Pesky blardy bitey things!

 I am covered in bites - after a visit from a hungry horse fly on Monday, yesterday I paid the price of going through the undergrowth to give my Cardinal Richeleau rose a good drink (I planted it over the graves of Ghengis and Theo).  For some reason the blardy bitey things - the one on my front was definitely a horse fly by the feel of it - go at the edge of clothing and so said clothing is inclined to rub the bite.  I had to go to Llandod for After Bite yesterday as mine had run out and stocked up on yet MORE cat food as the boys have decided they will only eat the expensive cat biscuits (now on special offer, fortunately), and the most expensive cat sachets.  I was glad to have £6 off in Tesco vouchers . . .

With the temperatures so high yesterday - and it so muggy and airless - I stayed indoors and did Horrible Housework, including giving the fridge a good scrub out.  I was having a "down" day, really low in spirits, and couldn't see any point in anything, and worrying about money going out* as I had just had to pay for the Fair next month (very nearly £200 now) and of course the ongoing costs of decorating although my friend is doing a good deal on the price.  We've needed extra paint though as the 2 1/2 L won't be enough. The additional one litre tin of paint to finish off outside was £31 last week.  *I know, I've just had a big chunk in, but you can only spend it ONCE . . . and I don't like having to use savings.

However, I did manage to save a BIG chunk on my breakdown assistance, having had to leave Green Flag (which was £161) and going with the one Tam recommended which she had been with successfully for about 7 years now.  That was only £48.  I can, however, recommend Green Flag as they have always been very prompt and reliable - NEVER never bother with AA or RAC. We were with the latter and broke down on a hot day on the A40 just outside Whitland, and despite many phone calls, and age and medical issues (my twice daily inhalers were at home) they told us we would have to stay in the car overnight!!!

My other almost-free Audible choice was C J Parris' Execution, about the Babbington Plot.  Perhaps a bit heavy to read, but when you are driving long distance, it's great listening and I recommend it.  I first heard of it when I was reading a children's novel by Alison Uttley, A Traveller in Time (I have a collection of her wonderful books).  In A Traveller in Time, the main character, Penelope, is staying at her aunt's house in Derbyshire, and opens a door on the past - into 1580 and the Babington plot to put Mary on the throne . . .  You can enjoy this book as an adult, it is so beautifully written and the time-slip notion is one I have enjoyed in many other novels, especially those by Barbara Erskine.  I can recommend the podcast my painter neighbour has been listening to (and me too, by default) Historian Tom Holland's "The Rest is History" which was, snap, also about Mary Queen of Scots!  I really enjoyed it, but missed the last podcast as I had to go out, so will listen to it all again.

Anyway, I decided I would cheer myself up and watch the new Outlander series Blood of my Blood, and have signed up to MGM - just 99p for the first 2 (or 3?) months, then £5.99 a month after that. I will end my subscription when they have (eventually) shown the last episode.  So I sat down with my Baltimore quilt and started neatly resewing the joins on the back, pins everywhere pricking me.  Warning - it starts with a death, which gave me a real lurch of emotion.  I have to say though, Jamie Roy as Brian Fraser is VERY easy on the eye.  Cor!!  An old saying has just sprung into my mind - he could put his boots under my bed any day!!! 

It did cheer me up, although there are just two episodes to watch as yet.  I watched the second last night, swathed in quilt again and with Pippi in the middle of it, away from the pins, which made sewing rather difficult.  

I may go out for an early walk whilst it is still nice and cool.  I will check on humidity as that does affect my asthma.

Today is rest up day

 It's going to be Very Hot here again today (30 deg) and nearly as hot for the next week or so.  I am so fed up with HOT.  I don't do hot, especially for months on end.

Sunday was cooler so I rubbed down and finished painting the French doors.  I opened them both so I could paint the sill and edges of each door.  I was sweltering as the front of the house faces South. The rubbing down of the wood filler wasn't as perfect as it should have been, but I was past caring in the end. When everything was dry, I attempted to shut the door which isn't normally opened (has locks top and bottom - the other side has a key).  It jammed.  It was an inch off closing at the bottom.  I had to take a chisel to it to make room or it would never close at all.  At least the front of the house is finished now and it looks lovely.

I retreated into the cool at the side of the house and rubbed down and undercoated the side kitchen window.  That needs a top coat but that probably won't happen until it's cooled down again now.  The two upper windows have been done and Tam's main bedroom window is rubbed down, masked up and some wood filler put in.

That was really quite a tiring day - the heat is so wearing - and my watch told me I had worked hard.

Yesterday I had to be up at 6, and out of the house at 7, to be across to Tam's early to look after Rosie all day.

She didn't want to sleep.    We went for a walk and she finally nodded off and slept about an hour and a half - we were back in the cool of the garden by then.  I was sat on the bench, dipping into Radnorshire Folk Lore and taking notes of churches to visit.

Above: Not Going To Sleep!

Below: the bees loved the Borage and were around it all the time we were sat out there.  I was trying to show the pink and blue of this flower.  It reminded me of the Viper's Bugloss I have here.

It's a great year for apples.   Tam showed me some apple trees she'd seen locally, and when  I ventured into the long grass to pick an apple, I got several bites on my hip - they've been itching like heck and are the reason I couldn't get back to sleep when I woke at 3.30 again.

It was a very slow drive both to Tam's (behind a heavily laden gravel  lorry) and back again - behind a Learner driver.  Up in the mountains, the road does not really lend itself to overtaking. It was 7.45 before I got home and I will confess to a "popty ping" curry - a really nice Goan Prawn curry - for my evening meal.  It was a big portion, so I ate all the prawns and will defrost some frozen chicken to have in the other half of the sauce tonight.

My friend arrives tomorrow, so posts may be a bit haphazard.  Time to head back to bed.  THere is light enough to see the bats flying around at the end of the house, and they are going back to bed too . . .  One last photo, this time of Housemartins clinging to the side of the house and practicing nest making.  There were about a dozen on there at one point.

On my hunkers again

 Two tiring days in a row, including setting off at 7 a.m. this morning and not getting back till more than 12 hours later today. Will check in tomorrow.

Luna Lapin finally finished, but Madame decided that she was underdressed and needed a pair of her socks . . .

St David's Church, Llanddew

 P.S.  I keep forgetting to tell you that from no nests of House Martins, one pair were finally able enough to find enough wet mud to build a nest on the East of the house, and their young have just fledged.  Each morning in the bathroom, I am less than a foot away from them as they fly loops and soar in the air, and then swoop back under the eaves.  They have even been building fresh nests on the sites of old ones, but these haven't come to much.  They bring me such joy.

My route back from Merthyr last week took me back through Brecon, so I decided to visit St David's Church at Llanddew again.  It was several years since we were last there.  There had been a castle, and a Bishop's Palace, although the latter was ruinous by the 17th C, and there is still Bishop Gower's Well opposite the church.  Gerald of Wales also lived in Llandew, as he was Archdeacon of Brecon from 1175 - 1203. 

This was an early Christian clas and Eluned, one of King Brychan's many children, was said to have taken refuge here in 500 AD.  The current church dates from the 13th C but by the mid-19th C the building was ruinous and was almost completely restored by Ewan Christian.  I have to say, it didn't have that feel of ancient worship as do some of the churches I visit.

Inside the porch, remnants of Norman stonework, but one wonders just how much was lost.

The font is medieval on a more modern base.

I can't find out which family this is the heraldic symbol for.  Suggestions on a postcard please . . .

I couldn't get a clearer photo of this one, as using my useless mobile camera.  A lion on one side, and another animal, and waves beneath?

Then Coflein tells us what we have lost:

According to Davies (1873) there was a now destroyed blackletter paternoster, probably dating to the sixteenth or seventeenth century. It was described as '...on the north wall were portions of the Lord's Prayer in Welsh, the characters and spelling clearly pointing to a period not much later, if any, than that in which the Bible was translated into the Welsh language..'. There was also a fresco of an angel described as '...on the intersection of the south transept, just above the squint, were found the faded remains of a well executed fresco of an angelic form...'

A stoop near the altar.  There is another in the porch I think.

No great blaze of stained glass behind the altar, just these three simple lancet windows.

I missed the Leper squints in the walls.  I always miss something in a church!

Right, 5.15 a.m. now.  Perhaps I can get back to sleep . . .  Update: I did, despite ice cold feet and Pippi yelling in my ear that it was Gone 7 a.m. and was I EVER going to Get Up?  I woke after 8, with her keeping my feet warm - which is really unusual for her, as she always snuggles into my chest.

Overdone things rather

 

I had a lovely walk this morning, just the flat mile each way up the old railway line in town, but very pleasant.  Town is busy - cyclists going through heading Llandod way, a Dog Show at the Showground - they're all camped in a top field - whilst on the flat it's the camping and caravan club and there are a LOT of people down there.  As I passed the Groe, they were having their regular 5 mile Park Run (lots of locals take part in that), so all in all, lots going on.  Oh, and when I was in the garden I could hear the microphone from the Trotting Races just past Cilmery today.  Not something I've ever been to.

I hung a machine full of washing out to dry and have brought it all back in again, benefitting from sunshine and fresh air.  I got down on hands and knees to scrub the bathroom floor - it gets so dusty and cat-hairy at the edges - and then set to to try and get as much of the too-sticky-by-half Masking Tape off the 18 window panes of the French windows.  I managed 4 before I got too hot.  

Then it was upstairs to Tam's bedroom to do the inside of the windows there (frames too were VERY grubby) as Sam had cleaned the outside glass for me before masking up and putting in some wood filler where necessary.  The two upstairs side windows are now painted and I have to do the side kitchen window tomorrow and then that is all done that side.  

I have done some brain puzzles, read a bit of Tim Weaver's The Last Goodbye, which I'm enjoying and listened to a lot of The Keeper of Stories, which I will miss when I reach the end.  It's excellent.  

Next is my evening meal, which is going to be Kedgeree and some flat Hunter Beans from the garden.  Picked more Hunter Beans and Runner beans today, and 3 good size cucumbers too.  More to come for when Rosie is here next.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend. I have several days' deep cleaning to do and then a few days off when my friend from Dorset is here.

Well, how's THAT for Positive?

 The young man who is doing my up-the-ladder painting for me was here today.  First thing I was complaining that I still hadn't heard from HMRC regarding the overpayment of tax they took from me last year.  I was saying it looked like I was going to have to make a phone call to the Broom Cupboard - my little family joke that they just have the one phone and it is put in the Broom Cupboard, and no-one ever answers it - they just comment how busy the phone is today as they walk past . . .

You can imagine my face when I picked up the post later and there was a brown envelope from HMRC telling me to go on line and get the amount owing transferred to my account!  HOORAY!  Overcoming my technophobe tendencies, I did so right away with great alacrity.

I have managed some tidying up on The Bank (it's the stuff of gardening nightmares this time of year) and have had to promise myself a new wheelbarrow as I can see the ground through the rusted holes in the one I've got. At least I can now afford one.

I can also find out how much the new shower in the guest bedroom might cost me - doing it budget rather than glamour.

I had chips for tea - talked myself into them rather, after talking up the chippie to my helper (who is only here part time and hadn't used it yet).  So that's me fed and watered and about to go and watch tv, earlier than usual.
  

A HUGE Positive

I am grateful for a few small things which add up to be a big smile at the end of the day.  I have something metal to glue back together and thought I would have to fork out £8 or so on some Gorilla glue.  I decided to check Keith's workshop, just in case.  Found a bottle but there was no movement inside it.  Looked to have set solid.  However, when I cut the tip of the lid off and put a piece of wire in, there was still some usable glue in the middle.

I did have to go out for a few things for when my friend is staying next week, and went into the Charity shops.  I found a Seasalt teeshirt in my size, and also a Seasalt 80% wool stripey top.  Perfect for my NZ holiday.  Some lovely wools for Tam too, so a real Positive there.  Oh and across the road they were selling all their clothes at 50p each and I got a pretty dress which I can use for patchwork (or even Rosie frocks).

I am grateful to see wildlife using and thriving in my garden.  It has been slow progress, as the last owners used toxic chemicals to kill weeds and I think these take a while to be washed away. Certainly the last 3 years have shown increasing numbers of insects, reptiles, and birds.  I have planted lots of perennials and roses which draw them in too. 

The runner and hunter beans are finally pickable (my fault for not watering enough), and cucumbers and tomatoes are doing very well with supplying me with salad.  Free food is good - and my little orchard has quite a few apples this year.  Not huge because of the dry weather and the youth of the trees, but no complaints.

I had a two-for-one offer whilst still a member of Audible and chose one I had never heard of before - author or title - The Keeper of Stories by Sally Page.  Well, I finally started listening to it this week and I am enjoying it SO much and can heartily recommend it.  Coming up to the anniversary of Keith's death I had to stop listening to the Diana Gabaldon book I was half way through, as death scenes and the like were too distressing.

I sat down this afternoon and began making a Christmas present for a friend.  It's a little wall-hanging for her kitchen (and I will probably make a bigger version too as it's turning out quite petite).  Knitted using white cotton garden string, it has a felt Sunflower on the front.  I watched several I Escaped to the Country programmes I hadn't seen - most restful.

After the rest I had the energy to make Chocolate Blackberry Brownies (neighbour here to continue upstairs painting tomorrow and he won't say no to a couple of slices!)  So that's 8 oz of last year's blackberries used up and a tiny bit more room in the freezer now.

So, a few little things make quite a big positive.

Oooh, nearly forgot!  Rosie had her 16mth assessment from the Health Visitor today.  She was gobsmacked by Rosie's progress.  Tam said her face was a picture :)  Rosie has achieved milestones which they don't expect to see until the 27 mth check!  She said she was clearly empathic and caring too.  She even asked Tam had they thought about which school she might go to later!  She said Rosie was an old soul, and she's not the first in the profession to say that.  So we are really delighted with her - we knew she was making great progress - as in handing me a book recently and saying "Granma read book" and coming down the stairs standing up - we try and get her to hold our hand, just in case, and she can now run too and open doors, and knows how a key fits in a lock etc, and she's always trying to do up the straps on her car seat.  She quickly copies what we do - like in blowing on my hot cup of tea last week.  Smarty pants she is!  That is a HUGE POSITIVE.