{"id":16985,"date":"2014-06-15T18:06:02","date_gmt":"2014-06-15T17:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/?p=16985"},"modified":"2014-06-15T18:06:02","modified_gmt":"2014-06-15T17:06:02","slug":"fathers-day-pole-hole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2014\/06\/fathers-day-pole-hole\/","title":{"rendered":"Father’s Day – Up a Pole and Down a Hole"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, I’ve spent most of Father’s Day either up a pole or down a hole. I did go for a lovely open water swim in the sea first, but then it was all work in the garden.<\/p>\n

Up a Pole<\/h1>\n

I was up the pole in order to replace the anemometer on the Borth and Ynyslas weather station<\/a>. The direction vane had stopped spinning a while back and I\u00a0couldn’t get it to spin freely whatever I did so I had to spend \u00a3160 on a new one. The pole seems to get higher and more wobbly each time I go up it, although to be honest that’s more due to the fact that I’m getting older each time I go up it. The last time I was up there fitting an anemometer was over 9 years ago! I was\u00a0certainly a bit younger then, probably 9 years younger in fact.<\/p>\n

\"Pole\"<\/a>

Pole<\/p><\/div>\n

But I was up there again today with my climbing harness on and tools in hand. It took a bit of fiddling but I soon had a brand new shiny anemometer installed and the weather station was once again running with a full compliment of data parameters, including the wind direction which had been missing for a few weeks. Typically, once the old anemometer was down it seems as though the direction vane started spinning better again. I don’t know how that could be, but it was probably time for a new one anyway.<\/p>\n

\"Anemometer\"<\/a>

Anemometer<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Down a Hole<\/h1>\n

Next of the big jobs today was to sort out the water feature which keeps running dry. After cutting back the foliage around it I cleaned it all out and spent quite a bit of time down in the sump clearing out stones and muck and cleaning the filter. We then cleaned all of the stones that surround it and filled it back up. I also put some roofing felt under the stones that surround the water feature in a hope of catching more splashes from it and allowing them to drain back into the sump as I’m sure that’s where the water goes.<\/p>\n

\"Water<\/a>

Water Feature<\/p><\/div>\n

It looks much nicer again now that it has all been restored, but only time will tell if the new improvements will help.<\/p>\n

The Garden<\/h1>\n

I did manage to sit down for five minutes with Anna and a cup of tea. From the bench we could admire the garden which is looking lovely at the moment. There aren’t huge amounts of things flowering but it seems to be going from it’s purple phase into a yellow one as the purple Irises, Aliums, Geraniums, Ajuga, chives, bluebells and Aquilegia are replaced with yellow Sisyrinchia, Loostrife, St Johns Wort, and yellow Aliums.<\/p>\n\n\t\t