Sunny.

Today has been warm with hardly any wind. And there was enough sun to dry the washing I put out on the line.

As it was such a nice day what else could I do but spend it gardening? Or at least spend the afternoon outside as walking up, having breakfast and doing the housework generally takes up most of the morning. 

The first of my garden jobs was to retieve the concrete 'bricks' which last year I had put inside the front garden wall. That was to hold the plastic mesh in place to discourage people from putting dog pooh bags through the wall. I need the blocks now to put down as the bottom row before I start cementing the facing blocks to the front wall of the raised bed under the terrace. To keep the mesh in place I used cable ties looped through the fancy blocks of the wall. Even though I had a long sleeved top and gloves on sliding my arm down to reach the heavy concrete bricks resulted in scratched arms from the hedge and more scratches when I took my gloves off to fit the cable ties. Later I chipped the mortar off a third of the bricks I need so it shouldn't be long before I can start mixing up mortar and sticking the facing blocks on to the raised bed.

We've had a run of dry days so it was a good time to get the mower out and tidy up the front garden. After my enthusiastic shaping by eye didn't turn out so well last time today I used a rope and cane to mark out a perfect circle for the wild meadow part of the lawn which I may keep or may turn into something else. Initially I used stones and then put flour down before mowing a path around the outside of the circle. I replaced the stones after mowing until I do more weeding and tidying up. 

I finished my gardening afternoon with some chipping away at the concrete bricks before stopping to do the ironing. No point in putting off the housework.

 

Queen Elizabeth II's Funeral.

The day began by looking quite grey but brightened up in the afternoon.

This morning we joined with half of the world's population and watched the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, both the service in Westminter Abbey and the solemn procession to Hyde Park. We're not monarchists but this was too historic a day to ignore. The BBC did a good job of their coverage with almost no commentary during the service allowing viewers to soak up the atmosphere of the service in the ancient building. I also appreciated the way the cameras never stayed too long on anyone's face not looking to find a real or imagined reaction to what was for the family a sad and deeply personal moment.  

I guess now the real world will hit us all with a thump as the politicians try to wriggle out of taking responsibility for the mess the last 11 years have got us into. No surprise that our PM is lifting the cap on bankers' bonuses or that she has no plans to stop the multinational oil companies from making more and more profits. Nothing to do with the fact that she once worked for Shell or that the oil companies fund her and her party.

This morning I also did a batch bake of bara brith, some for now and the rest for the freezer. It's more economical to use the oven only once but it does get hard to mix up nearly 6lbs of ingredients. That said bara brith is Peter's current favourite cake. Later in the afternoon I went out to do more gardening. The car should smell lovely the next time Peter takes the big garden bag to the dump as apart from all the perennial pea that I cleared off the trellis in it are a lot of fennel seed heads, some Thai celery and some sage that was looking a bit sad. I've also pulled up all of the seedlings that turned out not to be aubretia.

This plant is growing in the front garden having arrived this summer. I'm pretty sure it's echium pininana, I've seen them growing in Cornwall and a neighbour a few doors up has some that also just arrived one year. Could be interesting.

 (Photo from the web.)

Bright.

Cool, windy and sunny today. With the days becoming cooler it's time to bring out my fingerless gloves as I've always had cold fingers due to poor circulation.

Today is exactly two years since we moved here. We decided to celebrate Moving In Day (MID) with two candles in a couple of brownies. I read through the 'Projects' sections in my Hobbit journals and what a long list it was that took us from a semi-building site to a comfortable home, despite still lacking a few major alterations.

This afternoon I went off for a wonderful three hours of walking in the hills with the walking group. We met up in Tal-y-Bont and then piled into two cars for another few miles along a single track up into the hills.

We walked through a small section of forestry plantation and then for the most part we were out on the bare rock strewn hills. My sort of landscape.

From our vantage points we could see a number of small lakes apparently much depleted after the hot year with minimal rain and to the west the bright blue of Cardigan Bay. Borth itself was hidden behind a line of hills. We stopped for lunch at the highest point of our walk. Sheltered from the sharp wind by the slope the sun shone warmly and we enjoyed the utter silence around us. Also enjoyed was some raspberry and white chocolate cake brought along by one of the group which she had baked that morning.

The old quarry was very impressive and a possible source of rocks for the garden.

To give an idea of the height of the rock face .......

We only passed two couples on our route but down by the lake we could see some parked vehicles. Sometimes people bring cross country motorbikes up to ride and there were some distinct well used ovals and almost vertical bike tracks. We thought we would have heard any motorbikes so perhaps they had brought out mountain bikes for some off-road cycling.

By the time I got home there wasn't time for much except to upload the photos and make a start on the blog. Sunset tonight was just a fading into an orange sky beow black clouds but last night's sunset was fairly dramatic.

Breezy.

A day of sun and clouds.

While Peter took yet another car load of garden waste and rubble to the dump (he had to queue behind 18 cars today) I carried on digging out the montbretia corms from under the hydrangeas. That mostly involved crawling under the bushes trying not to snap off the brittle hydrangea branches.

When I'd finished I took a break for an hour and decanted some of my latest stash of plasters from their paper wrappers. When I go to the zoo I put at least one plaster on each finger and toe to prevent damage which can take a while if I have to take each plaster out of its wrapper. 

And then I was tempted back outside for a walk along the beach. Only for an hour to blow away the cobwebs.

Sunset last night.

Yesterday - I loved these pones dozing in the sun. The dappled pony was sleeping with its head resting on the other pony's leg. 

As well as the dragonflies flitting about Ynys-Hir they had this large metal sculpture by the visitors' centre.

 

Windy.

Bright and windy today. I took the photo below first thing and by the time we were eating breakfast the wind had whipped up whitecaps all across the bay. It was a good drying day and I was able to put some washing out on the line.

Today we went exploring and went to the RSPB reserve at Ynys-Hir (in-iss-here). It's only 15 minutes drive away and no doubt we shall be returning often to walk around the woods and wetland trails. If we hadn't already known we had a clue that it was a bird reserve when I opened the car door in the car park only to have a robin fly down to within 12" of my foot. No doubt he was hoping for some crumbs but he wasn't in luck.

There are three well marked trails but as this was our first visit we were advised to take the 2 1/2 mile wetland trail.

We began by walking through the woods with tantalising glimpses of the Dyfi Estuary. Apart from the occasional passing train it was just so peaceful with butterflies and dragonflies everywhere.

There are two well appointed hides on this trail and we visited both of them on our circular walk around the ponds. We had brought binoculars and saw a redshank, an egret, a raven and lots of Canada geese though they might have been barnacle geese.

Love these signs, much nicer than 'keep out'.

One of the outdoor bird watching spots.

It was a lovely place to visit and I look forward to going there in the spring when the woods are carpeted with bluebells.

Back home I cleaned off the last of the loose concrete blocks and then dug up more montbretia corms. It's a bit like digging up an abundant potato crop. 

 

Windy.

A windy day with the occasional burst of sun. The wind was coming from the north and brought a real chill. I guess autumn is truly here.

I cycled down to the community gardens for what is my last cake and culitvate meeting for the time being. Next week I shall be working the old brain cells as we start Year Two of our language course. The other day we had a proper chat (in Welsh ) with one of the postmen when he delivered a parcel. Peter takes every opportunity to converse in Welsh while I am a bit more reticent.

I couldn't see anyone around when I first got to the gardens so I went up and had a lie down in the hammock. It was very peaceful looking down on the village and swinging gently with the chickens searching the grass around me. Don't laugh but I had never been in a hammock before. There's a first time for everything. (That's got me thinking about some of the more unusual things I have done; swum (fully clothed) in a canal lock in central London (dangerous!), ridden in a horse drawn carriage (not as a tourist ), milked a goat and sheared (shorn?) a sheep with hand clippers. How about you?)

My job for the morning was to complete some repairs to the mosaic around the Watershed doors which had been damaged in the last bout of vandalism. The vandals tend to kick the bottom of the doors to try to break in. Where possible the bits of glass had been replaced and set in a light grey tile cement and today I went over the repaired areas with a dark grey tile cement mixed with wood glue. To finish I used a cloth to clean the grey mix off the glass and china.

I took along some of our giant radishes to share and some strands of a trailing houseplant (parthenocissus striata) that grows like a spider plant. It has done so well in the sitting room that some of the strands have almost reached the floor so I thought I may as well pass them on.

I got home to find Peter had been working on the bath. He'd located the stopcock for the old pipe system and disconnected the bath which was good news but then came the bad news. The bath is a cast iron bath and far too heavy even for a couple of strong men to move. Peter in his days as a plumber had come across these before and his solution was to smash it up with a sledgehammer. I looked on Google but the only alternative offered was to cut it up with an angle grinder. And I was so looking forward to using it as a raised pond in the front garden. I looked into ways of making a raised pond only to find that owing to the weight of the water the sides need to be constructed from concrete blocks or railway sleepers with an inner liner and even a ground level pond needs quite a bit of construction. Not like in Devon where all I had to do was dig a hole in the wet clay soil and wait. Then I had a lightbulb moment. We're on good terms with our plumber so how about asking him if he ever has to remove a more modern lighter bath bath could he drop it off at our place. That way I'm still recycling something that would have to go to the dump and all I need to do is disguise the sides which I can do rather than build the whole thing from scratch.

With a possible solution to the pond I turned to clearing the montbretia from under the hydrangeas. I've been pondering what to plant in the gap along the wall. My first thought was maybe the pyracantha given to me by the nephew of the last owner or perhaps a deep purple buddelia that's in the back garden but in the end I took a chance on two hydrangeas which had been growing too close to the steps. They are the same as the ones next to the gap so I know they can cope with the conditions and they wouldn't grow too high blocking next door's window. If they don't take then there are several more of the same variety in the garden and I can try plan B. I've cut the stems right back so at least one may survive. I thinking to put some small spring bulbs under the hydrangeas also I have some black 'grass' which spreads well.

Lots of people on the water later on, I think that's a surf club or organised lesson.

Speedy trying to convince me that he hasn't just eaten a whole sachet of cat food and extra dry food for his supper. 

 

Windy.

Sunny today with a brisk wind stirring up whitecaps across the bay.

A good day to cycle down to the zoo for my weekly dose of animals other than the cat.

Most of my weeding today was in an established flower bed next to the wolf-dogs who both sniffed my fingers through the wire.

The ponies were sporting smart face masks to keep the flies out of their eyes. I gave my neck and bare arms a good spray with insect repellant before starting work so the only thing that bit me was a vicious rose branch which drew blood. Luckily I carry a mini first aid kit with antiseptic wipes and plasters as plants can have all sorts of nasties on them.

Two very happy pigs.

On my way home a flock of sheep were hiding from the sun in a small grove of trees.

Once home there was just time for a quick coffee before getting on with more gardening in the front garden. At least this time I could do most of it sitting on one of the wide garden steps. I feel bad about putting bucketfuls of crocosmia corms in the bag going to the dump to be composted but there is a limit to how much crocosmia I can keep in the garden. As it is all the troughs by the street have crocosmia in and there is more under the street hedge and down at the far end of the garden. All too soon it was time for a shower before going off to the choir in Tal-y-Bont. Just for fun some of the choir turned up wearing dungarees of all varieties. It's that sort of crowd. A good evening's singing though the last song proved a real challenge. We'd think we'd got the tune sorted but as soon as one of the other groups was being taught their part that would take over and we'd forget our part completely. And this was a song with three verses and a chorus rather than the usual one or two verses. I'm sure we'll get there in the end. Incidentally I noticed this afternoon that the tinitus had gone, what a relief though it has returned in a much milder form tonight.