Pen Dinas (Elerch).

The heat is beginning to build up but in a pleasant way here at the coast. Today as yesterday the beach has been full of people enjoying the good weather.

I woke very early and had a peaceful hour sitting out on the terrace watching the sparrows coming down for their breakfast of seeds and a drink from the birdbath.

Later I had a frustrating time when trying to design a photobook of our recent holiday. I've used Vistaprint in the past to make photobooks and not had any problems before. This time I spent an hour questioning the chatbot and then real people trying to work out how to get to the 'design your book' stage (a two step download) and then failing to find a way to crop my photos. All the editor would do was distort the photo to fit the size I wanted. In the end the only answer I got was 'it is not possible to crop photos at the moment' and gave up.

It was nice to escape the crowds and head out past Tal Y Bont for a walk in the green countryside up to the hillfort of Pen Dinas (Elerch) on the rocky plateau of Mynydd Gorddu.

There were just four of us today. There's so much going on now that summer is upon us people are spread thin, so to speak.

 

After crossing the Leri it was a matter of heading uphill to the highest point.

The higher we climbed the more spectacular the views were. Sitting in the cooling breeze we had a longer lunch stop than usual before scaling the the rest of the hill.

Once up at the hillfort (which is a series of ramparts around the top of the hill) we had views in every direction. No wonder an ancient tribe chose this spot to settle on.

Looking south.

East.

North to Snowdonia.

North-west across Cardigan Bay.

Solstice sunset.

Hedge Cutting.

It looks like a summer heatwave (albeit a mini one) is upon us. After an initially grey start the day became increasingly hot. No doubt it will only last for a few days which is quite enjoyable unlike other parts of Europe where there is talk of temperatures going up into the 40s. Not so much fun.

I have spent the whole day hedge cutting. I began by running a string along the side of the street-side hedge to give myself a line to cut to. My aim for the day was to at least cut a section back from the string all the way along the hedge. This I achieved and then began the harder job of cutting back right across the width of the hedge. 

This was into the old growth so had to be done by hand. Hopefully I haven't over done it. This time I went back to my usual way of cutting up and bagging the clippings as I went along. Not only did that mean I could stop at any time but it also meant that I was moving around more and changing what I was doing.

 

By the end of a long day one third of the hedge has been cut back across the width. I reckon that two more long sessions should get that hedge done and then there's only the hedge between us and next door to cut back.

As usual there were a few conversations with the neighbours including a long horsey chat with the daughter of the lady who lives next door. 

Last night's silvery sea.

Leg Cramps.

The day has been notable for being extremely warm. In the morning there were dark grey clouds over the mountains but the inshore wind blew them right away from us. Later in the afternoon while I was in town the clouds dropped down to ground level bringing gentle rain for a while.

I had a hard time getting to sleep last night due to severe muscle cramps in my shins which is not something that has happened before. Staying in bed was too painful so I got up for a while. In case it was caused by electrolyte imbalance (I hardly eat any salt at all) I ate some crackers and cheese and have bought a bag of crisps for today. It was either that or too much standing at the top of the stepladder when cutting the hedge, though I've often done that before or ..... and this is a possibility, I saw something on FB about how adults in the West mostly can't do a sitting squat but this is something I can do. So when it came to picking up all the hedge cuttings and putting them in bags, instead of bending down which is really hard on my back I hunkered down, feet flat on the ground and worked from that position. Maybe I spent a bit too long in that position.

 

At the stables I had Betsi again which was fine by me as she is very nice to ride. Unusually for an arab she enjoys doing basic dressage in the school. No cantering today but we spent most of the lesson in sitting trot which I prefer to rising trot. One less thing to think about and I can focus on giving leg aids effectively.

                              

After the lesson I took more hedge cuttings to the dump before calling in at Hahav. There I found the right sized frame and mount for a charcoal sketch I had bought for Peter's birthday. For the last few weeks I've been going round all the charity shops with a piece of paper the size of the sketch looking for a decent frame. Later in the afternoon while Peter was at his Spanish conversation group I put the sketch in the frame and wrapped it though now I'm not so sure about the picture (a cottage by a small lake in the Welsh hills). Still I have other presents for him as well.

Since coming home I've made more stewed apple, prepared a salad for supper, got some washing done and had a shower before finally relaxing while watching an episode of Supernanny with a mug of tea. I wish she had been around to teach me to be a better parent. I had no role models as my mother was distinctly hands off and I was quite independent from the age of 11. (Weren't we all in those days?) I wasn't the most patient of parents.

I like how the red of the knautia is reflected in the leaves of the white hydrangea. A fortuitous pairing.

Hedge Trimming.

It has been hot today. It was grey and humid in the morning but luckily the rain that had been mentioned on the morning forecast never arrived. It got brighter and consequentially even hotter in the afternoon.

I thought I might as well give the hedge at the bottom of the garden a quick tidy up while I'm in hedge cutting mode. I thought it only needed a trim over but once I'd started I realised it needed a serious reduction in height. The higher it is the harder it is to cut and the more it catches the wind though of course it is also sheltering the garden. Peter took 14 bags to the dump for me as I had nearly run out of sacks and the garage was filling up. Just a small load to go tomorrow.

Above - When I had just begun on the left hand side and below- a much tidier hedge reduced to the height of the street sign on the other side. The street sign that had magically shrunk one morning! 

Getting it to that state meant a lot of leaning on the top of the hedge and hand cutting. To stop my arms from getting scratched to pieces I had to wear an old fleece, far too warm for the day but necessary.

One advantage with working on the hedge is getting to chat to passers-by. My neighbours were also out cutting their shrubs and other people were mowing their bit of the cliff top.

 

My neighbour offered me some very large cardboard boxes that some furniture had come in which the rowing club had asked for for the carnival. After showing me the boxes she showed round their home. They've done a lot of work to it since they bought it a few years ago. Last weekend they had new carpets throughout so it all looks very nice.

Cutting the hedge took me to my limit in terms of my back so I had an hour sitting outside to rest my back. So far it seems fine for disco aerobics tonight.

Yesterday evening at choir there was a mini clothes swap/ sale in aid of WaterAid and I came home with two pairs of trousers, a lightweight jumper and a woolly hat.

A sparrow hawk came to check out the newly mown clifftop and caught something just after I took this photo.

Baking Day.

After a very wet night the blue gradually began creeping back. The day warmed up and by late afternoon it was hot and sunny again.

Down in the garden the plants were bedecked with glistening dewdrops. Very pretty but also a reminder of the need to cut back the plants growing over the path. 

A grey, damp day was a good opportunity to get on with some baking. I baked a lime drizzle cake, lime because Lidl only had bags of lemons so I bought a lime instead. I also baked a chocolate marble cake. These have gone in the freezer for when our friends come to stay along with a bag of crumble. I used dark instead of light brown sugar as that's what was in the cupboard and I put in oats to make it more interesting. 

Since it was looking soggy outside I went on and cleaned the porch, hoovering up all the cobwebs and washing the windows. Having the hoover out I thought I might as well sand down where I'd painted over the knot stains on the skirting board and then hoover up the dust. Then to get myself ready for the next stage of re-painting the skirting boards I filled in the tiny holes in the blue loo skirting boards that the chap had made with his damp meter. 

For the rest of the afternoon I have begun collating my holiday photos to make a photo book which I can show to people rather than subjecting them to the hundreds of photos I took. 

Not too long now and I'll be off to choir. Another busy day for me.

Warm.

We've had a very warm day which began with blue skies that soon turned grey. Much later the promised rain arrived as I was walking home from Pilates and looks set in for at least the night.

There have been so few butterflies in the garden this year that even a humble painted lady warranted a photo. 

This pair of sparrows look as if they are having an earnest conversation.

As soon as I could I drove down to the zoo to carry on tackling the weeds that appeared while I was away. I'd left the gravel by the ferrets til last as it's never my favourite patch to weed. I managed to clear over half of it and should finish the next time I'm working at the zoo.

The first plants I planted in the gravel by the wolf-dogs in what I call the gravel garden, are now big enough so that hopefully people won't just step on them and the pink and white thrift is flowering well. I just wish that somebody hadn't cut a chunk from the pheasant grass in the middle planter. I'm guessing that it was to put in one of the small animal cages but there are other clumps of pheasant grass around the place.

Four hours on my knees was quite enough but I didn't stop when I got home. With the next few days set to be wet I wanted to at least cut the stems waving along the inside top edge of the hedge. This involved climbing up on the raised bed walls and cutting by hand. All that reaching up is not the best for my back but when there's no one else you simply have to get on and do it.

At least I had Pilates to help my muscles unwind. Tonight along with the balls and bands we always use we had sliders (those discs you put under your foot or hand ). They're supposed to make you stretch out even more. Reformer beds have recently become popular in the Pilates world but of course they are very expensive so Rachel calls the sliders Ceredigion reformers, the cheap version. Next week for a change we need to bring along a dumbbell. 

A goat exercise bed.

A Cracking Time.

Yesterday evening.

And today another interesting cloudscape. It has been really warm today with enough wind to dry my washing but not so much that all the hedge cuttings blew down the road.

 

Gazing out to sea this morning I saw a seal near the cliff munching on a flat fish. Then spotted a dolphin briefly on the far side of the long reef.

While overhead a flock of geese were heading to the salt marshes by the Dyfi.

This afternoon a group of house sparrows were feeding on the old thrift flowerheads. Although I do deadhead some plants in the garden I try and leave as many flowers to go to seed for the birds as possible.

The weather was perfect for working outside and today I began work on the long hedge. I say began because although I filled ten sacks from the street side and top of the hedge there is much more to do. When I finally made it down to the end I realised that the hedge really needs to be lowered another six inches. That will mean cutting into the thicker branches with the secateurs rather than the electric hedge trimmer. But the lower the hedge the easier it is for me to reach across.

Yesterday evening we were watching tv when we kept hearing banging noises. Not regular but quite loud thumps. We walked down the corridor trying to find the source of the noise even listening to make sure nothing had flown into the bathroom or toilet. At that point we realised the noise was coming from outside so I carefully got the ladder and climbed up to see what was happening on the roof (seagulls can attack if they think you are threatening their chicks). There on the roof were two seagulls, one squawking away and the other with a rock in its beak which it was dropping on the roof of my study. I'm guessing the gull had learnt to steal other gulls' eggs as I had recently found two empty gull eggs on the path at the side of the house. No doubt the gull thought the egg-sized rock would also be a tasty treat if only it could break it open.

 

Coed Tamsin.

A real change in the weather today. Yesterday I'd needed warm trousers and a body warmer over my dressing gown to keep warm out on the terrace for my morning's quiet time watching the wild waves while today the air was warm with not a wave to be seen on the flat sea.

Our group walk today was back in Coed Tamsin. A dozen of us walked through the wood with Bob pointing out interesting things such as badger tracks and an otter holt.

There were fungi to be seen too including King Alfred's cakes. on dead ash trunks felled by ash die-back, the fungus that may eventually see the loss of this country's ash trees. Fortunately some ash trees including some in Coed Tamsin have become resistant to the fungus. 

After our walk through the woods and time to eat our lunches in the clearing we headed back to Bob and Felicia's cottage with its wonderful woodland garden.

Afterwards we sat outside in the very pretty cottage garden for tea, biscuits and even ice-creams for those that wanted. People wandered round the garden admiring the plants or sat at the table simply chatting. I ended up not getting home until 6.00. Much later than I usually do after a Sunday walk.

The cottage almost out of sight beyond the pond and bountiful vegetable garden.

Some Cretan Wildlife.

It's been a bright and windy day today. Perfect for drying the washing which has been ironed and put back on the bed. 

After a rough night (I need to divide heavy shopping between smaller bags so I don't strain my ribs lifting them out of the car) I've had a quiet day at home. I spent a fair proportion of time in the kitchen preparing food for when our friends come to visit. Normally I try to spend as little time cooking as possible (without using UP foods) but I'm culturally hard-wired to make sure any visitors have plenty of the best home cooked food I can manage. Which is why I try and plan and get things in the freezer in advance. And of course I prefer to spend time with visitors rather than stressing in the kitchen.

I also did some gardening and even sat outside in the afternoon (with our neighbour roaring up and down on his ride on mower cutting the grass on the cliff-top.)

Sunset last night.

 

And for the last time, more photos from Crete. This time of some of the local wildlife.

A rather blurry shot (because it was high above) of a griffon vulture seen when we went up to Lato in the mountains.

Closer to home, under the roof tiles of the neighbouring property, we watched a northern wheatear bringing large insects to its young. The next day they had gone but this prime residence did not stay empty for long as the following day a pair of sparrows moved in.

Down below in the garden Peter spotted this locust perched on the leg of an abandoned table. Luckily it was only the one and not a swarm.

One evening, as we sat on our usual bench by the sea waiting for the Spinalonga lights to turn on I realised that what at first looked like a small stick was actually a millipede making its way up and over the low wall in front of us and then disappearing over the other side. The there was another, and another. four or five in all. This only happened on one occasion. The only information I can find is that millipedes will follow scent trails to get to their food (decaying matter). The one in the photo was on our terrace and like most of the ones we saw was the diameter but half the length of a pencil.

Stranger looking was this four inch long long headed/ oriental grasshopper which I saw while we were walking on the island. Crete has 378 species of grasshopper, wow!

Apart from a shed skin we did not see any of four species of snake on Crete only one of which is mildly venomous. I couldn't persuade Peter that this meant we weren't in danger whenever we went walking. The only creature to worry about would have been a scorpion but we didn't see any of those either.