Author: Alan Cole

2012 Volume I 0

Weblog Book 2012

I’ve been hard at work over the past few months producing the 2012 edition of our weblog book, “A Simple Life of Luxury”. I know it sounds as though it’s a little out of date already as it’s from three years ago, but that makes it all the more interesting to do as it gives...

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Wet and Wild Riding

I don’t usually train with other people, often because it doesn’t fit into my schedule or because other people don’t like to train at the same time as me, but recently I’ve started to organise an early morning ride on Sunday before the 9am swim session in Machynlleth pool. This means that we set off a 6:30am...

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The Road to Recovery – Getting in the Groove

After what has been a fairly disappointing year triathlon-wise for me, I finally feel as though I’m on the road to recovery and getting back in the groove. A plantar fasciitis injury after the first race of the year way back in April pretty much put me out of action for the whole race season....

Aberystwyth Pier 1

Autumn Heat in Aberystwyth

It may be autumn, the trees are looking stunning in their autumn colours, but a new high record temperature for November in the UK was set yesterday. Temperatures in Trawsgoed, near Aberystwyth, reached 22.3ºC on Sunday, beating the previous record of 21.7ºC, seen in Prestatyn in 1946. We managed to make the most of it though. The...

Blue-eyed Fish 3

Machynlleth Lantern Parade – The Angry Angler Fish

After entering the Machynlleth Lantern Parade last year we had more ambitious plans this year. The theme was ‘Under the Sea’ so we decided on a lantern fish. Our inspiration was something like this. Suitably ‘fishy’ and suitably ‘halloweeny’ at the same time and with a lantern dangling in front of it as a lure,...

Autumn Swell 0

Half Term Surf

It’s Half Term here this week so I’ve been at home with Morgan. The weather has been quite autumnal, but Morgan and I did manage to get out for a surf on Monday afternoon, and then overnight a proper autumn swell arrived. We took a look at the waves here at Ynyslas but decided they...

Fish Tank 0

Aquarium Progress

Just a quick photo to update you on progress in my ‘Aquascape’ aquarium. The CO2 system that I installed has been working well and I seem to have some sort of balance now. I still get quite a bit of algae, especially on the glass which takes a fair bit of keeping clean, but hopefully...

Beeswax 5

ABKA Honey Show 2015

We had another fun evening at the Aberystwyth Beekeepers Association Honey Show earlier this week. The format for the event was pretty much the same as previous years with the following categories: Bottle of mead. Two one pound jars of light honey. Two one pound jars of medium honey. Two one pound jars of dark...

Angry Bird Pumpkin 3

Witches Finger Biscuits – Getting Ready For Halloween

After work on Friday we popped into the Supermarket and bought 21 pumpkins! Yep, we had a few funny looks wandering around with a trolley full of nothing but pumpkins, but we had good reason – It was a pumpkin each for the Scouts so that they could carve their halloween lanterns. Morgan loves carving...

Chilli Jam 1

Cookery

After our little trip to Devil’s Bridge for Earthcache day, we ended up doing loads of cookery in the kitchen. I had already made a start on this years Christmas Cake and the mixed fruit had been soaking in over ½ a litre of Brandy, Whisky and Black Cherry Brandy Liquer, so the next task was...