Cooler.

It has been a lot cloudier and cooler today with the occasional sunny spell. 

While Peter went out rowing this morning I went to town, sorted what I needed to do at the bank and did a little top-up shop at Lidl. I had to go via the main road as the much more scenic country road is closed for the whole week. This is because one of the stages of Rali Ceredigion (car racing) is using a very small section of the country road which still necessitates the whole road being closed. This is a five minute video from last year's rally. 

 

Back home I spent most of my time gardening. I planted out the tomatoes and courgettes now that the weather isn't so hot. I also did my best to find space for some artemisia which I had grown from cuttings. I had planned to plant them at the zoo but wouldn't you know it, artemisia is 'highly' toxic to various animals.

When I did take a break and had put my kindle out on the terrace along with a few oat biscuits the minute my back was turned as I went to pick up my coffee from the kitchen down flew an adult seagull intent on stealing the oatcakes. It took fright as I opened the door and then tried to ram itself through the glass of the balustrade. There was lots of panicked flapping until I sent it sideways and away. Hopefully that will have given it a good fright and it won't be so eager to steal food from tables. Usually the seagulls here are not a problem.

With the weather forecast giving possible showers on the weekend I added gaffer tape to the Bin Bag Rog as it is mainly held together with Sellotape which doesn't do so well in the wet. It will be a shame if it is wet this weekend, not only for the people who make the scarecrows but for the families here for the holiday week who hopefully will be walking around the village looking at all the scarecrows. There are lots of other events this weekend for BorthFest which I am looking forward to.

A Walk At Nant Yr Arian.

A little bit more haze today but still hot with a good drying wind. A washed pillow hung on the line was completely dry by the end of the afternoon. 

Our walk today was at Nant Yr Arian, the Red Kite Centre in the Cambrian mountains. You know you're getting higher when your ears pop as you drive up the road.

The big lay-by and the car park were remarkably empty though ever since the NRW closed the visitor centre (café, information, gift shop and toilets) people are not so keen to go there. Usually on a Sunday afternoon you would be lucky to find a space in the lay-by (free) and even the car park would be pretty full with people going for walks, bike rides or just waiting to see the red kites being fed. Now the facilities consist of a set of porta-loos, extremely posh ones with fancy sinks, hands-free taps and driers but still that unmistakable smell. I'd heard some very bad reports about the toilets but either they had been upgraded or the fact that very few people were using them meant that they weren't too bad. But they must be expensive to hire and maintain especially since there were alternative facilities in the now closed building. There was a food and drinks truck and some chairs for people to sit down as well.

 

We set off on one of the paths high above the valley where there was a bit of a breeze to keep us cool.

Eventually we came to Llyn Blaenmelindwr, (the head of the yellow water), a small reservoir that would have been created as part of the mining industry in the area. We found ourselves some shade under a tree on the shore to eat our lunch while the wind whipped up small wavelets that sparkled in the sun. 

After our lunch stop we headed back higher up the ridge through a forestry area which at some point may be felled and replanted but for now provided us with dappled shade.

Eventually we reached the top of the ridge and followed the easy track back to the start of our walk.

As we were almost at the end of our walk I looked across to the ridge on the other side of the main road and was dismayed to see smoke from a wild fire (right in the middle of the photo below, between the wind turbines). It looked to be on the hillside overlooking the Rheidol valley where a mile long fire had burned for many days not so long ago. That was the fire that had reached 200yds from a friend's land. I hope this fire is dealt with quickly but the grass and the gorse in particular are so dry at the moment it is a worry. Only last week 40 acres were burnt in a three day wildfire at Glaspwll (where we get the honey from) on the way to Mach.

Back home I brought in the now dry pillow, did a few jobs and managed to have an hour reading on the terrace in the warm sun before supper,

Still hot.

The 'holiday' weather continues, above is last night's tropical sunset and it looks as though we'll be having the same tonight. For a change it was windy from the start and only now, in the evening has the wind died down leaving it lovely and warm. It has been a good drying day with the towels being almost dry by the time the next lot of washing went on the line.

I had to run into town to the bank first thing though I'm still going to have to go back on Monday. On Friday I went but needed one more piece of information which I brought today but then it turned out that one department doesn't work on the weekends. Huh! At least we still have a branch of our bank in town. 

On my way back to the car I dropped into a charity shop and found a tiny crystal oyster on a mirror for £1. I don't normally collect faceted crystal but I thought it fitted in with the maritime theme on the windowsill.

I've had to top up the pond as it was getting noticeably low and while I had the hose out I watered the tubs and pots in the front and back gardens. Last time I did that it rained in the night.

For most of the afternoon I worked on the Balrog or my version a Bin Bag Rog. (Just a few hints in the photos.)

It's not brilliant but it's hard to construct a model of mythical creature that is only seen swathed in smoke and flames from milk bottles, cardboard and bin bags. It's done now and I can say I've had enough of unsticking gaffer tape from all the surfaces it wasn't supposed to be on including my fingers or itself. 

To finish the day we will be watching the Eurovision Song Contest. It's such a good spectacle though I don't expect Peter to stay awake until the end at midnight.

Not Hazel!

The photo says it all, another lovely day. The sea was as calm as anything in the morning but then the wind got up in the afternoon whipping up low but powerful waves. Peter had to cancel the planned row as launching and landing the boat is difficult in those conditions. It would be all too easy for the heavy boat to tip as they walked it into or out of the water which might well end up with someone getting injured. Later in the afternoon the wind died right down and now (8.00) it is still very hot in the sun.

I got to the stables this morning to find that I was down to ride Pacman. I haven't ridden him before but he turned out to be much easier than flighty Hazel. He is also a lot smaller so his trot felt very tippety which made me laugh. We didn't canter at all today, possibly because of the heat and instead we worked on leg yielding to the wall and away from the wall. 

After riding I took a load of bags of garden waste to the dump and once again had to prove I live in Ceredigion, because of course people from outside the county are all flocking to Aber with their rubbish (not). From there I went to Toolstation, also on the industrial estate to buy a step ladder. It was only as I had been trying to stretch across the hedge to cut it the other day that the thought struck me of how much easier it would be if I had something just a bit higher to stand on. We have a standard two step step ladder but that was the same height as the long step-up I use. Do they make something higher? Of course they do, they were a number of options for higher step ladders and I've bought a three step version which should make reaching across the hedge easier on my ribs.

I then did my usual shopping and had a quick look around town. The glass sphere I thought about last week has already been sold but that's okay.

Once home I got the washing in the machine, baked a Bara Brith and prepped supper. I hardly ever eat meat but today my eye was caught by some liver in the reduced section. I cooked the liver with lots of onions, mushrooms and bacon, and served it with green beans and cauliflower (and potatoes for Peter) and it was all very tasty. I managed to have some time out on the sun-lounger too as you never know how long this good weather is going to last.

Cooler.

Still sunny but not quite as hot today. In the morning the first signs of high cloud began to appear bringing a bit more of a chill to the air as the day went on. 

Straight after breakfast I went out and cut the bottom hedge with the electric trimmer as it was looking quite shaggy. In fact it seems that the blackbirds have abandoned the nest in the other hedge. Although we kept away the general to-ing and fro-ing in the garden must have been too much disturbance. They still come for the seeds and frequent baths in the birdbath so I guess they've found a quieter spot to build a nest.

 

Later it was time for our Welsh class. One strange fact we learnt today that the word for beard- barf (barve) is feminine. It is important to know if a noun is masculine or feminine as adjectives following a feminine noun (in Welsh the adjectives goes after the noun) needs to have a soft mutation (letter change) if it starts with one of the 9 letters that mutates. Yep, Welsh is complex.

I had rushed through all the things that needed doing so that I could enjoy a break outside before disco aerobics but although I did sit outside I needed a fleece to keep warm.

Hardy geranium Ann Folkard - I grew it in Devon but lost it over the two moves so when I saw it growing in  friend's garden last year I asked for a piece which is now flowering.

A Scorcher.

Still sunny and extremely hot but with a lovely breeze.

As I sat outside the rising sun (to the right of the photo) shone through a gap in the houses lighting up the ornamental grasses at the end of the garden. Later on the sun rose high enough to shine on the raised beds. At the moment these are filled with aquilegias and valerian which together with the yellow Welsh poppies in another raised bed are all self seeded. I haven't planted a single one of them and if left unchecked they would cover the whole garden. Some I leave but I have to be hard hearted and weed out many others. Unlike at Dingles where the aquilegias all reverted to washed out pink these are mostly deep purple, the exact same shade as the small flowered hardy geranium that is flowering now.  

 

With it being such a lovely day we decided to head out for a walk. We drove to Furnace, about 15 minutes away, as we knew there would be a cooling breeze once we made it up to the rough hillside.

We paused a while at the viewpoint where my Sunday group usually stops for lunch (we go at a much slower pace with many stops to examine and discuss plants, trees and insects along the way).

But it was too soon and too early for us to stop for lunch there today and we carried on circling the hill planning to stop by the lone tree again.

However that spot was already occupied by some of the Welsh ponies that live out on the hillside. These are not true wild/feral ponies as all the horses and ponies that roam the open spaces of the UK under common grazing rights have owners. The last time Peter and I were up there we met the owner of these ponies who was going up the hill to check on them. Today we ate our lunch on a rocky outcrop just below the ponies who were sheltering in the shade of the lone tree.

It was pretty windy on the hillside and this brown pony doesn't look happy with her 'bad hair day'.

One of the nice things about this walk is that all the uphill work is right at the beginning and the last section is through the dappled shade of this narrow lane.

Back home I did some gardening before relaxing on the sun lounger on the terrace feeling as though I was on a Mediterranean holiday. I didn't stay out too long as it was incredibly hot. Peter always tells me I shouldn't put the thermometer in the sun but I'm interested in knowing how hot it is where I'm sitting, not the official temperature taken in a shaded box.

Flying Things.

Yesterday's thunderstorms continued on through the evening followed by a night of heavy rain. No doubt much welcomed by both farmers and gardeners. This morning we woke to blue skies and a blazingly hot day. Coming out of the Hall at 7.00 this evening after Pilates it was like walking into a wall of heat. Very unusual for Wales at any time of the year let alone in May.

The first of today's flying things - at last I managed to get a photo of the helicopter landing in the back garden of a house on the High St. The garden is only slightly bigger than the helicopter but the chap has been flying in to his holiday home for many years. 

And for a prettier flying thing, this painted lady butterfly. It looked quite faded so I wondered if it had overwintered here but my book says they are summer visitors.

And a small white butterfly. I don't grow cabbages so it is welcome here.

I cycled down to the zoo and spent three hours weeding the gravel patch by the guinea fowl. 

Okay, pigs don't fly, but here are Otis and Truffle (don't know which is which yet) just before I went in to give them a belly scratch which they absolutely loved.

And then as I was about to leave the two girl animal keepers had this bundle of fluff out on one of the picnic tables. Meet Hermes, a six week old tawny owl chick purchased from another zoo. He was being introduced to the sights and sounds of the main zoo area so that unlike the rescue owl they also have, he will be happy to be around people.

And the last of the flying things are the fluffy seeds of the willow trees which are floating through the air like white snow everywhere. In the Hall this evening clumps of it, like dust bunnies, were rolling around on the floor. 

I Hear Thunder.

The day has been very warm with little wind and the promised thunderstorms arrived later in the afternoon. 

This morning the garden showed signs of the overnight rain. Of course it was going to rain after my watering of the back garden! 

The cloudy skies and not a lot of sun to warm the place up kept it warmer outside than in so I've spent as much time as I could outside. With the blackbird away from her nest I took the opportunity to climb on the raised bed wall and cut back more of the hedge. Not near the nest but just to keep the hedge from growing over the plants in the raised bed. Afterwards I cleared the seedlings springing up between the old paving slabs. That's the price you have to pay for growing ornamental grasses with their delicate seed spikes.

I did a bit more work on my Balrog and then I don't know what came over me but I did some extra cleaning in the bedroom, hoovering and wiping down all the surfaces. That's what happens when I'm not busy with a full schedule.

Nest building time.

Naturally once all my jobs were done and I was looking forward to reading outside that's the time the thunderstorms arrived. A large and very dark cloud approached slowly from inland with a lot of crashing and banging but only one sheet of lightening as far as I could see. I was quite happy to stay outside and watch the sky until it began to rain. There wasn't very much rain and now the thunderstorm is making its slow way northwards across the bay.

Warm.

It took a while for the sun to emerge from behind the clouds and warm things up this morning. With virtually no wind it has been warm and even hot during the sunny spells. As I sat outside it was all very quiet out on the water and the only moving thing was a single cormorant diving for fish. All the holiday makers must have had a late night.

Since yesterday had turned out not to be as restful as I had hoped and as today's walk was an hour's drive away and I've done that walk twice already I decided to have another restful day at home.

For me restful means working my way quietly through housework, gardening and getting on with projects without having to rush. And that's just what I did. I began by weeding out every errant seedling in the back garden before getting out the hose and giving all the pots and raised beds in the back garden a thorough watering. I try not to do too much watering as I aim to grow plants that can look after themselves but since we have had no rain for weeks my plants did need watering. 

Indoors I did some of those extra cleaning jobs including washing all the floors. I really should do that more often rather than relying on Peter's daily going over with the dry mop. Eventually the jobs were done, also some work on my Balrog design and I thought it would be worth getting one of the sun loungers out of the garage for a lazy end of afternoon in the sun. But that was a mistake, I settled down, the clouds rolled in and within five minutes I had to swap my sun hat for a fleece. I lasted half an hour before heading back inside.