December Floods
Not as bad as the floods in November , but again the river overflowed into the flood plain.
Feeling the need to paddle it…
Thames Valley in Flood
A walk on Wittenham Clumps to blow away the Christmas Flu and take a gander at the flooded Thames valley.
In the middle of the picture is Days Lock. Getting to the lock island is a tad tricky right now.
Wet Dog
Ewok is the only person I know that’s loving this wet weather. He’s happy spending hours in the garden. The wetter the better he says.
November Floodscapes
In November the river flooded the meadows down to Wallingford, getting close to the 2003 height of 5 and a bit metres.
Do not try this at home
The water meadows were flooded again (November, I’m a tad tardy posting all this).
But I couldn’t resist a a quick sprint down to Wallingford
The boys came to see; but I resisted F’s request to Eskimo roll :-)
Under no circumstances should you canoe or kayak in flood water.
Flood water is dangerous:
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/31632.aspx
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-08 to remove broken links
Tree planting
New life. Three tiny trees from
Deacon’s Nursery
now tucked up in warm holes in the back garden.
I
think
Fay can remember what type they are…
The shed in the mud
The beginning of a seating area down by the
shed
Fay’s studio. At the moment it’s just a muddy hole. A muddy hole that Ewok loves and is slowly moving into the house, one muddy paw at a time.
[ White Shed | Shed 4 | Shed 3 | Shed 2 | Where did the pond go? ]
Be safe be seen
A brighter ride with a couple of these.
Bright enough that they need to be dipped for oncoming pedestrians but still apparently not bright enough for drivers pulling out onto Shillingford roundabout…
…but then mid day summer sunlight isn’t bright enough for them either.
Apple Press
D&S had a bumper apple crop that all came good at the same time. What do you do with more apples than you can eat? Turns out you drink them.
In H’s case straight from the press. By far the best apple juice ever.
Slow train to Pontarfynach
We (all of us) took the slow train to Pontarfynach.
To see the waterfalls at Devils Bridge.
Which involved climbing steps.
Lots of steps.
And climbing over iron bridges.
But they were rather pretty.
The train was pretty epic too.
First Day in Llangrannog
A most marvellous walk from the Farm House (a most excellent last-minute find from lovely Fay) to “the city” as F called it, or Llangrannog to the rest of the world.
For such a long distance hike many rest stops were required.
But the destination was well worth the effort.
Pests!
Stuff is growing now that the Patented Rodent Fence has been installed.
One small snag, Fay (rightly) thinks it’s lowering the tone. Hummmm.
Olympic Show Jumping
Fay & Rachel at Greenwich Park for some Olympic show jumping…
…and a team gold for Team GB (strictly it’s, Team GB and NI and Crown Dependencies and (some) British Overseas Territories (not otherwise represented by their own Olympic Committees). But Team GBaNIaCDasBOT doesn’t trip off the tongue nearly as easily).
Olympic Kayaks!
A very very kind D&A gave us tickets for the K1 Olympic Finals. An absolutely awesome day at the Lea valley White Water course.
Camping
After a long afternoon making the most of it…
..the fish (fresh from Mortehoe) were slow-cooked on the BrillBarbie
Late starting and very slow, so the boy’s snugged down for the evening.
But it was well worth it. Super dinner and the perfect end to a lovely break down in Woolacombe with the FabFour™
Broomhill
Reflecting
Sun worshipping
Rioting
Snoozing.
A bit of Sculpture-Culture at Broomhill hotel and gardens . Absolutely top grub too.
Chilling in Woolacombe
Woolacombe when the summer arrived. Busy, but nicely busy.
F (doesn’t he look like H?) waiting for that perfect wave (it arrived, two days later).
Force 9
The campers packed up just in time. A Force 9 (aka Strong Gale) hit overnight.
By the morning we had a foam filled bay and white caps still visible out to the horizon.
Bracing.
Sundial
Clive & Jane had a copy of Albert Waugh’s “ Sundials: Their Theory and Construction ”. A fascinating read. H spied a wonderful portable sundial which we promptly put through its paces on the front deck.
To-do: build a sundial for the garden.
Bath with a View
The second-best bath view in the world. The first is obviously the pacific from La Push (although there’s no published pictures of that one ;-))
Beach Scouting
First job at the hut, scout the cliff path to the beach. Steep, slippy and in places ‘hairy’ too. Time to beach: boys 10 mins; adults 17.5 mins; Ewok 30 seconds.
“I see no ships”.
Except the dive boats above HMS Scylla .
A very proper walk. And good aerobic training going back up.
Beach Cricket
Bowling was a tad tricky on the stony wicket but we did discover an awesome fielder in the family. Ewok.
Breakfast on Beer Beach
Breakfast (fried!) at Ducky’s, Chapple’s or Kenno’s cafes on Beer Beach
(I canna remember which captain).
May in the garden
Last year May in the garden came early. This year lots of rain meant it’s arrived late.
Past May in the Gardens: 2011 , 2010 , 2009 , 2008 , 2007 , 2006 , 2005 .
Chicks
More chicks . This time in a proper bird box. There’s new bird life everywhere this year: garage, holly tree, rosemary bush. bird house, bird box, loft, ivy, hedge…
Chicks
Last year ducks , this year Robins. At least that’s what we found hanging in a plastic bag in the garage. It *almost* got thrown away. Close one.
Rain!
Wettest April for 100 years ? Luvly. Time for a paddle from Benson Lock…
…to Wallingford Bridge.
Record time too!
Sports
Hide and seek; rock climbing; long jump; five-a-side (spot the ball competition version).
All in a day’s sport.
Easter Weekend Scenes
Sign on the road to nowhere.
A busy Barton-on-Sea .
Rock running.
Across Christchurch Bay to Hengistbury Point.
Wet Dog
Ewok is learning to swim.
It takes a lot of concentration and several hours drying off after.
Didcot Wave, here we come…
Bottom of the garden views
Misty morning
Fiery morning
Clear morning.
Three views from the bottom of the garden.
Shed Stage 2
After the pond came the base.
Ewok liked the base so much he decided to leave an autograph or three.
The chickens
Having managed not to make a complete hash of it last year I was asked to look after the lovely chicks again. Super eggs.
Where did the pond go
Sorry ducks . The pond had to move. Unfortunately, it’s gone but not yet arrived.
Still. The rubble someone kindly left came in handy.
Finn Explains…
How the Romans kept their phones dry when taking a bath in Bath…
…and why the secret ingredient for dad’s mac-n-cheese needs to remain secret.
[Trivia Question: is Bath called Bath because that’s where people bathed or do we say bath because people bathed in Bath?]
Yikes
Nothing since February? Either it’s been very busy or very unbusy. Lets fix…
[Back posted from April]
Pen-Y-Fan and Cribyn Again
A return visit to Pen-Y-Fan and Cribyn . Only this time the weather was a little cooler.
The strong head-wind and horizontal snow/sleet mix made for an interesting hike up along Cefn Cwm Llwch.
Visibility was marginal – with the occasional clearing of the cloud to show that we weren’t hiking inside a white tent. The last section up to the summit even had a bit of ice axe action.
The trail down the eastern edge (along Craig Cwm Sere) had deep, occasionally thigh deep, snow drifts, with some decent plunge stepping down to the saddle. A brief pause to test the wind speed by noting the angle that the map case flew at (horizontal map case = fast wind), before heading up to Cribyn and then down to the track at Bwlch ar y Fan.
A hike down in the gathering gloom-cum-head torch darkness to a fantastic dinner at the White Swan in Llanfrynach.
The view this morning was much clearer – you could even see the top of Cribyn which we’d raced passed the previous day. But no sign of Pen-Y-Fan, nor of Martin’s shades that took a flying dive off the cliff during the summit photo-opp. A good way to go if ever there was one.
