Foraging for Food

Our forgaing for food is going well. Anna and Morgan got some more blueberries yesterday and the blackberries are almost ready. We even had a little expedition on the beach earlier in the week looking out for Razor Clams.

We went armed with a bucket and a pot of salt. Apparently once you’ve found a hole that a Razor Clam lives in you can coax it out by pouring sand into the hole and then grab it and ease it out of its hole ready for cooking and eating! We haven’t eaten them before so we’re not sure if they are nice or not, but if we can catch some for free then we may as well try them.

Fortunately for the razor clams we didn’t see any holes and therefore didn’t manage to catch or eat any. Not particularly successful as foraging expeditions go but it was a nice evening walk along the beach all the same.

As part of our few days away, we spent and afternoon visiting Hurst Castle with Jasper, Fiona, Pippa and Joe.

We drive to Keyhaven which is a nice south coast boating village and caught the Hurst Castle ferry out to the castle. We’re not really into the history of such things but still had fun exploring the dark, dingy rooms of the castle, climbing onto the roof and looking out to the views across the Solent. There didn’t seem to be loads to look at but it kept us interested for a couple of hours.

Joe had his medium format film camera with him and was taking photos so I didn’t bother with my (consumer level) SLR camera instead I just carried my little compact with me so didn’t get many photos. It rained much of the time we were there anyway but it was a good attraction for such weather.

At the last minute I remembered that I had my GPS with me so looked to see if there were any geocaches nearby. There was one within a couple of hundred feet so Morgan, Fiona and I went of in search of it but were unsuccessful. It was then back on the ferry and home for a BBQ in the ever improving weather.

The weather here was terrible for the week of the Big Butterfly Count. Lots of rain, quite a bit of wind and we hardly saw the sun.

Thankfully the sun did come out a little on Sunday 1st August and Morgan and I finally had chance to spend 15 minutes in the garden counting butterflies. We didn’t see many but at least we saw some.

• 2x Small White
• 2x Meadow Brown
• 5x Gatekeeper
• 2x Green-veined White
• 3x Small Tortoiseshell

We have of course logged our sightings at www.bigbutterflycount.org. You can view the results of the Big Butterfly count on an interactive map here: www.bigbutterflycount.org/results

Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)

Whilst cleaning my 2009 Commencal Meta 5.5 bike lately I’ve noticed some cracks in a odd place on the frame.

The cracks appear to be radiating out from a drainage whole on a brace between the two sides of the main rear swing-arm. I’ve circled the drainage hole in the image below.

Cracks in rear swing-arm brace

I’m not sure if they are just superficial cracks in the paintwork or if they are actual cracks to the frame. Hopefully the former, but I guess I’m going to have to get them checked out properly as they seem to be getting worse.

Cracks in rear swing-arm brace

I do hope the frame isn’t cracked as I can’t afford a new one.

I finally had an appointment with the Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) Consultant surgeon at the hospital yesterday. He confirmed that I did indeed have Surfer’s Ear but thankfully didn’t want to send me off for surgery to have it fixed.

He refer me to get fitted for some earplugs though to help prevent it getting any worse and amazingly that was done there and then. So in a couple of weeks I should have some free custom moulded earplugs courtesy of the NHS. I shall have to wear them when swimming, surfing and windsurfing.

After our meeting of the Ceredigion Moth Group on Saturday morning Morgan and I headed back down to sea level and collected Anna and a friend of Morgan’s called Lotti and we all headed off to the RSPB reserve at Ynyshir where we were booked in for a Teddy Bears Picnic – or as it should have been called a ‘Tardy Bears Picnic’ – D’you see what I’ve done there!

We got there about 10 minutes early as usual as the picnic was due to start at 11.30am There was no one else with teddy bears there so it looked as though it was going to be a quiet picnic, perhaps people had been put off by the grey weather. We had a chat with the wardens whilst Morgan and Lotti did some colouring and they said that 3 other groups of people had phoned that morning and booked so they should be there and they knew what the weather was like when they phone so we shouldn’t be on our own.

These other people did turn up in the and, but not until 11:50am, 20 minutes after we were supposed to have set off on the picnic, so in the end we didn’t get going until midday. Not a huge problem but the picnic was due to finish at 1pm and that’s what time we had planned to leave as Lotti had to get back to go horse-riding. So, in the end, everything was running late thanks to the late people and we had to leave at 1pm whilst the picnic was still ongoing. We missed out on the scavenger hunt on the way back through the woods despite being the only people who got there on time.

What is wrong with people, why can’t they be on time, and why when they are late do they not even acknowledge it. It’s just rude, but seems standard practise for many people these days. It annoys me and invariably it is those that are on time that end up missing out.

Anyway, apart from that we had fun. The children found bears on their way to the hide and stuck colourful things they found in the woods onto a sticky rainbow. Once at the hide they did colouring and dot-to-dots before having a story and a picnic. Morgan spotted a Buff-Tip moth on the way there too which was pretty good and I think he impressed the warden by seeing it and by knowing what it was!

There was supposed to be a scavenger hunt on the way back to the visitor centre but we missed out on that – We do have the sheets though so can do it some other time on our own.

I forgot to take any photos though.

We had a good afternoon at Morgan’s schools Sports Day. It wasn’t quite sunny but it was dry and the kids all seemed to enjoy themselves. For some reason the red team (Gogerddan) have won for the past few years but at last there was a turn around and the green team (Trawsgoed) won by a long way. Good for us as Morgan is in Trawsgoed.

Morgan did well, first in the sack race, second in the sprint – pipped at the post by his best friend Cameron – and 2nd or 3rd in the obstacle race and egg and spoon race.

One of the important things to do as a self-employed freelancer is to make sure you have multiple income streams as you just never know what is going to happen next. I don’t do too badly in that respect although it can get quite hectic now and then.

As well as my main job as a freelance website designer where I build and maintain website for numerous clients, I also do quite a few other things, some related, some not. A couple of weeks ago I was invigilating exams at Aberystwyth University – Not a bad job, not too stressful.

Many of my income streams are web related – I run several websites that have various forms of advertising income, affiliate earnings and such like. None of these make a huge amount, but it all helps and all adds to my sources of income.

I also sell photos from time to time and do other computer related work. Today I’ve been adding the finishing touches to the layout of a 50 page document about a management plan for a local cemetery. The group managing the project needed to produce a report ready for printing but didn’t have the know how. I’ve therefore been busy desktop publishing ready to provide them with a print ready PDF file.

I also help people with their computer needs via Computer Tutor Wales, and from time to time get away from the computer altogether and do some little odd jobs.

When I was a student (many years ago now) I used to help out with several local elderly people doing their gardening and then progressed to painting and decorating and other ‘odd jobs’. From time to time these people still call on me asking for some help, so last week I was busy painting and decorating a bedroom. It’s actually quite nice to get out of the house, away from the computer and do something a little more manual from time to time.

Not only do all of these ‘jobs’ mean I have various revenue streams to turn to should one of them go a little quiet, but it keeps me on my toes and adds plenty of variety to the normal 9-5. Managing my time to fit them all in can sometimes be an issue though.

We don’t take Morgan swimming quite as often as we should, but Cerdigion County Council don’t make it easy either.

Last time we took him to the pool at Plascrug leisure centre we were told that the children’s pool was a little cold. When we got in was was more than cold, it was absolutely freezing and there was no way anyone could stay in it so everyone had to use the large pool. This wasn’t much better and Morgan was only able to stay in the water for about 10 minutes before going blue. Needless to say we weren’t too pleased but the leisure centre didn’t seem too bothered about it and were still letting people in (and of course charging them) despite the fact that the pool was unusable.

We tried again on Monday as it was half term and there is supposed to be free swimming for children in the mornings. A good idea as this encourages children to get in the pool and of course gets their families into the pool as well. As far as I’m concerned this is just the sort of thing the council should be doing – no doubt getting people more active and therefore fitter would save money in the long term.

However, we turned up just before 11:30am only to be told (by a very grumpy girl on the desk) that we were too late for the free child swim and we had to pay full price for Morgan. We argued the point for a bit but in the end had to pay for him. It’s not the money that gets us, its the principle.  For a start we were on time – last entry for the free swim is apparently 11:30am and both the credit card receipt and the till receipt from the pool has a time stamp before 11:30 (only just admittedly but we did argue the point for a minute or so before actually paying). More important though is the fact that they should be encouraging people to go swimming, not making it difficult for them, even if it had been a few minutes past 11:30 surely they should let you in anyway, afterall we were only going there because of the offer of a free kids swim so they were getting the full price for two adults anyway.

Anna has e-mailed the council to moan about it, so we’ll see what they say.

I’ve just found a little caterpillar on the honeysuckle, looking for all the world like a little twig. Perfect camouflage, so much so that he almost got pruned along with the other dead twigs.

Having looked through some books, it looks most likely to be the caterpillar of an Engrailed Moth.