Cnicht with Mike

I thought I would be spending quite some of the bank holiday weekend with Neil, but he had other plans. Fortunately, some miraculous succour came falling out of the sky: Mike, from Cornwall. He was one of the guys who was always on the most interesting underground trips in the southwest, when I lived there (like this one). He comes up quite regularly. Generally, he is with his friend Darryll, another mine explorer, but this time he was alone.

On Saturday night we had dinner together, in my garden. We had plenty to catch up on! I see him about once a year. And I suggested a particular walk. He agreed with that. So he showed up again the next morning and we got into my little car.  

My plan has been to park up in Blaen Nantmor. The road there is so tiny it seems the best idea to go there by little Corsa. From there we could walk in the general direction of Cnicht, and over the summit, if we felt like it. And then back via Llyn yr Adar and Llyn Llagi. 

I started out in trousers and with several layers on above the waist. The forecast has been a bit cold. Reality was different! In no time I changed into shorts and a vest. It was a glorious day, and there was nobody else. And the landscape is gorgeous. I also like the little lake that doesn’t have a name on the OS map there, so we had coffee and cake there. 

How it started

Coffee break lake in the distance 

Cnicht coming into view

We did go for Cnicht. That meant meeting other people, but that is OK. We had lunch at the summit. More people were that way inclined. But as soon as we came down on the other side, all other people vanished again. The warmth temporarily did too, so the multiple layers came back. 

Summit selfie

It was lovely and quiet by the lakes. And sunny and warm again by the second lake. We happily trundled back to the car. Almost all of the route had been new to Mike! He had been coming to Wales since he was a child. Finally he has done Cnicht and some of its hinterland. And it was great to see him again. I hope he keeps visiting for years to come! 

Llyn yr Adar

Almost back

Start of 2026 vegetables growing

I've been struggling a bit finding time for all sorts of things. I surprised myself a bit with at some point reserving some time for planting vegetable seeds. Fairly soon, some seedlings started to appear. I had planted beans, beetroot and kale. Quite quickly, small bean plants appeared. And tiny, tiny beetroot seedlings. The kale was largely unresponsive.

The idea is that they will move to the garden. I have a whole vegetable bed ready (well, in theory) for them, and for potatoes. I figured they needed to get a bit bigger and stronger before I could put them there. But they would need something more substantial than the little tray they were in to grow big enough to be able to survive outside.

In the early May bank holiday weekend I found some more time. I took all the bean and beetroot seedlings and gave them individual little flower pots. I hope they will cope with that. And that they will grow big enough to go into the garden. And I hope for nice crop! 

Beans

I have never grown beans before, but I suspect it is not fundamentally different from peas. With those I have had modest success in the past. And I have had a tiny little bit of success with beetroot before. And quite some with potatoes. I don't know how this year will turn out, but so far it is actually going quite well!

Pizza with old bike mate

In my 20s I liked bike packing. The most spectacular trip I did was spending a month biking through Romania, with my boyfriend at the time, making sure we got a good view on the 1999 solar eclipse. In 2001 I wanted to go too, but I didn't have a boyfriend to go with me. In the Netherlands, however, there are ways of advertising yourself as someone who seeks bicycle company. And I found three men to go with me to Slovakia. We had a great time! 

This week I suddenly got a message from one of the three: Ronald. He happened to be in North Wales! Was I around? I was! 

He was on holiday with his 13-year-old daughter. They had come from the Lake District, and after Wales they would head back home. And we decided to have dinner together on the Friday. They came to my place, and after a drink in the garden we went to the pizza place by the cheese shop. We took the pizzas back and ate them while catching up.

A lot had happened since we were biking through Slovakia! The fact that he had a 13-year-old daughter illustrates that well. He didn't have contact with Eling anymore, the bike companion who lived quite far away, but he still sometimes saw Simon, the other one, who actually lived quite close to him. He sent him a text to say that he would never guess where he was. And then sent a picture. Simon found it quite funny, and said that he actually had been entertaining the thought of travelling through the UK himself; maybe he’ll be appearing on my doorstep one day as well! 

Pic from our Slovakia trip: me, Simon, and Ronald. Eling must have taken it.

TNH on Hoka’s: up the incline

It’s not unusual for the Thursday Night Hill to end up in Dinorwic Quarry. We often start in Llanberis, and given that we are hill training, you can then choose between the hills on the southwestern or northeastern side of the valley. If you choose the latter, you almost inevitably end up in the quarry. And there is plenty of vertical to increase your fitness on. A lot of that is in the form of inclines.

The place is riddled with them. But there is one special one. I am convinced it is by quite some margin the biggest. And it has been repurposed by the power station situated in the quarry now. There is some electrical infrastructure that runs all the way down. I have never run on it. I had never even walked on it.

This week there was another demonstration event, so that meant we were again starting in llanberis. The demonstration was for Hoka Speedgoat 7. It made me feel an old-timer! I remembered the promo event for the Speedgoat 6. 

I got to the shop and got my pair of shoes. They were comfortable! And it was busy. It took a while before we left. And from the shop we headed for the zigzags. At some point we turned right to go a bit deeper into the quarry and went up some inclines. Then Dyfed, who organises all of it, shouted to the front they should wait. 

We waited, as we regularly do, because we don't all run at the same speed, but then we went off to the left. To the big incline! I got my camera out.

Getting onto the incline

Most of it is fine for running on. But at some point it changes steepness, and there most decided to walk. And in places, the original incline probably had wooden bridges, which are not there anymore, and then you have to go around, over beautiful slate steps.

The incline changes angle

Up some slate steps

Lovely views

I really enjoyed it! And then we headed for the view point on a spoil heap, and then for the little road out of the quarry. I was glad, as I know that there was a stream there, and I had only a rather small amount of water with me. I was getting thirsty!

From there we went back to Llanberis over public footpaths. And back in the shop there were the usual drinks, nibbles and a raffle. It was a nice night! And the first time in all these years I was on the big incline…

Not even May and already no water

I don’t think I have been saying that much about the weather! It has been gorgeous here. Quite windy, but sunny all day. For quite a stretch. 

I don’t think you could already tell from my tan, but you could surely tell from my water butt. It was only April but I effectively emptied it! I regularly flush the toilet with rain water, and I also have been watering the grass seed I spread. (That seed was a bit old, though; it might not germinate…) And with all that going on, the water level dropped lower and lower until it reached the level of the tapping point. 

I think I only emptied it only once before! And that was in the middle of summer. Last year it got quite empty too, but only by late May. 

In the night from April 30 to May 1st, of course it rained. Not enough to fill the water butt again, but I think the weather wanted to make a point that this was an April thing. Rare! But I have enjoyed commuting in T-shirt and shorts. And not freezing my bum off on track or hill. Not many al fresco meals yet, but that might change! 

Ad hoc bridge closure

When I biked home on the first day of the dissertation presentations, I was surprised to see the bridge closed to cars on the Anglesey side. What was going on? I hadn’t heard anything. It had been fully open for a while since the last period of faff. And I could cross, so it didn't affect me very much, but I wanted to know what was going on. And there was no traffic coming from the other side, so it seemed closed entirely.

On the other side, there was a bloke in high viz, patrolling. He was possibly there to tell angry drivers why they couldn't cross. I asked him what was going on. He said that in spite of the clear sign saying that vehicles over 7.5 tons should use the other bridge, a heavy vehicle had crossed. And that apparently meant that they had to check whether there had been any damage to the bolts holding the bridge together. And as long as this check was going on, no car was going to cross!

None shall pass! Pic taken with cones of hi viz man. 

I had not come across this before, but I assume it is standard. There are cameras on both sides of the bridge. There is nothing stopping you driving a heavy vehicle onto the bridge, but there is also nothing stopping the authorities from knowing that you are doing it. I assume a hefty fine is in order. But also, inconvenience for other traffic users. I think it could be a while before this bridge becomes straightforward again!

The actual dissertation presentations

After a tiring day I got up to have another one. This one would be tiring in a different way. The first day of the dissertation presentations! I would have to be in the office quite early. They started at 9 am, and I hadn't been able to put all the paperwork in the rooms, as several of them had been in use for an open day over the weekend. So I needed to sort that out. And make sure the door of the building would open automatically. And see if there was anything wrong.

Putting the paperwork in the rooms (and putting the room numbers on the doors) went fine. And while doing that, I bumped into one of the technicians who sorted out the front door for me. But then the first problem arrived! There was a technical problem in one of the rooms. The staff member in that room managed to circumvent it by using her laptop, but that wasn't ideal. So I got on the phone to the main campus. And they would send a technician. 

Room number! 

There was another problem; one of the staff mailed that he was ill, and couldn't come. Could someone step in? Luckily, one of my other colleagues immediately realised that there was one session with three members of staff, so we could transplant one of them. That went well! 

I also had to finish putting all the student presentations in dedicated session folders, and finalising the abstract booklets for the next day. And I obviously had quite a lot of student enquiries to answer! And when I figured the morning sessions might finished, I collected all the leftover paperwork, and put in paperwork for the afternoon instead. And then I had lunch. And by the time I had eaten it, main campus had sorted the technical problem. Great!

That afternoon I had my own session. It wasn't a long one! I had a rather high percentage of students who didn't present. And when it was done, I agreed marks with Martyn, with whom I had shared the session. And then I did another round of sweeping the rooms and getting them ready for the next session, the next morning.

Then I could go home. Unsurprisingly, I was a bit late arriving in Welsh class. But so be it.

The next morning I was back in post. And again, there was a problem! I had accidentally put two students in a session where they didn't belong. Luckily, I had also put them in the session where they did. I'm sure they never even looked at the documentation of the other session. Why would they? So they never panicked about being listed as a speaker in two different sessions. So that was easily solved. Otherwise all went well!

Around lunchtime, I did my usual round of collecting paperwork left over from the morning from the rooms, and putting the afternoon papers in. At the end of the day I could just sweep all the rooms, and take the numbers down. And I managed to put my grades and feedback where it belonged.

My next task was to find out which students had actually presented. With the presentations, it is not so easy to see if a student has done the assignment. Uploading your slides is one thing, but presenting is another! So I had to email all the staff to tell me who hadn't shown up. And then I had to make sure I sorted a mop up session for these students. And somehow get the staff to provide grades and feedback for all the students who had shown up. That can be a bit of a job!

Before all this will have died down, the actual dissertation will have hit. But that will be another post!