As you may know from recent posts I’ve started moth trapping and have been part of the formation of the Ceredigion Moth Group. It’s all a little ‘geeky’ but I quite enjoy the moth trapping, as does Morgan and learning more about the creatures around us is always a good thing. Keeping records of them and submitting them to the various interested parties makes it all feel a little more worthwhile, and in a small way these activities may help with the conservation of rare species.
In some respects I would rather be actively contributing to conservation in this way than simply donating money to conservation charities. However, as well as actively taking part in moth counting and submitting results to the Big Garden Bird Watch we also spent some money recently on becoming members of the RSPB and Butterfly Conservation.
RSPB
There are a few RSPB reserves locally and we do often enjoy a short walk at the Ynyshir Reserve, so becoming a member seemed like a sensible thing to do. The membership fees obviously go towards supporting the RSPB which should be the main reason for joining, but you get quite a it for your money too. As well as free entry to their reserves you receive a Quarterly Bird magazine with plenty of interesting articles in it and junior members such as Morgan get a ‘Wild Times’ magazine six times a year, featuring the adventures of Owlbert, Rookie, Red the squirrel and Squeak the mouse. You also get free gifts if you want them and RSPB bird guide book (which I already had).
Obviously you don’t really join for these benefits, but we were pretty interested in what Morgan would get for his membership fee as it is these things that will keep him interested in the wildlife around him.
Butterfly Conservation
The Butterfly Conservation membership is similar. For your fees you receive free entry to their reserves a ‘Butterfly’ magazine three times a year, a welcome pack and a garden butterfiles ID guide, along with advice on attracting butterflies and moths to your garden
Of course, you also get a nice warm feeling at having helped the conservation effort of our wild British birds, butterflies and moths.
Both organisations have decent websites where you can join them or simply donate. They both have lots of information online, not just about the organisations themselves, but about the birds and butterflies of the UK too., so check out their websites and join up too.
Tags: Butterfly Conservation, RSPB
The Ceredigion Moth Group is up and running and we seem to be making some progress.
I’ve set up a mailing list so that we can all keep in touch with each other and we have been sending our records from 2009 to the new County Recorder. I only had a fairly small number of records from 2009 as I didn’t start moth trapping until late in the year, but I had an e-mail back from the County Recorder saying:
Your data have now been verified without amendment, and incorporated into the VC46 County list – many thanks.
It looks as though the records I kept were worthwhile and will go towards a greater understanding of the moths that are present in the area.
So far the County Recorder has received records from 2009 that amount to more than 9000 recordings. Not all are verified/processed yet, but they have been used to make a start on a County list which is being sent to ‘Butterfly Conservation‘ to be included in the forthcoming Butterfly Conservation Atlas.
We have a meeting / workshop planned for March 27th and there is a Moth Count Event in Conwy on 13th march that I may well go to. I’m getting quite ‘into’ my moths! If only there were some to trap here at the moment.
Tags: Ceredigion, Moth Trapping, Moths
Windsurfing in the estuary at Ynyslas
I’ve just got back from a nice little windsurf session in the estuary here at Ynyslas. Ivor, our local katabatic wind was up to his usual tricks with a decent NE wind funbelling down through the valley at up to 25 knots. And this was despite the fact that the forecast was for winds of 5-6 knots. Lovely.
The wind wasn’t quite up to its usual strength, but it is still pretty early in the year so I think Ovir was just warming up. Hopefully we’ll get some really good winds in the spring.
With the sun shining it was pretty warm out there as well. I had my 5/3mm wetsuit on and boots and a hood but if anything I was a little too hot whilst on the water.
There was something going on at the visitor centre car park though. Four police cras were in attendance and the car park was closed off with ‘Crime Scene’ tape all around it and a police officer at either end preventing anyone from entering it. Anyone know what’s happened?
Tags: Ivor, katabatic wind, Windsurfing, Ynyslas
Only one month to go until the Mawddach Goldrush so I thought I’d better get some longer rides in. That was the plan for Saturday, but the surf was going off so I had to go for a surf at Ynyslas first. The surf turned out to be pretty much as good as it gets here, but I still had a ride to do so I was soon out of the sea and heading off for the hills.
The Mawddach Goldrush is a 3 lap race with each lap being about 10 miles in length. According to my GPS readings from last year (where I did a single lap as part of a team) the climb involved in that 10 miles was 1185 feet. So, the total for all 3 laps should be around 30 miles with 3500 or so feet of climbing.
My route today went from the sea along the flat roads across Borth Bog to Tre-Ddol. A nice 4 mile warm up and then straight up the beast of a climb behind Tre-Ddol. It is always a struggle but my legs felt tired today so I was pleased to even make it up without having to get off my bike. It really is quite steep mind you, just take a look at the topography on the graph below and the steepness of that first hill.
Today's Training Ride
After the initial climb I headed off towards Artists Valley and as you can see it leveled off for a while before I had what is essentially a 6 mile climb up through Artist’s Valley. This is always quite a slog and today was no different. The conditions however were perfect, no wind, not too warm, sunny and with great views down the valley to the Dyfi Estuary. I eventually made it to the top and then headed off down the MX trails towards the mines and then along some more MX trails through the forest to the Nant y Moch road. From here I looped back up once again to the high point above Angler’s Retreat before dropping back down into Artists Valley via ‘Al’s Descent ‘ which was riding really well. The bottom part of the descent wasn’t great though as it had been pretty cut up by recent forestry work.
I then carried on down through Artists Valley. With 20 miles under by tyres I was now beginning to feel pretty tired so even the small climbs up through the woods were pretty hard. Thankfully though from here on it was just a matter of two little climbs and then a descent back to the flat roads to the sea. The final 4 miles along the flat were OK, but I was certainly glad that I didn’t have another hill to climb.
The total distance was 28 miles with 3108 feet of climbing. Not quite as far or as much climbing as the Mawddach Goldrush and quite a lot of it was on the road so I’m still going to be struggling this time next month. Hopefully a couple more longish rides will get me in better shape for it though.
Back at home after a bath and some dinner and my legs are pretty tired, my knee hurts and my back is sore. I think I’ll take it easy tomorrow, but with only 1 month left I need to get some training in!
Tags: Mawddach Goldrush, MTB, Training, Wales
Sometimes I wonder if humans go a bit over the top with spoiling their pets and I have to ask myself if our efforts are appreciated.
For those that don’t know, we have a very neurotic cat. We didn’t plan to get a cat and rescued her when she was a young kitten. That is a whole other story though.
A temporary home turned into a permanent home when we had no joy from the RSPCA or Cats Protection League at the time and she has always been very nervous around people.
That was nearly 10 years ago so
Robbie
Robbie (named after Robbie Naish the famous windsurfer!) is getting on a bit now.
Recently she has looked like she has a sore paw. I took her to the vet the first time this happened. This is very stressful for her and they couldn’t see anything wrong. They did give her some anti-inflammatory tablets which may or may not have worked but won’t keep giving them without seeing her. A trip to the vet is very stressful for Robbie so we try to avoid it if we can.
Therefore, we got her a nice weather proof box for her to use when she is out in the garden. This has been a big success. I often see her sat in there during the day and it looks warm and cosy. I have lined it with sheets of polystyrene so it is nice and warm. As it is made from moulded plastic there is no where for the wind to sneak in so she is free from drafts as well.
Since her paw has been bothering her again (mainly during the cold weather) I have bought some joint care for pets liquid to put on her food. Again, this seems to have been quite successful and she doesn’t seem to mind the taste and always gobbles it up. I think we need to give it a few months and see how this helps, although as the weather gets warmer I don’t think she’ll have any problems.
I also bought a microwavable heat pad which stays warm for 10-12 hours. I am quite impressed with the pad. 6 minutes in the microwave and it is nicely warm without being too hot and it does stay warm for hours. However….Robbie doesn’t seem very impressed. I put it on the chair she usually sits on and she sat on a different chair. I put it on the end of the bed where she sleeps at night and she refused to set foot on it at all! I put it outside in her box to keep her warm during the day and she has refused to go in the box at all since I’ve put it in there!
I’m hoping that by next winter she’ll be happier about the heat pad as I think it will make things much more comfortable for her. We are also planning a ladder type thing to help her jump up to the window sill to ask to be let in and even maybe a heated pad into a shed outside.
Of course she is allowed in the house whenever she wants but she rarely comes in before dark and goes out as soon as she has had breakfast in the mornings. She is much better than she used to be and will now come in even if Morgan isn’t in bed and will even sometime let him hand feed her a bit of ham! We have looked at a cat flap into the house but I don’t think she’d use it and it is quite tricky to fit one into a new, double glazed property so we’ll try the shed and see how we go.
Whatever we do she won’t be grateful but we’ll do it anyway!
Morgan went to a swimming party yesterday. As it was a private party I thought I’d give my underwater camera a try out and get some shots of him playing in the water.
It seemed to work quite well, even the video quality was OK. Shame about my videography skills, but I was only messing around.
Morgan seemed to have a good time though.
No, not mine or Anna’s, but Morgan’s. He seems to have several parties to go to each week at the moment. A party in Borth hall last weekend, a swimming party this afternoon, party in the Rugby Club on Sunday afternoon, a party in the soft play area next Thursday and his own ‘Cinema Party later in the month.
If only our social life was as interesting!
Tags: Kids Parties
The trouble with trying ti get fit is that it can become a little more than a habit and become an obsession. You end up trying to do more in order to improve, but in the end just do too much. Resting is very much an important part of any training schedule and after last night MTB ride I think today and tomorrow will be rest days for me.
I felt tired from the start and I guess that isn’t surprising. The day before I did a turbo trainer session in the afternoon, followed by a circuit training session and a swimfit session. Then, on top of all that I didn’t sleep very well, only managing to fall asleep for an hour or so on Tuesday night. I then met Dave in Penrhyncoch for a long ride last night. We started off with a long ride up the Bont Goch climb and it wasn’t long before I realised that my legs weren’t up to it. I was soon lagging behind Dave who seemed to be more spritely than usual!
I made it to the top where we met Dan and we headed off through the mist and fog around the Summit Trail. Dan isn’t quite up to speed at the moment either, so at least I had someone behind me on the leg-burner climb, but Dan headed off home after that leaving me trying to keep up with Dave again.
We came back down from Nant yr Arian via Cymsymlog which although a descent does have quite a bit of pedalling along the flats and little rises so even that was hard work but at least I managed to put it in a big gear and keep up. The battery on my lights then died so I had to stick with Dave’s wheel for the last half mile or so in order to see where I was going.
As you can see, it was a fairly hilly 20 miles.
Last nights ride
A good ride, but I’m not sure how useful it was as I was just plodding around doing my best to keep going. Time for a rest day today and maybe some yoga in preparation for a nice long steady ride over the weekend.
Tags: fitness, MTB, nant-yr-arian
Here’s one for Matt. A quick video clip (from Kelvin) on the first descent of the Raven Trail. Kelvin, Jim and I were already at the bottom, then down came Matt, followed by a couple of more tentative riders. Jay and Brad were on their way somewhere too!
I’m enjoying this and seem to be getting better.
I did the same workout as last week, 3:2 minute intervals on the turbo trainer. Last week I did them at 270 Watts with the final one at 280 Watts and my heart rate hit 164bpm on the last one. This week I increased the wattage to 280 Watts and expected to struggle. The first repetition did feel quite hard and I still thought I might struggle come the end, but as I got into it they seemed to stay relatively easy. So much so that I increased the wattage to 290 Watts on the last one. Despite that my heart rate only peaked at 155 Watts.
My legs were feeling it come the end, but it does seem as though I’m improving. Just in time for some races throughout the summer. It does mean I will have to increase the wattage to 290 Watts next time, which I sure will start to hurt!
Nice steady interval workout
Tags: fitness, INtervals, MTB, Turbo Trainer, Workout
