Happy Birthday Romas.

Happy Birthday to Romas. Here he is (on the left) looking unnaturally serious with his band. From what I can gather he has been busy with work and with the band.

The weather today has alternated between torrential downpours and warm sunshine. Large waves have been rolling in all day long and by 8.30 there were a dozen surfers out in the bay.

When I arrived at the stables I saw that I was down to ride Pacman again and this time I made sure I tacked up the right horse. He is much easier to ride at least for me with my feeble legs (I'm joking but only just.) As we had the boss teaching us it was the usual dressage lesson focussing on getting our horses on the bit. I know there are a lot of things I need to work on but it would be nice to canter a bit more often. But ..... one of our group was telling us how she alternates the dressage lesson one week with a 45 mins private jumping lesson the other. Another rider and myself said how much we'd enjoy that, and we agreed that only tiny jumps would be enough for us.  We spoke to one of the instructors and yes if there are three of us that makes it a group lesson. Hopefully we will arrange it in a couple of weeks when we are all in the dressage lesson. Something to look forward to.

It was pouring with rain when I called in at the dump to get rid of some garden waste and then by the time I'd done the supermarket shopping the sun had come out. Town was so busy that I didn't bother walking to the main shopping street but drove straight to Lidl. It was only as I got home that I remembered about going to the music shop to ask about my poor digital piano. That will have to be next week.

When I got home I baked a Bara Brith for Pete and finished the next cushion cover. I hand sewed in the zip before sewing up the sides. Gosh, velvet is horrible to pin and sew. It kept creeping up when I was pinning the pieces together and even more when I used the machine. But it's done now. I took photos but the colour isn't right under the room light so I'll take another tomorrow.

I put out the Halloween spider with his batty friends before it got dark. Once it got dark I heard families wandering the streets looking for the few houses that had put out treats but it was too dark for me to see much. I'll go down later and bring the spider in before it gets washed away by the rain.

Grey.

We had a grey start to the day followed by a wet morning and a dry afternoon.

In the morning I stewed some cooking apples that I'd brought home from choir last night (it's that time of year and the apple crop is good this year). 

Then it was back to my cushion project. No sewing today but I cut out all the pieces I need for the next three cushion covers. Two of them are for box type cushions and I now know that it is easier to cut out each piece and stitch the seams rather than try and fold them round origami style.

While the afternoon looked grey and miserable through the windows once I'd wrapped up and ventured into the garden it didn't seem so bad after all. I cut back most of the crocosmia and picked up all the leaves and stray stalks from the shingle before my back told me I'd done enough.

I'll be off to disco aerobics in a while. Since Rachel has hired UV disco lights I'm wearing black leggings and work-out top with a random white pattern all over which I don't normally wear together. (Too crazy.) She's also bought lots of glow sticks (the sort that clip together) and was encouraging us to come in costume. Some people did last year. 

There are lots of holidaying families in the village so I expect there will be a number of drop-ins as well as the usual regulars. It's just fun exercise and as Rachel is forever telling us it doesn't matter what you do as long as you do something.

 

It's All Relative.

Despite the forecast the day was bright and sunny ...... right up until 4.00 when down came the rain.

Why the title? Well, I have a dreadful tendency to grumble and moan about things in general and I've probably become worse as I've got older. But then we hear about the destruction caused by the hurricane in Jamaica and war atrocities all around the world. Closer to home somebody I meet regularly has recently been given a terminal stage 4 cancer diagnosis out of the blue. So much suffering without solution puts my minor inconveniences right into perspective.

So while I'm acknowledging the things that didn't go right for me I'm feeling more than grateful that there are solutions and my life is pretty much okay.

 

And now for my tale of woe - last night before heading to Pilates I had enough time to do some piano practice. I made a start but then my hypersensitive nose smelt burning. I couldn't tell where it was from but to reassure myself checked all the rooms and even outside but everything seemed normal. Sat down to resume playing whereupon the smell returned and  there was a crackling from the digital piano. I quickly turned the piano off, pulled out all the plugs and eventually traced the smell to the port where the power cable plugs into the keyboard. Bother! I bought it in 2017 so the warranty is out of date. My only hope is to go to the music shop in Aber to see if they know anywhere that does repairs. Pete says it sounds like a repairable fault. Otherwise I shall have to spend a lot of money for a replacement. I've had a piano since I was 10 and even though I have never been the most diligent of pupils and daily practice is more of a wish than a reality I can't imagine not having a piano. Hmm, had an idea ...... . There's a house for sale five houses away from us with a baby grand in the sitting room. If only there was space for one here. It would fit in my study if I got rid of the guest bed but that's not an option, family visits are far more important. (It would fit in our bedroom.) 

I had a few other glitches (but nothing major) in my day which once again was beach walk, baking a Bara Brith and cushion sewing. The baking was fine and it is good to have the Christmas Bara Briths done and in the freezer. But ... as the oven was on I thought I'd try another recipe from FB. It was for a baked cheesecake using cottage cheese and yoghurt. It was not a success and had to be thrown out. I suspect that UK cottage cheese might be different or at least having a blender would have helped.

I did the beach walk first as I need to go to the pharmacy to ask about my repeat prescription since I'm getting low on some of the tablets. It will be in tomorrow I was told as I was handed Pete's medications in a surprisingly small bag. Now he's going to have to sort out what happened to the rest of his prescription. 

The cushion sewing still ended up being a trial. I've only just ordered the zips so all I needed to do was sew together strips from left over pieces to make another patchwork front panel. It was a bit tricky as I wanted to centre up the larger designs but I did it or so I thought. Only to discover I'd made a wrong measurement. Out came my trusty stitch ripper again so that I could add in extra pieces. It looks fine now but by the end I was truly fed up with sewing. (My back was aching from too much standing.) I think the last two cushions will just have plain covers.

My last bit of complaining to myself was about the fact that it hadn't rained and I could have got on with the painting. But then it did rain and that would have made me even crosser. 

A mug of tea, some painkillers and thinking about what is really important have left me feeling not cross at all but grateful that my problems are quite inconsequential.

Sunshine.

It's been dry all day and the sun came out in the afternoon. Just a shame the forecast is for a return to rain as I was hoping to carry on painting tomorrow and/or on Thursday. 

Pete caught the early bus to the garage at Bow Street to collect the car after its service. The garage man said the car was in very good condition but then again we don't use it that much and the underneath is wax oiled every year. Might as well keep the car running for as long as we can.

Once Pete returned I drove to the zoo for a few hours of weeding. My knee hadn't liked yesterday's walking on the shingle so I didn't want to stay too long. I took some hardy geraniums which had got too big for this garden and a pheasant grass to put in a planter that only had weeds in. As it's half-term there were plenty of families visiting the zoo. I finished off weeding the gravel by the guinea fowl and tidied up a few other areas. Afterwards I went and spent some time with the pigs. They've churned up the whole of their field into a muddy mess and it was hard to find a space where I could crouch down to give them their scratches. Otis lay down to have his tummy scratched but Truffle remained standing so I leaned on him for  support.

The structure in the large play area is now almost completely dismantled after having being damaged in the summer. That's a shame as it was very popular. At least I no longer have to try and keep the weeds there under control.

I haven't done much since I got home apart from preparing supper and I'll be heading off to Pilates later.

And Repeat.

It was wild and windy again this morning though the afternoon's rain was more of the steady sort that turned the world grey.

Today I have done much the same as yesterday- had a beach walk, baked a Bara Brith and sewn a cushion cover, but with variations.

 

As it didn't look like it was going to rain I took my camera with me on my beach walk.

In a small cove under the cliffs there was a huge mound of sandy sea foam fetched up against a tree trunk that wobbled like a cartoon jelly. (The foam not the tree.) Every now and again gusts of wind blew handfuls of foam across the beach.

I'd baked the Bara Brith straight after breakfast and before going out for my walk I made a pattern for the next cushion cover, cut out the pieces and set up the sewing machine so that I was ready to start as soon as I got home.

It was a fairly simple project, or so I thought but the zip took me a long time. While I often alter clothes I don't make clothing from scratch so zips are out of my skill set. But when it comes to making things be it cakes (wedding cake - sure no problem even though I only made very basic cakes), woodwork, curtains or most crafts (I can knit and crochet) I'm willing to have a go. And I've watched Sewing Bee.

I knew that it was best to set the 20" zip into the panel that would be the side of the cushion first. After a lot of thought I decided that my ancient sewing machine wasn't going to be much use. I think you need a special attachment and seem to recall mention of a zipper foot thought that seems like something you'd need to see a doctor about. Instead I did some very careful hand sewing. For some reason my stitches were minute maybe 2mm long. Not sure why, perhaps just because I could but it did take a long time. Eventually I forced myself to increase the size of the stitches which helped. Even better was finding that I could use the sewing machine for the other side of the zip. Then the two short seams at the front corners were a real challenge but it got done in the end. 

I bought the fabric when Laura Ashley were having their closing down sale in Barnstaple. Some of the other fabrics I used yesterday  were showroom display samples from a curtain shop. 

By the time I finished it was 6.00 and my back was aching because I was late with my painkillers but I would have hated to stop before finishing the job.

Attempt # 2.

I had a very early start today. When I woke up with a sore back and saw that it was already 5.40 I thought I might as well get up for a bit. Walking around generally helps ease off my back so I thought I would prepare breakfast while I was up. But then I fancied a cuppa so I wrapped up well and sat out on the terrace under the stars. 

Of course I had no idea that the clocks had gone back so according to the current time I had got up at 4.40. And now it's dark again so early in the evening.

I was looking forward to going on the group walk but then I checked the weather forecast, more than 95% chance of rain all afternoon. The satellite map looked no better with blue (for rain) over the whole of Ceredigion. And they were correct. Not a good afternoon for a walk.

Instead I took myself off for a morning beach walk. The tide was high and still coming in so I had to walk on the shingle. The recent fierce waves had pulled lots of the smaller stones down the bank making it easier to walk on though of course sand is better. There was lots of sea foam and I couldn't resist walking through some and sending clumps of foam flying up the beach.

I found a washed up lobster pot, a heavy metal one with netting rather than the usual reused plastic containers. I pulled it right up above the tide line to stop any marine life getting caught in it. Sadly I came across the remains of a seal pup. Probably the one that had been under the cliffs, washed out to sea by last week's storm.

At the end of my walk I saw a couple of women, three small children and a dog (also small) exploring a small cove under the cliffs. They looked like city folk and I was concerned as the tide was still rising and the waves were already lapping at the foot of the cliffs where they would have to walk round to get back to the main beach. I watched them for a while wondering if they were going to make their way back and when they didn't I thought I'd better go and have a word. I know us Brits don't like to 'interfere' but now I've reached old lady status I feel I can get away with offering my advice. They were polite,  hadn't realised the tide was coming in and soon made their way back to the beach. That's one less rescue for the RNLI.

When I'm walking on the shingle I keep my eyes open for 'letter stones'. O is very easy to find but I thought it was a good one and then I found A I on another stone.

The rain began shortly after I got home and continued on right through to the evening.

While I was sitting out on the terrace in the early hours I thought about yesterday's patchwork square some more and came to the conclusion that I really didn't like it. A bit more thinking came up with an alternative design that only used strips so no difficult corners to match up. I also ditched one of the greys and added in some light blue instead. It has taken all day but I'm much happier with the result. The grey strips sometimes look silver and sometimes dark grey depending on how the light hits them.

I also baked a Bara Brith which is now sitting in the freezer.

 

Not Sure.

It has been a wild and stormy day with an icy northerly wind that blew clumps of foam across the garden. There were sunny spells in the morning then by the afternoon we lost the sun and the showers got even heavier. 

I thought about wrapping up and going for a beach walk in the morning but the tide was in and I would have had to walk over the shingle which doesn't make for a very comfortable walk.

Instead I spent the day sewing. I began by reducing the size of the cushion cover I had bought for £1.50 yesterday. I'd been looking for zips in the haberdashery areas of the charity shops but when I found the cushion cover I thought it would save time to just make a patchwork square to sew on the front.

Being someone who notices if any corners or joins are not exactly right but at the same time is unable to do things neatly made this project a major challenge. I cut templates, used a ruler and tailor's chalk and still there was an awful lot of unpicking to be done. 

And then when I laid the square on top of the grey cushion I wasn't even sure if I liked the result. Greys are very hard to put together as each grey can have tones of browns, blues or greens which don't always go together.

Pete thinks it looks okay so what I'll probably do is hand sew the square onto the cushion cover and then if I still don't like it I can simply turn the cushion over.

Thinking about shopping in charity shops made me wonder why they don't promote the recycling aspect more. If we all bought fewer new items and instead bought second-hand items which might have ended up being thrown away it would as they say - help the planet.

Dwp Dw i.

Some sunshine and a lot of wintry showers today. The rain was heavy, icy and not pleasant at all.

I sat outside early in the morning tucked into a corner of the terrace and watched the seagulls battling the wind. A number of small groups stayed just above the height of the cliff as they flew southwards along the coast line. Presumably heading for town or at least the dump. Meanwhile vast numbers rose like pulsating black specks from a seething cauldron working their way higher and higher until eventually the whole flock wheeled and headed inland. 

The first thing I do when I get to the stables is go down and look at the day's list to see which horse I'm riding. Today it was Pacman who although jiggity jog on a hack is great to ride in the school. I couldn't see him tied up with the other horses in the stalls, looked around and saw two horses tied up in the yard. Pacman is a bay so I assumed the bay was him. I did check with my fellow riders and then with a one of the staff who all thought it was Pacman. It was only after I'd tacked up and we got into the school that I realised that I had helped myself to Meg. (The girl I asked has only been working at the stables for four weeks.)

Iola (the stables owner) was teaching and said I might as well ride Meg. Oh dear, Meg is lazy and hard work even though she is fitter than when she first came to the stables. My legs don't have a lot of strength so I had to keep using my schooling whip. Normally just touching the horse with the end of the whip as a reminder is enough but unless I put both reins in one hand so I could add a little sting to the tap Meg ignored me and carried on with a sedate trot. It was only when three of us were trotting on a 20m circle and Iola got the lunging whip did Meg and Hazel who was also being sluggish, suddenly double their speed. It was much better at the end but that was hard work. I won't make that mistake again. 

I'm glad I hadn't had Hazel as she was a real pain going up to the mounting block. New panels have been put up near that corner which made it another reason for her to spook. In the end the mounting block had to be dragged away from the corner so that Mark could practise walking Hazel up to it before getting on.

I took a few photos at the stables with my phone. That's May the new cob that Chloe rode in the lesson, and Meg behind.

A bit blurry but you can see from Meg's shape (still chunky) that she kind of has the proportions of a smaller horse. And yes she still loves her food.

Afterwards I did the shopping at Morrison's and Lidl also going into town to post a parcel and recycle a bag of empty blister packs at Boots. 

I got caught a few times in the rain which was very heavy and so cold. Time to make sure I have gloves in my coat pocket. At home as soon as I'd unpacked the shopping and thrown my clothes in the washing machine I settled down with a cup of tea to watch the sea and Riot Women. That's a very good series though I suspect that most men wouldn't enjoy it.

(Dwp dw i - I'm an idiot.)

Storm Benjamin.

There was a little bit of sun first thing this morning but it wasn't long before the rain clouds gathered followed by Storm Benjamin. The rain lashed down, the wind was howling and the lamppost beside the garden was swaying back and forth which means the wind was about 50mph.

Spot the rainbow.

In the morning I had another session tidying the garage and bit by bit it's looking a lot better.

That was before our three hour Welsh class. Somehow those three hours seem to fly by, much more quickly than the two hour class. Maybe it was because we spend a lot more time chatting to each other (in Welsh) now that we have the basic grammar and a reasonable vocabulary. Now we're honing our use of prepositions, all those little tiny words. Since they are not always used in the same way as in English each has four or five meanings in the dictionary depending on context. For me most times it's just a wild guess. I had to smile when our tutor told us that a Welsh fairy dies each time a preposition is put (incorrectly) at the end of a sentence. And since today's topic was our interests I got to talk a lot about riding and horses. 

After class I decided to buy a large rug for the sitting room. There isn't much insulation under the laminate flooring and with the wind blowing under the house through the air bricks, the floor can get quite cold in the winter. We've checked and failed to find any drafts above the floor but even with sheepskin boot type slippers my feet get so cold they hurt. They don't actually feel cold to the touch either which is most odd. Meanwhile Peter doesn't really notice it and he generally doesn't like to be cold. I can only put it down to one of my hypersensitivities as the doctor checked the circulation in my legs and didn't find any issues.

Anyway, went on line and found a suitable rug from John Lewis. Ordered the rug but when it came to the checkout there was a £20 delivery charge even though the previous page has said the page said free delivery. I got on the phone and it turned out that it was a mistake on the page to say free delivery as the size of the rug 2m x 3m made it a 'large item'. But being John Lewis they gave me free delivery because they had made the mistake. Worth being on the phone for a while.

Off soon in the car, for disco aerobics wearing my new sparkly tunic.

Sunshine, Showers ......

and rainbows today.

There were too many showers today to carry on with painting the wall.

 

My day began with a rapid exit from the bed when Pete mentioned he had seen a bin lorry going past the end of the road. Yikes! it was general rubbish collection week but having woken at 7.00 I'd dozed off again and not woken again until 9.00. I rushed around emptying bins and putting out the recycling as well as the rubbish. Minutes later the bin lorry came down our road, a close shave as it's three weeks before the next rubbish collection.

Not wanting to risk the paint getting washed away by the rain I got on with tidying the garage. I'm making progress but it's not quite finished yet.

I finally going to choir tonight as my cold (or possibly covid) is well and truly over. That will be a test of my memory trying to remember song parts I should know plus of course having to pick up quickly on any new songs. People don't attend every single week so our choir leader always gives everyone a chance to catch up. 

More Rain.

Frequently wet today.

First off this morning Pete drove to a nearby garage to book our car in for a service. We used to go to a mechanic in Borth but he moved to Lampeter. We carried on using him as he was willing to collect and deliver the car but of course there was a charge for that. We asked around and the garage in Bow Street was highly recommended by some of my walking group. It's a few miles away and the road there is unsafe for pedestrians but luckily it is on the bus route. 

I drove to the zoo in the hope that I would be able to do my weeding in between showers which is just what happened. I weeded the gravel by the guinea fowl and managed to get more than half done. When the rain got too heavy I moved to the gravel by the zoo entrance as there is a large roofed area over some of the picnic tables. I had long since given up weeding that area in general, (too little gravel and too many weeds) but there were sections where instead of grass the weeds were mainly things like plantain, docks and some creeping plants. Removing those left the gravel bare and looking much better. 

Afterwards one of the other volunteers took me into the owl aviary to take photos of Albert. He's actually a Eurasian Eagle Owl not a horned owl as I called him before. Eagle owls are the largest species of owl and Albert's feet were enormous.

Then we went over to feed the silver foxes Blue and his sister Lily. (I forgot to ask my friend if she was okay with me showing her face which is why I've cropped the photos like this.) This afternoon's dinner for the foxes consisted of cut up apples, pears, parsnips and carrots with sweetcorn and mealworms as part of their varied diet. They also had a few grapes as a treat. At other times they do get chicken. I didn't go in with the foxes as they are very nervous and they don't know me. 

It's not raining at the moment so I'm going to risk walking down to the Hall for Pilates rather than driving. I'll have my jacket and it doesn't matter much if I get wet on the way home.

Showers.

It has been a day of sunshine and heavy showers. 

This morning we went to Mach library to meet up with our friends to work on our Welsh. It's so useful to be able to go through the homework and also prepare ourselves for this week's lesson. 

While we were in the library I reserved 'The Island' by Victoria Hislop. (There are at least four other books with the same title.) I wanted to read it as it's about a Cretan family set in Plaka and on Spinalonga when it was a leper colony. Though the book has been credited with bringing excessive tourism to the area.

 

There was too much chance of rain for me to do any wall painting when we got home. Instead I began clearing away the courgettes and tomato plants. I've left some of the tomatoes as they still have green tomatoes on which might possibly ripen, or not.

Then I came inside and finished altering my latest top for disco aerobics. The neckline and sleeves were fine as they were and all I had to do was hem round the sequin fabric and then around the lining. I did both hems by hand while listening to the radio. Not bad for £5.