A Simple Life of Luxury

Well, Santa arrived as expected and there were presents under the tree. Here are a few photos of Morgan on Xmas morning…

As you know from a previous post the weather station is currently out of action. After some phone calls to the UK distributors it seems as though there is a fault on the main SIM board so it was dismantled and sent off to them just before Xmas.

Unfortunately they will be on holiday until Jan 2nd so the wetaher station will be offline until the New Year. As soon as I get it back I will be up the telegraph pole to fix it and hopefully get things back up and running again… It is surprising just how useful the weather station can be though and I miss not having it, even if only to see just how cold it was or just how much rain we had yesterday!

There was quite a long run-up to Christmas this year. Anna and Morgan finished work and nursery on Friday afternoon so we had Friday Afternoon, Saturday, Sunday and Monday before the fat jolly red-clothed man himself arrived.

I had a new pair of binoculars for my birthday so I had promised Morgan that I’d taker him bird watching and give Anna a few hours to herself to do some last minute Xmas things. Unfortunately the day we picked was as miserable as they get, cold and wet. Despite this Morgan and I wrapped up and headed off to Ynyshir. We had a nice little walk through the woods and didn’t see anyone else. We then set up camp in one of the hides and looked out across the Dovey Valley to see if we could see any birds.

I think the birds had decided it was too wet to play today as ell as all we could see were swans and geese miles away on the flooded fields near to the estuary and we did catch a glimpse of a tree-creeper Morgan had fun in the bird-hide though and if we had thought to take a flask of soup or something it would have been fine, but he soon got cold so we headed back through the rain to the car.

It was a pity about the weather but at least Morgan now knows that bird-watching isn’t quite the same as looking for birds in an aviary at a zoo and a little stealth and patience (things that 2 yr old boys have little of) are required.

Couldn’t resist posting this here as some of these jumps are huge…

Don’t think I’ll ever learn to windsurf like this though.

The Borth and Ynyslas Weather Station is currently experiencing a few problems. Sometime last week the humidity sensor stopped working properly. This had happened before so I contacted the UK distributors of the equipment and soon had a new one ready to install.

Sunday was the day for the installation of the new humidity sensor. It is a fairly easy job, but best done on a dry, still day so I replaced it and had hoped that would fix the problem… It didn’t, in fact it made things worse. Once the new sensor was attached, we still had no humidity readings, but we also lost wind speed readings and the temperature readings were plainly wrong… 60ºC+? I think not, more like minus 2!

I tried all sorts of things, replaced the battery took the new sensor off, cleaning and checked all connection and wiring, restarted the console, reset the Sensor Suit, but all to no avail. Of course, all of these incorrect readings had by now caused havoc with my data as maximum temperatures for the day, month, year and all time records had been updated to 60ºC or more and many other readings such as dew points, heat index, maximum December temps, warmest daily average temps etc etc had all been overwritten with false readings.

It took me a while to reset all of these readings and find out what the correct readings were and when they actually occurred, but I think I got there in the end by going through the historical data files for the last 2 years… I may however have to repeat this task when I get the station back up and running and reconnect it to the computer and the website. I still hadn’t got the weather station going though.

Whilst the weather station was down and my Dad was here I thought we should make of it and swap the computer than powers the station software and uploads to the web over to a newer (and hopefully faster and quieter one I had waiting for just that purpose). It seemed to go OK and after quite a bit of fiddling we had it up and running with the weather station software running and all of the data as it should be…

Monday morning dawned and my Dad had had a thought in bed… maybe all wouldn;t be quite so cheerful with the new computer as we thought… he was right and no amount of tinkering or even trying to reinstall everything from scratch would get the new machine running properly… SO, that one has gone back with my Dad for some therapy! I also started getting to the bottom of why the weather station isn’t working.. The new humidity sensor that I was sent looks exactly the same on the outside, but if I take it apart it is actually an updated version and is now digital rather than analogue. It would appear that plugging it into the Sensor Suite may have caused some damage. I’m still waiting to contact the suppliers to find out if this can be fixed and how to go about getting it done…. The weather station may be out of service for a few days, and realistically may not be up and running again until after Xmas… Fingers crossed it isn’t too bad though and can be fixed easily…. Sometimes I hate technology.

The weekend just gone was the date of our annual family pre-christmas get together and rather than go ‘Xmas Tree Hunting’ near Bristol most of the Cole family met up at Coed-Y-Brenin for a walk in the woods. My parents arrived here on Friday evening and then on Saturday morning we all headed off to Coed y Brenin where we met Jay, Megan, Harry, Charlie and jack (Jennie couldn’t make it), Brad (Eloise couldn’t make it) and Trudi, Kia and Shaun. We also met up with a small Ynyslas contingent of Simon, Sarah and Josh and Dave and Sarah.

It was a cold crisp and clear day so once we were all together we headed to the visitor centre before deciding most people would go off for a walk in the woods and to see Santa whilst Dave, Sarah and I had a little mountain bike ride. The ride was only a short one but the weather conditions were perfect and the going easy so it was pleasant rather than challenging. The others enjyed their walk and saw Santa and his elves so the main mission was accomplished.

We then caused chaos in the cafe for lunch before playing the playground for a while and then heading home. Brad and Trudi went straight from Coed-y-Brenin whilst Jay and his lot came back with us for a couple of hours at our house before heading off…

All in all a successful day, but I’m not sure how enthused everyone was with the amount of driving involved… maybe if they planned to stay overnight it would be a little easier.

Sunday was another gorgeous, but cold day, so I first tried to mend the weather station…More on that elsewhere and then we set off for lunch at Heathers in Capel Dewi. Unfortunately they had forgotten about our booking and also failed to tell us that it was a Xmas special lunch today, but they soon found us a table and apologised and all was well. the dinner was nice once again. We then had a little look around the Garden Centre before heading into town to buy a battery for the weather station (which we hoped might fix it). After that we headed to the estuary for a quick look only to find someone had got their car stuck in the soft sand. I don’t usually have too much sympathy for such people but as the guy had his very cold looking partner with him and a small baby in the back of the car I towed him out.

Back at home we had a quite afternoon. My dad helped put the loft ladder up (at last) and then we continued to (not) mend the weather station and then succesfully managed to break a PC as well, although it has to be said we did fix it first for a while!

My parents stayed Sunday night as well and left around midday today for their journey back to Gloucestershire. It feels as though Xmas should be upon us now, and it will be soon but unfortunately there is a week of work to fit in first.

It was good to see everyone though and I guess we should start planning the Xmas get together for next year soon!

Our trip to the lake District continued with an evening in Ambleside. We were stayingat the Ambleside Youth Hostel, which although big and fairly busy was actually quite nice. The room were basic as one would expect from a Youth Hostel but the hostel itself was right on the shores of the lake with amazing views out across the lake towards the snow-capped hills and Scafell Pike.

We met Linda (Mother of the Groom) and Kirsty (Sister of the Groom) and went out for a nice dinner in a nearby restaurant and then retired to our rooms. Morgan’s infected areas seemed to be improving quite rapidly by now and he actually had quite a good nights sleep. Breakfast in the morning was at the Youth Hostel, and being a buffet affair I obvisly ate more than was really necessary!

We then wandered around the shops in Ambleside and I bought some new walking boots to replace the useless ones I bought earlier this year that had been crippling me ever since. The fitting service in the shop was good and the boots look nice. I do have odd shaped feet though so only time will tell if these are any better. The guy in the shop has actually recommend that I get some custom made orthotic insoles constructed.

Next stop was Windermere where we had tea and cake in Lakeland and then Anna and Morgan had a browse around the shop, before we all drove back to Wales…. All in all an excellent weekend away, James and Donna are now married. I’ve finally had a visit to the Lake District and will no doubt be back for more and Morgan seems to be getting over his infected chicken pox, which were much worse than they sound.

After James and Donna’s wedding on Saturday we all had a nice breakfast at the castle and then said our goodbyes and set off on our own separate ways.

As part of the wedding arrangements and our accommodation for the weekend we had access to the various attractions at the castle so decided to have a wander around. The owl sanctuary was nice and Morgan enjoyed looking at the owls there. He also had a play on the playground. We had a nice walk around some of the gardens and admired the views from the castle itself then entered the ‘Meadowvole Maze’ which is a little walk through a giant field encountering threats to meadow voles. Morgan was actually a little scared in here. Overall Muncaster Castle looks like a really nice place to visit and given a little more time we could easily have spent the best part of a day here.

Our accommodation for the weekend was a large house a couple of miles from the castle but within the castle estate. It was perfect for the occasion and we had a huge room with a four poster bed and views out across the estuary to the sea.

After leaving the castle we headed off (following instructions from my new Sat Nav) towards the Hard Knott pass where I had hoped for an interesting drive across the hills. Unfortunately the pass was closed so we only got as far as the village of Boot where I headed off to do a nice little geocache before taking an alternative route over the Wrynose Pass and down into Ambleside.

This was the first time I’d really been in the lake District so it was nice to drive around exploring and with lots of snow on the hills, the scenery was perfect. Once in Ambleside I did another quick geocache then we had a little walk around the shops, bumped into Mark (Best Man from yesterday) and then checked into the Youth Hostel which was to be our base for the night.

James and Donna’s wedding at the weekend was a success and much enjoyed by us all. As guests everything seemed to run smoothly and the location, ceremony and reception was perfect.

The wedding itself was is Muncaster Castle which is a privately owned castle and a family home, but also a tourist attraction. The ceremony on Saturday was held in a hall within the castle with a huge fireplace and lots of historic artefacts around the room. After the ceremony which went without a hitch the owner of the castle said a few words which was nice and then we all had a nice meal and the speeches.

All the speeches were good, James’s was pretty funny as too was the Best Mans, Mark… Although everyone was a little shocked that he was brave enough to include one joke. I think it was the fact that he said it that was funny rather than the joke itself… For those of you who know it the punch line was ‘judging by the smell of his fingers… Our Son-in-Law’… Quite a risky joke for a Best Mans speech… Well done Mark!!

The evening reception was held in another part of the castle and it was good to catch up with a few people we hadn’t seen for a while and once again, all credit goes to those organising the event as everything went smoothly and was very enjoyable.

Morgan was excited about the whole thing, but managed to sleep through the actual ceremony, but seemed to enjoy himself the rest of the time, especially playing with mark (The Best Man), who no doubt was getting a little fed up of Morgan following him around all the time.

We wish James and Donna all the best, as they are the perfect couple.

We’ve not long been back from a busy long-weekend in the lake District. Lots to Blog about so I shall post individual entires for each of the main topics, but overall James and Donna’s wedding went well and we had a great time, The location was perfect, the ceremony spot on and the reception etc brilliant.

Morgan’s chicken pox got infected and he went downhill quickly so we had an emergency visit to the doctors in Seascale. We did some geocaching, played with my new gadget, drove around the Lakes and spent a night in Ambleside. All good and a nice weekend away even with the worries about Morgan, and james and Donna are now a married couple so everything was a success!