Grey.

Today has been grey but not too cold with some dampness in the air in the morning.

The group walk this afternoon was a memorial walk for a past member which was to include a visit to his newly erected headstone and tea in a village hall hosted by the family. As I didn't know this person I thought it wouldn't be appropriate to join the group today. Instead I planned to go for a long walk either along the cliff or out to Ynyslas.

But then I realised this would be a very good time to clear the section of the little lane that runs behind the back garden. There are a number of these small lanes or alleys that run between the gardens I'm guessing to provide access. They don't belong to the properties and are not rights-of-way but I've noticed that our neighbour across the road mows the one that runs beside his garden. In 'our' lane the house on the corner (two houses along from us) seems to have approriated the lane in that they have removed the fence next to their house and have planted a hedge next to the fence on the far side of the lane. ('Scuse the roughness of my plan. I can't make a document from scratch and I thought this would be quicker than drawing and then photographing my scribbles and the fill/flood tool doesn't work in my Paint programme.)

In the UK almost every garden or yard, however small has a fence, wall or hedge usually 4-6ft high around it as the Brits value privacy and this includes the boundary next to a house. The house in question along with most of the houses up here, was built in the days when there were no planning restrictions about how close you could build to your boundary so their light would be restricted if they did have a fence. On the plus side they are mowing the grass at least up to our back garden even though their back garden extends further. The bit behind us had some overgrown old chain link fencing and junk stopping anyone from using a mower there. I hacked at all the grass, dug up what I could of the stinging nettles, removed and bagged up the rubbish and fencing to take to the dump and moved branches and the remains of a very large garden pot so that either I can strim or hopefully the neighbours will mow. Further down the lane there are brambles and the hedges are growing inwards and I know that one house has the heating oil tank sitting in the lane as well but I can't be clearing behind other people's gardens and my ribs hurt enough as it is. The daft thing is that we and our immediate neighbours have no access from our gardens and can't even see into the lane but it would be a shame to let it become totally overgrown. 

A bit more fun with the camera. This is the Llyn Peninsula which I know is 31 miles away and I think the town is Pwllheli.

This morning our lifeboat crew were joined by the Aberdyfi crew in their Atlantic B class lifeboat for joint training. The Borth D class lifeboat looks tiny in comparison but comes into its own when rescuing people from the bottom of cliffs.