Wild.

I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas. As you may have guessed we've been away for a few days but returned home yesterday evening.

On Christmas Day we drove to Whitchurch to stay with Vytas and Sally in their new home. Sally's parents were there to share a very convivial Christmas dinner, turkey cooked in a slow cooker (very tasty and moist) with all the trimmings followed by a flaming Christmas pudding and home-made Christmas cakes. After that we were all too full to even attempt to sample the after dinner cheese selection. We then spent the evening playing a board game version of an escape room working together to solve some very obscure clues.

The next day we went for a stroll along the River Test, a chalk river which flows through and around the town. In the clear waters of the river we could see many rainbow trout some of which were nearly 2ft long. Plenty of signs around banning fishing though, even CCTV notices.

The route took us through the local park/common which is popular in the summer. Not so many people about when we walked there probably due to the threatening rain and muddy conditions underfoot. We finished our walk at a local pub for drinks, a bite to eat for some and coffee for me. The current restrictions, they keep changing from day to day and depending which country you're in, allowed us to take off our masks once we were sat at a table and it was table service only. 

The next day (yesterday) Sally and I went to a large garden centre where I was able to spend some gift garden vouchers on indoor hanging plants and a number of herbs from the reduced section. I resisted the temptation to buy any more Christmas decorations even though they were 50% off. Meanwhile Peter loaded up our car so that we could set off once Sally and I returned. The homeward journey was slower than the one up due to a considerable amount of traffic on the motorway but once we were over the bridge into Wales the roads were clear. We stopped at Morrisons in Aber to pick up milk and a few other things including some Chinese dishes for an easy supper. Our relaxing evening was interrupted by the loud bangs of display sized fireworks being let off near the Lifeboat Station. I love fireworks so rushed out to watch them but there were a number of complaints on the local FB page from people whose dogs and cats were terrified by the nose which was extremely loud. 

Today we had a leisurely start watching the wild grey seas and at times the rain lashing at the windows. I've been tidying away the last of the pre-Christmas mess as well as the usual housework. Peter gave me a trail-cam for Christmas and while the re-chargeable batteries are on charge I read through the instructions. Hopefully I'll be able to set it up tomorrow so I can see what wildlife comes to visit the water dish/ bird bath in the front garden. Probably just rats and mice. Once that's set up I'll read the instructions for the dash cam which we had running and see if I can pull off some good photos of the mountains. The only other thing I've done today apart from watch 'Call The Midwife' is plant out the herbs and put the other plants on the coffee table for the time being.