Bedroom Blue(s)

With all the work that's been done on the house this year, you'd think we'd have had enough - but instead we seem to have generated some momentum to tackle other jobs.

Redecorating our bedroom was high on that list . . . well high on my list, not sure that certain other people were really that bothered!

Stripped back the damaged wallpaper off the main back wall, and between us repainted the ceiling, other walls, and woodwork.


After much searching / ordering of samples of wallpaper finally decided on a duck egg blue feature paper for the back wall, which Martin and his Dad duly put up for me.




Really pleased with the result - just waiting for the new king-sized bed (on order) and that's another room more or less done with!

In a Flap!

Latest from Bird-Cam . . .

Rook or Crow?

Great Tit                                                  Grey Wagtail?

Nice Bunch

Looking better this year, but still more skin and pip than anything else - time to make some jam methinks!

Mutant Tomatoes

Good crop of tomatoes again this year - but some of the beef tomatoes took a bit of a funny turn:









Not sure what happened - they probably tasted ok, but the skin was so enfolded into the tomato it was difficult to get at the flesh.


At least the mutant gene seemed to be limited to the one plant!

Borth Trekking

Sun shining, on holiday, let's go for a walk - how about a section of the Coastal Path?

So off we set . . .  had to get to the coast first, which involved a cross country pootle over to Clarach - then up the hill and down the hill to Wallog and Sarn Cynfelin.

Everything got a bit harder after that - a lot more uphill and loose dirt paths, which a certain person stormed up like a mountain goat . . .



. . . while a certain other person huffed and puffed like a steam engine while trying desperately not to lose her footing!

By the time we got to the cliff in Borth said person wasn't in a terribly good way - the legs had pretty much had it - never had a train station (down the hill and along Borth's unending street) and our ride home seemed so far away . . .


Made it though - 8 miles, 394 metres of elevation gained, 450 metres of elevation lost, 4 hours - and back to Aberystwyth for a much needed pint!

Northern highlights!

September holidays and off to pastures new for a few days - a bit of a 'northern' tour this time.

First stop, a couple of nights in Malham - walking round Malham Cove, up to the Tarn, and back round to Gordale Scar and Janet's Foss (all the 'sights' of the area, including the limestone pavement up above the Cove):














Great day - glad of a pint by the end of it though!

On to Durham, walks round the river path, visit to the Cathedral and a tour of the Castle (now part of the University) with the oldest still working kitchen in the UK, dating back to the C15th!

From Durham we were on our way up to Berwick-upon-Tweed, via Cragside (a Victorian property, and the first in the world to be lit with hydro-electricity).

Great gardens as well - and some very interesting sculpture out in the woods . . .




We weren't particularly taken with Berwick itself, but it was a reasonable base for travelling around.

The ramparts were pretty cool mind you, and there was some great wildlife out in the waters - including seals, and this heron stalking its next meal . . . .


From Berwick found our way to Bamburgh Castle - not the nicest of days to start with, but the weather eventually cleared up, and there were some great views out along the coast.


Special activities on offer included our new snail-stacking game out in the grounds, and watching a film crew making a new kids tv drama.

Our final 'day out' was a visit to Lindisfarne - the sun did (eventually) shine, we visited the Castle, listened to the seals on the sand banks out to sea, and sat with a pint watching a barn owl swooping around the field next door in broad daylight!

September Moon

Taken through the telescope in our back garden:

Not quite full mind you!