Happy Birthday Romas.

Happy Birthday to Romas, our youngest who as can be seen is still playing the drums as well as holding down a full time job in Stoke where he lives with Laura and their two dogs. He leads a busy life so we haven't seen him at all this year.

The sea was grey and very flat this morning with just the smallest of waves lapping at the shore. We weren't sure if the builders were coming today but then I got all excited when Peter told me they had arrived. That turned out to be a false alarm as the white van that had stopped outside went off again. Possibly one of the many builders working in the area checking out the work.

As they are doing pony club stuff at the stables tomorrow we had our riding lesson this morning (no Welsh class as it's half-term). There were only four of us in the lesson which today was taught by Katie, one of the girls who works at the stables. I rode Margaret and did okay. It was all work in trot, straight lines and leg yielding, nothing too exciting. Whenever we let the horses walk on a loose rein I amused myself by seeing how well I was able to control Margaret without using the reins at all. I was able to get her to turn by using my legs and body but although I was able to slow her down I didn't manage to bring her to a halt just by using my body and a bit of voice. That's something I can work on in the lessons. Cadno would grind to a halt the minute I stopped using my legs to ask him to go forward.

Afterwards I did the usual round of shops and then once in town I went straight up to the framers to collect a mount they were cutting for me. I also took along a Bryan Pearce print of Penzance to be framed. It has sat for too many years in a clip frame that wasn't the right size but now it will be in a proper frame with a grey mount that was the best compromise as the print is on cream paper but will be hung on a white wall.

At home I had four attempts at putting the new mount on a painting and back in the old frame. Each time I got everything put back together black specks would appear on the inside of the glass even though I had done my best to clean the delicate glass. I had to keep taking it all apart and cleaning the glass until eventually I got rid of all the black specks. When I hung the panting on our bedroom wall I could see that the dark frame needs a bit more lightening up with the gold spray which I shall do tomorrow.

And then it was time for disco aerobics. A number of people had dressed up for Halloween and Rachel had done her best to pick spooky music for us to dance to. The hour flew by and all too soon I was walking home past families dressed up  for Halloween. Not many houses were doing 'trick or treat' and some just had some decorations and a bowl of sweets outside for the children to help themselves. I heard one little boy tell his mum in a hushed whisper "I took two." I think I'll make an effort next year and do something down by the garden gate.

 

An Early Start.

The current high pressure system trapped a layer of cloud over us which stayed in place until the afternoon. Then as the clouds began to clear the sky turned a lovely blue (not quite as blue as in the photos). Once again it was nice and warm in the sun and a lot cooler in the shade. I was woken earlier than intended since I had forgotten to change the time on my alarm clock. I fed the cat, adjusted the clock and was aiming for a bit more sleep when Peter got up so I had a mug of tea in bed instead.

The builders turned up in the morning, hooray! and as Peter was going rowing at midday I had to skip going to the zoo. Beforehand I walked down to the pharmacy to collect my prescription. It's so handy to have a pharmacy in the village.

While the builders put the first coat of render on my study I did my Welsh homework and afterwards had a session on the piano. Headphones on of course as I prefer not to play when people can hear me. No chance of me becoming a concert pianist. (My limited piano playing skills might also be a factor in that!)

 

The builders have also done the tidying of the render around the windows on the other side of the house. I've no idea when they will return to apply the next coat, Google says to wait 24-48 hours so I doubt if they'll be here tomorrow.

Builder Sitting.

The day began by feeling quite damp so it was a surprise when the builders turned up before 8.30. Thankfully I was already up and dressed though for once I had deliberately not set the 7.00 alarm. It's a bit wearing to have to get up that early every day if you don't need to. Sometimes I'm up at 5.00, sometimes at 8.00 depending on the state of my body.  It's nice to have the option.

Later the day became bright and sunny, chilly in the shade but warm in the sun. I had to take my mid-morning coffee down to the shingle to find the sun. There I had fun failing to capture the sparkle as the sun caused the dew on the plants to twinkle making the garden look quite magical.

As I stood there I noticed a number of bees going into the oleaster hedge. At first I wondered if they were looking for nest sites and then I smelt and saw the clusters of white oleaster flowers that were attracting the bees.

In the morning Peter went down for his stint at the RNLI shop, his last now until Easter next year. Very sensible too as he only took just over £5 in sales. I stayed at home making the occasional cup of tea or coffee for the builders and being there for any queries. As soon as Peter came home I drove to town to pay some money to the builders for materials. I know it would be convenient to bank on my phone but there are still too many opportunities for on-line fraud for me to trust phone banking. Then when I came home Peter drove back into town to get new tyres. 

By the time the builders finished for the afternoon they had done the first coat of render on the main section of the house. I'm assuming that they will be back tomorrow to carry on.

While I was home I did some tidying up in my study sorting through a few 'tidied up' piles of stuff until everything is now in its correct place. I even went through the drawers of my filing cabinet. It looked tidy when they were shut but that was a bit of an illusion. They're much more organised now and I was able to top up a bag of stuff which I took to the charity shop when I went to the bank. 

All that's left to do today is Pilates, a whole relaxing hour to work on my aging muscles.

A Sewing Day.

It's been a grey day with heavy drizzle in the morning and a generally wintry feeling. Such a shame for people hoping to enjoy their half-term holidays by the sea.

While Peter went to the dump I baked some Bara Brith before starting work on converting the two tops I bought on Friday. A bit of a 'vanity project as I already have two tops I like to wear for disco aerobics but having bought them I wanted to finish off my grand idea.

The cardigan was the best choice as it was made of a lightweight fabric  and a good length.

I thought long and hard about buying the 'fireworks' top but the softness of the velvet and my magpie tendencies won me over and anyway the £4 would be going to a good cause.

As I sewed at my desk I had to bolt the study door to keep Speedy out. Once he's woken from his comfy sleep on the sofa he is most insistent on sitting on my lap which isn't a good thing if I'm trying to sew. I chose hand sewing over the machine which is a faff to set up and I think that hand sewing is better for hems and bias binding.

Even though the summer is well and truly over new flowers are appearing in the garden and the morning's drizzle has left them bedecked with glistening raindrops and a delight to see.

A Walk From Devil's Bridge.

The meet up place for the group walk was Devil's Bridge high up in the Cambrian hills. I took the route that runs along the ridge on the south side of the Vale of Rheidol in order to enjoy the views on the way. I left early enough that I had the time to stop and take some photos of both the views and some pretty ponies. What might not be so clear from these photos is the fact that between each of the lines of hills are deep valleys with nearly vertical wooded sides. The rounded tops of the hills are often farmed as are the wide and lush valleys. 

Today's walk took us through upland fields before dipping down through wooded slopes.

And across streams of course. Wales is nothing if not wet. 

From time to time we had clear views along the valley and later we heard and then caught a glimpse of one of the steam trains making its way to Devil's Bridge.

We made a perilous crossing of the barbed wire fence using the collapsed remains of a stile which can just be seen next to the tree in the centre of the photo. Having long legs I bypassed the stile, swung my leg over the top of the fence and nearly came to grief when I got caught on the barbed wire. The barbs had been sort of flattened at that section but I still had to carefully unhook my leggings in order to avoid making a hole in my favourite leggings.

I found out from one of the group who lives in the area that the dead conifers, larch I think, had been deliberately killed by bark ringing. This was done by the Woodland Trust so that they can be replaced with native deciduous trees. Having found our proposed route to a good viewpoint blocked by a gate that was tied shut and bore a sign saying 'Private' we sat on a ridge that was once a field wall and enjoyed the view from there as we ate our lunch. 

Having had mostly sunny weather for our walk once we got home it got much colder and now it's raining quite heavily.

We Have a Palantir.

Whilst not really suitable for lighting the table the new lamp did look very pretty in the dark so we have decided to keep it. Nothing to do of course with the fact that it looks like a Palantir sitting there in the corner of the sitting room. 

We had a lot of sun today with enough wind to dry the washing out on the line though the temperature dropped quickly when the high clouds appeared. In the morning I picked the last few pounds of tomatoes before pulling up the tomato plants. I'm hoping that this year I'll get the opportunity to collect lots of seaweed to use as a top dressing over the winter.

The rest of the afternoon has been spent converting the first of the two tops I bought yesterday into something I can wear for disco aerobics. It takes a long time to work out just how much to cut away around the armholes when you have neither a dressmaker's dummy or a willing helper. (I didn't even ask. With Peter's arthritic fingers just as many pins would have gone into me as in the fabric.) Eventually I got there and have begun hand sewing bias binding around the armholes.

Warm.

We've had both sun and cloud and a little bit of rain first thing but with the wind coming from the south it has felt extremely warm.  

I rode Cadno for the lesson this morning. There were seven of us but we still got to do a lot of canter work which was fun. As we warmed up the horses were quite sluggish due to the heat and the fact that they had been eating hay all night. We were being encouraged to get them more energised so I gave my boot a tap with the very short crop I carry when I ride Cadno. Oh my, the sound woke him up and he threw in a buck, a sizeable one according to someone who was riding behind me at the time. Luckily I haven't lost the ability to remain on a horse during such shenanigans and Cadno got a good telling off from me. From that point everything went well, he stayed nicely on the bit and not only cantered whenever I asked but didn't fall back into trot before I asked him to which is what often happens with him.

After the lesson off I went to do the usual shopping. Then with some excitement I went to Charlie's to buy the large grey sphere for the shingle garden. I took one to the checkout then went back to find a label with a barcode as mine didn't have one. But then the price came up as £59.95! We examined the price tag which to both myself and the checkout lady looked to say £39.95 but on closer inspection the faint 3 turned out to be a five. The first price had been an extravagance that I'd had to think about for a while but no way was I going to pay £60. I shall have to be content with the stones I already have.

In town I collected another sphere from Argos, this time a Habitat table lamp. I had a look at it in Argos and it looked like a dark mirrored globe but having put in a bulb and switched it on I'm not sure if you can call it a table lamp as there seems to be very little ambient light. It looks nice but I think it looks more like a decoration than a lamp. I may return it as we had wanted something to light the table when we eat rather than the overhead light. And yes, it too was expensive. (It looks better now it's darker but I'm not sure if it's what we need.)

Not expensive at all were these two decorations. 50p each in a charity shop. I also bought a couple of sparkly tops in another charity shop one or both of which will make fun tops for disco aerobics. They were only £4 each which I see as a donation to a worthwhile charity. Another really good buy was a 4kg kettlebell from the Red Cross shop for £5. Just right for our monthly kettlebell / Pilates session. And it's purple.

We've just been down to see an exhibition about the history of Borth in the Community Hall. The photo above dates from some time in the 1800s. There were some interesting photos and the exhibition was well set up though a little sparse. I expect the film will have a lot more content. This link goes to the exhibition page which has a few photos and a YouTube video of drone footage flying over Borth but not the film being shown at the exhibition.

Follow the Lights.

LOTR fans will get the reference.

I didn't wake until the alarm went off at 7.00 this morning but that was still early enough for me to spend some time outside. That was after I'd cleaned off all the render dust off the chair (yesterday I'd needed to take a kitchen chair out as everything was wet.) Then I was able to relax in the calming pinkness of the morning sky. But then the location of those lights still puzzled me. 

After breakfast I drove down to the Post Office to send off the parcel and as it was such a nice morning I decided to go for a walk along the sea wall and maybe locate those lights.

Could they be a continuation of the street lights at the far end of the village? But no, those lights stopped at the golf course while the mystery lights were further along.

But then I saw some poles running along the railway line and thought I'd solved the puzzle. However later when I looked more closely at the photo I could see that those poles were only topped by glass reflectors. Another look at the photo showed more poles, presumably running beside the river and these do look to have lights on the top. Is this the power supply running into the village and could the lights be hazard lights to warn (very) low flying aircraft or maybe the geese? I shall have to ask around and maybe one day I'll find out the answer.

Anyway I had a lovely long walk, first along the seawall path and when that ended I went down on the beach.

On the way back I came across my boot prints in the wet sand so of course I had to have a bit of fun by carefully making a print in the opposite direction by each one. With very few people out on the beach they will probably be washed away before anyone can be puzzled by their strangeness but it amused me to make them.

Walking along the first section of seawall I came across our builders doing some rendering on the front of one of the houses a few doors up from the house that the Post Office is in. I made sure to stop and say hello. On my return it looked as if they were finishing up and I fully expected to see them here in the afternoon but no such luck. All the local builders are so busy I guess they have to juggle their jobs to keep everyone happy.

By the time our Welsh class started it had clouded over and became very chilly indeed but now the blue skies are back and it is warmer again though the wind is howling dramatically around the house. Disco aerobics to look forward too at 6.00 and then I can rest after quite a busy day.

My Welsh lesson got interrupted by the doorbell ringing. I stuck my head out of my study window and a delivery driver handed me what was obviously a new phone addressed to someone else in a different street. A good thing I looked at the address.