Back to School

Hello World!
I am still alive, don’t worry. But, you know – now Josh is working and we’re in the money we’ve been out living the high life – meals out every night, going to the theatre, taking baths in £50 notes and the like.

Actually no – we’ve just been busy, and trying to make sure we actually see each other properly now that Josh is working odd timed shifts. I’ve had such a lot of ideas for blog posts but it seems that it never gets done.

Firstly, thanks to Chloe and Maureen who have both kindly given me a ‘MeMe’ award. Thanks girls. I will get round to answering the 7 questions and passing it on soon…I promise.

Secondly, (and I’ve been meaning to post about this for two weeks) I AM DOING AN INTENSIVE WELSH COURSE NEXT WEEK! Why am I writing that in capitals you ask? Well, because quite frankly, I’m terrified!

I guess a lot of English people see Wales as just an extension of their country. However, Welshies, especially from the more rural northern parts are very nationalistic. Signs in Aberystwyth are often graffitied with ‘Where’s the Welsh’ (but in Welsh obviously) if they haven’t got Welsh translations and people can get quite sniffy if you can’t speak Welsh back to them.
Although that’s a bit rude and unnecessary, I can see where they are coming from. Learning Welsh is something that has been on my to-do list for three or four years, but I have never seemed to have the time or money (or guts) to do it before.

Now that Josh is hoping to go into the Church in Wales unless he wants to spend the rest of his life stuck in Pembrokeshire he needs to learn Welsh – especially as he would rather work in rural areas – so we’re biting the bullet and learning, even if he doesn’t get through. A week’s intensive course next week and then weekly lessons from September.

I just know I’m going to be rubbish at it though. I find languages really hard to learn, and Welsh is meant to be one of the hardest. Even the alphabet stumps me, without getting on to the grammar and mutations (my heart rate has just tripled thinking about it).

I’m lucky in that I’m surrounded by Welsh all the time, and although you can easily never speak a work of Welsh in Aberystwyth if you concentrate you can be learning all the time, so I’m hoping that it won’t be as hard as I’m imagining. I’ll let you know how it goes…eek!

Still laughing…

Just a quick post to share some hilarity, because it’s bringing me joy every time I think about it…

Yesterday Josh went into our local bakery to get some lunch. He’s a cheerful chap so always likes to make some small talk with the people on the till, and like any good British citizen yesterday he chose to talk about the weather.

“It’s very hot”

“I BEG YOUR PARDON?” spluttered the woman on the till incredulously

“Erm…the weather” replied Josh, turned beetroot red “it’s very hot…”

“OH, I thought you said I was hot”

Hahahahahaha…still laughing 24 hours later

Enjoying Sunny Wales

My family came to visit

we went to Aberaeron

then we went to New Quay and walked along the coast path

...it lived up to its name of being the best place to see dolphins in the UK (that dot is one!!)

It was a perfect summer's day. The End.

A thousand horrays

Josh got the job! Yipppee!
He’s now going to be working for Prospects, which is an organisation that works with people with learning disabilities to enable them to live their lives to the full and to gain a valuable range of skills.

This is great because
a) it’s a very worth while thing to be involved with
b) he’s going to love it because he’s a real people person
c) it’s going to be great experience for him and will be good for his CV for vicar school
d) We’re no longer going to have to scrimp and save on every penny

Praise the Lord!

I’ve got measles

Okay…actually I haven’t. But it’s less embarrassing telling people that than having to explain that I actually went out moth trapping without any insect repellent on and now I look like I have been attacked by a marauding toddler with a red marker pen. At least they have faded a bit this morning!

Last night we attempted moth trapping again. After our complete failure last time we figured it could only get better…and thankfully, it did!

We had been given permission by the warden of a nearby forestry commission site (Nant yr Arian if you know the area) to go and trap ‘after hours’ so we set off about ten, and arrived just as the light was dying in the sky.

Nant yr Arian is at the head of a valley and so the view was spectacular. It was one of those moments when the camera really can’t catch the magic of the light over the misty valley floor and the hills behind, with the smell of the woods and heath and the sound of calling of sheep and other night-time creatures.

Then, to top it off a barn owl swooped down to our right (just as I was taking the above photo actually) and flew off up the valley, framed by the orange sky. Beautiful.

Pesky Midges

Then it was down to the moth trapping. Now, I’ve got to be honest – moths aren’t my favourite creatures. Sure, there are some amazingly beautiful moths and it’s interesting to learn more about them, but many are brownish and look pretty much the same as each other to me.

However, I do LOVE how passionate Josh gets about moths and butterflies. He has self taught himself to such a high standard and to hear him getting really excited about little brown moths that most people would walk straight by makes it worth getting bitten to death by midges any day.

Flat – Before, During and After (Part 2)

Bathroom before

Bathroom now with washing machine (still not plumbed in)

 

Kitchen before

and again...

Kitchen during the move

Kitchen now

and again from the other direction

We inherited a plant, which brought me much joy

however, there are only 2 sockets which means dangling cables near hobs - not clever

 Sitting room still to come. Sorry this is long drawn out process but it takes ages for my computer to load photos and I get booorreed. Night Night.

Flat – Before and After (Part 1)

Bedroom (before we moved in)

 

Bedroom now - complete with chaotic shelves

Bedroom now - small but perfectly formed

See the teddy bear in the bottom left of the photo? I found the following photo on an old CD the other day. He is nearly 23 years old now and still going strong!

Yes, I was that small once

Hall before - uncleaned and full of previous tenants junk

Hall now - Clean and full of OUR junk

Check back tomorrow for more before and after photos.

Moth Trapping (continued)

…So, as I was saying, on Monday night about 10pm Josh and I headed out to do some moth trapping. Josh got the trap for his 21^st birthday and up until now we haven’t had much chance to use it.

For the uninitiated, a moth trap consists of a UV emitting light which attracts moths (scientists are still debating the reason for this) into a funnel from which they can’t escape. You can then record them at your leisure before letting them go unharmed.

Josh quickly got to work setting up the trap, while I – as his glamorous assistant – sat and watched, eating crisps, drinking tea and trying to convince myself that I wasn’t getting freaked out by sitting in a dark wood in the middle of the night.

However, lets be honest, I have a completely overactive imagination and could see axe murderers or marauding forest monsters around every corner.

And so we waited for moths to arrive…and we waited…and we waited. I was getting bored and as a result the axe murders and monsters were increasing by the minute.

In the end we gave it up as a bad job and headed back to the car. While we were packing the stuff away we saw a few bats flitting around our heads and stopped to watch them. However, we soon realised that there weren’t a few bats flying around. They were everywhere. Hundreds of dark shapes flapping around our heads. The air was reverberating with their wing beats.

It was obvious that we were near a roost and soon located it in the roof of a nearby building.

There are at least 6 in this picture...

We later found out that this is one of the biggest bat colonies in Wales, but we had discovered it all by ourselves and at the moment we were all alone, in the middle of the night, having one of the best wildlife experiences of our lives.

We sat there with our torch on ‘fog mode’ (it seemed to disturb the bats the least) and watched as hundreds of flitting shapes materialised in our torch beam. Occasionally one would land on the wall and climb up into the roof, and then we would get a really good view.

Compared to other mammal species, we know very little about bats, but we think that these bats are Soprano Pipistrelles. Can anyone confirm or correct this please?

Such an amazing find, we will definitely be going back. Just ironic that we chose that area to moth trap…no wonder there were none around!