Unexpected Things

Oh, what a day! We had to put any plans we had in mind aside after discovering a leak from the conservatory roof onto the floor tiles. ACK! It took most of the day to get a handle on it, and we still had to tackle the more of it the next day. Dale's specialized array of tools is somewhere across the ocean, so we were really blunder bussing our way towards a solution.

At the time of the leak, it wasn't raining and hadn't yet that day, so it seemed rather curious. During previous downpours we'd had up until now there hadn't been a drip from that spot. It wasn't rain. Could it be something the contractors were doing up on our roof? No, they weren't working with any water at all. We had to investigate! Ah, the gutters above - they were probably clogged with leaves since the house hadn't been occupied for 2 years ... could that be it?

We cut the roses away from the ladder in the yard, and Dale went up to investigate, trailing the hose behind him. There was a layer of slick muck in which moss was growing in the wide gutters around the conservatory roof. It was acting as a sponge, holding water and giving it time it to seep through joints and seams. Our hose water pressure is pretty low, so it took a long time to dislodge the slime. I assisted with a brush and a long piece of bamboo (used as stakes throughout the yard to hold up saplings).

Next thing we knew, the downpipe was completely clogged and water could no longer run through. In fact, water was pouring out over the top of it. We took the drain cover off, and tried jiggling a piece of wire (yes, from staking up saplings and roses) up from below but there was barely any space between the bottom of the pipe and the drain. We removed the cover off the nearest gulley pot (new word for me) but it didn't seem to be connected to our drain.

A quick investigation inside showed the drip was still constant

Dale then cut the pipe fitting (borrowing our contractor's hacksaw) in the retaining wall below, and voila! we were in the same drainage system.

Using our rudimentary 'tools' on hand (a long piece of timber from the shoddy pergola extension to act as a drain snake, and the running hose), Dale loosened debris over and over again. We alternated putting the hose in from above and below, and used different sticks to dislodge the debris. Gosh, there were multiple clogs and flushing noises as blockages loosened and came gushing out. I was having a blast! 

We finished up by filling an enormous watering can at least 6 times and pouring the contents down the pipe at high volume until the outflow was all clear and free of silt and muck. It took most of the day to solve the problem, and the next day, we had to execute the same moves on the downpipe on the other side of the conservatory. The yard is wet and soggy now from all the water throughput.

A number of concrete roof tiles broke as Dale worked on the roof, so we have to replace a few now. But best of all, no more drip!

Welsh Poppies

These cheery little beauties are colloquially known as Welsh poppies (Meconopsis cambrica), and are native to south west England and Wales. I'm delighted to have these growing in my garden, though they probably volunteered themselves.

Wales' left leaning political party, Plaid Cymru, uses a stylized representation of this flower as their logo.

Conveniences

On a visit to the convenience store this week, I was browsing next to 2 women who had just found out  that they were both from the U.S., one from Tennessee and the other from Ohio! Of course, I wasn't able to let this go without butting in to the conversation, telling them I was from Maine. None of us had American accents though, for very different reasons. What a coincidence to find 3 Americans in this tucked away, tiny town in Wales!

Our local SPAR convenience store

Many towns have stores like these with a tiny, cramped post office counter as well, which do extra transactions such as accepting Amazon returns, doing banking transactions, and buying stamps. We've had to use these facilities a few times already, one being to buy a money order and return postage for applying for our U.K Drivers Licences (we're submitting our South African ones for conversion, instead of having to take the entire theory and road test from scratch). I hope they accept them!

People we encounter keep reminding us that Wales is very 'green' (into recycling in a big way). Food waste and 3 categories of recycling (paper, plastics, glass, each associated with a particular coloured skip) are collected from our lane every week. Yard clippings and cuttings can be collected every 2 weeks if you pay extra, and everything has to fit in with the lid closed. Invasives such as Japanese knotweed and ragwort may not be disposed of in this way. General trash is collected once every 3 weeks (strictly one bin only), the argument seemingly being that after all the other frequent collections, there shouldn't be anything smelly or large to fill up a bin more often than that.

This sketch outlines the different kinds of pick-up (it doesn't include yard cuttings since that is an optional extra)

I'm very disappointed though, to learn that the filmy plastic over most food products can only be 'recycled' through a big store. It turns out that trackers in these drop off sites show that the products are not recycled, but are actually burned instead. What a farce.

An example of the kinds of packaging that can't be recycled at the kerb

The contractor working on our solar panel installation has very kindly lent Dale his 'seconds' tool bag to use until our tools arrive in the container, probably around mid-June. What a thoughtful and generous gesture. Amazing.

Aggressive Beauties

Aggressive lupines

Outcompete native species

Yet so beautiful

Llanfyllin's Boardwalk

We walked down to the River Cain Access Scheme (see the red 'you are here' arrow below) in our town, which was quite lovely.

There is a short boardwalk through restored wetlands, part of the new sustainable drainage system. 

We disturbed a heron despite trying hard not to - can you see it?

  

Salmon, trout and otters make the River Cain their home and breeding ground

We looked back and could see our house 'below the hill' (=Isfryn), above the town.

Titbits/Tidbits

Encountering this ominous-sounding road sign on the already narrow roads is rather disconcerting

Our field guide/nature study collection has begun

Unfortunately the lake level at our home (still on the market) in the U.S. rose and floated our dock panels off the frame. Fortunately, 2 sets of our friends, one of whom bravely got IN the cold water, were able to help, and rescued most panels. The arrangement of interlocking dock panels is a bit of a puzzle (Of course! Why wouldn't it be?), so our experienced neighbours were able to solve it and piece it back together. Now, the case file for the missing panel remains open ... Thank you Dina, Mark, Dan and Marcy.

Photo: D Benson

Our container has set sail - good news indeed. 

Chores or Pleasure?

I've been enjoying my garden immensely, and have focused on it intently, while Dale attends to the nitty gritty of fixing toilet flushing mechanisms, and figuring out what's tripping the electrical circuit occasionally. 

Dale took advantage of the very convenient worker's scaffolding over the weekend to mount our Starlink antenna on the roof.

Photo: D. Schultz

 Oh well! I also clean toilets and wash underwear sometimes, so it's not all leisure activities! And I'm picking up all sorts of things left in the yard that I regard as litter. I really am having a hard time understanding someone curating such a beautiful showy garden, and yet leaving remnants of their gardening chores lying around. I've found styrofoam, plant pots, chipped tiles, and plastic bags for topsoil left behind among the plantings. Who does that? 

Benjamin's Buttons and Clematis are putting on quite a show. 

Our new dishwasher has now been installed, which I really appreciate, though I fear I don't have enough dishes to run it before needing the next lot of clean kitchenware. It's so quiet, and doesn't chip dishes like I might in my Corian-like sink when I wash by hand. Thank goodness J & M shared some of their spare cutlery and mugs with us when they visited, so we can feed and offer drinks to more than 2 people at a time now! Guests are very welcome :-)

As far as weather goes, though it seems as if 'rain' happens every day, it's often just a few drops, or a sprinkle now and again, or on and off rain and sun. It's not always a depressingly grey deluge, thank goodness. 

A rainbow appeared after this moody cloud shuffled down the valley - quite dramatic light plays going on!

Eye Catching Details

 

Our Town

 This is High street in Llanfyllin, historically a market town in the county of Powys, mid-Wales, with a population just under 1,600. We live behind the row of houses on High street, roughly in the general location of the red dot in relation to the town.

This is our central square or market place, with a wind sculpture created and donated by a local artist, Stan Jankowski

The town centre is a mix of old Victorian and medieval buildings, all listed (no changes to outside façade permitted)

Another side street, where the sidewalk has been annexed by desperate gardeners. It's not 'you own what you mow' but similar. Maybe it's referred to as 'you own what you sow'?

Our "postie" (post man or woman, aka mail carrier) came and introduced himself to us on his rounds earlier this week. He said to let him know if we're expecting a delivery but won't be home, or if we need him to drop things off elsewhere.

We currently have a lot of noise and dust being generated as the installers begin the process of providing us with solar panels, batteries and outlets for our 'green' upgrade. We expect they'll be busy for about a week.

 Scaffolding around the house

Pub at Last

We finally made it to the pub (The Old New Inn) during opening hours - woohoo. There was only one other person there, and after a little while, he came over, sat down and introduced himself, saying it doesn't cost anything to be nice. The lovely old gentleman, wearing a collar and tie, told us he assembles and paints figures of knights, and loves going on cruises. He was quite taken with the Knights Templar, and thought Dale would make a good knight (little does he know!).

Fish and chips for me for dinner, steak and ale pie for Dale. Fair fare. My ale was from the local Branat valley we passed through on our scenic uplands trip recently. The pub is small and kind of tatty, but it means no airs and graces, right?

Our kitchen sink has been leaking, so we walked to the local hardware store for parts, but we didn't have any success in getting the washers we needed. I did succeed in knocking over some counter displays after some bull-in-a-china-shop manoeuvres, though.

We stopped in at the town butcher, too. There were no prices displayed, so we had to ask the price of each item we pointed to, asking for the British name of each cut. The young attendant was incredibly patient and helpful.

The setting sun cast lovely roof shadows for us on our walk home

Eryri Sights

We had a most stupendous trip to the bank at the beginning of the week, since part of the route took us through parts of Snowdonia National Park. The scenery is spectacular Welsh moorland for miles.

This is the view down the Tanat valley

Once over the summit, we pulled off onto a layby to send a text, and encountered a stranded motorist with a very severely ripped tyre. She was driving a rental car, and hadn't been able to swerve away from debris in the road because of oncoming traffic. Dale donned his suit of armor like any Welsh knight would, and helped get her back on the road.

Our bank is in the town of Bala, which sits on the shore of Wales' largest natural lake, Lake Tegid (or Llyn Tegid). We didn't have time to explore all the trails around it, but hope to return to cover some of the 3.7 mile long shore.

And then it was back up over Wales' second highest public road mountain pass through Eryri (Snowdonia National Park) to see new sights on the way home. A narrow little track was all we had to go on, making me think we'd end up at a farmyard, and not get back home. Motorcyclists seemed to enjoy the narrow twists and turns that accompany the breathtaking drops into the valley below. It sure made for an interesting drive.

The peat uplands stretch for miles,

and, of course, there are sheep and lambs everywhere.

Our route took us back home via Lake Vrynwy,

 which presented us with a great display of woodland bluebells. What a magnificent sight.

Ahhhh, another amazing day in Wales!