Author: Alan Cole

New Feel Conservatory 1

A Conservatory Makeover

We’ve had our conservatory since 2011. It’s a useful room, but as with most conservatories it gets too hot in the summer and it’s freezing cold in the winter. Time therefore to do something about it. We did look into having a completely new tiled roof fitted but that was quite expensive. Instead we decided...

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Summer Windsurfing is Here

What a session that was!! After a 20-mile lunchtime bike ride doing 3-minute intervals, it was back to work while the wind filled in. By 2 pm it was blowing a hoolie, so it was off to the beach for a windsurf with Alistair. The skies were blue, there were white-caps covering the sea and...

Aberystwyth Silver Band 0

A Day of Culture

It feels as though summer has arrived here in West Wales, and Sunday was spent mainly outdoors. First up for me, after an early morning walk to the beach, was a gentle run up to the estuary, along the River Leri, around the Animalarium and back through the golf course. I then chilled in the...

Miserden House 2

A Trip to Gloucestershire

Anna and I were in Gloucestershire for the weekend. We’d gone down for my brother’s 50th birthday as we were all meeting for a meal on Monday evening so thought we’d spend a few days there. Morgan wanted to stay home and had the excuse that he has upcoming exams, so he wanted to revise....

Hoverfly 0

Bee-ing Prepared

It was something of a mixed bag over the winter for our bees. One colony that was huge in the autumn died off whilst the colony that had taken up residence in the hive near the bedroom window did quite well. This colony had continued to expand throughout the Spring and was now looking quite...

Chives 0

Garden Tales

It’s been a bit dreary these last few days, but things are growing well in the garden. Here are a few photos from around the garden at the weekend. The blackcurrants are flowering well and should have lots of fruit later in the year. The comfrey looks good. The bluebells are putting on their usual...

Wildlife Pond 1

Project Pond – Part 3 – Planting

Before planting the pond, there were a few adjustments that needed to be made. The water level was a little lower than I wanted. The liner under the ‘jetty’ seemed to be the low point so the jetty needed raising a little. This was a fairly easy fix, Next stage was to continue with the...

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Project Pond – Part 2

Last weekend’s ‘Project Pond‘ had a bit of a hiatus thanks to a busy week at work, but with another bank holiday weekend to play with it was straight back to it on Friday evening. The liner and pond membrane I ordered had already arrived so it was time to make it look like a...

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Conifer Bonsai

Project Pond wasn’t my only garden project at the weekend. I also had a somewhat more relaxing project in the form of a bonsai tree. Whilst at Charlies Garden Centre in Aberystwyth I rescued a poorly looking fern and a frost-damaged conifer. They were reduced in price and needed some TLC. The Fern was planted...

Digging a Pond 3

Project Pond

I finished a previous post about the garden by saying: All in all, other than sorting out the water feature I think I’m now on top of the chores in the garden and just have to keep it looking tidy. https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/04/bank-holiday-planting/ Water Feature Re-Location So, with the garden somewhat under control, it was time to...