Progress.

No rain at all today.

As it was dry once the builders had arrived I went down to the zoo for a spot of weeding. I was well wrapped up and had a peaceful time clearing the weeds from the gravel by the wolf-dogs. I also picked up all the leaves and tiny pine cones littering the gravel. Apart from making it look tidy picking them up ensured that I found all the small weeds because as we know small weeds grow into bigger weeds. Also while I felt a bit sorry for the worms who have been pulling the leaves down to make food stores, increasing the organic matter in the gravel makes it easier for the next lot of weeds to grow. I did look up at the tree overhanging the gravel and wonder if I was going to be picking up all the leaves and cones still on the tree. The idea of chopping the tree down crossed my mind for a brief moment but not really. Cosmo the wolf-dog has been under the weather for quite a while but after all the vet's tests were inconclusive they've been giving him basic (animal) painkillers and he's showing a definite improvement. Maybe a touch of arthritis brought on by the damp weather.

I didn't stay too long at the zoo in case the builders needed to consult with me and look how far they've got. Everything is in and working but I'm going to seal the tiles around the toilet before use. (They are already sealed but an extra coat won't hurt.) There are mirrors above the tiles on the wall opposite the sink, not quite a perfect set but I can do something to hide that. Then the painting will be down to me and our new bathroom will be complete.

 

Bits and Bobs.

Again it's been mostly wet today and on the cold side.

This was our week for going to Mach to meet with our friends and work on our Welsh language skills, always a fun time. We gave ourselves a head start on this week's Zoom class by translating everything in our course notes. Then we moved on to the next written for learners book. This one is an interview with Wynne Evans, the chap who plays the curly moustached singer in the annoying Go Compare tv adverts. So far we have learned about his family history, his grandmother seems to have been a feisty lady and about Carmarthen. Afterwards I had a quick spin around the charity shops, found nothing and then bought a door stop to prevent the bathroom door handle slamming into the tiled wall. I'm making sure that everything that needs drilling into the tiles is done by the builders. Then home to hunker down in a warm house doing not very much at all except watching the wild sea.

Some more snippets from yesterday's walk.

An artist friend of H had asked him to collect oak galls to use to make oak gall ink. Between us we found some, mostly single galls and this leaf with three galls. Oak galls were used to make ink from the 12thC to the 19thC, think medieval manuscripts. The ink is made through a chemical reaction with iron and the plant tannin in the gall which gives oak gall ink its characteristic dark colour. It predominated until the advent of the printing press which needed an oiler and stickier ink.

As we sat inside the ruined cottage eating our lunch there was much speculation about the age of the cottage. It could have been hundreds of years old looking at the enormous fireplace with two built in bread ovens. Who knows? The cottage may well have been inhabited up to the middle of the 20thC. One member of our group recalled the roof being intact 30 years ago.

Something else that intrigued us was the placement of three round stones in what appeared to be a niche close to the floor level of the upper room. There was a carefully chosen flat slate across the bottom of the niche and I wondered if the niche had been made to allow heat from the chimney breast into the upper room. (I'm currently into niches since being able to incorporate one in the shower.)

Next our attention turned to a cast iron farm implement. B had worked with one of these in his youth and explained how the blades of the potato ridger first dug a channel that you dropped the seed potatoes in and on the way back up the row turned the soil back over the potatoes. The ridger would have been pulled by a horse and in later years a tractor. 

Walking through the woods we heard some birds, identified by B as ravens, croaking as they looked for mates. I didn't know we had ravens around here.

We found a dragon too, well it is Wales. A few bits of moss and some leaves made it look even more dragon-like.

There's not much in the way of bird song at this time of the year but this robin was singing away up in a tree.

More Sun, Less Rain.

Only a few light showers today which made a nice change.

Today's walk around Allt y Crib (hill of the ridge) Forest began in Tal Y Bont just 10 minutes drive away. That was handy as I needed to wash all the floors at home before I went out. I thought I could get away with just running the dry mop over them last night but the morning light revealed the need for a proper wash. While I'm not obsessed with housework I am trying to keep on top of the cleaning with the building work going on.

Being out in the fresh air with a group of friends has taken my mind off the bathroom. (A mixture of excitement at seeing the work and impatience to have it done while coping with open doors, dust and everything else that goes on during building work.) 

The six of us left the village following the Afon Ceulan, a tributary of the Leri. The blue house is the home of one of our group (not with us today). The orange house behind is even more startling when fully seen as the bottom half is painted black.

Before long we were in the woods and enjoying the autumnal leaves especially when they were lit up by the sun.

The path rose gradually and soon we were high above the river looking down an almost vertical bank.

There are lots of well maintained paths through the woods (woods/forest?) and we met a number of people out for a Sunday afternoon walk. Usually we hardly see anyone else.

Leaving the woods behind we made our way to a ruined farmhouse where we ate our lunch.

Another shower had us heading back into the woods for a more direct route back. But showers mean rainbows and this one can be seen if you look hard.

On our way back we passed a slightly grander house than our lunch stop.

And then back down to Tal y Bont where our cars were parked by the village green.

Taken from the village FB page - repair work on the power lines when we lost power. It looks like a line was down so I don't think it had anything to do with the train. (The level crossing lights can be seen just beyond the two workmen.) 

Mostly Wet.

It has been raining, on and off all day long. 

Trust me to wake extra early (at 5.00) when the builders were starting later and we had the chance of a lie-in. Soon I was sitting outside with my mug of tea but alas it wasn't long before the rain began. Oh well, I went and did my Duo Lingo and then as I was relaxing watching wild horse videos out went the power. That was just after 7.00 and as we have very limited internet on our phones it wasn't until the power returned two hours later that I found out why. The electricity people had said it was a blown transformer while a local resident reported that as the train went past there was a loud bang (did it hit something?) and off went the power to 600 properties. At least I had my first mug of tea while Peter who slept longer had to go without until the power came back on. Plus no heating, no radio and no internet. 

That hasn't been the only unusual event in the village. Yesterday afternoon the High St. was closed for a while by a number of police vehicles including an armed response unit. Apart from carrying tasers our police force do not carry guns except for special units who are only called in when there is extreme threat. Found out later all that was to carry out the arrest of a person suspected of money laundering. A door was kicked in, the person was arrested and the armed police were not needed. 

After their marathon stint yesterday the builders came a bit later and have been working hard all day. The tiles have all been grouted, the shower mixer fitted and the shower tray put in place. That had needed a concrete platform to level up the bathroom floor which has a bit of a slope. 

Eventually, after much crocheting I needed to go out for walk to clear my head. There was a fine drizzle so I left my camera at home and just used the phone camera. As I mooched along the shore line I came across a tangled roll of fishing net, the fine kind that is so dangerous to sea creatures. Even if I'm not litter picking which I do occasionally I always pick up fine fishing net and fishing line, often with hooks attached as they are so nasty. This net was much bigger than anything I'd come across before, at least 6ft wide and rolled up with odd bits of rope, sticks and a lot of sand. I managed to heave it, a few inches at a time, across the sand and very slowly up the first stony slope leaving a track that looked as if a giant turtle had been on the beach.

At that point a lady walking her dog, a rescue greyhound, offered her help which I gratefully accepted. Together we dragged the net right up to the edge of the beach away from the reach of the waves. It was a bit to far for us to take it to the bins by the slipway which is where I usually dump nets.

The recent stormy weather has brought in great masses of seaweed, several feet high. I gave one a prod with my boot and it was as firm as a tightly packed bale of hay, not the squidgy heap I had been expecting.

On the way home I met A. our neighbour who is having the new roof on his house and we chatted for a long time despite the pouring rain. We both had decent raincoats on and you get used to the rain living in Wales though it's less wet at the coast.

Just heard some fireworks, it's Bonfire Night but still very wet so I wasn't expecting much in the way of fireworks.

 

Wet.

Lots of rain today. No sunny spells, just cloudy ones.

Same clouds, different colours morning and evening.

Off riding again this morning. When I got there I could see on the list pinned on the wall that I was riding Cadno again but I couldn't see him in the line of stalls where the horses stay if they are being used in a lesson. In his usual spot between all the skewbald horses was .......... Cadno? It was a brown horse but I was sure Cadno was more chestnut. Was my memory that faulty? I asked several of my fellow riders who were tacking up their horses and they weren't sure either. It turned out that Cadno was around the corner in another stable and the brown horse was Pacman. We had the boss teaching us and she mentioned to me at the start that I was a good rider. That was a mistake, Cadno and I did well with the trot work, neck nicely rounded onto the bit, bending into the corners and plenty of energy. But when it came to cantering I was having trouble keeping my hands still and Cadno kept deciding that short canters would do. That will teach me to be over confident.

I stopped on the way to town where this tree was lit up by a flash of sun and missed it. I called in at the industrial estate and bought dome head mirror screws and some special tape, less sticky than masking tape, that I can use to stick plastic dust sheets to painted walls. I was going to buy the paint for the bathroom (that's going to be my job not the builder's.) and took a small piece of wood painted from a half tin to make sure of a match with the blue loo. But then I realised I had opened the wrong tin. A similar blue which I think goes back to when I painted the ceiling of Vytas' room when he was a baby. That's nearly 40 years ago. In the end I collected a handful of colour cards from the Crown suppliers as I might want to use a slightly different shade of light blue.

I did the usual food shop at the supermarkets on the way home but didn't bother going to any of the charity shops. 

Bathroom update - all the tiles are on and the remaining walls plastered. There may be a slight delay in grouting as the acrylic grout I have asked for isn't available locally. They carried on working until after 7.00 tonight so we get a bit of a lie-in tomorrow as they are making a later start.

 

Wild.

It has been very wet and windy today but we have escaped the worst of Storm Ciaran with none of the gigantic waves or hurricane force winds that have caused so much flooding and damage in other  parts of the country. The latest reports are that the storm is moving northwards up the east coast of England.

However the windy conditions outside are making me wonder if we should reconsider our plans for a glass balustrade across the terrace. Maybe it would be better to have a simple wire fence like this. Nothing like as stylish as glass and we would lose both the clear view and some shelter on sunny but windy summer days. I'm going to have a close look at the houses that have glass balustrades on the way to the hall for aerobics.

Meanwhile here at bathroom central the lino has arrived and the wall tiles are going up. Tiling has changed a lot since my days of major DIY. For a start the tiles don't go on from floor level up but from half-way up and then down using the laser beam level marker to line up the first row. Then there are these fancy plastic spacers that include external disc clamps that go over adjoining tiles to make sure they are all perfectly level. The builder has found a nice fancy dado rail that mimics the ridged border tiles in the blue loo. He also brought me a bit of spare white counter top, white with grey flecks and some sparkle too, that is just big enough for the extra vanity unit base. That will do.

Most of my day has been spent making cups of tea, mending and carrying on with the crocheting.

The stipa tenuissima looks absolutely wonderful blowing in the wind.

I drove down to the hall for aerobics in case we had another downpour afterwards though it stayed dry and I wished I had walked as I enjoy being out in the wind.

 

Chasing Rainbows.

More rain as Storm Ciaran begins to make itself felt. It's recycling day and despite my best efforts four times I had to go out and rescue both the recycling bag and the food waste caddy which the fierce wind kept blowing across the road.

There were some sunny spells in the morning but not enough for a morning of weeding at the zoo. It should be a busy week there as it's half-term for the local schools. At least both the play areas are clear of weeds as is the gravel area by the guinea fowl. Sometimes I feel bad that the spot where people sit by the café is so weedy but there is so little gravel there that trying to eradicate the weeds is a thankless task. I've heard a rumour of plans to re-do the gravel there but that's an expensive job.

I took a chance and went down to the shop for more biscuits and tea bags and maybe a bar of chocolate. (Although I prefer Lidl's continental chocolate I am partial to mint Aero.) I wrapped up but didn't take my camera which was just as well because as I went for stroll along the beach before going to the shop I got caught in a shower. By the time I got to the first rocks the backs of my legs were soaking wet. Turning back the rain stopped and the cold wind dried out my leggings but then there was the problem of battling against the wind which was gusting fiercely. I could have slipped through the houses and walked back along the High Street but where's the fun in that?

The builders have been working away so I've spent a lot of time in my study coming out every now and again to chase rainbows even walking up the road to get a better shot. In the bathroom the floor tiles under the toilet have gone down, all the walls are boarded, the ceiling plastered and the damaged cupboard is being fitted over the boiler pipes and controls. (The toilet couldn't be centred on the tiles due to the main pipe being set in concrete. It'll do.)

I think I should rename this Christmas Cactus the Birthday Cactus since it began to flower on Romas' birthday. The air plants are all doing well too with their weekly swimming session and look to have doubled in size since I bought them.

Yes, those are a couple of surfers you can see in these evening photos.