Welcome to family, friends and visitors. Here you will find interesting (hopefully) pictures of my part of the world, news of our household and probably, long ramblings about anything that catches my interest.

Monday, 17 February 2025

Sun.

There was more than a touch of blue in the sky this morning which made a welcome change. And then the day kept on getting sunnier and sunnier albeit with a light sea haze. And gone was the icy wind, wonderful! 
Our Welsh practice has been rescheduled to next week so although the spring cleaning isn't quite finished I couldn't not spend a large part of the day out in the garden. The first job was to remove the hawthorn that I had planted by the garden wall. I like native plants and when I came across a sapling randomly growing in the garden I thought it might be a good way to extend the hedge. But with the variegated Griselinia doing well despite having most of its roots chopped off when I dug it out of a wall and the realisation that it probably wasn't a good idea to be growing something that had the potential to be a small tree, right by the garden wall and very close to the foundations of the house next-door I decided it had to go. Last year I planted fennel plants by the wall which in summer should screen next-door's giant window that overlooks the garden. I'm not that fussed but they tend to keep the curtain drawn there as I would be looking right into their sitting room. That done I turned to the other side of the garden and thinned the long hedge to stop it from growing over the plants in the raised bed. That included the lovely lace cap hydrangea near the end of the hedge. Some of the hydrangeas have buds that are already opening which told me it was time to prune the ones that need their size restricting. Some do fine if I leave them but others needed a bit of tidying up. The hedge in particular now looks bare and generally too tidy for my taste but it needed doing to allow all the other plants to flourish. 

It is strange to think that this time last year I was still removing the lawn.
14th February 2024.








Sunday, 16 February 2025

Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday to Vytas. As can be seen he and Sally enjoy going to heavy metal gigs as well as all their outdoor activities including, walking, snorkelling in Mallorca, wassailing apple trees and visiting the old folks (us) in Wales. 

And now back to a grey and chilly Wales. Today's walk began by Llyn Pendam then over the hills to the source of the River Leri at Craig Y Pistyll. We followed the river for a short distance and then made a heroic climb up the other side of the valley to get back on to the Syfydrin Trail before swinging back through the forest to our start point. Somebody's phone made the distance 4.5 miles but with some treacherous downhill paths and then a very steep path up the side of the valley it felt like a lot more.
 

We had begun on a narrow path through tall conifers. It was actually a track for bikes and we, all six of us made sure to stand aside when a couple of people on trail bikes went past. We also moved over for a lone mountain biker who grumpily shouted at us that it was a bike path. Before long we arrived at the much wider forestry track which brought us beside large areas where the trees had been felled. They keep saying they will be replacing the forestry area with native woodland but the clearing filled with many sacks containing conifer saplings waiting to be planted told a different story.
Halfway through the cleared section we came to the track I ridden along on the second of my long rides last summer. Far below us we could see the cottage that sits beside the Leri.
Our track took us steeply down a muddy path which is places was blocked by fallen trees. I had found myself a long pole which helped me to balance and avoid slipping on the wet ground. Useful things sticks.
We made our way safely down and instead of stopping at our usual picnic spot we crossed the Leri. We carried on down the valley and stopped to eat by a restored small barn. It's funny to think that this small stream flows all the way to Borth and on to Ynyslas where as a medium sized river it flows into the sea.

A bit out of sequence the photo above shows the building we sat by and the second bridge we used to cross the Leri.
Our lunch spot was a little way along this track. From there we went down into the valley past the old mine buildings and across the river once more by a handy wooden bridge. In the photo above I've added a red dotted line showing the path (starting on the right) that we took to go up the hillside. Although it had a wooden post marker it was a barely visible grassy narrow path that went on and on and ever upwards until we reached a wide track running across the hill. (centre of photo) Had we followed that it would have brought us back down into the valley. Instead, we had to scramble straight up the hill until we reached a higher stony track, the one I had ridden on. Once on the track we doubled back until finally coming to the gate (4 photos up). 
Part of the old mine workings down in the valley. High up on the far side can be seen the two tracks we reached in our epic climb.

I took this photo from the lower of the two tracks. You can see just how far up we had to climb. Those dark shapes in the middle are full sized conifers.
And finally back to the bike trail. No bikes passed us this time. Like last week I had had a lift share with another of the group along with two more walkers who don't have their own transport. I better make sure I drive next time though my car is smaller and can only take three passengers.

Saturday, 15 February 2025

Grey On Grey.

Nothing but a grey sky above a grey sea today with frequent spells of rain. The perfect day for a pot of hearty soup; carrots, potatoes, lentils, onions, tomatoes and smoked sausage which is simmering nicely on the stove. Hmm, I do more cooking than I give myself credit for.
It was a good day for doing stuff indoors. I began collating my daily notes (I'm a record keeping nerd), so that I could write up Christmas/ Winter in my journal but then realised I need to wait until the end of February to do that. At least I'm all up to date. 
Then I got on with spring cleaning my study. There's not that much to do in here but what needed attention were the shelves above my pc. These hold lots of small things that are 'precious' to me. LOTR memorabilia of course and then things that hold memories. (I took the photos to make the job of putting everything back easier.) Some go right back to my early childhood, I think the two wooden figures were made by friends of my mother and I know I've had them for well over 60 years. The small lead toys came from charity shops when I was around 6 years old. Many years later I painted the horse with the same markings as my horse Meg. Other items also hold memories. I got the pink dragon eraser  when I was in 6th form and later Peter made me a vinyl sticker of the dragon which is still on one of my folders. The keyrings are just a guilty pleasure.
 



My partially successful attempt to montage the shelf photos. Bother, they are side by side in the draft.

Now I need to blow off steam after a slight contretemps with Peter earlier. Let me set the scene, we have a large (for the UK) double garage which is basically a workshop and store. Peter has been slowly organising the tools etc for the past year. I have no problems with that but what annoyed me today was him asking if there was any way I could reduce the amount of space that I have for my gardening stuff. He refused to accept my protestations that I only have a very small section and that was even after we went out and measured my area. It came to 3ft 6inches by 5 ft but apparently that is too much! He did accept that I'm keeping that space but couldn't understand why I was so put out. Some people! Not that we stayed fallen out for long.

Friday, 14 February 2025

So Cold.

This morning's pink sky accurately foretold the rain we would have later in the day. From the very start the day was cold, bitterly so especially when the rain started.
It's Valentine's day so I had woken to the sight of a bunch of beautiful yellow roses and a selection of too tempting chocolates from Peter. After over 50 years together it's lovely that he still remembers these special days. 
From then on it was back to normal. I went down to ride and for once I kept my long-sleeved top on over the short-sleeved riding top I usually wear. It's not so much that I don't feel the cold but that working hard warms me up really quickly. This week I was back on Meg again. Meg is pretty food focussed and keeps on eating from her hay net until the very last minute while I'm putting on her bridle. I think she was quite disappointed when I returned her to her freshly mucked out stable to find the hay net gone. There were four of us regulars in the lesson and both the girls who work and teach there too. Chloe was on a pretty arab pony that pranced around in a most elegant way. We did a lot of work on transitions from trot to walk and then halt and trot to halt and back to trot. We also cantered and it was hard work keeping Meg from falling back into trot.
The rain began as we took the horses back to their stables and continued for the rest of the day. I got very cold in town as my riding clothes and everyday jacket are not very warm. I stopped at the dump on the way with a bag of garden waste and some old electrical items including the lamp that blew out the fuse board. In town I took a bag of empty pill and vitamin packets (the pop out bits) to Sero, a shop where you can refill containers with cleaning products etc. They have recently begun collecting the old packets for recycling. If I hadn't had those with me I would have gone straight to Lidl and not bothered walking around in the cold.
Back home I had a hot mug of tea with a sandwich and watched tv while I warmed up and waited for the aches and pains to ease off. I have done my exercises but it will only be once today though so far I've done them twice a day as instructed.

Update on 'The Thug'. - The owners have been found and the cat will be neutered asap. Hopefully that will cure its aggression and the neighbourhood cats can live in peace.
Llyn Glanmerin.

Thursday, 13 February 2025

A Touch More Sun.

After a mainly grey morning during which I took a photo in the few minutes that the sun broke through (above) later in the day there was a lot more blue in the sky. Temperature wise it has felt quite cold all day long.

I woke at 6.00 and decided it would be worth getting up to do the morning prep and then have a restful time sitting outside waiting for the world to wake up. In the dark above the steady whoosh of the waves I could hear a few oystercatchers calling. They can't be good sleepers as I often hear one or two in the middle of the night. Next, while it was still dark the blackbirds began their morning chorus. Then just as the sky began to lighten our local flock of 50-60 jackdaws were swooping around over the water. Maybe they had been inspired by the noted starling murmurations that frequently occur over Aberystwyth Pier. Only then did the gulls start calling. 
I was gathering up stuff in the garden to take to the dump tomorrow when my neighbour gave me this purple oxalis that she had grown from seed. I have wanted one ever since I saw one on tv quite some time ago. Not on a gardening programme but on a windowsill in an office in a drama I was watching. Once the porch has been built there will be more space for houseplants and somewhere to overwinter some of the tender patio plants. Perhaps the idea of a porch was a subconscious plan to create a new greenhouse. I don't regret giving away the two greenhouses that were in the back garden as they took up far too much space.
We had our usual Welsh lesson and soon I'll be off to disco aerobics. 

Wednesday, 12 February 2025

A Walk To Llyn Glanmerin.

We woke to blue sea and fluffy clouds in a blue sky while inland everything looked quite grey. Before long it was grey here too. 

I emerged from a poor night's sleep to hear the sound of rattling bottles outside as the bin lorry arrived much earlier than usual to collect the general rubbish and glass bottles for recycling. Normally they don't come by until mid morning so I missed out on the 3 weekly collection. Luckily we have very little general rubbish partly due to being able to take packaging plastic, the kinds that don't go in the normal recycling bag, to Morrisons every week. I dug a little on the internet and it's not just a publicity stunt, the plastic gets taken to a factory where they produce different grades of plastic pellets to be used in manufacturing. The lorry collecting the general recycling and food waste came later so that went off as usual.

As it wasn't raining we decided to go on a circular walk from Mach again. (I guess having the opportunity to call in at the Royal House Café to stock up on their nice food was a factor as well.) We followed a circular walk that I'd found which proved to have clear instructions which were really easy to follow. I sort of knew the general direction we'd be going and we had an OS map for back up which we didn't need to use. The walk is given as 3.6 miles and with the detour we made to the lake we probably did about 4.1 miles. This was at the limit for Peter's ankles and he was limping noticeably by the end but steadfastly refusing to use the walking stick I had made from a fallen branch. He took some painkillers when we got home and hopefully he won't be suffering any ill effects tomorrow. My legs also felt the strain and with the current tough exercise regime from the physio made me decide not to go to choir tonight.
The first part of the walk took us up a steep slope reaching 700 ft above sea level. This was the hardest part of the walk but worth it for the far reaching views in all directions.
At the top of the hill we joined the 132 mile Glyndwr Way trail.
But before following the line of the hill we took a diversion through a forestry section where sheltered from the wind by the mature conifers we marvelled at the utter quiet. Once through the forest we came to Llyn Glanmerin. There we found ourselves a rocky spot overlooking the lake where we stopped to have our lunch.
Back on the Glyndwr Way we had some rather misty views across to Snowdonia. (Mach was down in the valley to our right.)
Eventually the track began to wind its way down the hillside.
Then through a beech wood, past a small farm that had diversified into pheasant rearing and camping as well as keeping sheep until eventually the track got to the spot we had reached last week (just below Wylfa Common) coming in the opposite direction.
From there our directions were no longer needed as we retraced our way to the Roman Steps. Walking through the grounds of The Plas avoided having to walk back along the main roads to the car which we had left in the Co-Op car park.

This diagram shows the relative incline of the route we followed apart from the diversion to the lake.

Tuesday, 11 February 2025

A Local Thug Exposed.

Today we were back to the plain grey skies once more. This evening walking home from Pilates the wind had dropped and it felt relatively warm.
Nope, this is not our new cat but a thug that has been terrorising the local cat population. This morning there was a photo on the local village FB page with no end of comments from people whose cats are being constantly bitten by this Tom cat. Owners are having vets bills of up to £500, one cat can't walk because it was bitten on a joint and others are showing signs of stress and not wanting to go out. This was the cat that Speedy fought with and broke his tooth which cost us £250 at the vet. Having read all that this morning I went outside and there he was sitting on the drive wall. I double checked and he matched his mug shot on FB. I had thought it might live a few doors up but apparently their ginger cat has been neutered and gets on with other cats. One comment thought he had been abandoned a while back and was going in through cat flaps and stealing food. Now that the scope of his reign of terror is exposed I think that either the Cat's Protection people will be called in or local cat owners will club together and get him neutered anyway. Far cheaper than paying out all those vets bills.
Good news for us! The builder came round this morning to talk about the details of the porch. The original porch was one of the first things to be taken down as it was horrible with the door at the side, and its replacement will be one of the last things to do on the house. It might only be a matter of weeks, or maybe a bit longer but the end is in sight.
The original porch. Yuck.
After the builder left I went down to the zoo to complete my renovation of the old wooden planter. It's not very big but it took me four hours to dig out two muck buckets of soil (and still more left,) plus one muck bucket of roots. I tried hard to remove all the couch grass roots and the bamboo as I know they would grow back in an instant. The remaining bamboo runner got painted with root killer which was the best I could do. Then, because the plywood sides of the planter were in a state of collapse I propped up the insides with oddments of wood. A very rough repair but then the whole thing is not going to last more than a year or two anyway. Once all that was done I replaced the soil and planted a clump of pheasant grass that I had brought from home and finished off with some ground cover sedums from our rockery. At least it is an improvement over the couch grass and bamboo that was there before.

And since I only took photos of the Thug today here are a few more of the fishing lake from Sunday's walk.


The dam that holds the lake waters in. 

Monday, 10 February 2025

A Beach Walk.

There was more variety in the cloudscape this morning but this was the most blue I saw all day. For the rest of the time it was mostly grey with a bitterly cold wind blowing from the east.
Since it needs doing I carried on spring cleaning in our bedroom and today I tackled my bedside cupboard (I've let Peter know that it will be up to him to do his cupboard, if he wants.) I emptied out all the white tubs that sit on the shelves of the former tv unit, had a sort out and gave everything a wipe. Some old tablets have been put aside to take to the pharmacy for disposal and a few items can go to the charity shop. 

So that everything had time to dry and because I don't like staying inside I took myself off for a beach walk in the afternoon.
Or rather a meander around the rock pools. They are forever changing as the sea brings in or takes away the sand and the camera gives me an excuse to peer into the pools to see what is there.
I finished off with a short walk along the edge of the waves.
Back home, once I'd put everything back in my bedside cupboard I did my second set of exercises for the day. I prefer not to do them just before going to bed as some of them are quite challenging. I had Radio 4 on and I can highly recommend Natalie Haynes Stands Up For The Classics. She retells stories from the Greek classics in a brilliantly funny way. If you can't find it on i-player this link should get you to the podcasts.
Our supper tonight will be more vegetable curry. We still had same left in the fridge so I added extra peppers, potatoes and mushrooms. I sometimes tell people that I don't cook any more, 20 odd years of cooking three meals a day for the family was quite enough thank you but that isn't quite correct. I make porridge for both of us every morning, make my supper of mainly boiled veg with something easy like fish or cheese, keep Peter in Bara Brith and every now and again make something for both of us that is usually enough for several meals. And of course cook when we have visitors. I suppose what I should say is that generally I don't cook Peter's supper unless he wants the same as me. But on the whole although I like food it's not worth the effort to do anything elaborate. There are lots of better things to do with my time.

Sunday, 9 February 2025

A Walk in the Woods.

The low cloud and chilly weather was still with us this morning and so it continued for most of the day with some blue just before sunset.
Today's walk was in the woods near Trawscoed a few miles further up the Afon Ystwyth from last week's walk. It was a good thing that having parked at Bow Street train station which has ample parking I then had a lift with a fellow walker along with two other passengers since the parking area in the woods was pretty crowded. As we try and do as much car sharing as possible all 12 of us came in just 3 cars.

Although our walk took us beside the Ystwyth for the most part we were deep in the woods.
All around were uprooted and broken trees, a legacy of Storm Darragh. Apparently the devastation had been a lot worse but the NRW had worked hard to clear the paths so that people could safely walk in the woods.
A few areas had been cordoned off and elsewhere there were piles of logs and branches that had been cut and moved to the sides of the path.
Not far from this clearing we found a number of tree trunk sections next to the path that made very good seats for our lunch stop.
As the bridge we would have used to cross the river had been closed off we walked round the woods for a few miles and then went along the road to a section of the woods higher up the hill. Passing under an old railway bridge that used to carry the Aberystwyth to Carmarthen line (there is now no line to South Wales but there is talk of reopening it at a cost of £620 million.) we naturally had to test out the echo qualities of the stonework.
We then went into Birch Grove Walk with more fallen trees and flowing streams,
and a small lake/pond with what looked like an defunct fishing jetty.
Then back down through the woods to the car park and eventually home. We may not have had the sun but at least it didn't rain.
There was a touch of blue in the sky as I drove home from the station car park and then a hint of pink at sunset. Tonight we ended our LOTR marathon with Return of the King all 4 hours and 23 minutes. We'll have to find something else to watch on Sunday nights now.