Warm.

It's been very warm today both in the sun and under the dark clouds. The weather man on the radio is talking about thunderstorms but I think we missed them.

This afternoon I had something to take to the post box around the corner. Once I'd done that it felt too nice to go straight home so I decided to take the long way back going down to Bradiford and then returnig up the other side of our estate. Peter said he came downstairs to find a very sad looking Speedy waiting by the front door hoping for another walk.

The recent hot weather seems to have suited this fig tree that can be seen above the wall of one of the old houses near the post box.

A very pretty cottage garden outside a genuine cottage in Bradiford. 

While I was out I met a lady I knew walking a dog with her friend. We had a long chat before going our separate ways.

I hadn't been this way for a while and there were lots of flowers to admire. Turning back up into our road I came across a gathering of some of my neighbours having a very well spaced chat in the road. I joined in and carried on chatting for quite a while. Co-incidentally both the lady out with her dog and the one by her house have the same first name.

Before my walk I'd painted the conservatory wall with its final coat of white. The tub of paint is now back in the garage and my handy small (for behind radiators) paint roller has been washed out. I also did a bit of paving slab scraping. If I do a short session each day or so eventually the job will be done.

This garden made me smile.

Changeable.

The weather today has been a bit of everything, lots of clouds, occasional showers and very hot spells with fluffy white clouds in a blue sky.

I woke very early this morning. Looking out of the window the view was obscured by mist above the river and sliding along the sides of the hills. 

I've had quite a productive day which leaves me in a good mood even if my back is twinging a bit. I went down to the garage and found another tub of white matt paint which I used to paint the wall of the conservatory. I'm planning on one more coat tomorrow. 

As I went in and out of the front door Speedy was so desperate to go outside that I took pity on him. Off came his cone and on went his harness and lead. There was a lot of sniffing of marking spots but he walked remarkably well. With only the occasional attempt to divert into other gardens he walked along the path and then down the steps leading to the next street. All I had to do was to call him occasionally. The return trip was a little less dog like and I had to pick him up when he became engrossed in eating a particular grass and there were a few lying down incidents. I finally picked him up when he set off one of the two elderly dogs belonging to the older couple who live opposite us. I had a bit of a chat with the gentleman explaining why Speedy was on a lead and why he had to spend most of his time indoors with a cone on his head.

During a warm spell I cut the big buddleia bush in the front garden back a bit as it's getting so tall that it blocks some of the sky from the sitting room view. I know that I've cut off the flower buds but I hope that it's early enough in the season for side shoots to form. It's a very tired, ordinary wild variety that doesn't have a lot of flowers to attract the butterflies. The 'Black Knight' variety that I planted next to it is doing very well. After reducing the pile of cut branches to a bucketful of cut up pieces I had a tidy of the new climbers. A couple of them keep reaching over and twining around the canes in the neighbouring pots and have to be gently untangled. I also had to empty the water out of the three big tubs that hold a number of the pots. One moment I'm out there every day watering and the next there's a couple of inches of rain water in the tubs. To finish off the day I baked some chocolate chunk cookies for Peter. They came out better this time.

Yesterday in Tesco's I finally found a green 'Dissectum' acer to complete our little collection. Although Peter is not a gardener he does like acers.

Grey.

We had a warm dry morning followed by a few showers and finally heavy rain. The sort that would have had me rushing out to build the dams across the road. The rain is easing off now but I'm sure the internet doesn't like the rain as I can't load up any photos. Maybe it's the Sky dish which needs seeing to. We've recently had some pixilating on the tv so Peter's going to get them to sort out. 

Earlier today I was staring out of the window, a favourite past-time, and saw an orange sail? flying about in the distance. A closer look with the binoculars and the camera zoom revealed somebody having a lovely time kite surfing up and down the river. The tide was in so he had plenty of room to whizz along. 

Being Friday it was time to head out shopping. When I went down to the car I left the door open to clear some of the heat while I went into the garage for my small paint roller. Roller located I went to get into the car and found a friendly young ginger and white cat sitting in the footwell. He came out when I called and then there was some serious head bopping. He then had fun attacking the fluffy paint roller and I had to gently disengage his paws before I could begin my journey to town.

Since the easing of the lockdown things seem to be returning to normal and the traffic was much the same as pre-Covid. There's still the queueing and 6ft distancing in the shops and the perils of navigating around the shops where there are arrows on the floor. In Tesco's I was thinking about sneaking into one of the very wide veg aisles to pick up some white cabbage when a fierce lady shopper told me that I would be going the wrong way. I didn't dare disobey and walked the long way round to get to the correct place. Later in B&Q where I was already a little crochety having been made to take a trolley even though the only items I was after were 10ft long strips of wood. It was going to be difficult carrying the wood upright in one hand while trying to push the trolley. Before I picked up the wood I wanted to have a look at their laminate flooring but found every aisle leading to that area sporting arrows pointing in the wrong direction. In the end I went over to the kitchen deign area and called over to the member of staff asking how I was supposed to get to other side of all those arrows. Her response - the arrows were for guidance only but please keep at a safe distance from other customers. The wood strips are to cover up the gaps around the edges of the wood flooring in the conservatory. It was originally laid (by the previous owners) with no expansion space and with some damp (I think) getting in from the poorly made conservatory the floor rose up in an alarming hump until our very good builder took off some of the edges. The gaps look very messy so I'm going to cover them with the strips fixed so that the flooring boards can expand and contract. The better stuff to use would have been flooring edging but apart from being £22 a strip, the strips of the correct width were 50cms too short.

Having got the small roller from the garage I got set to paint the conservatory wall. Unfortunately there just wasn't enough paint left in the tub. If I haven't got any matt white paint left in the garage I'll just paint the wall with the satin paint.
Saturday morning - Finally I can load my photos.

Grey.

It's been a day of blustery showers, sometimes chilly sometimes warm.

Speedy's new deluxe travel  carrier arrived today. Purple was the only colour available from the UK based seller otherwise I would probably have chosen black or grey. It has a couple of metal struts inside that fit together to give it stability and when not being used it can be folded flat. I went for the largest carrier as driving the car and camper up to Wales will take at the very best five hours. The brown cat bed will fit inside so I guess Speedy will be as snug as a bug. Peter will drive the camper but he's vetoed having the carrier in the camper (smells!) so it will have to go in the back of the car which I'll be driving. Also when we have the movers here and in Wales I can use the carrier to keep Speedy secure. It wouldn't do for a feral cat trying to claw it's way out but will be fine for Speedy. I put it outside to air as it smells strongly of plastic but had to bring it in when it started to rain. As can be seen Speedy didn't mind the smell. He then went into a happy purring state when I laid the fleece floor blanket down.

I was up reasonably early today and have done all my exercises etc. which puts me in a good mood. Once I'd shifted the boxes in the corner of the dinning room it only took five minutes to paint over the patch of shiny paint there. Then I thought I might as well paint the wall of the conservatory which was a sort of mushroom colour. It will need another coat tomorrow and hopefully that will be enough as I'm down to the last dregs of paint in the tub. Having been assured by Peter that the delivery arrangements will be fine I went ahead and bought the unit to go under the kitchen sink. Not that exciting to look at but after so much hassle sorting sink, taps and unit I'm excited. Also it's the first step towards our new kitchen. The doors will be swapped over when the big kitchen makeover happens.

Peter has printed out a set of 7 basic greeting phrases in Welsh for me to practise. Some I kind of know but the one that throws me is Good Afternoon - Prun Hawn Da. The trouble is when I see it written all I can think off is prawns. Thank You - Diolch yn Fawr might also have confused me if I hadn't learn't it aurally first (De ok 'n vaur). I think part of my difficulty learning new languages stems from lack of confidence. What if I say Good Morning or Thank You and the other person thinks I'm a Welsh speaker? I guess I'll just have to explain that I'm only learning.
PS I thought I'd leave a comment to check what's going on and surprisingly I was taken to the Google home page, the same with yesterday's post but the day before's post took me to the correct comments page. Going back to the last comment left on Monday's post also took me to the comments page, hooray.

Wet.

A grey morning eventually gave way to steady rain and right now it's approaching downpour level.

Today as well as the usual two bike sessions I've begun adding in some of the floor exercises mostly leg/knee strengthening and lower back flexibility work.

I've also got on with some extra household jobs. There was a patch of loose plaster, only a few inches across, behind a small cupboard in the dining room. I'd already scraped and sanded so today was painting day. There were also a couple of shiny spots on the staircase wall which have been bugging me. These were the result of my 'cleaning' my paintbrush over a few places where the grey showed through slightly the last time I did some painting. I thought maybe the shine was due to a different make of white paint but today when I looked in the cupboard I saw that the paint had been 'satin' rather than 'matt'. Silly me -again. But what had I painted with the satin? Oh dear, it was a strip along the dining room wall behind the big pine cupboard. A peer into the space behind the cupboard showed a lovely contrasting shiny strip. Nothing for it but to unload the cupboard, shift more boxes around and slide the cupboard forward so that I could squeeze behind it. A quick brush over with matt white paint and job done. Or almost, there's a bit more behind the pile of packed boxes in the corner of the room. Those I'll shift tomorrow and paint the last bit.

This afternoon I made another attempt to buy the kitchen cupboard to go under the new sink. Wickes have now opened their showrooms so I had every hope of success. First I tried phoning one of their branches in Wales but couldn't get an answer. Then I rang the ordering phone number where eventually a computer told me they weren't taking phone orders but I could order on-line. That I did and it went remarkably well. That was until I spotted that the delivery would be any time between 7am and 7pm. As the place it needs to be delivered to is our builder's friend's garage I need to find out if that will be okay. Peter has sent our builder a text and until we get a reply I shan't complete the purchase. Close, but no coconut.

Once again the bug that's diverting attempts to get to the comments section is back. My only hope is that I can lose it when Blogger changes to the new format as it's not showing up when I run a virus scan.

Dry.

It's been dry today a sort of a reversal of yesterday with the sun shining more in the morning bringing welcome warmth and now back to clouds and a cold wind.

I decided to walk into town today as there was a bill to be paid at the bank and I wanted to get a tube of sealant before my enthusiasm begins to wane.

There were a remarkable number of people around considering how few shops are open. I spotted a couple more shops open now that had been closed; a chemist, the key cutter and a baker's. I took along my face mask which I put on once I entered the High Street. I counted only nine other people wearing face masks though I don't know if the ninth one counts as it was an older gent who'd pulled his mask down to smoke a cigarette. 

Having bought a tube of sealant once I was home I ran sealant (badly) around the shower tray and along the window sills in my study and our bedroom. At least now those areas look a bit better. 

One thing I noticed, apart from so many people, was the large amount of building work going on  including in the High Street. That must be a sign that businesses are looking positively to the future.

Peter did more phoning around today but there's still no plaster. I had better luck and have bought the tap for the new kitchen sink and it is being delivered to Borth on Thursday. All I need now is the cupboard to go underneath. 

Yesterday evening I went out to put something in the dustbin and found a small parcel on the garden path. At first I thought it was an italic pen I'd ordered the day before but when I looked it was addressed to somebody at Number 4. That's right at the beginning of our road! The postman must have dropped it when he was getting out our package containing the flooring samples. I took the parcel round to Number 4 and had a long chat with an acquaintance who was out tending to her front garden at Number 6. I used to meet her in different schools when we were both supply teachers and then when she came occasionally to teach at my last school. Also she knew the boys from when she taught at their village school. So we had a nice long chat, at 6ft distance.

I love the way this front lawn has been allowed to turn into a wildflower meadow. 

Variable.

The day began grey and cool, then became a lot warmer even hot with dark grey clouds overhead and right now there's not a cloud to be seen and it's intensley hot. Everything in one day.

Out on the hillside the fields are turning red as the meadow grasses begin to flower.

My energetic mood continues though maybe I should  reduce the amount of paving slab cleaning as I don't think my back likes it too much. Today I was back to two sessions on the exercise bike for the first time though the other exercises are on hold for the moment as anything to do with the core affects the ribs and sternum too. I did the downstairs hoovering but I'm happy to leave the upstairs to Peter. My job for the day was to put some sealant on the shower tray and along the window sills in my study and our bedroom. I washed down where I wanted to seal, left everything to dry and then ....  I had enough sealant in the tube but I couldn't keep the nozzle from blocking up. I got out some of the plug of hardened sealant but then the remnants kept blocking up the hole. In the end I gave up and threw the tube away and will buy a new tube. Incidentally I've found that face wipes are perfect for wiping off the sticky sealant from my hands. Wiping with a dry or wet cloth or washing with soap just don't do the job.

The next delivery of flooring samples arrived today. Two were definite no's and we're now deciding between one from the first delivery and one from today's. I'm leaning towards the lighter one while Peter prefers the darker one so for the moment the samples are on the floor for us to decide. If I ever get to show any prospective buyers around I shall make a point of saying how much our real wood floor would have cost.

Yesterday evening I was in the sitting room when I saw the young cat I call Pretty Boy on the garden path. I opened the window to shoo him away but when he saw me he came running up miauing and I had to shut the window as I'm sure he would have jumped right in. Speedy was in the room too and he simply flew at the lower part of the window hitting it with a real bang. He then stood up on the arm of the sofa in full alert attack mode watching out for any further incursion. I don't think Pretty Boy would have had much chance against Speedy.