Truffle Making.

Still cold today with some blue skies and a very calm sea.

We've had a packed day. I didn't get to sleep until the early hours as my ribs (or rather the inter-costal cartilage) were very sore. I felt quite despondant to think that a relaxed afternoon of walking on level ground could set off the costochondritis until Peter pointed out it was more likely to be due to spending so long singing really using my diaphram  to increase the amount of air in my lungs. 

I couldn't sleep in as we were off to Mach to meet up our friends for some Welsh practise in the library. Before that we had the electrician come round to finish  off the work we'd asked him to do. Now we have lights in the garage, some powerful LED floodlights by the garage and in the back garden and most usefully for me, a double outdoor socket by the garden steps. I wil be able to plug in electrical tools without having to run an extension lead through the door into the kitchen. He's also labelled the switches in the fuseboard though I think it would be handy to distinguish between the four switches marked SOCKETS and the four marked LIGHTS. We'll have to go through those ourselves to see which rooms they refer to. 

Our session in the library was fun as usual as we went over the listening exercise and then repeated a dice game to help us remember how to use to have. It changes depending if it is I, You (singular), He, She (which is not the same as He), We, You (plural) and They. Then we got ambitious and used it in question form and as a negative. eg I have - Mae gen i, Do I have? -Sgen i, I don't have - Sgen i ddim. That got the old brain cells working. We finished by translating another story written for learners. This time it was about mixing up tatws which means either potato or tattoo depending if there is a circumflex over the w.

Afterwards I had a quick spin around the charity shops and got some wool. This is for a throw which I offered to crochet for Vytas after the one he had from home, made by me many years ago, succumbed to moths. I have an idea in mind around a colour palette of dark reds and yellow plus anything else that matches.

Vytas was on my mind again when I got home. It's his birthday soon so I made some 'Jumbo truffles' with a variety of fillings; crystalised ginger, dried apricots with crumbled ginger biscuits (yes I mixed up the ganaches and thought the apricot was the ginger but it works), chopped almonds and sultanas and finally plain ganache with freeze dried raspberries on top. While I was doing those the doorbell rang and it was two sample tiles I had ordered to look at for the bathroom. As the man handed over the large package I could hear a suspicious clattering which I got him to note on his device. Sure enough when I opened up the parcel the tiles were in pieces, 10 pieces to be exact. I've already emailed a photo to the company. I've fitted the bits together on the bathroom floor and although the 60 cms square matt tile is a much better size the gloss 30cms x 60 cms tile looks better and the background colour seems whiter. That's strange when they are supposed to be the same design. I'll ask them to replace the tiles with three of the gloss tiles so that I can see how much variation there is in the pattern but I'll also keep looking to see if anywhere else sells that gloss tile in a 60 cm square.

Now for a few more photos from yesterday.

There were stunningly clear relflections in the still water of the lake.