A Walk at Hafod (part 1)

We were back at Hafod again this week for our walk. As I drove up through the mountains in the pouring rain I was beginning to wonder if the walk was a good idea but by the time I got to Devil's bridge the rain had stopped.

I was driving on my own and was early enough to stop first at the Hafod Arch. This was originally the gateway to the estate, an impressive one at that.

The sun shone all afternoon though there was a real chill in the air once you were in the shade.

Early on we stopped to admire the way a curved drystone wall was being repaired with meat and wood frames to ensure the correct slope and curve were achieved.

From this high point we scrambled down steep stone steps (mostly without hand rails) that brought us down to the valley.

There we had a walk around  Mrs Johnes' Garden which has been recently restored and planted with varieties of the exotic plants that would have been there back in the 1780s. Most of the plants were either herbaceous or deciduous but we still managed to get quite excited reading the labels. We'll definitely go back in the spring to see the garden properly. 

Our lunch stop was at some picnic tables set in a bend of the Afon Ystwyth. 

Nearby were some large rocks covered with poignant memorials for children and young people.

More woodland walking and down yet more steep steps brought us to a rustic bridge over a fast flowing stream.

Everywhere there were trees felled by this year's storms including one tree so large that it had proved easier to build steps over the trunk rather than to remove the tree.

More photos of the walk tomorrow and later I'll post photos from the Craft Fair which I went to in the morning.

Mostly Wet.

Lots of heavy rain today with the occasional bright spell.

A few small jobs got done today. First I fitted a new bulb in the oven. Pete had tried to do it but he wasn't able to bend down to see what he was doing. I'm more flexible and could get my head right inside the oven. (Good thing it's not a gas oven.) 

Then Pete gave me a hand with changing my study door handles. I'd tried to do it the other day when the shorter spindle arrived but then the handle wouldn't turn easily. I put the old handles back but there was still the same problem and I wondered if I'd damaged the mechanism. Pete gave it a spray with a specific lock lubricant and hey presto it worked. One more round glass object to satisfy my odd tastes.

Then I turned to some Christmas preparations. First I got all our cards ready to take to the Post Office and then I brought down the Christmas decorations ready to put them up on Monday. (I like to hold out until the 1st of December.) These are the decorations I keep in the cupboard above the coats not the overflow boxes up in the loft. I'm sure I could deck this place out like Santa's Grotto if I wanted. I tend to have an emotional attachment to 'stuff'' that reminds me of special times. How I loved being able to put up the biggest real tree possible in our sitting room at Dingles and our busy family Christmases. Perhaps because they were such a contrast to Christmases with just my mother.

While I was up the stepladder looking in the top cupboard I spotted some mould on the outer wall. Not much but of course I reached for the bleach spray and cleaned the wall thoroughly. Then, since I was already in the bleaching mood I cleaned the bottom edge of the floor to ceiling windows in the sitting room. Again there wasn't much mould but I don't like seeing even the faintest hint of black on the window frames. Grubbing around in the mud outside is one thing but I am compelled to get rid of any mould (or grease) I find indoors.

For some time now I've been looking for some curtain fabric I knew we brought with us from Dingles but without success. Then I found it when I was up in the loft. Washed and ironed I had hoped to use the very fine cream fabric to replace the curtain that goes across the middle section of our bedroom wardrobe. Unfortunately the cream fabric is too short. A shame.

My last job of the day was to carry on with searching for better priced flights to Crete. The Jet2 price has dropped from £1030 for both of us to £784 but by going with KLM and changing planes at Schiphol I can get tickets for just over £400. One stopover will be 8 hours and the other is less than 2. We can manage that. and Schiphol is supposed to be a really nice airport with lots of facilities.

 

 

Lovely Tex Again.

It was still raining very lightly this morning while I sat in the open doorway with my coffee. As the sky began to lighten I watched great flocks of birds above me swirling about in the wind. The waves rolled back and forth creating a deep soothing sound and behind me I could hear the high pitched twittering of a flock of sparrows in my neighbour's garden. A good start to the day.

Down at the stables I found I had the lovely Tex again. ('Scuse the muddy walls of the stall.) The horses spend most of their time in the fields and you can see by the state of his rug which I had put on him as he was all sweaty, that Tex enjoys a good roll in the mud. I got myself very muddy just doing up the tummy straps.

There were five of us in the lesson and we worked again on leg yielding which Tex is fine with. There was no evading anything I asked him to do which he can do sometimes. I worked on getting him to bend his neck to get on the bridle which he doesn't really understand at the moment. That's something to carry on with.

It began to rain as I drove out of the stable yard getting heavier as I drove along. My first stop was at the Hahav (hospice care at home) warehouse to donate some items. I parked near the door but as I got out of the car there was a veritable cloudburst including hail and in a moment my coat was running with water. I stayed inside the warehouse making sure the rain had eased before I went back out again. Somebody in there has a great sense of humour when writing descriptions of the furniture for sale. There were two bookcases one on top of the other. The sign on the first one said 'Compact Bookcase' while the sign on the slightly larger one said 'Less Compact Bookcase'.

When I parked at Morrisons there was a tap on the window and a nice chap let me know that one of my hubcaps was very loose. Not surprise after bouncing along the potholed track to and from the stables. The hubcaps are secured with cable ties so I just gave the loose one a kick to click it back into place.

By the time I had finished my shopping in Lidl and town the sun was shining and there was hardly a cloud to be seen.

On my way home I seized the opportunity to take a few photos from the top of the hill above Borth. This short stretch of road is known locally as the Borth Motorway. Back when Britain was still part of the EU there was EU funding to re-do the road. But it had to be this wide to qualify. The rest of the road to Clarach and town is considerably narrower. 

I love reaching the top of the hill and seeing Borth, Cors Fochno (the bog) spread out behind the village with the hills of Snowdonia beyond the river and the Cambrian mountains to the side.

Once the shopping was unpacked and the washing in the machine I spent a restful hour with my feet up and a large mug of tea. That's another busy Friday over.

Wet.

It has been very wet today. In fact it's only just stopping now after raining ever since yesterday evening.

My ribs were hurting a bit this morning so Pete kindly took a parcel to the Post Office for me. This was a pair of short boots from Wider Fit. Apart from my walking boots I haven't had much luck with their shoes and boots even though they offer lots of widths. They seem to be made for different shaped feet than mine. But I thought I'd give these boots a go as my Uggs can't last for much longer (I wasn't been able to find a replacement pair that fit either). Sadly this latest pair of boots are a little too short. As Wider Fit do free returns I'll try the next size before asking for a refund.

Today I re-organised the deep under-oven drawer. A bit Marie Condo though I doubt if she would approve of three sizes of frying pan and a wok, none of which get used very much. And I suspect I've never used the muffin or tartlet tins. But I might one day, maybe. Not to mention a number of carved wooden bread boards two of which are now in another cupboard. Why is it that when you empty a drawer to tidy the contents they never all fit back in? Like digging a hole in the garden.

Drawer tidying, and washing all the contents of course, took place around our three hour Welsh lesson. I thought I was going to have IT issues again when we were put into breakout rooms and my screen just went black with the timer going round and round. Eventually it sorted itself out and I was back in the lesson again.

We ended the lesson by going through the words of the Welsh national anthem. Not only is it sung by the spectators at sports events such as rugby and football etc but also by audiences at the end of concerts and recitals. It might be a good thing to learn those words. 

As usual on a Thursday I loaded up the car with my riding stuff and the shopping bags ready for tomorrow morning but as well today I tried to track down the source of an unpleasant smell in the car. I'm pretty sure it was from a rotting courgette in the garden waste I took to the dump last week. I left the empty bags in the car for a few days afterwards which didn't help. Yesterday I drove for the whole three hours with the windows wide open (woolly hat and a rug on my lap) but although reduced the smell remained. Today I checked that nothing had fallen out of the bags, looked under the seats and had a good sniff around but couldn't find any specific source of the pong. As a last resort I sprayed every surface with air freshener. That's pretty cloying but hopefully a bit more driving with open windows will help.

I'll be off in a minute for some leaping around in the Hall to give my heart and joints a good workout.

Venturing Further Afield.

I've been on a mini adventure today. By nature I'm more of a 'village mouse' preferring to stay near home. Even a 45 minute drive seems like a long way to travel these days.

But today I needed to take my overheating digital piano to a music shop in Newtown, a town 50 miles away. About an hour and half's drive each way.

When I looked at the map I had a choice of two routes. Imagine the shape of a lemon with Borth at one end and Newtown at the other. I chose the southern route as it consisted of just two main roads one of which was part of our route to and from Devon. I may try the other way next time to see what that mountain scenery is like in that direction.

I stopped to take photos (in the rain) one the way home on the first road where I was passed by many trucks carrying logs newly felled from the hillsides.

This mountain road is mostly 50 mph as it winds its way ever upwards. Some of the bends seemed to go round so far it was a wonder that the road didn't end up back where it had started.

With the route being so simple I didn't bother taking the satnav. Instead I had a look at the junctions on Google and wrote down the road numbers just in case. I have to say the road signage in Wales is very good and I would have got to Newtown even if I hadn't checked the route beforehand. Then when you get to the towns the signs also have helpful information like 'town centre'.

I went to the music shop first to leave the piano. Fingers crossed that the chap will be able to fix it.

Then I went back to the centre of town. There was a large empty pay and display car park but I managed to find a free 1 hour space in the main shopping street. I had a wander up and down but only came across one charity shop. (I saw two more as I drove out so I'll check them out next time I'm there.)

The charity shop was where I found these four melamine bowls (£1). I've been looking for two small melamine or even plastic bowls to take with us the next time we go to Crete. The apartment only has large dinner plates and very large pasta bowls but sometimes you only need a small bowl. 

I found the metal plate shelving rack in the 'Waste Not' shop run by a not for profit group. Turned on its side it will be ideal for storing baking trays in the deep drawer below the oven.

In the same place I found a wooden frame just the right size for a charcoal drawing I bought this year. I've been carrying a matching piece of paper around in my purse for quite some time as I looked everywhere for a frame.

I also found a bakery that had a tempting selection of cakes in the window. I chose a brownie (not too good) and a very sticky Chelsea bun to share with Pete which was better.

All that driving was tiring but revived by a mug of tea I did the ironing after which it almost time to get ready for choir. It's been a very wet evening and driving home this evening the visibility was really bad. I pulled over for an ambulance on blue lights and managed to miss the turning for a quiet lane I usually use. Instead I had to drive on an unfamiliar road, hardly able to see and come home the long way. 

Sunny.

The sun shone today and it wasn't windy so it wasn't very cold either.

 

We even had a patch of sun in our north facing front garden. Mind you it was the only bit of sun and it was quite chilly on our shady terrace.

It was a good day for going to the zoo. On the way I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up my prescription. When I went to fill in the repeat prescription one item was missing. When I asked what had happened the pharmacy assistant asked if it was something I normally have and when I answered that it was she simply told me to write it on the prescription myself. I hope that works.

With the large play area at the zoo almost completely dismantled there's no longer any need for me to weed there. (Finances are always tight so I've no idea what will happen there.)

Instead I gave the small play area a quick going over before clearing a little path that the staff use to access some of the enclosures. The next job was to clear a whole load of brambles growing in a corner of the safety zone by the wolf-dogs. I wasn't able to dig out all the roots so some will be growing back next year but at least fewer than there were.

Having got two 'jobs' done I went over the gravel patch that I've planted up. There were a few tiny weeds and a lot of leaves and cones to pick up. For me it's satisfying seeing the gravel neat and tidy with the majority of the plants I put in doing well.

I said hello to the pigs but didn't go in as I would probably have got stuck in the thick mud wallow that their whole enclosure has become.

Coming home I thought I'd book flights for next year's holiday. Yikes! If we want to fly direct with Jet2 it will be over £1000 for both of us while we can save over £500 going with KLM. There's just the small matter of 8 hour stopovers at Schiphol airport. For that amount of money we could visit Amsterdam, have a boat trip or go to a museum and use the executive lounge. And I think two shorter flights might be more comfortable than one long one. I need to check out times and when things are open before I try and persuade Pete this would be a good idea.

I'm off in a moment to Pilates.

Cold.

It's been a cold and windy day with some bright sunshine and despite the appearance of a rainbow, no showers.

As I stood leaning on the terrace balustrade with my coffee the thought crossed my mind that it was too wet to walk down in my slippers to put seeds out for the birds. But then I noticed movement in the hedge and realised that some dunnocks were waiting for those seeds. Which of course I went and got for them.

Even though the shape of the land remains the same the way it looks is constantly changing as the sun shines down between the clouds and the clouds themselves hug the peaks or make abstract patterns in the sky. 

With nothing scheduled away from home today I've been able to get some things done indoors. First we or rather Pete fixed some screws into the hall wall so that I could hang the two photos. My only contribution was to mark the holes and one of those was out by half a cm which called for an awkward adjustment.

The next task was to put the new wheeled case away in the loft and bring down the box for the digital piano. Except that I don't have the box any more so I'll just have to wrap the piano instead. While I was in the loft (and wearing latex gloves) I laid flat some of the extra insulation which had been pushed into untidy heaps when an electrician had been up there. There were also a few bags of stuff pushed to the back on top of the insulation. These I carefully fished out as there is no boarding in that part of the loft. I was even able to bring down quite a few things to take to the charity shops. No need to hang onto things now that we know exactly what fits in this house.

Then I attempted to change the door handles on my study door. We kept the door handles that were here as they are the horizontal bar type ones which are easy to open especially for arthritic hands but I also have a spare pair of glass knob handles. These I took from Dingles (before we put it up for sale) since I liked them so much. Unfortunately they need a shorter spindle bar which I've already ordered. I don't care if my door handles don't match the others in the house. 

My final job was to clear my desk, put away most of the Welsh grammar prompt cards I made and wipe everything down. It's looks so nice and fresh now without the clutter though I have found space for some photos of the bright blue Cretan sea.

A Windy Beach Walk.

Wild and windy today but thankfully almost no rain.

 

Today's group walk was more of a gathering with a beach walk thrown in. It began at a friend's house which took me all of three minutes to walk to. There I was met with the offer of mulled wine, warm mince pies and a table full of other food that people had brought to share. Unusually there were three (and later a fourth) dogs amongst the group which led to a bit of barking though they were all quite amenable.

Eventually six of us with three of the dogs decided to brave the wind and go for a walk along the beach.

By the time we got to my usual turnaround point half the group had had enough. It's never easy walking on the stones. They cut through to the road and walked back on the pavement. 

Three of us and two dogs carried on along the beach to the end of the village. A partial rainbow made an appearance and was followed by a light shower which caused me to pack away my camera. We came off the beach, walked to the railway station and crossed the line to the fields behind the village. From there we followed the lane that goes past the church, community gardens and the zoo and then swings back to the High St.

A brisk march brought us back to my friend's house to join the others for hot drinks and food. The lemon drizzle cake went down well and I enjoyed a cup of coffee and a slice of Bara Brith before setting off for the short walk home.

More Cleaning.

The morning rain was so heavy that there was nothing to see but solid grey above the indistinct shapes of the houses along the beach. But soon patches of blue began to appear until we ended up with a sunny afternoon. Sadly now all is grey and the rain has begun to fall once more.

While Pete went to town I planned to type up my annual Christmas letter. But before I could start there was some major cleaning to do. His desk was grubby to say the least and the keyboard was tacky. Dust and sticky drips are not a good combination. Sometime during my clean up I managed to knock a wire and the pc went off. I tried switching it back on only to get an error message at which point I thought it was best to leave well alone. Pete came home not long after and after some deep sighs set things to rights and I could start typing. It's strange how using a different keyboard slowed me down. My keyboard is a bit smaller and six of the letters have worn off the keys but I can whizz along typing with two fingers on each hand. With Pete's keyboard I could only use one finger on each hand and the distance between my eyes and the screen was just 'off' for my glasses. Still the letter is done and printed. That's another thing ticked off my Christmas planning.

 

I then turned to some baking. I wanted to make a couple of lemon drizzle cakes, one for the freezer and one for tomorrow. Of course I didn't stick to the recipe as the one I found on line had twice as much butter as I would normally use and more to the point had in the fridge. Instead I adapted my basic cake recipe cutting back a bit on the flour as my original recipe was for feeding my hungry boys. It was only as the cakes were cooling that I began to wonder if I had remembered to double the amount of sugar. I did for all the other ingredients but I'm not sure about the sugar. That's so typical of me. However I've had a taste and it seems fine to me. 

My last job was to put the first study window back to rights (I like keeping things in exactly the same place) then to clean the other sill and all its glass treasures. It will be nice to have everything freshened up before Vytas and Sally come to stay.