31st January 2023 - Oops - left the Yurt Open

Thought for the day :"Kleptomaniacs don't understand puns because they take things literally"

A remarkably mild day today - with a touch of sunshine..

Walk with the dogs allowed a little more clearance of the lower quarter  - a little every day and we will get there in the end..   The dogs are pretty patient with me though they are always pleased when I finally stop chopping and start the walk properly..

Was bright enough to open up the Yurt to allow some fresh air in...  and panic now at 10pm as I realised that I had forgotten to tell Susie that it was open so I have had to just run down and shut the door.

Luckily, the override switch for the garden fairy lights is at up top by the wood shed so I had some ambient light as I went down..

Spend some time repairing the raised strawberry beds - one of the legs had come off the stone that was preventing it from digging in - but all the bags had to come off and they are all connected by a leaky hosepipe - but it is all done now=- sadly phone ran out of charge so could not take any photos -maybe tomorrow.

Evening was a meeting at Castle Penfro Court of Athelstan - and 7 of the members (mainly founders) had not had their grand lodge certificate presented so took the opportunity of giving a group lecture of the explanation of the Certificates. A nice meeting though small in number (only 9 altogether including me)  and a festive board of ham eggs and chips at the local Golf Club...

Fingers crossed on the way home - though I had plenty of fuel in the car - but the last 30 miles were on vapour !!  Got home safely though..

And so today is the third anniversary of Brexit....  

Tomorrow is practically a general strike with schools out... Nurses, Ambulance Workers, Firefighters, Railworkers - pretty well everyone is on strike....

 

Well - about time to start Dry January - wish me luck !!

Cheers !

30th January 2023 - Signs and Signage

Thought for the day :"Firefighter had twins, called Jose and Hose B"

Today my new reflective sign arrived for Ffynnon Wen..

It is amazing - for £7 I can post a picture onto the net and someone in Mumbai prints it out - puts it into a pretty secure cardboard package and labels it - then it gets put in with 126 other items for one delivery package and then comes across with six labels showing what it is why it is security tagged and that customers are happy with it - and then gets split into all the 126 items (one presumes) and then get delivered to me in Wales three days later !!!

And so it arrived today - a lot quicker than I was expecting - but here !!

And so I took it down tot he end of the lane where I have a Crimson Moon Sign turned around so it can't be seen - though with a Chipping Sodbury comment that is no overpainted in brown and added teh sign to the back of the board..

When the Crimson Moon is advertising no-one will need to know about  Ffynnon Wen !!!

And quite pleased with the result...

In other news I fed the chickens this morning and inadvertently let two of the cockerels out .. well it was a simple mistake to make - I thought I could feed them in the coop and did not realise that they were hiding behind the door waiting my arrival to spring into escape.. It was like a scene for Chicken run!

So we went down this afternoon to find them and put them back in the run ....

Sadly of the twelve chicks that Sooty raised - 11 of which survived - it now looks as though 7 are cockerels and only 4 hens ..  I think that they will get the chop soon - chicken feed is getting very expensive these days...   Start of the year it was £6.80  - now £10.40  for 20 kg. And that is not lasting that long at the moment 

But milder this afternoon - and managed to sit out for half an hour with the smokers without freezing my tail off...

Cheers !

 

29th January 2023 - More on the lower quarter

Thought for the day :"The word “seven” has “even” in it which is a little odd!"

Sunday - and a little damp but bright enough to get out with the dogs and  do our normal walk ...

Still making progression the lower quarter bus sadly no sign on the new bulbs that I planted - Susie reckons that they may come up next year - or the squirrels got them all - certainly found a couple that have been dug up so it is possible - but we shall see...

But clearing the foliage slowly ..

A little chilly in the office but decided to clear a little  admin 

Cheers !

28th January 2023 - Training Weekend Planning

Thought for the day :"I am an archaeologist – My life is in ruins"

Not a lot happening to day ....    Walked the dogs and that was about it ...  200 days on Duolingo ..

Susie is very impressive with her German - going forward in leaps and bounds and often correcting me on my vocabulary .. And this was the girl who said that she could never learn a language...

Clear sky today - Kites are gathering. Looks as though it may be getting cooler again soon...

Waiting for responses on the Crimson Moon Training Weekend - only two responses so far 

Will have to chase..

Awaiting the print for the CMVQ5

Cheers !

27th January 2023 - Bulbs and Blobby

Thought for the day :"If I had twin boys, they would be named  Pete and Repeat."

Spent a little more time out in the grounds today - I did some digging in the lower quarter but am beginning to understand that most of the bulbs I have planted have been eaten or otherwise are not going to sprout this year ..

The old bluebells and daffodils and snowdrops are doing well - but the area that I planted - Zero Zilch!

But we shall see if anything comes int he long term - still leveling the ground and digging out the base...

Susie spent time clearing the springs and getting rid of a lot of the leaves that have fallen ...

In other news - seems that the Crimson Moon has had 10,000 views - that is not bad

In fact this evening a couple who are staying in Southview b & b  stopped to enquire when the bar was open - sadly not at the moment... 

And in other news - some older  musicians 
Vollsanger 69 !!!  just a kiddie 

And a blast from the past - with thoughts of Barry Killoughby and the times he spent staying with us for his appearances in "It's a Knockout"   and I still recall to this day how he briefed us for his photo opportunities

He said - I am loved by all but children see me in a TV and I am small - when they get to a full size version I can be scary 

If a Mother is wanting to thrust a child towards me in my costume - make sure that the mother is always between me and the baby ion arms .. never let them push to baby forward to me..

The child needs the security o the mother and we will get a good shot ..

I never realised how much thought he had put into his appearance - as he can do nothing when int he costume 

I took my hat off to Barry that day - and have thought of this with every photo op presentation since - and not just with big pink creatures...

And so to bed !

Cheers !

 

26th January 2023 - Working the Lower Quarter

Thought for the day :"If I had twin girls I'd name the first girl Kate and the second Duplicate."

A day of sun and, if not warmth, at least brightness. As I walked down the lane the chill was quite clear but the sun was bright..   Walking the dogs in this weather is quite pleasant.

Spend a bit of time on the walk down in the lower quarter. I am digging out the flower bed in the lower quarter and the mud is full of hardcore - so it is now a case of getting the stones out rather than thinking about just filling the flower beds. As a result I think I am burying any plants that should be popping out there - I planted a lot of bulbs!

Also took the cutters down with me and attacked the brambles growing around the top spring and then the giraffe plain in the lower quarter - clearing an area that I think would be good for a new toilet block and possibly a hidden urinal ....   I think we could work an eco toilet here.

In other news - Susie looked properly at the new propagator today and it seems that this one does not have flower pots - no I am not going back to Carmarthen again !!!

But took some photos in case I decide to go to customer services for Charlie's 

Cheers !

25th January 2023 - Burn's Night and no Haggis

Thought for the day :"Sometimes I wish I was still a child – then I could take a long nap and everyone would just be proud of me"

Well it is many years since I found myself not needing to be revising the "Address to the Haggis".

I shall not be attending St Teilo or any of the other meetings at this time of year so will not be needing to brush up my Scottish accent..

However had a small but enjoyable meeting of Athelstan in Aberystwyth last night and a Fish and Chip supper which I haven't had since before the start of the pandemic..  about three years by my reckoning.

Drizzle day today to walk the dogs and two my half a dozen spade-loads on my flower bed in the lower quarter.

Vectra in for MOT - needed three bulbs and something with the steering - so should not be too expensive - fingers crossed - but it is going well so quite happy to keep her running. Nothing too important it would seem.  

Sitting trying to get the last week of blogs updated - am getting rather bad at it these days 

enjoying sitting in front of the TV watching His Dark Materials and The Last of Us....

Somehow manage to put th8ings off - oh well - must be age !!!

In other news - decided to get a road sign done for the house - to put on the back of the Crimson Moon Sign down the bottom of the lane. I just turn it around so it can't be read at the moment though the label of "Chipping Sodbury School" is causing some interest to the locals - well Jim "the Pipe"

Updated the Ffynnon Wen signs and tidied up the lettering and made it larger so it was not too low resolution - though Bannerbuzz still always send back and I confirm to go ahead with the existing image. It is only £12 including postage though I think that they come from China or somewhere. There are a lot of bad reports on the pages but they are mainly about quality or delays in urgent delivery - I have a lot of patience so do not worry to much.

And a couple of images of the crocuses that are now flowering under the Magnolia trees..

And so - back to the old blogs and finally up to date 

Cheers 

24th January 2023 - Going Green

Thought for the day :"The repentant kleptomaniac said "I just couldn't take it any more!"

Walk today shows a big surge in the shoots in the lower quarter..

Meeting of Athelstan in Aberystwyth tonight ...

Cheers

23rd January 2023 - Hey Hey gets the chop!

Thought for the day: "if your diet is a piece of cake it will not work"

Sad to say - but Hay Hay and Hee Hee finally had their demise. Well they were eating us out of house and home and in the end there was hardly anything on them - but we need the space to house the new cockerels and it was a bout time - they will be dog food though Tony does not seem to have worked out what to do with meat on the bone - he expects it to be filleted properly - Oh well !!

In other news the old propagator has stopped working so we went to Charlies's in Carmarthen to get another one - as well as a lot of seeds and flowers and some heather for meerkat mountain and onion sets for susie...  unfortunately when we got home we found that there were no trays int he propagator which meant a 40 mile round trip and a two hour journey to fetch a replacement - and found that there were no flower pots in this one - but we have plenty of those - but silly me I checked the trays and the instruction book but did not notice that they had no pots !!!

I also bought more rat trap and rat bait but they would not offer me a discount or any recompense - resolved I should contact customer services - have to do that - haven't got around to it yet.

 

In other news - managed to get the Bank sorted for Vic, well in progress and tracked down the insurance policy and the outstanding pension payments so we are progressing in the right direction  

Another day in paradise!

Cheers !

22nd January 2023 - PLaying with Fairy Lights - Romany Caravan

Thought for the day :"I have a pet termite. It's name is Clint Eatswood."

Well Susie won't let me get any more fairy lights or play with them any more.  Seems we have enough - not sure you can ever have enough !!

But that does not stop me helping next door ..

It is very dark here in Rhydlewis, the lack of  light pollution is a big bonus - however that does not mean that it is particularly safe for visitors next door at the Romany Caravan as they have to come up the path in the dark so I suggested that they may wish to purchase a set of my 100 mtr fairy lights and I would put a timer on it and set it up so that Mark could switch it on whenever guests were coming and switch it off when they go ..  Well that seemed a good idea to everyone - so I did a thing...

lights are on but it was still light

my camera cannot do it justice

But that was a good day's work ...

Cheers !