Peter taking out the airing cupboard door in the bathroom and once he'd done that he decided he had enough stuff for a dump run and a quick visit to Morrisons. I wish I'd known because the local shop is more expensive than the supermarket but then again it's good to support the shop.

When I returned, just before a very heavy shower, I took everything off the dresser and desk in the living room, wiped off the dust and then gave the wood a going over with Brywax. I prefer the smell and the idea of using beeswax but Brywax is what is used by antique dealers (at least in my day). Being petroleum based it has a strong initial smell but perhaps it soaks in better and the smell soon goes. I thought I might as well use the Brywax since I changed my mind about restoring a small wall cupboard for the bedroom.

We unscrewed the mirror from the bathroom which left the wall clear for me to carry on taking off tiles. I realised that parts of the bathroom have yet another layer of tiles, the original white tiles put up without any grout. They seem to be stuck on firmly so will leave those up but even so it was hard work chipping off the top layer of tiles. On the other hand where the tiles had been stuck onto board they came off very easily and I cleared the whole of that wall barring the bit behind the radiator.

Before Peter left I pulled up all the 5ft high lettuces keeping a couple of the small ones for a last few salads. We are now eating the sugar snap peas which are cropping reasonably well.

The last job of the day was to make some hummus as we're going to a party this weekend and the invite specified vegetarian food. I've kept the garlic to a minimum and made it more lemony this time.

 

Sunny.

Bright and sunny today with a light crisp wind.

It was a good day for cycling down to the community gardens and by the time I'd spent an hour chopping back the nettles and brambles under some of the apple trees it felt really hot. The benches sit in a sheltered suntrap so I was glad I'd remembered to bring my sunhat along. I made sure that the lettuce I'd brought to share was in the shade but one of the cheeky hens kept trying to pinch the leaves. I had to put the lettuce next to me to keep it safe. While we were sitting waiting for today's cake (it was buttered malt loaf) a young rabbit came hopping along and sat in the middle of everybody chewing the long grass stem it had in its mouth. There are a lot of very bold rabbits around the community gardens.

After 'Cake and Cultivate' (the official name of the Thursday meeting) I cycled on along the lane with one of the group members to Borth Station to visit the small museum there. The chap I was with volunteers at the museum and he was able to tell me more about some of the exhibits. 

At the moment they have an exhibit of the 3,000 year old antlers that were found in the submerged forest off the beach.

As well as a lot of railway related items they also had other items from the forest including the 5,000 year old flint tool for scraping animal skins.

An interesting little museum that I will return to.

Looking inland across the railway line.

Instead of going up to the High Street from the railway station I back tracked and cycled along the loop running back to the church and community gardens, past the zoo and then back up to the High Street.

Apart from being safer it's a lot prettier and has several uphill sections to provide a challenge for my weedy legs.

This building used to be the power station, that it is housed a number of generators that provided the first electricity supply for the village.

By the station I had to cross the railway line. No automated gates but just a gate and a sign telling you to look before you cross. I had to cross the railway again by the Star of the Sea chapel, now a community arts centre (in the centre of the photo) and that was through an automated set of gates that come down when a train is approaching.

By the time I got home Peter had gone out rowing. They had both boats out today and had some fun racing against each other. I spent the afternoon working in the front garden digging out the stump of an elder from under the hedge, planting the last of the rescued daffodil bulbs and tidying up the inner face of the long hedge. I didn't finish until nearly 5.00 however it was so nice and sunny I still enjoyed a couple of hours sitting in the sun.

There was an dramatic sunset again last night. We were standing on  the terrace watching the sun disappear below the horizon and amazingly both saw the  green flash when the last remnant of the disc turns green for a couple of seconds. Last year when we used to watch the sunset out on the cliff with various neighbours everyone used to laugh at my efforts to squint to see a green flash but there was no doubt last night. That was the most common green flash but there are also rarer versions where the disc distorts into an hourglass shape with the top part turning green or even a vertical green beam appearing. That would have me thinking of UFOs. 

Wet.

Still grey and mild with dry spells but mostly lightly raining. Much heavier clouds over the mountains so I guess it's wet up there.

Vytas phoned for a chat last night and today flowers, a card and chocolates arrived from him and Sally. All much appreciated. Speedy also took an interest in the flowers which was explained by the presence of some catmint in the bouquet.

While Peter drove to town to get rid of more bags of bathroom tiles I emptied the last boxes from the bath. One a box of old towels for plumbing emergencies, only made it as far a the other side of the room but I did manage to shuffle things around in one of the utility room cupboards and fit in the contents of another large box. I had fun unpacking the third box labelled 'ceramics and glassware'. Lots of pretty things which for the time being have been put away in various cupboards.

It has felt very muggy indoors but it didn't stay dry for long enough for me to get on with any of the big outdoor jobs. Instead I pottered around weeding the back garden and by the troughs at the front of the house.

 

Grey.

Quite grey this morning with light rain that eased off to give a warm afternoon and now we're back to rain. 

I chose to be cautious and drove to the zoo instead of cycling though in the end it would have been fine on the bike. My work at the zoo today was to weed a whole section of the area with the picnic tables. The gloomy weather meant that there were quite a few visitors to the zoo. It was interesting listening to the conversations around me. One set of children looking at the large model of a gorilla were an absolute delight.  An older boy, about 9 years old was explaining to the younger (4 or 5 years old) girl all about how the money collected was being used to help conserve the gorillas' trees. He chatted knowledgably about gorillas, red pandas and polar bears and then asked if the younger child knew what pollution was and went on to talk about not putting plastic in the sea. The girl understood quite well and had decided that bad people who didn't put rubbish in the right place should go to prison though at times she veered off the subject and talked about a boy in her class who hit her finger with a hammer? and made it bleed who should also be sent to prison.

It's my birthday. Now that I'm 66 I finally get my pension from the government. I spent my life expecting to get my pension at 60 but some years ago to save money women's pension age was moved to 66. Goodness knows what it will  be for the next generation.

Peter surprised me wit lots of healthy fruit as well as cake, chocolate and other treats. Barbecue spare ribs for supper tonight too. He's planned a trip to Snowdonia but it looked too wet to go there today. He's also got me (well us really as it's for two) RSPB membership as we have the osprey centre and another bird reserve nearby. 

As I was in the car I stopped on the way home from the zoo and cut myself some branches from the willow trees along the river there. I had hoped to make some plant supports for next year but my attempts to reinvent willow weaving did not go too well. (Hence no photos.) On the plus side I've found out how to keep on doing practice exercises in Duo and did three sets without a mistake or having to keep looking at my notes.