Beacons Way Days 1 & 2. Gardening. Off to Essex. Day trip to London.
More Rain.
Rain returned Tuesday. A good day for admin, and then into Hereford for more admin-y type things. LED call in the evening, followed by my first post-retirement KMCA catch up.
On Wednesday and Thursday I walked the first two days of The Beacons Way with Sonia and Sara. Read the write up in my blogpost. Thankfully we had two days of good weather – and could see the downpours deluging everywhere else!
Beacons Way Day 1: Abergavenny to Llanthony, 22km / 13.5 miles, 850m / 2790ft ascent, via Skirrid / Ysgyryd Fawr (486m) and Hatterrall Hill (531m).
Beacons Way Day 2: Llanthony to Crickhowell, 19km / 12 miles, 890m / 2920ft ascent, via Bal Bach (520m), Crug Mawr (550m) and Crug Hywel / Table Mountain (451m).
Phil and I made the most of the third (and final) day of dry weather on Friday to do some garden jobs. Phil scythed (and encountered many toads large and small) and I:
- Pulled up plum growth below the pond
- Transplanted 4 baby yews I found near the quarry into pots
- Cleared the fenced edge of the large pond of bindweed, dead cow parsley, ground elder, giant nettles etc etc etc
- Cleared the ground elder under the yew tree by the hedgehog house
- Swept the tree house deck (lots of yew leaves and seeds)
- Pruned the coffin gooseberry and planted larger cuttings in pots
- Picked peas (6 pods) and dwarf beans (4) and 2 strawberries and 4 sweet peas
- Planted out the last of the leeks into long plastic planter. Rough and ready but better than the shallow tray there were in…
I also took some photos of the large fungi at far end of lawn – never seen those before.
Before dinner I spent an hour working out route options for day 3 & 4 of the Beacons Way. Most of the time was spent on trying to work out bus routes….
Rain returned with a vengeance on Saturday.
Good weather for another hour looking at days 3, 4 & 5 of the Beacons Way. Again, most of the time was spent on trying to work out bus routes…. until I found Transport for Wales’ super handy TrawsCymru Bus journey planner. I’d wasted a lot of time on Stagecoach’s website which only shows their services (which took me a while to realise).
Flickred my Beacons Way photos (and some older ones), prepped these weeknotes and wrote my blogpost covering Days 1 & 2 of the Beacons Way.
Then down the lane for early tea – F&C with TJL.
Up early on Sunday for the drive to Essex.
As we were eating our early breakfast, we were treated to a pair of hares in Kiln field…..
… and a green woodpecker adult showing its young where to find the best bugs on our verge and drive.
I went dad’s return route this time (M50 M5 M42 M6 A14 M11 A120 A12) and it was a million times less stressful than the M25, and faster / easier driving than our cross country route via Milton Keynes.
We got to Witham around 1.30pm and had a couple of hours there before I left Phil with his folks and continued on to Wivenhoe, which proved to be a more painful drive thanks to roadworks on the A12. And meeting a bus on Wivenhoe’s narrow, car-lined High Street.
Tom and Jo supplied an ice lolly on arrival which improved things no end.
By 7pm I was sitting out by the river with a glass of wine.
Not bad.
Monday, train into London for the Persia exhibition at the British Museum (excellent) and a tour of the outdoor shops in search of a new pair of trekking boots (in vain).
TV: Halt and Catch Fire, The Light In The Hall.
Podcasts: The Forum.
Photos: Herefordshire week 186 on Flickr.
Phil: w/e 2023-07-23.