Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means
Alan, Anna & Morgan live in West Wales and attempt to make the most out of life. Alan is a freelance website designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband. Anna works at Aberystwyth University and is a full time Mum & wife.
What a gorgeous day yesterday. I couldn’t resist getting out early for a paddle on my surf ski. I started on the seafront across from our house. The conditions were perfect with the early morning sun warming things up and a super calm sea. Just a small swell running. I headed north to Aberdovey and meandered...
Read more »Just a quick update on the bees. If you remember last time I was quite pleased that both hives had re-queened. One seemed to be doing really well. The other wasn’t so great and I found the queen camped out under the mesh floor. I put her back in and hoped that maybe she had been out on...
Read more »After a busy weekend away in North Wales Surf Skiing, Mountain Biking and Running along the Coast Path it was nice to be back at home. The busyness continued of course and summer was being kind to us. Wall to wall sunshine on Monday had me out mowing the lawn and gardening once the indoor...
Read more »Coast Path Vital Stats Rhyl to Mostyn Distance: 15.20 miles Elevation Gain Today: 33m Highest Elevation: 14m Time: 2:45:04 Av. Pace: 10:52 mins/mile Av. Heart Rate: 115bpm Max Heart Rate: 146bpm Calories: 1182 Totals to Date Total Distance: 424.03miles Total Time: 79:49:53 Total Elevation Gain: 10892 Total Calories: 39806 Distance to go: 474 miles It’s been quite a...
Read more »Surf Skiing in Conwy I arranged to meet some fellow surf-skiers in Conwy on Saturday. I thought I could make a weekend of it. Surf Ski somewhere a little different for a change, do some mountain biking and then sleepover in the camper and continue my Coast Path run project on the Sunday. The Facebook...
Read more »Just a few up close and personal photos from the garden.
Read more »Rinsed, Shampooed, Rinsed, Polished, Buffed, Waxed, Buffed, Glossed, Buffed and now it’s looking lovely. No doubt the seagulls will make short work of it though.
Read more »‘Beehaving’? If you remember from my last post about the bees they had been ‘mis-beehaving’. I had performed an artificial split only for the half without the queen to be a little lax in creating a queen cell while the haf with the queen swarmed anyway leaving no queen cell behind. I think my actions have helped...
Read more »It looks as though my plan to get out as often as possible in as wide a range of conditions as possible on my surf ski has worked. Monday was a gorgeous day for some surf skiiing in the sunshine. The sea was a little choppy with a small swell but I felt quite at...
Read more »We had intended to spend the weekend in Barmouth for the Mawddach Paddle Sports Festival but as Saturday was wet and windy we decided just to head up on Sunday for the Mawddach Marathon. The Mawddach Marathon is a 20km kayak race up the Mawddach estuary and back. It starts at Barmouth, heads upstream with...
Read more »After 6 years or so as Scout Leaders we had our last meeting on Friday. We had never planned to become Scout Leaders, it just happened when there was no one else to lead the group. We volunteered to help out and before we knew it we were organising and leading the whole thing. We’ve had...
Read more »I think I’ve been improving my surf skiing skills this year. I’ve been trying to get in out every opportunity, even if only for a short paddle. I think that lots of short sessions a week are better than just one long session for a number of reasons. It means I’m more likely to get...
Read more »Looks as though Parkin is having mustelid for breakfast! I thought it was a mink at first at there are far too many of these non-native vermin around, but now that I’ve seen the photo a little better the white belly seems to suggest that it’s a native stoat. I’ve actually quite a few around...
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