Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means
It’s been a while since I’ve properly taken the mountain bike out, but over the past couple of weeks I’ve been sneaking back onto the trails. I even joined a local group for a very chilled night ride. It’s getting to that time of year were the dark nights are longer than the days so...
I think the most notable thing about the weekend was the rain on Saturday. When I got up early, the little raindrop on our home info panel that I built was already full to the brim. The Borth & Ynyslas weather station in our garden had already recorded more than 25 mm of rain. At...
Autumn has definitely arrived in West Wales. It’s been blowing a hoolie for days now, which has meant plenty of windsurfing opportunities. Just for a change, I’ve been out in a few different places. Usually, I simply walk across the road and launch opposite our house, and I’ve done that of course, but earlier in the...
As far as the Welsh Nuttalls go — those peaks over 2000 ft — I’ve summited most of them in the Glyderau several times. However, Y Foel Goch and Gallt yr Ogof at the eastern end of the range had yet to be bagged. Not surprising really, as they are smaller in stature than their...
Despite having recently upgraded from my wheelbarrow to a new trolley as my windsurf transport of choice, I did something a little different on Sunday — time for a road trip. The winds were SSW and the seas were large and angry. Too large and angry to sail on my own off the seafront at...
I’ve added some new data features to my Solax Solar Panel Plugin for WordPress. This plugin isn’t publicly available for a few reasons, but I use it on this website to display the status of our solar panels and track their performance over time. It’s also used on a small Home Info-Display, which shows data...
After weeks of wall-to-wall sunshine and prolonged drought, Rhys and I had planned a day in the hills to tackle a couple of scrambles on the Idwal slabs. Typically, we somehow managed to pick the only day with rain forecast — not just the day, but the exact few hours! Still, it was in the...
I like to keep our garden as wildlife-friendly as possible, but it’s always a bit of a balancing act. In some ways, making it wildlife-friendly is easy — I could simply leave more of it to grow wild and give myself fewer chores. But then it looks messy, gets out of control, and… well, I...
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...
Fitness / Technology / Triathlon
Fixing the Altimeter on my Garmin Forerunner 910XT
Monday, March 17th, 2014
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Camping / Hiking / The Welsh Nuttalls / Wales
Bagging Nuttalls in the Sunshine
Sunday, May 31st, 2026
