Windy.

For most of the day it was very grey, grey sky and grey sea but by late afternoon the sun began to break through bringing shades of green to the sea.

It was bin day today, even more exciting it was the rubbish collection week. I didn't feel the need to sneak in a bag of garden waste but with the unpacking I'm now able to do there is a fair amount of packaging to get rid of. Once the basic housework was done I got on with repairing my sheepskin slipper bootees. The recent drop in temperature made wearing flip-flops not such a comfortable option. Not only did I repair the stitching that holds on the soles but one boot got a green leather patch (leather saved when I chopped up the two-seater sofa) too. They may not be the prettiest footwear but they keep my feet lovely and warm.

The house seemed very busy in the afternoon as a team of four came from the windows company to fix a number of issues with the windows. Some of the problems such as draughts from the trickle vents were down to the manufacturing (solved by screwing down the clip-in plastic vents) and too narrow trim along the side of the panes. There were also some problems due to the installers and of course the person at fault no longer works for the company. The creaking French Doors have been secured in place with more screws and we now know how to unclip the retaining bars to allow the doors to fold back completely though we were strongly advised to fit coach hooks to stop them getting caught in the wind and slamming shut.

Not long after the windows people left a girl came to collect the blankets. I asked what she was going to use them for and they were for her and her mother-in-law's chihuahuas. I was surprised to have two more people asking for the blankets, you never know what's going to be popular. I've put a ceramic soap dish, toilet roll holder and towel rail up on the page before I chuck them out and described them as retro and light green/duck egg rather than pale avocado but I'll be very surprised if anyone wants them.

I took the plastic bag off the tulip (apologies for the picture fault) but I think those petals are doomed.

 

Hail.

The cold air arrived in style today with frequent hail showers and icy winds.

First thing this morning the hills above Aberdyfi were even whiter than in the photo above. Before I could take a photo an incoming hail shower obscured the view and must have washed away a lot of the hail sitting on the slopes.

In the morning I sorted through the piles of blankets I had bought at auction. I now have a stack of cream coloured wool blankets which I may use as heavy curtain linings. I put the remaining 9 blankets and throws on the free site, they could be used as animal blankets or by furniture movers. By the time I got home I had two people wanting them and I'm waiting for the first person to arrange a time.

I waited until the afternoon to go into Aber and it was mostly sunny with the occasional hail shower. On the way home as I got to the highest point above town I had a glimpse right into Snowdonia and could see snow on the heights including a proper pointy mountain, Snowdon? (Yr Wyddfa).

My first stop along with many other people, was the dump. I sat in the queue for an hour and twenty minutes shuffling forward sixteen times. However I was not bored as I'd remembered to bring my MP3 player on which I have an album of songs from the choir so I had a wonderful time. A good thing the car window was closed as I doubt if passers-by would have appreciated my out of practice voice especially as I was singing the alto parts. We usually get the tune but sometimes we just dum, dum, dum along. Hail kept falling as I waited and sang but luckily I had a clear spell when it was my turn to get out and empty all those bags of garden waste. It was a good feeling to see them gone. I hadn't planned to go to Morrisons but the long wait at the dump made a visit to their toilets advisable. While I was there I picked up a few reduced bargains; oat cakes, vegetable pakoras and falafel. Something for both of us. Then back into the centre where I stopped at Home Stores for a sponge mop and bucket for the tiled floors and my last stop was Lidl where the Easter chocolates are half price. A few of the small marzipan eggs ended up in my trolley, after all once they're gone they're gone. They're a bit sneaky with the big eggs, instead of 'half price' it's 'buy one get one free', a good thing I prefer the small ones.

It was brighter when I got home (right now I can hardly see through the windows as ice and rain slide down the glass) and out on the water was this brave chap. I've looked it up and it's not kite surfing but something called wing surfing.

He was having a great time leaping out of the water in the strong winds. He was the only person in the water, unsurprisingly, so must have had the full attention of the life guards who no doubt were huddling in their hut next to the lifeboat station with their flags and a rescue board out at the water's edge.

Last night's sunset.

 

Windy.

Strong winds have been blowing since last night but the revised forecast is for the 'blast of Arctic air' to hit us some time tonight. We had one short sharp shower first thing but after some initial clouds it has been a sunny day. (Photo below taken at 6.20 this morning.)

I was up early enough to catch a blaze of red sunrise over the mountains. Minutes later it had faded to orange and then was gone. For most of the day the seas have been green with whitecaps as far as the eye can see.

Apart from moving more stuff down to my study my day has been taken up with unpicking the sitting room curtain hems. Both the linings are done and fortuitously they are exactly the right length with a selvedge across the bottom as I made them from sheeting. Unpicking the actual curtains has been harder as the fabric is loosely woven cheesecloth and it would be very easy to damage the fabric. One is done and the other awaits another day.

The poor tulip is in danger of losing its petals at any moment in fact I felt so sorry for it I've just been out and tied a plastic bag over it.

 

Sunny.

Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate this special day.

(The remnant of a bigger beach structure made by holidaymakers. It looked appropriate for the season.)

It has been bright for most of the day with clouds looming over the mountains. I didn't sleep much last night and after the shipping forecast the general forecast for Monday was - hail, sleet and snow everywhere. As part of my not sleeping I went to watch tv and finally gave in and watched the first episode of Bridgerton. Highly watchable despite the blinding inaccuracies. Best to take it with a bucket load of salt and imagine it's an alternate Regency universe.

I had my camera in my hand as a Red Kite cruised past but it didn't turn on in time before the bird stopped level with the bench on the cliff and dropped out of sight. There was a lady sitting on the bench but she was engrossed in her phone and failed to see the Red Kite. She'll never know what she missed.

I had a girl come round to collect some curtains and fabric I'd put on the give away site. These were stuff that had been left in the house, Dorma ones that were in good condition. When she said she was going to use the fabric for crafting I offered her my old curtains, velvet ones, that I had hanging on the line and she took two pairs. Good to see them going to good use.

I spent the afternoon unpicking the hems of the sitting room curtains. I didn't finish the second one because when I made them the tension on my sewing machine was playing up and the stitches are absolutely tiny. It takes quite a while to undo them even with my handy stitch ripper. (That's got to be one of my most used sewing tools.) No special meal today, it doesn't seem worth it with just two of us especially as Peter doesn't really do celebrations but I did bake a chocolate chunk cake. It's been such a long time since I baked a cake I had to look at a few recipes as I never had my basic cake recipe written down. I used to use 4 eggs when we had a glut of eggs from our hens but today I stuck with two.

 

Sunny.

Beautiful blue skies and sea today with a chilly wind.

Today has mostly been about curtains. Not as much unpicking of the  sitting room curtain hems as I had hoped but more sorting out all my carefully stored curtains. The heavy padded curtains that will be going up in Peter's room went out on the line to air. I've since found another pair of the same curtains. Maybe I'll put one over his door to cut out the sound of his films/games. Other curtains were in a worse state than I had thought. I put one through the washing machine and then when the lining didn't look any better cut it off. I'm not going to hang on to any curtains as I don't plan on moving again but I can't bring myself to just throw them out. They're mostly plain velvet which maybe somebody can use in a project so I'll put them on the free FB site.

I put the small sink on the free page and a chap came to collect it today. Peter doesn't like 'strangers' coming to the house and wasn't happy. I think he watches too many films with crime and violence.

Even with the sharp wind it was a nice day for a beach walk so we went for an afternoon stroll. The lifeguards and their flags are back on the beach and today it looked very lively with families camped out on the shingle in their beach tents. Somebody we passed on the beach said how nice it was to have the beach to ourselves while we were thinking how busy it was. I guess it's only going to get busier especially with foreign holidays being out of the question this year.

Sunny.

We woke this morning to the blue skies of what gets called Borth-Bados, a nod to the warmer microclimate we enjoy here. 

It has remained sunny all day with a sharp wind blowing. A good day for drying washing  so I've begun working my way through my vast collection of dust sheets. 

Being an even numbered day of the month I loaded up the car with six bags of garden choppings, got to the dump with only one vehicle in front of me in the queue only to discover a few minutes later that the dump was closed. That was a disappointment especially as I even had a bag on the passenger seat so it was going to be difficult to fit in the shopping I was about to do. But then I had the fun of a wander around the big Charlie's (there's a small branch right in town too). While they don't have a good selection of plants in their 'garden centre'  there are lots of tempting but expensive pots and planters. I got some more spray for my orchids and then bought this stock pot. It's irritating to have to replace or at least get an addition to our big metal casserole but this one works on the induction hob and can go in the oven at any temperature. They had a different range which also worked on the induction hob but a closer look at the details revealed that the maximum oven temperature was 200C. so this one it was at (to me) the high cost of £26.

As I was paying at the tills there was a bang from the next till where a large ceramic planter that had been placed on top of some sacks of compost on a flat-bed trolley, fell to the floor and smashed to smithereens. Fortunately for the young family it had been loaded by a member of staff so I assume it would have been replaced.

Town was very busy but I only had the shopping at Lidl to do and to collect a curtain pole for the dinning area from Argos next door. I did pop in briefly to Iceland which is between the two shops looking for frozen sweet potato wedges but they only had the fries which I didn't want.

Coming home I stopped at the top of the hill hoping to get a photo looking down on Borth but only got a view of the Ynyslas end of the beach. Below- the road, on the right suddenly winds and drops steeply down to the village and there is nowhere safe to park to take a photo.

Back home I unloaded all the bags of garden waste as the next opportunity to go to the dump is not until the 6th. Then I ironed some sheets for the trundle beds that I'd washed the other day and began unpicking the hem of one of the curtains now hanging in the sitting room as I'm still working on some sort of a plan to lengthen them rather than make new. 

A few more boxes from the front hall made their way down to my study. Carrying isn't good for my back but the laminate flooring makes it easy to slide them along instead.

Speedy stayed out all night last night. I'd whistled him up a number of times with no response so in the end I went to bed. In the morning he was waiting, wailing at the terrace door. Doubt he'll stay out again for a while.

 

Grey.

Cloudy and grey today. It was cooler but so far I haven't felt the icy touch of Arctic air the forecasters were talking about.

Peter sorted out the trapped shelf himself after letting the builder know we didn't need him. That cupboard has been cleaned and I've begun filling it with cleaning and gardening chemicals. The base cupboards or at least one of them will have to wait until I've cut out a hole in the shelf for the waste pipe from the sink. I'd begun in the utility by sanding down the scratches in the wood worktop before giving it a coat of wood oil. The oil makes the wood look lovely though it did show up more paint speckles which had escaped my attempts to sand them off. Thank goodness it's only the utility room. I also used a Stanley knife to cut away the plastic that had been protecting the glass in the utility door.

In between working in the utility room I moved plastic boxes of craft materials from the hall down to my study. These all needed the tops cleaned before I could begin stacking them. My study grows ever smaller while the front hall grows clearer and more spacious. Today I've been able to clear boxes from the sitting room too.

By the afternoon my back had had enough and with Peter's prescription waiting at the pharmacy I took myself off for a gentle stroll along the beach before calling in at the pharmacy.

It was low tide so headed to the rocks first where I saw my first open sea anemone and was able to identify it as a strawberry sea anemone. There were very few people on the beach, just a couple of hardy swimmers and some dog walkers.

Some cottages on the landward side of the Hight Street. The first cottage looks very neglected while the fisherman's cottage behind looks well cared for. On my way back along the High Street I saw that the beach/hardware shop was now open and so was the café next to it. I spoke to the owner? who was working outside and she confirmed that they are now open for the season (I thought they might only open for the Easter holiday). It's good to see some life returning to the village.

Something for April the first. A classic.