A Day Borrowed from Summer

 I couldn't wait to get out and on my way to the Elan Valley today.  It was just such a beautiful warm morning again. I parked in the quarry car park, as always, and strolled along beside the Caban Coch reservoir.  The sun was glinting off the dark waters and Robins, Great Tits, Blue Tits and Chaffinches serenaded the walkers.  

A place of real history too, for Barnes Wallis did a test run for his "bouncing bomb" which destroyed the Nant-g-Gro Dam here.

There was plenty of gorse in bloom and if you dared to put your nose close enough, that faint perfume of Coconut could be smelt.

Butterflies out too - I saw several over-wintered Peacock butterflies.

As you can see, the hillsides above the reservoir are very steep.

Beneath the waters, the remains of Nantgwyllt Mansion lay - they can be seen when the water levels are low.  In 1811, the poet Shelley lived here and wanted to buy the house.  The Cwm Elan estate belonged to his Wiltshire uncle.

No leaves have been tempted out yet.

I turned around at the bridge.  This is the Foel tower (or pumping tower).  I walked for an hour in all, with a couple of rests on a bench on the way - it was just so lovely to sit in the sun and listen to the birdsong.

The church which was built to replace the one at the bottom of the reservoir.

A little water is still escaping over the top of the dam.

I stopped for lunch at the Visitors centre.  Needn't have bothered - the "Steak Pasty" turned out to be mostly potato and so a not-very-good Cornish pasty really.  At least I enjoyed my Elderflower Presse drink.  The trees the other side of the river had the sun on them and absolutely gleamed.  The very tips of some had spider silk drifting from them in the breeze.  Oh, and I was just on my way back to the car when a lady was at the back of her car, speaking to a dog.  I thought, I know that face - and it was my friend Nia!  Talk about serendipity.  We had a nice chat and will meet up again soon.

I came home and took two Panadol as my back was complaining (post-gardening ache) and went out and did just half an hour before my back began to complain again.  Progress though . . .

More weeds out, roses fed with muck heap, as is the Paeony.  Then a couple of trugs of mulch.

What a sunny day

 Well, I got my wish for sunny weather answered.  Two days in a row so far, and more to come.  I am going to blow my diesel budget for the week and drive the 20 miles to the Elan Valley for a walk tomorrow.  Weather like this is so rare in March - it's been 18 deg + today - and I will use it tomorrow to lay down a memory.  

Some of the beautiful wild Primroses at the bottom of the holly hedge (from which the house takes its name).

I was out in the garden this morning.  Checking the seed trays in the garden - and have lots of Cosmos coming through already.  I should have a good display this year.  The beautiful dark Hellebores I bought at Malvern have put out lots more flowers, and I plan to get them planted with the BIG Hellebore I bought from the garden centre which is absolutely covered in flowers.

Another area of the garden where I have my work cut out.  I have hardened my heart and started pulling up the London Pride which are sprinting towards the lawn. I will leave it up on the little bank.

Just a tad overgrown here . . .

Slight improvement - weeds out at the front, and all the brambles removed behind.  I'll return to this tomorrow and hope to get it cleared and mulched.

I did a half hour walk after my afternoon cuppa.  Look at the beautiful blue sky.  I laid my fleece down on a bank and sat and looked at the view for ten minutes or so, as I listened to Dan Snow talking about Greenland and its colonization and abandonment in the 14th C.

My view from the bank, looking back towards town and the quarry beyond.  River Irthon on left.

Lambs enjoying the sunshine too.

NOT the start I wanted to the day

 

These were my Mother's Day flowers from Gabby.  In a less than ideal Torquay pottery vase but at least they are upright and not sprawling.

My day started with a bill.  A HUGE bill.  The plumber's bill for coming out Christmas morning and doing a quick repair to the leaking UV system.  It was just short of £300!  It made me feel quite ill as I can't take that from my current account (especially after having to pay the heating boiler service bill of nearly £200 this month).  That's from savings, which I try not to touch as a rule.  I wrote back, telling him not to bother quoting for the shower (I've been waiting for that since Keith was alive), and saying how surprised I was at how much he had charged.  Turns out it was for another repair too, from October - I'd forgotten that - but even so it wasn't cheap!  My eye had fallen straight on the bottom line of the bill...

I stopped by the Sugarloaf to take a photo of the view across Carmarthenshire.

Anyway, the day DID improve as I drove down to Carms to see a quilting/horsey friend, and see her horses.  That was lovely, to have horsey cuddles, though she gave me Polos for them and they were mobbing me for more!  Her dogs were very friendly too and my clean jeans soon had muddy paw prints all over them!  Ah well, what are washing machines for?!

Then I popped to my friend Pam (she lives next door) and had a natter and a cup of tea with her and caught up on all the news.  I always visit her when I go to quilting group.  

Coltsfoot at the Sugarloaf.

After that I drove back but went straight to Tesco and did a stocking up shop.  Since when did Saxa salt start costing £1.80?!  My fault for not going to Aldi first, but in my defence I needed the loo by then and Aldi doesn't have one.  I stocked up on a few tins too, and a big bag of Easy Cook rice, and Earl Grey teabags were on offer, and I always get them whilst they are reduced as they are so expensive to start with.  I will have to get used to "ordinary" tea I think.  I need to start running down the freezer as it is full, and I had two big fish fingers for tea with a potato sliced thinly and tossed in olive oil.  Very tasty with Tartare Sauce.   

I checked the greenhouse and some of my Cosmos seeds have sprouted through.  They are the only ones so far.

I had a cuppa and then went out and put rose feed around 2/3 of my roses.  Since it is largely horse manure, the others can have horse manure muck heap, in fact they all can.  

Coltsfoot close up.

 I have had an advert in the Co-op to try and sell Keith's mobility scooter.  It's been there for months.  Now some old boy wants to buy it (at far less than I'm asking but I did offer to knock £100 off but he wants it cheaper still).  Anyway, he has looked it up on line and says it can be taken apart.  He only has a TINY car, and even taken apart it would be too big lengthwise, and is SO heavy.  The heaviest part (batteries I reckon) are 31 Kg.  He was chasing me again yesterday, having viewed it on Saturday, and was saying something about it being a nice day so could he come over?  Well, I suddenly realized the "nice day" bit meant he wanted to take it apart to see if he could get it in his car.  No way, Jose!  You buy it, you can play with it as long as you like, but no way am I letting you take it apart before you've paid for it in case we can't get it back together again!  I will have to list it on Ebay or Gumtree.  I think the latter might be easier.

Right,  back to enjoy some more episodes of The Other Bennet Sister.  I have cancelled Audible (which I had put on hold for 3 mths and it suddenly snuck back and I was a member again).  Instead I have halved the outgoing and gone with Prime  - History Play - which is free for 7 days and then £4.99 a month.  I will see how good it is before committing. I love the history and archaeology programmes and especially enjoyed the other episodes of Alice Roberts in search of the Holy Grail which I watched last night (yet no mention of the Nanteos Cup, which surprized me).  If not as good as I hope, then I shall go with History Hit.  I know - it costs nearly the same as Audible, but tv is my relaxation on wet winter days and all evenings.

Mother's Day

 Well, we had a lovely meal yesterday.  Mind you, I should have asked for a Pensioner Portion as when it arrived it was enormous - a Sunday roast and 5 veg, piled high and topped with a big Yorkshire.  I chose lamb, and the girls had beef, and we asked for a small dish of chicken for Rosie.  She has a cold with a temperature, but managed some beef, which surprised Tam.  All the mums were given a little goody bag with a Lindor chocolate and complementary skin care samples.

This was the dessert - Rhubarb Frangipane tart with a Blood Orange sorbet hiding behind the slice of Blood Orange.  The jus was lovely too.  Really tasty and the prettiest dessert I've ever had.  Lovely staff too.  Definitely a pub to return to.

Rosie was pretty good and when she got fed up, we took it in turns to take her for walks up the pub (or rather, ran off after her!)

I was worried about her temperature but Tam said it broke around 4 a.m. and she began asking for food.  Phew.  You never know which way temperatures are going to go in little ones.  

Her leg . . . well, the final diagnosis was Reactive Arthritis!  This comes on from a tummy bug or from a chest infection/bad cold.  She's had plenty of nasty colds this winter.  She can't bend that leg because it hurts but it doesn't seem to slow her down and she can make good speed still, despite it.  It is due to bacteria from an infection getting into the joint and should gradually dissipate over the next 3 - 9 mths.  They will be seeing a specialist consultant, but may need to travel to Carmarthen for that.  A worry though.  We never realized that children that young could have arthritis.

She agrees with the cats, that boxes have more than one purpose!  I wondered where my washing up gloves got to . . .

I will have to go in search of cat food the cats will eat today.  I have 4 different types of biscuits, and Whiskas and Felix sachets but they are all being SO picky, especially Alfie who won't touch the specially bought Urinary care biscuits (£26 down the drain as they will go to the animal shelter now.)  No fish, they are telling me, meat in gravy only.  (Got Harringtons biscuits - we shall see.)

I had a lovely evening watching the latest video of Rewilding Jude -  I have to hand it to him, he's not afraid of hard work, and dismantling two big and fally-downy sheds was a challenge that took him a week.  Then I noticed that The Other Bennet Sister was finally airing - tempting snippets were first shown in December - and I watched the first three excellent episodes of that.

Granny Juice

 That, according to Rosie, is what my little bottle of wine is. Love it!

Tam and Rosie arrived yesterday, and we are meeting Gabby in Hay-on-Wye for a Mother's Day meal later.

This lovely book arrived yesterday and I began reading it straight away. I am really enjoying it .

It was sunny and warm yesterday and I cracked on clearing tussocks of Couch grass - by gum, they are stubborn.  Anyway, the last 4 Glen Doll raspberries are now planted and fed, and I put a load of muck heap on the Three Rhubarb plants .  Progress.  My garlic is coming on well. I utilised a broken storage box that Keith had used for militaria and put some drainage holes in the bottom. The garlic is hard neck garlic and said to plant in spring. I've always planted in winter before.

Right, this won't do. Need to get a bath and a hair wash and put the seats back up in the car and Rosie's car seat in.

Happy Mother's Day.

Rosie - discharged finally

 All tests and obs have come back clear so far.  Tam said that they are doing another blood test so has to wait for results from that.  They are being very thorough, but poor little Rosie, being jabbed again and again.  It is lunchtime now and they've been there nearly 24 hrs.  Update: bloods came back clear and they are discharged now.  Phew.  That was a long 24 hours, esp. for Tam who had hardly any sleep.

                                    *                 *            *

To distract me, I will share another extract from The Old Ways, this time about the place which fascinates and terrifies, the Broomway, a footpath which leads into the sea in a loop.  It has claimed many lives.  "It's a weird world out there on the flats," said Patrick (the acknowledged expert who knew every inch of it).  "Nothing looks  the same as normal.  Gulls can seem as big as eagles.  Scale and distance change.  It's very easy to lose your bearings, especially in dusk or dark.  Then it's the lights on the Kent shore that often do it.  People think they're walking back to the Essex coast, when in fact they're walking towards Kent and so out into the tide.  The mud's the thing to watch, too: step in the wrong places, and it'll bog you down and suck you in, ready for the tide to get you."  "Patrick had a final warning: "The Broomway will be there another day, but if you try to walk it in mist, you may not be.  So if it's misty when you arrive at Wakering Stairs, turn around and go home."  It was, of course, misty when McFarlane and his walking partner arrived, but they decided to risk it anyway . . .

"We stepped off the causeway.  The water was warm on the skin, puddling to ankle depth.  Underfoot I could feel the brain-like corrugations of the hard sand, so firmly packed that there was no give under the pressure of my step.  Beyond us extended the sheer mirror-plane of the water, disrupted only here and there by shallow humps of sand and green slews of weed." . . . . . . .  We walked on.  I could hear the man whistling to his dog, now far away on the sea wall.  Otherwise, there was nothing except bronze sand and mercury water, and so we continued walking through the lustrous air, onto onto the flats and back into the Mesolithic."    From The Old Ways - A Journey on Foot, by Robert Macfarlane, publ. by Hamish Hamilton, 2012.

I have had a walk of my own this morning, whilst the sun was shining.  Just along the old railway line, a mile each way.  After yesterday's heavy rain, there was quite a lot of muddy water in the Wye.

  Someone has planted lots of Daffodils on their section of old railway line slope.

I'm not sure if this was a Witchazel?  Just a few yellow stamens were its flowers.

Anyway, when I came back it hailed (I was still in the car).  I had just begun to put my key in the door when there was an angry buzzing and I quickly withdrew the key and a very disgruntled bumble bee exited the keyhole!  Never had that before :)

I did some of the brim for my bobble hat, but am now sure if 25g was enough.  If not, it will be a short (inner) brim.  The colour is proving impossible to match and I can't find this particular wool anywhere so it was probably remaindered.  Ah well, if it does fall short I will have to replace it with 100 g ball in a colour I like.

Perhaps the strangest chapter I've ever read

 It's been blowing half a gale and chucking it down with rain all day today, so the furthest I have been is the compost heap!  Best to be inside looking out at it.  

This morning I was sat up in my sewing room, trying to select the best half square triangles for the table topper.  Some I unpicked and added an off white material to balance the design as I had sewn all the charm pack together using the off white print I had to balance the designs, until running out. Now I have unpicked a few which used up the plain fabrics -  green/yellow/lilac/dark red - and combined with some off white I had at home.

I was looking across to the woodland and desperately wishing for the first hints of green.  The Sycamore by the edge of the orchard has tiny green leaf-tips so perhaps more leaves aren't too far away.

Whilst watching the racing, I blew the dust off my Seaside Topper bobble hat and started the brim - which I should have worked first, but clearly wasn't paying attention at the time as I began it when Keith was so ill.    I will just sew it onto the top, no probs.  The wool I had bought from Wonderwool (with the pattern and John Arbon Devonia wool to knit this) for the brim was Sirdar and it kept breaking apart - I have about 6 knots in it so far.  I forgot to buy a 2nd 25g of it for the pompom so will try to match it.  I cast on too tightly first off, so had to rip it off and start again.  I need to do ten rows of stocking stitch. Hope to manage that today.  I have been trying to find a matching pair of buttons for Elderberry Bunny's eyes but despite having bought a couple of big bags of various size and colour buttons a few years back, finding a pair is difficult, and none in brown or black.  I can't find my big tin of buttons off clothes, which are nearly all brown, grey or black.  Into the cupboards tomorrow . . .

Now the title today refers to the chapter in Robert Macfarlane's book The Old Ways, which I have been listening to on Audible in the car.  I had only read perhaps half the book, so thought it would be nice to treat myself to it to listen to.  It is Chapter 8 - Gneiss.  Perhaps it isn't so much the content or subject of the chapter as the character, Steve, that it is written about.  I have to say he wouldn't be my choice as a partner in life, as no way could I live with this: (turn away if you are eating a meal or don't care for skeletons and remains).

"On the south-astern coast of the Isle of Harris, in a three-house village called Geocrab, behind a fuchsia hedge, in a chilly thin-walled workshop, hanging by a meat hook from a rafter is a human skeleton.  Its 206 bones are held together by sinews of braided sea-grass, which, as they pass through the vertebrae, are knotted alternately left over right and right over left.  Stitched onto the bones are patches of meat cut from a dead calf, which together form a rough over-body.  At the time of their first sewing - when they had been recently preserved using a solution of formaldehyde and sodium fluoride, administered with a horse syringe and prepared according to a mix-ratio perfected by the members of a mid-1920s zoological expedition to the Amazon - the meat patches were still plumply muscular."   The Old Ways, Robert Macfarlane, published by Hamish Hamilton, 2012.  This chapter continues writing about Steve and his artistic endeavours and ideas and he sounds a most unusual person.  His end game plan for this skeleton is to take the top off of a giant boulder, hollow it out, hang the skeleton inside and then put the top back on.  An idea so challenging it sounds almost impossible.  

So, with this book, I am realizing how humdrum my life is by comparison, and my utter ignorance about some of the people and places Macfarlane mentions. At least I am on the same page when he writes/speaks of Edward Thomas and am completely linked up and educated about his poetry, prose and character.

Anyway, spare a thought for Tam tonight as she has been at the Hospital with Rosie since lunchtime, as Rosie has a very bad limp (swollen knee) and the GP thought it needed checking out as she had been sore on that leg before.  I hope that nothing nasty has been found . . .