Snowy.

Still cold and still plenty of snow on the hills.

Driving up to Mach for our Welsh session the amount of snow and ice increased as we approached this town on the edge of Snowdonia. The most treacherous part of our journey was after we parked in the ice packed bowling club car park and then walked over icy pavement to the library. There was grit on the pavement but the amount seemed to vary shop by shop so maybe it was up to the shop keepers to clear away the ice and snow, or not. We have a municipal salt bin on the corner of our road which should it ever get icy would be very dangerous with the extra incline possibly sending cars slipping over the cliff. 

Only three of us today in the library as our fourth member has a bad cold but we ploughed our way through another short story and shared our confusion over the many forms of to have (when it's something you possess). So far we've been taught; mi ges i, mi gaeth o, mae gen i, sgen ti, sgan Dylan, gan Dylan and I can see at least another 6 variations in the next few pages of our course book. Then I collared the lovely Welsh speaking library lady to help me with the pronnunciation of all those tricky words in the carols. It's knowing how to pronounce W that gets me confused. In Welsh O is always said like the O in oxygen. There's not really an O as in oh but W can be OO or euw but it's hard to remember that when looking at written words. 

I had a quick look, or rather a very careful walk, at the charity shops. I nearly bought two more glass paperweights but resisted. One was very pretty but turquoise rather than cobalt blue and a clear one had a slight yellow tinge so I put them back.

Back home I packed up the parcels ready to take to the Post Office. A short sentence for what turned out to be a long and tiring job. I began by climbing up into the loft (which is still worryingly slightly damp) to get some boxes. Then the biscuits were put in separate cellophane packets, saved from greetings cards, before going into fancy tins. More wrapping of the chocolates and other small items and then with bated breath I weighed the parcels on my kitchen scales. One is just under the 2kg limit so I hope my scales are accurate. At last the parcels were sealed and addressed and all the gift wrapping stuff put away. Somehow there seemed to be more going back into the storage box even though I'd used up some rolls of ribbon and some of the gift bags.

Even then I couldn't stop for a rest as the builder was due to be coming tomorrow to cut a hole in the bathroom wall and fit the window. It was only after I'd taken down all the pictures, flags and sword from the corridor and covered everything else with dust sheets that the message came through that it would be too cold for cementing so they aren't coming until Thursday. The dust sheets can stay until then and I have stuff to cover the doors to keep out the dust that will come when they cut the hole. At least that's the plan.