Truffles.

Today has been dry with some sunshine. 

I phoned the surgery first thing this morning and was given an appointment for later in the afternoon. At the appointment the doctor said the health board just wanted to make sure I still needed the number of painkillers on my prescription, duh - of course I do. At which point the doctor reinstated the amount on my repeat prescription and that was it. No time wasted talking about my ailments, I guess the medical record speaks for itself, and back home I went.

Since I had bought cream last week I thought I better get on and make the centres of the truffles that will go in this year's Christmas hampers. Sensibly, once I measured out all the ingredients I decided that the 45 minutes I had left before I needed to walk down to the surgery wouldn't be enough time to make and cool the ganache let alone add more ingredients to make four kinds of truffle - plain, walnut, crystallised ginger and raisins soaked in rum. Let alone portion and shape each truffle.

All that I did after I got back from the surgery and it took me two and a half hours to make 120 truffle centres. They will go in the freezer until I'm ready to dip them in more chocolate and then decorate the truffles. I was very restrained and didn't eat any truffles but of course I gave the bowls a good scrape out before washing them up. 

The dunnock has become very brave when I'm around and came down to feed even though I was standing just a few feet away. But the blue tits are newcomers to the garden and flew to the end of the garden to be on the safe side. 

Fuming.

Calm seas and a touch of pink in the sky was how the day started. It has been quite cold especially in the shade but there was a lot of sun (shame we didn't have it yesterday) until eventually the pink evening became a pretty sunset.

I dislike being cross but honestly ....... after a morning in Mach at the library with our friends where our laughter was almost drowned out by the toddlers in the children's corner the first thing I did when I got home was to walk down to the pharmacy. This was to ask why I'd been given less than half my usual amount of painkillers when I collected my monthly prescription last week. Not even enough for two a day. 

The answer was that the surgery had only put the smaller amount on this month's prescription. Off I went to the surgery to ask them what had happened. It turns out that the Hwyl Dda, our local health authority has put a cap on the stronger painkillers. Apparently people shouldn't be on them long term. If only they were able to cure chronic pain at the stroke of a pen as well.

The receptionist at the surgery said this had happened to lots of their patients and the solution was to make an appointment with the doctor so that he could confirm that I did actually need the painkillers. Considering it is the doctors who initially write the prescriptions and then check how we're doing at our yearly check-ups this seems like a complete waste of both the doctor's and my time.

I could have a booked appointment at the end of the month or take a chance and phone at 8.30 to get a quicker appointment. Whenever I've done that I've usually been seen the same day so I'll ring in the morning.

I was so cross that I that wrote a stern email to the complaints department of the health authority and then posted on four local FB groups suggesting anyone else affected also complain.

Having got that off my chest I headed into the garage to give the inside of the window frames a freshen up with a coat of paint. I may even give them a second coat though it is just a scruffy garage/workshop.

Then with a sore back and arm from going up and down the stepladder to do the masking tape and then the painting I gave myself some time off (plus painkillers and an icepack, my usual end of afternoon routine) to watch 'We bought a village.' before going down to photograph the evening sky. 

That was when I had to put out some seeds as no sooner had I gone outside but there was a dunnock telling me that all the morning seeds had gone and could it have some more, please? It's got me well trained. I don't like to put too many seeds out as it attracts the rats.

PS The youngsters with the ponies on the beach the other day were part of Welsh Border Vaulters based in Oswestry and one of the girls is a triple British champion.

Bonfire Afternoon.

Although it has been a dry day for which I am grateful it is a shame there wasn't any sun to light up the yellows and oranges of the trees all along the Rheidol valley which was the location for this afternoon's walk.

 

I say walk but apart from a steep climb up the side of the valley to S's home and then back down at the end we spent the afternoon helping S (who lives alone on 12 acres) burn up all the hedge and tree trimmings that she had collected over the year. The hot summer had meant that any burning was out of the question not to mention the fact that the previous year the wildfires had almost reached S's house after burning a large section of the hillside.

On our way up to S's land we stopped to admire some alpacas in a field.

A bit further on even the gloomy day could not diminish the blaze of colour from a mature acer in a garden that is obviously maintained by somebody who loves plants.

The lower of S's fields has a bridleway along the edge (where some of the group are standing admiring the view) which I have ridden along on one of the long rides I been on.

There we built the first bonfire, not a very large one and yes it did include a woodwormy old cupboard but when the flames had died down in went potatoes in foil to be eaten later on.

We (or at least some of us) moved to another field where there were piles of branches, 6ft and longer, stretching at least 30ft up the hill. It's hard to show the size of the fire and this was when nearly everything had been burnt as I had been helping drag wood to the fire. I was a bit surprised that some people preferred to sit by the house and drink cups of tea or stood watching the fire but we did eventually get it all on the fire. By the time we went all that was left for S to do was to rake in the last branches and make sure the fires were safely out.

The baked potatoes were very welcome but as I'm making progress with my diet (only 2lbs to go) I ate mine as it was without butter and cheese. After all I would still be having supper at home.

Driving back the setting sun turned the clouds in front of me a deep pink. Hopefully that means we'll have another nice day tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Romas.

Romas is 37 years old today, where did all those years go? As can be seen he's still drumming with the band. They played at the Cambridge Music Festival and had other gigs as well. In April we went up to Leek for a meal with Laura's family and their friends to celebrate Romas and Laura becoming officially engaged. (No date set yet.) Everything else is much the same.

We've had lots of sun today so I put two loads of washing out on the line. Unfortunately the morning wind died out completely in the afternoon and now the utility room is full of drying washing.

 

Naturally I spent most of the day working outside or in the garage. To be on the safe side I gave the window frames inside another coat of woodworm treatment and also treated all the new roof timbers that were anywhere near the old windows. Maybe the new wood is already treated but I like to make sure.

Later I filled in a few remaining holes in the frames with the resin filler. Some of it doesn't appear to be drying which may be because I didn't mix in the catalyst properly or perhaps because it's cold.

The next job was to sort out the water butt in the back garden. It had been empty since I scavenged some of the hoses to set up the bigger water butts. Today I fitted a connector hose from the drain pipe that goes through a hole in the lid of the water butt. I had to dismantle the drain pipe to fit the diverter higher but thanks to my habit of keeping every piece of building materials that 'might come in handy later' I had a small section of pipe that was perfect for the job. I didn't have a fitting to connect two straight sections of pipe further down but found a round wall bracket for drains tightened up with a cable tie did the job as well.

I wasn't able to drill a hole in the drain pipe to put the hose from the overflow fitting in the water butt as I couldn't find the correct hole borer bit for the drill. As I was the last person to use it there wasn't a lot I could say. For the moment the overflow hose is tied to the back of the drain pipe and empties into the ground drain that way.

Although I can see lots that needs doing in the gardens especially the back garden instead I re-potted some succulents that were not looking too good after the summer, (my fault entirely) as that has been something I've been meaning to do for a while.

And finally I carved a Halloween face in the pumpkin and did a few running repairs to the giant spider. It's beginning to get dark so soon I'll take the spider, sweets and pumpkin down to the garden gate.

5.30 and it's dark enough to put out the spider and the pumpkin and sweets for the children.

Horses Again.

Today there couldn't have been a greater contrast with last Friday's weather. Getting soaked by the rain and having to keep one eye out for falling trees last week while today I was driving with the car windows open under warm, blue skies. In town people were walking around in t-shirts and quite a few in shorts as well.

Town itself was very crowded, with the roads and car parks full and people everywhere. It's half-term so all the kids are off school and there are lots of holidaymakers in the area too. I went into Tesco'a, something I don't usually do, and there were at least 20 people queueing to use the self-service checkouts. I ended up going to a normal checkout despite only having three items.

I spent a lot of time looking for either button batteries or led tea lights for my Halloween pumpkin. In the end I found some Halloween ones in M&S only to find the ones I really wanted in Lidl. 

This morning there were only four of us in the lesson and to my delight I was riding Tex. Grumpy, chunky, hairy Tex. He wasn't too pleased to have his breakfast of hay interrupted by me wanting to put his bridle on and did his usual thing of threatening to bite. I just tell him off and he's never actually bitten me or even come close. It's more of a warning or expressing how he's feeling. At the end of the lesson I'd dismounted and was standing next to him giving him a good scritch under his mane. That's his special place. It was so funny because one of Tex's ears was pinned back as if to say 'Why did you make me do all that work?' but the other ear was forward and his lip was wobbling in sheer delight as if he was saying 'I'm loving this, please don't stop.' He's such a character.

In the lesson itself I mainly worked on keeping my shoulders, neck and head in the correct position ie square and upright, something that is a bit of a challenge for me with my rounded upper back.

 

When I got home I noticed some riders with their horses out on the beach. I think is the same group I saw last year but with different horses. My camera battery ran out before I had a chance to photograph some quite athletic vaulting from the older girls. 

I think every young pony girl's dream is to ride in the sea. The smaller pony wasn't too keen on the waves and needed a couple of girls walking next to it to give it the confidence to try again. The larger horse was a little wary at first but then went in up to its tummy.

Red sky this evening so hopefully I can spend the day working outside tomorrow.

PS The horsefly bite has finally stopped stinging and the red patch although the same size is a lot paler.

A Sad Tale.

I went round to the family up the street that has some poultry to tell them about the fox but sadly I was too late. A few nights ago the fox had broken into their duck house and killed all bar one of their dozen ducks. It had taken one away and took the heads off the others leaving an unpleasant scene. No doubt last night it was on its way back to collect one of its victims. The houses on the road at the end of our street back onto farm land with plenty of rabbits but I guess the fox fancied an easier meal.

We have grassy paths that run along the back of our gardens and recently somebody had cleared away all the brambles blocking the path up at that end. That had made it possible for the fox to break into the duck house/run with unfortunate results. The remaining duck is safely tucked up inside the family's house.

Today's weather was dry and often sunny so it's not surprising the air was filled with the sounds of people working.

Next door some workmen put covers over the gable boards and removed the old metal tv aerial bracket. As builders are wont to do they had their radio blaring away while they worked. (You can tell I'm not a fan.)

Behind us more brambles were being cut with a petrol strimmer, I could hear a mower elsewhere and as usual there was a steady stream of trucks delivering scaffolding and building supplies to houses in the next street. 

Meanwhile I was out finishing painting the garage windows. Close up it is not a very tidy job but I've achieved my goal of getting them watertight and stopping the glass from falling out. My other justification for not being meticulous is that you can't even see the windows for half the year when the plants put on their summer growth.

It wouldn't have taken much for the glass to fall out of the windows, they were in such poor condition.

A combination of replacement wood and resin wood filler has brought the windows back to a reasonable state.

Off now to a Halloween themed disco aerobics.

Sea Mist.

My hopes of finishing the garage windows were dashed when I looked out of the window this morning and saw the miserable state of the weather. It was more on and off sea mist with occasional rain but definitely wasn't painting weather.

Instead I fished out the rest of the frozen tomatoes and made a pot of rich tomato and onion sauce which is now in the freezer. Great for soups, stews or simply on pasta. 

As the recycling lorry comes on Wednesdays I started the sauce before eating breakfast so that I could get rid of all the onion and tomato skins and not have them festering until next week. I also disembowelled the pumpkin that I'm going to make into a lantern. That's a really sticky job which I've never had to do before. As my neighbour said to me 'imagine making a lantern from a turnip,' That would be a lot harder and possibly hazardous.

 

After breakfast I had a short beach walk on my way to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription and get a 'flu jab. Hopefully I won't get any side effects from that.

I got home just as it started to rain. Once it had stopped I treated myself to an afternoon of gardening. At last it was time to give the lavender its autumn trim which means we can now walk down the path without brushing past wet foliage. From there I cut back the aquilegias, a fiddly job as the spring bulbs under them have already put up lots of leaf. My final job was to cut down the montbretia and ox-eye daisy growing by the pond. 

Off now in a minute to choir.

Update - just driven home and before I turned into our road a fox ran across the street. I stopped and looked down the grassy path where the fox had run and there it was staring at me. Definitely not a cat. I don't know if the family up the road still have chickens and ducks but I'll let them know about the fox.