Wet.

(Rewriting my blog after a major connection failure, something to do with my antivirus. Peter has fixed it but he gets very cross and I get berated for ignoring and for not ignoring messages from the anti virus.) Lots of rain today with a few dry spells.

The very occasional moments of sun brought some welcome colour to the sea.

While Peter went off to town to do some shopping including spending nearly £80 on strong brackets for the shelves, I painted the shelves again. I won't paint a third coat on the wood for the upright pieces until after Peter has cut them to size. That might take a while as Peter needs to reassemble the circular saw after he dismantled it to change the blade.

During one of the dry spells I tied in all the new growth of the climbers in the back garden. I'm happy to report that 26 climbers have made it through the winter with some already developing flower buds. Most are clematis but there are also passion flowers, honeysuckles and a perennial pea. I didn't plant the vinca, it's making its way through from next door's garden.

The mystery of the car has been solved. Peter saw somebody getting in and driving away this morning and from his description, high-viz jacket, burly chap, it is probable that the car belongs to a builder brought in to work on one of the big building projects around here. If it was the one  up the road there were generally three or four work vans parked on the road outside so no room for an expensive car.

 

No Milk!

Today the warmer winds brought frequent rain with the ocassional sunny spell.

The day did not begin well when Peter went found we had run out of milk for our morning cup of tea. Something that is even more vital to the waking up process when you're still coughing and spluttering after covid. Luckily we had an emergency supply of dried milk though on reflection a herb or fruit tea might have tasted better. I still remember my granny making up dried milk to have on cereal and it wasn't very nice then either. The shop is only five minutes walk away so once he was fully awake Peter went down and got us some fresh milk.

After breakfast I had time for a shelf painting session before our Zoom class. More work on the imperfect past tense and what do you know but there's yet another yes/no to learn. This time it's the equivalent of Yes I was/Yes I did. I think it might be easier if we had to translate them as the longer version rather than Yes and No and having to remember which Yes or No to use. We're up to seven different Yes/No and of course most have different forms depending on who is the subject of the sentence.

We had another sunny spell when class finished and I was tempted to go for a beach walk but instead I did some weeding out in the back garden. One of the pleasures of having a small garden is that you can weed the whole thing in a reasonable time. There were not too many weeds apart from the millions of Welsh poppy seedlings which are springng up everywhere. Such a shame that poppies can be toxic to some animals so I can't introduce them at the zoo. I left the fennel seedlings which I'll pot up soon as I might find somewhere to replant them. The rain sent me back indoors before I had the chance to tie in the latest new growth of the various climbers.

Fortunately the rain stopped before it was time to walk down to the hall for an hour's exercise leaping about to loud disco music. 

That car is still parked opposite our bedroom window. We've asked the neighbours, they asked the neighbours further up the road but nobody knows who the car belongs to. One of our neighbours contacted the police but no it hasn't been reported as stolen. Very strange. If it stays there for weeks all we can do is report it to the council. I have been able to reverse back into our drive but it's a lot more tricky now.

 

Bird Visitors.

Warmer and wetter today.

Even though the morning was quite wet I decided to go to the zoo. That was mainly to see what was happening with the seeds I sowed into trays and left in the tortoise house the other week. When I looked at them the first surprising thing was the amount of dust (the seed trays are on a raised platform that holds some electric heaters) on the cling flim I'd put over the trays. The next weird thing was that when I removed the cling film the compost below was steaming. Some of the seeds have germinated but I don't hold out much hope for those seedlings. However another option for the mixed wildflower seeds is to sow them direct into a safety moat next to the wolf-dogs. A good idea but first the overgrown carpet underlay needs taking up and I'd made it clear this was too much for me (or rather my back) to tackle. However today there were a group of young workers/ volunteers on site and they were tasked to dealing with the carpet. Once they take it up I can sow the rest of the seeds directly into the ground.

My job for today at the zoo was to prune the buddelia. This was a relatively simple job with the secateurs after last year's efforts when I had to use the loppers and saw to reduce years of growth. Once I'd cut the branches I gave them to the goats as they enjoy both the leaves and the bark. I left a few branches in with the rabbits as well. Last year I wasn't sure how the two buddelia in the rabbit run would survive after having most of the bark eaten. I fenced around the base of the bushes and I see that as well as growth on the main branches there is a lot of growth inside the wire fencing. I was just getting to the end of my pruning when down came the rain, a veritable deluge but it wasn't worth stopping and I carried on. By the time I got home and out of my soggy clothes the rain stopped and I don't think we've had much since.

At home I still had time to do some more shelf painting. I've only painted one side (and the edges) and will finish off the other sides tomorrow after class.

It is recycling day and before I put out the food waste I check the fridge to see if there's anything lurking that could do with throwing out. Very little food gets thrown out in this house but today I found a slice of stale bread. Rather than put it in the food waste I put it on the lawn for the birds to see who would turn up. The dunnock (above) is a regular visitor for the seeds on the terrace but also enjoyed some bread. 

Next came a pair of jackdaws who were adept at picking up three or four pieces of bread at a time.

Although similar looking the dark eyes and larger size identifies the next visitors as common crows. They ate a lot of the bread first before gathering up several pieces each to take away.

 

Wet.

Cold, grey and mostly wet today.

I was up at 7.00 this morning mainly driven by my need for a mug of tea. Then one thing led to another and I got most of the morning routine done. I was hoping to head down to the zoo but heavy rain set in before breakfast and though it cleared up during the morning I decided to leave the zoo until tomorrow.

Instead I planned to get on with painting the shelves. Set everything up, opened the tin of paint and realised I'd bought magnolia instead of white. Most of the paint on the shelf had been white and I just didn't check before I bought it. Thinking it was worth a try I drove to Huw's and they very kindly said I could swap the tin. That was nice because they don't have to, it was my mistake. I was lucky to find the last tin of white in that size on the shelf so all I lost was time. Back home I managed to get two painting sessions in and paint both sides of the shelves apart from the last one which had the same side painted twice. I also started a new crochet square this time using more purples and greys. Off to Pilates soon.

 

Blue Skies.

Lots of blue today but quite chilly. No wind but the clouds began to appear later.

I seem to be on the mend so I decided to resume painting the shelves. I was able to get the tops and bottoms of the shelves painted with undercoat as it's a water based paint that dries very quickly. 

That still gave me time to catch the sun on the terrace and do some crochet. I added an extra row of black around the first square to give a more generous stripe between the squares. 

Sunset last night.

Last thing yesterday I went out on the terrace to check the night sky. No Northern lights but it was still lovely with a wide path of moonlight reflected in the sea, the stars shining up above and the constant shush of the waves. No wonder Speedy stayed out all night.

 

Chilly.

Just a few glimpses of blue today leaving us with a cold grey day but no rain until late in the afternoon.

More coughing and less spluttering from me though I did not appreciate losing an hour from the night as we moved into British summer time. Not that we get up at a set time but I don't really like being in bed for too long. 

Our lifeboat crew has training on Sunday mornings and this week they were joined by the crew from one of the neighbouring lifeboat stations in their next size up lifeboat. In our house things were going at a much more leisurely pace.

As well as giving the air plants their weekly swim in rain water I did some pottering with the houseplants before returning to my crochet project. I completed the next square and blocked it. Rather than have each square in shades of only one colour I want to carry each colour across a number of squares to create a more cohesive look while not trying to make identical squares. 

Out in the garden after weeks of being a splash of colour the daffodils are beginning to be past their best. The spring starflowers have also been flowering for weeks. I'm glad I was able to salvage so many from the garden. There are still three large potfuls which I intend to put in the troughs on the inside of the street wall to give some early colour before the nastutiums and montbretia emerge. There are a couple in there already and they seem to be coping well with the windy conditions.

 

Dry.

It's been a day of many sunny spells interspersed with cooler grey spells but thankfully no rain.

The high tide was right up the beach again this morning but I don't think it was overtopping the sea wall today. Right now I'm hearing about the latest tornado in Mississippi, so sad for all the people affected. Thankfully we don't have such severe weather events here.

I'm still coughing and spluttering but I was able to get everything done including playing the piano before running out of energy. Had a rest and then before putting on a big pot of hearty soup I walked down to the shop but they didn't have any white cabbage, leeks or celery any of which would have bulked up the soup so I threw in lentils and potato and have just added broccoli from the freezer. It was sunny at the time so it was still a nice walk out in the fresh air.

By the time the soup was on the go the sun had reached the terrace so I had a lovely session doing my crochet out in the sun.

There's nothing like a good list.

 

Stormy.

Wonderfully wild and stormy today with a lot of sun too. My perfect weather.

A very high tide again this morning, 5.4m. As we ate breakfast every now and then 20ft high plumes of spray shot up above the cliff.

Down on the beach the waves were reaching right up the beach into the gardens of the houses along there. While it would be exciting to live in one of those houses buying one would not have been a sensible choice. Anyway they are very expensive and are owned by people who either are making lots of money from holiday lets or who aren't worried about the long term.

Below - not my photo but another view of the waves at the spot seen above as they top the substantial sea wall.

Peter drove into town this morning to stock up our depleted food supplies. That car is still there (I checked and it's taxed and insured). He was was able to reverse back into our drive from the opposite direction to me but I think I would struggle. However I shan't be going anywhere for a while as I'm still feeling rough.

Today I had nothing extra to do which was a relief and then in the afternoon the sun was shining on the terrace. I wrapped up well and did my crochet outside with the sun on my back and the waves crashing below. Bliss.

As we ate our breakfast a pair of oystercatchers were hunting for worms on the cliff.

I took a shot of the moon yesterday evening and then missed an amazing opportunity. The Northern lights were again visible from Wales and could even be seen from Borth. Right at the time I'd got up and gone to watch tv for a few hours!!!! I'm gutted at missing them. I'd turned off my PC earlier so missed the post on the village page. Such a shame.

 

Showers.

A bit of blue today and a lot of showers. 

Some of the showers were very heavy and this morning a tidal flood warning for lower Borth including the zoo was in place due to a very high tide pushing up the small river that runs behind the houses and excess rainwater flowing into the river from the hills above. Haven't heard anything as I'm stuck indoors. The bad weather may also have contributed to my Zoom connection failing twice during Welsh class. The first time everything froze on my pc but I could hear voices from Peter's study. As I'd  already said that we had covid (knew all that work on illnesses would come in handy) our tutor thought I might not be feeling well until Peter explained what had happened. With the connection dial going round and round I picked up my work folder and joined Peter in his study. I was able to reconnect during the coffee break but lost it again not long after. Peter thinks it might be down to dirty tricks between Google and Microsoft over Zoom and a new chat app as my other programmes were still connected and working. 

This car has been parked opposite our house since yesterday afternoon. It's not illegal to park there but should we drive off our drive (directly opposite the telegraph pole) it would be very difficult to reverse back into the drive again to park. Espcially for me as I always reverse in swinging round from the middle of the road where the car is. I can't even think why that car is parked there. There are only 10 houses on our road and while a few do not have off road parking that car could have been parked in front of their houses rather than semi blocking our drive.

After class I settled in the sitting room to crochet and watch the beach in comfort.

 

Windy.

Once again the day began with the bluest of skies, clouds then rolled in and eventually it turned grey and we're back to heavy rain. It was very stormy last night and we had at least one power cut as the oven clock was flashing and Sky tv had been switched off. We have too many power cuts to bother setting the time on the oven so I only touch it to stop it from flashing.

We had a good drying wind in the morning and by the time I'd washed up and done my Duo Lingo the sheets were dry enough to iron. Having done those and put out the rubbish and recyling I thought I was finished for the day until Peter reminded me about our Welsh homework. Luckily we had gone over it during our last meet in Mach so I didn't need to think too hard. Mostly it was repeating patterns that used 'had'. I had a bit of fun when we were asked to give reasons (we'd been learning about ill health) why imaginary people had not been in a class last week. That was simple enough so I spiced it up by adding why they had a headache/ cold/ stomach ache/ back ache - been to a party/ swam in the sea/ ate in a new restaurant/ been shopping. 

Later on Peter went to the shop as we were out of milk and any Welsh speakers must have been in hysterics at him on the phone trying to decribe the ice cream varieties in the freezer to me in Welsh. It's only the second time I've indulged in ice cream this year (I have no self control if it's in the house.) but I think covid justifies a treat (or three). I declined vanilla or chocolate and chose salted caramel which I will save for later in case I begin to feel rough again.

Out in the back garden most of the clematis are springing into life so I went round tying shoots to the trellis to stop them getting damaged in the strong winds.

A few surfers came out to take advantage of the big waves and then I saw this chap. Another first, I had to look it up but as I thought this is a wing surfer without the wing or foil. It's called free riding and he guy was zipping along. 

 

Sun.

We had a few hours of wonderful sunshine this morning which along with a brisk wind made it perfect to hang out the washing. All too soon the cloud bank had rolled in turning the world grey again and now we have light rain as well.

Having pulled out of my main activities I just focused on getting through the daily routine. So far I don't feel much worse than a really bad cold though at times my sinuses have been quite painful. Steaming doesn't give much relief but a hot flannel on the cheek is helpful.

My PC has been running very slowly these last two days. I thought it was a fault with my PC, ran a virus scan which said it was clear and then Peter told me he's having the same issues. It always seems to happen when it's raining. Or maybe it's something to do with BT working on the cables in the village. They're supposed to be installing fibre but at the same time they wiped out some of the street lights so you wonder how competent they are. This evening I lost my internet connection completely for a while so if I disappear it's more likely to be my connection rather than my health.