Leaky Dams.

Happy Easter.

It has been sunny and very windy today. The land behind protected us from the worst of the storm last night and there were no power cuts which makes a change.

I woke early and had to wrap up well and sit right next to the hedge for shelter while I enjoyed my morning cuppa out on the terrace watching a few early dog walkers struggling against the wind.

When I eventually went on-line I got a message from Romas saying that after 10 years together he and Laura are now officially engaged though no immediate plans or date for a wedding at the moment. 

 

This afternoon's walk began at a property about a mile inland from Tal Y Bont. The owners are very keen on re-wilding and John had invited us to walk on his land and see the 'leaky dams' Linda and her group of volunteers had constructed.

From the farm buildings we climbed up the steep side of the valley until we had a stunning view across to Cardigan Bay.

All along the way there were quirky benches inviting you to sit and enjoy the views. The more conventional garden bench above looked out to sea and had been carried up by hand.

Looking southwards (right in the centre of the skyline) was the Bronze Age hillfort of Pen Dinas Gorddu which we have been to on previous walks.

Coming down the hill we came to the first of the leaky dams. These are made by driving fresh cut 4 year old willow stems into the ground in a double row and filling the space with brushwood. This dam was built several years ago and the willow is growing well. The dam spreads out the water from a small stream and the growing willows take up the water too. This helps avoid erosion and reduces the amount of water flowing into the river Leri down in the valley. To be effective against flooding the village (as has happened in the past) it would need to be done on a much wider scale. This is just a test installation to see how well it works.

We made our way down the field and had our lunch by a small pond which had its own leaky dam.

Below us another two leaky dams on the same stream were built last winter.

As soon as we were out of the wind it was pleasantly warm in the sun.

As we made our way back up to our start point we came across a place to buy honey. It's from the same local business that we got our honey from. you could either scan and pay or pay in the old fashioned way by putting cash in a jam jar.

Storm Dave.

The morning was calm with sporadic fine rain. By the afternoon Storm Dave had begun to make itself felt. Going back to the car after shopping at Lidl I was hit by quick gusts and the rain started soon after. Now in the early evening the wind is increasing in strength, trees and bushes are swaying and the wind can be heard whooshing around the roofs. To be on the safe side I've already brought the garden chairs inside. And in case there are power cuts in the morning I'll fill a flask with boiling water.

It felt odd to be riding in the afternoon instead of first thing in the morning (I'm such a creature of habit) but at least I was able to get things done beforehand. That included signing up to the dental portal with a request for an NHS dentist. There are none taking on patients in Ceredigion so I put that I would be prepared to travel up to 100 miles. Of course I don't expect to get an NHS dentist for ..... maybe years? but at some point I would like to replace my dentures. The bottom one broke years ago and the top one never fitted properly. NHS cost for both £250, my private dentist in Aber - thousands. Definitely worth travelling 100 miles for.

As it's Easter weekend we thought we would have barbecue spare ribs for supper. I made the sauce and prepped all the veg in the morning leaving Peter to put them in the slow cooker. I did extra veg so that I can use the left overs to make a tasty soup. But when I came home Peter was grumbling that all the extra veg had slowed the slow cooker down and despite having been on for hours it hadn't even bubbled. Well it helps having it on 'high' rather than 'keep warm'. The spare ribs will now be for tomorrow and it's humus and raw veg for me tonight.

I rode Tex again and I feel that we've made a lot of progress, in fact it was commented how well he was going on the bit. I worked on using a voice aid (saying 'down, down') as well as using my hands and legs and really concentrated on making sure I 'gave' with the reins as soon as his head dropped. We went from Tex lowering his head at halt but losing it again as soon a he moved off to actually coming on the bit in trot and staying on the bit at least for a while.   

At Morrisons I searched the vast array of plants and found two shrubs that might fill in some empty spaces and just to make up a third chose the abutilon. I couldn't resist it even though it will be hard to find a spot where it won't clash with the general pink/blue/ purple/white colour scheme.

Yesterday's sunset.

Windy.

Walking home from the Hall last night the wind blown icy rain felt like sharp needles being driven into my face. Today has remained dry but the steadily increasing wind is a sign that Storm Dave is on its way. Such a shame for the people who have come here on holiday.

It felt strange not to be heading down to the stables this morning as the horses are having the day off. Instead I did some storm proofing in the garden. Small items put away, the trailing geraniums brought back inside before they lose the last of their leaves and all the new growth of the many clematis in the back garden secured. I used to use string which was a fiddly job but the plastic covered wire I use now is a lot easier and can be re-used.

With gusts of maybe up to 60mph predicted I'll also bring in the aluminium garden chairs later.

 

Peter went down to open up the RNLI shop. I walked to the Nisa to see if they had any white cabbage (they didn't) and had a short windy walk along the beach to stretch my legs. I also called in to say hi to Peter. He'd already more than doubled last week's takings, not hard when they were only £5 last week, and  more families were out on the beach in the afternoon so maybe some of them will spend some money in the shop.

And here are a few more photos from yesterday-

Under one of the jetties is the time and tide bell, one of only 12 in the country. It was installed to celebrate the legend of Cantre'r Gwaelod. This is the tale of a kingdom protected from the sea by great dykes which was flooded when the man in charge of the sluice gates left them open. There is no evidence for this. Ceredigion bay was a vast scrubby marshland which flooded gradually as sea levels rose. But it's a fun legend.

Seagulls everywhere.

Tywyn and Aberdyfi.

Today has been dry, sometimes sunny, sometimes grey with a chilly breeze.

Nevertheless I've had a lovely day as we've had one of our rare days out. I even managed to nip into two charity shops for a look around. And I think Peter enjoyed it too as he suggested we have days out more often - result!

The main focus of our trip was to drive to Tywyn to get our international driving licences the local shop in this small seaside resort being the only place in Ceredigion where you can get them. (The govt. website said Bow St but they stopped doing them ages ago.) We had everything we needed, cash, photos & driving licences but ran into a problem straight away. As you don't actually need one for Greece which we know but the car hire companies insist, their manual didn't say which one to issue. Luckily the man in the shop searched the internet and found out which one should do. £11 for both wasn't too bad either.

On the way we had stopped in Mach to stock up at the Royal House deli. Paninis for lunch and a pizza pocket (for me) and lasagne (for Peter) for our suppers. 

Coming back from Tywyn we parked in Aberdyfi where we sat on the beach to eat our paninis, chicken, Brie and bacon for Peter and pastrami, chorizo and blue cheese for me which certainly tickled the old taste buds. These were washed down with coffee which we'd brought from home. 

I'm envious of the Aberdyfi's miles of soft sand backed by sand dunes but the fast flowing river (on the left above) makes swimming inadvisable there.

 

Looking across the river Ynyslas was deceptively close,(as Peter can attest after the rowing club rowed across for a regatta) with the white shapes in the distance being the houses and holiday parks of Borth.

Our journey had taken us all the way along one side of the river to Mach where we crossed the Dyfi and came back down the other side of the estuary. Although we can see Tywyn, which is further on round the coast, from here it took nearly an hour to drive there.

All along the harbour wall were families crabbing using bait at the ends of long lines to catch crabs which eventually are returned to the sea. I can just imagine the crabs waiting for the holiday season where in return for sitting in a plastic bucket for a while they get a free meal.

Aberdyfi is a pretty, well maintained village and it was nice to see plenty of people around.

Once we had returned home since the forecast is not good for tomorrow I went out and gave the lavender in the back garden a trim. That's all the cutting back done for now. 

In five minutes I'll be off for my weekly leaping around to disco music. 

Gardening Day.

Much the same weather as yesterday. No drying wind but fine enough for getting out into the garden.

 

No sign of the mouse on last night's trail cam footage. Just a couple of cats. I'm not sure if that is a good or a bad sign.

The day began with breakfast and the usual morning chores and until next Welsh class at least a game/activity I devised to help us learn the correct preposition to use with each of 40 verbs (a list our tutor sent us). So far we're getting more of them right every day though I still struggle with just the meaning of a fair proportion of the verbs. And there are a few which take a different preposition if they refer to a person rather than a thing or place. So much to remember!

Once everything was done I headed out into the garden. The first job tackles was removing the honeysuckle which I foolishly thought would be nice to have growing in the hedge. I only planted ie stuck cuttings straight in the ground a few years ago but some of the stems and roots were enormous. Anyone walking along the pavement of the other side of the hedge would have heard lots of puffing and panting as I pulled out as many roots as I could. Plus some dark mutterings when I came across my bête noire in this garden, chunks of polystyrene plant trays that had been used to bulk out the soil. The bottom of the hedge is quite bare there so I'm going to try a shrub as a filler. Only a cheap one from Morrison's as it's not the most ideal growing position.

After a bit of climbing up on the walls to cut back some of the hedge I decided to trim the lavender and the curry plants lining the path. My fingers have been twitching to do this and I was going to wait until next week. But then thought what if it's wet next week? I was perfectly happy with the size the plants were but of course they wouldn't have stayed that size. And much as I like plants growing naturally there isn't room to let the lavender get all spread out. 

To be on the safe side, in case I've cut then curry plants back too hard, I've taken 10 cuttings. I've got the same number of lavender plants growing from last year's cuttings.

Ha! it's just started raining and I'm off to choir in  the next few minutes.

Warmer.

Mostly overcast today but dry and so much warmer.

I set the trail cam up in the morning but so far the only movement has been from a pair of sparrows. I'll keep it running for a couple of days to see if the little mouse reappears. (Ignore the wildly inaccurate date.) 

I spent a good few hours at the zoo tidying up various flower beds. Just trimming the grass edges makes a lot of difference. I brought a few more plants from home, knautia and saxifraga stolonifera for the flower bed by the small play area and more pheasant grass for the the gravel garden. 

The plants (hardy geraniums, ice plants and campanula) already in the flower bed look as if they are going to make a good show this year and in the gravel garden some of the thrift are already flowering.

I finished off with a quick weeding of the 'maze' paths before giving all the weeds and cones to the pigs. Truffle tucked in greedily but Otis came over and lay down for a good belly rub.

The warm weather and the school holidays meant that there were lots of people, mainly families with small children at the zoo.

When I came home I drilled a hole in the drain pipe and fitted an overflow pipe to the water butt by the drive. Only a small job but at least it's something done.

The latest newcomers.

Later I went down to the Hall for an hour of Pilates. It's always good to work the old muscles and we finished off with a bit of relaxation at the end which is also nice.

A Little Wood Mouse.

A bit brighter today with enough wind to dry the washing out on the line.

This morning I went down into the garden to empty out the cafetiere (better for the drains and the plants) when to my surprise I saw a wood mouse sitting on the paving eating one of the seeds I had put out earlier for the birds.

I was concerned that it was just sitting there in the open, an easy target for the many large birds that would love a mouse for their breakfast. Normally they are very cautious little creatures but this one didn't mind me getting quite close to it. When I got too close it ran off to a crevasse between some stones but soon popped out again.

In an effort to dissuade it from coming out into the open I put some seeds close to the wall. It ate some but then went up and sat in the sun. I'm hoping that rather than being ill its lethargy was down to being unable to feed in yesterday's awful weather. Small animals need to eat constantly to maintain their fast metabolisms.

To give it some protection against flying predators I put garden chairs where it was sitting. There's not much else I can do. Once the batteries are charged I'll put the trail cam down there to see if there's any further activity.

I spent a lot of the day outside, washing. First the balustrade glass and the main windows which were nicely frosted over with sea salt. Plus I needed to remove the result of a flypast by a flock of incontinent seagulls.

Then I turned my attention to the car. Considering how meticulous I am in keeping the house and garden clean and tidy the poor car is quite neglected. To me a car is simply a way to get from A to B and I'm happy as long as I can see out of the windows and the number plates are clearly visible. After giving the car a cursory clean last week I decided to get rid of all the moss growing in the trim and around the windscreen. That was mainly because the moss traps water and was blocking the channels that let the water drain from the roof. 

There was a surprising amount of moss and mud in the rubber roof trim and more down the sides of the windscreen. The end of a cable tie proved to be the best tool for scooping out everything clogging up the sides of the windscreen glass. It took a long time but eventually it was done. The rest of the car got a wash as I tried to work out if the small black marks were dirt or chips in the paintwork (some were). Before replacing the roof trim I gave it a spray with weed killer to keep the moss from growing back.

My last job of the day, after a rest, was to iron the duvet cover that had been on the line. 

British Summer Time.

The wind was still icily cold today but as there was much less wind it didn't feel quite so cold. But it rained for most of the day only brightening up at the end of the afternoon.

We're now in British Summertime. We lost an hour during the night and in the morning had to adjust those clocks that didn't change automatically. As one image I saw (but can't find again) said, don't bother with the car's clock, it will be right again in 6 months and unless you have an instruction manual and a hammer leave the cooker timer alone. I never bother with the cooker clock since every time there's a power cut it goes wild. I just press a button to stop it flashing and ignore the numbers.

I had always been told that the change was to allow children to get to school safely but as this FB reel by Hannah Fry says this wasn't the case. And far from making life safer, fatal heart attacks, car accidents and workplace injuries all increase significantly the day after the clocks change.

I don't mind getting up an hour earlier and much appreciate the lighter evenings. no more walking to the Hall in the dark or driving to choir though the drive home will still be in the dark for a while.

 

Forget what I said about rain stopping activity on the water. Not only were the RNLI out for their usual weekly training. (They looked to be having great fun bouncing in and out over the waves,) but a group of experienced (hopefully) surfers spent the morning catching waves.

I spent most of the day doing admin (and maybe watching a few reels.) This included checking and finally sending an email to our local MP asking what he proposes to do about holding the environment agency accountable for the way they allowed the water companies to repeatedly pollute the waterways with untreated sewage. Anyone who watched 'Dirty Business' will know what I'm talking about. I also asked why Sir James Bevan is on the board of Welsh Water. For once I felt I couldn't just sit back and tut about the situation but you are not allowed to start a petition to the Senedd (the Welsh govt) asking to have somebody sacked. Shame. Then I posted on FB asking people to contact their MPs. Maybe they'll do something if enough people make a fuss. I'm not a natural activist and this left me feeling quite drained but I felt I had to do something.