Last day of the Holidays

It’s the last day of the school holiday today and the weather is gorgeous. Ynyslas doesn’t get much nicer than this.

Anna has started her new job today so I’m at home with Morgan and we’ve just got back from a wander across to the beach for some Dune Jumping.

It was a gorgeous Bank Holiday Monday here. Clear blue skies saw the temperature drop to 4ºC over night but the sun was up early and it soon warmed up. With no wind at all it was a perfect day for the beach.

My parents were still here along with my sister and her children Kia and Shaun so we had breakfast and headed across with surf boards and such like. It’s rare for us to sit on the beach in holiday-maker style as we tend to just walk across, do what we were going to do and come home again, but as there were lots of us we set up camp on the edge of the dunes and Morgan and I went for a surf.

Morgan had fun and managed to stand up well, but the sea was a little cold so he didn’t stay out long. I then went out, and had a good surf with some decent 2-3 foot sets coming in. I don’t surf that much these days as I tend to windsurf so its good to get back to my roots now and then and make sure I can still do it.

Time to hit the waves

Surf's Up

I’ve just been out for a stroll on the beach to check the surf. There wasn’t much surf but it was a gorgeous autumnal morning. Cold with a light easterly wind and clear blue skies. I couldn’t resist taking some photos of the patterns in the sand.

After the excitement of yesterday morning with the windsurf session and a trip to casualty, we decided to have a more leisurely afternoon with a family walk around the dunes.

We headed off across the fields, past the boat yard and along the estuary. Had a browse in the visitor centre then went for ice-creams at the caravan park before heading across the boardwalk to the beach and back home along the beach. I think it made everyone suitably tired and ready for dinner. The weather was gorgeous, the wind invigorating and we all had fun along the way.

Phew - survived

It looks as though the garden has just about survived the recent onslaught from the approach of autumn.

Everything looks a little worse for wear and most things are a little windburnt but nothing has been destroyed. Despite the onslaught the courgette plants have of course continued to supply us with a steady stream of vegetables!

Maybe the shelter we’ve been gradually adding is working as there are still various plants in flower and nothing got snapped off even though the winds blew all day long on Tuesday at about 40 knots.

Time for a tidy up

I do have a bit of work to do out there though as the grass has grown well with all the rain and warmth and there are leaves and pine needles everywhere. In fact, everything is beginning to look a little tired out there as if the garden knows that autumn is pretty much here and winter is just around the corner. What a cheery thought!

The bees seem to have survived as well. The hive remained upright which is a start and there are still some bees coming and going although the activity levels are quite a bit lower than they have been. I’m hoping that all is well within the colony and that some sunshine will have them out and about over the weekend.

September is only a week away but it looks as though autumn has arrived early.

GPS Windsurfing

It was pretty windy yesterday and my windsurf session on the seafront did have an autumnal feel to it. The sun was shining but the sea felt as though it meant business. Although it was a nice easy sail there was just something a little more menacing in the air. It dropped off a bit after a while but I did manage a nice long run to Borth and back. Then last night it arrived properly The wind filled in to 30 knots, with the weather station measuring gusts to close to 40 knots. That’s Gale Force 8.

The sea now DOES mean business and I can’t wait to get out there. I knew this would happen though as I’m working at the university this week so don’t have quite so much time to play and certainly less flexibility. It is forecast to drop this afternoon, just about the time that I’m available for a windsurf – Typical.

It is however forecast to come back from a NE direction tomorrow afternoon which could give me chance to finally use my speed kit in Ynyslas estuary for an attempt at my ‘Life Begins at 40 Knots’ challenge. The tides won’t be great for it but I may be able to squeeze a bit of a session in if I’m lucky. Fingers Crossed.

The moth trap went out last night. No rain, moderate winds and a minimum temperature of 15.3ºC resulted in 22 different species, 135 moths in total and one new species to me. Nothing too exciting but quite a large number of Small Square Spots.

• 22 x Silver Y
• 4 x Archer’s Dart
• 13 x Setaceous Hebrew Character
• 1 x Yellow-tail
• 2 x Common Marbled Carpet
• 4 x Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet
• 1 x Willow Beauty
• 14 x Large Yellow Underwing
• 1 x Dingy Footman
• 2 x Purple Bar
• 3 x Dark Sword Grass
• 6 x Flounced Rustic
• 9 x Flame Shoulder
• 35 x Small Square Spot
• 1 x Sallow Kitten
• 1 x White-line Dart
• 6 x Dark Arches
• 1 x Gold Spot
• 4 x Common Rustic / Lesser Common Rustic agg.
• 1 x July Highflyer
• 1 x Antler Moth
• 3 x Rosy Rustic*

Rosy Rustic

Windy Miller

I’ve just got back from another windsurf session here at Ynyslas. Today for a change the wind was South-Westerly so we were sailing on the opposite tack. Much nicer for me as I prefer jumping on that tack.

Despite the high expectations the wind wasn’t quite as strong as we had hoped and was hovering around the 20 knot mark, so my big wave board (Naish Hybrid Freewave 85ltr) and biggish sail (Gun Nexus 5.6m) was the order of the day.

To start with it was perfect and I was able to blast in and out through the waves and even gain some ground upwind. After about an hour on the water Dave and Sarah came over to the beach and started rigging so I stopped for a rest and wandered up the beach to sea them. Once they were rigged and we got back on the water the wind had eased and it was a struggle to get going in the water-water for a while, but out the back there was still enough wind most of the time.

Thankfully after ending up a little way downwind the wind did come back and I was able to sail back to where I started from but it never quite filled back in to make it into an epic session. Still I covered over 30 miles and painted lots of red lines on the sea via Google Earth!

Painting the sea red

We’re not having a proper holiday this year, instead we’re having several long weekends and staying at home enjoying our local surroundings more than we usually would.

Yesterday was one of these days off so I had a bit of a lie in (for me) and didn’t get up until 7.30am. One of the nice things about stay at home holidays is that I can still do a little bit of work each day as well.  This means that I can stay on top of e-mails and a few other bits and pieces and not have that horrible post-holiday backlog to come back to that I always dread.

After a couple of hours work I did some computer research into which new bike to buy and then pottered around the house for a bit before jumping on the turbo trainer for my first workout of the day. It was nothing too difficult, just a 25 mile fairly easy session. This was followed by a light lunch with Anna and Morgan before I headed across to the beach with my windsurf kit for a nice windsurf session exploring the high seas between Borth and Aberdovey. I covered over 26 miles in and hour and a half so I was now up to over 50 miles of activity for the day and 2 hours 45 of exercise.

It had however only just begun because as soon as I was off the water, packed up and showered, it was time to head into Aberystwyth for an hour of circuit training followed by an hour of swim training. All of that may sound like a little too much for some people – I had a tweet from someone yesterday that said:

“Morning Al. Do you ever think about sitting down, & having a nice rest ? Wears me out just reading your tweets !”

For me it was a perfect, action packed day with a total of 5 hours of exercise, and what’s more as there was little time for eating I may even have lost some weight in the process.

Sunday was a gorgeous day here so we headed off to the hills for a picnic.

We went to Pendam where Morgan and I had a little cycle ride around Llyn Blaenmelindwr whilst Anna started picking blueberries. We then had a picnic on the shore of Llyn Pendam. It was lovely and peaceful sat there lokking out over the lake, but I got attacked first by ants (my leg is still on fire whilst writing this, 8 hours later!) and then by midges.

Needless to say we didn’t hang around too long so I went off for a MTB ride around the Syfyddrin Trail and then home whilst Anna and Morgan did some Blueberry picking.