Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means
It looks as though summer may be coming to an abrupt end tomorrow. The remnants of Hurricane Erin are forecast to reach our shores, bringing strong winds, rain, and some large surf. We can’t really complain though—it’s been a lovely, long, hot summer. There have been plenty of sunny days, dinners on the patio, sunsets...
It’s been our best year yet for honey production. We haven’t finished harvesting, but from three hives we should end up with around 80 lbs of honey—mostly from two hives, as the third wasn’t really a production hive this season. The weather has clearly been kind to bees, judging by the sheer amount of fruit...
Having taken the plunge and upgraded our trusty, boundary-wire-guided Flymo robot mower to a GPS-guided Mammotion Yuka Mini 500, I thought I’d share some first impressions. Scepticism, Satellites, and Software To be honest, I was a little sceptical about GPS-guided mowers. I’ve used GPS in various ways for years, so I know both its strengths and...
The lease on our Hyundai Kona Electric is due to end soon, so it was time to start looking for a replacement. There isn’t a huge amount of choice in Aberystwyth, and since we’ve loved the Kona, it made sense to stick with what we knew. We did research a few other options, but nothing...
Onto Lewis After a comfortable night at the hostel and a scrambled egg on toast breakfast, I was feeling revived, clean and ready to go. So I was soon on my way, following the main road above the loch and crossing the border into Lewis. Although geographically a single landmass, Lewis and Harris are often...
Going All-In on Robot Mowers (Again) You may remember that we went all in on robots during the Covid lockdown, adding robot mowers to our collection of robot vacuum cleaners. Since then, Hector (who mows the back garden) and Harriet (in the front) have done a great job. It started as a fun lockdown project...
A Damp Start and the Battle with Midges It rained most of the night. I don’t get much sleep at the best of times, even at home in my own bed, but in a tent with the wind blowing and the rain lashing at the sides, there’s no hope. The wind did ease overnight though,...
All Alone It was all change today, as Anna would be heading home. We were, of course, up and ready to go earlier than we needed to be, but there wasn’t much point hanging around. We headed off towards Lochmaddy so that Anna could drop me off where I’d finished my walk yesterday. This time,...
More Islands Within four walks I’d already covered 64.8 miles of the 155-mile Hebridean Way. I’d visited five of the ten islands, and a bonus sixth by car, and was about to start day five with a quick trip from Benbecula across the causeway to Grimsay and then across another to North Uist. This was...
With three days of walking along the Hebridean Way under my belt, we were now getting into the swing of things. Having Anna supporting me in the hire car was making life easy and the whole experience good fun. The comfy bed and endless breakfast options from the B&B helped too. Progress was good and...
Fitness / Technology / Triathlon
Fixing the Altimeter on my Garmin Forerunner 910XT
Monday, March 17th, 2014
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MTB / Trail Guides / Wales
Traws Eryri Day 2 – Dolgellau to Trawsfynydd
Wednesday, October 7th, 2026
