All Clear.

The weather has been fine today with even more sun in the afternoon. Driving to the stables this morning there were patches of valley fog gathered in the valleys and above the rivers. They all looked very romantic with hazy outlines of the trees showing through but were not so pleasant when you had to drive into them. 

I woke before the alarm went off this morning and had enough time to sit out on the terrace watching the sky lighten and the world wake up.

I had my lovely Tex again to ride in the lesson. Katie (the instructor) knows how much I like him. He had a serious case of 'bed hair' going on with his mane. His tail and fetlocks were in a state too but it is so much better for the horses to live out in the fields rather than be cooped up in individual stables. I gave his mane a quick brushing before tacking up but really I would need a lot longer to make it look better. At least I could see his shoulders in trot to check I was on the correct diagonal though I spent most of the lesson riding without stirrups in sitting trot. Not too hard to do on comfy Tex.

Afterwards I did my usual round of the shops. The roadworks finished yesterday and the roads were clear. In fact there seemed to be less traffic than usual which was a bonus.

At Morrisons there was a rack of reduced price house plants which had suffered from being left in the cold overnight. I picked out the best of the Peace lilies  for £1.50 (was £8) and a Dracaena for £1.20 (was £10). They should perk up in the porch. 

Then I called in at Charlie's and bought a silver wreath (it's very sparkly in real life) which had also been reduced. I do have one of those door hangers that goes over the top of the door but I suspect it is up in the loft in the overflow Christmas decoration boxes. For the moment the wreath is hanging from the wall light.

Once we'd put away the shopping and my riding kit was in the washing machine I relaxed with tea, tv and the sea view.

On Schedule.

Despite the pink morning sky we've had a dry and quite sunny day.

Because I dislike doing things at the last moment as that can easily become too late I try my best to be organised. With a number of deadlines including posting dates, I found it best to draw up a calendar for the weeks running up to Christmas and write down all the things that needed to be done. 

So far I'm on schedule which is a relief. First thing this morning I drove to the Post Office and sent off two parcels which included the boots which sadly were too big.

The other job which I suppose didn't really have a deadline was to hand deliver cards to the people we know in our road. 

Now there is just a bit more food that can be prepared and frozen for Christmas itself and I can have a breather before I do the final shopping. I'm going to try and buy what I can tomorrow but that may be dependent on the roadworks that have caused chaos in town.

Some of the roadworks were planned and then one of the few roads into town had to be closed for the week for emergency work. With the sea on one side and hills on the other there are only a few ways into town which added to the three primary schools and two secondary schools in the immediate vicinity of the road closure led to total chaos. Children were late, workers were late and people were missing hospital appointments as the whole of town was gridlocked. 

The closed road is how I get to Morrisons so I thought I'd go round the back of town and come in from the other side tomorrow. That was before I read of people taking an hour to get down the hill on that side into town which normally takes a few minutes. They are hoping to get the road open again by tonight instead of tomorrow night but I shall have to try and get an update tomorrow. If the roads are still bad shopping will have to wait until Saturday (busy) or maybe Monday.

 

Driving down Borth High Street there was building work going on everywhere. There was a lot of scaffolding around which was up before the storm. I guess some people plan their roof repairs for the winter or perhaps they've had to wait for builders.

At our end of the village there's a row of three old cottages all leaning in every direction due to having been built on an unstable shingle bank. The middle one was the worst and was boarded up months ago. Now the builders are in and so far they've completely removed the roof and the front wall. It will be interesting to see if they rebuild or simply demolish the cottage.

The yellow house below is the village Post Office or at least one room is. No knitted topper to the post box at the moment, maybe the Christmas one is still in production.

While I was at that end of the village I had a quick 10 minute walk along the beach. 

It was nice to blow away the cobwebs before settling down to three hours of Welsh. It was a good class but I felt exhausted by the end. 

We had our last Pilates class this evening, Pilates by candlelight! The hall lights were on low and by each space was an electric tea-light in a paper bag with cut out stencils of a snowflake or Christmas tree on the sides. It all looked very atmospheric. We did some gentle Pilates and stretching and ended with quite a long relaxation session. I was right underneath one of the big gas heaters that hang from the ceiling and the heat combined with relaxation nearly sent me to sleep. Afterwards there was mulled wine or hot spiced apple drink, mince pies, Bara Brith and stollen to get us in the mood for Christmas.

'Elf and Safety.

The storm is over and today was mostly dry with more in the way of sunshine.

I drove down to the zoo wondering if the place would be completely waterlogged but it wasn't too bad. A quick check around all my usual weeding spots showed very few weeds so I thought I'd probably spend most of my time picking leaves and cones from the planted up gravel area.

But then I was asked to tidy a small flower bed near the budgies which led to several more quite urgent jobs. 

The weeding didn't take long but I noticed that the wooden edging around the flower bed was so old and rotten that it was coming apart. Should a visitor (there are visitors over the Christmas holidays) accidentally knock one of the planks over there would then be the risk of someone hurting themselves on the 4 inch long rusty nails sticking out of the plank. In the interest of 'elf and safety I removed the offending plank and created new edging from some of the old wood saved when the large play structure was dismantled. 

I had to trim the end of a hefty beam and though I was tempted to use the chop saw in the workroom it was a different model to the one we have at home. Also I didn't want to risk damaging a brand new piece of expensive equipment and found an old hand saw instead. 

Having done that my attention turned to the decking alongside the budgie aviary. It was covered with green algae which made it incredibly slippery. 'Elf and safety again! A quick swoosh with a pressure washer would have cleared the lot but there wasn't one so water and scrubbing brush it was. I cleared off all the sludge while being supervised by two ferrets behind me and then gave the decking a final scrub with bleach. That should slow down the regrowth of the algae. And for now people can look at the budgies without risking falling over.

 

When I got home I packed up some of my home made goodies in a parcel ready to post tomorrow. 

Later I'll be off to choir. Last week we began learning a Georgian song which was hard to learn but sounded great when we put all the parts together. No doubt we'll be learning the rest of it tonight.

Storm Bram.

Storm Bram has been raging all day long, churning up the waves as the strong wind brought shower after shower. We've only been on the edge of the storm but the news is full of power cuts, flooding and wind damage. Last night I'd been listening to the shipping forecast and it was the first time I recall hearing warnings of 'severe storm 11'. Not for here but for several areas of the UK  north of us.

It wasn't really a day for going to the zoo. Instead I baked yet another batch of Christmas biscuits. I used one of my tried and trusted recipes though being me I experimented with the way I combined the plain and chocolate doughs. First I layered them together, rolled and sliced them and as I wasn't too impressed with those just mixed the remaining doughs together to make marbled effect biscuits. Easier than cutting out and swapping centres as called for by the recipe which I have done in past years.

When they were all baked I melted some dark chocolate in the microwave which was surprisingly easy compared to over hot water. Some of the biscuits had chocolate drizzled over them and others were partially dipped and sprinkles added.

I didn't make Lebkuchen this year as I have a tendency to over bake them so that they end up really hard. With the dough being brown from the spices it's hard to know when the biscuits are baked.

Tempted as I was to go for a walk the frequent rain dissuaded me. Instead every now and again I stood on the terrace and watched the waves for a while.

I had wrapped up and was wave watching with a coffee in my hands when I spotted someone in the water. A woman in a bikini was up to her waist in the water happily duck diving under the waves. I didn't think that was too safe as the undertow would have been very strong and the stones may have been flung about in the water as well. I kept an eye on her until she left the water just in case.

That's the large tree trunk next to the slipway which is on the right hidden under a thick layer of stones.

No Pilates tonight as the local school is putting on its Christmas play this evening.

Another Thing Mislaid.

The southerly winds are continuing to keep the cold at bay. There were hints of blue sky in the morning but by the afternoon when the photo below was taken, everything was grey again. 

Walking down the High Street in Mach I was soaked by a sudden downpour which stopped abruptly when I headed into the first of the charity shops. It's been that sort of weather.

We had gone to Mach to meet up with our friends in the library again. As this was to be our last meeting this term we finished early and went across the road to the Café Glyndwr for lunch. We tried ordering our meals in Welsh but unfortunately the lady behind the counter didn't speak Welsh. Pete enjoyed his roast pork with apple sauce and stuffing sandwich which came with chips and I had a tasty bowl of roasted pepper and tomato soup with a brown bap. 

Afterwards despite the rain I checked out the charity shops and found some fun Christmas presents including a squeaky rubber pig that grunts most realistically. We were all in fits of laughter in the shop at the silly noises and the lady in the shop said they'd been having fun with it as well. 

 

Back home, having dropped Pete off for his Monday afternoon pool session I put up the outdoor driftwood tree. It's a bit shorter than usual because I couldn't find the metal rod that the branches are threaded on. A somewhat vital part of the whole construction. I wasted so much time hunting for that rod even checking that I hadn't used it in the garden or just tucked it safely behind one of the hedges but it was nowhere to be found. In the end I used a shorter rod and will have to remember to keep an eye out for a suitable rod for next year's tree.

Having spent so much time putting up the tree I picked an easy coconut biscuit recipe (no more unusual recipes from the FB reels for me) and successfully made two dozen coconut macaroons. 

In the meantime here are some of the many flowers still adding a dash of colour to the garden-

A small hebe bought from Lidl.

Lavender.

Ruta Graveolens.

Aubretia.

Wins and Losses.

The first thing to note about today's weather was how warm it has been. 'Unseasonably so', said the man on the radio this morning. It was dry to start with but began raining lightly mid morning and has been raining on and off ever since.

There was a lot of power in the waves as they hit the cliff sending up great spouts of spray but it was nothing like the ferocity of yesterday's weather. 

Some things have gone well today and some have not. 

As I set off in anticipation of the charities' Christmas Fair in the Hall I met my neighbour going down to the shop. He told me that the fair had been yesterday so that was the end of that little outing. I'd had the date correct but written the wrong day. Bother! 

But then I decided to ignore the light rain and go for a walk along the beach to stretch my legs and get some fresh air. Something to enjoy especially as I'd decided not to go on the group walk in the afternoon. 

Walking along the beach and inspecting the debris thrown up onto the shingle by yesterday's powerful waves I noticed what looked like a bunch of small white carrots or parsnips. Luckily I remembered seeing a post about highly toxic hemlock water dropwort roots also known as dead man's fingers. These contain a nerve agent toxic to both dogs and humans. Simply picking them up can kill a dog. Not something you want to have on the beach. Especially as the first bunch I found was close to an old tennis ball. I binned the roots, warned a lady walking her dogs on the beach and posted warnings on the village FB groups. 

It's not unusual to find branches and even small tree trunks on the beach but today there was a very large tree trunk along the side of the slipway which was covered in shingle. I was estimated the trunk to be about 30ft long until I calculated the length by striding alongside it. 15 strides made it more like 45ft long!

Back home I packaged up the truffles ready to be given as Christmas presents. I know it's only superficial but I think presentation makes a lot of difference as well as showing that somebody has made an effort.

The next success was finding the keys for the porch door. As I had a box of key label tags I labelled all the keys we have and will put up a small key box in the utility room for the spare keys. The front door key is still stuck in the door while Pete looks for the specific lock spray that he has somewhere.

Then I began an afternoon of baking. I started with a tried and trusted biscuit (cookie) recipe and made several batches of peanut and chocolate chunk cookies. They were definitely a success. 

While they were in the oven I tried making honeycomb which was not successful. Possibly the wrong sugar or I didn't heat it enough. I made something sweet but it definitely wasn't honeycomb.

Next I tried a new biscuit recipe from FB to use up a tin of condensed milk before I was tempted to try one of the many fudge type recipes that keep appearing on my feed. I'm not sure about those biscuits though Pete has just tried one and said it was fine. Maybe not a failure but I shan't bother with that recipe again.

A Mystery And A Problem (Or Two).

There was a time when hearing the pounding rain would have had me worrying about our drive being washed away or the stream at the back of the house rising and flooding the ground floor. But today we were warm and cosy in our home and could simply enjoy watching the wild waves.

(Photos from FB.) With the full moon causing a 5.4m high tide adding to the storm powered waves the waves came over the sea defences sending water and stones down towards the railway station. No point in waiting for the council to come and clear the stones so instead local residents went out and spent the morning clearing the road making it safe for cars to get through.

Meanwhile I was at home having a domestic day in the kitchen doing some Christmas prep. The pestle and mortar made a rare appearance as I ground up cloves to add to the spiced red cabbage. (I know I could use ready ground or allspice but I had neither.) Some of the cabbage will be part of our Christmas dinner and the rest will do for later. 

Then came the truffles. It was good that I'd made and frozen the centres a while back as all I had to do today was dip them in melted chocolate and add decorations. I did try and temper the chocolate but once again that didn't work. I don't know why I bother.

I should have thought to put the truffles on baking parchment to set rather than on plates as that would have saved more washing up. To make things easier the next time I make truffles I've written myself a reminder on the recipe.

And now to the mystery and subsequent problems. 

In the afternoon I looked through the front door and saw a parcel on the shelf in the porch. Great! my replacement boots had arrived. 

But how had they got inside the porch? There was no way the box would have fitted through our standard sized letter box. I tried the door but the handle was up and the door locked. Maybe Pete had opened the door for the postman and somehow I'd failed to notice? But no, that wasn't the case. We tried the door again in case I had been mistaken but nope. Only then did it dawn on us that the lever which locks the sliding door has a counterpart on the outside. How could neither of us have noticed that before? While there is very little crime around here we would like to be able to have the sliding door locked to keep our post secure especially if we were to go away for any length of time.

The door also has a key but I have no memory of the builder giving me one. I had a look at the keys hanging on hooks in the utility room and hooray! there was a key with a label saying 'porch' and some details on how to lift the sliding door off the track. So the builder had given me the key. But when we tried that key it obviously wasn't the right key. In fact it looked more like our front door key. We tried to take the front door key (which we use to lock the door as I knew that having a door that locked automatically would be asking for trouble) out of the lock to compare it but there was no way either of us could get the key out. So fine if we just want to use the key to lock the door from the inside but a major problem if we ever wanted to leave by the front door and lock it from the outside. (We use the other house doors normally.) As to the porch, I've tried all the keys I can find but so far no luck in locating the correct key. So another problem to be solved.

And as to the boots? Far too big, I obviously could have done with the half size between which of course they don't make. A refund it will have to be.