Chilly.

The day began with driving rain and a bitterly cold wind. The wind stayed throughout the day while the rain eased off from late morning and we even got to see some sun.

Once Peter had done his morning session on the exercise bike I cut his hair with the clippers (he'd better not get on my bad side or I might accidentally put the wrong guard on the clippers) before going out for a beach walk. In view of the bad weather I togged up with waterproof trousers and long gortex jacket which with the hood up kept me nice and warm as I marched along the beach. Naturally it didn't rain and I even saw two men wearing shorts, one walking a dog and one with a child. Their legs were very red though.

There was plenty of debris on the beach and I brought home a pocketful of coloured rope as well as leaving a load more in and by the bins at the top of the slipway. I left one long tangle of rope next to the bin in case somebody could find a use for it. Back home I rinsed out the bits of rope I brought home as I have an idea I want to try out.

There was also a dead seal pup on the beach, almost full grown but still with its white fur. Sad.

On my way back from the beach I called in at the shop for some double cream. While I was paying I overcame my natural reticence and asked the girl (in her twenties which makes her young by my standards) at the till if she was a Welsh speaker. She said she wasn't but knew some, at the last check about 40% of the village are Welsh speakers, so I was able to ask her if she used hoffi (hoffee) or licio (lick ee on) for like. Our teacher had told us that both words are used but she uses licio. She also told us that many people use hoffi thinking think licio is derived from the English and not as authentic which isn't the case so I thought I'd ask people around here. When I'm out I try to greet people in Welsh but until today only get Hello back. But a chap from up the road responded with p'nwan da (pnoun dah) to my p'nwan da, result! 

Back home I got on with making a batch of truffles which is why I'd needed the cream. I'm only making one box to send as a gift (I'm sure the recepient doesn't read this blog) so really I should have stuck to one kind but being me I went for four kinds; plain, nut, apricot and boozy. Lots of stirring of small dishes of ganache which have now been rolled into small balls and are sitting in the fridge. Tomorrow I'll be melting chocolate to dip the middles into and decorating them.