August antics at Ty Derw

As the Welsh summer rolls on here at Ty Derw it’s time for an update on all things B&B.

 

 

First and most importantly we are absolutely thrilled to welcome another grandchild to the family. This is our beautiful Oliver, we are completely besotted ❤️.

 

We started the month by doing a bit of a good deed. A neighbour of ours called to say that they had seen a buzzard struggling to get through a fence near their house on the other side of the valley. Armed with a net and glove we went to try to find it which we did after a bit of a hunt and a fair few bites and stings. We think that it is a young bird that had fledged too early and was hungry and dehydrated (this was in a very hot spell earlier in the month) so we gave it food and water and kept it in a secure aviary where it soon perked up and didn’t seem to be injured. Beauty (as we named it) didn’t seem to have any fear of humans or Harry, most unusual in a wild bird! Our good friend Barry (who is a wildlife expert) took Beauty  home and after a few weeks of food and rest he released the bird back in to the wild. The released bird has been seen flying around with other buzzards which is a good sign. It was such a privilege to see this fabulous creature up close.

 

We had a wild storm predicted so we headed down to the harbour in Aberystwyth for a photo opportunity. Quite unusual to have a storm like this in the middle of summer, thankfully the weather has been a lot friendlier since this.

 

It was the Dinas Mawddwy show over the bank holiday weekend. We decided to enter a scarecrow into the competition this year as well as some photographs (Jason) and some cookery (Gill). The theme for the scarecrows this year was TV and film so Jason worked hard on a life-sized Sherlock Holmes, complete with magnifying glass and deer stalker. Transporting Sherlock to the show was interesting….he just about made it in one piece on the back of the truck although we thought we may have been looking at a case of ‘Sherlock Holmes and his missing paper mâché head’ for a while there! We were very happy to get second prize for Sherlock and a first for Jason’s photographs and a first for Gill’s Bakewell tart. Look out for us next year 😁.

We very very lucky to have a visit from famous landscape artist Alan Cotton and his lovely wife Patricia recently. It was very interesting to hear about his exciting career and travels. We really enjoyed looking at his work, what a talent!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve been having a look at our use of single use plastics here at the B and B and have made a few changes. We now have jars with tea bags, instant coffee and biscuits instead of sachets and small packets in the rooms. We also have a fridge in the dining room now where we put small bottles of fresh milk for guests to use. We have started using stretchy reusable covers for storing food in the fridge instead of cling film, along with beeswax wraps. We will continue to try to do our bit!

As we head into the autumn we are looking forward to welcoming new and returning guests as well as having a few days off to visit family.

Thanks to all of our summer guests that have chosen to stay with us.

Best wishes all

Gill and Jason