Grey.

It's been a cold grey day today. No rain or strong winds but looking higher up the clouds are moving quickly in the southerly wind.  Last night's full moon lit up this cloudy procession too.

Recently I'd noticed a musty smell in Peter's study and thought it was due to the window never being opened. However today I thought to move a few things and there was a mouldy patch on the side wall. Not good for selling the place. However a bottle of bleach and water spray, kitchen roll and cotton buds along with a lot of hard work got the worst of the staining removed. The cotton buds were needed to clean every crevasse of the textured wallpaper. I suspect that there is still some more mould lurking behind a small bookcase also against that wall. That I can deal with once Peter packs the books away.  

I also finished off the second of the mittens I've been knitting. The fiddliest bit was knitting the thumb with 17 stitches on three needles especially hard when a cat decides to sit on your lap. They are quite large to fit Vytas' hands.  

Sunny.

Another bright and sunny day. The countrywide weather warning for the weekend has been upgraded to 'danger to life' from being hit by flying or falling objects. We'll have to hope that there isn't any damage to Red Roofs though of course the shed in the back garden falling down would be a good thing.

I had to go into town today to collect our prescriptions. Peter dropped me off on the way in and we were able to meet up so I didn't have the long slog back up the hill. There was the usual fun and games at the pharmacy, all of Peter's medicines were ready but only half of mine. This I was told after my second spell of queueing up as initially I'd been told it would be ready in 10 minutes. Luckily Peter has to go into town tomorrow so he'll go and collect the missing items. Or at least try.

I had my usual spin around the charity shops and came home with this bag of bracelets. I was a little disappointed when I looked at them at home. Depending on how the light hits them the beads either look like luscious marbles or boring round plastic beads. I'm still thinking the blue and green ones will look good hanging in a window.

While I was in town I dropped off a warm and waterproof work coat at the library. They have a coat rail where you can donate coats or jackets and hats, scarves and gloves and anyone who needs can help themselves. Our library has changed an awful lot in the last few years. The money councils get from the government has been cut by 60% in the last 10 years meaning that spending on 'frivolities' like libraries is at a minimum. Our library is now a charity and runs all sorts of interesting events from the Fab Lab where you can use a 3-d printer and laser cutters to make things, knitting and crochet group, IT support to pamper sessions and games afternoons.

 Tonight's pretty sunset.

Sunny.

Bright and sunny today with almost no wind.

I was up early enough to catch the pink reflected sunrise. But contrary to the old saying we had a lovely day. Lovely enough to head out to Mortehoe for a walk around the point. The free parking spots were filled with builders' vans (one of the pubs is being renovated), so we had to park in the car park. At least the winter rates are cheaper than in summer.

Out on the headland the sheep were back lazily grazing and ignoring us. We almost had the point to ourselves only passing two other couples out for a walk. 

The shady sections of the path were a little cool as well as being a bit muddy and slippery but once we got around to the south facing side it felt like a spring day. We were glad that we'd decided to wear bodywarmers instead of jackets. 

So nice to be sitting in the sun enjoying the sight of the waves while we drank our coffee.

While driving Peter had to be careful to avoid the many potholes in the roads. You expect this on country roads but there were as many or more potholes along the main roads when I drove through town on Monday. Just about every manhole and drain cover had large holes around them, enough to damage wheels or to unbalance a cyclist. 

After we got home I baked some chocolate and peanut butter cookies for Peter. Today's variation from the recipe was the substitution of white sugar for the soft brown sugar which we were out of. They still taste nice. 

Another pretty link and orange streaked sunset tonight so tomorrow should be fine but Storm Ciara is due this weekend bringing strong winds and rain. 

Windy.

It's been a very windy day, bright and sunny in the morning and clouding over in the afternoon. My first load of washing on the line dried quickly and I was able to run another machine load and get that nearly dry too. I could hear lots of baaing from the sheep and a closer look showed the lambs out on the field with the ewes and a lot of seagulls.

Extra jobs today included the ironing and packing up another box. I'd picked up 2 boxes at the garden centre yesterday and I hoped that one of them was tall enough for my rolls of wrapping paper. Unfortunately I need something a good 6" taller/longer for the paper so instead I packed all our bike stuff, helmets, tabards, tools etc. Even if I only pack one box a day it will reduce the work when we come to the final packing.

Looking through some of my Borth photos yesterday I decided to copy all the ones that show the interior and garden and put them into a folder which has the photos sent by the builders etc. to make it easier to track progress and make plans. It's strange looking at the photos because they seem like a world away while being here feels like being in Limbo. 

The first primroses in the front garden. I took the photo while it was overcast as the sun makes them glow so brightly all detail is lost. 

Wet.

Nope, we aren't back in Borth but I forgot to take my camera with me when I went out and haven't taken any photos today. I keep a copy of the view of the bay right in front of me propped up against my monitor to remind me what there is to look forward to.

Here it's been a grey and wet day. I had an appointment to see my GP later in the afternoon which put my pottering about routine out of kilter. I wanted to fit in some shopping and although it would have made sense to shop first and then go to the surgery I've no idea how long I would be at my various shopping stops and I dislike having to rush to meet a deadline. Instead I did my end of day exercises before I left. That was fine as I'd done the morning ones earlier than usual. I always take a notebook with observations and questions to ask the doctor. Appointment time is supposed to be only 10 minutes so it's best to be organised. There was a query over the number of one painkiller which somehow seemed to have been reduced but it got sorted straight away. The doctor agreed that I should increase the dose of the new pills as well and this time I made sure that I walked away with the paper prescriptions in my hand rather than go through the palaver that happened last time there was a change to my prescription. I also asked if I could have a pneumonia vaccination. I'd never heard of this until Peter came home from an annual review and mentioned he'd been offered one. It's offered to everyone over 65 and lasts for 5 years. I'm only 63 but as I had repeated bouts of bronchitis as a child and any cold I have goes to my chest I thought I might qualify. My doctor says she'll talk to the nurses who are dealing with the vaccinations and let me know. Peter has to go back for another BP check and is going to take up his vaccination. I mean who wouldn't?

After the doctor's I had 5 more places to visit; the garden centre for boxes and to check out the shiny things and look longingly at their spectacular but pricey orchids, H&M looking for another big grey fleece throw, not yet, Lidl's and Tesco's for food etc and finally the charity shop to drop off 2 bags of clothes. Unfortunately waiting for my prescriptions to be filled took so long that I was too late to drop off the clothes. Driving home through heavy rush hour traffic while the sun went down was an unpleasant reminder of my working days. Getting home just in time to put the bin out and then rushing to make some supper is not in line with my currently relaxed lifstyle.

Grey.

Windy again today but instead of bright blue skies we had often wet grey ones.

While washing up I realised I had missed out the kitchen orchid from yesterday's 'treatment' so that got taken outside and sprayed. I haven't done much more out of the usual routine apart from run a couple of dishwasher tablets through the washing machine. (No dishwasher but the tablets are great for soaking burnt saucepans and baking trays - yes that does happen every once in a while.) Then I decided to clean out the washing machine filter. That involved remembering where to insert a screwdriver to prise off the main cover. The filter itself wasn't too bad, when the boys were young I used to find things like Lego pieces or screws caught in the filter, but it was still satisfying to give it a thorough clean. I noticed that there are some rusty spots at the bottom of the washing machine, probably from the damp at Dingles. Once I'd cleaned and then mopped up the small amount of water that came out when I took the filter out I put the old towel I'd used back in the washing machine. I've also found a few more items to go to the charity shop. A bit more knitting got done and then it was time for the next round of exercises.

Windy.

A bright and very windy day today. Perfect for drying washing. Along with the bedding were the tray cloths and serviettes used by my mother to line the shelves of the wooden cupboard. Some of them were linen and lovely to iron coming up so fresh and crisp.

One of my jobs today was to begin to check if there was anything packed in the loft that could be given away. My thoughts first turned to the curtains, some of them padded and lined but looking at my notebook which details everything I didn't see any that could go. Especially considering my plan to have two layers of curtains using the padded curtains as insulation. Instead I had a look through some of the shallow plastic storage boxes of clothes. Not a lot of joy with that as I'd been fairly ruthless before the last move. I did find one casualty, a heavy ribbed wool jumper of Peter's had been seriously munched by clothes moths. Being in a sealed box they couldn't get anywhere but had eaten enormous holes in the jumper. Nothing to do except bag up the jumper ready to take to the textile recycling bin. I can definitely say that clothes moths do not eat fleece as the fleeces in the box were untouched. I cleaned out the box before spraying and did an extra spray in that corner of the loft.

My insect killing spree continued as I rid the orchids of woolly aphids. This time I took the orchids outside, sprayed and then removed every trace of aphid with insecticide soaked cotton buds. The white tubs were sprayed too and I found more of the aphids hiding inside the spring clips, ha not any more. I also sprayed around and inside the wooden box the orchids sit on. The label says to spray again in two weeks so I'll follow the instructions as I don't want to be bringing aphids to Borth.

I realised that the cyclamen I bought at the garden centre are indoor plants. Not a problem as I'd left them in their pots. They're now in the conservatory and will go outside when we have viewers. We had feedback from the estate agents, all positive but they would like a drive. The estate agent also said they've had more viewings in the last few weeks that in the previous six months.