Sunshine!

Hardly any wind today and lots of sun which made a lovely change.

I didn't get off to sleep until after 4.00 this morning which was not fun. I'm still working out how to adjust my painkillers after having to stop the Naproxen. I'm trying to keep the amount to a minimum but I do need to be able to get to sleep which I was able to do before my meds were changed. I wasn't even able to have a lie-in as we were off to Mach again this morning to practise Welsh with our friends. Still I should be able to sleep tonight. 

During our session we went through most of the next unit in our course books as class starts up again this week. I wonder if there will be any new faces in class this year? Towards the end of our morning in the library a mum came in with two small children to read and play in the children's section which was right next to where we sat. The younger child a girl, had the most piercing shriek I have ever heard and she used it quite often running around playing with her brother. It was at such a high pitch and volume that it physically hurt our ears. The first time I thought it was a fire alarm going off. The mother seemed oblivious but it was hard not to just sit there with our hands over our ears. Well I guess we are noisy too as we mangle the Welsh language and laugh a lot.

This morning the air was clear enough for good views of Tywyn (top), Pwllheli (middle) and Bardsey Island (below, for Wendy). 

When we got home Peter went off to play pool and I put up my £5 mirror from the dump. It only took half an hour which included drilling two sets of holes due to the mirror being too low the first time. It was harder doing this on my own but I had become fed up of waiting for our schedules to coincide. I had to reposition the photos on either side as well which resulted in some extra nail holes which I've already filled.

After that was done I cut a piece of the left-over splashback perspex to make a waterproof top for the back door frame. Once cut to size I used lots of sealant and screws to fix it to the top of the frame. Originally there was a lean-to type of roof over the gap between the house and the garage making it damp and dark so I thought I'd give the wood some extra protection. 

A butterfly tale from yesterday. 

The most impressive butterflies in the butterfly house were the Blue Morphos with iridescent pale blue  wings as large as my hands. They kept flying past but wouldn't settle so it was hard to take a photo and impossible to get one to sit on your hand. The best I could do was a blur of blue as the camera tried to focus on them.

Then at last we found one lying on a leaf. The eye spots on those enormous wings really do look like birds' eyes. But lying down? I was suspicious and when I blew gently the unmoving dead butterfly dropped to the ground.

At last I found one sitting upright on a leaf. I waited patiently and eventually was rewarded with the shimmering blue of the top of the wings. Funnily enough we had to stop one lady who was about to go out through the plastic flap doors as one of these giant butterflies was sitting on the back of her jumper. (Hence the notice by the exit asking people to check their backs before they went out.)

Almost forgot, late last night Speedy turned up at the terrace door with a dead young rat in his mouth. It was quite a logistical feat getting Speedy indoors without the rat and then myself outside to use the spade to take the rat out and dispose of it over the cliff.