Grey.

Gloomy and grey today with some rain in the morning. It's cold enough now for the heating to go on, at least for part of the day.

After breakfast I had a chocolate session, coating and decorating all the truffles I made yesterday. I think with the small amounts I make it's not worth trying to temper the chocolate to get a shine on it. 

L to R, nutty, apricot, chocolate, boozy. There wasn't a lot of chocolate left over, just enough to pour out and sprinkle with the remaining apricots and some sprinkles. A little treat for today including some for Peter's evening snack. Then, rather than have the remaining cream sitting in the fridge tempting me to pour a generous helping on my morning porridge, oh so decadent, I froze it in small portions. My book said to whip lightly and add a little sugar and then it will keep for up to six months. I used silicone cup cake cases to freeze small helpings which I can enjoy once my weight has come down. Doing this I discovered that some of the cases have small holes which let the cream out into the tray so Speedy had a bit more than the cream pot to lick out. He was happy.

Once all the washing up was done I escaped to the outdoors. I emptied out a big concrete trough ready for it to go up on the terrace when it's done and did some tidying and weeding around the front garden. Mostly ivy and bramble shoots. To end the afternoon I sat on the terrace and made a start on my next project which is to make my version of decorations for an outdoor Christmas tree using the random bits of plastic rope I've found on the beach.  

This is my idea so far, tassels/pom-poms made by wiring loops of string and then teasing open the strands. They can either hang from the tree branches or maybe be wired upwards like flowers. I didn't want to do anything too elaborate so I think these'll do.