A Sunny Morning.

I woke this morning to clear blue skies and a calm blue sea. But all too soon the clouds began to roll in and the sea changed to green then grey and the temperature plummeted. Eventually late in the afternoon we had some rain too. A moderate breeze was blowing all day and the towels I hung out on the line were almost dry when I brought them back inside.

In the morning I needed to pick up a prescription and some milk so I had a brisk walk along the beach at the same time. There was just enough time before our Zoom class to give the pedestal of the sundial and the pond brickwork a coat of cream paint. I could have lived with the red brick paint on the pond wall but as the sundial's pedestal was in a shabby state and needing painting to cover where some of the render had fallen off I thought I might as well do the bricks as well. I was able to do a second coat later in the afternoon as the paint had dried in the wind. The bricks will need at least one more coat but I think the pedestal will pass muster now.

Our Welsh class went well as usual. Lots of listening to recorded conversations and announcements. It's surprising how much we can understand, or maybe not seeing as this is our third year of learning. I console myself by thinking about all the neural connections being made as my brain tries to process the information which was one of the reasons I'm learning Welsh

Off in five minutes to disco aerobics. 

 

Chilly.

It's been another of those days when we couldn't tell what the weather was going to be like. Definitely less windy than of late but a heavy shower after breakfast caused Peter to change his plan of cutting paving slabs for me to going into town. A real shame as we didn't have any rain after that.

It still felt quite cold so I wrapped up well and did some small jobs in the garden including sweeping the paving. Not so easy when my yard broom only has a head and no handle. I better buy at least a broom stick, with screw fitting, next time I'm in town. Having a few rocks left over from all my projects I used up some of them to carry on the rockery theme in the small raised bed that I made last year. I also used some of the original pebbles on the raised bed by the pond. No doubt eventually the plants will grow over them but for now they'll help to keep the moisture in the soil and look tidy too.

One indoor job that I did was to drill holes, lots of them, through the plasterboard in my study to find the positions of the wooden studs so that I can make some shelves in the corner.

It was too windy this morning to throw bird seed on the terrace, much to the annoyance of the female blackbird who came and twittered at me. Instead I put some in a dish lower down in the garden. I wasn't expecting to see a rook helping himself when I looked through the window later in the day. I let him have a bit of a feed before shooing him away as I didn't want to see the rest of the rooks descending into the garden.

Off in a minute to choir. I'm warmly dressed as we (the tenors) won't be sitting near a radiator this week and it does get quite chilly on the other side of the room.

 

Still Windy.

It's been windy again today. This morning I couldn't tell which way the weather was going to go but in the end the clouds cleared and we had a lovely sunny day.

It would have been a good day for hanging out the washing but instead I headed off to the zoo where I spent the day weeding. First I planted up more mint in the space where somebody 'weeded' out last year's mint. I always check if the plants I bring to the zoo could be toxic to any of the animals but imagine my surprise when I saw that mint was toxic for dogs. Upon further investigation I found out that it is only Pennyroyal which is toxic and all the ordinary mints pose no problem. I ended up being at the zoo for five hours which is a long time for me and my knees and back are not that happy. A good thing I've got Pilates soon.

Since I didn't take many photos today here are a few more from Sunday's visit to Coed Tamsin-

A grassy spot filled with snake's head fritillaries. 

More lovely garden flowers. I shall look for camassia on sale as I really like blue flowers.

Out in the woods this tree had a passageway through the trunk and it even had a bracket fungus forming a porch.

High up, almost at the crest of a hill was a hole filled with water. This water is being pumped up by the action of the wind on the tall tree. Even with only a slight wind the rocking action in the canopy of the tree is transferred down to the roots and water is drawn up to this hole. It was most odd to see the surface of the water pulsing up and down. When it's very windy the water gushes out of the hole sending mud pouring down the hillside. 

Windy.

It's been a wild and stormy day. Our friend, who lives along the coast beyond the first headland in the photos, was kept awake until 4.30 this morning by the wind, hail and snow battering at her windows.

This morning we went to Mach to meet up with our friends for our regular Welsh practice session. They've been rearranging the furniture in the library so we had to chose a new place to sit. There was one table by the computers but I didn't think the people working quietly would be too pleased by our rowdy attempts to master the Welsh language. Instead we took ourselves to the noisy end of the library near the children's section which just happened to be having a messy play session. There we could all be noisy together. One toddler was quite loud but I don't mind that if I'm not the one having to look after the child. We were near the end of the book (written for learners at our level) we were translating when Elaine realised she knew the bridge (where the villains were forging bank notes) and then got more excited when she recognised the lane the fictional detective was driving along. It was akin to watching a tv drama set in a location you know well which is always fun. Afterwards I had my usual walk along the main street popping into the charity shops, where I found a couple of Welsh language study books and a German dictionary/ grammar book for Peter. Unfortunately the lovely bakery is closed on Mondays but our next meet up will be on a Wednesday so I can get some treats then. Another of my stops was to the hardware store to get some things for Peter. It's the only place we know where you can buy small hardware items singly.

It was still very windy when we got home but of course I had a couple of hours working outside. First in the back garden tying up the clematis' new growth before it was damaged by the wind and then in the front garden going over the bed between the shingle and the pond. I spent a lot of time trying out ways to use the last of the bigger quarry stones to make some sort of edge but nothing looked right. 

In the end I used a few of the bigger rocks and some beach stones to break up the empty expanse of shingle for the time being. I often come across stones piled up in towers on my beach walks. I just used the stones that were lying around in the garden.

Having achieved my diet goal of dropping a stone from my post Christmas weight tonight I'm having some new potatoes with my supper. And when I say new that means they were in the garden less than an hour ago. They evaded last autumn's harvest and have appeared in what will be the tomato bed so they are being eaten now rather than left to grow.

 

A Walk in Coed Tamsin.

Today's walk was in Coed Tamsin (Tamsin's Wood), named after Bob and Felicia's daughter Tamsin who was tragically killed in a car accident many years ago. Bob has been nurturing the biodiversity of these woods for the benefit of nature as a whole but also for therapy for people and up until a few years ago when he began having problems with his sight he worked as a master wood worker.

Within the shelter of the trees and the sun shining overhead it was lovely and warm as we began our walk. Later the clouds rolled in, it got colder and there were even some short showers.

Although I didn't take any photos that show them clearly the bluebells had begun flowering along with the wood anemones while in the more open spaces the celandines were shining brightly in the sun. Overhead the woods were filled with the sound of birdsong.

It's always interesting walking with Bob as he is so knowledgeable about trees in general and the plants in his woodland in particular. The hornbeam (below) has grown in this odd table top shape as a result of being shaded by the canopy of trees above. Bob thought he was going to lose the tree when rabbits stripped all the bark from the trunk but remarkably a fuzzy growth appeared and eventually the bark regrew.

We ate our lunch in the clearing by the wood workshops before walking around another part of the wood. Then of course we had to go and look around Felicia's beautiful woodland garden (photos tomorrow). By that time it was getting late so I declined the offer of a cuppa in order to rush home just in time to rescue my work trousers that were getting rained on on the washing line.

On the walk we came across badger paw prints in the muddy path and a little way further there was the entrance to the badger sett, or possibly the home of mutant giant rabbits.

 

Showers.

It's been a day of frequent showers but of course that wasn't going to stop me from working in the garden. Not when it's getting so close to completion.

In the morning I concentrated on carrying buckets of stones up to cover the gravelled area by the pond. I don't plan to do any planting in that section of shingle though there is a small bed of montbretia (penned in by bricks), and a few other flowers alongside the pond. 

After a suitable break I began my next session by laying the final paving slabs. Not my favourite job especially when the gravel underneath is 20mm to dust. Once the last slabs were bedded in securely I had the fun job of finishing spreading the stones. I've had to leave heaps strategically placed around the edges until I get a bag of topsoil to top up the borders but at last I can see what the shingle looks like. 

Apart from the stachys (lamb's ears though my mother called it donkey's ears) by the step and two green thyme plants which I've put next to the path down by the gate I shall wait a while to begin the rest of the planting. I just had a bit of fun putting out the pots (silver thyme, thrift, lavender and grasses) for an initial look.

 After quite a gloomy day we've just had a lovely sunny evening followed by a pretty sunset.

Warmth.

Warmth and more joy today in the form of mountains of stones in the front garden.

Having missed out on my riding lesson this week I still needed to go into town to do the shopping. But first I went to the builders' merchants on the industrial estate on the far side of town. There I ordered four dumpy bags of yellow flint and also four paving slabs which I took with me so I could get them laid before the stones arrived. After doing the shopping and having a wander round the charity shops I got home to be told by Peter that the stones were on their way. At which point I spotted the lorry already at the bottom of the garden. Leaving Peter to unpack the shopping I went out to watch as the delivery driver skilfully manoeuvred the crane to tip the stones as far up the garden as he could. He had needed to bring the lorry up to a garage in a nearby village for a service and thought he'd check if there were any deliveries he could make at the same time. Hence the speedy delivery.

With a combination of raking and carrying in a bucket I was able to get quite a bit of the ground covered and we're both pleased with the way it looks. No prizes for guessing what I'll be doing tomorrow.