A Simple Life of Luxury

Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means

A Simple Life of Luxury | Weblog

Hill Reps Heart Rate 0

Fitness / Triathlon

Cycling – Hill Reps

One of the good things about having someone else write a training plan for you is that it gets you out doing things you might otherwise not have done. Last week it was pounding up and down the cliff path doing running hill reps. This week it was more hill reps, but on my bike. The prescribed session was...

Huddles of bees on Clettwr 0

Beekeeping

Hive Inspections – Progress?

We made our weekly hive inspections on Wednesday afternoon and there was some progress. The bees are still acting a little strangely though. Both the colony in the Clettwr hive and the colony in the triple nuc box (a caught swarm from Clettwr) are very active. They are up and busy from first light until...

Feverfew 0

Beekeeping / Gardening

Feverfew

We weren’t sure whether or not to get rid of all the feverfew in our garden. It certainly grows like a weed here and self-seeds all over the place. On top of that it is supposed to be disliked by bees so not ideal in bee-friendly garden. It does look nice at times though and...

Poppy 0

Gardening / Photography

Poppy

Yet more garden flowers. Poppies self seed themselves all over the place, but the bees like them, they are easy to remove when they appear somewhere that we don’t want them and they certainly add some colour so we tend to leave them here and there.  

Borth Coastal Defence Scheme Progress 0

Wales

Borth Coastal Defence Scheme Progress

I’ve just been looking at the weekly reports from BAM Nuttall on the progress of the Borth Coastal Defence Scheme and all seems to be progressing well. Groyne 1: is complete Groyne 2: is complete Breakwater 1: Not Started Breakwater 2: The majority of the toe armour is complete with the toe armour to finish...

A few more Moths 0

Moth Trapping

A few more Moths

At last another break in the weather and some time to put the moth trap out. Once again I put it out without a sheet so the catch wasn’t huge but there were 44 moths in the trap this morning from 10 different species, including a Poplar Hawkmoth. 1 Pale-shouldered Brocade 6 Lackey 12 Heart...

Marigold 0

Gardening / Photography

A Splash of Gold

More photos from the garden and a splash of gold thanks to the French Marigolds

Borth 0

Photography / Wales / Weather

Beach Photo Walk

You don’t get nicer mornings than this. Clear blue skies, no wind and not too hot. Oh, and a deserted beach backed by the Cambrian Mountains – Not a bad place to live.

Borage 0

Gardening / Photography / Weather

Garden Flowers

It’s another gorgeous day here, clear blue skies, a light breeze and currently 19ºC. Yesterday it reached 24.5ºC, which although it felt hot wasn’t the hottest day of the year so far as we hit 25.3ºC in June 3rd. It’s a shame we have to work on a day like this, but I have just...

Family Gathering 0

Family

Family Gathering

We’ve just got back from a weekend away in Gloucestershire. We drove down in the pouring rain on Friday evening to my parents house, had dinner there and chilled for the evening. Saturday was a cool grey day, so I went for a run whilst Anna and Morgan lazed around for a bit, then we...