St David's Church, Henfynyw.

Well, if you're going to have a day of enforced rest then it might as well be when there's a mini heatwave. I've done my best to minimize walking about and my foot has felt fine. 

In fact my sensory processing difficulties meant that when sitting out in the hot sun my legs were nice and toasty but my toes (on both feet) felt cold and at times as if they were in ice water. To the external touch they felt as warm as the rest of my legs and the GP says there's no circulation problem. It's just something I have to ignore.

Apart from generally lazing around I've done a few sewing jobs including adding a cord and fastener to my latest sun-hat so that I can make sure it doesn't blow off in windy conditions.

And since my day has been quite uneventful here are some photos from last Sunday.

An imposing gateway leads to the church at Henfynyw which sits on the site of what was once a monastery associated with St David, the patron saint of Wales. 

I didn't go inside the church but wandered around the churchyard looking at the gravestones which were set in a pretty wildflower meadow. 

The oldest dates I could make out were in the early 1800s. The inscriptions on the older stones were invariably in Welsh and so too on many of the more recent stones. Often, along with name and dates was the person's address. Perhaps because there are fewer surnames in Wales and people may have been referred to by both name and address? I don't know.

While the majority of the headstones being slate there seems to have been a fashion for red granite obelisks at the end of the 1800s.

Some information about St David.

At Last.

Even at 5.00 this morning the air was mild and the day just kept getting warmer.

I'd managed to wake before the alarm despite just three hours sleep. That gave me enough time to follow my usual morning routine ready to leave at 7.15.

By 7.30 I was waiting along with other day surgery patients and as the first on the list by 9.00 I was in the operating theatre. After those years of waiting it took just five minutes to remove the cyst and yes I was allowed to watch. But I didn't watch the injecting of the anaesthetic, four times I think. those were painful (and bled) but the rest was interesting and completely pain free.

My return home did not go quite so easily. I rang Peter while they were still doing the paperwork but having not seen me at the entrance he didn't think to either phone me or go into the day ward. By the time I went and waited outside by the entrance where he'd dropped me off in the morning Peter had decided to drive round to the main entrance on the far side of the hospital. 

It was only after a third phone call that he answered and eventually came to where I had been waiting for half an hour. By that time I was not a happy camper and can you blame me?

To make up for that the weather has been perfect. I've been out on the terrace, foot up and tucking into a few goodies. Dozing off in the sun being caressed by a gentle breeze it only needed the sound of cicadas to  imagine being on a Greek island. Instead there was the sound of the chirping sparrows and the occasional blackbird or seagull with for once no mowers or building noise. And the good weather is set to last for a few more days.

The red geraniums were relocated today. They'd been fine in the corner of the terrace, that was until the tall hydrangea flowers turned a bright pink. It was a real clash but now the geraniums look good against the white wall.

I kept thinking about the porch letter box and came to the conclusion that it really did need to be at the front. Otherwise it would annoy me for years to come. I've sent the builder an email asking him to come and change it round before they do the rest.

Goal Achieved !

After exactly four months I've achieved my goal of losing twenty pounds. That puts me a few pounds lower than I got to after the last couple of long slow diets. I'm proud of myself because I do like food especially sweet stuff. I know that indulging in the treats I bought for after tomorrow's toe procedure will set me back a bit but I'll just go back to watching what I eat until the extra weight goes. 

It was cloudier today but still nice enough for a walk around the Osprey Centre. First we went to Mach to stock up on some goodies from our favourite café. But sadly it was closed. A notice on the door said that due to unforeseen circumstances they would not be opening until tomorrow. 

It seems like the fates have been conspiring to keep me on my diet. On Sunday I thought I might have some cake at the garden but none of us fancied paying £5 for a slice of cake after already paying £5 admission. Then today not only was the café in Mach shut but when I was tempted by a delicious looking cheese cake Peter just ordered me a coffee. Good but not good. And the coffee was an expresso which I never drink. The lady who brought it to our table kindly went and added frothed milk to make it a cappuccino. 

At the main hide we met our friend Anne (who we meet at the library for Welsh practice), who volunteers there. She's very knowledgeable about the ospreys and birds in general. Her role is to help people with the various telescopes and binoculars set up to watch the ospreys' nest and to answer any questions about the ospreys.

This is Telyn on the nest with the three chicks. Next to the nest are the cameras which live stream video back to large screens set up around the main hide and the visitors' centre. 

In the afternoon I did as much as I could in the back garden. The tomatoes have been weeded and tied in with the side shoots removed. A major job was to pull up all the Welsh poppies growing by the wall and tie back the schizostylis  to give easy access along the side of the tomato bed. I didn't quite finish all the weeding but the back garden is in much better shape for now.

Later I went to Pilates where we finished with twenty minutes of 'relaxation' before a final set of stretches. I enjoy the challenge of the exercises (not so much when it's kettlebells) but winding down with relaxation is a bonus.

No swimming snakes today and not many creatures to be seen in the nature reserve but here are a couple. Judging by the empty case on the stick I would say this was a newly emerged darter.

This water boatman swimming just under the surface looks more like an alien than native pondlife.

Now for an early night as I have to be at the hospital at 7.45.

A Stitch in Time.

The weather has been absolutely lovely today. Sunny with just enough wind to counteract the heat.

I spent a number of hours working on my hands and knees, not at the zoo but on the new paving. 

The chap who did the paving finished off by brushing dry sand to fill the gaps between the slabs. This however was not enough. Apart from there now being a lot of empty spaces (the recent rain?) the sand would be the perfect growing medium for the plethora of poppy seeds already on the paving and seeds from the nearby ornamental grasses which have also begun to rain down. Instead I carefully brushed in dry mortar mix and then cleaned the cement from the tops of the slabs with a paintbrush and water. Hopefully the gaps will now be seedling free as I don't want to have to be constantly weeding out grass and poppies. This is supposed to be a low maintenance garden.

Next on my list of jobs to do was a quick trip into town to buy this picture, a good quality (lithograph?) by Grepp, which I had seen in a charity shop on Friday. I took along a coloured envelope which was a darker shade of the paint in our 'blue loo' to check that the picture would work on the blue walls. It's properly framed with glass so I didn't mind paying £7.

Back home and on to the physically demanding job of using the new hedge trimmer to cut the main hedge. It was really heavy and hard to get used to, especially for my poor back. It worked quite well from the street side especially after my neighbour gave me some good advice on which angle to have the blades but the garden side was another matter. With the top of the hedge being 10ft above me and not such good access it was difficult to get a tidy cut along the top. Hopefully it will get easier with practice.

 

Now for the promised photos of the garden at Ffynnon Las from yesterday. The gardens cover 2 acres and include two lakes, a vegetable garden, an orchard and a woodland garden not forgetting several very large herbaceous beds filled with shrubs and annuals and are a result of 20 years of keen gardening. 

The smaller of the lakes had a Monet style wooden bridge, water lilies and margins filled with native species.

Beyond the lake was a woodland area containing many different trees but what made us all gasp were the orchids growing everywhere.

These were the common spotted orchid which comes in shades of purple some of which were 3ft tall.

Apart from the abundance of the orchids an amazing thing that the lady of the garden told us was that they had all appeared naturally. Her husband had started planting the trees 20 years ago and then allowed the grass and wildflowers to grow and up came the orchids. Apparently orchid seeds can stay for many years in the soil until conditions are right.

I loved this clump of irises.

The larger of the lakes.

There were a number of fences and structures made from living willow.

The chap who plans the walks is going to see if there are any other open gardens that we could combine with our Sunday walks.

A Walk From Henfynyw.

Whilst not that sunny it has at least been dry (mostly) today.

In the morning I had half an hour to spare and thought I might as well replace a block that had been knocked off a small wall by the bottom gate during last winter's storms. I chipped off the old mortar, mixed up some ready mix mortar and was ready to do the repair when I found to my horror that the granite block which I had carefully put to one side was no longer to be seen. The builders must have 'helpfully' cleared it away. A frantic search around the garden resulted in a broken brick which fitted helped by plenty of mortar. That's another job out of the way.

Today's walk began in  Henfynyw (hen-vun-noo), a village south of Aberaeron. I gave myself plenty of time to get there as I hadn't been that far south before plus since there is only one main road heavy traffic, slow vehicles or other incident can result in long delays. I was lucky and had a clear road the whole way so arrived very early. 

That gave me time to explore around St David's Church and extensive grave yard (photos on another day). Once I met up with my fellow walkers we did a circular walk down to the coast, back up to Henfynyw and then on to an amazing open garden at Ffynnon-Las (fun-non-las) (more photos later).

 

We navigated part of the route down to the coast by looking for the recently installed metal walkers' gates. In places the path was very overgrown with brambles and nettles, a threat to those of us in shorts.

We eventually came to a track marked by a large sign that said 'no through road' and 'not suitable for walkers'. This we ignored and surprise, surprise found ourselves at a small beach. Though to be fair the hillside beside us looked to be very unstable.

We could see that the cliff was made up of sand and stones which had in parts collapsed onto the beach. We found ourselves some rocks to sit on as far away from the crumbling cliffs as possible. While we ate our lunch an oystercatcher searched for food in the rockpools. It must have had a nest nearby because all of a sudden there was a noisy commotion as the oystercatcher and its mate saw off a jackdaw or rook. They later tried to attack two ladies who were also walking on the beach.

After lunch we back tracked until we could make our way onto the re-routed coastal path and followed the coast northwards for a while.

We made our way to a small cleft in the cliff where in wetter times a stream pours over the cliff in a dramatic waterfall. However with all the recent dry weather the stream was a mere trickle barely splashing down to the beach. It was still worth going to.

From there we returned back along the cliff and up a country lane to Henfynyw passing a brood of recently fledged house martins waiting to be fed. I was hoping to get some photos as the parent came with food but a group of heifers in the field came up to see what we were doing and frightened the birds away.

The two acre garden at Ffynnon-Las was full of stunning plants and we went round oohing and aahing over the planting. A varied and excellent afternoon's walk. I had a clear run home arriving just after 6.00 thankful that I'd done my second set of squats before I left in the morning.

A Special Duck.

We had a very wet night which carried on into the morning with sporadic heavy showers throughout the day. There were some very hot moments in the afternoon and the evening is looking to be rather nice. 

It wasn't worth going on a walk with so much rain about so Peter went and bought me an extending hedge trimmer. With the hedges always going to need regular trimming maybe a long trimmer that can be angled over the top of the hedge will make the job easier.

I had a look in Charlie's yesterday but they only sell the top of the range make and I wasn't prepared to pay £334. Instead Peter got me a cheap one from Screwfix which should be good enough for our few hedges.

The common scoter was here again this morning, and last night. My book, admittedly not that comprehensive, says that they are winter visitors which live in large flocks. As I watched him bobbing about on the waves my imagination started working overtime. Perhaps he is a rebel and when the time came for the flock to fly off to their summer haunts he and his mate decided to spent the summer in Wales. And now the rocks under our cliffs are his private fishing ground. 

I did a bit more research (RSPB) and found out that he is indeed special. They are Red Listed as only 52 pairs are known to spend their summers in Britain. He's even more special as the summer residents are shown as being in the north-west of Ireland and the very north of Scotland.

While the weather was so inclement I fitted four wire baskets to the insides of the cupboard doors in the utility room. I was going to build shelves inside but since access might be needed to the water pipes that go through to the bathroom that would have been difficult. I still need to give the plasterboard and the old pink plaster behind a coat of white paint to brighten it all up.

There may only have been eight screws to put in but after working out how to remove the suckers from the baskets (hot water, stick them to the sink and then pull hard), I had to cobble together a way to stop the baskets sliding off the screw heads. Then holding the baskets with my knee and putting in each screw with two different nuts threaded on was kind of tricky.

I also worked on the blue glass spiral and think I'm happy with the arrangement. I did a bit of sitting outside but kept getting distracted by plants that needed cutting and other small garden jobs.

A New Arrival.

Early morning was warm with a strong south-westerly wind blowing. It stayed dry and hot right through until I was driving home from Lidl's when I noticed the first few drops of rain on the windscreen. The rain politely held off until I had got home and taken the shopping out of the car. However Peter and his fellow rowers got very wet out at sea.

Since getting home we've had some very heavy showers, with a few dry spells in-between. No sign of the thunderstorms though.

Sitting outside this morning I spotted a black duck swimming on the sea. My book tells me it's a common scoter which feeds on mussels and other crustaceans. 

And here we have Ginger and her foal. He was born at 8.30 this morning not long before this photo was taken. There was much excitement at the stables but Ginger and the foal were in a closed off stable not to be disturbed by hordes of people. We were unofficially allowed to peek around the corner on the far side. I resisted at first but then had a quiet look after the ride when the foal was about 3 hours old. Aah!

Much to my surprise I was riding Cadno for the lesson. He's such a gentleman, really well schooled and easy to ride. For some reason I had problems keeping the ball of my right foot on the stirrup, almost losing it a couple of times, which would have been embarrassing. I do ride long so my first step was to shorten up the leathers by a hole which didn't make a lot of difference. 

I suspected that I might be putting too much weight on the left leg and tried to correct that. Katie suggested I might also be gripping with my right knee so I shall work on that. My right knee is the one with arthritis so maybe disco aerobics was causing it to tense up. Oh well, there's no more riding for me for a few weeks until my toe heals up.

I did a quick shop at Morrisons, bought a tray of petunias from Charlie's reduced section and carried on into town.

Then amongst various bits and pieces I got at the charity shops I found a pot of blue glass blobs. Exactly the right colour to finish off the blue spiral which had been looking not quite right. I'd added in the remaining green blobs and had already decided that they didn't work. The 170 new blobs are just the right shade of blue, some frosted, some shiny and the rest clear. 

During a dry spell I took the shingle off the large bowl planter and put the petunias in around the carex. Next year the carex will be on its own but I thought it would be fun to have a bit of colour this year.