A Decisive Day

It is done. Paradise has been transferred - today we relinquished ownership of our paradise in Maine. While the sale has taken a load off our minds, I couldn't help but feel tearful at the finality of it.

We understand that the new owners are excited about acquiring a natural paradise, so we feel that it's going to be in good hands.

Here in Llanfyllin, we still have

'A Paradise within thee, happier far.—' (John Milton, Paradise Lost)

Invasivore

We've all heard of omnivores, carnivores, insectivores, but what about invasivores?

Yes! It's really quite obvious - someone who eats invasives to help curb their detrimental environmental effects on an area when they become aggressive and outcompete natives.

Anyone have any recipes for Japanese honeysuckle kebab?

or a yucca milkshake?

I know people have tried various ways to use milfoil ... but I'm not sure it tastes any good.

Bisged, Dewi and Trebor

I found this item on my saucer after finishing my tea at a local inn - if you think creatively you can clearly tell what it is!

It's a biscuit, aka bisged!

We also came across a new Christian name we'd not encountered before - Dewi. It's not pronounced like the Dewey decimal system, but more like 'Debbie', but as if you have a speech impediment and can't say your 'b's:  deh-wee. It's a common Welsh masculine name!

Here's another weird one:

Trebor Jones, not Trevor! I think the name was given by someone who'd just had anesthesia at the dentist and couldn't form their lips properly to say Trevor and it stuck!

Water Meeting

We attended the Chester University's CLiCC (Center for Living with Climate Change) forum to discuss water availability, controls, preservation and quality last week at the Cross Keys coffee house in our town. 

The research project sought input from community members and locals in an informal setting.

We met many interesting and like-minded people from our community, and heard more about the Cain Valley River Group. They are looking for someone to take up the reins as they have run out of steam and leadership ... 

Does it have my name on it ... ? I need some time before I jump in and get my feet wet, but I'm thrilled to hear they want volunteers to help in the town's wetland project, and removal of ... Japanese knotweed. What am I waiting for?

South Africans in Wales

The Amazon delivery guy who stopped by last week was a South African from Durban, my birthplace. As soon as he greeted me, I knew right away he was one of us, and asked "where are you from?" He'd grown up in Kloof, where Dale once taught High school. His accent was unmistakably from our part of the world.

Also, we recently bought a drawer set from someone in our town, and found out he was originally from Krugersdorp, in South Africa. He sports Springbok rugby paraphernalia and a S.A. flag emblazoned on a cap or sleeve, but his accent and name, de Kock, are also a dead giveaway.

We gave our local butcher the spices and recipe to make South African sausage (Boerewors, pronounced "Bu-ra-vors.”) and came home with 7kg of it! I need more space in my freezer now:  there were 6 packs like this:

Oh man! It's so good Heaven in a sausage 😊

Shopping

We had a quick lunch at the Charlie's shopping complex. It offered a great view

over which to sip our drinks

Then we added Morrisons to our list of grocery shopping experiences. I was so very pleased to see I could buy loose (not pre-packaged) produce - oranges and mushrooms were available this way, and small brown bags are provided for this! Yay, Morrisons. They also have a deli section, and sell lamb samosas - yum!

I've compared prices across 4 grocery stores, and the basics I buy are the same or very, very similar in price across them all. Some stores are better for variety (Tesco, especially alcohol), some better for bulk buys (Morrisons, Sainsburys), loose produce (Morrisons) and some for their meat selection (Aldi).

 Aldi Price Matches are advertised at all grocery stores, clearly indicating they're the baseline. But Aldi stocks aren't always consistent, and the checkout process can be rather hectic.

This summer our local Tesco has had its fridges break down on 3 occasions, so Aldi across the street has benefitted from their losses. 

Interestingly, we've encountered more people we 'know' or recognise in grocery stores and about town in Wales, than we ever did in Maine!

Tight Squeeze

This tractor with a trailer of hay bales squeezed its way past parked cars by partly driving up on the sidewalk to get by - all part of a normal day in Llanfyllin. Look at the grin on his face as we marveled at the close shave!

This is, believe it or not, a two-way street

Another tractor in a tight squeeze, trimming the hedges on our street, Coed Llan Lane:

Photo: D. Schultz

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!