Chicken Soup.

At last a day of sunshine. (The forecast for tomorrow is not looking so nice and there is still no email regarding the walk so who knows what I'll be doing.)

Peter was coughing badly yesterday evening and most of the night so I decided to make that good old folk remedy, chicken soup. 

I had most of the ingredients but no celery so I went early to the shop to see if they had some. But they didn't, they don't stock so much until the holiday season starts at Easter. They did have things like fresh blueberries and raspberries, tempting but pricey and the leeks caught my eye. Well, they are the same shape and colour as celery but as chicken soup needs hours of cooking they would have turned to mush.

Making the soup has been a good way to use up random veg from the fridge and the last of the Christmas parsnips and carrots. That's tonight's supper sorted. Oh and Peter is hardly coughing today. Let's hope he's on the mend.

 

I sat out on the terrace first thing and later enjoyed the sun sitting on the wall in the front garden. It's been so nice that the washing on the line has dried (I think) but just to make sure it is on the airer in the utility room until tomorrow. I was also able to leave the bedroom window open for most of the day to give the room a good airing.

My afternoon has been spent finishing off Paddington. The length of the legs was a bit of an issue as the original version had short legs but the latest film has him with much longer legs. Still he's done, just a few accessories to do or find and that's another project completed.

Stormy In Borth.

I'm not too sure how to describe the weather today. Possibly changeable or more likely that Borth has been under the edge of a weather front and been bearing the brunt of the grey, wet weather.

The seas were wild first thing this morning but fortunately it was dry so once I'd wrapped up well I was able to enjoy my morning coffee outside.

As I sat there with the wind on my face my thoughts were busy with my next few projects. Once Paddington bear is done, which I hope to do tomorrow, the next thing will be installing two more water butts. 

With almost non-stop rain it's hard to imagine a time when I will need to water the garden but it does seem a shame to let all that water go to waste. One water butt will be at the front of the house and will make it easier to water the troughs of montbretia along the street wall. So far I've ordered all the taps etc that I need and hopefully I can finish that project next weekend. Even though the drain pipe diverters are supposed to shut when the water butts are full I haven't found them too reliable and will be putting in overflow pipes as well.

Once that's done I can make a start on building a compost bin between the garage and the block wall around the oil tank. It will have two levels for old and new compost with removable front panels for easy access. That's the idea, at least. 

We didn't do a lot in our riding lesson this morning, just 10m circles and transitions plus sitting trot. I think that most of us are able to work independently on whatever we and our horses need. For Tex it's softening onto the bit, bending his neck and his body and each week we get a little better. There were seven of us in the lesson today and as well as not running into each other we had to give May the new(ish) horse extra room as she was a bit skittish today. 

When we came out of the indoor school the sky was blue dotted with fluffy white clouds, somewhat different to Borth in the morning. The photo above is when I got home from shopping.

It stayed sunny as I did my shopping with the cloud beginning to build up later in the afternoon and by the time I got home there was little sun to be seen.

In town I took a chainsaw bag with some tools to the Climate shop. The red wellies were still there so I bought them for Paddington. In another charity shop I bought a pad of lined paper and page dividers which Peter had asked for as he's currently organising his paperwork and folders. 

Before my last shopping stop at Lidl I went to Argos. I had noticed that when I switched off the hairdryer I bought there not so long ago, there was often a flash from inside the handle. Not good with wet hair and hands. Today I made sure to have my phone with me as the receipt was in my e-mails but I had forgotten to charge the phone and it was as dead as a dodo. The assistant did try and look on her computer but to no avail so I'll have to go back next week. I'll probably print out the receipt rather than relying on peering at my phone screen. While I was there I bought a new hairdryer, a different one hopefully of better quality.

I spent longer than usual in town and by the time I'd got another pan of apples stewing and prepped a salad for tonight's supper it was a while before I sat down with a big mug of tea and a giant pretzel (one of those bready ones) from the community food place. I'd done quite enough for one day.

Stormy.

Incredibly wild and stormy today with strong south-westerly winds. 

More work on prepositions in our Welsh class. My brain had turned to mush by the end.

After class I did a little work on Paddington's hat, I think I'm getting there.

Will be driving to the hall later for disco aerobics as the weather conditions are atrocious.

 

Windy.

It has been very windy all day. The morning began with blue skies over the sea but grey clouds heavy with rain inland. Luckily the wind blew away the clouds and for the afternoon it was blue skies all round.

Poor Peter was not feeling good this morning after yet another bad night's sleep. It looks like he has caught this nasty cold (one that comes with aches and pains) that is doing the rounds. I suspect he may have picked it up at his Spanish conversation group last week as last night I chatted to someone was in the group and she mentioned that she is only just getting over her cold/'flu. I can understand people wanting to get on with their lives but when you're in your 70s it's harder to get over these infections.

 

And on a cheerier note - this is my sunny spot where I have a cup of coffee in the mornings. (When I'm up really early I sit on the terrace to view the world.) A garden kneeler makes a perfect cushion on the wall of the middle raised bed which is just the right height for sitting on.

From my seat I can cast my eye over the garden and look at the sea and the village through the gap in the hedges. Not easy to see in the photo but I am able to see the Cambrian mountains above the hedge on the right and Snowdonia above the hedge on the left. This morning was so nice that I had to have a second cup of coffee so I could enjoy the view for longer. 

Of course since it has been sunny I've spent my time working in the garden. I wasn't too pleased to find more cat evidence in the garden. The suggestions on-line include growing lavender and rue as cats don't like their smell. Hmm, I've a number of lavender bushes and rue growing in the shingle so that's not helpful. I'll see if coffee grounds and citrus peel are any better at deterring cats.

While I was outside I turned my attention to the tiny pond / water feature. I swirled out the blanket weed of which there wasn't too much and then realised that sphagnum moss was growing in the water in large quantities. It wasn't hard to remove though I did check carefully for water snails which I then returned to the water. It's good to know they survived the winter. By the time I had finished I had nearly a whole bucket of moss which is a lot for the size of the pond.

Time now to relax and have a sandwich as choir is starting half an hour earlier this week to allow people to get there before they close the main road.

Almost.

Back to grey but not too cold weather.

As it wasn't raining off I went to the zoo. My plan to fill a dumpy bag in the back of the car with woodchip for the new paths worked - almost. Unfortunately the heap we had thought was woodchip turned out to be just leaves and twigs. Not suitable for putting on the paths. 

However there was the remains of an old pile of woodchip and I managed to scrape together about half the dumpy bag full. The suggestion of driving in through the back gate was a good one as it brought me right next to the old play area. I used the woodchip I had for the spirals and can do no more until there is more woodchip. A shame as it would have been nice to see the whole job done but I think it looks so much better than before. Job done -almost.

When I tried to padlock the gate shut again due to the fence having moved in the last storm the bolt wouldn't go far enough into the post to let me put the padlock on. Not liking to have things not working I whittled away at the existing hole in the post with a table knife I use for gardening and eventually got the bolt in and the padlock on.

I then gave the gravel garden by the wolf-dogs a good going over. There's a tree right next to it which is either shedding leaves or small cones over the gravel. And when it's not cones it's long catkins. The catkins are the worst because as they age they start to fall apart when you try to pick them up. There are still plenty more catkins on the tree (somebody lend me a chainsaw) but either I give up entirely and let the gravel turn into a mess or keep at at. 

There were not many visitors at the zoo, only a group of youngsters from the local college on an animal handling course. It was so peaceful working with just the sound of the birds, wind and animals plus the occasional passing train and the neighbouring farmer on a quad bike in the field of sheep. Much nicer than sitting indoors even if my knee doesn't think so.

Before coming home I drove back up the lane and filled some bags with lovely compost from the 'old' compost heap which is more of a mountain than a heap. I've put that compost on my vegetable beds and around the fruit bushes in the back garden as the soil there is pretty poor.

The rockery is already full of colour. I need to trim back the sedum (more spares for the gravel garden) and the red aubretia at the back needs moving.

Off to Pilates soon.

Stuck!

That was me last night. Even though I use a heavy duty hand cream the manual work I do means that I tend to get splits in my fingers by the nails. So far the best way to keep the splits closed to encourage them to close up and to stop the pain, is with a drop of superglue and a tiny square of tissue. (Vytas told me about that one.) I was regluing my current split last night and didn't notice that the glue had run down between my fingers. My poor fingers were firmly stuck together from the knuckles onwards. It took warm soapy water and a teaspoon to ease my fingers apart - eventually. Better be more careful in future.

Today started grey and brightened up later in the afternoon.

 

In the morning I had to walk down to the pharmacy to ask about my prescription. I had only a day's worth of one sort and there had been no text message telling me my repeat prescription was ready for collection. When I got there it turned out my prescription had been ready over two weeks ago. They claimed to have sent a text but this has happened before. (Peter had got his notification last week and mine goes to his phone as well.) I shall have to make a note of the date and go down and ask rather than wait for a text. Still at least we don't have to go to town to the pharmacy. That would be annoying.

I had a stroll along the beach on my way home.

I spent the rest of the day gardening. More weeding in the front garden which for the moment is weed-free, and one of the large clumps of pheasant grass dug out. It was too big for its spot so I've replanted another two feet away.

Then I carried on with the weeding, this time everything growing between the slabs of the paved path that runs up the side of the house. And of course I carried on weeding in the back garden. Got to keep on top of those pesky weeds.

It was lovely when the sun eventually shone. I took the opportunity to take some more 'after' photos indoors for the photobook I plan to make.

Sun shining through the prism film on the hall window.

New Curtain.

Much as I enjoy chatting and walking with my Sunday group it was too wet and gloomy today and I opted for a dry day at home. 

Instead of walking in the rain I spent the afternoon making a new curtain for the wardrobe in our bedroom. Being very aware of my lack of skill when it comes to sewing I worked carefully. Lots of pinning and checking to avoid major re-dos. 

Mindful also of my ancient sewing machine's vagaries with tension and the plate that moves I took the precaution of doing some trial runs using offcuts of the muslin and cotton fabrics. There was also the fact that the sheeting I was using for the lining was wider than the muslin fabric. I suppose I could have simply trimmed the sheeting but instead I made some folds to save having to sew yet another seam. 

It all turned out okay though I am aware of a slight difference in colour with the wardrobe doors. Which are themselves slightly different to the woodwork around the old shower that I painted. The doors remain unpainted since we moved in. I guess the builder thought they were close enough to the wall colour I'd chosen. I'll get round to giving them a fresh coat of paint one day.

This was the curtain I took down. Although it matches the curtains at the windows (and I have fabric to lengthen it) I much prefer having a plain curtain there.

After sewing with all that kneeling and then twisting to hook up the curtain my knees and back were aching more than if I'd been riding. And I know which activity I prefer