Friday, October 17, 2025

A skip a day

Rough Edges is a charity shop for men*, the profits coming to Zac's. Unfortunately we only have two volunteers running it - it's open for just one day a week at present - and they don't like parting with things.

"You could get £200 for this on ebay!" So they squirrel things away in the back room for safekeeping. And keep accepting donations whatever they are. Thus it had reached a point where the aisles were blocked, shelves were piled high, and it was potentially dangerous for customers to come in. So at the trustee meeting last week we decided the shop would have to close because of the risk, and that yesterday would be the last day and would also be a huge clearance sale, a 'make me an offer' sort of sale.

We also hired a skip so we could begin the clearance process, and Sean, Poj, the other trustee, and I were all there to work. We filled one skip by lunchtime so the company came and got it and exchanged it for a bigger empty one.


This is inside the shop, which is comparatively empty when compared to what was supposed to be a workshop. As you can imagine, our volunteers were resistant to the make me an offer idea, and kept checking in the skip to see what we - evil trustees - were throwing out.

I admit there are all sorts of fascinating things there but too many of them!


I contacted the art gallery and they've said they'll have the tiles for workshops. But no idea what these tools are.
This is a Victorian day cot apparently. I've put this on marketplace.
*Charity shop for anyone who likes DIY, cars, sports, gardening, collecting old tools.


Art and Zac's

Wednesday night: art exhibition in aid of Zac's

Josephine Frenkel the artist, who only started painting in 2020, has created some marvellous, large canvasses.





She also runs workshops and some of the art produced by complete novices was on display.

I'm planning to ask her to run a workshop or two for Zac's, maybe one as a fund-raiser and one for our regulars. 

* * * * *
Thursday morning I finally saw the dentist. Not my usual one - I think she must still be on maternity leave - but a dour woman who didn't seem to find much joy in her work. Or maybe I'm prejudiced because she told me I need two fillings! Haven't had a filling for years.

I can either have black ones for £120 and wait until May for an appointment, or have white ones for between £500 and £600 and get an early private appointment.

I can wait. 


Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Procrastination

I'm supposed to be writing a substack post. It's been brewing for days but I'm also reluctant to sit down and write it so I wandered around the garden.

I poured soapy water over the cabbages - correction, cabbage singular - in the hope it will gently discourage the tiny snails making a meal of it.

Too little too late I fear.

But some of the roses are still lovely.

Now it's time to face the fear and do it anyway. And whoever came up with that quote was stupid.


Early morning quantum physics

Sheesh, life is busy. 

Yesterday was exercise - don't ask - followed by church writing group followed by Zac's, with other errands crammed in between.

Writing group was interesting going off at a tangent with one person saying there's no such thing as a Palestine state, and another expressing close-to-Reform views. Much biting of tongue. (Yes, it is a church writing group!)

Today, a - dare I say it? - peaceful day before an art exhibition in aid of Zac's this evening. Tomorrow it's dentist and then a day's shift at Zac's charity shop. Because we don't have a manager and only two volunteers to run it, it's become very chaotic there. Particularly as the volunteers don't like selling anything!

It's become dangerous to customers so the trustees have made the sad decision to close it. It's been on the cards for a while but if it's become a safety hazard we don't have much choice. So tomorrow it's all hands on deck for a clearance sale. "Make us an offer!"

We need to get rid of loads of stuff otherwise we'll end up paying for it to be taken away.

I hope I actually get to see the dentist tomorrow, much as I hate going to the dentist. The last few times she was having a baby or the computer was down and various other reasons I couldn't be seen.

Anyway, after tomorrow, things calm down until I lead Zac's study next week. 

It's my own fault: I agree to things. Or even suggest them. Like the new church newsletter I offered to produce.

* * * * *

Yesterday morning, in bed, Husband said, "I had a bad night. I was struggling with the size of the observable universe."

My, "oh dear, never mind," fell on deaf ears as he proceeded to explain the problem to me. The way I understood it was: we can see things that are 14 billion light years away but by the time we see them they're actually 21 billion miles away. (Don't take my word on the numbers. I don't know.)

From there we progressed to the cat in the box and how quantum physics is proving that the impossible isn't.

At that point I decided it was time for me to get up and have breakfast.

I got back from exercise and Husband continued, "It's like a ping pong ball can't go through a concrete wall but it can in quantum physics."

I blame the BBC. Apparently, on the its website that morning there'd been a report on the winners of the Nobel Prize for Physics, three physicists who are proving just those things.



Monday, October 13, 2025

Grace, pigeons, and the sun

Yesterday GrandDaughter2 and I investigated some more of Swansea Arts Festival.

An open arts workshop proved very popular with people. We wanted to do some printing but made collages while waiting.

The theme of both my pieces is Grace to tie in with the pilgrimage I'm on. I could see very clearly in my head what I wanted to print. It didn't turn out exactly like that but I'm still pleased with it. I used U2's song, Grace, as my inspiration.

There was only white material in the workshop so I brought my shapes home and used some material from Daughter's stash.


And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness
In everything

Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things

Grace lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Then we hurried around town - a bit more than would have been necessary if I'd checked exactly where everything was happening - in time to see the pigeons.



And the sun!


A circus group was there too and GrandDaughter2 tried out stilt-walking, hula-hooping around strange things i.e. not just the waist, and spinning plates. The queue for the trapeze type stuff was a bit long and it was getting late in the afternoon so we missed that.

It was pleasant weather and there were crowds out, in a lovely community atmosphere. It felt good.


Sheen and Joseph

Well, as you'd expect, an evening with Michael Sheen and Marty Joseph was excellent. It was a new thing for both of them, so very much a 'Let's see how it goes' event. Michael read poems and in between Martyn sang songs. 

Martyn is a folk singer, known for singing about social injustice. Here he sings about the support Paul Robeson gave to striking Welsh miners back in the 1920s.

Michael read poems from two of Wales' foremost poets, Dylan Thomas and R.S. Thomas. (Other surnames are available.) Very different in style they cover similar subjects. This is the R.S. Thomas one I liked the best. Imagine it read by Michael Sheen, in his beautiful lilting Welsh voice.

So, yes, a fab night. I think they might be making a 'thing' of it so look out for future events.





Saturday, October 11, 2025

And then he said . . .

"I tell you you should be dieting and I come into the kitchen to find you baking!"

I was making pizza for dinner but I waited for him to ask. He went to the fridge, opened it, and said, "Why am I here?"

"That's a very good question!" I said, thinking, make the most of it; your time here may be short.

* * * * *

I am in the approximately 5-day period between hair cuts, where my hair is just the right length and is sitting just as I like it. 

Last week it was all over the place; next week it will be too long.

* * * * *

Having renewed my labour party membership I am eligible to vote for the deputy leader. There are two female candidates and I have given my vote to the one who said, "We can't out-Farage Farage." My thoughts too. We need to stand - and say we stand - for the opposite of everything that odious worm supports.

* * * * *

Back in Italy again.

GrandSon4 took these photos.

Miss my babies so much.


I fought my tummy

. . . and my head won.

Tummy said, "Ooh, as you're in Mumbles you could go to M&S and get some pecan and cranberry bread."
Head said, "But I'll eat too much and slather it in butter."
Tummy said, "Yes, yum yum."
Head said, "Ummmmm . . . no!"

Just as well 'cos when I got home breadless and told Husband he said, "Good, you need to go on a diet."

I am no longer speaking to Husband.

* * * * *

The response to my last post - clothes chair - was greater than any I've had for ages. Obviously a popular subject.

* * * * *

Had my flu jab this morning. I don't usually get much of a reaction save for a sore arm so we shall see. Off to see Michael Sheen and Martyn Joseph tonight for an evening of Welsh readings and song.

And I realise I never finished the story of our Italy trip.

When we got back from the trip to Lake Garda Younger Son prepared to go away again. He was taking a group of children from his school to . . . Swansea! He and another teacher were in charge of about twelve children aged about eleven I think. Nuora had to go back to work so we stayed to look after the children whose school term didn't start until the following week.

YS was due to arrive in Swansea early afternoon on the Tuesday. But the flight was delayed and eventually cancelled because of a plane problem. They had to hang about in the airport all day and then the airline put them up in a hotel. The next morning they flew to Amsterdam - someone in the organising party decided this was better than the direct flight YS had wanted. They spent the day in Amsterdam before finally getting a flight to Cardiff, and eventually reaching Swansea late Wednesday evening.

They then had two good days in Swansea before it was time to come home. This time it was the trains. 

The train from Swansea to Cardiff was delayed because the wind had blown a tree across the track. It finally turned up and they began their journey only for it to be stopped again and they had to make the rest of the journey on a coach.

Strangely enough, everyone is keen to the trip again!

Meanwhile we had a great time. Crafts and dog-walking took up our days. 

One day we visited a village higher up the valley where a gnome forest had been created.






These are just some of the wonderful paintings we discovered.


The forest is next to the village of Prea.

Another day we climbed a mountain - not this one with the disapproving face but one next to it - in search of waterfalls, which due to the dry summer weren't very impressive. 
And another day we visited the bronze age settlement site.


I forgot to mention that on our last night at the lake Husband and I ate in a restaurant along the shore. For his starters Husband ordered anchovies. He wasn't expecting them to arrive in their tins!

They even came with a postcard explaining the difference between Gold series (12 month maturation) and Limited series (24 months maturation). They were also fished at dawn apparently which gives a superior quality.

Oh, and I had hummus for starters.
The view from our table wasn't too bad either.
There's still more Italy to come but I'll stop for now as you're probably bored already.








Thursday, October 09, 2025

I don't have a chair

I have the floor.

Maybe I should get a chair. Because it would serve better that vital purpose.

I took a hoodie out of my wardrobe today and found it still had toothpaste stains on it. (Why is it so hard to remove toothpaste from clothes?) I'd obviously put it away in a flurry of enthusiasm or, more likely, after Husband had nagged me.

I mean you could argue that it was too dirty for the floor but it would have done for gardening or being at home.

It had to do today anyway; I was committed and in a hurry. 

Two older women were swimming at Pobbles, having a great time catching the waves. I wished I were with them - if only I were braver.

It wasn't as dark as it looks in that photo!


 

Wednesday, October 08, 2025

To find a tree


Go to a forest. 

Bob, who lives round the back, was telling Husband that, as a volunteer with Clyne Valley Community Project, he had been helping clear the orchard of 150 fruit trees. 

That there was an orchard in the woods was news to us, and we thought we'd walked just about every inch of it in the past umpteen years of dog-walking. According to Bob, via Husband, you go left just after the lake and follow the path. So, as it was a lovely afternoon, Husband and I set out to do that. 

We turned left after the lake and followed the path. And followed it and followed it until Husband's foot hurt. Not a fruit tree to be seen.

We were making our way back down to the main path when Husband said, "I wonder if Bob meant right? He said the turning was about eleven metres after the lake, which is a very precise and strange measurement when you think of it."

So we went back to the lake, and sure enough, about eleven metres after it there was a turning to the right signposted:

It looks as though the clearing is at an early stage.


But we did spot the last few remaining apples.

And a couple of fungi.



Whether it was Bob's mistake (or surely not Husband's?) we had a lovely walk, and on returning home I tried unsuccessfully to find out the history of the orchard. From the sign I'm guessing it was planted in 2014 but Kate remains a mystery. However while googling for said history I somehow came upon this rather wonderful newspaper cutting about the opening of a new library in Morriston. From July 1906:


I also spotted this:
And I remembered what it was that had led me to this page at all. Today Clyne Valley is very beautiful and a wonderful place to walk but it has an industrial past, with the railway, brickworks, arsenic works, and mining happening.