Life at Waen: village life and the open garden

My blogs are getting further apart .. summer is so busy not only are we on what my friend just described as 'peak season' for visitors, but then I have slowly started to get into village life which is great fun.. so far I have joined the W.I and gardening club, the first meeting of the W.I. I went to was hysterical .. we had a talk on podiatry the lady was really engaging but my stomach struggled when an ingrown toe-nail was passed around in a sample pot.. YUCK.. so my warning to all is cut your toe nails carefully!! The talk was followed up with cake and strawberries.. as anyone who knows me will know, even having previously been retching at the sight of the toe nail of what I can only assume was a werewolf, I was not put off the cake.. YUM!

The second meeting was a visit to Gregynog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregynog_Hall) which was once owned by the same family who owned the estate within which we live and the manor house in our village so the talk was really interesting. In between meetings it has been my month to help with the village garden.. we do this in pairs and I have had fun doing it (much easier than my own garden for sure)

The gardening club is great too .. I have only been to one meeting where a chap was selling plants and giving talks on each one of them.. I struggled to get my haul of beautiful and very cheap plants over to the car but really enjoyed hearing all about them from their expert grower. At this meeting there was a piece of paper being circulated for people who wanted to open their garden fr the garden open day.. I really wasn't up for it at first but bowed to what I am calling peer pressure and said yes!!! EEK.. so that left 3 weeks to get it all sorted before the big day.. one day last week I gardened from 10:00 until 22:30 as part of my prep. It was a really fun afternoon I got to see parts of the village I didn't even know existed and saw some lovely gardens and seemingly, even though I was very nervous, everyone enjoyed seeing mine too. When I left to set off I asked Mr W if he could please sweep around just before they came to ensure any chicken messing of my garden was disguised but in true Mr W style and encouraged, I believe, by his big son and small son, I came back with our guests to find the Waen Bar fully stocked, Mexican music playing and himself wearing a bloody sombrero.. I ask you! Mind you I couldn't complain.. those 3 men had worked magic.. and big son even cleaned the windows ( he has always been my favourite) .. it was a great day and I loved feeling part of the community!!

Mr W's big son has bought us loads of bar paraphernalia, optics, a drip tray and bar mats.. hysterical.. so we are now embracing the cheesy bar :-)

Apart from gardening I have been making loads of things too for our christmas hampers.. can't tell you too much its a surprise but I have certainly put our pea pods to use.. we have pea pod wine brewing as we speak.. the elderflower wine has stopped fermenting but I have mixed a concoction that apparently will kick start it.. phew complicated stuff. The pea-pod wine is CRAZY.. it fermented out of the demi-john and everywhere .. should be fairly potent then!!

I also make a cake for, Em, the partner of Mr W's big son.. for her special birthday.. she collects penguin classics so what to make the cake like was a no brainer.. it was fun to make and thankfully went down well. Its been a busy but fun few weeks :-)

The ducklings are still 7 in number and growing quite big now.. they totter up to the garage for food which is cute today dad was teaching them to wash.. it was like duck school.. too too cute!

AND THE BIG NEWS.. At last it has rained!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the well is full, the garden looks less like a desert and the pond is full again.. WHOOP!!! And as anyone knows, in Wales, when it rains .. it seriously rains!

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