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’s been a fairly windy summer really but we’ve had a proper taste of autumn this weekend. Heavy rain at times, lower temperatures and plenty of wind associated with a proper autumnal low pressure. Nothing to do with Hurricane Gert which is still on the other side of the Atlantic, but decent winds for windsurfing...
Read more »There are loads of planning notice signs up at the entrance to the beach here at Borth & Ynyslas for a proposed ‘Metal Cast Oak Tree’. According to the signs it will be located in the inter-tidal zone on the beach between Borth and Ynyslas (except they have spelt Ynyslas incorrectly!). From what we’ve seen elsewhere,...
Read more »I’ve been running a weather station here in Ynyslas for a number of years now. I initially installed the weather station in 2005 at the request of a number of kite-surfers and windsurfers from the Midlands. They all used to make regular trips to the coast here but sometimes their trips would be wasted as...
Read more »My Christmas Day windsurf wasn’t great as I had too small a sail Boxing day was perfect though. I managed to get out and give my new Mast Mount for a GoPro camera a trial in perfect conditions. It was a glorious day with wall to wall sunshine and a decent 25-30 knot WNW wind blowing. The...
Read more »What a day that was! There has been very little wind for what seems like ages. Very little apart from the mad, short-lived and very destructive squall that we had back in November. The forecast for the run up to Christmas was looking good wind-wise though so I was chomping at the bit and ready to...
Read more »Weekends are always busy for us and the past weekend was no exception. Saturday was packed full of Christmas festivities for the Scouts. Christmas Charities Fete It started with the annual Christmas charities fete in the Community Hall in Borth. The Scouts were running the Santa’s Grotto, the kitchen, a big raffle, the tombola, a...
Read more »Monday was looking to be a lovely day here this week. What better way to spend it than SUP fishing? It was cold at first with temperatures dropping to 4ºC but with clear blue skies and light winds. Perfect conditions for SUP fishing. I had a fair bit to do at home though so got...
Read more »Just what I need to vent some BT Broadband anger – A full on windsurfing session at Ynyslas.
Read more »Seeing as my Mum was worried that I didn’t do anything strenuous on Saturday morning – other than moth trapping, beekeeping and geocaching – I thought I’d better make up for it. Windsurfing I did get out windsurfing in the estuary on Saturday afternoon. The wind was a little flukey but was gusting up to 28 knots....
Read more »After a few weeks of fairly miserable weather, and a horrible bike ride on Sunday morning in constant rain and murk, the weather took a turn for the better yesterday. An amazing contrast from cold, grey and wet to glorious sunshine and scorching temperatures. It reached 24.3ºC yesterday according to the Borth & Ynyslas Weather...
Read more »Grrr… I’ve got some kind of lurgy. Headache, sore throat and generally feeling ‘bleurgh.’ Not ideal for an upcoming first attempt at a Half ironman distance race, but there’s little I can do about that. I have therefore ceased what little training I was doing to see if I can kick it. It didn’t stop me...
Read more »We had fun on Friday evening surfing with the Scout thanks to Kwame at Walkin’ on Water. It was a nice relaxed Scout session for us. Anna was on the beach watching and I got to play in the surf. Larry was helping out as well. It wasn’t the best surf conditions with a small,...
Read more »
