The room was plenty big enough we had a bath and a shower and confortable beds and a friendly enough greeting.Of course, having a proper flush toilet is always a luxury for us!

There was a pub / restaurant next door called The Beeches which is co-owned by Premier Inn so this is where we went for our evening meal and where we were to go for breakfast in the morning. Once again we have no complaints. The restaurant was nicely laid out, the food was good and the service was excellent. We therefore had a nice relaxing meal, even Morgan ate OK and the waitresses were friendly and helpful. Breakfast in the morning was good too… Eat as much as you like which is something I always like and in addition to the full cooked breakfast there was plenty of cereals, toast, croissants, yoghurts, fruit, juices and coffeee etc. Just what I needed before a day out mountain-biking at Llandegla.

Certainly recommended.

We drove up to the Blue Planet in Liverpool on Friday morning. Morgan’s travel sickness seems to be coming on in leaps and bounds so it took a little longer and quite a few changes of clothes to get there than normal but it isn’t to bad a drive.

It isn’t cheapt to get into the Blue Planet but we had booked into a Premier Inn  for the night and got a free child ticket with that and the prics compare to most other attractions. I have to admit that I wasn’t that impressed to start, but I did used to work in an aquarium so I guess I was expecting a little more from the tanks in such a large aquarium. The big shark tank did of course impress though and that is really what it is all about. The ’show’ was a little corny but the tank itself and the fish were pretty impressive. Thankfully it wasn’t too busy so (when not chasing Morgan around) we were able to take our time and have a good look. We bumped into a friend of Morgans which was good as they seemed to enjoy each others company and when we ask him what was the best thing about the Blue Planet he says it was seeing his friend there!

After a little play in the playground and some lunch we had another quick circuit around the tanks before heading off to find a chemist and some travel sickness tablets for Morgan and our hotel for the night.

Overall the Blue Planet was good. I still think it is quite expensive and I think the smaller tanks could be a lot better than they are as they just feel like padding for the main attraction of the Shark Tank.

Shark at The Blue Planet

The Blue Planet Aquarium

Burning up some Energy

As we pulled into the car park it looked really busy, people and bikes everywhere but I guess that was to be expected on a bank holiday weekend.

After a quick look around the shop and visitor centre we walked back up to the car in the overflow car park and got ready. I had planned to do the full red route and black route whilst Anna and Morgan were going around the 3 mile long Green route. Anna was going to walk with Morgan on his little balance bike.

We set off together and once on the trail it wasn’t nearly as busy as it looked I did pass quite a few people and there were often people stood around at the beginnings of certain sections or the tops of climbs but considering how full the car ark was it was nice out on the trail.

Overall it was a really good trail, nothing too technical and not too much climbing really so it didn’t take me as long as I expected. No knowing what was coming next meant that I took it easy all the way around. There are big signs as you approach the black sections warning you about the ‘extreme nature’ of the trail but for those worried about it then don’t, all of the trail is easily rideable as you can simply roll over any of the obstacles. obviously if you attack the course and go for big air off the jumps etc. then it could be a little more challenging but it is also possible to simply ride over them keeping both wheels firmly on the ground. (Which is pretty much what I did!).

Back at the car and Anna and Morgan had just returned too. They had fun, Anna enjoyed her walk and Morgan had got on really well on his bike. he doesn;t get chance to use it much so an hour on it is probably as much practice as he’s ever had so he improved all the way around and apparently came to an impressive skidding stop at the car!

Can’t wait until he’s a little older and all three of use can go for rides on the easier trails together.. I’ll have to convince Anna to go out on my bike, but that does at least mean I’ll be forced to treat myself to a brand new, shiny full-suspension bike!

On the way home we stopped off at the top of the highest road in Wales for a succesful geocache find.

Oh, and we finally got the video camera out of hibernation so here is a little clip of Morgan at Llandegla.

However, after puncturing a couple of times whilst out with the others I did start feeling bad about making them wait around for me whilst I repaired the flat, so I have decided to give in to peer pressure (not something I do too often) and give it a go.

There are several ways to ‘go tubeless’. The first is to buy expensive specialist tubeless rims and tyres. I wasn’t going to go that far and as the tubeless rims and tyres are heavier and more expensive than their standard counterparts I couldn’t really see the advantages of such a system. The next option is to buy a conversion kit for normal rims and tyres, but there is also a third DIY option known as the ‘Ghetto Tubeless System’.

The way it works is you remove the inner-tube from your wheel. You then seal the rim using a strip of rubber to stop air leaking out through the spoke holes, put the tyre back on, put some latex sealant inside the tyre and then inflate it so that the tyre seals onto the rim. The latex sealant then fills any small gaps that might be present. Sounds simple, but reading reports online it can be difficult to get the tyre to seal onto the rim effectively. The main reason for this is that in order for the tyre beads to seal against the rim it needs to by pumped up to a certain pressure in order to push the tyre against the rim, but, as until the tyre is sealed it is difficult to get air into it. A catch 22 situation and most people end up having to use high pressure compressors or CO2 cartridges to get the air into the tyre quick enough… Notth I have at my disposal.

Still, at the weekend I gave it a go. Out came my inner-tube. I then stretched a small 20″ BMX tube over my MTB rim. This tube becomes the strip of rubber than seals the spoke holes in the rim, and its valve is the valve that will be used to pump the tyre up. Next I cut along its centre line so the the tube could fold out over the edges of the rim and then put my tyre back on trapping the now cut inner tube between the tyre bead and the rim. Before adding the sealant I tried pumping the tyre up just to see if I could get a seal. Surprisingly it pumped up straight away without any problems at all. So, in went the sealant, back on went the tyre and in went some air. After a bit of shaking to spread the sealant around I left it to let any small holes seal, and then trimmed the excess rubber away from the 20″ tube.

All seemed to be fine, but the tyre did loose some pressure overnight. Closer inspection showed that the side-walls of tyre were ever so slightly porous and tiny amounts of air was escaping through little pores all over the tyre.

Despite this I did the same to the rear wheel and yesterday had my first ride on the new system. All went well; no punctures, no flats and no issues with the tubeless system. Pressure was maintained throughout the ride as well. The front wheel now seems to hold pressure really well so I’d say that it was completely sealed. The rear one (which I did a day after) still looses a tiny bit of pressure over time, but I think it will seal up fully over the next day or so.

Lets hope they hold up!

Pros

• Lighter (but only just) as you only use a small strip of inner tube, but then have to add sealant)
• Less rolling resistance
• Fewer punctures - most punctures are pinch punctures where the inner tube is pinched as you go over a rock and a hole (or often two) form in the tube. As there is no tube this can’t happen. Also, any punctures from thorns nails etc. should be repaired by the remaining sealant in the tyre.
• Novelty factor

Cons

• A little more expensive than plain old tubes (you still need a new 20″ tube each time you remove the tyre and you need some sealant. However, with fewer punctures it could work out cheaper as I won’t be replacing tubes so often.
• Not so easy to change tyres of you want to ride different tyres for different conditions (not something I do anyway)
• Could be a little messy if I do get a proper flat whilst out riding as I would then have to revert to a tubed system and may get covered in latex sealant in the process

For me the jury is still out but I shall see how it goes over the next few rides.

Check out this You Tube video if you want to see how to do it yourself, and I’ll no doubt keep people up to date within this Ghetto Tubeless thread.

Very few people live right on the coast and it only takes a few obstacles such as trees, buildings or small hills to provide some protection. However, we do live on the coast and there is nothing between us and the beach so we experience the full force of the winds. You only have to go inland a little way to see how things change with a little bit of protection. Gardens just a short distance away are awash with colour and have a wide variety of plants and flowers thriving in them. Things aren’t quite so rosy in most gardens here.

Very little shelter from a cold North wind

I’ve worked for many years helping people out in their gardens and almost everyone seems to think their garden is exposed and windy, but until you’ve experienced living right on the coast you can’t understand the meaning of a truly exposed and windy garden. It isn’t just the strength of the wind but the incessant nature of it. We have a weather station in the garden that uploads live data to the internet every minute and it shows just how much wind we get. Whereas most people start thinking things are getting windy when the anemometer reaches around force 4-5 it is rare for us to ever have a day where it doesn’t reach this and more often than not it is much windier. Worse still, it just doesn’t stop blowing. We often get weeks on end where the wind just doesn’t drop.

Sounds bad? Well it gets worse. Most coastal gardens are affected to a greater or lesser degree by winds coming in off the sea. For people living on the west coast such as us this means that the prevailing wind is from the west so at least there should be a respite from the wind if it swings around and comes from another direction. Not so here. In fact, we have a special katabatic wind (known affectionately as Ivor) that funnels down through the Dovey Valley and blasts us with cold, dry winds from the East. This wind is stronger and just as persistant as winds off the sea and means that there isn’t a wind direction that doesn’t affect us. There is no getting away from the fact that this really is a windy place (which is why, as a windsurfer I wanted to live here).

Effects of the wind

The effects of big storms on your garden are easy to see. Broken plants, snapped branches, uprooted trees, overturned containers, broken panes in the greenhouse and such like. Lesser winds also have an effect, drying out plants and creating wind burn, the visual effects of which are burnt leaves and blackened stems. It can impede plant growth, stops young seedlings in their tracks, severely stunts trees and shrubs, and forms dramatic windswept shapes to larger trees. Many plants simply can’t cope with the extreme winds we experience here.

What can be done?

The obvious thing to do in order to protect from the wind is to create a shelter belt. Few of us have room for a full-on shelter belt consisting of a thick plantation of wind resistant trees, but just a single row of such plants can help create some shelter. Every little bit helps and as the number of plants you have in the garden increases you can produce your own little micro-climate in which the less wind-resistant plants can survive. Of course, you don’t want to go over the top otherwise your garden will soon feel over-shadowed and too enclosed. Another option is to build small banks that help protect from the wind. Again this may take up a little too much room in a small garden.

Fences and other garden structures can also be used to good effect to provide shelter. Open structures are better than solid ones as they dissipate the wind rather than deflect it. When wind hits a solid barrier such as a brick wall or panel fence it tends to deflect upwards only to descend with greater turbulence on the other side. Where possible several lines of defense are best. For instance an open fence with wind resistant hedging behind it.

The other thing is to choose your plants carefully and pick those that are more resistant to winds.

Wind Resistant Plants

Trees that will put up with the worst wind conditions and ones traditionally used in coastal shelter belts, include pines such as Pinus nigra, P. pinaster and the Scots pine (P. sylvestris). We have pines here and although they survive they are prone to wind burn and tend to be very lop-sided. It is also difficult to get them to grow straight as they tend to adopt the typical windswept look of a coastal tree.

Willow and White Poplar (Populus alba) also do well here. The willow grows well, but can look a little untidy once windburnt and can become a little too invasive. The Poplar again does well but the new growth is easily damaged by summer winds. If both are kept under control with some hard pruning though they do offer good protection from the wind. The willow has little ornamental appeal but the leaves of the Poplar are fairly attractive. Both are deciduous though so don’t offer much in the way of protection or decoration in the winter.

Cordylines such as Cordyline australis (Autralian or Manx Cabbage tree) fare well and add a tropical touch

When it comes to shrubs, Escallonia is the obvious choice for creating shelter, but it is a little common around here. Even this gets pretty badly windburnt and despite its pretty pink flowers in the summer can look a little ugly in the winter. The evergreen Griselina littoralis, with its glossy, lime-green leaves is a good choice. I’m also having success with Olearia sp. (Daisy Bush) which does well, but again can look a little worse for wear due to windburn in the winter.

Other shrubs that are doing well in the wind although not creating much in the way of shelter are various Hebes and a lovely Golden Elder (Sambucus nigra).

As well as creating shelter from the wind it is also worthwhile making the most of it and planting grasses and bamboos that not only tolerate the wind but are at their best when being whipped about by it. The movement and sounds created by these plants can bring the garden alive. We have a large pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana) that is doing well and adds just such life to the garden. As with many things that do well though it can become a little too large and needs to be kept under control. Stipa sp. and Miscanthus sp. are also likely to relish such conditions although I’ve yet to try them.

It takes time for smaller plants to grow large enough to provide suitable shelter so progress is slow but the results make it worthwhile. For those with deeper pockets then larger plants can be bought to speed up the process and more use could be made of the faster growing varieties. The willow and Poplar are particularly fast growing.

As you can see, the wind can be a problem for coastal gardens but with some careful planning it is possible to both limit its effects and work with it. As our garden matures hopefully it will become less of an issue. The addition of various tress and shrubs to create shelter has helped already and structures such as a pergola with some climbing plants is helping too. We’re now able to grow some less wind-resistant plants in the lee of these.

White Poplar and Golden Elder providing some summer shelter

Variegated Hebe providing all year interest

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This article is part of a series on Extreme Coastal Gardening

Playing in the water at Somerford Keynes

After a busy day on Saturday, the plan for Sunday was a day by the lakeside at the Cotswold Water Park.

Thankfully the weather co-operated and we had what was probably the best day so far of the summer with temperatures at around 30ºC and glorious sunshine. A little too hot really, but we are British and therefore never completely happy about the weather!

Of course, the warm weather and the school holidays meant that it was pretty busy at Somerford keynes, but we soon found a spot and set up camp for the day. The lake itself is quite large with several different areas. We had been to one area before where you can hire canoes and such like, but today we went to the area specifically for under 8’s. It has various bits of playground equipment, a small artificial sandy beach and a small enclosed shallow area of the lake. This meant that the little-ones could run around and play all day long whilst the adults sat and relaxed. Not really my sort of thing so I soon had itchy feet and wanted to do something, but Morgan was having fun so in the end watching him play with his cousins was my entertainment for the day, interspersed with the odd little stroll here and there.

There is also a large beach-like area opposite the children’s area where there are playgrounds for older children and a designated swimming area. This area is larger than the ‘younger children’s’ area. We did have out inflatable canoe with us and probably should have pumped it up and put it on the water but we weren’t sure of the restrictions. Also I would have had to do this away from everyone else which wasn’t really the idea. I was hoping we would have been able to use it on the lake and let everyone have a go so that I could have taken the children on trips of ‘adventure and exploration’ around the lake. Maybe next time.

As well as the various swimming areas and the watersports region of the lake, there is also a shop, lots of barbeque area and a high ropes adventure facility. It is also possible to fish on the lake and I’m sure there are some decent fish in there. We saw loads of baby fish in the swimming area and from the balcony around the shop it was possible to see loads of huge mirror carp too.

All in all it was a good day out with perfect weather, nice lake scenery and most importantly Morgan got to play with his cousins all day long.

It didn’t end there either because once home The water-slide came out in the garden and Morgan, Megan, Harry, Charlie, Jack, Kia and Shaun had a whale of a time playing in the garden too.

Anna enjoying the sunshine

Morgan playing in a rubber dinghy

Fun in the sun at Cotswold Water Park

Somerford Keynes Water Park

Next stop was a trip to Ikea for Anna. It isn’t often that we get to go to ‘big’ shops. We had breakfast in Ikea although I think I was cheated out of a sausage and a hash brown! We then bought a few bits and pieces before heading off to the Early Learning Centre where Morgan bought a new toy! Next was lunch in the Pizza Hut Another treat whilst in the big smoke!

We then drove out of Bristol and back to South Gloucestershire, up onto the Cotswolds and visited the National Trust property of Newark House. Morgan fell asleep on the way there so we sat in the car park for a while. Anna had a sleep too so I sat there twiddling my thumbs waiting for them both to wake up. By the time we were ready it was getting late so we didn’t have much time but we did manage a quick look around the house and a quick stroll through the woodland garden.

Newark House is situated high on Cotswold Hills so has some really nice views over the rolling Gloucestershire countryside. Many of the views are completely devoid of anything from the 20th Century. The house itself started life as a hunting lodge in 1550 and is now owned by the Clutterbuck family who bought it in 1790. The Clutterbuck Family still own it and live in it although some parts are open to the public.

Morgan quite enjoyed his quick look around the house as there was a little teddy-bear hunt with bears hidden in each room for the little-ones to find.

After wandering around the house we had an ice cream and then took a stroll through the woodland and down to the lake before heading back to my parents for dinner.

As with many National Trust properties, the admission price is quite steep unless you have an annual membership or are particularly interested in the history. We like stopping off at these places and with a membership it doesn’t matter if you don’t spend too long there or visit often for a nice little walk. To be honest we aren’t that interested in the history. I do like the gardens and we do like to have a quick nose around the property. The advantage of the membership though is that it doesn’t matter if you don’t spend too long there as you don’t feel as though you need to get your moneys-worth on that one visit.

Newark Park Gardens

Morgan with ice-cream on his nose!

Anna and Morgan at Newark Park

Newark Park

Sunlit garden building at Newark Park

Summer Foliage at Newark Park

Newark Park House

A tired 3yr old!

It was a gorgeous day, the best so far this year with blue skies, blazing sunshine, temperatures in the low 20s and a decent Easterly breeze to keep me cool. From Bow Street I enjoyed a short walk up the hill and found the cache easily and surprise surprise I was the First to Find. Despite being a decent sized container there was nothing in it except for the logbook and pen and a geocoin. I took the geocoin and will hopefully move it on this weekend.

And, just for a change, not only did I remember to take my camera with me but I actually took some photos of typical Welsh summer scenery too.

The path to the cache

Oak leaves in summer

A little smaller than a sparrow with a pale browny-grey back and pale yellowish tinged breast. The most distinguishing thing was a fairly distinct white stripe above the eye (the supercilium). They are a little difficult to tell apart from a chiff-chaff, but they had quite pale legs which I think helps to tell them apart. Apparently the best way to tell them apart is their song, but I’m not too good with my bird songs

Good to see them though, especially seeing as they are in decline and on the ‘Amber List‘ of species, unfortunately I’ve yet been able to photograph them, but if they return I shall do my best.