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.
It was one of those days today where I spend much of it wandering backwards and forwards to the beach waiting for the wind to pick up. It was forecast to swing to the SW and maybe pick up a little later in the day, but then that forecast changed and it didn’t look so...
Read more »It was pretty windy last night. We’re used to the wind here and it is quite often windier than you can imagine but it’s been so long since we’ve had any proper wind that it actually kept us a wake last night. According to the Borth and Ynyslas Weather Station it hit 46.9 knots which...
Read more »I’m not sure if this is just a summer storm or if we’ve had summer and this is now autumn. It certainly feels fairly autumnal out there and the fact that I’ve been out for a windsurf on my wave board and 5m sail seems to confirm it. I’m not complaining of course as it...
Read more »Phew, at last I feel like a windsurfer again. So far this year has been pretty pathetic wind-wise. its been good for the garden and for cycling but I’ve barely been out windsurfing – Just 21 sessions so far according to my diary entries. Yesterday was good though with a 25-30 knots wind all day....
Read more »I had a great windsurf session yesterday when the wind picked up without warning. I’d just been for a bike ride and when I got back the wind filled in beautifully so I headed across to the beach with my kit. It was windy enough for a 5m sail and my wave board so I...
Read more »After an excellent day looking through the contents of my moth trap and geeking out on invertebrates on Cors Fochno (the bog behind our house), the sun was shining, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, there was no wind and we were all starving. I therefore fired up the barbeque, picked some salad leaves...
Read more »Yesterday was a good day, packed full of activities. I started off fairly early, sorting, counting and recording the contents of the moth trap. Nothing unusual in there and no new species, but 21 different species and 60 moths in total. As my ID skills improve I’m getting quicker at going through the contents of...
Read more »The wind this year has been terrible so I’ve hardly been windsurfing. I nearly managed a session on Thursday night but the wind dropped so I blamed the lack of wind on the “curse of the new kit“. Since then I’ve had a little more luck. On Friday I managed an nice late afternoon windsurf...
Read more »Ever since buying my new windsurf speed kit way back in March, there just hasn’t been any wind. Not enough anyway. Yesterday however looked liked the most promising day so far, NE’s and hopefully Ivor our katabatic wind would show up. Usually on such occasions he starts blowing early in the morning, sometimes around 4.30am...
Read more »I seem to have been out of sync with the wind lately. It’s been promising much all week with some almost there NE’s in the morning and then plenty of wind around school run time only for it to drop as soon as I had chance to get on the water. I’d tried to get...
Read more »It’s just not fair. Since buying my speed kit, there just hasn’t been any suitable wind to use it. This week looked promising with NE’s forecast all week, but as the days have gone by there just hasn’t been enough. It has got close from time to time with the odd gust but never filled...
Read more »The forecast was for a lovely sunny day with lots of wind yesterday (Easter Monday). Steve had planned to come to Borth and we were expecting to windsurf all day. Steve turned up around 9am, we had a coffee and it wasn’t looking particularly sunny or windy but we headed over to the beach anyway....
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