Room With a View

 Here is my room with a view, a favorite spot

and view of a room

The third of this season's heatwaves has passed, though we are still very short of rain. It's over 2 weeks since we had any precipitation and things are drying out and burning up.

The sale of our lakeside Limerick home is proceeding and our buyers want to bring the final closing forward to July 31, which is fantastic news. 

Hedgehog Rescue

We drove to Llangedwyn this week to listen to a talk given by a hedgehog rescue team,

calling themselves Hokey Pokey. We knew that hedgehog numbers in Britain have been declining and we were interested in learning how to be sure our yard would be a safe and inviting place for them.

Heather described the hot and dry conditions of this summer as being 'rubbish weather' for hedgehogs since they're unable to produce milk for raising young when there's no water available. We have a 'hedgehog house' for our yard, provide fresh water, and have set up a feeding station. Now we are volunteering to have rehabilitated hogs released on our property.

Since hedgehogs are nocturnal, it's not easy to know if there are any around in one's yard ... we've been examining and photographing poop in our yard to try and determine their presence from their scat. Today Heather confirmed that our pic was a positive ID. Sadly, also because they're nocturnal, there were no live hedgehogs to see at the presentation.

The 'Friendly Club' of Llangedwyn hosted this event at the same time as their weekly £5 'Ploughman's Lunch' for locals and visitors.

They had a Bra Bank in their hall too

Land of Dragons

Dragons (draigs) have historically featured in Welsh folklore as symbols of might, strength and national pride. 

It is said that the red dragon of the native Britons defeated the white dragon of the invading saxons to claim Wales' sovereignty

  

A young Merlin (Myrddin, pronounced mur-thin) features in one of the Welsh myths about the battling dragons and how they disrupted the building of a castle

Charlies

There's a shopping complex near Welshpool known as Charlies - it's like a sprawled out country mall on what was once the farmland associated with Powis castle. 

The assortment of things available here vary from tractors to plants, livestock feed to clothing, kitchenwares (but not general groceries) to candles, specialty foods and wines to hardware, tools, and screws ...

We visited last week to get a feel for all that's available there, to do an explore without an agenda

There's a large free (noteworthy in the U.K.) car park, a restaurant, benches and pleasant walkways

And there's this goofy looking sheep statue in the foyer! What???

Patterning Fascination

 

Studying for Test

We're having to study for our Learner's Permit to drive, all over again, as if we were 18 and starting from scratch. How is it then that we can drive untested and unopposed for the first year on our foreign license, but must thereafter take a road and theory test? Our current S.A. (old version, no longer accepted) and U.S. licenses just aren't transferable in our situation. It makes no sense, since driving is driving, and if I can safely be allowed to drive on the roads as a visitor, why does it change after a year?

We have to have been in the country for 185 days before we can take a Learner's test (that will be around October), and then there is a shortish waiting list to do a road test, all of which we must accomplish within a year. After that, driving will only be permitted with a licensed driver accompanying us since our licences are 'provisional' until we qualify and pass. Does any of this make sense? So convoluted, and unnecessary.

Some of the funniest phrasings we've come across is the very British understated way of saying things, such as:

some areas have 'traffic-calming measures,' (roundabouts, humps, etc)

and

a failure to change one's speed after a speed limit delimiter is regarded as 'a failure to proceed'

There is to be no lurching of driver or passengers while doing a road test - it must be 100% smooth!

There are 758 practice test questions online, and a total of 307 highway code rules. Some questions are directly related to using a manual vehicle, and others are very specifically about first aid techniques at an accident scene - those aren't difficult.

Cat Burglar

We walked into the kitchen one morning to find this peculiar situation - it was not how we left the kitchen the night before.

On top of the hob, where the splatter guard was placed over a potato and a leftover hunk of roast pork in a cast iron pan and forgotten overnight, was this:

Just a potato. Something had helped itself to a piece of meat, and we didn't wake when the splatter guard fell to the floor. I thought we had a creature living in the house (mouse? rat?), but Dale realized right away that leaving our windows open overnight to let cool air in allows marauding cats to visit and prowl through at night. The window opening (no fly screens) is wide enough and low enough (aided by a few totes stored just outside the dining room window) for furry, four-legged cat burglars to have the run of the house!

We've seen probably 4 different cats in our yard at different times during the day up until now, and Dale saw one strolling through the garage into our utility room on one occasion. We didn't catch the guilty critter red-handed, but we believe we've worked it out. So, I did a thorough clean of our kitchen counters, we've adjusted our lower window settings, opened upper fanlights wider and I've also made a note not to be so forgetful about putting food away at night.

We live and learn!

My Heart Weeps

I can't let this go ...

Say their names aloud:

Pretti, Goode, and Guerrero -

Murdered innocents.

Hazardous Door Handles

Never mind bed knobs and broomsticks, what about door handles and doorknobs? Some of our interior doors have door handles, and others have doorknobs.

          

On two occasions now, I've had trouble with door handles, or rather, my t-shirts have had trouble with door handles. They're at the exact height to be able to slip under my sleeve as I walk past, and I've found this to be hazardous when I'm carrying something I don't want to spill.

The jerk is so sharp and unexpected that my sudden stop results in what I'm carrying to propel forward - last night a wine glass flew off the tray, smashing on my tile floor of course (Ha! Lucky we brought so many of our glasses over in the container)

.

Last week as I was taking a rotten mango outside on a cutting board, a different shirt got caught on a different door handle and stopped me in my tracks, jerking the mess off the board onto the carpet. Argh! I feel like such a klutz when I do these things.

Staying Local

This little adventure took me to our town's butcher, hairdresser, charity shop and laundromat, all bipedally. Charity shops in the U.K. are a lot like a thrift store, but they're 'cause' based and not-for-profit. That's the £1 rack on the sidewalk.

Our local High street store is run by the North Montgomeryshire Volunteer Bureau to fund their community car scheme, where volunteers drive elderly or disabled people to appointments, social activities and local services. The organization covers the cost of gas and parking.

After that, I did some yardwork, of course, on my own two feet

and was able to run away from some fussy wasps, mostly bipedally.

One sting only.

PLAS Fest

PLAS (Pints, Live Acts, Smokin' BBQ) Fest is a one day summer event, where local artists perform at the beer garden attached to an old pub, built in 1702. It's loud! Here's our neighbor's band sweating and performing in our heatwave - they even got quite a few people dancing, despite the exhausting heat.

They were facing the sun, and it looked really tough for them while we sat under shady tents.

 

The pub provided a BBQ banquet for £20pp for this occasion. The poor chef cooking over the hot fire! We had a selection of the following, which was a great feast:

Local Shepherd

 Area man takes on shepherding task

to investigate excessive bleating from the hill above

on a blistering hot day in sunny Wales

It seems they were merely feeling the heat, bleating their complaints, and congregating in a shaded glade.

Admire the Admiral

Velvety and lush -

Wings like silk; colors quite drab:

Impressive details.

This gorgeous creature was happy to sit with me for quite some time - I think its bulbous-tipped antennae are fascinating and beautiful. Its open wings are very colorful.