Okay, so here's the rest of my day

The weather was warm, mostly sunny and dry, so decided to cheer myself up and take Emma down the beach, Cei Bach being about the only doggie allowed one at this time of year. So I head off. The road leading to the coast has been undergoing "improvements" for months now, which involves road widening. 7 sets of traffic lights on about a 5 mile stretch. I got everyone on red. We get to the car park, and the path leading down to the beach is very sludgy. We got to the beach, and the tide was in. So there's nowhere to walk, can't cross the river bit to get to the other side without wearing waders, or taking half my clothes off. So we walk back down the sludge and decide to walk through the woody bit up to the top picnic area (I went there earlier in the year) So after much huffing and puffing (me, not Emma,it's steep) we get to the top and they are working on the water works site. Well I should say sewage treatment plant. I was being polite. The stench was enough to make most people pass out, and the noise was horrendous, some huge pumping machine I guess. Undeterred, I thought I'm up here now, we will walk. They hadn't cut the grass since the last time I was there, it was about a foot high, although obviously others had trudged around the circuit so it was at least usable, just. Wet feet. Lots more sludge. Back down through the footpath, nearly slipped over on my arse. Emma covered in mud. And then, it started to rain.

Are you forming a picture by now, an impression maybe of the day? Well to cheer myself up, I drove to New Quay and stuffed myself with fish and chips, so there! And Emma did get to go in the sea, the small beach to the left of the harbour is okay for dogs too, which is good. And we had ice cream. And a long walk to the Fish Factory where the Nature's Calendar thing was filmed that was shown last week, no sign of any dolphins or seals today though.

To end the day, we are now having the thunder storm from hell. It's black, it dropped down with torrential rain just now, and we lost the electric. Good here innit?

I will post the Cenarth Falls stuff another time, when I don't do anything, which will be quite often I think over the next 6 weeks, cos I shall be avoiding places like the plague now that the kids have broken up.

Oh, and I will be able to tell if you have dared laugh at this, oh yes, I will know!

Update on the sofa from hell

Okay, the update on this morning's fiasco. All credit to ScS, their customer service is good (well so far anyway) A guy rang me within about 20 minutes to find out the problem. I told him (a) why it wouldn't come in through the front door (b) it's a council place and no I can't take out the window (c) my old sofa is now wet and (d) the council have been booked and paid to come and take it away! He said all they could do would be to offer me an alternative, they don't do refunds! Well I didn't really want to go through all that again anyway, I liked THAT sofa. I wanted THAT sofa. So the only solution seemed to be to go for a two-seater, which is apparently 15 inches shorter and should go through the bloody door (I've just actually measured the height of my doorway, and it's an inch taller, but of course it's the depth of the sofa too, but I think it should be okay.) In the light of (c) and (d) the guy said he would see if they had stock in the warehouse and call me back, so that I wouldn't have to wait 10 to 12 weeks! He rang me within about 5 minutes to say that the store Manager had agreed that I could have the one in the shop (the two seater) display model for the same price, and they would ship it out to me straight away! Well that will mean next Thursday again I guess, and I am supposed to be receiving a phone call to confirm this, nothing so far though, but I am at least hopeful. I think they've been very fair, and I can't praise them enough really, because the two seater in the shop is actually £220 more than the sofa I've had to send back,and had I had to pay the full price, it would have been very borderline for me, cost-wise. And there wasn't any mention of another delivery charge, so keeping my fingers crossed about that too. I just won't be able to receive more than one visitor at a time then, lol, but then I can't think of the last time that happened anyway! I actually think the smaller one will look nicer anyway, it will make the room look a bit more spacious perhaps.

Why does it always happen to me?

The guys arrived with my lovely new sofa at 9.15. At 10.00 they left, taking it with them. Why? Because this crappy excuse of a place didn't have a big enough doorway to bring in a three-seater sofa. I mean, WHAT THE FUCK???? Excuse my language, but I am near suicidal. Close to tears, but also very angry. Not at the guys, they did their best, but it just would not fit in through the front door and be able to turn into the hallway. They told me they had already had two other failed deliveries with this particular sofa. Hmmmm. That tells me maybe why it's in the sale. They smashed the cockerel door knocker off the wall by the front door, two of my hanging baskets, and they had to remove every single item from the porch (which is a lot believe me) all the photos I have in the hall, the lampshade the lot. All they could come up with is can you remove a window! Oh yeah, right. The council would love that. So it would appear I cannot have a three-seater sofa of any kind, and I don't have room for a two-seater and an arm chair in this shitty tiny little living room. So it looks like I will either have to have two arm chairs which cost more than the three-seater sofa, or a two seater sofa. Hard luck if I ever have two visitors at once then, one will have to sit on the floor, or I guess I will. So now I've phoned up and reported it, and someone is going to ring me back. I'm not holding my breath. Either way, I choose something else or I get my money back maybe, but I will have lost the £45 delivery charge I've paid for sure. They have a disclaimer on their bill saying something like it's the customer's responsibility to ensure that the item can get into your house.

Oh and there's worse still. I'd already put the old stuff outside before they came and it pissed down with rain, so I've now got a wet sofa to sit on. And I have already arranged with the Council to collect my old stuff, next Thursday, and paid for it. So now do I cancel, and hope they will give me my money back, or just sit on the floor for the 10 to 12 weeks that it will probably take to get something else delivered? Oh Bollocks!

Wednesday - dead things

Well today has been quite eventful one way and another. I'll start with the bad news. I opened the front door this morning to find the little frog (which incidentally, I now think is a toad, or should I say WAS a toad) dead on the door mat, alongside two enormous dollops of hedgehog poo. The thing is though, it's foot had been chewed off, but there were no other teeth marks on it. I have the most awful, awful feeling that I could have killed it. I may have stood on it last night when I went outside to fill up the food dish before I went to bed. The hogs had eaten most of what I'd put out earlier, so I topped it all up again. If I killed it, maybe one of the hogs decided to try it, but being a toad, they taste vile apparently, and would have left it. I feel terrible, no way of being sure of course, but can't think what else would have happened. I buried him in the compost heap. I don't think he would have died by just having his foot chewed, and there were guts coming out of his mouth. Sorry if you are eating.
















I decided that as summer arrived today, to make the most of it and go somewhere. Needed some peanuts so decided to head for Cilgerran, Teifi Marshes Nature Reserve for a spot of lunch and a walk with Emma. Went into the Kingfisher hide and sat. Nothing doing. Then suddenly a Heron landed, so I thought I'd get the camera out and just sit. He stood on the bank a while, then went in the water and was looking intently with that stare they have. Then suddenly he plunged, and came out with something, and took it back to the bank. I could see it thrashing about and felt sick, but was still fascinated to see what it was. I thought it was a frog at first, but after zooming in on my photos could see it was a fairly large eel. The Heron kept putting it down, and I thought it was going to let it go, but no, then it would pick it up again and toss it around. The poor bloody thing was writhing and I watched helplessly, desperately wanting to yell at the Heron so it could escape but knew I mustn't. After about 15 minutes, the eel was obviously subdued enough to be eaten, although still not dead, and I watched as the Heron swallowed it down gulp after gulp, and you could see it going down the Heron's neck and still wriggling. OMG I wanted to throw up. By this time two other people had come in the hide and they saw the end of this, but were interested in my photos.



















Well I stopped at Cenarth Falls on the way back, which is a great touristy place, and I took lots of photos, but will do the blog later as this is a bad time of day here to try and upload photos - I'll probably do it late tonight or early tomorrow.

Monday and Tuesday.

Yesterday had my new carpet for the lounge and hall fitted. Big panic as I was sure they were coming between 12 and 6, and they phoned at 10 o'clock to say they were on their way, I only had about half of the stuff out of the living room and needed to vacuum through. Just made it as they arrived. Took them about 2 hours. Very pleased with it. Took me the rest of the day to put all the stuff back in the room really, and sort everything how I wanted it. At least I managed to tidy the jungle of electric cables behind the tv so that they can't be seen now and everything got dusted properly!

Today woke up with a killer headache, took some paracetemol after I'd eaten some cereal, got dressed and went and did my birds, sat down with a coffee, and felt so rough I went back to bed until 1 o'clock. I think it was the fumes from the new carpet plus all the aerosol spray they used to fix the carpet down. Anyway, went to town this afternoon and did a bit of shopping. Bought a table and two chairs from Argos, supposed to be a breakfast bar, but it is going in the living room, not room in the kitchen, and it will double as a table to eat at and the budgie's cage stand, lol. It was flat pack, and had fun putting it all together, but actually, no it went well, and I only swore once! So tonight, I ate my meal sitting at a table for the first time in years, and looking out into the garden at the birds feeding, it was great! Maybe I won't get so much indigestion now, sitting upright instead of hunched up on the settee with a tray on my lap, and normally leaning forward looking at this laptop at the same time, lol. I don't want to be eating on my new leather sofa when it arrives either.

Weather hasn't been too bad this past two days, we've had some heavy showers, but it's been pretty warm and sunny too, it's actually more like April than April was, so maybe next month will be like May, and then we will have summer in September? No harm in hoping.

Anyway, had the webcam on just now and two hoggies were here, one is very scared of the other one, and just hovers under the chair until No 1 Hog has finished eating, before he or she will go to the dish. All very civilised! So I waited until they'd both gone and went out to see if there was anything left, and No. 2 Scaredy Hog was still in the porch. I did a double take because I really thought it was Ryan. It appeared to have a funny nose like his. If anyone had seen me, they would think I was completely mental (no comment) I was kneeling down in the wet, with slugs all around me, getting as near as I could to see his nose and talking away to him! Anyway, couldn't really tell, so dashed in and got my proper camera and took a couple of shots, and am now disappointed because it's peanut skin stuck on his nose! What a wally!

Now of course when I should normally be going to bed I'm not in the least tired because of being asleep all morning. Oh dear.

Okay, so here's the confession!

Well you can all let out a sigh of relief now, because I shall reveal all. Now most of you are going to be bitterly disappointed, because you all had your own ideas I guess of what it was to be about. Well, to most people it will be no big deal. But to those who have been in the same position as me, and have fought with their conscience at any time, you will know what I've gone through. In a nutshell, and for those who don't know much about me personally, I stopped eating meat, and became a vegetarian in 1994. Various reasons, but I'd never been a big meat eater, but did eat chicken, burgers, sausages, that sort of thing, but not one for meat that looked like dead animals if you know what I mean. Well when we started keeping chickens, I decided I couldn't eat them any more, nor did I like the thought of eating bits of cows or pigs (I never did eat lamb) so I stopped. I started to eat fish again after a couple of years, because I got pissed off with just having chips whenever we ate out (my other half used to love going to the chippy) and veggie options were very limited back then. So I wasn't a strict vegetarian for most of the time. So the confession is that this week, I ate chicken, in the form of a Chicken sandwich at MacDonalds. And it was bloody delicious. I wasn't sure if I could do it. I'd been thinking about it for a while, in all honesty since MacDonalds stopped doing the deli veggie melt and replaced it with a vile Mexican veggie burger with chilly sauce stuff dripping out of it. The last time I tried to eat "meat" was a bacon sarnie a few years ago, and I gagged, and couldn't swallow it. But this time, I'd made up my mind to try and just didn't think of what it was before. Anyone who has ever given up anything (like smoking I guess) and then started again will know what I'm going through. It's hard to explain. I feel sad, disappointed in myself, but at the same time, elated. The thing is, every time I go out, I see things that upset me, like birds or animals squashed in the road as one example. Everytime I see the news on television, I see something that upsets me. Every time I watch a nature programme I see something that upsets me. But I am powerless to prevent these things, they are still going to happen. And if I stop eating things that I enjoy, because of a principle, it's not going to stop things being killed to eat. And the way I look at it, my health has been crap for many years now, and it may just have something to do with my diet. So I'm prepared to give it a try, and fight the bad feelings I'm getting for giving in.

So there you have it. Not very exciting was it? But a bloody huge decision for me. And the reason I have now confessed is that I did it again today, this time I had a quarter-pounder, the first "red meat" I've eaten for 13 years. And again, I thoroughly enjoyed it. So did Emma, the first bit of burger she has ever had! I still don't think I could face seeing it as raw meat, but the occasional chicken thing or burger isn't going to change the world is it? I am also fed up with not being able to buy so many things because of the meat content. It's going to make life so much easier for me.

Okay to end, two pretty wildflowers that I took on the rough ground behind Morrisons where I took Emma after we had eaten! And it hasn't rained all day either, despite the forecast, it was quite nice for a couple of hours. It is raining now though, and getting darker by the second.

Friday the 13th

Well nothing awful has happened I suppose, that's about all can be said for it! It has now torrented down with rain for at least 12 hours, and I mean chucked, very heavy rain. It was raining when I got up in the night, and it hasn't stopped. I had the doctors first thing, then decided to just go to Tesco to save the weekend crowds, only needed some veggies and bits and bobs. Ended up spending £51! Well, it meant I got to use my £6 off coupon, and I also got the 5p off fuel coupon too, so will wait till the tank is nearly empty again. It saved me around £3 on the last fill.

Well the only other things of note are : (1) no sign of Rambo, but hardly surprising if he's gone any sense he's either gone home or is sheltering somewhere dry, but then I suppose if he'd been around, I wasn't here to see him.
(2) Emma gave the poor squirrel the fright of his life this morning, he was in the porch eating, and I forgot to check when I opened the door to let her out... he just made it through the fence! Hasn't put him off though, he was out in the garden again just now, I took some stuff out for him and showed him where I'd put it, but he's not taking any chances and has gone! (3) Took Emma round the reservoirs for a walk and she got soaked, I didn't too badly because of the trees, apart from my feet, the path was under two inches of water in some places. Loads of fields are flooded. Just when it was getting dry enough to cut the lawn .... (4) I had a word with the son of the old lady next door this morning. I had to do something, I don't want to upset her, she is only being kind, but she keeps giving Emma huge biscuits, and she will get so fat, it won't do her heart murmur a lot of good. I let her out for a wee earlier, and she came running back in with a denta-stik thing within seconds. The old girl is waiting for me to open the door I think. Same when I got home yesterday, I'd hardly got out of the car, and she was there with a biscuit for her. Very sweet of her but irritating all the same. Anyway, all is well, when I got home she came out and said she understood, and was okay about it. Phew.

Well thats the exciting day today, apart from one other thing, but I'm not sure I'm ready to fess up about that, I'll have to think about it.

Oh no, I don't believe this!

Anyone remember this from last year, the escaped Lovebird that I managed to catch and return to the owners? -
















Well I was sitting here having a cuppa at 5.30, looked up at the window, and did a double take. Rambo the Lovebird, was sitting up on the line looking in at me! I rushed out and called and he was chirping away at me, then flew into the oak tree. I kept calling his name and he was answering. It's definitely him. He has flown off now away down the village, but he used to do this last year too. I can't bear this, it was so upsetting last year, knowing that there is a sparrowhawk paying frequent visits. The tree that he used to sit in and roost has been lopped now. I don't think I've got a chance in hell of catching him again. And can you believe how bloody careless are the young couple to have lost him again? I haven't still got their phone number either, been searching. To be honest, I hope he doesn't come back, and that I don't have to worry about it again. It makes me so sad. If I did have the luck to catch him, I've a mind to keep him, if they can't look after him properly. It's EXACTLY a year and three days since I captured him. Can you believe it?

Well this is rushed, as I have to go to the wind farm meeting now, so not sure what time I'll be back.

The going to buy a new sofa day

Well I set off bright and early (10.30, haha Pete!) to Swansea, full of enthusiasm and hope of seeing "just what I wanted" for a bargain price. Huh! Anyone who has ever left Junction 45 of the M4 and headed for the Enterprise Retail park will know what I mean (or unless it's just old age having crept on) What an effing nightmare! The roads all look the same, and there are dozens of them, each with little turnings off here and there, and roundabouts, and lots and lots of traffic. Do you think I could find a sofa shop? Oh no, that would be too easy. Well tell a lie, I did find one that I'd looked up online last night - sign outside said SALE sofas from £299. Well they must've hidden those, or they'd all sold out. The cheapest I saw anything started at £999, most around £1500, erm a bit out of my price range.

So having driven up and down a few more roads with impatient white van men attached to my rear bumper, I spotted a sanctuary. Something quite unexpected in the centre of a City shopping area. A bloody great lake, with ducks and swans and geese and lots of water and people fishing, and picnic tables, and me and Emma walked all the way round, must have been well over a mile. I saw an enormous carp near the edge, but no photo opportunity, it wouldn't have come out, too ghostly looking. Great stuff. So now that I'd worn Emma out, I thought what's next? Food!

So eventually, more by luck than judgement, I managed to find ScS and MFI next door to one another. Sat on loads of different sofas and armchairs in both shops, and there was only one that felt "just right" that I liked, and that would be practical for me. I love the ivory coloured ones, but it would look filthy in no time, it had to be brown really. I am the world's worst at making decisions. The guy was great though, left me to sit and enjoy it with a glass of cool orange squash. How's that for customer service? Still couldn't make up my mind, the thing that was weighing against it was 10 to 12 weeks delivery. When I want something, I want it NOW! So then he came up with a deal, a bargain. They had the same one in stock, available right away, but it was shop soiled, had a couple of marks on it, £250 off! Well, I didn't get where I am today by being too fussy. There will be plenty more marks on it soon when Emma is on and off I'm sure. I can easily touch in a couple of scuff marks with some brown polish, it won't even show, they are down on the bottom of one of the arms and on the back. So thanks to Alan in ScS, I am now getting my lovely sofa next Thursday. (Sadly, they only deliver once a week up this way, but didn't want it before my new carpet anyway) I came home a very happy bunny. Just have to sort out getting rid of the old one now, seems a shame to dump it, but it needs a good clean if it were to be re-cycled. Dunno, will phone the council I guess. May have to go in the garage temporarily.








Felt very mean, went down to the water's edge to take photos of this lot and they all came honking excitedly thinking I was going to feed them...



Had no trouble finding this for some reason....



It's thirsty work eating all those chips...

And finally (drum roll....)

Tuesday

It's funny what you find in your front porch at 7 o'clock in the morning. I was going to do this first thing, but ran out of time, and have been so busy today. Am now shattered and about to go to bed but thought I'd best do it now before I don't bother at all!

















At first I thought awww how cute, he's found himself a little pond. (It's the hog's water dish) but then I realised he couldn't get out! The sides were too slippery, he was struggling poor little thing, wonder how long he'd been in there. I took him out and popped him onto my rubber lizard in another water dish! When I looked about 10 minutes later, he'd gone, bless.
















I finished the decorating in the hall today. It took me from 10 oclock till 2 to do the painting. I thought it would only be about an hour! Can't wait for the carpet to come now. I'm off to look at sofas tomorrow, I thought about ordering online from one of the catalogues or eBay but I really want to sit on one first, comfort is more important I think than getting something cheap, after all, I spend a lot of time sitting on my bum, it's got to feel right!

Stuff in the garden

I haven't done anything of note to write about for a few days, just the normal shopping, dog walking in places that I've done loads of pics of before, watching Wimbledon etc. Today not much different really but thought I'd take some photos of the weeds and wild flowers in the garden whilst the sun was shining and before they all drop their petals. They got the weather forecast wrong for today too, it's been lovely here, t-shirt weather, lots of clouds but not often blocking out the sun, but a bit chilly when it did go in mind. It's all changed now though, completely grey out there and cold. I actually went down to B & Q to buy some paint. I am decorating the hall, as I've ordered a new carpet for the hall and lounge. Lounge is okay, did that last year, but the hall is horrible. I spent the morning doing the gloss on the skirting boards and door frames. I chose my paint and then because the cows weren't in the field alongside B&Q, I thought I'd walk Emma along the river Towy. It was really hot. I took lots of photos with my Nokia, as I didn't bother with the camera, I thought if the cows had been there, I would have taken her to the reservoirs and you can only take so many pictures of the same place...

Anyway, came back armed with pictures of the river, a train crossing the bridge (quite a novelty for me as I rarely see any trains, but Emma hates them, is terrified) erm, cows on the other side of the bank, Emma sitting in front of a life-saving ring. Came back and have just processed them using bluetooth, and they are all bloody blurred and useless! Just checked and the bloody lens on the Nokia case is all scratched. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Oh well, serves me right for not taking the proper camera I suppose. So the garden it is then. Diddy Boy had a good old crowing session whilst I was out there, so caught him mid-yell!












Just had this pair of siskins on the peanuts.

It never rains but it pours....

Well after yesterday's sadness with Toby, I opened up my bird shed this morning and found my old budgie Misty laying dead on the floor. I was upset of course, but it was not unexpected. She was over 12 years old, a very good age for a hen living outdoors. She was very arthritic but had been flying around and feeding, and had a "toy boy" as a boyfriend - a young male to look after her. I guess the poor girl had a heart attack in the night. She was from the second clutch of babies from my very first pair of budgies that Barry bought me in 1995. She was born in June, so had just turned 12.

I'll never forget what a lucky escape she and three other baby budgies had when they were only about 5 weeks old. I had taken them out of the aviary into a cage in the shed as I had a problem with sickness and birds dying. They had all been wormed and treated with antibiotics. It was a hot summers day, and I had left the shed door open and we had gone off to work for the day, leaving our two dogs out in the garden, and they could go into a different shed for their beds etc. When we came come, I found three of the budgies, including her, outside on the gravel path in front of the aviary. I had left the cage door open! Anything could have got them, dogs, cats, other birds, because they couldn't fly! It was so cute really though because they were sitting by the aviary wanting to go in with the other birds. One of them was still sitting good as gold in the cage though, lol.

I buried her and Toby tonight snuggled together in my bird graveyard in the border in the front garden.
When she was a baby, only a few weeks old

RIP Toby

Today I took one of my cockatiels to the vets. For about two months I guess it's been, she has been unable to fly, and having difficulty even walking. I had been carrying her out of the shed every morning, and putting her on the shelf in the flight with special food, water, millet so that she can feed. I have also made a ramp so that she could get back into the shed when she wanted. For a while, she was managing quite well, and was climbing back up the wire to roost on the ledge in the shed. For the past two weeks or more, she had been unable to do this, and was just staying on the floor all the time. I guessed it was arthritis, which these birds are prone to, but she was only about 9 years old. She was never tamed, but had been allowing me to pick her up and carry her without too much fuss, never bit me anyway. So last night, she couldn't even walk up the flight to get back in the shed, and was just sitting on the floor of the flight trembling. I carried her back and put her in the shed and knew it was time to do something. The trouble is that I didn't think it fair to bring her in and put her in a cage, she was an outdoor bird, and it would be like being in prison. I was also worried that she was in pain, I mean, arthritis is painful to us. She had no quality of life. But anyway I was prepared to take advice. Damien gave her a thorough examination. He was bloody brilliant actually, and spent around 20 minutes analysing every possible thing. We also thought she had some form of paralysis, because she kept turning her neck at a funny angle. In the end, he gave me his opinion, and said if it were his bird, he'd put her to sleep, but would quite understand if I wanted to see how she got on in a cage. A very hard decision, because she could have lived probably for another 10 years, but would never have been able to get around. So I decided to respect his advice and do the deed. Damien was so great, very caring, and asked me if I was okay, as I was starting to cry. Felt a fool, but he was so lovely. I held Toby in my hands whilst she just drifted off into a deep sleep. A nice way to go. Hope something similar happens to me some day.

Oh, and I should explain I guess why she was called Toby - well just purely and simply a mistake on my part when I got her as a baby. Only males are supposed to sing a beautiful mating song, and she did this as a youngster, so the books are not always right.

Monday

Woo Hoo, it hasn't rained now for, oh at least 4 hours! Rained most of the morning on and off though, and it's pretty breezy but quite warm.

I had to call in at someone's house to collect some information leaflets about the wind turbines, as I am going to do some campaigning around here to try and get some more support. Should be a laugh, I wonder how many people will slam the door in my face! Oh well, I will have a go anyway. The person I called in on lives very near to the lovely place I go to at the river, the spooky favourite place of mine, and she will be able to see the turbines very clearly across on the mountainside, it will completely ruin her view. She has a wonderful place with fields and sheep and a horse in the field.

Anyway, had a good chat with her and then took Emma down to the river. It was very scary, I've never seen it so bad this time of the year, it seemed like it was November there, bits of trees and branches strewn across the path, thick mud, and the colour of the water, that awful brown colour, and it was absolutely raging. Emma didn't even give it a second look thankfully, she does have some sense then! She made do with a nice puddle on the path! As usual, something spooky happened again though. I'd love to know what it is down there, whether it is me, or if things happen to others. No way of finding out of course. I'd come back out onto the road, and was walking back round to where the car was parked. I'd not seen anyone at all whilst I'd been on the walk, but I suddenly had the feeling that someone else was walking behind me. I turned, and just for a split second, I saw a figure, and then it was gone. I guess a lot of people would freak out at that, but I always find it magical and fascinating. Doesn't scare me at all.

Came home to find that another of my fragrant lilies had opened, the whole porch has a fantastic aroma, they are gorgeous. Took a pic of the other ones too which have just come into bloom along the front, they are a darker orange than the other pot that has now sadly finished.

Saturday - the rain just got worse

Weather absolutely horrendous today. But I'd made up my mind I was going to Llanelli shopping so didn't care really. I had a £7 voucher from Tesco's burning a hole in my purse, it had to be used up by 7th July, and if you spend £50 at the moment, you get 5p off a litre of fuel too, so a double whammy. I very nearly didn't go though, there was thick fog here first thing, and the torrential rain, but I guessed it would just be hanging around our valley, and I was right. I went the long way to Llanelli though and stayed off the M4 because of the spray. Turned out okay over there, a few drizzly showers, but nothing too terrible, didn't get wet dodging from shop to shop anyway. I ended up browsing in HMV, not a thing I do too often, and good job too, because I bought £35 worth of DVDs! We (Em and I) had a McDonalds (naturally) and I took her for a short walk on the grassy bits. I had a very embarrassing moment coming out of Tescos, something in my shopping set off the alarm. Cringe. Security Guard going through all my stuff, and people looking at me, well I had a clear conscience, so wasn't unduly worried, and correctly guessed that the Smoke Detector I'd bought hadn't had the security tag removed. Durr!

OMG, as I am typing this, I have the webcam on to see if my hoggies come tonight, and a frog or toad has just trundled across the screen! Which brings me nicely onto my first photo, last night, my little mouse was darting and diving around and taking stuff from the dish, and I could see his little eyes just off to the left, where he was sitting in my plant stand and eating the stuff.

On the way home, decided I needed to call into Lidls so ended up taking Emma round the reservoirs for a walk, it was drizzly but didn't get wet cos of the trees. Had a good day out, enjoyed myself, I just love spending money.... ;)



















A summer's day in Wales.... the water lilies looked nice anyway.