Wet.

Grey skies, grey sea and more rain with the sun reappearing (sort of) here in the afternoon. All while it was still quite warm.

This morning we went up to Mach to meet our friends to work on our Welsh. I think all the other customers in the cafe were visiting tourists who were a bit bemused by our excited attempts to translate the story book we've been reading. Written for learners it's still a challenge but between the four of us, two different dictionaries, our course books and Google translate we got there in the end.

This was the view from the car park, I was trying to show the low cloud hanging over the valley but it looks more like a blur on the camera lens.

Afterwards Peter went off to sit in the car as his knee was reacting to the the damp weather while I went for an amble around the shops. Imagine my surprise to hear my name being called. Somebody I know from the community gardens was there having a coffee with a friend of hers. (Mi wnaeth hi coffi efo ffrind hefyd.) More chat and then I went off, the rain having eased off momentarily. I got a hose fitting in the hardware shop and an Usborne children's book - Welsh For Beginners, with lots of fun illustrations in one of the charity shops.

As I walked down the road I took some photos of some of the doors along the way. 

It was still raining when we got home so I had another try at the new Duo Lingo. Part of my current trouble is that before the switch I was only half-way through the learning exercises for one topic but now have been thrown straight into the test exercises. So far today I have tried and failed six times to complete a set of test questions. Not good for my confidence.

In the end I gave up and went outside to plant out some of the million aubretia seedlings that have suddenly germinated (I hope they are not just random weeds.) Some have gone into my smallest pots while others have gone straight into the ground. I would love to end up with cascades of aubretia tumbling over the fronts of the raised beds. Foolishly I didn't keep the packet so I don't know if they are all one colour or mixed. Nothing happening yet in the tray that I sowed the thrift but that did come with the warning that it is a slow germinator.

 

Grey.

Grey skies, a flat sea and intermittent showers today.

Having succesfully paced myself so that I didn't end up with one bit or another aching in the night  yesterday evening while watching tv I rubbed something into my eye. I looked and rinsed with saline but there was no sign of an eyelash or cat hair, the usual suspects so I guess I scratched my eye with a bit of 'sleep' or dust. That made my eye sore enough to justify some late night watching of Sanditon, my latest light entertainment for night watching. I've started with season one so there are plenty of episodes to keep me amused. I find it more authentic looking than Bridgerton though I wonder how authentic the dances are. Couldn't find any information about them on-line. One thing that interested was a scene set in a Methodist chapel which I immediately recognised as John Wesley's chapel in Bristol which I visited years ago.

Now that the Welsh poppies have died back I was able to plant some of the saved daffodil and narcissi bulbs in the front garden. I had to stop when it rained and after more Duo Lingo returned to taking down tiles from the bathroom. I've cleared the wall where the builder will (eventually) installing a window. Next step is to dismantle the airing cupboard and remove the bath.

After that very dusty job I had an early shower and sat out on the terrace to dry my hair.

 

Windy.

Wild seas today with a strong but warm wind blowing all day.

This morning, while Peter went off to town to get rid of all the bags of tiles and wood from the old garden chairs which he'd finally decided were too far gone to repair I carried on knocking tiles off the bathroom wall. Some on the old door frame only came off in shards, (they must have used extra strong tile adhesive) but others were easier. The biggest chunk was all of 14 of the big tiles plus the smaller ones still stuck on behind. 

And then it was back to the long hedge which is now done for the winter. While the slope isn't perfectly even my goal of getting all the thicker stems cut and a good 6-9" off the top has been achieved. I was pleased to see that a number of honeysuckle stems that I had transplanted from the other side of the garden had made their way up to the top of the hedge. One of the benefits of cutting the hedge is talking to passing neighbours especially when they say nice things about the hedge and the way the front of the house looks.

Out in the back garden a single self-sown nasturium that popped up by the blue grass is happily spreading over the pebbles. The nasturiums in the troughs by the street are also doing well. Not as well as this one but not bad considering the winds that blast up the street. And they're getting munched by a variety of caterpillars. I think the birds are helping out by eating the caterpillars and I regularly check for any they miss. These I throw into the road for the birds or the cars.

It was such a lovely afternoon that I had an extra long session sitting out on the terrace. A bodywarmer to keep me cosy and a coffee to hand, what more could I want? I took my kindle out to read but for most of the time I simply watched the sea  with its changing colours and heaving waves. There was a lone hardy surfer, one wind surfer zooming about and the guy with the purple wing surfer that reminds me of a sodden butterfly when it ends up floating on the water.

 

Windy.

A breezy day, a bit grey in the morning and sunnier in the afternoon.

My job for today was more hedge trimming using the loppers to cut back the thick stems. My neighbour has taken all the trimmings up to his farm to burn. The hedge looks very odd from the street side but will be fine once it's finished. 

I gave myself time to relax and enjoy the sun at the end of the afternoon, who knows how many more fine days we'll have? But before that I spent some time doing my Duo Lingo which was not a fun experience. Why? Because they've changed it again. The last set of changes wasn't too radical but this is a total overhaul with a new layout and I so dislike change. Worse still they've removed the 'Tips' that were with each section. The tips give an explanation of the grammar covered in the section a portion of which can be seen below. With conjugation, mutations - where the initial letter of many words can have three different versions depending on the syntax, different north and south vocabulary and numerous exceptions it seems madness to expect the learner to work these out simply by translating words and sentences. I went into Duo to see what was going on and I'd already been switched over. Luckily there is a Welsh learners FB page and somebody sent me the link to the complete set of tips. I may get Peter to print out all 136 pages as I find them invaluable. Otherwise I'd have to be looking through my Zoom class coursebook which has got so much other stuff in it as well.

 

Wet.

A grey morning. By the afternoon the sea mist that was making the air damp had turned into bouts of heavy rain.

I still cycled to the community gardens this morning not even bothering to take a waterproof on Peter's advice. His arthritic knees generally give him advance warning of rain though an hour later and I would have got wet. The sea mist had made itself felt at times as I gently chopped away brambles (but not too much) as the organic ethos there allows for letting the wild plants co-exist with the crops. Others in the group made repairs to the latest bout of vandalism which included holes in the polytunnel and a failed attempt to jemmy open the lock to the tool shed. The police aren't interested but I've tasked Peter to bring it up with our local councillor whom he sees quite often. Cake today was date and walnut, still warm from the oven and generously buttered. Very tasty.

I stopped on the way back to say hello to these bullocks, I'm guessing they are aberdeen angus crosses as pure breed aberdeen angus are rare, only 250 registered cows in the country.

Back home I wasn't too sure what to do. I'd hoped to return to the hedge cutting but the rain put a stop to that and after a sleepless night due to a sore arm I needed a break from the tiles. Instead I had an afternoon of music. I ended the afternoon sanding a small mirrored cupboard but now I'm not even sure I want to carry on with that project as the door sticks and there isn't an easy way to fix it to the wall.

 

Grey.

It rained again in the night but stayed dry during the cool day.

I needed to rest my back so had to postpone my plans to cut the hedge. Instead I made a start on taking down the bathroom tiles as hopefully we should be getting the window put in soon.

Although the airing cupboard will be dismantled I decided to take off the tiles on the cupboard wall so that we can see how it was put together. Oh joy, the door frame has been built over the tiles. Also I think the dump has separate sections for tiles and plasterboard. As I began I found that the marvellous flesh coloured tiles had been put over much nicer yellow tiles which match the bath. It was hard and noisy work getting those tiles off. Luckily Peter had gone out for a meeting. I was only too happy to stop when he returned and then had a second session when he went off rowing later in the afternoon. That second bout went much more quickly as the tiles came off the plastered wall in chunks of 2, 4 or even more tiles. 

I found myself some admin jobs to do and then went through a box of photos, a real walk down memory lane. Some bitter sweet memories as I looked at photos of family members who are no longer with us but happy memories too. Also many happy memories of the horses I used to look after in Stepney so I decided to put a selection of their photos on my pin board.

Just to get outside I did some gardening in the back garden, weeding and tying up. The next thing will be to see how the climbers fare over the winter.

I also had a piano practice, the first in a long time and then a singing warm-up as I may have found a local choir to join.

Pretty clouds at the end of the day but no dramatic sunset.

 

Windy.

Bright and very windy today with the possibility of heavy rain this evening.

Although the sun has been shining today the strong winds have made it feel almost chilly. I cycled down to the zoo where as I was sheltered from the wind I didn't need the light fleece I'd brought with me. After an initial spell of quiet the cooler weather brought more people to the zoo looking for something to do as an alternative to the beach. I'd given in and begun weeding the gravel under the picnic tables by the cafe, an unrewarding job as the weeds grow back in an instant (the gravel needs re-doing). I got a bit at the side done and then cleared the front where they do the meet-the-reptiles/creepy crawlies but then there were just too many people eating at the tables so I finished off by doing a bit more outside the main gate.

At home the new neighbours were in so rather than disturb them with the noise of me chipping away at the concrete blocks I began working on reducing the height of the long hedge by the street. I put up a rope to give me a guide for the new top line and then began cutting. I had to use the secateurs rather than the electric hedge trimmer as I have to cut through some much thicker stems. The main problem today was stopping the cuttings from blowing up the road in the increasingly strong wind. As I worked I put the cuttings in a bucket which I then emptied into the big garden bag which I'd brought out with me. So far I've just cut a little way inwards along the whole length. I was just packing up when our other neighbour came out and offered to take the bag up to his nearby farm and add it to his burn pile which he tells me is as big as our front garden. That is helpful of him. Nothing else of note today.