Never Short Of A Cuppa.

It felt much cooler this morning. With no wind the sea was fairly nondescript but the sky above was dramatic.

I think that a lot of my lack of enthusiasm for our Welsh lessons is the sheer amount of time it seems to take up. That and the fact that learning languages is hard for me.

Not only is the lesson three hours long but I spend at least an hour beforehand going through the last lesson and looking at the next exercises. Looking, translating and making plenty of notes of course.

But by the time the lesson is over I do feel a sense of achievement and I know it is doing my brain good. Plus it is nice to be able to chat to Pete in Welsh.

 

During the lesson the postman delivered the Kelly kettle I'd bought. Now, whatever disruption to daily living occurs all will be well with a cup of tea or coffee.

Later - I had a good time at disco aerobics, burning off the calories with some energetic dancing. Rachel bless her, was still suffering with her cold and had to refrain from too much spinning around as it was making her feel dizzy. Towards the end people were getting too hot and opened the doors at the back of the hall to let in some air. These doors open onto the football pitches and children's playground and from her viewpoint up on the stage Rachel spotted a couple of lads, around 10 years old, joining in with our dancing, bless. One lad even came and danced in the hall for a while.

More Plants.

A brief post as I've only just got home from choir.

The day began grey and dark with frequent heavy showers then later we lost the clouds and it was another hot and windy day. (I've just remembered that the washing is still out on the line.)

 

I had some things to do in town first which included a quick visit to Charlie's where somehow I came out with four pots of the little cyclamen. I couldn't resist as they were only 50p each.

When I got home I gave the inside of the car a hoover. It was full of dirt and small stones, not surprising as we carry so much garden stuff to the dump and wellies, riding boots and walking boots all add to the general mess.

Once the car was tidied including washing off the worst of the dirt from the outside I turned my attention to the terrace hedge.

Seen from indoors it looked to be cut at quite a slant especially when viewed against the horizon. This was mainly an optical illusion as when I measured carefully it was only about an inch higher at one end. Like the builders of the Parthenon I would have to adjust the top line to fit the view rather than to the true horizontal.

However I took off the offending inch and a tiny bit more to make it acceptable to my critical eye when seen straight on.

The washing is now in and on the rack in the utility room.

Warm.

There was hardly a breath of wind this morning. Just a  silvery grey flat sea under a cloudy sky. It was warm from the start and the afternoon was sunnier and hotter.

 

I went to the zoo this morning and somehow managed to spend five hours there. I wasn't weeding all the time, there was the usual chatting with another volunteer and every now and again I'd take my tub of weeds to the pigs or armfuls of branches to be shared out between the goats and more armfuls of mint and lemon balm to the animal kitchen to be given to the wolf dogs (bedding). I hadn't meant to be so long at the zoo but right at the end I thought I'd check on the spiral paths in the grass maze and to my horror they were full of tiny weeds. If I left it any longer the paths would soon be obliterated. The paths are all clear now but will need checking while we have this warm spell after all that rain.

I got back home just in time to clean up, prepare some supper and change for Pilates.

Busy.

It must have been cold in the early hours as the central heating turned itself on (the thermostat is set at 17C) but on the other hand the day has been hot, very hot. A reminder of being in Crete this time last year.

 

I've been busy today. In the morning we went to Mach library to practise our Welsh. The new group that have joined our Zoom class seem to be more fluent than us so preparation for the next lesson is even more necessary. By the time we finished in the library it felt like a summer's day in Mach and the town was filled with tourists browsing the shops or eating in the cafes.  

As usual I dropped Pete off for his afternoon of playing pool and for me it was more gardening. I managed to give the long hedge a trim, possibly the last one for the season though if the weather stays warm it will carry on growing.

Then I baked a Bara Brith for Pete and after picking more tomatoes and preparing a salad I had 15 minutes sitting out in the sun. 

The forecast for tomorrow looks to be just as nice so hopefully I'll get plenty done at the zoo.

Wildlife Watching.

After a cooler morning we've had lots of sun, and warmth too.

There was a good breeze in the morning so naturally I put a white wash on. Just before the end of the wash cycle the machine stopped and some numbers flashed up on the panel. Not a good sign. It did that the last time I ran a white wash (hotter and longer than my usual wash) but got going after I switched it off and then on again. Today I got the machine going on a rinse and spin cycle (which I always do as either I'm too sensitive or the machine isn't rinsing properly) but it stopped and began flashing again. Oh no, did that mean I would need a new machine?

I could hear there was something not right as the machine tried to fill up and after we checked the manual it looked to be either a problem with filling or the filters.

Before checking the drain filter we went and had a look at the boiler which does need topping up every now and again and sure enough the dial was almost at zero. Peter showed me how to fill the boiler last time it needed doing so this time I took off the cover and opened the valves while he watched. To be certain to get it right another time I wrote on the inside the steps (which are very simple) of the process. That will make the boiler man smile when he comes to service the boiler but I might forget by the next time it needs doing. And hey presto the washing machine was fine once more.

This morning I began writing lists for our next visit to St Ives which is coming up soon. After many years with almost no holidays, which I didn't mind as we lived in a lovely valley a short drive from the coast, I'm quite liking going on holiday. 

For me a great deal of the enjoyment is the anticipation and planning to get the best out of the holiday. As we're driving there we're not limited on how much we can take with us, thankfully. We're self catering so there'll be some food bits and who knows what the weather will be like? It could be anything from warm sunshine to howling gales (both would be fun) so clothing will have to cover all eventualities from shorts to full wet weather gear. At least we won't need any fancy 'going out' clothing as that's not our sort of thing.

After yesterday's gardening efforts today I did what I like best, simply pottering about and tidying up. I worked my way along the path picking up every twig, leaf and seedling with some cutting back from time to time. A very enjoyable activity in the sun.

Once the shingle around the path was clear I moved to the rest of the shingle chasing the sun which at this time of year leaves the garden relatively early.

As I worked I could hear the occasional chirrup of a grasshopper and looking down I could see two of them close to where I was working. The larger one was a female who remained nearby working her way around the stones bending her abdomen down to lay eggs between the warm stones. Hopefully there will be lots of grasshoppers next year.

There was quite a bit of rustling in the dry leaves under the escallonia hedge but after an initial sighting of a wren I wasn't able to get a photo. But looking up, there on the top of the hedge was a sparrow keeping a close eye on me. It all goes to show that you don't need to travel far to watch wildlife. Incidentally even though sparrows and dunnocks are the same size and have similar colouring they are easy to tell apart by the shape of their beaks. The sparrow has a wedge shaped beak while the dunnock has a dainty pointed beak.

The sun had almost left the garden by the time I needed to go back indoors to do the ironing. It's so good to get things washed, ironed and put away in the same day.

Moving Day.

Not us, we're staying put but plenty of plants were moved today.

The day began with a light drizzle that initially forced me to shelter in the doorway with my cuppa. It soon cleared up and I was able to take my chair out on to the terrace to watch the waves breaking over the reefs. A warm southerly wind was blowing which rather pleasant. 

By the time I was on my second cup of coffee two surfers were out, duck diving under towering waves  emerging through the white foam to float about like a pair of seals.

Later the kite and wing surfers came to harness the power of the wind as they skipped and jumped over the waves.

By the afternoon there were some short spells of sunshine but now it's turned grey again. 

With the whole day free what else would I be doing but gardening? My main achievement was to move all the clumps of crocosmia from the raised beds to ground level on the other side of the garden.

The original plan had been to have the raised beds as traditional herbaceous borders, spring bulbs followed by hardy geraniums with an autumn blaze of colour from different varieties of crocosmia. But the crocosmia did not do well during the hot weather as the raised beds dry out very easily. I had to water the crocosmia just to keep them alive and there were very few flowers. Hopefully they will do better on the other side which didn't dry out so badly.

Instead I shall plant some silver leaved perennials; lavender, artemisia, santolina and curry plant  in the raised beds. Those plants are more drought tolerant and will give winter interest as well. I took plenty of cuttings when I cut them back and some at least should survive and any spares can go to the zoo (not the artemisia which is toxic to animals).

I had well grown from cuttings, lavender, santolina and an artemisia which I've already planted in the end raised bed along with some social garlic which generally does well.

So the crocosmia left their spacious positions in the raised beds and have been spread out in between the knautia. At the same time I dug up a dead hydrangea, breaking a garden spade in the process, and planted the agapanthus (Royal velvet) I bought in Cornwall, in that space. Next to move were the eryngium as the tall slivery blue stems and pretty flower heads fall if they are not supported. I moved those, as best I could to where they should be supported by the verbena bonariensis and the achillea rather than me having to put a stick in for each one. That gave me a bit more space for the crocosmia though there is still one clump I would like to move. Not sure where to at the moment. 

Peter went into town but regretted it mightily as it is freshers week and all the roads were busy and all the shops were crowded.

Determined not to be beaten by a crochet pattern I had another go at making the tiny horns for my dragon, and succeeded. This I did by using a stitch marker (aka coloured paper clips) for each stitch. It was a fiddly process but at least I could see where the stitches were and now have two identical horns. Not sure if I would be able to do that with finer thread. Maybe it will get easier as I go along.

Wet.

It has been raining heavily for most of the day. I'm glad that I wasn't out shopping today.

Knowing that rain was due in I went out to do some gardening straight after breakfast. The remaining excess mint has been pulled up and more of the big lace-cap hydrangea cut back. I was on a roll and carried on training a climbing hydrangea back along the hedge as the rain began to fall. I'm trying not to have to cut any of the branches off but I don't want them growing outwards.

Eventually it got too wet so I did a bit more towards my version of the garage sort out (as Pete's seems to have fizzled out). At least this way I will know where things are and I'm not going to mention the still unopened boxes with new tools in. Maybe they will come in useful one day.

 

The main job I planned to do today was to cook up a whole load of apples as our neighbours have been leaving bags of apples out for anyone to help themselves. It took me a whole hour to core, remove bruised bits and chop up the apples but now we have five tubs of stewed apple sitting in the freezer. This we'll mainly eat with our morning porridge.

My final task of the day was to carry on with the amigurumi dragon I'm crocheting. The second ear is now done but I gave up half-way through the second horn as it doesn't look like the first one and I couldn't work out which one was the faulty one. It was very fiddly as basically you are making a tube which begins with only four stitches around then five and finally six. I might go back to those after I've done the rest of the parts which are bigger. At the moment I'm using double knit wool for practice but really the pattern is for embroidery thread. How will I ever see that?

Windy.

The day has been very windy. Sometimes it was sunny and at other times looked as if it was going to rain though in fact it didn't.

We started a new year with our Welsh Zoom class. Six of us are carrying on and we had new class mates who have been moved over from another course. There were six of them today with one or maybe two more to come. A bit unsettling for me as I don't do well with change especially when it is unexpected but I get used to things eventually. 

Three whole hours was a long time to be concentrating and with the sun streaming into my study making it pleasantly warm I got very tired at one point. Mererid our tutor gave us a gentle start giving us time to get our confidence back talking about ourselves in the present tense before moving on to the short past tense and short future tense. The other group had got a bit further on than us so we're going to have to work quickly through the course book so that we are all at the same stage. My poor brain.

 

After three hours of concentrating I was only too glad to be doing more practical work. I glued in the glass door handle to my study which had come out of the metal holder and then hung the stag picture. 

I think he fits in perfectly in the bathroom softening what was rather a stark wall.

Then I carried on with sewing sequins to yet another top for disco aerobics. There wasn't any rush as tonight's class has been cancelled but I just wanted to get the job finished. Rachel's grandchildren went back to school, she looked after them on the weekend and now she has a nasty virus. Any ex-teachers will know about the inevitability of picking up a sore throat or cold in the first weeks after the summer holiday.

Showers.

Quite a few short sharp showers in the morning but by the afternoon the sun began to appear. There was even the tiniest bit of wind which helped part-dry the washing I hung out on the line later in the afternoon.

In a change to my usual weekly schedule I went to the stables for a riding lesson this morning. The reason being that they are holding a fund raising even this Saturday and in preparation lessons on both Thursday and Friday have been cancelled.

As usual I arrived early and had time to play with Pupur the tabby kitten. There was so much purring as I stroked him down by my feet that I took a chance and picked him up. He carried on purring and I made sure to let him down as soon as he wriggled. Being farm cats they weren't much used to people before they came to the stables.

Luckily two other people from my class were free to come for a lesson today. Three is the smallest number in a class before you start paying private rates (double) but with so few of us it was like a private lesson anyway. Part way through the hour the rain outside was so bad that C, who was teaching a beginner outside in the arena, brought her student into the school before they both got completely soaked. (C is eight months pregnant.) It didn't make any difference to us as we were working in trot and are used to carrying out the exercises independently. 

Because it is Wednesday we had Joyce, a long time member of staff, teaching us. She is a very good instructor and we all enjoyed the lesson. After warming up in trot she asked us if we thought our horses would benefit from some canter warm-up work. I answered honestly and said I didn't know about Cody but I would enjoy it. Lots of short (or not so short) cantering and every transition was beautifully smooth which makes a change for me. I was so pleased.

I noticed there was less emphasis on getting the horses on the bit and more on our positions and posture and working in circles to achieve bend. The final exercise was riding shallow loops with 10m circles at either the start or the finish or both. And of course changing diagonals with each change of bend. Two of us tried to avoid doing that by riding in sitting trot but were politely instructed to carry on with rising trot.

 

Afterwards I went shopping, took some last items from the garage to the Climate shop and found this brand new print in a charity shop. A bit cliched but he's so sweet and at just £2 how could I leave him behind? I think he'll be going in the main bathroom. 

Once home and the shopping unpacked, clothes in the washing machine and self showered I crashed out for an hour with a big mug of tea and some pastries from Aber Surplus. I had time to sew a row of sequins around one armhole of the latest sparkling creation and should be able to finish the whole thing before disco aerobics tomorrow.

Off in a minute to choir and hopefully all the singing I did as I sewed has fixed 'We are the Earth.' in my head.

Sunny, eventually.

After a night of heavy rain we had a few morning showers which eventually gave way to brighter weather, at least for a while.

With so much humidity and it not being cold enough to put the central heating on (thank goodness) it's been hard to dry the washing indoors. Today I gave up and put a clothes rack in the porch which heats up as it catches the sun. Not the best look for the front of the house but needs must.

 

As soon as the showers were over I drove to the zoo for another weeding session. I generally have a plan of which areas I'm going to be working in but sometimes other things take priority. 

Today my attention was diverted to first tidying up a flower bed which was looking messy after a new fence had put in and then while things had been dug up I saw it was a good time to dig further and remove some established nettle roots. Lots and lots of them and as my gardening gloves had holes in them my fingers are quite tingly at the moment. 

As usual I took the weeds to the pigs and now I know pigs absolutely love nettle roots. Today they ended up with three tubs of weeds to tuck into, mostly nettles and grass.

I also cleared a path only used by the zoo staff which had been in my sights for a while but other areas had taken priority.

I'm off to Pilates soon and in the meantime I'm working on adding more sequins to the back of the top which is just plain black.

Bonus Crop.

The day began warm and wet then progressed to warm and grey and finally the afternoon turned hot as the sun shone down through the gaps between the lines of clouds.

At least a dozen sparrows, adults and youngsters sat waiting in the hedge for their morning snack. (My neighbour has numerous bird feeders.)

 

Since it wasn't actually raining I thought I'd see how far I could get with the drains at the front of the house.

The first thing I did was to see if I could get the old metal manhole cover off even though the little bars had long since rusted away. I used an old table knife to scrape out the weeds and dirt between the cover and the frame and then carefully using two small pry bars managed to lift the cover off. 

I cleared the rubble and dirt out of the drain at the front and by pouring water in saw that it was indeed running into the main drains. That was a massive relief as it would have been a major job (builders!) to get the downpipes emptying into the main drain.

I sawed off the small pipe sticking out of the wall as we no longer have a sink in the bedroom. Using my small collection of left over drain pipes and fittings I was able to aim the white down pipe into the correct drain. I still need to get a proper bend fitting for the black pipe instead of the spout that I put on for the time being.

I cleared out the other drain which connects to something going under the house. Whether that's a drain leading to the main system (unlikely) or a soakaway we don't know. (Originally the kitchen sink emptied into a soakaway.) Much better to have all the water from the roof going down the drain I know leads to the main system.

While I was out there I also cleared all the weeds growing in the narrow strip of gravel between the house and the street.

Peter was going to cook some chicken tonight (he's since changed his plans) and needed potatoes. Happy to do my bit I dug up the last of the potatoes from the bed where I haven't planted potatoes for at least two years. I might as well throw some of the tiny ones back in for next year.

While we had some sun in the afternoon I sat outside on the terrace. Now the sun has moved round (you know what I mean), I had to squidge into a corner of the terrace though there was plenty of sun down in the garden. Soon I really will have to choose between view or sun.

I ended my working day by finishing off the green sequinned top. Lots of cut sequins on the floor but at last it is done. Now I'm thinking about my original idea of two rows of sequins criss-crossed over at the back. But not today.

Tick Alert.

Today's walk was a bit wetter than anticipated due to the low lying clouds that sometimes came right down to ground level. (We were roughly 360m above sea level.)

I met my fellow walkers at the large layby just before Nant yr Arian. We left some of the cars there and drove in a small convoy a few miles across the hills towards Ystumtuen.

For the first part of our walk we made our way up on to the ridge of Hen Riw (Old Hill) which can just be seen on the left in the above photo.

Up on the ridge we had stunning views across the Cambrian mountains.

One side of the ridge was quite steep so I renamed it our version of Crib Goch (photo from web below). Crib Goch is something I would never attempt even with all the correct mountaineering equipment.

Once we got to the edge of the ridge the plan had been to follow sheep trails round to the other side of Pwll Glas (Blue/lush pool) until we got back to a track which would bring us back to the road. However some of the group were uncomfortable with the fact that we were not on an official footpath even though it was unfenced moorland. There was some debate over if this counted as 'open access' land but I've since checked and it doesn't even though it is over 600ft. I'm sure the local farmers wouldn't have minded but to keep everyone happy we tried to stick to the rights of way.

Crossing over the small road we then climbed the ridge on the other side of the road through very wet heather and bilberries. We stopped at the crest of the ridge to eat our lunch but after one person found sheep ticks on her bag and trousers most of us chose not to sit on the ground.

I was wearing shorts and constantly checked my bare legs to make sure they were tick-free. I think spraying my legs with mozzy repellent earlier helped to dissuade the nasty creatures from coming near. The little poodle type dog that was with us wasn't so lucky. By the end of the walk his owner had to pick out a fair number of small ticks from his golden fur and he was due for a thorough going over and a bath once they got home. Not surprising as for a lot of the time he was walking through vegetation that was higher than he was. 

After all the fuss over not being on an official path we then found ourselves with not even a sheep track to follow but were simply trampling through the bushes as we attempted to reach a cairn known locally as a fairy ring.

We never made it as once we hit the path it was too far to go right to the cairn. Instead we turned and made our way down past another small lake. These lakes are all man made, constructed centauries ago to provide power for the many mines dotted about these upland areas.

As we came down between two ridges we had to cross what at first glance looked to be a bit of level moor but was in fact an extremely boggy patch. (Below.) Water could be seen glinting under long grass and sphagnum moss but even the tussocks of grass and rushes mainly sunk down into water as you stepped on them. I found the best way to cross was to go as quickly as possible shouting (not quite) expletives each time my foot went down into the water after yet another tussock proved to not be as substantial as hoped. Fortunately my boots are waterproof and by moving quickly my feet didn't get as wet as they might have. I suppose by now I should be used to the way water collects in these dips in what are almost the highest points of the local landscape.

More fun and games as we made our way carefully down a steep slope through tall wet vegetation. Many of the bilberry bushes had fruit on them. I ate a few but between the large pip and the skin these tiny fruit do not have a lot of goodness in them. You would have to pick an awful lot to use them for food.

Eventually we found the path and then the road back to the cars.