Wet.

The day has been mild and generally wet. Too wet for finishing painting the garage windows but once the rain eased I went out and washed all the salt, sand and seagull bombings from all the windows, porch and balustrade.

I didn't put any seeds out for the birds until the afternoon but even before I'd gone back indoors the dunnock was down there pecking at the seeds. 

Peter went into town this morning and returned with two big gas cannisters for the barbecue. That's something we would use anyway and it gives a cooking method if the electricity goes off. There's more and more on the radio etc about being prepared for loss of power or interruption of food supplies that we feel it's worth taking seriously. 

Yesterday on the walk we talked about the issue and how those of us who either are or have been living in the country have always had a supply of foods for those times when the roads were flooded or too icy and keeping the basics come naturally. It's the town dwellers who really need the wake up call.

We've got a wind up radio on order and Peter has bought a second larger power bank to keep in the house. I reckon we're just about sorted.

While Peter was out I used his pc to write up my Christmas letter. I'm sure nothing exciting is going to happen in the next month. Then as there wasn't much else to do I did all my Christmas cards. Nothing is sealed down but they are in neat piles according to when they need to be sent or hand delivered. Some cards go to friends whom I haven't seen for many years but we enjoy reading their Christmas letters and it's a nice way to keep in touch. I've even had a look through some of the Christmas decorations but that was to look for the led tea lights as I'd like to put one inside the pumpkin I plan to carve. I knew they were out of power but I wasn't expecting a spare battery to be duff as well. I'll just have to get some more on Friday.

I'm pretty sure the bite on my side is from a horse fly. At the time I just thought it was another bramble or thorn sticking into me. The red area doubled in size quite quickly but from what I read it should be gone after 48 hours.

I've also had a simmering sore throat for the past week which along with a constant sinus headache makes me think I'm fighting off a cold. I hope that it doesn't go on for too long. If I wasn't on a diet I'd be curled up on the sofa with a coffee and plenty of biscuits. Oh well, Peter has got a beef stew going in the slow cooker which smells delicious.

Bitten ...

or stung, that has been my fate this afternoon Towards the end of this afternoon's walk I could feel a sore area on my thigh. When I got home it wasn't as I'd feared a tick bite (though they don't usually hurt) but something had definitely got me. I have a painful red area about 2 inches across with a red spot inside. Bite cream has been applied and an anti-histamine taken but it's still very sore. Hey ho that's my body's usual hyper reactive response to such things. Photos have been taken just in case.

It has been wild and windy all day. This morning all the windows including those along the sides of the house, were 'frosted' with salt. At least yesterday's rain washed off the sand which had stuck to everything. I went out to do a quick wash of the kitchen window so that we could at least see out while we ate our breakfast and was almost blown over by the gusting wind. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow?

Today's walk was in the hills behind Tal Y Bont towards Bont Goch. I picked up J and we met the others at Tal Y Bont. There we jumped into B's car and drove a few miles further inland. 

As we  parked by the side of the road we were passed by two cars and were greeted by the driver of the front one. She lives not far from us and often stops to chat. Not only that but she also knew another member of our group. Okay it's a small world here. They drove off but then we noticed both cars stopped in the road a little way up. Initially we thought they'd stopped to let someone pass but after a bit they reversed back and were then attempting to push the first car back to the side of the road. Naturally we all went to give a hand which got the job done quickly. It turned out that they had just collected the car from a farm but the engine had cut out. After our walk the car was still there being sorted out by a chap with a mechanic's van. That was something different.

Our walk took us up the side of the valley along a not often used path with many brambles growing across ready to trip up the unwary.

Somewhere along the way we came off the official footpath and ended up in a small wood.

There we found a well built shelter which looked as if it had been set up for Forest School type activities. There was even the frame of a pole lathe though B said it wasn't one made by him. 

As there were some folding chairs in the shelter we decided that it would be a good place to have our lunch.

We then made our way down through the woods where I managed to knock a tree over. Not really a tree, it was a rotten trunk about 5ft high. I put my hand on it and it broke off with a snap and hit the ground with a loud thump thankfully missing the person in front of me.

Back on the road we passed an interesting looking willow tree.

We picked up the footpath above the woods and then swung back round though some fields.

A parallel line of  old beech trees marked what was once a green lane.

Behind us we had views to the hill above Craig Y Pistyll waterfall.

While in front we could see as far as the sea. The hill on the left has an old hill fort, Pen Dinas Mynedd Gorddu, on top.

We got back to the cars just as a heavy shower began. Perfect timing.

Storm Boelo.

This morning.

 This afternoon.

No sooner did we get through one storm (no damage thankfully) than the next, Storm Boelo arrives. This one has brought a great deal of rain with not so much wind at least until later in the afternoon. Apparently all down to changes in the jet stream. Anybody still a climate change denier? 

While we're stuck indoors I thought it would be fun to share a video of The Climate Shop one of my regular charity shop haunts. In it I can see Peter's old wetsuit with the yellow legs hanging in the doorway. Hopefully somebody will find a use for it one day. Everything is priced in 'trees', 5 trees equals £1 which is the cost of planting new trees in Kenya. You can read more here.

While the weather has kept me indoors I've still had a very busy day. First I baked two Bara Briths to put in the freezer towards my Christmas hampers. 

Then because the state of the window sills has been bothering me for a while I decided to clean all three of the window sills in the kitchen/living room that house my various collections. Once I'd taken everything off the sitting room window sill I realised I needed to clean the Venetian blind first. And if the plants were all coming down then I might as well give the air plants their weekly swim a day early and clean out all the green algae from inside the hanging containers.

Let's just say it took a long time to get everything done my reward being to see it all looking nice and shiny again.

It would of course be more efficient not to have all those little collections but how boring. Each of those collections is a very carefully collated group of memories. As above - I could tell you where each item was collected (- Devon, St Ives, Stoke, Marazion, Plaka & Borth). 

Maybe I do take after my artist mother who often used stones in her installations (above - at the Berlin Wall) as well as oil lamps in raku fired bowls (below), and other things too.

Storm Austen.

When I woke this morning or rather was woken up by the alarm clock there was not a drop of rain nor a breath of wind. Sitting outside with my coffee the sky was barely lightening in the east while to the west it was blacker than any night sky. Fifteen minutes later the rain began, light at first and then ......

the storm arrived. By the time I was ready to leave for the stables the wind was howling around the house and whistling through the wires. It sounded so violent we checked the latest weather maps to see what the wind speeds were inland but as they were a lot less, 25mph, I decided to risk the twenty minute drive.

Even so I drove with one eye on the road and the other on any trees beside the road. My biggest concern was the long stretch between Capel Dewi and the Lovesgrove roundabout which has very tall trees on either side with hefty branches right across the road. The last bit of my route runs through a wooded hillside and also has many large potholes which were disguised by the water on the road. But I got there safely.

Arriving at the stables one of the gates for the railway crossing was closed but when I went to investigate I was told it had just blown shut. I ended up tying the gate back to a fence with some baler twine.

Of the four riders due to ride this morning I was the only one able to make it so I ended up having a half hour private lesson on Betsi. We started a bit later so I had some bonding time with Betsi in the stable. She likes a good scritch under her mane but even better is when I give her a scritch on her wither. Along with some very quiet crooning on my part Betsi began to drop her head, her lip began to quiver and eventually she yawned and out came the tongue, all signs of relaxation in a horse. I don't think she was so quite enamoured with crossing the yard to the school for some work. It was a good lesson, half the riding time of a group lesson but four to six times the individual focus ie all the time. It was useful to have constant assessment as I (mostly) rode a 20m circle working on creating bend and being on the bit at the same time.

Morrisons had noticeably fewer customers and most of those were clad in full waterproofs.  They must have a water problem with their roof as every now and then there was a pipe leading from some plastic taped under one of the false ceiling tiles, to large containers down on the floor of the aisles.

I still had to stop in town as I needed to visit the Post Office, at the back of what was W H Smiths but is now something else. I only went in a couple of charity shops and found this small paperweight to add to my cobalt collection. The bubbles in the glass look a bit like the 'snowstorm' of sea foam that is currently being blown over the cliff. I can even see some stuck on my study window.

Battening Down The Hatches.

The sea was quite wild in the morning but the clouds soon cleared giving us a dry day. (The rain started as I walked home from the Hall this evening.) A brief lull between days of heavy rain with Storm Austen due to blow in later tonight. Even after the storm we are due more heavy rain. 

Taking advantage to this one dry day I went out straight after breakfast and painted the garage windows. The undercoat I used is oil based which should give the wood more protection. I wore latex gloves while painting but had to take one off to remove the masking tape I'd put on the glass so now I have one very messy hand. I dislike the smell of white spirits so much that I'd rather have painted fingers and do my best to remove the paint in other ways.

The painting took so long that I only just made it in time for our Zoom class. Today's lesson focussed on talking about technology and also about Tryweryn, the village that was drowned in 1965 to make way for a reservoir that supplies water to city of Liverpool on a 999 year lease. One of the class told us that at the moment the water level is so low the remains of the village can be seen. Hopefully the rain that is currently falling and the rest of the winter rains will fill the reservoir otherwise no doubt the English cities will be looking to drown more Welsh valleys.

This political aspect didn't come up in the lesson but we did talk about 'Cofiwch Dryweryn' (remember Tryweryn) the slogan which can be seen painted on rocks in various places.

After class I had to quickly bake another batch of chocolate chip cookies. Yesterday's batch was a bit strange due to me misreading the amounts of ingredients. I use a recipe I wrote at the back of a cookery book that includes imperial and metric measures and also the amounts for making a smaller batch. I'd only used half the amount of flour needed which made for delicious soft biscuits but not quite what I wanted. Today's baking came out much better and I shall be sending those with a few of yesterday's and we'll just have to eat the remainder ourselves.

No sooner had I finished baking than it was time to quickly put away anything that might be blown around outside and then off to the Hall for disco aerobics. Tonight's session was a fund raiser for breast cancer research and together with donations from other classes this week Rachel thinks she's raised over £500. Nearly everyone wore pink and there was pink lighting to go with the usual disco lights. There were refreshments in the form of Prosecco and nozecco plus cakes and fruit to make it more of an event. It all adds to the fun.  

I can hear the rain pounding on the roof though so far not much in the way of wind. Fingers crossed that we don't get any flooding in the village. This afternoon some of the rowing club pulled the two Celtic longboats round to the car park on the other side of the road out of the way of the beach stones that get thrown over the sea wall in high winds.

 

All quiet this afternoon.

Memories.

A wild and stormy day in which to to remember the tragedy of Aberfan. Shockingly no one has ever been prosecuted for this even though there had been warnings about such event being possible. Making money was all the mining companies cared about.

We had a very wet morning and though the wind continued to blow the afternoon was dry and even sunny at times. I was glad the recycling bag was safely tucked in the cupboard next to the porch especially when I saw that the food caddy still with a heavy bag inside blown over and starting to be blown along the pavement. I went out as soon as the recycling lorry had been but they had kindly put the empty food caddy over into the space between the house an the garden wall.

 

In the morning I made a batch of chocolate cookies as a practice run for my Christmas baking and also as I plan to send some as a token birthday gift.

I spent the afternoon sitting at the table with a wonderful view of the waves getting my Journal up to date. I try to have a system of keeping daily notes that I collate and write up every three months but sometimes life takes over and suddenly I find I have 6 or even as today 9 months of notes to collate and write up in my journal. (Hooray for highlighters.) Sometimes I found that I'd missed making the notes or that I can't remember what they refer to and then I went back to the blog to refresh my memory. Looking at the blog with all its photos brings those memories straight back while the journal with a section for each season gives a good overview and is good for pinpointing exactly when something happened. Naturally I still keep all the daily notes in a folder so that I can double check. That's just the way I am.

This evening we have been to the Hall for a talk & discussion on flood and general emergency preparedness. Up here on the cliff we are not at risk from flooding but it is good to know what needs to be done in an emergency. We have volunteer emergency wardens in the village, two in our road, who will check on vulnerable people. 

There were some good ideas put forward as well and I think a wind up torch/radio will be the next thing on our shopping list. I didn't know that if the power goes out for the phone masts you won't be able to make an emergency 999 call after 30 mins to an hour as that is how long the back up power lasts. This is something that is being worked on at the moment.

Gloomy.

It's been a cold and clammy day today. While it was brighter outside there were frequent medium showers that ruled out any outdoor work. Often a strip of blue sky could be seen over to the west but as the winds were easterlies they kept bringing more clouds.

It was one of those days when I didn't want to do anything. Especially when so much is aching after yesterday's efforts. Even the birds have hunkered down.

Pilates tonight should help ease out those aches and it's good fun too.

 

I used being stuck indoors to get some admin jobs which had been on my mind making me feel guilty for not sorting them out. 

I also managed to play the piano for a while as this is another thing I feel guilty about not doing. Perhaps now that the house renovations are coming to an end (I hope) and there's less to do in the garden over the winter I will get myself into a better routine. As well as being good for the soul playing the piano is good for the brain and to keep my fingers from seizing up. That is after I've done all my Christmas making and before I start my January Spring clean.

We also hung the Bryan Pearce etching above the tv however because the light from outside is reflecting off the glass I think it may eventually have to go in the hall. But now there's a screw to hang a picture from, in the wall I may wait until we find a picture without glass, to hang there instead.