Sunday 11 July 2010

Computer out of action, Kiwi Luggage Turns Up, Aberystwyth Bookbinder

No picture today as I'm having to use Younger Son's laptop thanks to a power cut the other day which then resulted in a power surge which cooked some vital internal organ on my computer. It is being fixed but that takes time of course, meanwhile YS kindly allows me to use his laptop which is great as it means I can sit in the kitchen and supervise various culinary activities whilst writing the blog.

Our New Zealand visitor is settling in I think, though she is still getting over jet-lag, the seasonal difference and the shock of finding her luggage had remained in the Antipodes. The good news on that front is that it has at last arrived having been brought to the farm by courier on Friday.
Since she has been here, it has hardly stopped raining and she finds that it is strange to have warm rain....when it rains on Canterbury Plain it is always freezing cold apparently.

On Wednesday the Farmer & I went up to Aberystwyth to visit a book-binder. We found the bindery down a short alleyway in a tiny little hidden courtyard in the middle of Aber. where it shared signs for a bookmaker...bookbinder & bookmaker in the same place, all very confusing and rather Dickensian! However, we found the right doorway and met a delightful & enthusiastic man who has agreed to give new life to a very large atlas that has been in the Farmer's family since it was published at the beginning of Victoria's reign. It is marvellous book with maps of not just all the known world, but street plans of all the major cities in Europe and also beautiful drawings of the important buildings in each city. We use the volume a lot and it has just fallen apart but deserves to have a bit of tlc.
After leaving the bookbinder, we went into Aberystwyth museum for shelter from the torrential downpour that hit the town. The Farmer wanted to look at the construction of some old chairs that are there. The museum is housed in what had been a Victorian theatre and many of the exhibits are displayed around a gallery overlooking the main part of the theatre where the stalls would have been. Once we had seen what we needed to see, we went back to the car via an ice-cream stall, still in the pouring rain, and sat like a couple of oldies watching the sea through a streaming windscreen eating cones of delicious ice-cream...all terribly British.

The Farmer and the boys are waiting for the weather to improve so that they can have a few days of dry weather in order to get some more grass cut. Whether they will get it this week is anybody's guess, although we have a lovely day today it has now clouded over and we have lowering grey clouds building up into a dramatic & threatening skyscape and it looks as though we will getting wet evening.

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