Pontarfynach.

It was a fine day so off we went for a day out to Devil's Bridge. I had been there on my own after a walk with the walking group and thought it would be a nice place for both of us to visit. Not having been down the waterfall side I hadn't realised that there would be so many uneven steps down one side of the gorge and up the other to view the waterfalls and I am hoping that it hasn't put too much strain on Peter's foot. 

After an easy 35 minute drive we parked in the public car park and walked along the road. Now that the entrance is manned the price has gone up to £4.50 from £4.00 through the turnstile when I came last time. We were given a map and advice as to the best point to turn around if the steps were proving too much. Thankfully there was a decent handrail along the mostly uneven slate steps that had been built by the Victorians. The route began with a view of the three bridges built one upon another starting in medieval times.

There were plenty of view points along the way as the path wound its way down one side of the gorge around the waterfalls formed by the River Mynach on its way to the River Rheidol.

Eventually we came to a modern, wooden pagoda like structure that had amazing views of the  waterfalls as they tumbled 300ft down the gorge. This was the point where we had been advised to decide if we wanted to turn back or carry on down the 100 steps of Jacob's Ladder on the one way route to the exit but Peter naturally chose to soldier on. 

The waterfalls, look closely (above) and you can see the steps going up on the right hand side.

A view eastwards of the River Rheidol.

Eventually the path reached its lowest point where this interesting metal bridge, not for those afraid of heights, took us over the Mynach.

I stood on the centre of the bridge to take this photo of the Mynach heading down to join the Rheidol.

Plenty more view points on this side too. Top centre is the wooden pagoda like sturcture from where the steps went down off to the left. The waterfalls are mostly hidden by the trees but started at the top right-hand side down to where the water can be seen at the bottom centre.

More views of the waterfalls and pools until eventually at the very top we could see the Rheidol heading westwards out to the coast. At some point in the past a dam had been built near the top of the waterfall to generate hydro-power and as ever I wonder if it would be worth re-instating in these times of unstable electricity prices.

After our strenuous hike we stopped at the station cafe for coffees, a pasty for Peter and a very indulgent waffle with ice-cream and chocolate (a serious sugar overload) for me. Will post photos of the station and steam train tomorrow. 

We got home in plenty of time for Peter's row but that got cancelled as the sea had become far too rough. Peter still went down to work on the boat and I had a couple of happy hours knocking cement off the blocks. I tried out a number of Peter's wrist supports and settled on a simple elasticated band to give my wrist support which I think helped. Only half a dozen big blocks and a few small ones done today but even a few gets me nearer to finishing the job.

Warm.

The day started off by being warm and overcast but the haze gradually dispersed and by the afternoon it could be described as sunny and the evening has been positively balmy.

Much excitement this morning when Peter spotted some dolphins. I grabbed my camera and amidst the usual swirl of water and no dolphin photos I managed to get a decent shot of a tail. The nice thing was that as I watched I was able to alert a group of walkers to the dolphins and they got some sightings too.

Eventually I got myself down to the zoo where I spent four hours frantically weeding. Things had been ticking over nicely but all of a sudden the weeds are popping up everywhere. One section I did today, behind one of the safety barriers, had escaped my notice and was filled with weeds that had already gone to seed. They were easy enough to pull up but even though I tried my best to grab the tops with their seed pods I'm sure they still shed a myriad of seeds. No doubt in a couple of weeks the price of not weeding earlier will be a fine new crop of weeds.  I finished off by weeding a couple of narrow sections by the concrete paths that I've planted up, one with mint and the other with lemon balm. My cunning plan is that by next year or maybe the year after the plants will have filled out and stopped any weeds from growing. Also anyone brushing past them will release their lemon or minty scents.

I didn't take any photos in the zoo, how many times can I post the same animals? but instead stopped on the lane to capture the lush green around the River Leri.

It was late when I got home so the only thing I had time for before getting ready for Pilates was trying to get some sense out of Currys or Cannon regarding the faulty lens cover on my camera. I've only had the camera three months and already a bit of plastic has broken so that I'm reduced to keeping the lens cover on with an elastic band. You'd think that either the shop or the manufacturer would just apologise and offer to send me a new cover. But no, aparently it counts as an accessory even though it came in the box with the camera and I have to buy a replacement. That I will have to do but I'll also be leaving a poor review on the shop's page and mention that I had no problem with the lens cover on my Nikon camera which I used every day for well over ten years. 

Pilates was good as usual and I'm getting better at working out when to take the easier option to look after my back. Anything involving sit-ups is out and strangely enough lying on my back for relaxation can have the opposite effect. Just bending one knee up made it so much easier. But there are other moves which I can do fairly easily, hamstring stretches, full plank and flexibility work for the hips and knees are all fine. It's only bits of me that are falling apart.

Wild flag iris.

 

Strong Winds.

The day began cloudy but warm. No need to slather on the suncream I thought and then forgot about it when the strong winds blew away the clouds.

We've given up expecting the window fitter even doubting that anyone had been booked at all. I had a good early start to the day and was keen to start on demolishing the wall.

This time I'm cleaning off each block as I take it down. It makes the demolishing slower but then I can go straight on to lay the blocks when I've got enough. I stopped at this point not so much because of my back but my wrist had started to sting. I think I'll find one of Peter's wrist support gloves to supplement the plasters and heavy duty work gloves I had today before the next block bashing session.

I had to wrap up well before sitting out on the terrace for a break. The strong winds were perfect for the three kite surfers I could see out on the water. I ended my afternoon with some gentle crocheting and early blogging.

 

Is It Summer?

Hot and sunny today and with a wind that was also warm it felt just like a summer's day.

I didn't feel like going on the walk today. I checked it out last night and most of the way there was on very narrow lanes, sometimes even with grass growing in the middle of the road. Not only that but I couldn't identify the meeting place and as it was only going to be a gentle walk around a lake and village I thought I'd pass this time. 

Instead I carried on working in the garden. As my neighbours, who were down for the weekend, had gone out I began by removing some of the blocks from the wall. The coping stones came off easily but the big blocks had been stuck together with cement rather than mortar so it's not an easy job to hack them off. Once the neighbours returned rather than carry on making a racket I cleared all the soil from inside the first section of the wall. I say soil but really it was bone dry compost filled with matted roots which had to be prised out. Now I'm all ready to carry on breaking up the wall and cleaning off the blocks. Exciting times.

For a change of activity when I'd had enough manual labour I sat on the terrace and finished unpicking the fleece from our underblanket. The underblanket makes for a cosy bed in the winter but the bits that tuck under the mattress were made of nasty slippery nylon which meant the sheet above was forever coming untucked. It has taken me a while to work out that I could sew the fleece on to one of the spare fitted sheets I have in my stash (I bought a few when they were on sale), which are not made of slippery fabric. No more constant remaking of the bed.

The evening was so lovely that when Peter came home from rowing I persauded him that we could eat our supper sitting outside. I'd eat all my meals outside in most weathers but Peter isn't keen unless it's warm. He did agree it was a good choice as we sat there enjoying the birdsong and the sound of the lapping waves. To keep Speedy away from the food I shut him indoors where he parked himself on the doormat staring out at us. (Peter always saves Speedy some meat from his meal so he was waiting for that.)

Aquilegias of many different colours keep appearing in the garden much to my delight. On a sadder note as well as the two fuschias and the echium pininana in the front garden it looks as if both clumps of agapanthus didn't make it though the winter. I shan't dig them up yet just in case they decide to regenerate. I thought I'd lost one of the clumps of blue grass but now I see a single strand of blue appearing from the dry dead tufts so it's worth not digging things up straight away.

 

Bricklaying.

Sunny all day with a strong wind.

Speedy and I were out of the door at 9.00 for another trip to the vet for a check up of his mouth. This time I did not make the mistake of letting him out after his breakfast even though he waited patiently by the door. Instead I shut him in the utility room where he has a litter tray that he is most reluctant to use. When the vet looked in Speedy's mouth he saw that there is still a nasty infection in Speedy's gum, no wonder he's been having difficulty eating. An antibiotic injection and vaccination set me back another £100, ouch. Afterwards I called in at the dump which is almost next door to the vets and got rid of some garden waste and then made a very brief stop at Lidl, mainly to buy more of the soft cat food in individual pots which Speedy is able to eat.

Back home I got my Duo Lingo out of the way and once Peter had replaced the hinge on the garage door I was all set to do some brick laying. I used the giant whisk attachment with a drill to mix in the water but even mixing the dry sand and cement together was hard work. There was so much bending and lifting that my back is not very good now. But I got it done. I know the bricks should have been more staggered but I only had a 3/4 (concrete) brick to start the second course and these bricks will be out of sight covered by soil. 

My reward for all the hard work was to take my pain killers and sit on the terrace with coffee and ripe Camembert on wholegrain rye bread. The strong flavours of the cheese and the bread complimented each other perfectly. As usual although I had my Kindle with me I was happy just to garden plan and  people watch. The usual wetsuit clad water enthusiasts were replaced by holiday makers with their pale European bodies darting in and out of the water. An idiot on a jetski sprouting fishing tackle had music blaring while he span in circles close to the beach. And one of the wealthier part-time residents flew in and parked his helicopter in his garden not far from the shop.

Eventually I dragged myself indoors to do the ironing though I went back out for a while later on.

No tropical sunset tonight as a cloudbank filled the sky. Last night's cloudbank had a strange hole at the leading edge, something I don't recall seeing before.

 

Anybody Home?

Greyer and more hazy this morning with a hint of damp in the air.

Even so it was peaceful sitting outside with the cat on my lap clutching a mug of tea and watching the gulls swooping over the sea.

All the recent sitting outside, 'garden planning' and contemplating the whichness of the wherefore ( I think the poem is quite apt.) got me thinking about the sounds we hear around us and how they affect us. Looking back I can see that for me there has been a steady improvement in the environmental sounds with each new home. 

From childhood to my early twenties my home was under a flightpath to Heathrow with low flying incoming planes every 3-4 minutes. That was something we were used to and I don't recall spending much time outside in the tiny garden. Once married I moved to a flat, a brand new council flat, next to the approach road to the Blackwall tunnel. Lorries bound for the docks at Dover thundered down this motorway class road 24 hours a day though you might get a break in the early hours of Sunday morning. That didn't worry us as we weren't home much and because of the wide road we had open views to the west with amazing sunsets.

Then came the move to our first house, still in London but so much quieter with long back gardens and Wanstead Flats at the top of the road. Children and dogs were exercised daily on those vast grasslands where Peter ran regularily and I rode horses occasionally and it didn't take much effort to filter out the hum of the traffic on the roads around the Flats.

The move to our Devon farmhouse in a secluded valley half a mile from the road with only the stables next door was another level of peace entirely. A peace only broken by the sound of birdsong, the cawing of rooks, Peter's nemisis and the evening hooting of owls. And of course the increasing noise from three lively sons.

Background noise increased when we downsized and moved into town but this was only a temporary stop before moving here to an even more peaceful environment.

We still have road noise especially at drop-off and pick-up times for the school behind us and being in a village we have houses nearby but for most of the time it is so peaceful. The constant twittering of garden birds and the shushing of the waves  makes it hard not to doze off when taking a break. At night the garden bird sounds are replaced by the piping of sea birds and of course in winter the wind howls and the waves crash while we are warm and cosy indoors. Can't complain really.

Today Peter took me to the hospital for a brain scan. The parking there is dreaful so it is best to be dropped off and then collected. (When I asked about parking on FB some people even park in town and get a taxi up the hill to the hospital.) Things run efficiently at this hospital and I was in and out in less than 10 minutes. I was never worried about the actual scan but of course waiting for the results is stressful. I was told 3 weeks maximum for the results to get to my GP but it could be a quick as a day.

In the afternoon I pottered around in the back garden, tying up clematis, weeding and watering as the rain never arrived and the wind was drying everything out.

The sun finally appeared in the early evening with the wind gradually increasing throughout the day so I ended up watching the view from indoors.

Hazy.

This morning's colours were muted shades of silver, or even grey? and didn't get much brighter though we did have some sun late in the afternoon.

Still no sign of a window fitter. We got our hopes up when we saw a builder's van come around the corner and then drive slowly up our road. He went right to the end and then began making his way down but it was not our house he was looking for. It's a good thing there are only ten houses on our road as there are no numbers only house names. I expect our builder is hoping the window will be in before he gets back from holiday. 

I spent the morning preparing for the Zoom class. For once I took time over the homework and it paid off. Our tutor had created an on-line game with some of the the different yes and no answers. I could work out the right ones simply by looking at the initial word but I translated the whole of each sentence which helped to fix the patterns in my memory (possibly). At least I wasn't so lost during the lesson. 

I had a couple of hours after the lesson to do some work in the garden. As well as general weeding and cutting back I cleared the sand from the footing of the end section of the raised bed's wall. The builder put sand in there because he was worried that I might trip in the little ditch. 

I ended my activities by walking down to the hall for aerobics. It wasn't too warm walking down but once we got dancing I regretted not having worn shorts. I might remember next time. At the party I had mentioned to somebody that I had been thinking about volunteering with the local RDA group though probably not until after the summer. Tonight she asked if I wanted to be introduced to the admin person for the RDA group who was also in the class. The upshot is that I volunteered straight away as they are desperate for helpers. Emails have been exchanged and I await a form to fill out. You never know I might even get back riding myself.