Tues, Summer at last

Been the best day here for three months, since we had the nice weather in April. It was very hot in the sun if you were out of the wind. Cleaned out the birds today, and did general houseworky stuff, took Emma round the park, and managed to have my tea in the porch for the first time in ages too, lovely it was. Took a couple of sunset photos, interesting cloud patterns. Counted 21 Swifts overhead, the most so far, they were very high tonight, almost disappearing sometimes in the haze.


















Hoggy just came, had a scratch, and then carried on eating, so funny!

Phew!

He's safe! He came before 10 oclock, only ate a few raisins and ran off within a minute or two, so I wasn't convinced, because my normal hog usually eats the peanuts first. Anyway, he's just come back, and was eating the peanuts and drank a lot, as does my one, so I went out, and it was him, because he smells like a cowpat! And he doesn't cower up when I go and speak to him. However, I did have two coming of course, so it could still be one of mine that has been runover.

Got my little mouse here now too, dashing back and forth, very cute. Must go to bed though, will sleep better knowing he's still safe.

There's an amazing full moon out there tonight. It's cold though, definitely feels like October already. The hogs will be getting confused if it stays like this and be thinking of hibernating I reckon. It dropped to 5c again last night, and I doubt it's more than that out there now. Bloody weather.

Fingers crossed and praying for tonight

I am uterley heartbroken. Today, when I pulled out of my road to go to Pat's, there is a hedgehog squashed, right level with my house but on the main road. Last night, my hog came at just after 10 o'clock, like normal, ate a bit, then went off. He always comes back sometime during the night because the dish is always devoid of peanuts in the morning, in fact devoid of all the other stuff normally. At 7 am when I looked this morning, it hadn't been touched. I am just praying that it wasn't my little hog. It upset me all afternoon. Yesterday, on my journey to and from Llanelli, I saw four squashed ones. One was a tiny one, only just out of the nest I should think. And it was 2 inches from the side of the road. Some bastards are deliberately running these over, I am sure. I mean, it's not like they dash across the road and are unavoidable like squirrels, rabbits or birds. They freeze in the headlights, and on our quiet roads at night, it is perfectly possible to avoid running them over. The one on our road is right on the white line in the centre of the road, the road is wide. No need at all for a car wheel to be there. Sickened beyond belief. Please let my little one come for his food tonight. :(

Burry Port

Well the weather was bright and sunny so decided to go off somewhere today, and headed for Llanelli for a flying visit to the shops, just a couple of things I wanted, their Tesco is much better than ours, as I've mentioned before! Had a bite to eat at you know where, and then went along the coast to Burry Port to take Emma on the sands. It's been very windy though today, so not what you'd call hot, still needed a sweater or jacket on. Anyway, a good time was had, apart from it seems to be my week for getting stuff on my t-shirt. I queued up with Emma at the ice cream van, had a cone with chocolate sauce, and as he handed it to me, the wind blew loads of it all down my front! His bloody ice cream wasn't frozen enough, it was a load of slop! I had to wipe it off best I could and then zip up my fleece so I didn't look a complete wally. Or so I thought. When I got back to the car eventually, I looked in the mirror and saw that I'd been walking around with tomato sauce on my cheek from the McDonalds! It was near my scar from the seagull though, so maybe people would have assumed it was dried blood! haha.

The sad bit of the day was the other seagull though, I couldn't get anywhere near it. Poor thing. Also stuck in a queue of traffic for ages, then an ambulance came screaming past, when we finally got to the hold up, there'd been an awful accident, two cars smashed to pieces, one ended up in a garden. We were diverted by the police all round the back of the houses, through a park and then back out on the main road. Nasty.


He never moved in the 20 minutes I was walking around. He's broken his foot by the looks of it. :(











Cosy, three together! Not sure if one is a different species, has green wings and not black? Maybe m/f difference?

Excuse me while I scream!

Arrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh! That's better, I needed to do that or else punch the wall, and that would have hurt.

Picture the scene. It's a nice sunny, warm day, I've walked Emma down by the river, I've enjoyed my solitude and peace, I've come home and I've washing out on the line, guinea pigs running around in their large pen, and I'm now (reluctantly) cutting the grass. I've done the back, the sides, the slopes, did all the bits I hate first this time, and left the easy peasy bit (the front) till last. I looked up and thought, oh typical, I've just put the guinea pigs out in the sun, and now it's clouded up. Next minute, the heavens opened! Now I'm using an electric mower for a start. Out the corner of my eye and I see her from next door has appeared and is saying something. Now my mower is very noisy and by this time I was facing away from her, so I just left it running and shot through the gate into the back garden to get the washing in and cover the guinea pigs with some sort of shelter before they got soaked. I didn't want to bring them in cos I was halfway through cleaning out their cage indoors. This done, by now it's raining even harder, but I thought to hell with it, I want to finish cutting the front, so I go back, she's gone in. Phew. I start the mower up again, and within seconds, she's there again, and I said very loudly "oh fuck off" and just carried on cutting, not looking her way, I mean I was rushing, by now it was absolutely pissing down! I was drowned and in danger of getting electrocuted, and that silly old woman wanted to chat! She went in again! Now I don't know if she heard what I said or not, I doubt it, because the noise from the mower is VERY loud, but dear me, what the hell is up with her? I mean, she had been away overnight, I was hoping for the whole weekend, only been home about an hour I think, and then she'd been down the shop, because I saw her as I was going out with Emma, so it's not like she hadn't spoken to anyone all day and was lonely or something!

I know, I am horrible. I am anti social, but ffs, she must have some brain cells left which said, oh dear I'd best let her get on with that and not interrupt?

Anyway, glad I got that off my chest. I have now calmed down. I had a nice time out with Emma, and also yesterday at Pat's, where I took some piccies of birds in her garden, but only from indoors so they aren't brilliantly clear. Lucky thing, she has a pair of Great Spotted Woodies coming all the time.

Got a Speckled Wood butterfly down the river today, there were others, and lots of different Damsels too, but none of the buggers would stay still long enough for me to photograph. As it was, I pushed my luck walking across the hay meadow to get the one that I did manage, good job the farmer didn't see me, although it was trampled down a bit anyway, it wasn't all me, honest guv!

The day of the Sofa

Just a quickie, as running late as usual on a Thursday, when I have to go out at 7.20 for the windfarm meeting.

Yay, the sofa arrived, yay, it went through the door no sweat, yay, I didn't have to pay any extra, yay it's only got one mark on it which doesn't even show really, whereas the other one had three, but booooo, it didn't look right against the wall the way I had re-arranged the living room, so I've moved everything back the way I had it originally. No problem though, it probably is more practical this way round, I just felt like a change!

Other than that, the weather was crap this morning, chucked it down, cleared this afternoon though, and quite hot, but really windy. Took Emma to Newcastle Emlyn round the castle, nearly got blown away.

Irene phoned me on the way home, but as luck would have it I was right by a pull in so chatted to her for about half an hour and had all the news of her new place and what's gone wrong so far! I thought it was only me who got aggro with things, but hers is even worse!

So now got everything sorted here, I need another project now, I guess I'll have to start on the bedroom next, which will be a complete nightmare......

Emma approves, so that's all right then....

Chippy spends much of his time talking to the guinea pigs nowadays. Don't think they speak the same language though.

Cwm Tydu & The Gull

Woke up this morning to grey skies, wind and lashing rain. Felt so fed up you wouldn't believe. Anyway, I'm pleased to say that by about 11.30 it has stopped raining, sky cleared and it was very warm out, although still windy, but coming from the south, so I thought I'd go up to the coast, having checked that the tide was out this time! Packed a picnic and off we set.

It was lovely when we got there, and was sheltered from the wind on the beach, but the sea was rough as hell, some brave souls were in the water though. Walked Emma along the beach, but she wasn't keen on going in, it was a bit fierce, she had a little paddle in the edge. We went round the corner to where the river flows into the sea, which was more to her liking.

I came across a young Herring Gull all of a sudden. In fact, I nearly trod on it, just appeared out of nowhere, and I thought that doesn't seem right, and it was pecking at its leg. When I looked, I could see it had fishing line wound tightly round both of its legs. I tried to get closer and see if I could grab it, but it sensed what I was going to do and flew off. Felt fed up about it but thought no way would anyone be able to catch it.

We sat down on the beach with our picnic (hence the photos below of Emma's piggy face) and then decided I would take her up the cliff path. However, fate took a hand now, because as I went back to the car to put in the picnic stuff, there was a lovely Springer Spaniel tied to a car, howling and crying and looking in the direction of the cafe, so I went along to comfort it. The owners came back and all was well, but because I'd gone in that direction, I decided to walk up the roadside along the river instead. As I passed the cafe and the main car park, I could see the young gull again. It was laying down. I tied Emma to a post and approached, and this time, the gull didn't fly off, but it was edgy. I thought if only I had something to give it to eat, I may have a chance. So I went back down to the cafe intending to buy a bread roll or something, but then found I'd left my money in the car. The owner of the cafe was brilliant, they apparently knew about the gull, it had been hanging around for a while, and someone was on their way to try and catch it. Anyway, he gave me two slices of bread, so off I went. No problem, the gull immediately stood up, and came over to me, it had been standing on one foot, and the other one was going an awful blue colour. I thought it's now or never, and lunged and got him! Trouble was, he wasn't too keen on the idea and swiped at me with his beak, and got the side of my face. Triumphant though I carried the struggling bird back down to the cafe, with blood pouring out of my face, I didn't know how bad the wound was, but was more concerned about helping this poor bird to be honest. The guy in the cafe got a pair of scissors and we set to work getting the line off his poor legs, and then found that the line had a hook on the end and it was in his wing! Luckily, right at the top, more in the feather shafts, and he managed to get it out without causing too much stress or blood. Gave the bird a quick check over, and then I took it across the road and let it free. It just stood there for a minute and then I went over with the rest of its bread and it ate greedily, then flew off toward the sea. Success. So chuffed, even though I am now (probably) scarred for life! (and lost about a quarter of pint of blood,) some of which was on my t-shirt (thank god I'd taken my favourite white fleecy top off) I learned one thing - gulls have very sharp edges to their beaks, (if that's a gull's beak, imagine what a Razorbill's beak would be like..... ) because not only my cheek, but my fingers got a bashing too, but no blood drawn. And I got a free cup of tea from the very nice man in the cafe, not to mention wads of soaked tissues to blot my cheek with. Feeling elated that for once one of my wildlife rescues hopefully will have a happy ending. You can see from the last shots that the leg was almost back to normal colour by the time he flew off, and the salt water will heal any little wound he had on his shoulder.

Rough sea


Fishing boat crossing the cove, rather him than me *puke smiley*

During the picnic...



When I first noticed something wrong, the line, not showing up too well in the photo though.See how thin his left leg is above the knee joint?


After his ordeal, see his leg is almost back to normal colour already
My war wound. I guess I was lucky really, it could have been my eye!

Tuesday, almost like Summer for half a day

Woo hoo, it's a miracle, it hasn't now rained for over 24 hours, the sun has been out for most of the day (clouded over now though) I actually managed to walk Emma without wearing a sweatshirt today, yes, bare naked arms for the first time in yonks. This morning though, at 6.45, it was 5c on my house wall thermometer, and felt almost icy. It's still a long way from being what you'd expect at this time of the year.

Anyway, this morning the guy from PowerGen came and at last, after months of trying with bloody British Gas (which still hasn't been resolved, still not got the money they owe me)I have a new electric meter fitted. Even that was not without a hiccup though, because he came yesterday which was the affixed date, but they hadn't told him what meter he would need, and of course, he didn't have the right one! I thought here we go again, but he said he would go to Swansea, get one, and be here today between 10 and 12 to fit it - and bless him, he kept his word, and even phoned me to tell me he was on his way at 10.45. Thank god there is one reliable company who do what they say they will. So no more plodding down the pay point and getting tokens to stuff in and wobbling around on a chair to do it! No more knowing how much it's costing me either.....

Anyhow, that done, I wanted to take Emma somewhere other than just round the park, so boring every day, only gets me out for about half an hour, so I went to my favourite river place, and hoped it wouldn't be too muddy. Not too bad, went across the three farm fields, but had to pick Emma up to get into the last one as there was a lovely squelchy bit she would have loved to plod through, but I could squeeze down the side against the fence!

Wouldn't let her in the water, which she was a bit peeved about again, but it's just too fast flowing at the moment. The last photo here shows it raging, and this is normally just a trickle at this time of the year. I was amazed to see a swan too, the first time in all the years I've been going there that I've ever seen one. I should think he or she is having a hard time finding food. I was surprised to see how it managed to stay in one place with the current so strong, without any visible effort, they must have strong paddles on their feet!

Got a couple of shots in the field of a brown butterfly, which from my chart looks to be a Ringlet, but am prepared to stand corrected. There were others too, but none would stay still long enough for me to photograph them!

Henllan - a year on

It wasn't raining this morning hooray hooray! I needed to go to Newcastle Emlyn to get a couple of things from the pet shop, so thought I'd take Emma round the castle. I left at about 12.20. By 12.30 it was chucking down. So instead, I did my shopping and thought I'll go to Henllan instead because it's under the trees mainly and we won't get too wet. Ho ho, what a mistake. Well we didn't get the top of us too wet I guess, but the rest of the walk was ubelievable. I've never seen the river that violent, the noise was incredible, there were four trees down, blocking the pathway, the last one of which I decided enough was enough, and turned back before I got to the field like I normally do. They had just slid down the side of the hill. So sad to see trees that were around 100 years old ending up like that, top of them laying in the river. There looked to be another few about to go over too. And I nearly crapped myself at one stage when I heard that awful creaking and splintering sound and I looked about me to see if some branch was about to come crashing down on us! What there was of the path was under water in a few places, I had my ankle wellies on, but the water soaked up about a foot up my jeans. Emma got plastered, and was very confused as to why she couldn't go in the water, but was happy enough to go in the deep puddles. When I got back I looked, and I actually went there exactly a year ago today, so I've posted the pictures from then as a comparison. What a lovely summer. I'm sitting here freezing with two sweaters on, the hall rad is on, and I've just lit the gas oven in the kitchen to try and get some heat around the place. Its 13c outside and still pissing down. Oh and a year ago yesterday, I did the blog entitled "A fab day at the Beach" Not a happy bunny!





The water right up to the edge of the path, Emma asking if she can go in! No way!






Last year's -


I took this one stood in the middle of the river in 6 inch deep water. Today it's about 5 feet deep and flowing at about 100 mph!