Late night, quickie..

Hoggggggggggggggggg! He finally came on the cam about an hour ago, and it's either Ryan or the one that was in the box with him last year when I first found him! White paint still on, at the front end, between the shoulders. Thought I could see it on the cam, but went out with a torch just to be sure, and stupidly, I didn't look at the nose, but then I remembered that I had marked Ryan again with loads of paint the day I released him. I just quickly made sure it was paint and not some other marks, and then came straight back in, but of course, he then legged it away. I'm almost certain it's him, there's too much paint for it to be the other one that I marked in the same place early on, I think I only did that with tippex before I bought some humbrol. If it was Ryan, he has grown, and he was healthy, and I'm so chuffed. Going to bed with a huge grin on my face, hoping he will come back soon. I forgot how to do a screen capture on the cam too, so have been fiddling about working out how to do it for future reference. :)

How?

...can someone manage to hit and kill a poor bird ten yards from a main road junction in a cul-de-sac??? And not just any bird, it had to be one of my pair of Dunnocks. I am absolutely gutted. I was sitting outside on my bench in the garden this morning in the half an hour sunshine we had, watching one of them ducking under my cover to take food from the hedgehogs' dish. I love these little birds, often ignored because of their dull plumage, but to me, they are so sweet, beautiful song, and they are quite tame. I know it's sad when any bird is killed but if it had been a sparrow or chaffinch, well, there's dozens of them here. I've brought the little body back and put him or her under the holly bush so that its mate will see it and know that it's gone.

I went to take Emma out in the car, and found one of them freshly killed, still warm, just yards from my garden. How bloody careless can people be, I mean, what speed were they going to be unable to avoid? If they'd just turned the corner into my road or were heading to the junction to turn into the main road, max 5mp either way I would have thought. Suppose it was some bloody boy racer with his boom box going and grinning at his mates. I know you can't always avoid hitting birds when you are driving at speed and they come out of the banks and hedges.

And on a just-as-cheery note, so much for the weather forecast. We were supposed to have unbroken sunshine today and a lovely few days forecast. It's bloody freezing again, gale force gusts of cold north-easterly wind, greenhouse getting blown about as usual. The only thing to be said I suppose is it's bright and not raining.

And to finish today's happy edition, I don't feel all that well, so it's a good job that I didn't go visiting. I woke up this morning with a really sore throat, last night I had the shivers, and I am sneezing and have a headache.

Short one

Went shopping today, as there wasn't anything I could be bothered to do at home. The fog hardly lifted all day today, although a bit of blue broke through a couple of times. Anyhow, I treated myself to a couple of new t-shirts for the summer (£3 each) and a new pair of slippers (£6) and then got a few bits of food in Tesco.

Had a picnic lunch in the car with Emma (I was good and had another Healthy eating John West tuna thingy, less than 250 cals, and an apple) then we walked round the reservoirs. The resident Buzzard was around again today, it's fairly tame as Buzzards go I guess, must get used to people and will sit in the tree until you are within spitting distance. I wish I'd had my proper camera instead of the Nokia with me, I could have got a couple of decent shots, before he decided to fly off into another tree a bit further away. Despite my conversation with him, he wasn't having any. Also heard my first Chiff Chaff of the year today, and managed to see him, once the leaves are on the trees, it's nigh impossible to spot them.

Okay so anyone recognise the plant? It was growing in the water, and from a distance, it looked like a huge banana sticking out!

Still no hedgehog sightings, but lots more poo around and the dish of food was nearly all gone again first thing, I checked to see before any birds could have been helping themselves. He is certainly coming very late.

Oh and it's a good job I didn't go to mums, cos today was the day I was planning on going, and we had thick fog here until at least 11 am, wouldn't have been very keen to drive in that.

Spot the Buzzard!

Erm, Tuesday, Sunshine and Sheep

Another fantastic day, weatherwise. It was in the 60s today with little breeze, could have easily been May. I started some runner bean seeds today, 18 of them, not sure if they will come up though, they are two year old ones that I found in the cupboard, if not will buy some plants later on. I've already got 9 teeny tomato plants coming through and some sweet peas. Will get some cucumber started soon, and I fancy having a go at some peppers too this year. I am going to dig a little veg plot up near the greenhouse to put the beans and stuff in this year, instead of using a tub, maybe do some lettuces too.

I went to Irene's around lunchtime, she has two ewes that have just had their lambs, one has triplets and one twins, so cute, especially the little black one. Took Emma across the road to the fields by the river for her walk today, as the sheep are in the other ones now to be closer for keeping an eye on them. There is another ewe who was looking like she was about to start her lamb, but nothing happening whilst I was there unfortunately. I have seen one giving birth before though a few years back, very moving.

Irene gave me lots of wire panels that she used for puppy runs, so I have set up a more or less permanent place along the back fence for the guinea pigs to go out, they've already been outside in the sunshine yesterday and today for a little while, they love it, but I don't want to risk them being out with no overhead cover this year like I did last year, incase the cats get in here, not worth the risk, and of course a sparrowhawk may fancy its chances too, I'd never forgive myself.

Briefly, the good bit..

I think I've got my first hoggy visitor. Found some poo this morning up near my aviary, very runny though (yewk) but def hoggy poo. So I came down to look at the dish of food I leave out and have been doing so for about 2 weeks. Up till now, only the suet pellets have been going, which is my robin who had discovered them and is ducking under the cover and pinching them, but this morning, the dish was empty apart from the sunflower hearts, which was the least popular foodstuff last year with the hoggies. I've had the cam on every night and no show, but hopefully, now he's found the dish, may come a bit earlier tonight. I so hope it will be Ryan, but I don't hold out much hope of that, he never did come to the back door feeder, but would be good if it were one that I marked last summer. :)

The other bad news..

Had a discussion with my mum on the phone last night, as I do every Sunday. I really did have to bite my tongue and keep quiet otherwise I would have ended up upsetting her. Instead, I am cross with her , but I can't say so, which consequently has made me upset and annoyed, and I didn't sleep much last night. She is adamant she doesn't want me to come up and visit her for her birthday, and in fact, although I hope she was joking, never. She doesn't want anything for her birthday, well hard luck mum, I've already got some stuff, unfortunately though I won't be able to post some of it, way too heavy. She doesn't want to go out for a meal with my uncle and aunt, she just wants to be left alone and forget about her birthday.

She got very upset, uptight, couldn't relax and felt ill the last time I was up apparently, all my fault. She just wants to carry on with her life doing the same stuff day in day out, and doesn't want any disruption to this cosy little lifestyle, which apparently includes me being there. So that has completely stuffed my plans. Okay so it was going to be difficult as I couldn't get a pet carer, but I had it all planned and would have been able to manage 4 or 5 days up without having to worry too much about the pets, now thats all gone down the pan. I was quite looking forward to it too as the forecast was good for this weekend so the journey would have been okay. Am very pissed off now to put it mildly, but I daren't just do it as she is going to be upset, and I can't tell her I think she's being selfish, after all, it's her birthday, she can do what she wants, and I don't want to make her cry about it, so had better just forget it. So she won't get her shed fixed like I planned, so she'd better not keep on moaning about it every bloody time I speak to her. :(

Oh Hell, what have I done?

I've got a few things to blog about today, some good, some not so good. Thought I'd split them up else it will just be a bit long I think.

Well this one is I wish I could control my temper a bit more and learn to keep my big trap shut. It's been a glorious day here, been out all day with my mate Pat and Ben. Anyway got back, she left and I went to get the washing in. The dog that lives behind was barking and barking at the door to be let in. Okay, no worries. But when it was still doing it two hours later, and I was doing things out in the garden, and the neighbour who actually lives next door had been out to try and calm the poor thing, I had enough. I went indoors and phoned up and asked to speak to the man of the house. The turd of the house, the boy who likes to shoot birds in my garden with his airgun answered, and said his dad wasn't there. So I asked why he had left his dog outside barking and crying for two hours. He said "because I have left him outside" Yeah right. So I said you're not being fair, its unacceptable. He slammed the phone down and presumably got the dog in because it stopped. Now I am crapping myself that I will get repercussions of course. What the hell is up with that boy? He has behavourial problems for sure. Poor bloody dog, it's a border collie, fairly old I think, but it never, ever gets taken for a walk. An old boy used to do that and have him all day I think, but he died last year. Was I out of order? Is it fair on the dog or the neighbours to have a dog barking non-stop and howling and crying, when the owner is inside, ignoring it? Should I forget it now? Should I tell his dad and risk more trouble? Don't know what to do now. :(

The Mumbles

Had a great day out with Barry, Christine and Cylene and not forgetting Misty and Emma (as if..)

I set off at 8.30 this morning, got to their place at Neath, and then we went in their camper to Swansea, Singleton Hospital Car boot sale, having parked in a car park on The Mumbles beach and then walked up the hill to the car boot. Passing as we did Singleton Park, where I took the pics of the lake and geese.

The weather was fantastic, not a cloud in the sky all day, brilliant sunshine, what a lovely change for us to get the best weather down here. The car boot was interesting, and saw the cute doggy in the t-shirt and asked his owner if I could take a photo, she proudly obliged.

We had ice creams and hot Welsh cakes (bang goes the diet AGAIN!) and then took the dogs for a run on The Mumbles sands. The tide was miles out, Emma's little face was all worried cos she couldn't even see the water! We found it eventually though, but the sand was a bit squelchy. Misty must've run about 6 miles, non-stop back and forth. After that we all got back in the camper and Barry drove to Aberavon beach, and we sat and looked at the sea, and waited for the queue to die down at the Chippy, but it never did, they must've done a mint today, the place was packed, apart from people wearing jackets (and not all I might add, there were a lot in t-shirts, but the wind was a bit nippy down here)you could have thought it was mid-Summer. We got our grub and sat on the wall and threw chips to the gulls. Poor Emma was in the van, but I saved her a few!

Finally left Neath to come home at 5.15 and got home just after 6, longest I've been out for ages, and was relieved that Diddy boy was okay when I got home, I've been letting him stay out in the garden for quite some time now on nice days, he seems quite happy, but I still worry about him.

The Funeral - R.I.P. May

It was my neighbour's funeral today. From 11 am I watched as car loads of people arrived dressed in the traditional black. She certainly had a large family. I knew she had two sons and two daughters but I think it may have been more. Plus their children, her grand children, and even great grandchildren. Also brothers in law, sisters in law. I don't know how they all fitted in the house. I am such a masochist too, I knew I would be upset when I saw the hearse arrive again, but I still had to watch, and of course I cried like hell when 6 strapping young men, who I think were her grandsons, carried out her coffin to the car. There were some lovely flowers. They all left at 1.30pm. I couldn't do anything before that, I felt it would be somehow disrespectful to be making a noise, hoovering or washing, so I just watched from the bedroom window until they had all gone. Got on with my housework, then took Emma round the park.

I am feeling very down again at the moment, bored out of my brains, undecided what to do with my life, fed up because of not being able to see mum when I want, fed up with feeling ill and in pain with my back and legs, life is just so monotonous, doing the same stuff, day in, day out. And not what I want to be doing either, but I see no way out of it at present without making some very drastic changes, and then scared that they will make things even worse. Nothing is working out for me lately. I guess Irene leaving isn't helping. All these years I've lived here, and really it's only the last year that we have become such good friends, I have someone to do stuff with and go places and things in common, and now she is going 300 miles away. Another era of my life passing, somewhere I've been going to for 13 years, and once she is gone, doubt I'll ever go there again, no reason too, (I used to live opposite) Too painful, too many memories and regrets that I try to ignore and not think about when I go to see her, so shan't want to see it all if I have no need to. No more walking the fields with Emma. Yesterday for the first time, we walked with her 4 dogs too, and it was nice, and fun. Not for much longer. I want someone to wave a magic wand, and transport my bungalow and garden and my aviary and everything I have here back to somewhere nice and rural and countrified but within about 10 miles of where my mum is, but I doubt that place exists. If only wishes could come true.

Not a good day...

Had a bad start to the day, well bad from going to bed last night really, had an awful night's sleep, the noise of the wind howling, and the cables slap against my wall and kept waking me up. I had to get up twice for a wee, and looked out to see lots of snow, and was worrying about my friend Irene driving back, she was leaving Essex at 4.30 am. Also I was worrying about my electric running out and then leaving my birds in the dark in their shed. This is because Powergen still haven't sent me my new card to buy tokens with for the electric, and I have been running as low as I dare with the British Gas ones, I am not leaving a lot in credit to lose it like I did last time when I swapped from Swalec. I thought it would run out during the night, and then I can push the button and get £4 emergency credit, which is what I decided to do, because I was convinced my card would turn up this morning. Haha. What is it with these energy suppliers? Don't they want your money? I transferred to them last Wednesday, and they told me the card had been sent when I rang to enquire on Friday. What by? Strapped to a snail?

Anyway, what happened was it didn't run out, and I decided to have a shower. And guess what? It ran out half way through when I was covered in lather and conditioner on my hair. So I had to go to the kitchen to push the button, came back to the shower, and it wouldn't bloody work! Just kept going through the sequence of numbers and coming up Error. Shit. So there I am dripping all over the bathroom floor, bloody freezing cold, and the shower has given up. So I thought I'll have to rinse my hair off under the tap. Ran the hot tap knelt down in the bath, and it was scalding, too hot. So then I get out of the bath and end up having to fill the washbasin with warm water, and rinse my hair in that, and then rinse myself off with the flannel! I tried the shower about half an hour later, and it worked then! Typical.

After the humour if you like of that, I had some upsetting news. My next door neighbour died in the night, well at 11 pm last night to be precise. Am very upset about it, she was a dear, sweet, lovely old lady, and I will miss her. We used to have difficult conversations as she was very hard of hearing, and couldn't understand my accent I don't think, even when she could hear me, but we managed with various hand signals and shouting. She always took an interest in what plants and flowers I had in my tubs, and loved Emma. Poor old dear was 91 and had a slight stroke a few weeks ago, and she has been home for two weeks, and having to be nursed round the clock, so it was on the cards, just a matter of time. One of her daughters in law came round to tell me, she has been there practically all the time looking after her. I had guessed as much really as there were four lots of cars outside last night, and two of them pulled away at 1.30 this morning, which was one of the other times that I woke up, not used to noise of car doors and headlights lighting up my room at that time of the morning. I now wonder who I will get moving in next door, things will never be the same again, either better or worse. No good worrying about it till it happens I know. Hopefully it will be someone nice, and who is quiet, but me being the pessimist always fears the worst. I had a good cry when I looked out around teatime, and saw the hearse and the coffin arriving. :(

The weather has been good then bad then good then bad all day, in about half hour intervals, lots of snow showers, sleet, hailstones, and then blue sky and sunshine. I did manage to get out with Emma for an hour though to break the monotony and managed to avoid all the nasty bits. Went to my favourite place by the river, as I thought it would be more sheltered there, the northerly wind is bitter cold and strong today, there are daffodils in their thousands are out everywhere which cheered me up a bit, and lots of little lambs around.

Shaun the Sheep

I just accidentally discovered this today as I turned the tv on to watch Celebrity Fame Academy, and Shaun was just starting at 3.45. I laughed so much, it is brilliantly funny, way too clever for children's tv! If you enjoyed Wallace and Grommit, Chicken Run, and Creature Comforts, this is for you! Absolutely hilarious. Someone has kindly put all the episodes on YouTube to my great relief, because typically of my luck, tomorrow is the last one, it's been on for 10 days, 2 episodes each day. They only last 7 minutes, take a look and see what you think. :)

Oh and he has his own website too - www.shaunthesheep.com/

Mainly doggy stuff

My friend Irene has gone away for a few days to see her mum, and to look at property to buy, because she has now received, and accepted, an offer on her smallholding. So I offered to go over and let her dogs out for a wee, as her partner only gets half an hour for lunch, and couldn't even get there and back in that time!

So I went over around 11.30 today, she had put the key through my letter box on her way this morning (at about 4.30 am! OMG!) so I went in and got nearly flattened as usual by the choccie labs and the cocker, all so excited to see me. So I go to the back door, undo 4 bolts, only to find that it needs a key too - no key! I looked on the key hanging place which had bunch which said House Keys, but none of these worked either. Meanwhile, the dogs are going frantic, crossing their legs I expect. So I had to go outside to ring Irene's mobile (she can't get a signal in the house, only a very limited one outside too) Anyway, rang and it was on voicemail. OMG. Went back in, having left a message, and thought I'd have to just give them a biccie and go off and hope she rings me back shortly and I would go back after taking Emma for a walk. Tried ringing her again, still no good. Was about to leave and she rang me back to tell me where the backdoor key was! Bloody hell. Left them out for about 20 mins whilst I made myself a coffee, bribed them with three biccies each to get back out of the door in one piece...

Went and had a look round the shops in Lampeter, then took Emma up to the forestry where all the bluebells will be in a couple of months. There is only one parking space there on the side of the road, and dammit, someone else was parked there. I crammed up against the bank and we ate our lunch ( a low cal Tuna and Pasta John West thingy and an apple - yes I'm trying the diet again..) I hoped they would be back by the time I'd finished but no such luck. Anyway, decided to drive off round the other side of the forest and see if there was anywhere else, and would you believe, I found a better bit, with two public footpaths, much nicer walk than the other place anyway, it just meant going right round the other side along a lane for about a mile. So we had a nice walk, even though by now it was drizzling with rain. Nice to find some new places.

Tomorrow I am going to show her prospective purchasers and their parents around Irene's place, should be fun! Hope they don't want to walk the 8 acres, after all the bloody rain we've had again, it will be like a bog. And I've to shut the dogs in the pen out back before they arrive if possible, so that they don't flatten them like they did me!

Newcastle Emlyn

I went with Irene to NE today, we had a walk round the park and the Castle, Emma had a little drink from the edge of the water, too rough for her to go in here, and then she duly posed for us to take photos. After we popped her back in the car, went along to one of the cafe's and had a spot of lunch (erm, don't mention the diet) Came back and had one of my cakes each and a cuppa (yes I made another batch of the sultana buns yesterday - don't ask - well let's just say they weren't as good as last weeks, and I thought I'd made them the same...)

I actually managed to get some washing dry outside for the first time since the end of last summer, I normally just can't be bothered to put any out though because it dries just as good in here overnight, and I don't end up slipping on my arse in the mud trying to get stuff on the line outside... Anyway, after Irene went I suddenly had a burst of energy and decided to have a go at cutting some of the grass, the front looked awful. So it had its first haircut since September too, but I only managed to do about half of it, the back is still too wet and I couldn't be bothered to get the extension lead out anyway. The ordinary lead reaches about half of the garden. I'd almost finished, when guess what - it started to rain! So I had to stop and grab the washing off the line, and then get the mower away. I was wondering actually if I could get a job in a country where they are desperate for rainfall, because I seem to have this knack. Even this morning, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and as soon as I shut the machine with the washing in, grey clouds started to build..

Well I've been AWOL for a while due to my obsession with Celebrity Fame Academy. I have it on interactive virtually permanently, and have missed all my regular programmes, although these are all safely recorded on Sky+ for later viewing. I so love this show and wish they would bring back the proper Fame Academy. My favourite reality show of them all.

Oh well, enough for now, back to the telly!

The pic below needs enlarging to appreciate, although the quality isn't brill because it was only the Nokia, but look at Emma's face! Captions on a postcard...

Aberaeron

I went to Aberaeron with my friend Irene today. We had a nice walk along the top of the beach with Emma, where we encountered a dead sheep on the beach, a dead seagull which looked like it was still alive, just crouched down as if it were asleep, poor thing, and on a happier note, a field full of live sheep with the friendliest little lambs ever who ran up to the fence to see us and wanted to use our fingers as teats! Two of them had number 5 on them, and after a while, Mummy No. 5 came over to see what we were doing to her babies, very cute!

Emma had one plunge into the sea, but then decided the muddy puddles were more to her liking, and managed to get plastered all up her legs. We stuck her back in the car whilst we had a browse round the shops, and then went and bought fish and chips, and sat on a bench round the harbour, so she got her usual treats! Why do they always give you so many chips nowadays though? I ended up throwing loads of them to a couple of mallard drakes, who were duly grateful, and then the word spread and about a million gulls appeared from miles around. I always feel mean then because they don't all get one.

Back to Irene's then for several cups of coffee and pieces of cake. Oh well, bang goes the diet again....











Guess who had the chips?











Now guess who's got them?

No laughing.....

... but I made some cakes! The first time I've made sultana buns for about 30 years I reckon. My nan used to make fantastic ones when I was a kid, and so did mum, and I learned from her at an early age, lol. My mum used to do some great cooking when I was a kid. Anyway, it's all Tesco's fault. I had a voucher for I Can't Believe It's Not Butter so I bought some. Well if anyone can't tell that from butter, they need serious therapy on their taste buds. It's vile! It takes like margarine to me. I only use Clover, have done for about 25 years, I don't even like butter! So I thought rather than chuck it in the bin, I would use it for cooking. So yesterday, I had to buy a cake tin, flour, eggs. I already had some sugar and sultanas. Well I guessed at the quantities, it all came flooding back how to make them once I got going, and I was chuffed with the mixture (yum) Wasn't sure quite how long or what temperature to cook them at but kept looking, and eventually thought yeah, they're done. Unfotunately, they were a bit overdone, bit burnt on the bottom, could've done with a touch more sugar, but still, not bad for a first attempt! Here's the result (well there was 12, I ate four when they first came out of the oven..... naughty)

Floods!

Well today it dawned bright and sunny. I had about 4 hours sleep, the noise and the worry of what was happening outside kept me awake way past 2am, and I was up and looking out the window at first light, just after 6 am to see that my aviary was still in one piece.

Went on my laptop for a while and did my quizzes and stuff, and then got up early (well for me it was early) did the bird feeders and my birdies, and then set to work at sorting out the shed roof. I had a green plastic tarpaulin that I bought a few weeks ago,wasn't going to bother with it because Barry has a piece of heavy duty plastic for me, so next time I see him that can go on, and will be a bit stronger than the one I've got now. I'm not bothering with bloody felt again, that hasn't even lasted 4 years. I was literally nearly falling over in the mud up there, my wellies were sinking about 4 inches into the sludge and trying to stay when my feet wanted to move elsewhere! Also had to bag up the remains of my plastic cover from the greenhouse. That was a feat too, getting that in a bin bag, all slimy and smelly. Also repaired the fence panel again, but they aren't going to last much longer, are rotten completely and falling apart, they will have to be replaced this summer I think.

Took Emma round what was left of the park at Llandysul this afternoon. The river had flooded a lot of it and good job I had my wellies in the car else we would have had a very shortened walk. The path was under water for about half of the circuit, and I kept Emma on the long lead until we cut across the field because of the speed the water was going, wasn't taking any chances. She loved it of course, lots of deep puddles, where she could virtually swim.




















Um, I don't think they will be playing hockey today......

Poor Guinea Pigs..

I went to Pets At Home, because I needed to get some shampoo and treatment for my guinea pigs, will try that first before a trip to the vets. Poor Smudge has been scratching herself to pieces the last few days, and has a couple of really sore marks on her. I had a good feel of her skin yesterday and it felt a bit lumpy in places and lots of dandruff-like stuff came off when I massaged her skin. I had a look online and it said on several websites that it's normally mites. I don't know how she would have got them because I always use pre-packed hay and they don't go outside, so I'm hoping it's not an allergy. Anyhow, came home and bathed her and thought I'd better do Soot too in case, and treated them both with Spot-on too which will certainly eliminate mites. Poor things, they'd never been bathed before, but took it quite well,Smudge did loads of squeaking and trembling, and Soot tried to escape from the bowl a few times, was like trying to bath an eel! They were soon over their fear when they had a bit of broccoli as an early treat though and seem to have forgotten it already. I dried them as best I could with towels, and they are now comparing notes. They smell nice anyway. Just hope it does the trick.


















Back home

Oh hell.....

I'm sitting here writing this quaking with worry. The weather has turned very, very bad here in the last hour or so. I stood inside the flight of my aviary about 5.45 almost in tears, convinced it was going to blow away. I feel like I ought to be out there now, hanging on to something, or at least trying to do something. The wind has taken all the felt off the roof of my other shed, the one that I cleared out the other day. It has ripped my plastic greenhouse to pieces (no great loss, I have another cover for it, and was going to change it anyway, but I would have preferred the stuff inside to be in the dry until I did it) Lucky I didn't put the new one on it I suppose else it would have ended up the same way. One of my fence panels is hanging again, the rain has been lashing down for 48 hours now too. The gusts I would guess are somewhere around 90mph, and I've just checked the forecast, and they show it even stronger for 9pm. To put it bluntly, I am shitting myself. I can't describe how I would feel if my bird shed is wrecked, and my birds are killed. It happened to lots of people with aviaries when we had the hurricanes back in the 80s, I know one chap who was breeding Kakarikis, and was the first in the country to breed the pied variety, and at the time they were fetching around £400+ each. He lost the lot. All killed. Poor man.
This is my back "lawn" ha ha not.

Aberporth and the Lunar Eclipse....

Weather fabulous yesterday, so I decided to do three things in one round trip like I used to do last year. Namely take Emma for a good old huff round on the beach, go to the Tesco at Cardigan for a change, and then on the way back get some wild bird seed and sunflower hearts from Cilgerran.

Aberporth beach is one of my favourites, as long as the tide is out, which luckily it was, I didn't check before I left, but would have still gone anyway. It means you get access to two bits of beach instead of one, and a large expanse of rocks too. Emma had a great time as usual, and was straight in the water, a wave hit her and she got washed back in, but she didn't bat an eyelid bless her, and went back out again! The little cafe come gift shop was open by the car park so I got veggie burger and chips and we sat on the bench overlooking the bay and ate them, was really great, coat not necessary.

Went on to Tesco, not been in there for months since we have our own Xtra more local, but I find it hard to understand why a small store like this has stocks of things that the huge one doesn't? I will have to contact them to find out I suppose, but for instance, Xtra doesn't stock Cravendale milk, and never has done, but Cardigan one does. Also I buy the economy sultanas for the birds, Carmarthen only has the mixed fruit, not the sultanas or raisins. Why? Again, they never have done, not because they've proved unpopular so they no longer sell them. Find it strange.

My great day was rounded off by two fantastic things - one being Celebrity Fame Academy, my favourite ever ever reality tv programme, watched every second of it and can't wait for it to start properly now on Wednesday. Also the live streaming will be on each day from 7am to 1 pm, so glad I have the sky red button else I would be gutted to miss that!

The second thing was the lunar eclipse last night. I was in and out of the door from about 9pm onwards with the binoculars, plus had it on the tv and my laptop, there were a lot of us on the digitalspy forum I belong to who were comparing notes, photos and comments, I loved it. Emma didn't though and was growling at the tv all the time, just a low throaty growl. Someone reported cockerels crowing, someone else's cat was behaving strangely, and lastly, something quite bizarre and worrying happened here too. I was outside on the front path watching about 11.30pm when something, which I first thought was a bat, hit my front bungalow wall. It floundered around and as I was about to approach, I could see it was a bird. It was a male blackbird, could see it fairly well because of the street lights. I don't know where he'd come from, but he kept flapping and trying to fly up the wall, finally turned and flew off into the dark. I hope he'll be all right, poor thing. What on earth was he doing flying around in the dark? And why fly up the wall? I'll never know. Just hope he found somewhere safe to perch wherever he went. Someone suggested strange magnetic fields because of the eclipse, I don't know. Something has just stirred in my memory though about ley lines, I know little about it, but remember that someone from another forum I used to belong too ages ago, worked out that I have one in almost that same spot that the blackbird hit. How spooky.

The day after my birthday

I meant to do a blog yesterday entitled My Birthday (because it was, funnily enough) but in the end, I had an attack of lazyitus, and didn't get round to it. So I'd like to say a big thank you to all of you who sent me cards and prezzies, and made it such a lovely day for me. The sun shone and it was a typical March day I suppose, blustery and bright. I went to my friend Pat's in the afternoon, and we took the dogs for a walk up the lane, and it was most pleasant. I had a problem with the car though unfortunately which took the shine off a bit, and I won't bore with the details, suffice to say that my great mechanic today has hopefully sorted it by putting in a new thermostat, more antifreeze (I'd lost around 5 pints of water in about 50 miles of motoring) and fingers and other things crossed, that will solve the problem. If not, it could be something hideously expensive like the head gasket gone. He said not to worry about what I owed him either, he'll put it on next time, which if it's cured it and I get no more problems could be about the end of August lol. Handy having someone local like that, walking distance away, and he dropped everything to do it too, and had to order and get delivered a thermostat, all done between 12 oclock and 3 oclock. Most impressive eh?

Anyway, the weather wasn't quite so nice today, but was warmish, so I decided to sort out my top shed, it was in a right state because the rats had been using it as a base and general playground, and the roof leaks like a sieve. I turfed everything out, shovelled out two builders buckets full of soil and rat droppings (yewk) covered up all the holes they had chewed through with three inch thick pieces of wood. I got 5 bin bags full of crap stuff that just needed throwing away, two dead rats (double yewk) two big bags full of wood that can be burned, so I will give this away, and then put other stuff back all neat and tidy. I didn't get time to cover the roof with the plastic I have bought before it starting raining. Hey ho, too much to expect that we could have two full days without any I suppose.

Well, that's about it really, my back now breaking as usual, have taken some paracetemols to ease it off a bit, now time to go and shut the birds in, it's got dark early tonight, because of the rain.