A New Steed.

Yesterday evening I was so keen to read 'The Wild Silence.' that I completely forgot to publish my blog or even close down my PC. A friend lent me the books on Monday and I've already read 'The Salt Path.' I'd intended to read it after hearing the author on R4 but hadn't got round to it. A heart breaking account but so well written.

Even after staying up late reading I had my usual early Friday morning start. (Up at 5.30.) It was dark and wet at first so I had my tea sitting in the open doorway with the stars overhead. It wasn't long before clouds covered the stars but then were turned pink by the reflected sunrise.

Down at the stables this morning I found that I had a different horse to ride. Not lovely Cadno but Margaret who is just as responsive and being young is lighter on her feet and more forward going ie faster. (I do recall seeing her cantering off when she wasn't supposed to but there was none of that today and I felt perfectly safe.)  Another of the group was also on a new to her horse and the two of us had to spend some time getting used to our horses and weren't expected to trot without stirrups which the rest had to do. I did some sitting trot anyway just to see how I'm doing and it's getting a lot easier. There were seven of us in the lesson today including the two younger instructors who have a ridden exam coming up. 

After riding I did my usual shopping round; Morrisons, town and Lidl. In town I had two long chats with people I know, one from choir and one from the zoo and waved hi to two other people. It's nice to find people I know rather than be walking round a town full of strangers. I had the usual skip around the charity shops and bought another glass paperweight. I wasn't that sure about it but then I see it as a contribution to a good cause and it was only £3.

When I got home I had a break and then got on with painting the bathroom walls. The tops of the walls are quite awkward to get to so I haven't done the best of lines but maybe they will improve after a second coat tomorrow. I didn't finish until 5.30 much to Speedy's disgust. He's still working on BST so that made his supper and hour and a half late. Even then I wasn't finished. Giving the builders a slice of Bara Brith every afternoon meant that it was time to bake another. I'd put the fruit in to soak last night and it didn't take long to mix it all up and stick it in the oven. That should keep Peter going for a while.

 

Oops, (Forgot to Publish.)

A mostly dry day with some drizzle in the afternoon.

It was a busy morning here. The builders came and after fixing the skirting boards over the new plaster in the sitting room they went out on the roof to fit some vents. J had been unable to find red roof vents but got the black ones and painted them red to match the rest of the tiles. I'm relived this has been finally done as I was very concerned about the damp in the loft which would eventually affect the timbers. Disaster averted. Now all the work on the inside of the house that we needed builders for has been done. Just the smaller things like putting up some shelves and painting left for us to do. It only took two weeks of work but we had waited for over eighteen months for the last builder to be free to do the job. 

My first job of the morning was to walk down to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and to ask why I was getting a month's worth of medication only 10 days after the last lot. That they said was down to the surgery who issue the prescriptions so I need to inquire at the surgery. They can't have a very good checking system, for all they knew I could be downing twice the amount of tablets needed. On the way out there was some activity at the RNLI. The boat and tractor were out on the slipway and I wondered if there had been a shout or if it was a routine training session. All was explained on the way back when the tractor was towing the boat around some cones in the car park while a chap with a clipboard looked on. Obviously one of the shore crew was having a tractor driving test.

Once I got home I got on with painting the bathroom. A final third coat on the ceiling and as there was enough of the white paint I did a coat on the walls too. I finished washing the brush and roller with about 15 minutes to spare before our Zoom class. There were only six of us today so we had plenty of opportunities to answer the questions. As we had already gone over much of the lesson in Mach I felt a lot more confident than some weeks. That left me with the rest of the afternoon free to tidy up and then relax before going off to disco aerobics.

It was dry but pitch black when I walked down to the hall. On the way back the sky was suddenly lit with a huge flash of light and minutes later there was a great rumble of thunder from out at sea.

 

A Beach Walk.

Bright and windy today.

The builder came in the morning but his assistant has succumbed to a nasty cold. I'm not surprised as he was in and out of the rain when they were doing the bathroom and yesterday the poor lad was coughing and spluttering. The plaster in the sitting room hadn't dried enough for the skirting boards to be nailed on and there wasn't much else the builder could do today. Instead the three of us had a nice long chat and then the builder measured up for the terrace balustrade. It would be great to get that done at last.

Once the builder left I painted another coat on the bathroom ceiling. One more coat tomorrow and the ceiling will be done. 

Then off I went for a gentle walk along the beach.

The winter storms are beginning to wash away the sand to reveal the submerged forest.

The storms have also washed up plenty of drift wood. I came across this old pallet which must have been in the water for some time for the goose barnacles to grow. In past times it was believed that goose barnacles turned into barnacle geese which due to their migratory nature were never seen on their nests. I've also just read that goose barnacles are the world's most expensive seafood. £80-£90 per kilo for fresh ones, cheaper if you buy frozen but I think I'll pass.

 

Almost Done.

After heavy rain in the night and early morning we had a dry and very windy day.

It would have been a good day for working at the zoo but painting the bathroom takes priority. I got a coat of white on the bathroom ceiling which was good but discovered that the decorators' tape still takes off the vinyl silk paint no matter how carefully you peel it off. Not a major disaster as it was only the primer coat but bang goes my plan to tape along the ceiling when I paint the walls blue. Instead I'll have to paint the join carefully. Peter has ordered me a special edging paintbrush which should help.

The builders came and did the plastering over the tanking by the French doors so all that's left is to fix on the two bits of skirting board that have already been cut. I also asked them to cut a mitre joint in the wooden moulding I bought to edge the cupboard top in the bathroom. I haven't used Peter's big chop saw and I'm rubbish at cutting mitre joins by hand. Having cut the wood A carried on and stuck and nailed the wood to the edge of the counter top ready for me to paint. He then went on to secure the board with the boiler controls that used to be in the bathroom onto Peter's study wall

Once the builders left there was plenty of hoovering, floor washing and putting things straight to do before I went off to Pilates.

 

Storm Debi.

A complete change in the sea as the winds from Storm Debi forced the high tide up to the beach side houses and churned the waves into white froth as far as the eye could see. 

In the morning we went up to Mach again for more Welsh practice. We thought we'd get ahead and do the end of unit homework even though we haven't completed the unit. Then we did a killer exercise. A has a set of cards with questions that need a yes/no answer using the eight yes/no  forms that we have learnt. Some of those also change depending if the answer is about I/You/ He-she/We/You or They. I found that so hard especially as I tend to use the more colloquial Ia/Na rather than the proper forms. I think I had better make my own set of cards to practice.

Once we returned home I got on with painting a primer coat on the bathroom walls and ceiling. Thank goodness I didn't start yesterday as it took hours. I didn't finish until after 7.00 which is very late for me. So many times up and down the ladder and so many awkward spots to reach. It doesn't help that the vinyl silk paint must really have vinyl or some other plastic in it to make it waterproof which makes the paint thick and difficult to apply. That's even after watering it down to use it as the primer. I'm one of those people who finds it helps to express my frustrations out loud (aka complaining) but at least I did it all in Welsh. I used every combination of I don't like/enjoy painting walls/the ceiling sung to random tunes and then moved on to using the future tense, days of the week, colours and terms for cleaning that I could think of.

Thelma - Sorry to find that I can't read your thoughtful blog any more.

 

Cats.

The forecast turned out to be correct and it's been a day of rain which brought the most amazing sea colours. (Well I think so.) Not heavy rain but pretty constant. 

Cat Tales - Yesterday I dropped into J's house to see her two elderly British Shorthair cats (often described as teddy bear cats) as we sometimes chat about our cats when we're out walking. They were very cute with their chunky faces and their rather more than chunky bodies. 

When I got home I got a shock when I saw Speedy. He was sprawled out in my study looking very unhappy and my first thought was that he had been hit by a car. Then my nose told me that it was more likely to be a digestion problem and sure enough there was the evidence too. When Peter told me he had been out for most of the afternoon and then turned up his nose at his dinner we guessed he had eaten something that was now giving him severe stomach ache. We decided to keep an eye on him rather than take him to the vet straight away. Speedy then went outside and walked off down the garden. He returned an hour later looking a lot less rotund, slept for a while on the sofa after which he asked for food, which he did not get. He was fine this morning but I gave him a bit less for his breakfast and by evening he was telling me that he was absolutely starving. Back to normal then.

Why is it that I often underestimate just how long it's going to take to do something? Maybe I'm the eternal optimist. As I had the whole of today free I thought I'd; wipe down the bathroom door and loft hatch, tape all the edges and put up plastic dust sheets to protect everything I wasn't painting and then paint a primer coat of white on all the new plaster. Then towards the end of the day paint another coat of white on the ceiling. In between I could make a start on sorting all the clothes storage boxes in our bedroom. Ha! It was nearly 5.00 by the time I had finished scrubbing down the door, frame and hatch and putting up the dust sheets. At that point I stopped and will begin painting tomorrow. The only other job I did was to soak one of the metal baking dishes with a dishwasher tablet and then scrub off all the baked on grease. Peter seems to think that 'stainless' means that stains will magically fall off rather than coming off with some elbow grease. However he did go into town today and brought back not only a lovely white Christmas cactus but a bar of Lidl's 70% dark chocolate with salted caramel.

Now for a relaxing evening watching Strictly.

 

The Green Desert.

With the forecast being dire for Sunday but nice for today it was decided to have the group walk today. It was nice and sunny down here at the coast while up in the hills it was dry but a lot cooler.

I say hills but our walk today took us across the spine of the Cambrian mountains, a good 1700 ft up.

It was nearly an hour's drive to get there but I could relax as I had a lift with J in her comfortable car. We met the rest of the group (there were only five of us today) in Ffair Rhos and then drove in convoy to the same spot we parked at the time we went to Teifi Pools. That time our route had taken us down the track and round the reservoir but today we walked eastwards over the mountain tops and many very wet bogs.

The big reservoirs were created by damming the valleys where there were existing smaller lakes but a number of these lakes or tarns still remain.

Our initial destination was Claerddu Bothy A bothy is a basic shelter with a fireplace, sleeping platforms and a toilet where outdoor users can stay for free. We were hoping that if there was some wood (since we'd forgotten to bring any) we could have a brew up. I had brought my collapsible camping kettle and an assortment of tea bags, P provided bottled water and D had some spare cups. But when we got there we saw 3 tents outside and people in the bothy. A lad sitting on the steps told us he was part of a group of 16 and there had been 2 more the night before. A fire was burning merrily in the fireplace, towels and feet drying so we decided to leave them all to enjoy their break and carried on across the wilderness.

For once we didn't have a set route planned just followed the Cambrian Way up to a high point where we stopped to eat our lunch.

From there we left the track to swing round in an arc to bring us back to the cars.

We passed several small lakes reflecting the clouds in their still surfaces.

And walked through very wet bogs where it was a matter of looking for the thickest clumps of grass to step on hoping that our feet didn't sink down too far.

It's a good thing we weren't out any longer as the light was going and it was getting much colder.

We were out for several hours and according to J's app we walked just four miles. But what a four miles, either up the sides of steep slopes or through difficult terrain which was hard on the ankles. I might need a day off tomorrow. 

 

The first part of our route was from the out of sight cars in the centre to the bothy and then off to the left. Our return  was along either of the two ridges on the right, I'm not sure which.

PS Loading photos returned to normal after just one day.  I don't know what was going on with Blogger but it's a relief to do all the photos in one go.