Helen

After postponing all week due to poor weather or having commitments I didn't want give up, we finally got our walk yesterday, i.e. Sunday. I'd actually been looking back at my LJ posts from last year and realised that though we've walked in the woods at Abergwynant quite a few times, I hadn't seen the owl sculpture since last year.

First I drove us to Penmaenpool where I managed to get a parking space on the shady side of the car park. We then walked along the Mawddach Trail to the gate into the woods. To our surprise, there was an event using the trail, so that gave me my weekly photo.

I thought I would struggle to find a photo for this theme because there are no events in town this week, but by great good fortune we discovered that our walk yesterday was following part of the ultra-marathon route. This part is level, but we later saw markers up in the wood on narrow twisty paths and steep ups and downs. Somewhere I would not like to run.

Quote from their website: "Ultra X Wales is a multi-stage ultra-marathon that takes place over two days around southern Snowdonia in western Wales. It offers three races; Ultra X 110 Wales, Ultra X 50 Wales & Ultra X 25 Wales. The course takes participants on looped courses starting and finishing in the event campsite, following a number of famous trails and stunning ridgelines, bagging several of the highest peaks in South Snowdonia." https://ultra-x.co/wales/



( Photos of woodland walk here... )
Back on the Mawddach Trail and not far from the car park. Cows on the move! The tide is out, but I'm not sure whether this herd of cows is supposed to be wandering around on the sandbanks and crossing the channels of the river. Here the matriarch (clearly in charge) is looking back as if to say, "Are you all following me?"



Reassured that the herd is following on behind, lead cow strides out for pastures new.



Finally we walked back along the popular trail to the car park and thence home --- where we found our neighbour struggling to assemble a new lawnmower. She had got most of it done, but couldn't fix the handle in place. So we stopped to help and we struggled and struggled and couldn't get the nut tightened on the screw shaft. I went got some oil, which helped a lot, but it still wasn't working as a vital piece didn't want to fit in a hole it was meant to fit in.

And then, at the point where it seemed impossible, I read the instructions and saw we had the vital piece the wrong way round. We must have struggled for at least 20 minutes and I don't know how long our neighbour had been struggling before we came along, but if someone gave us one to assemble tomorrow, we'd have it done in five minutes. So the moral of this story is, even if it seems obvious how something goes together read the instructions, or as we used to say RTFM!

As it was fine yesterday, I decided to walk up to my elderly friend's house for the small Quaker meeting we hold there on the 3rd Sunday of each month. M is too frail now to get to our main meeting in the village hall, so this is a nice way to keep her included.

However, I didn't want to plod up the hill from town (boring), so I drove round the by-pass, parked in a lay-by on the old road (now a dead end) and walked up what we still call "The Golf Path", despite the fact that the small local golf course closed years ago.

There were five of us at the meeting and we had tea and biscuits and a catch up chat after the silent worship. I didn't have time to take photos on the way up because I didn't want to be late, but here is the gate at the top of the Golf Path, taken on the way back home.



And almost at the bottom, I spotted this sheep family relaxing after a hard morning's grazing. The ewe looks newly shorn.

As I posted previously, after a struggle, I managed to remove my wedding ring which had become much too tight. Originally I thought I'd just get it enlarged or possibly buy a new one, but thanks to a comment from curiouswombat, I decided to get it re-made.

I've had my mother's wedding ring for over 30 years but didn't know what to do with it. I didn't want to sell it but wasn't going to wear it. So, today I took both rings to a local jeweller who will make one larger ring from them which I will be able to wear comfortably again. Fortunately they are both 22 carat gold, so that's straightforward to do. He will also enlarge my engagement ring. The jeweller was fairly local, his shop is in Barmouth, so G came along too and we had a short walk while we were there.

After parking in the main car park on the sea front, we walked through to the jewellers, passing the old lockup on the way.



And on the way back to the car park we passed a piece of the old Barmouth bridge. The curved spans were replaced recently but the contractors have given Barmouth a piece of the original bridge. It now forms a sort of industrial looking sculpture.



After changing into walking boots and donning our sun hats, we set off past the church to climb the steep hill behind Barmouth. ( More photos here... )

This morning I did the usual Big Weekly Shop with a visit to both supermarkets. I didn't get what I wanted in the Eurospar, namely a pad of A4 lined paper. They have a few stationery odds and ends, but no writing pads. I should have ordered one when I ordered the biro refills. I'll need to go on a shopping trip somewhere to find one. They didn't have the curry sauce I wanted either. But I did buy M's paper and drove up to see her. It was changeover day for her carers, but that didn't prevent us doing the crossword together. From there it was down to the Co-op for the bulk of the shopping and thence home.

We haven't done our weekly walk yet this week due to bad weather, so we will go tomorrow come what may. It is supposed to be dry, so fingers crossed...

( Eowyn Challenge -- weekly progress report )

27/52 for the group 2024 Weekly Alphabet Challenge

This week's theme was: A is for Ancient

A sepia version of the photo of the ruins of Cymer Abbey near Dolgellau. There are more ancient things in the area, but though not all that far in miles, it's quite a long drive to the standing stones along a single track road. Also they now charge at the nearby car park. So this small ruined abbey was more convenient to photograph, being within cycling distance.



From the Cadw web page:

An example of Cistercian influence in medieval Wales

Cistercian monks were more than religious men. Worldly Cistercians were also pioneering sheep farmers and some of the first rural entrepreneurs. Their network of abbeys included Cymer, idyllically set at the mouth of the Mawddach Estuary.

Founded in 1198, it was one of their lesser settlements, suffering greatly during the conflicts between Wales and England in the 13th century. Nonetheless, substantial remains survive from this simple abbey church.

The Welsh name for July is Gorffennaf which literally translates as "summer end". This seems slightly odd because July and August are the months for summer holidays. But after the summer solstice, it is the beginning of the end of summer. The first exuberant flush of plant growth has slowed a little. I might start to make some headway with getting the garden back under control.

Otherwise it was a normal Friday, the weekly shop in the Co-op and then a visit to my elderly friend. The post had brought her postal vote paperwork, so I helped her fill it in. M's mind is perfectly sharp, but her eyesight is deteriorating, so she likes help with reading anything complicated. We did the crossword and xygolex word puzzle and I posted her vote on the way back home.

Before going to the Co-op, I also managed to take two more bags of stuff to the charity shop. I nearly didn't put the bags in the car because finding a parking space in the central square is next to impossible. But then it dawned on me that there were only two bags and they weren't overly heavy. I could walk back to the square from the Co-op car park. I calculated my departure time to allow for an extra 15 minutes to take the stuff to the charity shop, so of course when I turned into the square there was not one but two empty parking spaces! Anyway, it meant I could amble at a leisurely pace around the Co-op and take my time over the shopping instead of rushing round, knowing that I was going to be late arriving at M's house.

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( Eowyn Challenge -- weekly progress report )

Yesterday I took S one of the members of our local meeting round the walk I've devised that visits many of the historical Quaker sites outside town. She hadn't been able to come on the day I took the American woman J round the route, but I was happy to do it again.

This is the bridleway near the start of the walk. It's steep and rough and the first part is lined on either side by trees. Beyond the gate that you can't quite see at the end of the tunnel of trees, the track runs across an open area with views of Cader Idris.



( More photos here... )

When G and I did the walk earlier this year, and when I took J round the route, we commented on the great views you get from the lane walking back down to town. Not this time! S and I had to hope for gaps in the vegetation in order to catch a glimpse of them.



But it was a lovely walk and a nice chance to get to know S better. I've known her for some years at meeting, but generally don't get chance for a long conversation.

On Wednesday, during the Welsh chat in the cafe, one chap said that he'd seen a report of a serious fire on the road leading to where my elderly friend lives. No one else knew anything about it and it took me a while to find any mention of it online and that was on the Welsh news (in Welsh) on the BBC website. It said that business premises had been destroyed in a fire in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Several fire engines had been in attendance.

But I couldn't think of any "business premises" on the hill leading to M's house. It's entirely residential properties. There is a farm half way up the hill, so I wondered if one of their barns had caught fire.

As the weather was so lovely today, I nipped into the supermarket on the outskirts of town and after I'd bought a few things, including M's newspaper, I left the car in the car park and walked up the hill.

There was no sign of a fire anywhere. However, after I left M's house, on the way back down I noticed that a garage at the side of one house was boarded up. A van outside had a name and "Home improvements" on the side. So this seems to be the "business premises" referred to in the article. Not quite what I had imagined from the BBC report, but it was no doubt very scary for the home owner when it happened as the garage wasn't detached and the whole house could have caught fire.

But this reminded us of the time many years ago when the BBC seemed to be talking about a major incident as they reported that a train had come off the rails at Fairbourne. However, it soon turned out that it wasn't the mainline train, it was the little miniature railway I posted a photo of a few days ago. The wind had been so strong that a carriage had been blown over. I don't think anyone was hurt and the carriage was soon lifted back onto the tracks. It makes you wonder why you believe anything in the news at all. Every time we've been involved in anything newsworthy, at least a few details have been wrong in the report in the newspaper.

22/52 for the group 2024 Weekly Alphabet Challenge

This week's theme was: V is for Variegated

I spotted these variegated leaves on my walk to visit M.

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( Eowyn Challenge -- weekly progress report )

Today was dry, so I didn't get wet doing the big weekly shop. I am now stocked up for the Bank Holiday weekend. I then drove up to visit M and we did the crossword rather quickly because I had arrived a little late.

The weather has turned colder, but I'm not really sorry. Such hot weather in May didn't feel normal and I was thinking that if the heat continued to build through June then July would be intolerable. Anyway, it was cold enough yesterday and today for the central heating to switch on automatically. (It's set to come on if the temperature falls below a certain level.)

I have nothing particularly interesting to report, other than seeing a couple of rabbits in the back garden at lunchtime. Our neighbour had seen some in his garden some days ago and had evicted them and then quickly reinforced the rabbit proofing around his garden. He is a very keen gardener and grows lots of vegetables. The rabbits are welcome to the weeds and grass in our garden and our neighbour on the other side only had grass and three fruit trees, so she's not going to worry about rabbits. I just hope they stay with us and don't devastate our gardening neighbour's plot.

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( Eowyn challenge progress update here... )

The forecast was for a fine day today -- or at least it was supposed to stay fine for the early part of the day. We therefore decided to do one of our favourite forest walks. I drove us to the car part at the Coed y Brenin mountain bike centre and, leaving the car in the car park, we set off on a circular walk along tracks and paths.

We've done this walk a few times before, but this time G led us on a slight variant, taking us along small paths rather than the wide forestry tracks. Twenty years ago he knew this part of the forest well because he had some scientific equipment there recording rainfall and river flow. He remembered it as being more open and indeed the trees didn't look more than 20-30 years old. It's amazing how fast nature returns if an area is left to its own devices.



( More here... )