A Wild Day.

It's been a day of strong winds, enormous waves, sudden downpours and sunny spells.

Vytas and Sally left after a leisurely breakfast weighed down by a couple of my homegrown courgettes.  (I hadn't seen the larger one before.) We've already arranged their next visit which will be just before Christmas so that's something to look forward to. 

Keeping up with the youngsters yesterday resulted in a lot of aches and pains last night and little sleep. I must try and remember to stick to a slower pace. Apart from the heavy rain in the middle of the day I just didn't feel like going out for the group walk even though it's much more of an amble than a march.

Instead I put my study back to rights, did several loads of washing which dried between showers and also did some ironing.

Here are a few more photos from yesterday taken by Sally on her phone. For most of the walk my camera was put away in my back pack. I didn't want the camera to get wet and I was also worried that I might slip and knock it on the ground.

Starting the path beside the waterfall.

A Wet Walk.

A quick post as my study doubles as the guest bedroom. 

Not put off by the forecast, which turned out to be correct, the three of us set off for a walk in the Cambrian mountains. We parked by Llyn Pendam (it was still dry at that point), walked through the forestry land and down to the cottage at the bottom of Craig Y Pistyll waterfalls. The trees provided some shelter from the rain while we ate our lunch but then it was up the narrow and somewhat perilous path up the side of the gorge. More walking, sometimes through very wet vegetation and back to the car. All of us were soaked by that stage.

Home to dry off and then a nice supper. Have to stop now as they've finished washing up.

 

Toothache.

It looks like we are in for more wet weather. Not the best when Vytas and Sally are coming for the weekend. I'd been looking forward to taking them up into Snowdonia but I'm not sure about going up steep and narrow wet paths in the mountains.

There was enough of a break between showers in the morning for me to walk to the pharmacy to collect my prescription and it was sunny for most of the afternoon but there is no doubt that the clouds are looming. Oh well.

This morning I set up the guest bed in my study. It's not too hard to put up but things have to be moved round so that I can pull out the trundle bed and make the beds. I keep the guest bedding in a plastic storage tub but when I took out the white duvet cover which had been ironed and put away spotless it had brown stains down some of the folds. I can't imagine what had caused that unless it was something on the inside of the plastic tub. Luckily I have several brand new sets which I bought because they were 70% off but the stain is a mystery.

Conveniently the riding lesson had been moved to the afternoon as the Pony Club children had had a sleepover in the stables (not actually with the ponies). I rode Hazel again. I saw from the list that I had been put down for Meg who had then been crossed out and Hazel written in with a question mark. Hazel was her usual scatty self. She spooked straight away when she heard my foot on the plastic mounting block. It was a good thing I hung onto her reins as she managed to knock Iola over at the same time. I wisely avoided the scary corner while we were warming up by doing more transitions across the centre of the school and circles when I could fit them in.

Apart from another small spook at the smallest of noises from the other side of the wall Hazel was fairly okay. When it came to practising coming to a halt she did really well. Not so much because my aids were spot on but I think more because she responds well to voice aids. I only had to say 'Stand' almost under my breath and she would come to a halt and then would trot away when I asked her to. It's getting more energy out of her that I struggle with, my legs just aren't strong enough but a little flick with the end of the schooling whip generally does the trick. 

It was a bit disconcerting having the lesson later in the day but I carried on as usual doing the supermarket and town shopping before arriving home in time for a shower and then a lovely cup of tea.

I came home to find that Pete was not a happy bunny. He thinks he broke a tooth or dislodged a filling a day ago and had toothache all night long. I know it's bad because he phoned for an emergency NHS dental appointment. He is utterly phobic about the dentist and will only see one when he really has to. He's now waiting for a call back, within 24 hours they said but who knows? He can't eat so would not be able to enjoy the Chinese takeaway we planned to have tomorrow. He says it's better now he's put some gel on it but he's sure the tooth needs to come out. I've fished out my bottle of Oil of Cloves if he gets desperate.

We're still waiting to hear from Vytas and Sally who will be driving up after work. It can take them over four hours so I don't expect to see them until later.

 

A Touch Of Whimsy.

It's mainly been a day of heavy rain with a short spell of sun later in the afternoon.

And here is my latest mad project. I'm happy with the street side of the door with its blue paint and glass blobs on the fan light. But the inner side looked too mundane for my taste. And since I had spare glass and a tube of clear builders' adhesive (I used bathroom grade silicone for sticking the blobs on the porch windows), I thought 'Why not?' I think it cheers up that space between the house and the garage. 

While it was still pouring with rain in the morning I deep cleaned the bathrooms, polished the silver spoons I bought last week and baked a chocolate courgette cake for Vytas and Sally's visit this weekend.

Pete went down to man the RNLI shop this morning. His takings for today were ..... £6. Luckily he was able to pass the time chatting to his friend who is the station manager or else he would have been very bored. There's only so much rearranging of the shelves you can do in the tiny shop.

Off soon to disco aerobics.

The Next Project.

We had some very heavy rain in the morning, a side effect of Hurricane Erin I believe. But amazingly it all cleared up in the afternoon and once again it was very hot.

I waited until the worst of the rain was over before driving to the zoo and had kept myself busy by cooking up the bag of cooking apples that my friend had given me yesterday. Stewed apple goes nicely with our morning porridge. 

At the zoo I was determined to finish weeding the gravel by the guineafowl so despite a number of brief showers I carried on weeding. I had my yellow jacket by me and would put it on as the rain began and then moments later the shower would stop and off came the jacket. This FB reel made last week shows my work area, beautifully weed free.

The zoo was very busy today as it was the last of the VIP days when people can see the exotic animals and there were almost back to back talks and demonstrations. The zoo staff must be exhausted by the end of the day. I just get on with my weeding though I did have a long chat with someone I know who was there with his visiting family.

Before tackling the last corner of the large play area I went over the planted up gravel by the wolf dogs removing any weeds and picking up fallen leaves. I further distracted myself by spending some time with the pigs. They had been tucking into a heap of fresh grass but came running and squeaking as soon as I went into their field. Tummy scratches are better than grass any day.

Back home I got on with household chores before finding time to sit outside and enjoy the sun. I was all changed ready to go to choir when I realised that both my knee and my back were aching and after waking at 4.00 this morning I didn't feel like going out again. 

Having decided to stay home when I found  out that it might be raining tomorrow I went ahead with my latest wild idea and began sticking glass blobs on the inside of the back gate. I eventually ran out of energy and hope I get a chance to finish off tomorrow. I'm using the expensive builder's adhesive so the glass should stay stuck but you never know, I might go out tomorrow and find a pile of glass blobs on the ground. 

White Not White.

After overnight rain it looked as if we had come to the end of the hot weather. The waves were coming in thick and fast much to the joy of the surfers and the skies were grey. But later in the afternoon we had a sudden change back to hot sun though still with the wind and the waves.

In the morning we went to Mach to meet up in the library with our friends to practise our Welsh. Since we'd had to change to Tuesday this time it meant the Royal House would be open. Of course we never miss an opportunity buy something nice to take home having left a little earlier bringing our cool bag with us.

In the library we did our best to revise anything we thought might come up in the first Zoom class of the year and to go over the next unit in our course books.

By the time we got home the sun was out. After walking down to the surgery to speak to the receptionist I was ready to do more painting. Yesterday's paint had dried whiter but was still more of a warm white rather than the cool white I had hoped for. There's not enough difference for me to go and demand my money back from Charlie's and I can use the paint up painting the garage window frames that face my neighbour's garden. Luckily I had enough white gloss in an old tin to go over everything I painted yesterday and it looks a lot better. Maybe most people wouldn't notice but I have eyes like a hawk especially for colour.

While I was painting Pete put up a second wall light in the porch. The wiring for this one isn't connected as I intend to put a small plant in it. I shall have to choose carefully as it gets very hot in the porch.

I finished off my day with an hour of Pilates. It was a hard workout today but I'm sure it does me good.

A Hot Bank Holiday.

It's been another very hot day but the word is out that this current spell of good weather is coming to an end. 

I've been painting again today. I started on the door frames and was quite shocked when I opened a new tin of 'brilliant white' gloss to find it nearer to cream with maybe a hint of green. I went ahead anyway and the paint has dried to a whiter shade though not as bright white as I hoped. That included the inside of the back gate as I have a plan for it which is still in the design stage.

I did some more wall painting as well but it was too hot and hearing the sounds of families enjoying being on the beach drained my enthusiasm for working. As soon as I came to the end of the paint in my paint kettle I put everything away and headed for the terrace.

A few more photos from yesterday.

I love the way horseshoes have been used for the name of the farm. This was a very organised and neat farm with everything in the large barns stored tidily. 

Somebody expressing their view? To be fair the cave has been 'closed' for years. We reckoned the signs were just for insurance purposes. 

Autumn?

I found this photo of The Big Tribute Festival on-line.