Judith's blog

Geoff writes: the forecast was for nice sunny weather, but windy, not even dropping off in the evening – and so it turned out. We decided to have an active day, after doing a bit of work in the morning.

Judith was in Church Stretton at 10am, and driving back home there was one PG flying, a visiting pilot, Richard, trying to get in a flight before they returned home (having been here three days and not flown at all). Whilst he was flying, the wind picked up, so he very sensibly turned and ran, landing at Marshbrook.

We loaded up the van with paragliders (just in case the forecast was wrong), the hang glider, and the archery stuff. We started off at the Acton Scott Working Farm Museum, somewhere we’ve been planning to go for ages, not least because Tom, from the Long Mynd Archers, works there as a farrier on Thursdays. It’s a nice place, well worth a visit, with plenty to see, and it was interesting to see Tom working as a blacksmith. We spent a few hours there, whilst the wind slowly continued to increase, but the sky was a really good XC sky. Since we thought it would stay windy into the evening, and I wasn’t fussed about an XC on the hang glider, we decided to go to archery – it’s usually a bit quieter in the day, and we can get more shooting in. Unfortunately, there were some people today who were incredibly slow retrieving their arrows (more chatting than walking!), and we can’t shoot whilst people are walking up the field for their arrows. So eventually, we got a bit frustrated, and the wind seemed to be dropping a bit anyway, so we packed up and went to fly.

As we arrived at launch at the Long Mynd it seemed relatively light, and we did consider gettitng the PGs out, but it soon started picking up again, so we rigged the hang glider, and I flew for 40 minutes or so, very pleasant, then landed. The wind was still increasing, and it was quite strong as we left, with wave bars forming to the west. No other PGs – apart from a speed wing – had flown since the one this morning, though some HGs had been around most of the day, and it was certainly flyable all day for them.

So a fun day, and just possibly, depending on which forecast you want to believe, it might be flyable for PGs tomorrow at the Long Mynd.

See photos of today.

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We decided to check out the hill that the lovely farmer in Meifod offered the club two weeks ago, when I landed there after going XC from Clatter. He had described the hill as clear of trees and at the time I thought it was one of the ridges above the village. He had told me just to ask for him in the post office, but predictably, there’s quite a lot of people called Hughes in the village, with it being in Wales and all. I had to describe to the post master all the details I could remember about the farmer (age, marital status, cohabiting arrangements, his status in the NFU, etc.) and eventually we managed to identify the correct Hughes.

Once we got up the road to his farm, it turned out it was in a kind of hanging valley, with probable rotor, and it faced NW, which we already have plenty of sites for. Additionally, the bottom of the hill is clear of trees, but the top is littered with them. We didn’t actually get to meet Mr. Hughes again, but unfortunately his hill isn’t suitable, which is a real shame, since he was so nice and it’s rare that landowners queue up to offer their land for flying!

The rest of the day was spent with work and although we were going to go out to archery, the forecast rain put us off. It came late, but when it did at 5pm, boy, did it rain.

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Geoff writes: big showers during the day, so we didn’t bother going flying, though apparently it was flyable at the Malverns, according to Steve Dean. But not much of a day – just a few small XCs from the Pennines. So, again, we did a few jobs, bought a new car, and waited in for Judith’s parents to arrive en-route from Spain to Ireland.

We’ve replaced the Kangoo 4×4 van with the car version, partly because that will use less fuel, but also because we’re tired of getting penalised because we have a van – the insurance costs far more; typically we pay three times as much for a ferry crossing; etc. There are other reasons too, like it will be nice to have seats in the back, and a new car, but it is just stupid that exactly the same vehicle, because it has no windows in in rear, costs us significantly more in insurance, ferry crossings, etc. Just another scam….

Judith’s parents arrived early afternoon; later Judith and her mother went for a walk along the Mynd, then we all met up in the Crown for a few drinks, then back home for food (and more drinks, the forecast was bad for Thursday). I took some time explaining to Liz why the end of the world was coming soon. Hope I didn’t depress her too much.

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Geoff writes: a flyable day, apparently, but we decided to stay in and catch up on some jobs, the main one of which was editing and uploading the latest podcast (see the post below this). The weather was actually better than we expected, no rain, occasional sun, but it was nice to have a rest – especially from Corndon – and do some stuff.

And tonight we go to music night at the Horseshoe Inn.

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When we went out on Monday night to music night, we took the newly taxed Corsa and on putting the heating on were hit by this disgusting smell – like burning, rotten fur. On the way home we had both windows open, despite the cold, it was so bad. When we got home Tuesday evening, we decided to clear out whatever had died in there. Once we opened the bonnet, we could see where they had nested, a nice cavity near the air intake for the heater. Luckily the inhabitants (rats we think) had gone, but half a bucketful of leaves, old snail shells and faeces remained. After we had cleaned it, Geoff decided to wait with his dinner, he was feeling a bit queasy. I felt really off. I started to have trouble breathing while eating. Next thing, I really couldn’t breathe, my throat was constricting, my face and hands were tingling and losing sensation. A mild version of anaphylactic shock. It subsided after a while, but I had a terrible night. Chest pains and painful coughing fits followed.

So when I woke up this morning I decided to go to the doctor. He examined me and confirmed that all my airways had swollen and were producing protective mucus, so really like having a chest infection but without any of the cold symptoms. So I was a bit ill today. I spent a lot of time with my head under a towel over a steaming bowl of Olbas oil to try to ease my breathing and the pain while coughing. The rest of the time I managed to sit at the computer and do the LMSC newsletter and do a husky voiced recording of two podcasts with Dave Thomas. Just need some bad weather to get them edited and uploaded.

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Back home in the Limes. We spent the day unpacking boxes and getting our home back together and then did the usual homecoming things… favourite UK meal, pasta amatriciana and beer in the Three Tuns with Wayne, Andrew, John and Rich.

Twitter feed:

Now we are back in the UK, we have restarted the Twitter feed. This will give information about current flying conditions on our local sites (if we are out) and live updates on any competitions Judith is involved in, including the Women’s Open in Ager in August, the British Nationals in Slovenia and France and any comps taking place on Mynd sites. The feed appears in the right hand column, or you can follow it at http://twitter.com/judithmole

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It was all a bit messed up today. It was supposed to start cloudy, but it was brilliant sunshine this morning. It was supposed to be windy, but that had come and gone in the night. There was so much roaring going on outside I woke up and decided the washing on the roof terrace had to come in before it was distributed all over La Garrotxa. Johnny was keen to see if it would be possible to fly Sant Pere de Rodes and not being very keen on house work, we agreed. The promised cloud was arriving as we drove out and a quick phone call to Johnny confirmed that it was still too windy to fly, so we did a u-turn and headed for Besalú.

We went straight to the tourist information and purchased our tickets for the tour of the Jewish baths. We have been trying and failing to go on this tour for years. We got close in December, but were foiled on that occasion. Today, tickets in hand, we waited for the guide, but once she and everyone else arrived, we were disappointed to find out that the talk was in Catalan, rather than Spanish, as promised. I can manage day-to-day in Catalan, but am not fluent enough to listen to a historical/archeological talk and neither is Geoff. So we handed our tickets back and will try again next winter. We should have a new category – trying, and failing, to see the Besalú baths!

Instead we lounged about in the sun until it clouded over completely. Unfortunately, Meteocat had failed to forecast the over-development and it rained off and on from 3.30pm. And the other things that went wrong today are that the wind knocked the satellite dish out and we have a major water leak/flooding in our garden in the UK. All part of life’s rich fabric…

Geoff writes: if anyone is thinking of getting a water meter, don’t! If you have a water meter, you pay for the leaks (after the first one). If you don’t have a water meter, you don’t pay.

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