Mostly Wet.

More rain in the night which carried on through the morning and then all of a sudden the sun broke through. Lovely weather for a few hours but then the rain returned with a vengance including a thunderstorm directly overhead.

Neither of us had that good a night. I didn't even get to bed until 4.00, only the usual aches and pains stopping me from sleeping. Peter has been suffering from a bad back again and this morning he had an appointment with the chiropracter. Maybe I'm heartless but he does seem to go on and on about his aches and pains. And when I fail to respond sympathetically to his huffs and intakes of breath they just get louder. For goodness sake he's not a toddler who needs to be told 'There, there Mummy will make it better.' At least that's what it feels like to me. Also he's very good at self diagnosing and coming up with the worst prognosis. I don't know how many times he's gone to the doctor (eventually) warning me that he'd going to need an operation which somehow doesn't turn out to be the case. That said I washed up last night and did the floors this morning, usually his jobs and baked a batch of peanut butter and chocolate cookies for his evening snack.

As well as baking I did some extra kitchen cleaning and sorted through the basket of mutliplying plastic boxes that Peter uses for his batch meals. He hasn't quite got the hang of organised storage yet. 

The housework done I was thinking about starting a couple of small diy jobs but then the sun broke through. After days of rain I couldn't stay at home any longer and took myself off for a gentle stroll on the beach.

As it was low tide I pottered around the rock pools enjoying the smell of the seaweed and indulging in the simple pleasures of looking for the inhabitants of the rock pools and imagining fantastical miniature worlds. The sun had warmed the water up and I saw almost invisible shrimps (below) and a shoal of inch long fishes.

I only walked as far as the spit between the first two reefs before my back and a black cloud above had me heading for home.

The weather out at sea, the tides and varying wind direction all combine to affect the type of seaweed and shells washed up on the beach. At the moment the beach looks as if truckloads of noodles have been dumped on the shingle.

The tiredness is beginning to catch up with me now but luckily I did my Duo Lingo in the early hours. Just the guitar to play which I'm going to do now.

 

Dry.

All grey today but very little in the way of rain apart from a few showers in the afternoon. 

This morning I got another of the 'to do' jobs done, filling the gap between the kitchen window and the inside window sill. I don't get on too well the manual 'gun' and didn't make a tidy job but least it's done and there won't be a draft blowing up through the gap. It was only as I was cleaning up that I noticed that the line of sealant at the top of the window is cracking away which might be due to the window not being sealed on the outside. That needs all the top sealant on the inside taking out and re-doing, I'm not looking forward to that and will wait until the outside is properly filled. 

Peter got back from a meeting at the Hub just in time for our Welsh class. That went well, it helped that I'd recently covered the same work on Duo Lingo though our teacher gives us both the north pronunciation and variations which we needed to work on. It can get confusing with aeth ([he/she] went) being pronounced both as ay-th and eye-th even in our course but we're being taught ay-th. Once again the postman rang the doorbell right in the middle ofthe lesson. I didn't try running up the coridoor but got him to hand over the post through the study window.

The afternoon rain put paid to any gardening so I pootled around and played the piano. Later I took a chance on the weather and went to sit outside despite the grey clouds (above). It stayed dry in the warm wind and I was able to relax and watch the waves rolling in. There was even the odd patch of blue up above too.

Later the coastguards turned up for a training session to practise abseiling down the cliff. They waited until dark to begin going over the cliff to be ready for any eventuality.

Last night at choir I decided to try singing as a tenor. With the old choir the alto parts were generally within my range but here I'm struggling and at times feel quite reedy. In this choir there are sometimes only three or even two people singing each part so you can't hide among a big group of voices. So I moved myself over and found the tenor parts much easier. In fact at one point when the bass part was being taught I found that quite easy too. If I'd ever thought to look at something like the chart below I might have realised my voice which I used to describe as a low alto is better as a tenor. One of the choir members has such a wide range she can sing anything from soprano to bass which is impressive.

Wet.

Another very wet day, too wet to go to the zoo. I kept checking but we didn't get the first patch of sun until halfway through the afternoon. Right now it's very windy and I can hear the neighbours' bin rattling around on the pavement. (I've already rescued the lid once.) Although the sun is still shining I can see sheets of rain approaching across the water ready to soak any unwary walkers.

I had a good start to the morning and got nearly all my routine done before breakfast and then played the guitar afterwards. It felt great to get that all out of the way. Then I decided to tackle some of the little jobs that had been set aside 'for another day'. First was going through the small piles of clutter, mainly papers, in my study. There wasn't a lot but it was a relief to clear those and know that I stand a better chance of finding things when I need them. Next on the outstanding list was fitting the toilet roll holder I bought the other week. That didn't go so well. I'm going to put it on the side of the cupboard under the sink so instead of the sturdy screws that came with the holder I needed a couple of bolts to go right through the wood. I knew we had a selection of bolts but Peter's work space in the garage is a real jumble and I couldn't find any bolts. Eventually with his help we found the box but no bolts of a suitable size so that job is on hold until we get some.

I returned to tidying my study and found that one of the pitcher plants has also been invaded by the woolly aphids. I cleaned off as many as I could and sprayed but I think this winter I'm going to let both of the pitcher plants have a rest in a cool space and then let them regrow in the spring. 

By that time we were in a sunny spell so I found myself a couple of small jobs to do in the garden. Generally I don't like using chemicals but I gave the deep rooted weeds growing between the paving slabs in the front garden a spray with weed killer. Maybe it will work this time. Then I decided to clean out the weeds from the drainage channel at the bottom of the drive. Not only were there weeds but once I'd taken up the covers I scooped out nearly three buckets of soil from inside the channel. I have been meaning to do that for a while and now I don't need to worry about water getting into the garage. Listening to the heavy rain above me right now and thinking about drainage channels brings back memories of Dingles. Going out in the rain building dams and digging channels to stop the rain from washing away the drive. I do not miss that one little bit.

Blogging early as I'll be going off to sing this evening.

 

Wet.

Unusually warm but raining for most of the day.

This was the early morning view when it was misty rather than raining (my first morning view was in the dark before 7.00 but I took my tablets and went back to sleep). That gave our neighbours the chance to replace the soffit board and gutter on the side of their house by our garden wall. Then down came the rain, lots of it. Peter had to go out but I hunkered down and did all my daily routines. There was a programme on the radio about procrastination this morning and while I thought that most of it was padding I had to agree that procrastination leads to feelings of guilt. I thought I might try to avoid those feelings by getting the necessary things done first when I can.

The new sink arrived today. We need to move the boxes into the garage before opening them to make sure there is no damage but I have to say the company (Victoria Plum) had a very efficient delivery system. I'd opted for the free service which at first only specified the day of delivery. Then Peter got a text giving us a two hour window, 10-12. At 9.45 came another text saying they would be here in 45 minutes and at 10.30 he got a phone call asking for directions as they were on the High Street. 5 minutes after that they arrived.

Later in the afternoon I was sorting out my tablets and realised that I had run out of one kind, a cardio medicine so quite important. That's when Peter tells me he'd had a text to collect a prescription a while back but had thought it was for him. Thankfully there was still time to walk to the pharmacy, and it had stopped raining. I collected my stash and it was only a chance remark of mine that lead to finding out they had missed out the cardio tablets. A good thing I hadn't waited until I got home to check and yes they do have an IT system but ever since Brexit some things are hard to get hold of and it messes up the system. As it wasn't raining I went for a walk along the beach before going home but I hadn't taken my camera or phone with me so no photos.

 

Warm.

Warm with more clouds today. The police made another fly past looking for the cocaine, not as low or slow as yesterday

I had hoped to make a start on building the facing wall today but didn't know that I need plasticizer to add to the mortar when I mix it. I'll have to wait until Peter brings me some from town (he's going tomorrow.) Instead I had an afternoon of gentle gardening in the back garden. That was after I'd scrubbed the oven, if it was down to me I wouldn't use the oven as its not worth the bother and then tackled the mildew in our bedroom. I had to wipe some of the walls, furniture and the window sills. It should be better once the shower is taken out of the room. I used a proper mildew spray so hopefully it won't come back too quickly. All that done I set to weeding in the back garden. It's fun when there are only small areas to work on. I cleared away the bean poles and the spicy salads that neither of us ate, planted the last of the seed potatoes and divided up two varieties of rockery sedum. Hopefully they will do well over the winter in the more sheltered back garden and be ready to move back to the front garden in the spring.

Now for more photos from yesterday's walk -

Lots of fly agaric around.

A caterpillar of the white lined sphinx moth that we found crossing the road.

Some of the many acorns scattered across the lanes we walked on.

Who needs a supermarket?

These wooden rowing boats and their trailers were a long way from the sea or any river. Waiting for rising sea levels perhaps?

The Iron Room in Furnace, originally a chapel built in the 1890s and now a community hall.

 

Sunny.

A lovely sunny day to celebrate our 46th wedding anniversary. Peter gave me these lovely roses and enough extra nice chocolates and other sweet goodies to add at least a stone if I ate them all in one go. I'm hoping I will have enough restraint to chose a small selection each day. That way I can spread the enjoyment out for longer and perhaps burn off the calories more easily. I gave Peter a selection of bitters (beer made with barley and hops). From the vast selection in the supermarket I tried to chose beers produced by local breweries though I didn't realise that some of the ones I picked are very strong (5%). Peter was quite happy with my choices. We're having barbecued spare ribs for dinner tonight too.

All morning a police helicopter was flying overhead, something was going on. When the helicopter flew very slowly along the cliff at the lowest possible height I feared the worst though I wondered why the police were looking and not the coastguard helicopter or the lifeboat crew who were out for their usual Sunday training. Things got clearer when I read this article. Yesterday £90 million worth of cocaine roped together with empty containers as floats had washed up on a beach near Aber so I guess they were looking to see if there were any more. As well as the helicopter the police were searching up and down the beach. As far as anybody knows no more cocaine has been found. There's bound to be some very angry criminals out there.

I'd woken early so got my Duo Lingo done, sent off this week's homework and put some washing in the machine all before our usual Sunday breakfast. And then it was time to meet up with the walking group at Furnace to explore yet another new route up into the hills.

From the car park we walked along the little river to the main road, which passes over that stone bridge above.

Having bravely crossed the main road with its fast traffic and limited visibility we climbed almost vertically up the wooded slope on the opposite side of the river to the old funace buildings Peter and I visited a while back.

From there we could look down on the spectacular waterfall flowing over the dam built hundreds of years ago to provide hydro-power to the furnace. If you look carefully at the photo above the path Peter and I took to see the waterfall can be seen halfway up the right hand edge of the photo.

We climbed a little further through the woods and emerged on a mossy stone wall lined lane that took us higher up the hillside.

Our intended route was a path somewhere through that bracken covered slope on the right which would have led to the top of the hill. Unfortunately nobody has walked that way since covid and the bracken had completely obscured the path. Instead we tried walking along the edge of this field (not an official footpath) hoping to be able to hop over the fence and go up from there. But with no way to cross the fence we had to return back to the road.

Having come back down to the gateway myself and our group leader volunteered to stomp our way through the bracken to see if we could find the path or at least an easier route.

We got most of the way up but with the bracken and brambles getting taller and taller decided it probably wasn't the best idea to go that way. 

Back down the road we went for a bit,

and then swung up the side of the hill on an easy grass path.

There we stopped at this rocky outcrop for our lunch/snack stop. 

From where we had amazing views down to the estuary and across the wetlands to the sea.

We followed this easy path across the slope of the hill and spotted what looked like a clear path to the top of the hill. But we didn't have time to explore that way today. Instead we headed down the hill, my poor knee, and back into the trees.

Passing a mill and some old buildings in the process of being restored we walked beneath oak trees that had scattered acorns all across the road and then back down to the main road. There we crossed over and walked along a track that brought us back to the car park where we had left our cars. 

 - We've had a delicious dinner which I topped off with an excellent salted caramel chocolate brownie from Pwdin and now we're about to watch Strictly. You know that summer's over when Strictly reappears. Time to talk of ganchos and fleckles.

Windy.

The weather has been all over the place today. First thing this morning the sea was sparkling blue with the sun glinting off the whitecaps and then by breakfst time everything was grey. I took a chance on the weather and did some washing but as I hung the first tea towel on the line down came big fat raindrops. That didn't last too long and the rest of the day was windy with spells of sunshine.

After breakfast armed with scale plans and coloured lines drawn on the bathroom floor I talked Peter through my ideas for the bathroom. Once he could see how it all was he was happy to go with my original plan. All I need to do now is reasearch flooring. I prefer ceramic tiles (smarter and easier to clean) but Peter would prefer lino as its warmer on the feet and softer in case of falls. 

I got on with some Welsh during the shower and then it was gardening time. First thing was digging up the surplus hydrangea without damaging the roots of the hydrangea behind it (and replanting it further down the garden.). That had to be done using hand tools and my hard work was rewarded by finding treasure, a whole cache of bluebell bulbs. I rescued enough bluebell bulbs of varying sizes to half fill a litre plant pot. I like the thought that I'm continuing the original planting scheme of having bluebells under the hydrangeas to provide some colour before the leaves grow on the hydrangeas. I finished off by planting the crocuses and dividing up a pot of black grass. It looks very formal at the moment with the black grass planted in a line which is so not my style of garden but hopefully the 'grass' will spread.

That took up most of the afternoon leaving just enough time to tie up this pretty clematis.