Still Wet.

It's a good thing Vytas and Sally are hardy souls who are perfectly happy whatever the weather as we've had typically wet Welsh weather for the whole of their visit. 

They arrived in the middle of a severe storm, nearly as bad as Storm Darragh with fierce winds and lashing rain all through the night.

By Sunday the storm had abated to just rain so after a cooked breakfast, almost a full English, we set off for Snowdonia. My original plan of going deeper into the mountains and to take the southern ascent to the rim of Cadair Idris was foiled by the fact that the road was closed due to being unstable after a landslide caused by Storm Darragh. Instead we walked the trail from Tan Y Coed in the foothills of Snowdonia. The trail was a mix of forestry tracks and winding paths through the trees. There were lots of uprooted trees some of which we had to climb over.

By the time we got high enough for some far reaching views the rain began to turn to hail which made us seek shelter in the forest for our cake and tea. (It was lovely having someone there to carry everything.) Later as we came back through the woods we walked alongside a pretty stream and a waterfall.

Afterwards we headed up to the Craft Centre at Corris as Vytas needed to find a Christmas present to replace one that had failed to arrive in time. We got to the Craft Centre with half an hour to spare before the Sunday closing time of 4.00 only to find all the little shops closed. All that was open was the central café but fortunately that also had a shop area with a reasonable selection of gift items many of which were locally made. 

After a good if wet day out we were only too glad to return to a warm home and our usual treat of a Chinese take away for dinner. 

Yesterday there was less rain and more low cloud and off we went to Nant Yr Arian - the Red Kite Centre. We hiked along the Ridgetop Trail from where on a normal day you have magnificent views right down to the coast. But yesterday the low clouds all but hid the view and even the valley floor below us. This is quite a tradition for Vytas and Sally who have hiked up a number of mountains in far off countries including Machu Picchu to enjoy far reaching views but instead were met with solid clouds. It was slightly drier in amongst the trees which were emerging eerily from the grey mist. There was even more evidence of Darragh's destruction with groups of fallen trees with their roots ripped right out of the ground. 

We got back to the visitors' centre in time to see the kites being fed and then had some closer views from the hide by the feeding area. The low light and also the fact that my camera was focussing on the tree branches between me and the birds made it just about impossible to get a decent photo. 

Our supper last night was the Brie stuffed sausages (very tasty but I used decent butcher's sausages not ones from the supermarket.) along with a selection a vegetables. And there it was that I managed to burn...... the peas! I wasn't keeping an eye on the peas, they boiled over and not only did the peas themselves get burnt but the water went underneath the saucepan and got burnt there. I'm still working on removing the burnt on muck without scratching the glass hob. A mix of washing up liquid, bicarbonate and vinegar seems to be doing the trick. The burnt peas were thrown out on the cliff grass for the birds and we made do with carrots, red cabbage and potatoes.

Sally and Vytas left straight after breakfast this morning as they would be calling in at family friends on the way and then going on to some of their friends to celebrate Christmas Eve. Since then I've been putting my study back to rights and preparing food for our Christmas Eve meal. I think I've managed to have 12 dishes if you count things like the butter. I've made enough for tonight and also for tomorrow as I'm done with cooking for the time being.

Wet.

We've had a day of rain starting with fine rain that forced me to sit inside the doorway this morning then heavy downpours that soaked the hordes of shoppers in town.

Today I rode Margaret again and as all the work was in trot I did pretty well. At one point Iola (the owner) began filming us as we went around leg yielding and I wondered if she was going to post it on the FB page but nothing so far. It certainly made me sit up straight and pull in my tum. For a change as well as leg yielding down a long side we had to spiral in from a 20m circle to a 10m and then leg yield back out. The next lesson won't be until January when the horses should be fun to ride after their nice long rest.

Afterwards I did the usual shopping. There were slightly more shoppers than usual but it wasn't too bad.  I expect it to be much busier for the next few days as everybody feels they have to have groaning tables in order to celebrate Christmas. In Morrisons there were a lot of extra pallets of goods to restock the shelves all over the place which made navigating the aisles more difficult, that and the fact that my trolley had a mind of its own. The handlebar was bent right in so maybe it had been in an accident. That's what I told fellow shoppers when my trolley refused to spin around corners causing me to mutter darkly. I had a quick wander around Charlie's to eye up the decorations with the post Christmas 70% off sale in mind. Then into town, again fairly busy, Lidl and home. The country route home that I prefer was finally opened yesterday and as I left town I could see why it has taken so long to clear the road. Right on the edge of town is a caravan park and all along the road is or rather was a row of mature conifers, each a good 40ft high. All but one of them had snapped off and a crane was moving the massive trunks out of the way. Such a shame. Further down where the road runs through a steep wood there was another scene of carnage with the sawn off stumps of many trees both large and small on either side of the road.

 

I too had stocked up both for Vytas and Sally's visit and also for Christmas or in our case our traditional Christmas Eve meal, 12 dishes but no meat or dairy. I had to take almost everything out of the fridge and do a careful reorganising to fit everything in. Then it was a matter of finding space to put away the non fridge stuff. I hope I remember where I put everything as it's a case of open a drawer for a mixing bowl and find a loaf of bread instead. Then I pulled out the trundle bed in my study which is now our guest room.  It's a relatively simple process but still takes time and effort. 

No blogging for the next few days but providing the weather brightens up I'll be back soon with some interesting photos. Happy Solstice.

Not Much to Report.

A lot more blue sky today along with very strong winds and numerous heavy showers. I kept an eye out but no sign of any rainbows.

With no Welsh class or aerobics today I've had a whole day to finish felting one last decoration and then to get on with lots of cleaning. I gave both bathrooms a deep clean and did more tidying in my study. And that's been it. 

Wet.

The wind began to rise as I walked down to the hall last night heralding the start of the next storm. Not as severe as the last storm but still very wet. I got to the hall unscathed but five minutes later one of the class arrived with her coat soaking wet. As we lay there twisting ourselves into stretches that we were assured were good for us, we could hear the rain pounding on the metal roof but by the time we finished so also had the rain. 

At least for a while. It rained in the night, cleared for a bit and returned later in the day. 

As we ate our breakfast a break in the clouds gave us hope that we had hopes that the weather front was being blown away but that wasn't the case.

My plan for the day was to do the final present wrapping something I thought wouldn't take too long. But my wish to make everything look lovely, even a curled shiny ribbon makes something look much better, led to a day of walking back and forwards between the kitchen and the study whilst fending off Speedy's help (he ended up shut in the utility room). I take great pleasure in being as creative as possible with the resources from my admittedly large stash (bought in the sales) of paper and trimmings. I feel that giving a beautifully wrapped gift shows that you have cared enough about the recipient to make the effort. At last everything that could be has been wrapped. I finished one felted tree ornament and another is half done and they are the last presents to do.

Choir and the afterparty have been cancelled, something I was expecting anyway. A shame but then again I'm very relieved not to be out driving in this heavy rain. A quiet night in will suit me fine.

Speedy demonstrating the affinity cats have for boxes.

Gin Anyone ?

There were more patches of blue in the sky while I was down at the zoo but now the wind has begun to blow and it's raining lightly.

As said I went to the zoo this morning and spent over three hours pulling grass out of the large play area. Only one more section to go and then I can go back to the beginning and remove the new grass that has appeared. It was very quiet at the zoo with just a few volunteers working about the place. The wolf dogs were quiet today and I worked to the sound of the turkey making soft turkey noises. The top netting has been taken off their run, I suppose the avian flu restrictions have eased, and Mr. P. the peacock kept jumping in to steal their food. He usually hangs around the visitors as he prefers human food such as crisps, cake and sandwiches.

When I came home I put the last Bara Brith in the oven. My stash of baking ingredients; blocks of butter, pounds of chocolate, nuts, extra flour etc. has diminished and instead my cupboards are full of boxes of biscuits, truffles and cake. I brought in the sloe and blackberry gin from the garage and decanted it into smaller bottles. It seemed a shame to put the gin soaked berries into the food waste. Instead I threw them over the cliff for the birds. There should be some very happy seagulls tomorrow.

Off now to Pilates.
 

Christmas in Machynllth.

It's been a mild and grey day. The ground was wet in the morning so we must have had rain in the night but the day has been dry. Driving home in the afternoon we could see the hazy outline of the sun trying to shine through the clouds and blue could be seen through a few gaps in the clouds but for the most part it was a wintry sky with a touch of sea mist.

Since we'll be having a break over Christmas we met up again at the library and made good headway with the next (and final) unit in our folders which is mostly revision for the exam. Then we carried on with the book we are reading. Between the four of us we can translate almost everything without having to resort to a dictionary or Google translate which is good progress from the days when we had to look up several words in every sentence. 

Afterwards we had lunch at the Caffi Owain Glyndwr. Even though the building needed a lot of restoration a hundred years ago I still get a real kick out of going upstairs with the old stone walls and arches originally built over 600 years ago. For lunch I had lentil and bacon soup. It was home made which is always nice but because I rarely use any salt in my cooking it tasted way too salty for me. Peter enjoyed his festive (turkey) pie which he had with chips and beans. He was going to have turkey at the dinner do that got cancelled due to the storm so that made up for it a little bit.

It was a bit gloomy but I did my best to take photos of some of the decorated shop windows in Mach. Mach is quite a prosperous town and the shops and their displays are a reflection of the well off (I'm guessing from their clothes and cars) plus the not so well off bohemian people that live in the area. Not much plastic tat in sight.

Nordic socks anyone?

The charity shops are good too.

PS- here is a FB reel that I've just come across. It introduces Christmas words in Welsh and was filmed in Mach. You may spot some of the shops shown in my photos and the 'big candle' and the 'snowman' are in the café we had lunch in. (If there's no sound turn on the speaker in the top right corner.)

This was my haul from the charity shops. The ceramic glazed sphere is a match to a pair of much larger ones I have in the back garden. A bargain at £3. The little blue glass bottle has joined the other blue glass in my study. There's a lot of blue glass around if I wanted it but I'm very selective about bringing new stuff into the house. The book of walks looks useful and the Grey Rabbit book has some lovely illustrations which I may eventually use to make Christmas cards. That is if I can get over the horror of chopping up a book even if it was only 10p. And the bag of glass pebbles, (£1.50). I spent so long scouring not only the charity shops but the ordinary shops looking for some before I bought some on-line for the glass in the blue door. If I'd have got this earlier the pattern might have been more creative/ random. I've already been out and filled in the rest of the gaps with some of today's pebbles. Now I'm looking around to see where else I could stick some pebbles.

I also baked another Bara Brith and made some Rocky Road to take to choir on Wednesday. We will be staying an extra hour for a little bit of a party after singing. As I wanted to drizzle white chocolate over the Rocky Road I carried on and made some chocolate 'bark'. The swirly pattern looked better before I threw on the sprinkles left over after my Christmas baking. 

After having lunch out neither of us want much tonight. Instead we'll just have a sandwich in front of the tv.

Warmer.

Clouds and rain again last night so no chance of seeing the Geminid meteor shower which is a shame. I woke early this morning and began by sitting just inside the door but then as I realised it wasn't actually raining and a warmer wind was blowing from the south-west I took my chair right out onto the terrace. It was so peaceful waiting for the sky to lighten with the blackbirds who are also early risers chittering about in the hedges.

There was no walk today, don't know why, instead I've had another cooking day. I began by baking a batch of chocolate chunk cookies. I tried rolling the tops in 100s & 1,000s before baking. Another thing I saw on line which looks a bit insipid once baked but they are just for the visit rather than as presents so they will do. Next came a Bara Brith and then since Peter was planning to have an omelette tonight it was the perfect opportunity to make some meringues for the visit. Not something I do very often and if I do it again I'll try and buy catering sized piping bags as getting the meringue into the smaller cake decorating bags was a messy business.  Very messy. I took a photo while they were still in the oven, my old cookery book says four hours to dry once the heat has been turned off, as this might be the best they look. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the Pavlova case will fit in the only airtight tin I have left otherwise there might be a bit of shuffling around of biscuits to do.

 

There was a tiny bit of sun right at the end of the afternoon.

And a pink tinge at sunset.