Whimsical Pond Plans

This is how our pond area looks from our patio. Quite a presentation!

The pond liner leaks though, and Dale's been enjoying toying with design ideas related to fixing the leaky pond. He's imagining creating an intriguing trickling brook that will incorporate and hide that ugly ass radiator retaining wall on the far side of our house. 

By building another retaining wall parallel to it, filling it in and placing pond forms and channels within it, he reckons we could have a wonderful mossy, babbling brook, which can flow into an infinity pool where this mess of pebbles has been placed.

Water flowing over the edge of this pond can trickle along the base of the next retaining wall (in the garden space between the 2 parallel strips of concrete walkway, and then into the existing pond. We are both aware that this is a very ambitious and elaborate plan, so we are really trying to reel ourselves in and simplify it. If its going to need too much upkeep and maintenance, we'll regret it.

It'll involve a lot of excavating and filling, as well as moving plants ...very elaborate, but oh so tantalizing!

Here is a very roughly executed presentation of our playful idea - maybe this project will satisfy Dale's creative  engineering side if he doesn't find the space and interest in redoing a train layout.

Llanfyllin Lines

 

Sundry

We listened to music played by our neighbor's band, The Recursives, at an outdoor beer garden a little while ago. It was pretty good, and lovely being outside (without rain), but finding parking was a pain and a little hair-raising in the tiny village road spaces.

Also, we finally found the drain snake we'd needed when we were cleaning out the gutters a while back. There was one in a faraway cabinet in our utility room.

Bell ringing practice on Monday evenings in the village church is NOT the evening to be sitting outside enjoying the swifts, rainbows and perfumes of roses. It is a discordant cacophony!

The recent St. Myllin's Day festival was a non-event. It's meant to honour the monk who baptized people at our well, but when we strolled into town, there was basically nothing going on, despite there being a pitiful looking sign hung along the edge of the street. 

Here is a feature of our new dishwasher, besides now being solar powered - a top tray for cutlery. Takes a bit of getting used to after being familiar with a lower level basket up till now. We've only had to buy 0.6 kWh of electricity since installing solar panels, that's 18p worth!

Everyone in the U.K. is REQUIRED to register to vote. It doesn't mean you have to vote, but you must be on the voter's roll. To vote for local government in Wales, one must be 16. Every year a form/census of voting eligibility is sent to each household, and a civil penalty (fine) is issued for anyone failing to comply. 

Afon Cain

Our town is settled along the Cain River (Afon Cain), so we took a walk along Bridge street to get a closer look. Apparently the word 'cain' is Welsh for fair, beautiful or sparkling.

This old bridge was built in the 18th century, and has needed some shoring up around the base in more recent times. It's a solidly built and amazingly well weathered structure.

Photo: D Schultz

There were times in the past when the outermost arches would become silted up, causing flooding of homes in the vicinity and adding to the prevailing unhealthy dampness in those homes. A local doctor who did a housing survey in 1937 found 44 houses in this area to be "totally unfit for human habitation."  -  Llanfyllin A Pictorial History

The river looks pretty innocuous today: shallow and babbling with lots of thickly mossed rocks and edges.

This beautiful maidenhair spleenwort on the rocks reminded me of a graceful octopus - isn't it gorgeous?

Footpath Work

Breaking News from Wales:

Newly arrived U.S. couple face an extra week of delay in container delivery to their Welsh home. They will have been without their possessions for 7 weeks and 6 days. "We've been through worse," the couple reported, as they await their new delivery date of June 16.

Dale has bought a hedge trimmer, so he tried it out on the public footpath that forms a boundary with our property. Our side of the hedge has been growing outwards into the footpath making access difficult. He did a great job, and has made it so much more passable for everybody. It's now easier to avoid brushing up against stinging nettle.

Photos: D. Schultz

When our gardening tools arrive, we'll be able to tackle the fallen tree further down the footpath, the access to which looks like this.

I've annotated this image from Google Street view to show the public footpath between our two houses. The trees and shrubs are currently much more mature and taller (overgrown) than in this old image. 

Loose Ends

The container ship is at Southampton with our goods and has passed through Customs! Delivery is scheduled for Wednesday of this week ...

Still image taken from Southampton boxcam

In the meanwhile, I've been washing and saving containers for storing current supplies - best excuse for finishing tubs of ice cream that I know!

Our South African driver's licences conversion application was denied - we must take the theory test and practical like every new 18 y.o. driver. Eek. It was worth a try, though.

 

This is the scenario we have to contend with often - the cars ahead of us, on the left, are parked in front of their houses on the street. The oncoming cars have right of way in this situation obviously, and when it's clear we can proceed, using their lane.

It's so much easier to walk to places in town! We got our library cards issued last week, and now we have a book on the history of Llanfyllin to peruse.

On our way there, we passed these interesting buildings and plaques

 

Rainbow Valley

Optical archway

Interplay of rain and light

Spectrum of color

This is the second time in 4 weeks we've seen a rainbow across our valley. I guess with this much mix of rain and sun, it might be a fairly common occurrence. After the rain, the newly opened flowers glistened

Greenhouse Gone

I'm so glad that our two greenhouses have found a good home - our immediate view is so much more picturesque and less congested without them. They were so unsightly in their placement.

 

A very nice couple with a 4 acre property spent 4 days dismantling both greenhouses and hauling the pieces away. We've got to know them over this time, and have really enjoyed their company. They've given us tips and pointers about services in town, libraries, shopping and local activities.

We're going to make this our extended outside BBQ/entertaining area. Though we love the gorgeous array of flowers growing over the supports of the chicken-wire and wood pergola, we aren't fans of the bits that aren't covered with plants. We hope to order a louvre-opening pergola like the one we had in Maine. I'm going to work really hard at keeping as many of these beautiful flower displays intact and will somehow weave them into a solution. I really don't want to dig them up and destroy them.

Granted, it looks ugly without them too, especially this area, which has a retaining wall made of wall radiators! Some work is needed, but we see a lot of potential here. Dale has major design plans in mind.

View from my utility room, before and after

Poison Garden

We attended the Summer Fayre at Bryngwen Hall last weekend, where they have a token area set aside for rewilding, which is shown in this photo

There were many stalls selling nick-nacks and food, but the garden tour was the highlight of the visit. It included a poison garden featuring 115 plants - mandrake, monkshood, poppy, hemlock and many others. We heard about mad honey from bees feeding on rhododendrons in Nepal that has some intoxicating properties. 

The head gardener shared fascinating stories of some of the older iconic trees on the 60 acre estate, many of which were sourced from exotic corners of the world - Bhutan, Chile, Sikkim and Northern India. This was back in the day when rich people took home many treasures and exotica from other parts of the world to have for themselves, no matter the cost.

This dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) was thought extinct for many years until a specimen was found in western China in 1944, so it became a source for its seeds. This is a fast growing ornamental tree that has become popular as a garden feature since its rediscovery.

I was very pleased to make the acquaintance of the majestic Welsh oak, or sessile oak (Quercus petraea), an unofficial emblem of Wales. It has a commanding presence in the garden

This stand of irises was striking in the sun

The well-groomed grounds are peaceful and seemingly endless

Since this outing, I've come down with my first Welsh chest cold - I'm inexperienced with being unwell  since I haven't had to deal with a virus since the COVID lockdown (that's 6 years!). I hate feeling miserable and tired all the time, and the crackle in my ears is driving me nuts!

Garden Blooms

I have Campanula and Chinese windmill palms in flower

Monkshood, the queen of poisons (if ingested)

A most obscene looking peony

Astrantia and Firefly broom

Tutsan, (Hypericum androsaemum)