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. 

Rainbows.

It has turned chilly again. The morning was dry but by the afternoon unpleasant icy showers began blown in by strong south-easterly winds.

Once again I had the lovely Tex. There were only five of us in the lesson and one of the guys who is a very experienced rider rode the new horse May. She's only 7 and was prancing around full of energy. As she's still getting used to the other horses we had to give her plenty of room to be on the safe side.

Last week with Katie's help I got Tex to arch his neck a couple of times so that's what I worked on this week. I began by asking him to round his neck more when I was doing downward transitions (stopping for a few moments) across the school and eventually there was improvement as we trotted round. 

And then we did something different. Katie asked me when I last did any work without stirrups, probably over 30 years ago! but Tex is comfy and I enjoy sitting trot anyway so I spent over half the lesson without stirrups. One of the others also rode without stirrups on a bouncier pony and everybody in the lesson worked on their own thing quite happily.

 

Here I am after the lesson. You can see just how tiddly Tex is. He has a bit of a grumpy demeanour and his ears are often pointing backwards which is why I was trying to get him to point them forward. He was not impressed.

Afterwards I went shopping, bought more lights for the sitting room and took some clothes to the charity shop. I met a couple of people I know in town. One from choir and one from the walking group. 

As I approached Borth I took in the view across the bog over to Snowdonia when suddenly there was a break in the clouds and a bright rainbow. There's one spot on the road where I can see our red roof and today the foot of the rainbow was in the road right next to the house. I couldn't stop on the hill as there was a car close behind me. I was hoping to get a photo of the rainbow over the beach but by the time I got home and raced through the house there was no sign at all of the rainbow.

But later there was another double rainbow.

Something to make you smile - this FB Reel was filmed last night at disco aerobics. I'm bopping around at the front in my silver top to music that was at full volume. 

Chicken or Egg ?

It's been mostly dry today with the occasional very light and brief shower.

It's odd but since our Welsh lesson lengthened to three hours instead of two I seem to get more done on a Thursday. It's like that saying "If you want something done ask a busy person."

Today, instead of the usual quick wipe I gave the kitchen sink window sill a thorough going over. Everything got washed, all algae removed from the ferns in their hanging tubs and the spots of mould on the window bleached to smithereens. More like a spring clean but it's nice to have it done before Christmas.

 

We had a 15 minute break in class (sometimes it's 20 minutes) when I was able to start putting things back in place. I like having all these treasures on show so long as they are carefully placed.

Today we began learning the short form past tense (we've already learnt three other forms) and we did an exercise where we had to say I cooked ........./ I watched ........ or / I worked .... adding our own endings. I gaily stated that 'I cooked chicken custard in the microwave yesterday.' This had our tutor completely perplexed until she realised I'd mixed up the words for chicken and egg. Much laughter from everyone at that point including me. The next person then said "I watched my friend yesterday." thinking she was saying "I saw my friend yesterday." which had us all smiling again at the thought of her spying on her friend. It's all very good natured and we are all able to laugh at our mistakes. Much better to try and get it wrong than never bother.

I'm about to leave for the last disco aerobics of the year. We've been promised Prosecco (and No-secco) along with home-made mince pies and time to chat afterwards.

Pete meanwhile will be at the official lighting of the Borth Christmas tree by the RNLI to sing carols with the children from the local school, RNLI volunteers, the rowing club and anyone else. I would have gone if it hadn't been for aerobics at the same time. Too many things going on at Christmas.

An Afternoon in Town.

Dawn was looking hopeful and even though the distant rainbow hinted at rain to come the day was mostly dry.

It was a good opportunity to get out the pressure washer and give the terrace a clean. It was very satisfying to watch the stones change from a dull khaki/olive colour to much nicer muted browns. I did the steps as well and just had time to clean off the black from the wood of the garden chairs before a few drops of rain began to fall. The chairs are now in the garage drying before I reapply teak oil to the wood.

My afternoon was spent in Aber. I've had dryer eyes than usual and a random sharp pain in the corner of one eye so I'd made an appointment at the opticians. They did all the tests, took photos of the back of the eye etc and could find nothing specific. At least now I know there isn't anything dramatic going on. 

While I was in town I ordered our chicken for Christmas from the local butcher. Around £20 for a free-range chicken is a lot but there's no way I could bring myself to buy a supermarket chicken. Growing to full size in 12 weeks is simply not natural and as to the conditions, well .......

Since I don't usually bother going up to the top end of the main shopping street I called in at the charity shops there and bought a few more decorations and a couple of small fun Christmas gifts.

Two of the three Polly's windows which are beautifully decorated all through the year. I thought they only sold clothes and accessories but they also sell soft toys and decorations. I will have to avoid going in as I would be tempted. With the charity shops you know your money is going for a good cause plus you're recycling things and of course they're cheap.

There's one real Christmas tree in town (we are surrounded by forests filled with trees after all) and two abstract metal ones strung with lots of flashing lights.

I'll be off in a minute to choir. Thank goodness it's not raining as it was horrendous driving back last week.

The Craft Fair.

We had a very wet start to the day and although we ended up with a long bright spell before the rain began again I decided not to go to the zoo this week. 

Instead I got the branches out of the garage and hung some special baubles that either had been gifts or I hadn't been able to resist in the January sales. The driftwood tree has no baubles at all, only creatures and stars. That wasn't planned but I rather like the 'alternative' result. 

I had a tidy up in the porch finally cutting back the trailing geraniums and then adding a few decorations. All silver glitter though I haven't been able to find the door wreath I'd promised myself once the porch was done. They had it for two years running in Matalan but not this year.

I'd had to go up in the loft to get some things and brought down a giant plush tortoise that had been in storage. This had been a 'Father Christmas' present (I used to combine the money given by the family to buy one special present for each of the boys)  for one of the boys when they were very little. After many years of being sat on, thrown and hugged it had became quite grubby to say the least. Today I carefully opened a seam, removed all the stuffing and hand washed the fabric. I'm hoping that I can restore it to its former glory and keep the tortoise as a whimsical cushion.

I'm hoping the rain will stop before I have to walk to the Hall for Pilates. And it's kettlebells. Not my favourite though I know it's good for me.

And now as promised some photos from Sunday's Craft Fair. There were over twenty stalls filled with beautiful items so this is just a snippet.

This (above) was one of the stalls I suggested to Pete as a good place to do his Christmas shopping. We already have one of the small round pictures of an owl that I bought for Pete one time.

I love ceramics but have run out of space to display what I still have in storage so no point in suggesting any of those to Pete. There was also lots of gorgeous jewellery but I hardly wear the pieces I already have so I had to pass on those too.

I did like the tiny metal creatures and the robots? below were great fun. A simple idea which I haven't seen before but very effective.

I would find room for the metal raven but at £400 it was way out of our price range.

Hafod (part 2).

The first day of winter has been warm and very wet. We drove to Mach in the morning and didn't even bother trying to go our usual route as the road at the other end of the village always floods. With the amount of overnight rain there was no way our little car would make it through. Instead we took the longer way round. There was still a lot of water on the road and fields by the river Dyfi looked like lakes.

We had a good session with our friends in the library after which I dashed to the Post Office and spent an eye watering amount posting our Christmas cards.

Once home I planned a leisurely afternoon putting up the Christmas decorations. I don't put up many but somehow it took a very long time and there's still more to do. I'm even thinking about buying some more lights for the windows.

Now back to yesterday's walk at Hafod.-

From the river we walked up to the gently sloping fields that once would have been the parkland in front of the mansion. The rubble, which is all that remains of the elaborate building, begins just above the sheep in the middle of the picture below and extends to the right.

A photo of the mansion in its latter days before it fell into disrepair.

The mansion was demolished in the late 1950s and now the rubble itself is disappearing under grass and small trees.

A picture showing the mansion in the 1800s? 

I think the arched section must have been at right angles to the view in the top picture as it was clearly still there when the building had become a ruin.

A high wall surrounded the stable block part of which has now been restored. We were too late to have a look inside.

A Walk at Hafod (part 1)

We were back at Hafod again this week for our walk. As I drove up through the mountains in the pouring rain I was beginning to wonder if the walk was a good idea but by the time I got to Devil's bridge the rain had stopped.

I was driving on my own and was early enough to stop first at the Hafod Arch. This was originally the gateway to the estate, an impressive one at that.

The sun shone all afternoon though there was a real chill in the air once you were in the shade.

Early on we stopped to admire the way a curved drystone wall was being repaired with meat and wood frames to ensure the correct slope and curve were achieved.

From this high point we scrambled down steep stone steps (mostly without hand rails) that brought us down to the valley.

There we had a walk around  Mrs Johnes' Garden which has been recently restored and planted with varieties of the exotic plants that would have been there back in the 1780s. Most of the plants were either herbaceous or deciduous but we still managed to get quite excited reading the labels. We'll definitely go back in the spring to see the garden properly. 

Our lunch stop was at some picnic tables set in a bend of the Afon Ystwyth. 

Nearby were some large rocks covered with poignant memorials for children and young people.

More woodland walking and down yet more steep steps brought us to a rustic bridge over a fast flowing stream.

Everywhere there were trees felled by this year's storms including one tree so large that it had proved easier to build steps over the trunk rather than to remove the tree.

More photos of the walk tomorrow and later I'll post photos from the Craft Fair which I went to in the morning.