Still Wet.

It's a good thing Vytas and Sally are hardy souls who are perfectly happy whatever the weather as we've had typically wet Welsh weather for the whole of their visit. 

They arrived in the middle of a severe storm, nearly as bad as Storm Darragh with fierce winds and lashing rain all through the night.

By Sunday the storm had abated to just rain so after a cooked breakfast, almost a full English, we set off for Snowdonia. My original plan of going deeper into the mountains and to take the southern ascent to the rim of Cadair Idris was foiled by the fact that the road was closed due to being unstable after a landslide caused by Storm Darragh. Instead we walked the trail from Tan Y Coed in the foothills of Snowdonia. The trail was a mix of forestry tracks and winding paths through the trees. There were lots of uprooted trees some of which we had to climb over.

By the time we got high enough for some far reaching views the rain began to turn to hail which made us seek shelter in the forest for our cake and tea. (It was lovely having someone there to carry everything.) Later as we came back through the woods we walked alongside a pretty stream and a waterfall.

Afterwards we headed up to the Craft Centre at Corris as Vytas needed to find a Christmas present to replace one that had failed to arrive in time. We got to the Craft Centre with half an hour to spare before the Sunday closing time of 4.00 only to find all the little shops closed. All that was open was the central café but fortunately that also had a shop area with a reasonable selection of gift items many of which were locally made. 

After a good if wet day out we were only too glad to return to a warm home and our usual treat of a Chinese take away for dinner. 

Yesterday there was less rain and more low cloud and off we went to Nant Yr Arian - the Red Kite Centre. We hiked along the Ridgetop Trail from where on a normal day you have magnificent views right down to the coast. But yesterday the low clouds all but hid the view and even the valley floor below us. This is quite a tradition for Vytas and Sally who have hiked up a number of mountains in far off countries including Machu Picchu to enjoy far reaching views but instead were met with solid clouds. It was slightly drier in amongst the trees which were emerging eerily from the grey mist. There was even more evidence of Darragh's destruction with groups of fallen trees with their roots ripped right out of the ground. 

We got back to the visitors' centre in time to see the kites being fed and then had some closer views from the hide by the feeding area. The low light and also the fact that my camera was focussing on the tree branches between me and the birds made it just about impossible to get a decent photo. 

Our supper last night was the Brie stuffed sausages (very tasty but I used decent butcher's sausages not ones from the supermarket.) along with a selection a vegetables. And there it was that I managed to burn...... the peas! I wasn't keeping an eye on the peas, they boiled over and not only did the peas themselves get burnt but the water went underneath the saucepan and got burnt there. I'm still working on removing the burnt on muck without scratching the glass hob. A mix of washing up liquid, bicarbonate and vinegar seems to be doing the trick. The burnt peas were thrown out on the cliff grass for the birds and we made do with carrots, red cabbage and potatoes.

Sally and Vytas left straight after breakfast this morning as they would be calling in at family friends on the way and then going on to some of their friends to celebrate Christmas Eve. Since then I've been putting my study back to rights and preparing food for our Christmas Eve meal. I think I've managed to have 12 dishes if you count things like the butter. I've made enough for tonight and also for tomorrow as I'm done with cooking for the time being.