Christmas in Machynllth.

It's been a mild and grey day. The ground was wet in the morning so we must have had rain in the night but the day has been dry. Driving home in the afternoon we could see the hazy outline of the sun trying to shine through the clouds and blue could be seen through a few gaps in the clouds but for the most part it was a wintry sky with a touch of sea mist.

Since we'll be having a break over Christmas we met up again at the library and made good headway with the next (and final) unit in our folders which is mostly revision for the exam. Then we carried on with the book we are reading. Between the four of us we can translate almost everything without having to resort to a dictionary or Google translate which is good progress from the days when we had to look up several words in every sentence. 

Afterwards we had lunch at the Caffi Owain Glyndwr. Even though the building needed a lot of restoration a hundred years ago I still get a real kick out of going upstairs with the old stone walls and arches originally built over 600 years ago. For lunch I had lentil and bacon soup. It was home made which is always nice but because I rarely use any salt in my cooking it tasted way too salty for me. Peter enjoyed his festive (turkey) pie which he had with chips and beans. He was going to have turkey at the dinner do that got cancelled due to the storm so that made up for it a little bit.

It was a bit gloomy but I did my best to take photos of some of the decorated shop windows in Mach. Mach is quite a prosperous town and the shops and their displays are a reflection of the well off (I'm guessing from their clothes and cars) plus the not so well off bohemian people that live in the area. Not much plastic tat in sight.

Nordic socks anyone?

The charity shops are good too.

PS- here is a FB reel that I've just come across. It introduces Christmas words in Welsh and was filmed in Mach. You may spot some of the shops shown in my photos and the 'big candle' and the 'snowman' are in the café we had lunch in. (If there's no sound turn on the speaker in the top right corner.)

This was my haul from the charity shops. The ceramic glazed sphere is a match to a pair of much larger ones I have in the back garden. A bargain at £3. The little blue glass bottle has joined the other blue glass in my study. There's a lot of blue glass around if I wanted it but I'm very selective about bringing new stuff into the house. The book of walks looks useful and the Grey Rabbit book has some lovely illustrations which I may eventually use to make Christmas cards. That is if I can get over the horror of chopping up a book even if it was only 10p. And the bag of glass pebbles, (£1.50). I spent so long scouring not only the charity shops but the ordinary shops looking for some before I bought some on-line for the glass in the blue door. If I'd have got this earlier the pattern might have been more creative/ random. I've already been out and filled in the rest of the gaps with some of today's pebbles. Now I'm looking around to see where else I could stick some pebbles.

I also baked another Bara Brith and made some Rocky Road to take to choir on Wednesday. We will be staying an extra hour for a little bit of a party after singing. As I wanted to drizzle white chocolate over the Rocky Road I carried on and made some chocolate 'bark'. The swirly pattern looked better before I threw on the sprinkles left over after my Christmas baking. 

After having lunch out neither of us want much tonight. Instead we'll just have a sandwich in front of the tv.

Warmer.

Clouds and rain again last night so no chance of seeing the Geminid meteor shower which is a shame. I woke early this morning and began by sitting just inside the door but then as I realised it wasn't actually raining and a warmer wind was blowing from the south-west I took my chair right out onto the terrace. It was so peaceful waiting for the sky to lighten with the blackbirds who are also early risers chittering about in the hedges.

There was no walk today, don't know why, instead I've had another cooking day. I began by baking a batch of chocolate chunk cookies. I tried rolling the tops in 100s & 1,000s before baking. Another thing I saw on line which looks a bit insipid once baked but they are just for the visit rather than as presents so they will do. Next came a Bara Brith and then since Peter was planning to have an omelette tonight it was the perfect opportunity to make some meringues for the visit. Not something I do very often and if I do it again I'll try and buy catering sized piping bags as getting the meringue into the smaller cake decorating bags was a messy business.  Very messy. I took a photo while they were still in the oven, my old cookery book says four hours to dry once the heat has been turned off, as this might be the best they look. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the Pavlova case will fit in the only airtight tin I have left otherwise there might be a bit of shuffling around of biscuits to do.

 

There was a tiny bit of sun right at the end of the afternoon.

And a pink tinge at sunset.

Some Sun.

We had a little bit of everything with the weather today from a touch of pink first thing to some welcome sun followed by the usual grey and a little rain. And a chilly north easterly wind blowing all day.

I put one lot of washing out on the line for the wind to blow out some of the damp before the rain arrived but the second lot went straight on the airer in the utility room. 

 

Even though the sun wasn't actually shining in the garden it was great to get out and do some gardening. I worked in the front garden where initially the plan was just to clear up the leaves and grass stems blown down by last weekend's storm. Then I noticed mind-your-own-business growing between the paving slabs and on the steps. Pretty as it is it isn't safe to create slippery wet spots on the steps so out it had to go. That job expanded to clearing all the steps and the spaces between the paving using my trusty table knife and fork. I also cleared up the many hydrangea petals that were stuck all over the places looking like dirty fingerprints. Because I notice fine details the garden was looking far too messy for my peace of mind. Much better now I've started on the clear up.

I've also baked a lemon drizzle cake which will go in the freezer for the visit and done the ironing. A busy day which we will finish off by watching the finals of Strictly. We usually record the programme and watch it on Sundays but no doubt the BBC will think it of such importance that it will be all over the news. As if there aren't many other important things going on in the world.

It must be getting colder as Speedy has finally gone back to sleeping in his nest instead of on the sofa or my lap, where he is now.

Grey.

Grey with little wind and not too cold today. (Photo taken late afternoon.) I was up early enough to have my coffee outside where the sound of Cosmo and Zeus howling was even louder than the gulls wheeling overhead. It makes me smile as I don't suppose people expect to hear wolves howling in a seaside village.

I thought I would see a lot of downed trees along the track to the stables but apart from a few piles af branches by the side of the track you would hardly know a storm had blown through. It was a bit different on my way home after shopping when I came up against a road closed sign. This was where the road zig-zags down the side of a wooded hill close to town. I had to turn around and head back to the main road which becomes two miles of 20mph through a strung out village. Fortunately I was able to take a side road back and pick up the coast road which winds its way through the countryside. I always go this way if I can. And because of the road closure at the town end the rest of the road was completely empty.

 

When I got to the stables I found I was riding Margaret and the guy who often rides Margaret had Meg. I'd noticed last week that Meg was kind of wobbly around her middle and today her rider eventually had to get off so that the numnah that sits on top of the saddle pad could be removed. I had a good ride on Margaret and the cantering was better though when I asked her to slow down to a more collected canter she went back into trot. As she is young once she's cantered she gets over excited and the trotting becomes a bit all over the place. It's always good to have something to work on.

After riding I did my usual shopping. Morrisons was noticeably busier and there seemed to be more store people unloading large pallets of goods in the middle of the aisles. I'm concentrating on getting organised for Vytas and Sally's visit and Christmas, which is very much a non event with just the two of us, is an afterthought.

I called in at the butchers, supposed to be the best in town, which sources its meat locally, and bought sausages. I'm trying a fancy kind of pigs-in-blankets where you slice the sausages lengthways and put in cranberry jelly with slices of brie before wrapping the sausage in bacon. That sounds very rich but should be nice with the red cabbage cooked with apple, new potatoes and peas. I did the sausages as soon as I got home and they're now in the freezer. Another job ticked off my mental list.

Grey.

No wind and a completely flat sea today. Generally it has been quite gloomy, the picture below was taken mid-morning and it hasn't brightened up since then.

First off I drove down to the Post Office to post the parcel calling in at the pharmacy on the way back to collect my prescription. 

When I got home Peter gave me a hand to put up the Bryan Pearce etching which I'd recently had framed. 

I really like Bryan's work, below is a screen print that was a wedding present from Bryan and Mary his mother. The family were friends with my mother and Bryan exhibited some of his work in my mother's gallery. He lived all his life in St Ives and although the etching is of Penzance his work takes me right back to my early days living in St Ives. I may only have lived there for my early years but I have such a longing for the place, what the Welsh call hiraeth, a homesick feeling in the heart. If I was ever to win the lottery, that is supposing I bought a ticket, I would spend it on buying a place in St Ives. In this FB video I can see the beach that I played on (unsupervised as a toddler with other children) and the location of our home hidden behind another building. 

Today was our last Zoom class of the year and although there is one revision chapter left for those who plan to take the exam we have finally finished the Mynediad/ Entry level course. When we start again in January we will be opening our Sylfaen/ Foundation course folders. And then there is higher level course to do after that. It may not be my favourite thing to do but I enjoy the challenge (mostly) and of course it is an excellent workout for the brain. Speaking of workouts it will be Pilates this evening to make up for not being able to do a class on Tuesday. At least I'm not achy today though my arm is still a little sore.

Chocolate Day.

It's been a dry day that began grey but turned sunny by the afternoon.

Both of us left the house before 9.00, Peter to go off on a row and I had an appointment to see the doctor. Unfortunately  it wasn't with the 'main' doctor but with the junior doctor and confusingly they both look very similar. The upshot of the appointment was that he would talk to the main guy and send a prescription for an alternative beta blocker to the pharmacy for me to collect in the morning. However the main doctor phoned me in the afternoon and after repeated assurances that the palpitations were only a nuisance to me and would not have any detrimental medical effect I decided to try not taking the beta blockers at all and then if it does cause too much of a problem either go back on a lower dose or an alternative beta blocker. Wish me luck. I've also been suffering from jabby-itis ie a sore arm and feeling quite rough after yesterday's shingles vaccination. A good thing I have a store of pain killers.

 

One lovely thing this morning was to see a pod of three dolphins hunting fish by the reef. I haven't had many dolphin sightings at all this year which made it even more special.

Once I got back from the surgery I spent the day working with chocolate, tempering it first though I'm not sure if that's worth the effort, coating all the truffles and decorating them, making some marzipan filled chocolates and decorating biscuits with dark or white chocolate. At least these were all things I've done before and I was able to avoid making too much mess with the chocolate. It is awkward stuff to wash up and as well as the silicone baking sheets I found baking parchment handy for laying the biscuits on before drizzling chocolate across with wild abandon. Any chocolate left at the end was poured out and topped with sprinkles. Those may or may not last until our Christmas visitors arrive. (I'd already packed the truffles that will be posted before taking the photo below.)

The hardest part of today's efforts was packing up a parcel of biscuits and truffles and a felted decoration to post off to Romas and Laura. I thought I had it all organised but having carefully filled and weighed the gift box the cardboard box I had hoped to use turned out to be the wrong size. I had to make do with several smaller sheets of brown wrapping paper secured with plenty of duct tape. I've just had one last weight check and it comes in at 1,929 gms. (The limit is 2kg.)

When I finally sat down to have a tv break my choice of 'The Bad Skin Clinic' began with a young lady who had lost all her hair. Not very reassuring for me but her case was different as she had alopecia and the latest medication worked for her.

There's no choir tonight due to a family emergency for our choir teacher and we didn't have Pilates last night as the school were having their Christmas concert in the Hall. I don't think I'd have the energy to go out anyway.

Zoo Day.

Peter spoke to the builder last night and it turned out he had come when we were out and fixed the roof tiles for which we are very grateful.

Today has been a cold day. We had some sun, in the distance I could see the two carriage local train making its way to Borth station (centre of the photo below.)

Out at sea the sun shining through the gaps between the clouds looked like recessed ceiling lights.

In the morning I went down to the zoo. As usual there was quite a bit of damage from the storm but I wasn't expecting to have to drive under the downed phone line. It was also lying across the entrance to the car park so I pulled over and parked by the verge.

Basic repairs had already been made to the fence to stop the pigs from escaping, they had stayed in their shelter and didn't try to go anywhere. Inside the majority of the mess had been cleared up but the roof of the big aviary that housed the quail and fan tail pigeons had collapsed inwards. I didn't really get a chance to talk to anyone so I'm not sure about any other damage. As far as I know all the animals are okay. I did ask first if there was anything they needed me to do first but apart from cutting back old growth in a flowerbed that had been flattened and was looking messy there wasn't anything urgent. So off I went and weeded and cleared leaves, cones and twigs from the gravel area by the wolf-dogs. I do like seeing the gravel looking tidy. I know that there is still so much grass growing in the big play area which is going to take many sessions to clear but I ran out of time to do much. All I did was turn over large sections of the softened woodchip in the hope that exposing the grass roots to the current low temperatures will make it easier to remove each clump of grass at my next session.

The reason I ran out of time was that I had an appointment at the surgery for my second shingles vaccination. For once I wore a watch and got to the surgery in good time. However they were busy with a patient and it was a long wait. Having got home after being poked in the arm with yet another needle the plan was to ice some of the butter biscuits I made yesterday. Ice and decorate but .... note to self - do not try out new ideas on something that is to be a present. The plan was to pipe on white icing, not quite perfect circles but not too messy and then use food colourings to make Christmas wreath designs. Dab on green, swirl with a toothpick and then add dots of red. They didn't look that good so clever clogs here decides to randomly swirl the colours all across the icing. The end result looked like something you would make for a children's Halloween party. Fortunately I didn't do too many and one set of recipients won't mind goth biscuits.