Cold.

A fair amount of cloud with some sunny spells today. It was also very cold but an enjoyable crisp coldness which is so preferable to chilly damp conditions.

While I wasn't able to spot any snow from here the photos below posted on FB by the Snowdonia Flight School show a good sprinkling of snow in Snowdonia today.

Our neighbour was out putting up his lights this morning and this year has put another set of white lights over the hedge that separates his house from the one next door. (The lights on his gutters are multi coloured ones that change colour quite dramatically.) The plane in the photo below was a military plane, a big fat bomber type of plane, that had been doing the Mach Loop .

My plan for today was to mix up two kinds of biscuit dough before the zoom class and then do the baking afterwards. I'd already set up my web cam and microphone when Peter informed me that an email had come through saying the class was cancelled. Our tutor isn't well, not sure if it's covid or just a cold or the 'flu all of which are doing the rounds at the moment but the class will be added on at a later date. Poor thing, she still has to make up her sick days.

So I went on with my baking which took up most of the rest of the day. I'm not thrilled with the way the peanut butter and chocolate cookies turned out but even though Peter suggested he had these ones and I bake another batch I'm not going to do that. Usually for the Christmas I drizzle a trail of chocolate over the biscuits which looks very effective. This time I tried to save on the mess of melting chocolate and get more chocolate on by placing a square of chocolate on each hot biscuit and letting it melt in situ. I'd done it in the summer and it looked good but maybe because the chocolate and/or the air was cooler but the result didn't look as good. I'll go back to drizzling the chocolate next year. I put white chocolate buttons on the double chocolate bicuits and they were fine. By the time I'd finished and cleaned up I had had enough of baking.

Here's Speedy being silly. He'd not allowed on the table (on the right) but has a tea towel on the window sill and one on the radiator for an extra cosy spot.

I tried to replace the radiator towel which had fallen to the floor but every time I put it back up came a pair of paws to drag it back down again until eventually he got tired of the game

Tonight was the last disco aerobics class for the year. It's a good thing it's downhill all the way as I marched at my quickest pace to get there. Partly because I was a bit late but also because it was so cold. They were just starting as I got there but the biggest surprise was to find enormous curtain cutting off the back half of the hall. No choice but to be nearer to the stage. That did make it easier to follow the steps which I am starting to be able to copy though the arms don't always co-ordinate. At times it's easier to forget the arms and just focus on getting the step sequences sorted so that I'm going in the same general direction as everyone else. Still fun though. Walking home at a more leisurely pace I was able to enjoy the sight and sound of the waves hitting the shore despite my face feeling very cold.