Showers.

A day of warmth and some heavy showers with the occasional rainbow (photo below).

This morning the combination of aching back, knee and head made me decided that discretion was the better part of valour and for the first time I didn't go to the zoo. Much as I hate to break with routine I felt that weeding for several or more hours wouldn't help my back. 

Instead I caught up with Welsh and my admin, and made the decision to change my dumb phone to Peter's old smart phone. Apart from the screen being hard to read now I can't hear it ringing when I make a phone call though I can hear once somebody answers. I've been through every option in settings but only been able to increase the general volume. Maybe the man in the shop could locate a 'silent' or 'airplane mode' button but I think it's time to upgrade. 

One minor diy job was to run some sealant along the back of the spice shelves to cover up the rough edges of the laminated wood.

At one point in the afternoon I decided to go for a gentle stroll along the beach but no sooner had I set foot outside the door than the first drops of rain fell. That was the end of my walk. Instead I played the piano and for the first time in a while played the guitar too. I feel guilty when I see the guitar sitting there when I haven't got around to any practice. Hopefully I will be a bit more diligent with my practice.

I'm blogging early and next will do my singing warm-up before going off to sing with the small choir. (My ears are still ringing from the amplifier on Monday.)

 

Surf's Up.

Bright and sunny with excellent surf which brought out the keen surfers. From mid-afternoon we had some very heavy showers and the surf flattened out a lot.

While Peter was out in the morning I tidied up the mess in the bathroom from his last efforts and then prised yet more tiles off another wall. These came off the board covered wall easily and mostly as whole tiles. I got almost all the tiles off the wall and filled up the rubble bags ready for Peter to take down to the dump.

In the afternoon I cycled down to the community hall for a Tai Chi (for well being) taster session. Unfortunately I don't think it's right for me. It was better in the second half when we repeated the exercises in silence, that is apart from the rain thundering down on the metal roof of the sports hall. However I wasn't that receptive to the well being/ relaxation/ tuning in /grounding aspect. Not really my sort of thing so I'll give it a miss for now.

I had to cycle home in the pouring rain, shorts and t-shirt! so once I dried off I watched the sea from the comfort of the sofa and had a quiet afternoon.

 

Warm.

Another fine day. Going out (in shorts and t-shirt) felt like walking in a warm bath. The strong rollers making their way across the surface of the sea (I know they're not really but that's how they look) were a sign that a lot of energy was building up in the weather system/sea somewhere not too far away. Heavy showers arrived at 6.00 but even then it felt balmy.

In the morning we met up with our friends in Mach for our fortnightly Welsh language get-together. The cafe is closing in October and as we've decided to carry on when our zoom classes start we shall have to find a new venue. There are a number of cafes in Mach but some close for the winter and many of the others close on Mondays but hopefully the vegan cafe will still be open. Peter will have to choose an alternative to his bacon sandwich.

We laughed and mangled our way to the end of the book we've been translating and exchanged tips for revising our coursework and generally had a good time. 

Afterwards Peter walked slowly back to the car to wait for me while I had my usual walk around. One of my stops was the hardware store. It's a great shop where you can buy single screws or other small items. I bought two double picture hooks and a connector to fit a spray gun onto a hose. 

 

At home it didn't take long to fix the hook and hang up this charming watercolour of a country road. If you look closely you should be able to see a shepherd and his dog in the centre of the picture. I didn't fare so well with fitting the hose to the water butt. Finding a long length of hose, fitting the spray gun and even threading the hose up through a hole drilled in a retaining wall were all relatively simple. But fitting the hose to the water butt not so much. Even though the hose is the same diameter as the short piece that was attached to the tap it wasn't flexible enough to push onto the spout of the tap. That leaves me with two options, either heat the end of the hose with my hairdryer to make it more pliable or buy a hose to hose connector to join the new hose to the existing short piece. Might try heating the hose first.

I know the rain began at 6.00 because I was walking to a friend's house for a lift to Aber to try out the Tenovus choir. Luckily I was wearing a jacket over my shorts and had an umbrella as well. The choir was an interesting experience. I'm finding that every choir has its own character which is not to say one is better than another, just that they're different. Tonight's choir has about 40 members and sings popular songs to a very loud backing track with vocals. That was a first for me and my ears are still ringing from the volume of the music. I'll go again but make sure to sit further away from the speaker. We were given the words of the songs but the teacher encouraged us to not use them but to try and to follow her instead. That's the way I'm used to anyway. 

 

Two Walks.

Yesterday grey, today Borthbados and incredibly hot. By the end of the afternoon I wondered if thunderstorms might be brewing, indeed there is a yellow warning out for thunderstorms and I can see a bank of black clouds building up inland.

Just a shame it hadn't been like this yesterday as I would have loved to show off our new home in the best of weather.

We used up all the porridge oats so after a leisurely and late (didn't have a good night) breakfast I set off for the shop.

Taking a long diversion up the beach and back again first as it would have been a shame to waste the lovely day. 

The fledgling seagulls still have the instinct to stay still when danger walks past.

I did my usual route to the end of this cove before returning and popping into  the shop. Outside the shop I met first one and then another of my walking group and found out that for the first time the 'no walk this week-end' email had been superseded by another suggesting a walk today meeting by the shop. With the promise that the group would wait for me I rushed back home, grabbed a drink, sunhat, a couple of apples and biscuits and my backpack and got Peter to drive me back down the road. I was only wearing walking sandals but they were fine for what was a mostly smooth route.

Back along the beach we went then went up on the path that runs above the beach as two people had brought dogs along. We made an early lunch stop up by the golf course as one of the group was having trouble with his back and needed to sit for a while. After a lunch break and a swim for a few most of the group headed back early while some of us cut across the golf course and down to the Leri river where we headed back behind the village. 

I was especially keen to explore new paths and I was pleased to find that being all on tracks this would be a good route for walking with Peter. This part of the river is more of a canal which was made to help drain the bog and to reroute the river away from the village and the railway. 

It was lovely and peaceful with the wind blowing through the rushes and the sun shining on the distant hills. We turned away from the river and followed a footpath that took us beside the church and onto the lane that goes past the community gardens. 

I felt a couple of drops of rain on the last part of our walk but so far that's all we've had. At home I climbed up into the loft and retrieved a painting from the loft, thank goodness for my obsessive cataloguing of all the art work. I've marked the spot in our bedroom where it is going to hang but we've only got single picture hooks left so the actual installing of the picture will have to wait until I get a double hook. Better safe than sorry.

 

Visit.

No sun today, just every shade of grey in the sky and sea. It's been windy too but that has been a warm wind. The wind is getting stronger now and looks to be changing direction so tomorrow's weather will be interesting.

This morning I was excited to hear that Romas and Laura would be coming over for a visit. It's been three and a half years since we saw them which made the day very special. 

Time to pull up another of my giant radishes. Despite its size it was still fine inside.

They brought along one of their dogs, Rhu(barb). Unfortunately Speedy turned into a hissing, yowling bottlebrush and made it clear he did not want any interlopers in his house. We ended up having to put him outside where he sat glued to the glass door waiting for a chance to come inside and repeat his attack on poor Rhu. She's a very placid dog and sadly their other dog, Custard is aggressive towards her too and they have to be kept separate at all times.

No dogs are allowed on the beach at the moment so Rhu was left at home with Peter, walking is difficult for him at the moment, while the rest of us went for a walk along the beach. Here Romas is demonstrating that even the rounded beach pebbles can be skimmed across the waves. 

Something Romas was able to do for us was to carry this heavy alabaster sculpture from the garage to on top of the corner cupboard. Yesterday I had cut a board to fit on top of the cupboard so that the weight of the sculpture is spread more evenly. I think the sculpture looks just right there.

All too soon their visit was over and they headed back to Porthmadog to the family chalet. Hopefully we'll be seeing more of them now.

 

Warm.

Strange weather today. For most of the day It was very warm with only a hint of wind and incredibly quiet. It was only just now (5.00 pm) when the sky turned black and down came the rain, heavy rain. Sounds like flooding rain. I'm only glad that I didn't bother to water the garden. 

To make you smile - here are my 'aubretia' seedlings. Because I've been carefully weeding the rest of the back garden I haven't been able to find any weeds that look similar. I'm wondering if they might be foxgloves but it's too soon to tell. I'll give them a bit longer just to see what they are.

I had another setback this morning. This was to do with my RSPB membership, not only had they sent me a book on garden wildlife instead of the book on birds I'd wanted but today's disappointment was finding out that our membership does not get us into the Osprey Project. It's so lovely there but I wouldn't want to be paying an extra £12 for the two of us to call in for a coffee. We'll have to check out the bird sanctuary down the road from there which I have been told is also very nice.

Cleaning the blocks and the subsequent lifting has left my back feeling tender so today I did some small jobs including cleaning and waxing these chairs. Unfortunately the back is a bit loose on one of them so I might see if the antique shop in Mach wants them and the small pine cabinet. Or maybe we can glue the chair.

Since the weather was due to change soon I did one load of washing and got it out on the line. That dried by the time I'd finished the chairs. I set up the ironing board but before I could get going I spotted a dolphin out in the bay. I took my camera and binoculars out onto the cliff, didn't get a photo but a good view with the binoculars. Saw the lifeboat returning from a shout. They'd been to tow a broken down yacht to the boatyard at Ynyslas.

I returned to the house about to do my ironing only to see that a seal was up close to the cliff waving a flipper at me (not really) as he ate a large tray sized skate. He was there for ages holding the fish in his flippers bobbing under the water every now and again until the fish was all gone.

After that pleasant interlude I went inside, ironed the duvet cover and fitted it back on. Went to put away the ironing board from the sitting room and lo and behold there were two dolphins cavorting about, maybe fishing, just off the end of the long reef.

Here's hoping that the weather doesn't get cold too soon. This place is well insulated but many people live in poorly insulated homes. How on earth will they be able to afford any heating? In April the average family energy bills for the year were £1,900, that rises to £3,500 this October and then £6,000 the following autumn. All while the energy suppliers such as Esso and BP are making triple (and more) profits compared to last year. And cutting back does nothing about the standing charge which you pay even if you use no electricity or gas at all. Luckily there's no standing charge for heating oil which we have and the price per litre dropped a bit when we got our tank filled up.

 

Warm.

A bit hazy today but still with a warm wind. A pleasant start to autumn.

In the morning I cycled over to the community gardens for lots of chat, some lovely cake (date, prune and chocolate) and a little chopping back of stinging nettles and brambles.

I stopped in the lane on the way back to pick blackberries. The ones round the corner which I picked while holding onto my bike with one hand, were much larger but these were so prolific I contemplated jam making. Then decided that without a jam kettle it was going to be too much bother and possibly mess. Purple stains on my white kitchen, aargh! Instead the blackberries I took home were destined for blackberry and apple crumble.

I got home to find Peter working in the bathroom making a start on removing a heavy peice of wood board that is attached to the ceiling and stretches across the whole width of the room. Instead of trying to rip it down in one go which would probably bring down half the ceiling he cut out a section with the jig-saw. Much more sensible.

My outdoor task was to give the back garden a good weeding and general tidying up. All the ultra tall lettuces have been uprooted and in their place I've planted out ......... well I was hoping to say aubretia seedlings but I have my doubts. As I want a lot of aubretia in the garden I thought it sensible to grow it from seed. I carefully sowed a packet of seeds in a tray of good potting compost, waited and waited until eventually my patience was rewarded by hundreds of tiny seedlings. I carefully potted seedlings into small pots and then began putting the rest straight into seed beds. Tonight as I tenderly removed more seedlings from the tray my suspicions began to be alerted by the fact that the now much bigger leaves don't look anything like aubretia. (I even double checked on Google). I can only assume that a weed spread its seeds across the tray at some point. Strange though that the tray into which I sowed the thrift seeds doesn't have any of these seedlings even though the two trays were next to each other. 

This evening Peter is out while I stayed home, baked more peanut butter and chocolate cookies and made two blackberry and apple crumbles. Blackberries from the lane and cooking apples given to me by friends. I don't use a recipe, just throw in vague ammounts of ingredients and hope for the best. How can you go wrong with fruit, sugar, butter and flour?