Snow.

I woke this morning to find that the snow had settled, for a while at least. Although we often see snow on the hills it's rare to get snow at sea level. Much excitement as I picked my way carefully trying to take pretty pictures. 

The morning's sleet and hail showers soon cleared the snow from the beach. Some remains on the hill tops and temperatures are set to drop again tonight and into the morning. Not sure if it would be a good idea to try and drive to Mach tomorrow morning.

After a late breakfast I put on my walking boots and headed up the hill to the War Memorial hoping for a glimpse of Mount Snowdon. But there was too much cloud hanging over Snowdonia for a sighting of the snowy peak.

At home I took down the Christmas lights from the windows and most importantly got all the Christmas decorations put away. All except for the door wreath which turns out to be just a bit too wide to fit in the cupboard with the rest of the boxes. That means it will have to go up in the loft. Maybe I'll find the door hanger by next year.

Looking down over the village.

Ynyslas with Snowdonia behind.

Snowdrops.

Traditions.

Today the weather has been very similar to yesterday starting with the 'super moon' casting its light across the waves. (I wasn't tempted to sit outside this morning but  took the photo standing in the doorway and then headed back to bed with my tea.) 

The morning brought more snow on the hills, wintry showers and some sun in the afternoon.

My task for today was to take down the Christmas decorations. I enjoy seeing our home decorated for Christmas and for me that should be up until Twelfth Night (or as near as). I think it is less to do with following English traditions seeing as I do not come from an English family but more about enjoying the holiday for the whole of the time the boys and I did not have to be in school and is something I have carried on.

 

In fact because of various circumstances my Christmas didn't feature much in my childhood. We would always go to mass and sometimes were invited to our traditional Christmas Eve meal or maybe to spend Christmas Day with other people but that was about it.

When I had my own family I was determined to celebrate the holiday and give our boys a magical Christmas by creating our own traditions even on a shoestring. 

The tradition of not putting up the Christmas tree until Christmas Eve came into being because finances were tight and trees were cheap or sometimes free the closer you got to Christmas. When the boys were small I would hide the tree in the garden so that it was a surprise when they got up on Christmas morning to see the fully decorated tree in the sitting room. Later the tree would go up in the week before Christmas but not be decorated until Christmas Eve. Then I began bringing home the enormous school tree at the end of term. And how I loved to decorate the tree. Everything carefully chosen from my ever increasing store of red, silver or crystal decorations bought in the January sales. I downsized my stash when we moved but there are still enough decorations in the loft for a full-sized tree. 

When we moved to our Devon farmhouse the boys made decorations for the rooms and the garden provided plenty of greenery for swags and other décor. 

Before the traditional Christmas Eve meal I would take the boys on a long walk (Pete was usually working) and after the meal we would go to Midnight Mass in the village church. By the time we got home for hot chocolate the boys were totally ready to sleep. Then followed much wrapping of tiny presents for the boys' stockings. These they opened as soon as they woke which gave us a bit of time to sleep. Presents under the tree were opened after breakfast. Christmas dinner was usually roast chicken as I found by experience that a turkey only just fitted into the small Rayburn oven and that oven just did not do roast potatoes. Fingers had to be crossed that the wind wasn't blowing in the wrong direction because then the oven temperature would drop even more. The final tradition was that once the Christmas dinner went on the table my work was done for the day. At that point I couldn't care what happened in the kitchen afterwards.

Today I took down everything except the lights in the windows and tried to organise packing away the decorations in a way that makes it easier to put them out next year. 

While it was sunny in the afternoon I went down and dismantled the large, sagging driftwood tree by the garden gate. Now I have a whole year to find the correct metal rod or at least acquire a suitable replacement as the rod I used just wasn't up to the job.

Wintry Showers.

I began my morning by wrapping up well to sit outside under the full moon.  

I couldn't stay out as long as I would have liked because being a Friday I needed to be organised and out in time to drive to the stables. 

The Met Office had predicted wintry showers for the morning and that is exactly what we got. As I headed out through the village in came rain and sleet, (there was the end of a rainbow as well but I couldn't stop to take a photo.) Then I found myself driving through a snow shower. Luckily it stopped when I got to the stables though during our lesson I could see thick snow falling outside. Most of me was warm but I could feel the utter cold of the air I was breathing in. Then hey presto, by the time we finished the sun was shining again. Only to turn to hail as I drove to town.

On the way home from town when I got to the point where I get a good view inland of the Cambrian mountains I could see they had much more snow than the dusting I'd seen on Snowdonia in the morning. (below)

There were only four of us in the lesson today and I rode my favourite hairy, grumpy, chubby Tex again. I like to ride with long stirrups but today Katie encouraged me to shorten them when riding ponies. I guess she knows best. In the lesson we worked on getting our horses on the bit and creating bend (sideways) as we rode round.

Afterwards I went shopping and had a little look at the sales items. I can't say there was an awful lot on offer and anyway I have most things I need.

In Charlie's they had lots of shoes and boots on sale. That included Heavenly Feet boots and I could have wept when the size 8s that I tried on were too snug a fit even at the ridiculous price of £15. My broad feet are a shoe buying challenge but I find it's worth trying shoes on as different makers or even different styles by the same maker can vary even though they are technically the same size. This was the case with these wellies. As I'd gone to the bother of pulling off my riding boots I tried on anything that looked promising. I'm really after a pair of 'dealers' (short riding boots) but there were two pairs of colourful, short wellies. The sage green ones were as expected a little tight but these crazy dark purple flowery ones were fine. And as they were almost half price in my basket they went, along with a half-price tree decoration. 

These wellies might be better for my beach walks as one of my gardening wellies leaks. I can't remember which one so have to be careful walking on the wet sand. And they will match my purple raincoat.

At home by the time I had helped Pete with the unpacking and loaded the washing machine I was fit for nothing except sitting with a big mug of tea and watching tv. 

Happy New Year.

Good wishes to everyone and I hope that the new year will be a good one for you.

I stayed up last night, not because I see much significance in the switch to the next year but in the hope of seeing some fireworks. (I'm such a kid at heart.) My perseverance was rewarded with a firework display at the holiday park by Ynyslas. A few miles away but still pretty. Then a few large fireworks were set off at this end of the beach and just as I was heading to bed there were more display type fireworks being set off from a little way down the beach. All worth staying up for even though it was bitterly cold.

I have come up with one resolution for the new year and that is to sleep more and eat less sugar. If I can make just those two changes I suspect I will be a lot healthier. 

 

The weather has turned much colder with heavy showers and strong winds. This morning I wrapped up well and managed half an hour outside (in the dark) before the first rain began. 

Later, as we were running low on milk, I went for a beach walk before calling in at the shop. I passed the fewer than half a dozen people heading into the waves for an even more unofficial New Year's Day dip and somehow I wasn't tempted to join them. One cold water swim a winter is enough for me.

I felt it was a good day for soup so thought I'd throw in a few vegetables so we could have soup for supper. It was a bit like the story of 'Stone Soup'. By the time I'd added onions, smoked sausage, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, mushrooms, celery and some of my tomato base stock I had to move everything into a larger saucepan and we now have soup for several meals. I don't mind cooking that much but it would be so nice if once in a while I could sit down and have a meal put in front of me. (I know Pete cooked the Christmas dinner but we came home to uncooked carrots, stuffing balls still in the freezer and gravy that hadn't been thickened all of which I had to deal with.)

Cooking done I turned to my planned task of working on my next project, a photo book of all the work that has been done to the house. This is very much a 'for me' project, I love photos especially before and after shots. I'm also going to include some of the work in progress photos. I keep records of my daily photos but still had to go through many of this year's files. In these rather grey days it was quite surprising to see just how sunny and full of colour the garden was this year. But somehow I never found a photo of the whole garden looking back up at the house to match one of the early photos I took of the completely overgrown garden. I'll have to wait for better weather to take that one.

Journaling.

It's been dry all day and not too cold. We even had some sun in the morning.

 

I had two things to do today which have been done and soon I'll relax in the sitting room (sea view, tv and cake). 

The first thing was to get the recycling out. We've done our best to use up the food in the fridge but even so some things had to go. If I have any resolutions for next year one would be to not buy/ prepare so much food when we have visitors. I just can't help wanting to make sure there's plenty of food on the table and extra in the fridge in case anyone wants a snack. We do have a decent shop just down the road if we were to run short and it's not as if they stay for more than a few nights.

The recycling and food waste went out so of course there's been no sign of the recycling lorry. At least our bags are in tubs safe from marauding seagulls. Most people just put the clear recycling bags on the pavement and although there shouldn't be any food inside those bags people especially holiday makers aren't so careful at this time of the year. I've checked on the council site but there were no updates so we should have had our scheduled collection. Update - they're on their way. Thank goodness for that.

While Pete went out for a row I settled down at the kitchen table and updated my Hobbit journal. Summer, Autumn and Christmas 2025 are now written up. I don't have a good memory for dates and when you're doing the same thing every year I find it hard to recall the other events of each year. A quick glance at my journals brings everything into focus and suddenly I remember even the smallest details. 

There is a party at the Star of the Sea tonight but we will be content to stay home and just pop out onto the terrace if we hear any fireworks.

Grey.

It's been a mainly cloudy, grey day with barely a ripple on the sea.

I've had a quiet day. I did some ironing and some admin. 

In the afternoon I walked to the pharmacy for my prescription (it's confusing when we use the same word for the paper form and the actual medicines.) There I picked not one but two bags of medications. One had been there yesterday all along but for some reason they had the wrong date of birth on their computer which was why they hadn't given it to me. So now I have extra tablets which is a good thing as I had depleted my 'spares' which I had put aside for times like these when the pharmacy mixes things up. At least we don't pay for anything though I noticed that having your ears syringed, which used to be done at the doctor's now costs £55. Better not get any ear wax build up.

 

Naturally I walked along the beach to the pharmacy. The beach was busy with families walking dogs and children plus there were five chaps beach fishing. Either the fish are in, they got new fishing tackle for Christmas or more likely they're escaping the post Christmas chaos at home. 

Here Today .......

I started the day with a spot of bird watching from the terrace. 

I didn't get up early since for me this is my week to have a break. The house is tidy and festive while the cupboards and fridge are full of lovely things to eat (that don't need cooking) and my schedule is clear. Time to take things easy at least for a while.

 

Straight after breakfast I walked down to the pharmacy to find out what had happened to my repeat prescription of which there had been not a word (they send a text when it's ready to collect). 

On the way I passed the empty space where the falling over house had been demolished.

At the pharmacy they told me that they had sent the prescription to the surgery in November but nothing had come back. (A likely story.) Rather than wait for them to resend my prescription they gave me a note and I stomped my way to the surgery. Thank goodness both the pharmacy and surgery are in the village. There I explained the situation and of course was told that they always order the prescriptions once they get them. Who knows where the fault lay? My prescription will be back at the pharmacy tomorrow morning and I'll pick up the medicines in the afternoon. What a palaver.

To cheer myself up I walked home along the beach. 

It was lovely walking with the warm sun on my face though the minute the sun disappeared behind the clouds the air was icily cold once more.

Here I'm standing at the bottom of the slipway which has been completely covered by shingle. From the tracks I could see in the sand the lifeboat tractor had to take a different route (over on the right) to get the lifeboat into the water. I guess they'll need to get some sort of digger in to clear the slipway.

And now for something that quite spoiled my enjoyment of the holiday. A case of 'Hair today, gone tomorrow'.

Here I am with the long plait I nearly always wore my hair in. 

To me, especially when I brushed it out in the morning my long hair symbolised my refusal to conform. I was a confident and content rebel and thought turning 70 next birthday was the funniest thing ever.

But since my hair had thinned even more after being given beta blockers which it turned out I didn't even need, the end of my long plait was a bit on the straggly side. So after our Boxing Day dip I asked if one of the youngsters would take off 2-3 inches to tidy it up. Vytas volunteered and as he is a scientist I thought I could trust him to do the job. That I should not have done because he decided I needed more taken off and cut it to the length you see below. I simply did not know what to say as I felt utterly devastated. Gone was my long hair and so too has my confidence. Now when I look in the mirror all I see is a slightly overweight elderly woman with a stooped back and a wrinkled face. I've joined the ranks of the invisible old women. 

Saying that it will grow back did not take into account that hair growth rate slows with age or that genetically I happen to be someone whose hair grows very slowly. To me that comment was on a par with someone telling you they had run over your cat but you could just go and get another one. That's how bad I feel. I know that feeling things so deeply and being unable to cope with change is part of my brain wiring but that doesn't help either.

Rant over, I know there's nothing I can do.