Work Party

Dale and I helped out at our town's wetlands restoration effort over the weekend. The wetland was maintained and serviced by people doing community service in lieu of a prison sentence in the past, but new Health & Safety regulations terminated that involvement (working near water ... !) almost 2 years ago.

The reeds and invasive bulrushes has grown up and smothered/covered everything over so that islands within the network were no longer separate or visible. We managed to get 14 volunteers for a period of 3 hours to try and get it back to its original, intended state.

These two hardworking guys cleared and re-dug a drainage ditch bringing water down from the tarred car park. 

People brought strimmers (weed whackers), hedge cutters, loppers, wheelbarrows, rakes, scythes and pitchforks to carry out the work. The few people with waders did the deeper water tasks.

Our town mayor came and joined the work crew

Though we weren't able to finish clearing the entire area, we cleared about 75% of the problem spots. It was a good day for working outside (NO RAIN), and we were rewarded with donuts and drinks. It was a great connecting (and aerobic) activity.

The Welshabet

Whilst visiting the Pontcysyllte aqueduct last week, I saw a sign for Wrecsam/Wrexham, which got me thinking, 'does Welsh use an X?'

I then fell down the another rabbit hole (no surprise), discovering that Welsh has 29 letters in its alphabet, and that doesn't include K, Q, V, X, Z. Instead, it uses ll, dd, ff and so on, as additional, separate letters (digraphs, the combination of which alters the sound). For example, 'ff' makes the sound of an f while f on its own makes the same sound as a v. How exciting, and extraordinary! It starts to make some kind of sense after a while!

So, here is what I call the Welshabet, without the j which has been more recently approved as an addition (1987).

Welsh alphabet

To complicate matters a little, the location of some letters in a word changes how that letter is said - English speakers shouldn't complain! The word for hospital (ysbyty) contains all 3 different ways y is pronounced, all in one word. (Remember y is a useful vowel)

To say hospital, ysbyty, try this: usbuhttee

Elegant Kite

Red kite soaring high:

Feathers glinting 'gainst the sun

Tail calibrates flight.

Driving Theory

Yesterday we both passed our driving theory and hazard perception test on our first attempt. It was daunting to receive an email reminder a few days beforehand, stating that

"54 out of every 100 theory tests

were failed between July and September 2025"

Aargh, it was a long hard week of dull cramming for our test. We had to watch video clips of developing hazards and click as soon as we saw one. The sooner you clicked, the higher your score (1-5), but clicking in a constant pattern (just in case) would result in 0 points. To pass this section, we had to score an average of 3 in 15 clips, to achieve a total of 44 or more out of 75

Watching clips and waiting for hazards gave me the willies - the tension in my neck afterwards was intense! I guess I just don't play enough video games.

And then there were the road sign questions too ... on which we had to score 43/50 to pass - these always got me ... 

No motorized vehicles

The U.S. sign for no cycling (below) is very clear to me. In the U.K. a round sign with a red ring around it is prohibitive (something you must NOT do) even without a slash through it. There are obviously also country-specific colors and shapes that have to be assimilated.

The test setup was intense - we had to shut down phones and then put them in a locker, had to turn all our pockets inside out, remove watches, have ears checked for hidden devices, and sleeves rolled up to check for ? Crib notes?