Frosty.

It was chilly this morning. I was glad I'd put a cloth over the car's windscreen as it saved me having to scrape it clean before setting off. Just a shame I foolishly put the screen wash on, something I do every time I get in the car, as it promptly smeared and froze across the windscreen.

It was still cold when I got to the stables. Four of us were trying to stand in a small patch of sunlight when along came Halen. I let him chase the end of my schooling whip for a while and then up into my arms he came. Nothing like a purring kitten to warm you up.

Today I rode Pacman. I don't think I've ridden him at all this year. He's taller but slimmer than Tex and quite responsive. The only thing we did today was to ride straight lines across the school. That sounds a bit minimal but it was more that we were working individually to improve ourselves and our horses. I'm always working on my posture to counteract my bent back and I try to ride with as light hands as possible. No hauling away on the reins to force the horse to 'be on the bit', just gentle asking and immediate release when the horse is going correctly. It seemed to work today.

Afterwards I went straight to Morrison's where they were beginning to fill the freezers after yesterday's freezer failure. I don't know if that was just old equipment or a cyber attack.

 

In town I bought Peter a couple of fleecy tops from Matalan as requested, took a bag of stuff to the Red Cross shop, bought the dragon for myself and the keyring for Peter in a couple of other charity shops and went to Lidl.

When I got home Peter had gone out rowing or rather coxing so I unpacked the shopping, put a saucepan of apples on to stew and had a shower. Now I'm going to have a large cup of tea and plonk myself in front of the tv.

Fish Fingers ....

Clear blue skies today and pretty cold. I've put a sheet across the car windscreen so that I don't have to worry about scraping off frost in the morning.

This morning I carried on with my mission to eradicate any mildew in the house. Before putting things back on my study windowsills I spotted some mildew on the very bottom of the muslin 'net' curtains. Easily dealt with by spraying with mould stuff ie bleach. 

There were some grey patches inside the terrace door which got a wipe down and then the finale was giving a good dousing to the bottom of the sitting room curtain liner (sheeting) which is suffering due to the damp in the wall. Yes, we're still waiting for the builder who said he would inject some additional damp course stuff to counteract the rising damp there. I saw him the other day and reminded him about the job and he did have the grace to look sheepish. He is a very good builder which is why he's always so busy. Not that there's much choice if you don't just want to take a chance.

Then it was time for our Welsh class. Today was all about counting years. 

You may be thinking that couldn't take three hours but oh my. To start with the word for year is feminine so two, three and four have a feminine form. There is one word for year when it's one year (un flwyddyn) and another (blynedd) when it's 2-10 years. But that's not all, some begin with b, some with f and some with m. We learnt this mnemonic - Fish Fingers Baked Beans More Beans Mmmmmm, to help us remember. And there's more, for x years sometimes uses for (am) and sometimes since (ers) and if you are using am then if the number name following begins with one of the consonants that mutates you need a soft mutation. That's why it took three hours for one small topic. 

At this time of the year every scrap of sun in the garden is greatly appreciated. Maybe more so than if we had year round sun.

Our neighbours had scaffolding put up this afternoon, presumably they are getting a new flat roof. That's been the only bit of excitement today.

It's going to be a cold evening and night so I better wrap up well to walk down to the Hall for disco aerobics.

A Coast Walk.

We had planned to go for a walk in Tal Y Bont woods today as I thought that Peter could manage the three mile walk but the morning began grey and damp so we put our plans on hold. 

Later on the sun broke through, at least at the coast but by that time Peter was busy on his pc sorting out the end of my phone contract.

While the weather was looking dismal I played around with my basic cookie recipe using whatever was in the cupboard. I used dark brown sugar, mixed spice and mixed dried fruit for a festive taste and substituted oats for some of the flour.  I think that the ratio of butter to dry ingredients wasn't quite right as when I baked the first batch they spread too much. Hoping to fix that I reduced the oven temperature only to have the biscuits spread even more. So much so that I resorted to reshaping them before they cooled down. This was partially successful and of course they taste fantastic. Well, anything with butter and sugar does in my view. We're quite happy to eat the mis-shapes and there are enough 'good' biscuits to be given away in the Christmas hampers.

I saw the afternoon's sunshine and having had enough of being domestic I took myself off for a walk along the cliff to Aberwennol and then back along the shore under the cliffs. I had checked the tide times and the tide was on its way out with two hours until low tide.

It's a steep climb up to the war memorial but the views are worth it. 

Above Aberwennol beach I could see where a section of the soil on the cliff top had slumped. The cliffs themselves are prone to a small amount of erosion so I always try not to walk right underneath them when I'm walking on the beach.

For most of the walk I had to keep my eyes down as I walked over small to large boulders. I had my phone with me but how silly to twist an ankle and have to call for help.

When I got home I wiped down everything I keep on the windowsills in my study and cleaned the sills themselves. Mostly dust and a very small amount of mildew has now been banished . A good thing I quite like the smell of bleach.

Later I'll be off to choir.

Lastly - so many plants have been flowering at odd times this year and now an azalea is starting to bloom. With temperatures set to drop sharply by the end of the week I don't think they'll last very long.

Icy Winds.

It's been a cold and grey day but at least the rain didn't begin until later in the afternoon.

I'm glad I did go to the zoo as I was able to clear several planted areas as well as the winding path/ maze. An extra job was cutting down a large hosta whose leaves had been rendered yellow and floppy by the cold. I wasn't sure if they were safe to give to the pigs so I got another helper to have a look on his phone (mine was in the car) and they are toxic to cats, dogs and horses. So they all went into the giant wheelbarrow for someone to haul up to the compost heaps up the lane. 

I gave the pigs several tub loads of weeds which included nettles, bindweed and roses. It's probably not the right time to be pruning roses but I always cut back any branches that visitors could be attacked by. 

Back home I ironed and hoovered before having a sit down and very soon I'll be off to Pilates. By car if it's still raining.

A few more photos of the ruined farm from Sunday.

 

While the farmhouse is a complete ruin the farm buildings are maintained as the farmer is still using them. 

Taken inside the ruined farmhouse. As our walking group is called The Headless Wanderers naturally some of them had to pose inside the enormous fireplace.

Cold And Bright.

Bright and sunny today with a bitterly cold wind blowing from the east. Ever the optimist I hung some washing out on the line but the light breeze was only sufficient to get the pillowcases to an ironable state. Although I would prefer not to have sheets drying in the utility room that's where the duvet cover has ended up this evening.

I've had a productive housewifely sort of day juggling cleaning and baking (a Bara Brith and chocolate and peanut butter cookies). 

The mildew on the bedroom windowsills needed dealing with and of course that meant giving the collection of jugs and other bits and pieces a wash as well. And since one job led to another I washed down everything that looked dusty and cleaned the mildew inside the wardrobe. It was then I noticed small faint yellow blotches on the other wardrobe door which I guessed were another kind of fungus. More wiping down with the mould spray (which is probably just bleach in a fancy bottle) and the blotches are no more.

 

It was only after all that was done and the sun was beginning to go down that I headed off for a beach walk on the way to collect my updated prescription. Walking into that icy wind was .... bracing.

Phew !

The day began with plenty of pink in the sky, then sun followed by a brief shower with clouds and sun for the rest of the time.

Today's walk began in the woods at Tal Y Bont. This was where what I thought was might be a major problem began. My camera wasn't able to focus. 

Thinking that it might be a problem with either the lens or the eyepiece I gave both of those a wipe but still everything was blurry. Wondering if it was just a problem with the eyepiece I took a few pictures but when I pressed the button to review them they were still blurry. I even wondered if it was a problem with my eye. Changing the settings did nothing either. Thinking that somehow there was condensation inside the camera I put it away and use my phone to take pictures instead even though I can't see clearly what is on the screen.

Later when I got home and uploaded the camera photos they all turned out to be in focus. An investigation of the camera controls eventually led me to a dial hidden underneath the eyepiece which changes the focus of the image that you see. A few turns of that and all was back to normal. Big sigh of relief!

 

The sunny spells lit up the yellows and golds of the beech trees in the wood standing on an orange carpet of fallen leaves.

And the bright orange of the red oaks.

We stopped for lunch at the ruined farmhouse (Brongoch).

Before carrying on to walk through the fields and along quiet lanes.

It was especially beautiful when the sun came out.

We had to climb over this gate which was wired to a very wobbly gatepost at one end and to a bush, also wobbly, at the other.

Then back through the fields past the hillfort of Caer Allt-Goch.  

On our return to Tal y Bont some of us decamped to D's house where we chatted in front of a wood stove with tea and home-made apple cake.

Damp.

We've been stuck in hazy conditions all day. The day began with rain which eased off by the afternoon.

I was so tired by the end of yesterday I knew I needed a 'rest' day. The trouble is the things I like doing don't really involve resting.

I compromised by pottering about in the garage, hanging things back on hooks and sorting through boxes of random 'stuff'. A lot more space is beginning to emerge and I'm hopeful that one day the whole garage will be organised so that when something is needed it will be easy to find.

 

Another job done was to hunt on-line for new bedside lamps. Our tasteful touch lamps have reached the end of their lives turning on and off at random. They are old and apparently the workings inside do fail eventually.

Argos proved to have a surprisingly good range of lamps and I've narrowed the choice down to two. (Apart from being aesthetically pleasing they needed to be touch lamps with several light levels.)  Peter likes both so I've made rough scale drawings so that I can have a good ponder as they aren't cheap.

Finally I had a go at learning a beginner line-dance that Rachel introduced us to last Thursday. Usually we stick to 80's disco and sometimes more modern pop but line-dance was a first. This dance 'The House of Bamboo' took her fancy so we're having a go. At least it's easier than the choreography for a video competition for disco classes that we tried to learn the week before. That was full of steps we've never done and we didn't do very well.

A lone but loud buff-tailed bumble bee visiting the hebe. It may have been a queen stocking up for winter hibernation (or dormancy) as the poor workers and males die off at the end of summer.