Happy Hogmanay!

Have a Great 2012!

The Holly and the Ivy

Christmas arrived a bit sooner than I wanted it to this year, what with all the kitchen kerfuffle, but we were more or less ready in the end.

Some things got done a bit at the last minute, but they did get done, and we ate, drank and made merry (well sat in front of the tv and fell asleep - which is probably the traditional equivalent these days!).

Icing the cake was one of those last minute tasks - the theme this year was the Holly and the Ivy (having got myself some new ivy leaf cutters!), reflecting on the distinctly 'green' winter we are enjoying this year.


As you can see the red icing requirement was rather limited, and I ended up freezing almost an entire block - I guess that settles next year's colour scheme!

 

Phew!

Made it - just in time for Christmas . . . 

Before:

After:

  

New cooker (and cooker hood), new floor, new worktops, new sink tap, new dishwasher, refitted cupboard . . .  really pleased with it, but glad it's over and done with!

Kewbed

Back in November took delivery of two 'Kewbs' as an upgrade to an old sofabed.

Initially stored them under the snooker table in the front room, but with the electrical work done were able to move them to their final resting place in the upstairs spare room.



The 'Kewb' design is extremely flexible, and ranges from a large table, via chair / lounger, to bed - all in all it's rather an impressive piece of engineering (plus the instructions actually make some kind of sense!):

At any rate they'll give us the flexibility of two singles or a double - and the foam cushions feel much more comfortable than the flimsy mattress on the old sofabed.

Kitchen Chaos

Started the month in chaos, as planned work on the kitchen and electrics finally got underway.  The front room was full of kitchen paraphernalia, as was much of the rest of the house.




Meanwhile, the electricians were beavering away fitting a new fuse box, and putting in the wiring for the new cooker point, which also involved using a VERY BIG drill to put in the switch:

Finally the old cooker has been removed, and the worktops /cabinets on the other side of the kitchen pulled out, to allow a dishwasher to be fitted.

If all this isn't chaotic enough, all movable cabinets, the fridge, the freezer and the dresser will have to be moved out in due course so that a new vinyl floor can be laid.


Still hoping that we'll manage to get it all sorted before Christmas!

York - Crowds and Christmas

With Christmas madness on the horizon decided to treat ourselves to a long weekend and revisit York.

The advertised Christmas Fayre was one attraction of the weekend, but it  wasn't quite such a nice idea in practice.

On the Saturday at least it was far too crowded with day-trippers to see anything - in fact we soon de-camped to a pub and settled in by the fire.  It did quieten down by the early evening when I finally managed to get close enough to the stalls to see what they were selling!


Shopping wasn't the only thing on the agenda mind you (much to Martin's relief!) and we did also manage to revisit the National Railway Museum.

The 'warehouse' area is particularly fascinating, with offerings ranging from the packaging from the last microwave burger served up on a GNER train (!) . . .


. . . to a wonderfully verbose memorial tablet to William Huskisson (who managed to get himself run over by Stephenson's Rocket):

Sunday was sunny (if a tad breezy) and we completed the traditional circuit of the walls, wandered the narrow streets, and rounded off the day with a curry at the excellent Mumbai Lounge.


All in all a good weekend - but might avoid weekends with Christmas Fayres in future!

Canute Lives!

Well not exactly - but if he'd had £12.9 million to invest in coastal defences he may not have got his feet wet!  Still, it is a rather large sum of money, so we headed out for a quick look at how the coastal defence project at Borth was actually doing ....

Unfortunately we seem to have managed to miss all the dramatic scenes of 10 tonne rocks being moved around*, instead the diggers were cosied up to each other standing silent.

The beach does at least look a bit like a building site at the moment:

 - and in due course that £13 mill should deliver new rock groynes and breakwaters, an artificial multi-purpose reef (which will have the added benefit of turning Borth into a surfing destination of choice) and 'beach nourishment' (which apparently isn't as interesting as it sounds and just means they are going to add more sand and shingle!). 

Borth could well be a much more 'happening' place to be in years to come ....

* As seen below: 

© Copyright Chris Denny and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Fly Past . . .

Garage-cam has captured a fair few flying creatures over the last few months - how many can you name?

Putting the Garden to Bed

Finally had a couple of sunny days, and a chance to get out into the garden to complete the last few tasks before winter finally arrives.  The (still rather damp) grass got its final cut . . .

. . . and the ornamental pear tree its annual haircut!



Also got the main veg plot tidied up (just leaving the sprouts in situ, as they may yet come to something). Once it was weeded and dug over, spread it with a layer of (relatively) fresh seaweed that we harvested the other week - which will hopefully feed the soil for some bumper crops next year!

That just leaves us then with the leek crop in the small veg plot - they went in a bit late, but seem to be coming along nicely enough   . . .

Wot No Snow?

October arrived in blazing sunshine, and while it didn't last it remained a rather warm (if wet) month overall - certainly we didn't see the much-rumoured snow!

Spooky!

HALLOWEEN GREETINGS!

Autumn Harvests

Had an afternoon wander out to Llanerchaeron again today - caught the last day of their 'apple festival' and had the usual tour of the gardens, although must say they are looking distinctly autumnal now.






Everything has a vague air of decay about it - our own main veg plot has yielded up what is probably going to be the last of its bounty.





The butternut squash harvest wasn't particularly impressive in the end mind you (especially given the way the plants spread!)


There are still some rather mangy looking sprout plants (which I'm not holding out much hope for) in the main veg plot - plus leeks in the smaller veg plot (which still have a bit of growing to do, but are looking much more promising).

Got a bit of tidying up to do otherwise, but we did do the hedges a couple of weeks back - just hoping the relatively warm weather we're having doesn't encourage another growth spurt on their part!

Show Off!

Someone appears to be showing off for our camera!

Bobbin' along  . . .

. . . swooping on by . . .

. . . and as a final touch - the death-defying dive!

September in the Rain

Can't say that September was the best of months - yes, it ended well (very well in fact) but the rest of the month was decidedly wet (and windy):

And of course, our 2 week holiday had to come in the middle of the wet and windy bit - nothing quite like getting back to work and looking out at glorious sunshine!

Autumnwatch

October arrived with some blazing hot sunshine - so it didn't really feel much like Autumn (then anyway!).


Took a trip out to this year's Springwatch location - Ynys-hir - beautiful day, fantastic scenery - and there were a few signs of Autumn . . .


. . . not least the steady thwack of acorns (hitting everything in sight), but also red leaves in the sunlight . . .



 
 

And the local squirrel population, squirrelling away their winter hoards.

Dehydrated . . .

Got my new 'toy' the other day - a food dehydrator - just in time to deal with the small mountain of cherry tomatoes harvested from the clearing of the small greenhouse.

And - Ta-Da! - 6 hours or so later, sun dried tomatoes!

Well, machine-dried anyway . . .




Got a bit experimental with the one tray that didn't get taken up with tomatoes, and tried a selection of pepper, chilli, mushroom and apple . . .



All seemed to work quite nicely - nice intense flavours - and the right kind of texture - so all in all rather pleased with the results.

Norfolk Coast and Castle

Followed the sun to Norfolk for the last few days of our holiday:

'Stalked' deer in the parkland round Holkham Hall.

Explored Castle Rising with its stairs and gargoyles.

Walked the beach from Wells to Holkham.

Followed the Norfolk Coastal Path to Cley windmill.

Marvelled at the price of beach huts - £57,000 - honestly!

Dinefwr Day

A slight improvement in the weather took us off to Dinefwr Park and Castle for the day. Had a wander round the House, and a nice walk up to the Castle.



Along the way encountered one of the local deer population, which bounded across our path, but didn't hang around to have its photo taken . . .






. . . the rather fine looking sheep were much more relaxed models!

Wild Wales!

As the remains of Hurricane Katia batter the UK we've been enjoying some spectacular seas off the Aberystwyth coast.

At any rate it made for an interesting and invigorating evening walk!

Blackberry Whisky

Continuing the rather alcoholic theme of the last few posts, we've also now got a demijohn of blackberry whisky maturing in the pantry.  Spent the (rather windy but at least sunny) afternoon blackberrying down the Rheidol Valley, and the fruits of our labours are now infusing into 2.5 litres of cheapish whisky.



The sugar has now more or less dissolved, and the blackberries also appear to be breaking up nicely - will definitely have to strain this one though - blackberries are inherently more 'bitty' than damsons.  Anticipating making some nice boozy blackberry jelly in due course!