British Summer Time

Doesn't happen often that that the shift to BST actually brings 'summer' with it - but here we go, the 'met' data to prove it:

And a nice sunny picture of the Atmospheric Radar Facility down the road that takes the readings:

Long may it last . . .

Borth Rocks!

Had a walk along Borth seafront this weekend to see how the coastal defence project was working out, a few months on.

The official 'opening' was earlier this month, but work is still ongoing (even on a Sunday when these pictures were taken).

The final stages of the project include removing a causeway created to enable the building of two reefs in the bay - check out the machines in motion here.


There also still seem to be a lot of large rocks to move around - although the 'grabs' on the excavators make it look easy enough!

Loads more info on the Borth Community site if you want to track the project from the start.

Springing Up

Time to get planting :

That's tomatoes, asparagus, aubergines, courgettes, butternut squash, cucumber, chillies, and leeks hopefully on their way.

Plus some floral offerings, including sunflowers and lavender.


There are potatoes chitting on a windowsill as well, and red onion sets ready for planting out in due course.

Meanwhile the Spring garden is in full bloom, and over the hedge there are lambs racing around the field, looking as cute as can be:

Taming the Fruit Cage

Finally started on the garden this weekend - first task, the fruit cage:

This was a bit of a mess to be honest - one of the raspberry supports had collapsed one windy day, and we hadn't yet cut back the old raspberry canes.

The strawberries were choked up with dead leaves, and there were old weeds that had died back and new weeds coming up.



Anyway it all looks much tidier now - pruned, weeded, etc. etc. - and hopefully there'll be less places for mices to hide out when it comes to the strawberries bearing fruit!  Still pondering ways of keeping the little blighters out . . .

Update
Subsequently we've also dug up the blueberry bush, which was barely holding its own against the strawberries, and transplanted it into a large pot, filled with ericaceous compost - hopefully it will like that better!

First Daffs

After what amounts to one of the few cold snaps we've seen this winter, the eventual blooming of the daffodils, was somewhat delayed, but we are now seeing the first splashes of yellow around the garden.






Ironically the same cold snap seems to have jump-started the snowdrops into action.




And we've also got a nice showing of crocuses (or is that croci??).




Should really get out in the garden before much longer - lots of things to clear up / weed / prune / plant!

Ouch!

Wisdom teeth - can anyone tell me what they are for . . .

. . . other than creating huge amounts of pain?

Update:  Better now!

 

Still No Snow

January stayed mild and a bit miserable on the weather front:



















And while some places have seen major snowfalls this February weekend, we remain resolutely green here in Aber - and a rather dismal green at that . . .

Meanwhile, family over in Cambridgeshire have had one of the heaviest snowfalls they can remember.

One of them embraced the experience in no uncertain fashion ("Snow Angel Hardcore") - I'm assuming he headed straight for a hot shower afterwards!