I started doing this diary in June. If you haven't been following have a look at the Cast of Characters which gives a quick low down on the essential day to day characters who are mentioned here...it will make more sense if you do.

Well, I did at least go to sleep last night, albeit rather late but the morning rush hour began only a few hours later and seemed to go on and on. I kept thinking it would stop and I could maybe go back to sleep but eventually I gave up on that idea. In the meantime I had decided that I was going to sleep in the barn tonight. Seriously, I thought it would be fine, Loey slept in there for long enough and it would be quiet. I felt better after that.

We set of at a reasonable time for the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth with a small stopoff in Aberystwyth to see if the DIY shop had laminated flooring. They didn't. We got there in time for lunch and then spent several hours going round the site. My favourite place is the compost exhibit. It's fantastic, all the different combinations of materials, all sorts of compost bins, some commercial, some that you can make yourself, stacks of tyres... I could go on all day about compost. I had a serious book-buying spree in the shop and when I got it all home I realised I had a tipsheet, a pamphlet and a book about composting alone. If you do take a look at their website (which is ok, but doesn't do the place justice) check out the books because there are some really unusual publications which you might not find anywhere else. For instance, I doubt you would find Gwydion's Planting Guide - The Definitive Moon-Planting Manual at Amazon (not that I've bothered to check - its late I should have been in bed hours ago).

After the centre closed we drove down the coast road to Aberaeron and saw the spectacle of red fireball sun setting over the sea with it's great long red tail reflection across the water. The weather has been completely delightful for several days now and everything just looks so much lovlier when the sun is shining. After a walk along the beach while we saw the last of the sun die away we had some dinner in a pub and came home. I was looking through all the books and other gardening goodies which I had bought for hours and after Mary went off to bed I took them through to show Irene and Lorna and we all got inspired about the garden and sat up talking far too late. I can't wait to get the compost heaps established, we've got all sorts of good ingredients here, half rotted hay, horse shit, grass cuttings (when we get round to cutting the grass), kitchen waste, cardboard.... all sorts of good stuff. Now we just need a load of palletts to build bins with and we can have top quality compost by the spring.

Oh, and I don't have to sleep in the barn tonight. Irene was intending to sleep in the house tonight anyway and so I can sleep in the caravan. Also the barn is apparently a lot dustier than I had realised and the mattress I thought I might sleep on is used as a dog bed so that idea sounded less attractive anyway. So that's where I'm going right now.

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