Simple solution to music problem

I had been pondering for years what I would do with music. It used to be so easy; you would just have a stereo set that you used for listening to the radio or playing CDs. But then my CD player packed up. I put my DVD player in its place; these can play CDs as well. But the problem is that you can only program them if you have a screen attached to them. So you basically have to play your CDs from start to finish. That is a bit of a bummer! And I would have just bought another one, there is not for that MP3s became the go-to place for music. I had an iPod! And I had an iTunes library. And a Spotify account. I was all going with the flow. But I suppose you need to keep on top of the technology. The iPod became small, my iTunes library seems to have vanished, I couldn't get Spotify to work on either my work computer or the one at home. And at some point I tried to use a phone as an iPod, but that wasn't much of a success. So altogether I had drifted away from music. All my radios are tuned to radio 4, which is talk radio. I will sometimes listen to radio 6 if I don't like what is on radio 4. But I only rarely listen to music where it is me who decides what music that is. But that is a bit of a pity; I have lots of CDs and some of them are really good.

When I was in Bangor anyway I went to the big supermarket, and I was wandering around a bit. And then I saw they sold what they called boomboxes. Just radios with a CD player built in. Could be that simple? You can even plug something along the lines of an iPod or a phone in and play stuff from that. So I bought one. Now I have a simple and fairly small device in my living room on which I can play my CDs again. That will keep me ticking over until I properly arrive in this century! Sooner or later I think that'll happen, but I am not in a hurry…

More physiotherapy

The day came I would see my current physiotherapist! The previous one had vanished into the Covid ward right after having seen me. This one I had had on the phone twice. But now I would see her! I looked forward to that. I do think there is added value in a physiotherapist actually seeing you and being able to physically check things.

She asked me to resist her trying to push my hand up, down, and sideways. Nothing hurt! I wasn't surprised, as heavy work doesn't hurt me anymore. It is only the computer that does that. I have been pulling big things out of the garden, and lugging heavy things around, and sawing through trunks and it's all good. But when I improved to such an extent that I wasn't in constant pain any more and I started using the mouse to get my cursor in position. It can be a right pain to do that by voice. And it's so tempting to let your hands help a bit! But soon I did it too much and ended up in 24 hour pain again. I had to physically remove my mouse to remove the temptation. And that helped! I was soon back to no pain whatsoever. And it is good that clearly, I have no problems as long as I work my computer by voice, but it is not so good that I clearly am barely making progress in ever being able to go back to using my mouse and graphic tablet.

The physiotherapist was a bit surprised about that. It seems that it is more common to either struggle with both types of doing things with your hands, or with neither. Just the fine motoric skills being a problem seems to be odd! But she did think I would recover altogether. That is a relief! But it could be a while.

She checked my back too, as she wasn't sure there might be a hidden problem in my back, neck and/or shoulders. But she thought all was well there.

She just gave me an additional exercise and sent me on my way. I will see her again towards the end of the month. I hope things will have improved by then! This is dragging on…

The new exercise

Last big walk before the weather turns

 I had plenty to do other than scamper around in the mountains, but the weather was gorgeous and the hills were still quiet due to travel ban from England. It seemed stupid to not take advantage of that situation! Easter Sunday was predicted to be still lovely, with rain and clouds arriving on Easter Monday. So I checked if one of the Kates would be up for a walk in the Llanberis area. This would be the time! And one was.

I wanted to walk Cwm Dudodyn. I had never been! And there was a right of way on the map. And that right of way looked like it wasn't a path, but I had seen a bridge over the river so I know there was at least something going in the right direction. And then I figured I could walk down y Garn. There is no path there, but it didn't look like difficult terrain at all.

I met Kate by Llyn Peris. Most of the layby had been blocked off, but there were still plenty of space for two cars. And we set off! We found the bridge I had seen from above, but then found that the actual path doesn't go to the top of the valley, but instead to the top of Elidir Fawr. Oh well! That was okay too. You had a lovely view over the valley from it.

At the top we had lunch. The view was amazing! We saw the whole range ahead of us. Tryfan was a little blobbie in the distance. And after lunch we headed for y Garn. We had another drink there, while the clouds were rolling in. Kate suggested we don't go down right there, but instead move on to Devil's kitchen and take the public footpath down there. That was okay with me! I hadn't been there in ages. And the clouds disappeared quite soon again.

When we got back to the road I thought the scenic part of the walk was over, but I had disregarded a little public footpath that led back to our layby. It was gorgeous, and led straight underneath the local slate quarry. I haven't explored that one yet! That's still on the to-do list.

I was keen to get off my feet by the time we got back to the cars, but it had been a great day. I was really chuffed I had used it for what it was extraordinarily suited for! The next day, office chores would call again, but that is never a big issue if you can still feel the mountains of the day before in your body…

The bottom of Cwm Dudodyn

Top of the valley

Coffee break. Picture by Kate

Lunch view

View from y Garn

On the way down

Down by the river

Continuing the social engagements

 With visits in gardens allowed again I thought I'd invite my friends on the hill! The previous time meeting up in a garden became legal they soon appeared for a down jacket-infused garden dinner. But this time Martin suggested I come up to theirs instead; his wife Fran had health issues that left her less mobile than otherwise. So I did! I had never been in their garden. I always show up in winter!

The weather was gorgeous, and as I expected, their view was amazing. So we had a lovely time drinking tea in the sun! And it was a complete bummer that Fran was not in the best of health, but that's just the way it is. I hope she gets better soon.

It was nice to see the interconnectivity of Ocean sciences in their garden too. Martin showed me the inside of his shed, which had vertical bike parking which he said was inspired on the bike rack in my office. And I saw he had some rhubarb growing; that was the rhubarb Suzie had given him when we had been socialising in her garden the previous year. I have some as well, and mine is doing great too! And he had also heard about Juan moving back into the area. They both have a thing for snazzy bikes, so I can imagine some two-wheeled socialising will take place soon. It looks a bit like a network is growing here in the greater Bethesda area!

Spreading order in the upper garden

When I bought the house, the garden was in a bit of state of neglect. And I had started my efforts in fighting back the chaos in the lower part of the garden. If it is nice weather and I hang out in the garden it is always down there. It gets the sun, it is beautiful, and it has the view over the river. And I made good progress! So much so that over lockdown I had even started on the garden upstairs. I had ripped out lots of weeds, and started one slightly raised bed for growing edible plants, and another one for decorative plants. And that was the site of the garden on the river side mostly sorted. But then there was the road side as well! And that was still quite a jungle. There was a huge rosemary growing there, and some willow had seen its chance and colonised a raised bed, and there were a lot of brambles. It was time to attack this.

I started with the willow. I dug that out. I have no problem with willows, but this was not the place for one. I already have a big one in the garden downstairs. And in order to get a good grip on the willow I needed to remove some thorny vegetation around it. So shortly after the willow was pulled out, I had also removed a lot of brambles, and two rose bushes. And I decided to keep at it!

I kept chopping and pulling until I had removed all the brambles in that corner. To my surprise, there turned out to be a rhododendron living underneath! I'm sure it's glad it now doesn't have to compete so heavily for sunlight. I also cut down a buddleia. These things go rogue all the time! I had already murdered one that was trying to suffocate my apple tree, and another one who tried to block my view from the conservatory. Now this one needed to be stopped from suffocating my rosemary bush.

When I had removed all that and removed all the waste that produced, I had a very, very empty upper garden. It would be a while before it would look cosy! I would have to think of ways of achieving this. I want something to cover the fence. Maybe I will transplant some ivy. I want to paint the fence first, though. Then the raised bed can be used for edible plants, but I might wait a week putting anything in there, as frost is still predicted. 

I also have a bay tree in a pot standing next to the bathroom. I think that needs to move. Maybe it can join the rhododendron in that corner. And I will have to go to the garden centre for some additional plants. I hope I can make this part of the garden look nice as well!

The work is just getting started

The removal stage is complete

More social contact, more!

I was on a roll. I kicked off my Easter break with a lovely walk up yr Aran with Kate, and had then gone into Dinorwic with Miles. Does that mean I had had enough social contact for a week? No! I was having a whale of a time and was not done yet. Next on my list were the newlyweds whose wedding I had attended 1 1/2 year earlier. I knew them because the groom, Juan, had been my officemate. They had moved back into the area over the last lockdown period. It was time to catch up! I had already heard a bit about them from my friend Dani who turned out to be their neighbour, and I had bumped into Caro on one of my runs. But now I would meet them on purpose. The idea was to have some tea in their garden, and then go for a walk with Caro.

They live on a funny street with the houses not parallel to it, but in rows of right angles. And the rows have numbers, and the houses within the rows have numbers too. Of course I went to row X house Y when I should have gone to row Y house X, but that was easily remediated. Caro put the kettle on and Juan showed me the garden. And Dani was gardening next door.

We had a nice cup of tea, and filled in the time since we lost saw each other. A lot had happened! Not least that they not only expected a child (I knew that) but had already decided on things such as what its name would be and what languages it would be raised in. And where they worked.

After tea I whisked Caro away and took her to Mynydd Llandygai, to walk around in the empty land below the dam of the reservoir. It was gorgeous weather! And I didn't know Caro very well so we had a lot to explore.

We walked until it pretty much was dinnertime. I think we'll do that again! And I know that her life is about to change dramatically, but I'm sure we'll get another walk in before it gets there…

Above-ground encounter

 Since it had been allowed again to do things with friends other than exercise I been contacting lots of people, and been contacted in turn too. And I was excited about it! I hadn't really suffered from not being allowed to see people socially for a while, but now it was allowed again I noticed I was really enjoying it. And the next rendez-vous after the yr Aran trip was a bit of a surprise; it was Miles, who I hadn't seen in more than a year. I had seen quite some friends in the periods when that was allowed, so for instance when I was walking with Kate that wasn't the first time in a particularly long time I had seen her. I suppose this was the first time he and I just met up as normal friends. We knew each other from the dig, and had spent years regularly seeing each other underground, lugging rocks and doing upside down contorted drilling and all sorts of weird things. We had been a good team! But the dig had slowed down a bit because Miles was very busy with other things, and since the pandemic, of course, there had been absolutely no question of crawling around in narrow damp spaces. But now we would just go for a wander in Dinorwic quarry. That was quite something different!

I was a little bit early so I decided to have a look at one of the beautiful ruins in the shadow of the spoil heaps. Imagine doing place like that up and renting it out as a B&B! But I heard a heavy car engine so I got back to the parking lot. And then we met again, after so much time. It was good to see him.

We decided to go up on the zigzag, and explored some of the terraces. We also sat down for some coffee. And we had quite a lot to catch up on. Life had changed a bit since the last time! And a sunny Dinorwic was a good place for doing that. There's always something new to see. At some point I suggested that we scramble up to a higher level, and to my surprise Miles clambered to the top, had a look, and suggested we abort the mission. I was not used to him being so sensible! Normally he seems to be never happier than when teetering on an unstable scree slope. But I looked myself and agreed that we really should just go back the way we had come, and take a more moderate road up. Lockdown has affected people differently, but I hadn't expected it to have given him a more conventional sense of risk. Less unexpectedly he had also gone greyer, but I suppose the same holds for me. And he also could not keep up with me on uphill bits! That is new too. I clearly remember clambering out of the dig, and almost being overtaken by him even though he was carrying half the world in his bag.

Miles turned out not to have been to the surge pool at the top. That surprised me. But that was easily remediated! And from there we saw the beautifully wide incline a bit lower down. He hadn't seen that either. So I showed him. And there is so much to see there! All the buildings and the technology and whatnot. And we went all the way to the eastern end of the spoil tips. The views were amazing, and I concocted a plan for a later walk. And then we made our way back. I couldn't quite remember on which level you can traverse back to the other side, so we just went with trial and error. And got there in the end. When we said goodbye again we agreed we would do this (or something like this) again!