A Walk in the Hills.

Another dry mainly cloudy day. It's our 48th wedding anniversary today so this morning there were cards, roses, chocolates, beer and my hand made cap rack. I had also re-covered Peter's kindle with sticky backed plastic paper as the original plastic was so old it kept flaking off. When I put Peter's caps on the rack they seemed to have multiplied and the five hooks weren't enough. I've found another piece of matching wood, drilled holes and given it a coat of paint and will put that on his wall tomorrow and buy more hooks on Friday.

And we've had another day out too! This time we went first to Mach to pick up more lovely food from the Royal House Café before parking at Furnace for a walk up the hill. It's the same walk I did with Vytas and Sally but instead of walking up through the wood with its uneven paths which would not have been good for Peter's ankles, we walked up the lane to the hilltops and then followed the same route back.

 

It's a unique and pretty lane lined with mossy walls built from large chunks of slate.

We came across a patch of chanterelles growing out of the moss. A sure sign of autumn. I'm pretty sure they are the chanterelles that are very good to eat but there is also a similar looking false chanterelle which while not poisonous might give you hallucinations. I wouldn't like to take that chance.

I didn't exactly remember which path to take from the road which wound its way steeply up the hill and we got to a point where I was about to turn back thinking I'd missed it when there was a path on the left. It was in the right direction and as we made our way around the base of the hill (mountain?) I realised we were on the right path.

Eventually we came to the rocky outcrop that had been the stopping place with the walking group and we stopped to eat our lunch. Peter had a chicken, bacon and camembert panini while I had a custard slice (just can't resist those). Nearby was a metal plaque giving the distances to the places we could see. Borth was 7 miles as the crow flies, 

and Aberdyfi was 4 miles away across the river.

At our viewpoint we were right at the junction between two mountain ranges, Snowdonia ahead of us and the Cambrian mountains at our backs. One day I'll follow one of the smaller tracks right to the top of the hill.

Back home I worked on the extra cap rail and then did a little gardening including planting a handful of seeds from the Festuca Glauca I have growing in the shingle garden. Peter went off to row, that dark blob in the photo below is them and later I'll be going to choir.

Last night's session which was half kettlebell and half Pilates was interesting. Rachel warned those of us who aren't already doing kettlebells that we would feel the effects in the next few days and she was right. I woke this morning with the muscles above my knees feeling sore. Not really bad but enough to notice. All the more reason to keep on with those exercises.