What's going on?

For anyone who wondered why this blog went quiet, things have been quite hectic.

Julie has been putting the finishing touches to her latest magnificent project, the cottage in the country.

She has totally transformed it, inside and out, lavishing time money and her artistic eye on every detail. Even renamed it 'Ty Cariad' (something like 'beloved house' in Welsh). I have started a website for Ty Cariad, still in progress.I have never been a DIY person, but even I went up last week, painted the exterior in what I insisted was some kind of yellow, which Julie assures me looks golden in some lights and green in others. It turns out she had chosen 'Churlish Green' just to suit my temperament. :-) Well, maybe. I also varnished the magnificent new porch, made a compost heap, and helped remove an unsightly old tv aerial.

Dandy sits around looking beautiful and decorative, sighing and yawning occasionally at all this human activity that does not involve walking in the beautiful surroundings often enough for his liking. At the end of my day I usually found time for a strenuous trek - or Julie and I would drive to the Nature Reserve for a gentle amble.

And so on. More soon.

Stuff going down

Family News
Julie has gone back up to the cottage, but had a near miss with the car on icy roads in the mountains, so all and any good wishes you want to send her would be welcome. She and Dandy survived unhurt but shaken, and it sounded a bit scary to me.

Circus News
Joke Schot had taken some great photos of NoFit State's Tabú show, so Kaskade Juggling Magazine contacted the circus asking for some words to go with them. I hacked some together for them (I used to write regularly for Kaskade in the early days, and worked for the circus way back when, also).

The article is out. I am pleased with it. That link goes to the words, at least, on the review page at the Circus Development Agency website (I do content management there) - because I doubt that it will reduce sales very much for my words to leak out elsewhere. I recommend Kaskade, not just for juggling, but all allied arts throughout Europe (they have a great listings page for events, as well as addresses for all equipment makers, etc. )

You can also find online a rough draft of some footage of one of the NoFit State outreach projects, when the local Community Circus did a show for Swindon Festival. Here on the Ideal Films site.

Library News
I started a blog focussed on my library work (as a library sub-culture is heading towards an ephemeralized online library to compliment the physical buildings, etc.

You can check out Anon the Librarian for that part of my life -as we move into the new 'state-of-the-art library' in the next month or two. I hope to extend the work I did on the NetTrainers course, and with the Council's Moodle/Learning Pool site - becoming less of an IT person, and more aimed at staff and public training...

Fool on the Hill

It was great to have a visit from A & A - and they saw both a crisp bright day, and then another when it was almost snowing - misty in the valley, sleet, I guess, quite gloomy.

I am a bit gloomy, too, as I had a mild 'waxy ear' so used some drops which obviously softened the wax just enough to go deep into the ear, making me actually deaf. Doh! It really wasn't that bad before, just a slight crackle when I moved my head sometimes.

Now I am only half-tuned into conversations, television and the sounds of nature (good to stay alert with a lively dog, and unknowns everywhere, from sheep to loggers).

One unpleasant side-effectof the deafness is the pounding blood in my ear when walking these steep hills. As it is a little warmer up in the sun, Dandy and I have tended to go up, rather than along the bottom of the valley, and I went to the highest point (308 metres above sea level) I could see for one panoramic view. You can see the Ystwyth valley, the iron age hill fort - Castell Grogwynion - and a farm by the road on the way to Aber. You might want to click on the pic to see it larger (I haven't done anything to the images yet, as battling working on a Mac which does things whole different ways, etc.)

Where the sun don't shine

We had a crisp clear morning up here in the hills, so I walked the dog along the sunny ridges, but once you dip into the valleys, where the sun hasn't penetrated, it remains really cold...

Preswylfa

And so a month flew by without any new postings. Two weeks of that were spent up in Mid-Wales in mostly greyish weather, in the cottage. You can see a glimpse of it here


and then directly outside the gate is a big rock, which shelters the house
but I decided to climb to the top of it (the easy way, around the back!)
to get this view of the house.











Dandy loves it, and all the surrounding area of woods and streams

Update 19 May 09: Preswylfa has had a total makeover, and changed its name to Ty Cariad.

It has now become available as a holiday cottage to rent, and here's the Ty Cariad website, and a blog for less formal updates.