10th July 2025 - Presentation Cheques

Thought for the day :"My neighbour has started to learn the drums and is making a lot of noise. I wanted to complain but didn't want any repercussions..."

Dry

Early start and busy day.

Off to Narberth early as Nancy was taking her big Cheque to the S Pembs Cancer Support and also gave my cheque to them, with the additional of Gift Aid.

She raised £906 herself ... which she also gave at the same time 

I tool the liberty of manipulating a picture for this 

Also went to the Ganolfan y Don unit at Aberporth Primary School as Vollsanger and presented a cheque there as well as doing some songs for the pupils there.... 
They enjoyed the Old Lady who swallowed a fly and The ladies of the Harem of the Court of King Caractucus...  Was an enjoyable occasion 

 And so we are opening this weekend raising money for Blood Bikes Wales

It follows a particular tragedy that occurred locally  

TRIBUTE 

The family of a much loved 78-year-old man who tragically died in a road traffic collision on the A478 on the 2nd of July 2025 are deeply saddened by the sudden loss of a devoted husband, stepfather, grandfather, brother, uncle and friend.

Timothy Minett, known by his family and friends as Tim, was a dedicated volunteer Blood Bikes Wales rider who was volunteering at the time of the collision, which occurred at approximately 1820 hours.

Tim's family have asked for privacy as they come to terms with his death.

In accordance with Tim's wishes, there will be no funeral.

Officers are still appealing for anyone who was travelling along the A478 between Glandy Cross and Blaenffos at the time, and may have information or dashcam footage that could help their investigation, to get in touch.

And so with the heat today - most of the Tavern preparation has been in the evening today 

Almost there and ready to go 

Sadly Sarah, who offered to pick up the beer from Mantle Brewery, missed their hours due to her training afternoon - so I will have to go early in the morning to collect the beer . Sadly - no lie in for me tomorrow

Cheers !

9th July 2025 - Chris is going to Kill me

Thought for the day :"I have difficulty skiing backwards - it's a bit of an uphill struggle!!"

Dry 

Early start - unexpectedly, as I forgot to renew the car insurance - or rather forgot the day of the automatic renewal - at £276 instead of £178..

So last night I logged on - or at least tried to log onto the Privilege Website to see the renewal details and was faced with a continuous "Please try Later - we have an error "  any time I tried to log in - it was one of those "put in your email address and we will send you a passcode to log in" which failed every time ..

As time moved on it got nearer to midnight when the automatic renewal would start to take money from my credit card!!  Didn't want that - Go Compare and Meerkat search meant that there were options for £175 were out there.

AS the witching hour approached and no opportunity to get hold of my insurance company, I though I would contact Tesco Credit Card who claimed to have  24 hour service..  And they did !!!

Got an very quick response on the "Lost Stolen Fraud " line and a very friendly responder who told me that thought there was no way to block a particular claim - it was much easier to put a block on the card for a few hours ,  and talked me through the various bits of the website that allowed a very simple option "Block your Card"

And so no payment went out ( it also messed up ASDA but that got sorted when I unblocked the card)

And so it was an early start for me as I was on the phone at 8.30am talking with a lovely agent who managed to get within £9 of the best option, and it was easier to let the renewal run rather than spend another half hour with a new company for the sake of £5.

And so we are insured for running the Volvo again ...

and then Chris cam - and it was very hot today

And so I forgot to take any photos as we cleared the chicken and ducks of all the straw that is infested with red mite,   burned the accumulated greenery from the paddock, cleared the Balsam from a lot of the Greenhouse area and patio terrace - until I got sting by a wasp as I disturbed a wasp next ..

And then we took advantage of the shade by clearing the back area by the water tank - and failed to actually get the water pump working

Will have to shelve that until next week as we have a busy day tomorrow 
Meet Nancy to get the Big Cheque 
Visit Aberporth School as Vollsanger and give them a song and a cheque

Should be fun 

Susie's chest pains seem to be intercostal muscles as we thought and is improving..

Sadly - we seem to have lost another chicken this evening 

Ho Hum 

Cheers 

 

8th July 2025 - And a Teifi Boat trip

Thought for the day "Spent Sunday afternoon watching a film about fly fishing, the cast was amazing:!." (Netflix)

Dry - heading for heatwave 

So, thanks to Spot and Charlie we took a trip down the Teifi along the estuary with Dai Pig (??) our captain. A great little trip and a lovely picnic. We of course got the story wrong and Spot had put together a lovely picnic and we thought we were all bringing or own. Which was just as well for Susie as she needed her Gluten Free but there were plenty of smoke salmon sandwiches and I managed to stuff myself !!!

A couple of bottle of Proseco as we went on our way - with a couple who are staying with Spot and Charlie and another friend.

Not very good photos but it gives an idea

Banana for scale 

Later, we have permission for Meurig to shoot on Moylon fields and Toby seemed quite interested just after 7.30pm so he may have been out with his fancy fox caller ...   Haven't heard from him yet.

So sitting down for the evening and I see that the Volvo Car insurance is due to renew at Midnight and it is set to automatically take the money form the credit card!!.

Quick panic when I find that the Privilege website will not accept the email addresses to log on.

 

Call to a very helpful customer services representative for Tesco Bank talks me through how to block the card with a temporary block allowing me to call the insurance company tomorrow before they try to access the amount.

We shall see how that goes..

In other news
A note from FB that cannot be accessed any more
(there was a time when you could post notes but that option is no longer there so there is no way to access old notes but they still turn up on the memory page- crazy isn't it !) 

On Choosing Passwords

Please enter your new password:

"melon”

Sorry, the password must be more than 8 characters.

"hairymelon"

Sorry, the password must contain 1 numeric character.

"1 hairymelon"

Sorry, the password cannot have blank spaces.

"1soddinghairymelon"

Sorry, the password must contain at least one upper case character.

"1SODDINGHairyMelon"

Sorry, the password cannot use more than one upper case character consecutively

"1SoddingHairyMelonWillBeShovedUpYourBackside,IfYouDon'tGiveMeAccessRightNow”

Sorry, the password cannot contain punctuation.

“NowImReallyPissedOff1SoddingHairyMelonWillBeShovedUpYourBacksideIfYouDontGiveMeAccessRightNow”

Sorry, that password is already in use...

So - with that thought

Cheers !

7th July 2025 - We're all going on a Fox Hunt

Thought for the day :"A Street Preacher shouted at me "JESUS WAS THE SAVIOUR OF THE HUMAN RACE”. I shouted back "I THINK YOU'LL FIND IT WAS LILY THE PINK"!!"

Wet

Monday and back to normal - whatever that is these days.

Took Toby out with me for a road trip in the Landie as I put all the Crimson Moon Signs out on the roads.

Also went for a walk and did some learning.

Didn't really get any garden stuff done but this evening had a visit from Meirig Rees, our local Fox and Deer exterminator and had demonstration of his Fox caller, and infra red scopes ..

£10 for a visit and £2.50 for every fox cleared.

Some may feel for the fox and I understand - but not when we have lost so much live deadstock.

Need to have our girlies walking around freely and if that means removing some foxes then so be it!!

But the posters are out for the weekend ...

We have an infestation of mites in the chicken houses so we have some medicine for the chickens and ducks - that will be interesting to try to apply and we are getting some smoke bombs to clear the chicken and duck houses.

Fun and games ahead I think.

Susie has chest pains today - thinks that she may have strained a muscle, cracked a rib sneezing too hard.

Though I would record for the record...

Cheers !

6th July 2025 - Lazy day and Charity Video

Thought for the day :"How do you know when you have run out of invisible ink?"

Wet

A long night burning the midnight oil trying to remember how to use the video software and putting together a list of events at the moon ...   Managed to get there by just after 4am so ended up letting the girlies out and going back to bed until midday.

But we are there

Walked Toby and am learning Athelstan Instruction for the 19th - seems I will be doing most of the ceremony.

 

But in the meantime I get a rather nice email from the Grand Rank Committee of Athelstan.

MASONIC ORDER OF ATHELSTAN

in England, Wales and its Provinces Overseas 

2025 GRAND RANKS COMMITTEE

TUESDAY 1^st  JULY 2025

Dear VW Bro Iain Weston IW Sewell, KCAG,

 

We are directed by the Most Worshipful Grand Master to offer you the following Past Grand Rank;

 

Past Junior Grand Warden

So that will make me a Right Worshipful Brother !!

Nice - though it means another pinny !! and they are not cheap 

Ho Hum 

Cheers !

5th July 2025 - Busy day on the Video Machine

Thought for the day :"I only get sick on work days because of my weekend immune system"

Wet

New Cockerel Chester is looking after his girlies well and with one exception, whitey, all the girls are going to bed on time when he calls.

We seems to have mites so we are looking to find a way to fumigate - Susie is affected the worse, but I have picked up a few.

Little Chicks growing well

For posterity, Octopus asked for photos of the new meter so keeping it here in case I need it again.

Started work on the Video to celebrate the current totals for Charity Collections in the Crimson Moon.

Hadn't realised how much I had forgotten in the meantime, it is all a learning cycle... 

May have it ready tomorrow if I burn the midnight oils..

Trip to Charlie and Spot this evening and a couple of bottles of wine were enjoyed, sitting by the lake.

Bought a new rat trap - one of the ones that have a platform and trapdoor into a bucket of water - not caught anything yet.  

Cheers !

4th July 2025 - Pumps and Peacocks

Thought for the day :"Is hard to lose weight when you have an overactive Knife and Fork"

Dry

Chester the new Cockerel has established himself well today and is looking after his 6 girlies well. They brought him up to the Patio for treats, and went to bed with no issues.

Cut the lawns, stripped the immersable pump with  Will but failed to find why it was shorting out, but refurbished another deep water pump for use in the rain water tank.

Susie was cooking all day and I ordered the hire van and completed the eurotunnel tickets.

Contacted Octopus regarding the change of meter and they were not aware !!  So have to send them a picture of the new meter while they wait for the sub-contractor SMS to update them.

Spent some time down in the paddock so manage a few pictures of Fabio, Sophia and Gina  

And so another day ...

Getting ready for another weekend next week ..

Cheers !