Cold.

Today has been all about chocolate. I've been busy in the kitchen making chocolate truffles which will be part of my 'made with love' presents. The recipe is very simple and I use whatever is around to make the different sorts. This year there are some mint ones made with crème de menthe, nutty ones made with chopped pecans and ground almonds left over from the cake making and some with raisins soaked in whiskey. By the time I got to the end of dipping the truffles I had done more than enough licking out of bowls so I used up the last of the chocolate to make dark chocolate drops with chopped candied peel and green (white) chocolate drops with coloured sprinkles.

The rest of my time has been organising the packaging getting the parcels ready to post. This included climbing up into the loft to cut some bubble wrap from the roll, turning cardboard boxes inside out and making sure that the contents of the parcels stay safe in transit and stay under the 2kg limit. 

All this chocolate has kept my mind off the incredibly disappointing result of the General Election. The next five years will see this country being run for the benefit of the privileged wealthy. The problem was that the alternative was so radical it alienated many voters. Not to mention the stupid Brexit issue which everyone is so fed up with. The only light on our horizon is that Wales has its own government which deals with transport, energy, the natural environment, education and some health issues. Our neighbour in Borth failed to regain his seat from the Plaid Cymru (Welsh Nationalists) MP.

It's been a very cold and windy day. The two blankets that were on my old chair are too old and rough to be used as blankets but will be perfect for making heavy winter curtain liners to go behind the everyday curtains. I got one washed today and the wind blew it almost dry before I had to run and bring it inside.

Cold.

It's been a wet and wintry election day. By tomorrow we'll know if the country will continue to be led by a wealthy elite who care nothing for ordinary people or if there will be change. 

Anyway back to less controversial subjects. This morning I marched briskly down to the auction room though I needn't have rushed as they were running a bit late. The stool was lot 179 so I knew there'd be a while before it came up and I plonked myself on a chair. I've been going to that auction for over 20 years and some things have changed. No longer does each item have to be held up by a lad and the winning bids written on a sheet which has to arrive at the office before you can pay. Now the catalogue is on-line days in advance and the lots appear on two large tv screens along with the bidding. I have to say that the auction rules didn't seem to be followed too strictly as there were a number of times when the hammer went down after the 'third and final time' and then another bid either from the room or on-line continued the bidding. The auctioneer's banter was still fun to listen to and I even joined in at one point when he told everyone they would all be going to the pub after the end of the sale tomorrow. They have so many lots they have to run over two days and have a separate 'antiques' auction as well. It's such a good place to pick up some lovely older pieces of furniture and I had to restrain myself as I looked around. Because it was running late I had a good look through the boxes of misc(ellaneous) in case the sewing machine pedal had made its way into one but no luck. As can be seen by the photo below I got my kitchen high stool which is perfect for my needs. I put my hand up at the first bid of £2 but there was an on-line bid of a fiver so I got it for £6 plus the fee of £1.37 which was not bad. I've lowered it a little and it's fun swinging round with my feet up on the rest.

Once I'd paid for the stool I made my way into town.  There I picked up my prescription without any delay and did some shopping. I have some knitting to do for Christmas (somebody has lost their much worn Hobbit fingerless mittens) so I trawled through the charity shops. It is harder to find yarn that is all or nearly all wool but I found several possibles. I still have a full ball of the wool I need but I need a bit more for the larger size. The sparkly mohair mix was too nice not to buy, maybe a pair of mittens for myself. 

Before the phone ran out of charge, hence no auction photos, I took a photo of fudge being made in Roly's. I now know it's a franchise but it really is the best fudge ever.

On my way home I collected the stool. It wasn't that heavy to carry though I was getting tired by the time I got home. On the way I called in at the Polling Station to cast my vote. Sadly the news coming through from the exit polls right now is not good. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent decorating biscuits with white chocolate and decorating the two Christmas cakes. One is going in the post and needs to be less than 2 kg including the packaging. Christmas cake is heavy! I got down some boxes for posting and then found that I didn't have a cake board for the round cake so I'll have to make one out of card covered with kitchen foil.

Cold.

 It's been a bitterly cold day with frequent heavy showers including noisy hailstones clattering against the windows.

I had planned for a full day baking in the kitchen but looking through the local auction catalogue last night I had to go and look at a couple of lots. One thing I intend to get eventually is a draughtsman's chair to replace the recycled battered old office chair that is currently at my PC. I like to sit higher up, at the moment I sit on several folded blankets, while having my feet resting up high too. Having failed to see one of these for sale second-hand I thought I'd wait until we moved.

However when we were looking at new kitchens I thought a high bar stool might also be suitable. In tomorrow's sale there are two bar stools. At the auction viewing I moved some furniture around to get to the stools so that I could sit on them. One wasn't very comfortable but the other was fine. It's the model shown below. I found the photo on line so I know the price when new which isn't a lot but if I get it cheap I can see if not having wheels makes a lot of difference.

The other reason I went to the auction house was that there's an old sewing machine being sold. It's the same make as my one though not the same model. I hoped that it would have the same foot pedal which it may well have had but unfortunately there wasn't a foot pedal with it. It had the same socket but no pedal. I checked inside the machine but nothing. I think a lot of the goods in the auction come from house clearances and the pedal may have been overlooked. 

I went down to the auction in the car even though it is only at the bottom of Pilton Street. My excuse was the weather but also I needed to be quick so that I could begin baking. While I was out I picked some more flea drops for Speedy from the vet's which is nearby. Baking today began with triple chocolate cookies and Leibuchen (above) with a batch of two tone biscuits still in the oven. Decorating the biscuits with chocolate is planned for tomorrow and also decorating the Christmas cakes which have plenty of whiskey poured over them.

Low Clouds.

Today has been very wet. At first not so much lashing rain but the misty wetness you get from being almost in a cloud. I ended up going out shopping myself this morning and even the low hill tops around here were hidden in the low clouds. The wind brought heavy rain later in the day. In the afternoon the wind began gusting, the met office said up to 72 mph. I generally open the bedroom window during the day to air the room but with the wind blowing so hard I thought I'd better go up and shut it. I could hardly believe it when the wind was so strong that I had to use all my strength to force the bedroom door open. Never had that happen before.

(These are yesterday's photos as I didn't take any today and couldn't find any dramatic weather photos on-line.)

Unlike Peter's shopping experience yesterday the supermarkets and car parks if anything were less crowded than usual. I would have got through Lidl's in record time if I hadn't realised just as I was putting my shopping in the car, that I'd failed to pay for a bag of cat litter. Being a heavy item the barcode number is written out near the top of the bag so the checkout person can type in the numbers without the bag having to go on the conveyor belt. At the crucial moment I was momentarily distracted by the person behind me speaking to me and I simply pushed my trolley on through. Having discovered my mistake I then had to go back and queue up again to pay for the cat litter. 

In Tesco's, just like Peter yesterday I found only empty space where Tesco's cat food should have been. Poor Speedy this morning had to make do with the biscuits I found at the bottom of the big tub I keep his food in. (An old swing bin.) They must have been very stale as Speedy walked away from them not once but twice before eventually eating them. This is the cat that would eat a worm tablet without thinking. I felt so bad I even got some cheese out of the freezer and gave him a bit of that when it had defrosted. (This was the greatly reduced cheddar bought when the Co-Op was closing.) Back to today, the Tesco's cat biscuits work out at £1 per kilo while the branded ones were £4 and £3.50 per kilo. In the end I got a smaller box on special offer at £2.40 per kilo.

At home my afternoon was spent stitching the sofa cover. As this was one of those days when I'd woken at 5.30 and was doing my exercises by 6.30 I ran out of energy to do much else later on.

Sunny.

A bright and breezy day made it worthwhile hanging out some washing on the line.

I planned to bake Christmas biscuits this week so when Peter said he was off to the supermarkets I asked him to buy the supplies I needed. If I had done as I intended last night, I would have consulted the recipes and checked the cupboards before deciding what I needed. Instead I waited till later to stock take by which time even though I phoned Peter he was already almost home. Poor organisation on my part. I had sufficient ingredients to make the first batch of biscuits- peanut butter and chocolate but now I need more eggs, butter and Golden Syrup plus some marzipan and royal icing for the Christmas cakes. 

I also got some work in on the sofa cover. I tackled the very fiddly job of pinning on the strips of fabric to make channels for the elastic that holds the fabric over the arm cushions. I eventually got the first one tacked on and then gave up exhausted. 

I'm not sure what's happening with Blogger but every attempt to load my photos on to the page has failed. I'll try publishing and then going back to edit. maybe that'll work. No luck so far.

Stormy.

A wild and stormy day. Moments after I took this photo the rain was lashing against the window. With the first of the winter storms there's been a yellow weather warning out for strong winds in the south-west. There's been a bit of clattering from outside and I can see an empty green wheelie bin lying on its side. Our house is sheltered due to being set back from the neighbour on one side and our bins are safe in the plastic bin store which is weighed down with some paving slabs inside.

I've been getting on with the sofa cover, no surprise here. Today I sewed a couple more darts and then sewed on the channels on the sides and threaded through yesterday's elastic to make the cover fit snuggly against the sides of the sofa. 

This evening we had our weekly viewing of Strictly. We tape the Saturday show and then watch the show and the results together on Sunday evening fast forwarding through the waiting time between announcing each successful couple. Although we've only done folk dancing in our youth, years of watching Strictly has turned us into armchair dance experts and we pronounce sagely on heel leads, frame and other technical points. All good entertainment.

Grey.

Warm and grey with the occasional heavy shower today.

An afternoon of unpicking the elastic from around the bottom of the four seat sofa cover which will be used to cover the sofa cushions has resulted in me being not a fan of machine overlocking stitching. It took all afternoon and part  of the evening to remove the elastic using my trusty stitch ripper. Out of curiosity I measured the edge of the fabric I had taken the elastic from. It measured 32 feet and the elastic was sewn on both the top and bottom edges. Yes it would have been easier to buy the elastic I need to fit the new sofa cover but in spite of the time it took it would feel wrong to throw out something just because time was needed to make it reusable. At least nowadays my natural thriftiness fits with the calls to save the planet by reduce, recycle or reuse as much as we can. 

Speedy spent the afternoon either sleeping next to me under a mound of fabric or rolling around on the floor with the tape measure. 

Some loud bangs this evening had me peering out of the window in time to watch some large fireworks being set off nearby.