Goodbye 2020

 It's been the strangest of years, and fireworks somehow don't seem quite appropriate - so here is a candle, in remembrance, in hope, and to say (with a little trepidation) . . .

Hello 2021

Stay safe and well, and hopefully we'll be able to see you soon!

Cake Update

 And here is the traditional 'decorated' cake post as promised!

Have Yourself a Merry 'Little' Christmas

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas
We must do what we know is right
It might take a while
But these troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Keep the spirit of the Day
Even if . . .
Your loved ones are still far away
 
Remember how it was in pre-Covid days
Happy golden days of yore
Soon they’ll return to be here with us
Family near to us once more
 

In future years we all will be together
When the fates allow
At least this year there won't be any family row!
So have yourself a Merry Little Christmas now

Paddling Pool?

With all the wet weather we've been having recently, the top of the garden has once again developed 'pond' tendencies, and the bonfire pit has filled with water.

It's a bit like having a paddling pool at the top of the garden - wouldn't mind so much if we had a swimming pool (miss my swimming - our leisure centre is still designated as a field hospital and the pool is closed).

Anyway, various drainage schemes are under consideration, but for now this will have to do . . .

Stollen #2

More baking (Christmas not Lockdown!) - and time to revisit stollen, sourdough style:

This recipe was for two 'loaves' and involved an overnight rise, before mixing in the fruit on the second day.  

After their final rise / baking the result looks pretty good:

And tastes yummy - will be making this one again!

Back to Lockdown

 'Nuff said . . .

Christmas Bling

In these 'interesting times' the lights of Christmas add a welcome bit of sparkle to life - so time to get our bling on . . .

Tree - check 

Flickery candle lights - check

Tinselly led strings round windows - check

Outside lantern - check

 

'Heirloom' plastic church - check

I do like my bling - it's always such a pity when it has to come down again . . .

Virtually 'There'

Work this year has been all about the online meeting - and with my family staying at home in Cambridgeshire for Christmas - was looking for a not-too-technical solution to transfer that experience into the personal sphere.

Decided that an option that utilised the tv as the display was probably easiest - and that inevitably led us to the much-advertised Facebook Portal TV.

Actually very pleased with the result - it does indeed 'follow you round the room' - and while (inevitably) we had to wait for it to update, the set-up was pretty simple on the whole.  

No sooner had we set it all up than the latest government Covid briefing made it clear that England will be emerging from its lockdown into further tiered restrictions - and Cambridgeshire will be firmly in Tier 2.

Which means that with 'no household mixing indoors' any plans I had to visit in person before Christmas are out of the window.  

At least now we can meet up 'virtually'  . . .

Explore Your Archive 2020

In these strangest of times - with most archive services still closed - the annual Explore Your Archive campaign moves online . . .

And this year we have an early property listing for the I'm a Celebrity location - Gwrych Castle - should attract some attention!

Christmas is Coming . . .

 To continue a theme, time for some festive baking  . . .

Had been soaking the fruit for this year's cake(s) for a few days, so time to get it mixed up and into the rayburn - although, technically, 'Stir-up Sunday' isn't for another week yet.

After some debate - and recognising that it will be a smaller Christmas this year (with uncertainties over the virus) - decided on two smaller cakes.  One for this year, and one for the freezer . . .

Look out for the traditional 'decorated' cake post in due course!

More Lockdown - More Baking . . .

Back in Lockdown - a least this 'firebreak' is only for a couple of weeks (and I did get to fit in a visit to see family last weekend).  

So taking inspiration from this year's series of the Great British Bake Off, got my apron back on and the oven fired up.  Here we have Smoked Salmon and Chive Soda Bread - very nice too!

Pimped My Cauldron

Winter is Coming (couldn't resist it) and thought I'd better do something to protect our very rusty DIY fire pit, in the hope that it might survive for at least another year.

So after some research, found something called Owatrol Oil online, which is supposed to 'consolidate' the rust, and acquired a small tin from a local hardware supplier.  Eh voila . . .

Applied the oil to both the outside of the 'cauldron' and the makeshift lid (neatly plugged with an old cork to prevent the rain getting inside).  It does darken the colour, but looks good, and appears to have had a waterproofing effect.

We'll see how it lasts, but it certainly looks a lot smarter!

Home Working #3

Somewhat belated update on the home working situation . . .  six months on from establishing my home 'office'.  Still working from home - no change there - but now with the desired monitor (how did I ever manage without two screens?), and an ergonomic chair (retrieved from the office proper):

Sorted!

Sourdough Success

Yet Further Adventures in Sourdough have seen the production of a very nice batch of soft tearing rolls

And - finally - our first successful loaf:

When it came to baking, the dough was still far too 'splodgy' (technical term!) to hold its shape.  But it went into a hot cast iron pot (often referred to as a Dutch Oven) and, very much to my surprise, emerged as a beautiful domed loaf.

Very tasty too - and as you can see the 'crumb' (an actual technical term) is pretty good.  

Pleased with that - just hope I can replicate it!

Solar: Two Years On

Two years on we are still generating solar power, and the 'trees planted' are mounting up (although they appear to have changed the method of calculation at some point during the year so the numbers here have leapt up!):

Our best performing day for solar generation was 14th May 2020 when we generated 26.13 Kilowatt Hours (kW-h), with the month of May remaining the highest month for overall solar generation. Below are the Top 10 and Bottom 10 dates for solar generation throughout the year.  May dominates the top 10, and as last year most of the bottom 10 dates are near the shortest day of the year.

Date	Watt Hours		Date	Watt Hours
14/05/2020	26,133		12/12/2019	263
01/06/2020	25,268		12/11/2019	338
05/05/2020	25,254		11/01/2020	339
11/07/2020	25,129		18/12/2019	357
20/07/2020	25,125		07/01/2019	379
31/05/2020	24,931		26/12/2019	426
25/05/2020	24,881		28/02/2020	473
30/05/2020	24,835		13/12/2019	479
20/05/2020	24,701		02/01/2020	549
29/05/2020	24,675		14/01/2020	617

This is how the years compare.   In the summer months, the trimming of the Yew Tree may have helped to boost solar generation earlier in the day, but it isn't really possible to make direct comparisons from one year to the next as generation is of course hugely dependent on the weather.

Month	2018/19 Generated kW-h	2019/20 Generated kW-h
October	206.419	179.489
November	87.261	79.224
December	32.87	48.374
January	62.46	62.145
February	175.996	124.181
March	283.345	354.99
April	393.949	491.76
May	489.449	622.559
June	401.437	417.704
July	445.908	426.441
August	404.56	354.619
September	337.506	368.342
Total	3321.16	3529.828

And here is the required graph!

A Good Day

With our holiday weeks drawing to an end - and after a busy few days cleaning, tidying, gardening, cutting hedges etc. - decided on another trip 'out' - this time a (pre-booked) day trip to Powis Castle.

We've been really lucky with the weather so far, and today did not disappoint, with another day of glorious sunshine, so the gardens were looking their very best (no access to the Castle itself still):

Also took the opportunity to pop in to the nearby Coed-y-Dinas store / garden centre on our way home for a browse round.

Must say I'm not sure why anyone would want a gorilla in their garden, but it was good to see that he was wearing his mask!

Back home again, and as it was still dry, sunny, and relatively calm decided to light the bonfire (which had built up again with garden waste, hedge clippings and various bits of rotten shed panelling / old leylandii).  

We'd scattered the hedge debris around the fire pit to help it all dry out a bit - but it still looked like far too much for one bonfire:

It did turn into a longer job than we'd planned, but it was a nice evening so we stuck with it - ate our dinner by the fire, had a drink, and watched the stars come out.

By 9pm we were down to the dying embers, and had actually managed to burn the lot - time to shower off the smoke, and pour a glass of wine!

Out and About

September holidays - and with some sense that normal service is resuming, decided we would take a break and actually go 'away'!

Booked ourselves a Travelodge in Portishead on the Bristol Channel, and headed off for three days of sun, sea and sightseeing. 

 
Stopped off at Clifton on the way, walked round Portishead taking in the views (and the graffiti) and fitted in a return trip to Tyntesfield (which had to be pre-booked, and was all very one-way and socially distanced):

Also had a day trip to Clevedon - with its pier, and marine pool (really missing the opportunity to go swimming back home, but unfortunately hadn't brought my bathing gear).

All in all it was a nice few days - we mostly ate / drank in beer gardens (kind of regretted the one trip to a too-busy Wetherspoons) so it all felt safe enough - and the weather was remarkably kind.

At the same time we were glad to be going home again.

Stopped off for a final (pre-booked) visit to Duffryn Gardens - then back to the safety of our little bit of Wales.

DIY Pizza Oven

As part of the #kitchencourtyardredesign we had been considering options for a barbecue installation - then, somewhere online, we saw a DIY pizza oven that someone had made by piling up old bricks, so decided to combine the two . . .

And here we have it - lots of clay bricks, the grills from a defunct barbecue, and a roof of more bricks sitting on some spare aluminium greenhouse struts, topped off with a couple of spare concrete roof tiles.

All built on top of a 'table' structure made from breeze blocks and a paving slab.  Almost everything was stuff we already had - although did pay a few quid for the (reclaimed) bricks.

So, it was:
a) cheap
b) almost entirely recycled
c) easy to construct, dismantle and move
d) somewhere to use up twiggy bits of wood that are a bit small for the log burner . . .

. . . and it made great pizza!

Storm Francis

And on top of everything else - the storms are back . . .  Francis has done its worst, which was mainly to bring down part of the ornamental 'palm' in the back garden (itself a reincarnation of one we lost to our last really snowy winter back in 2010).

On the whole we escaped the worst of it, and as you can see there is still a healthy offshoot, so the palm isn't done for yet.  We also avoided a scheduled 'switch off' for network maintenance as electricity crews were too busy dealing with the fall out of the storm.

Here's hoping for a quieter end to the year weather-wise!

DIY Fire Pit

Ended up dismantling this as part of our '#kitchencourtyardredesign' - which revealed an old and very rusty domed cauldron, with a small hole in the base.

It rolled around the courtyard for a bit while we considered what else we might plant in it, then we had that 'eureka' moment - what about a fire pit?

Cleaned off the worst of the rust, and propped it up on some bricks (with its handy air hole at the bottom).

Then - serendipitously - found that an old rusty metal parasol base, that was also knocking round the garden, fitted exactly on the top as a lid for a rainy day!

Time for a test firing . . .

. . . and looking good!

#kitchencourtyardredesign

Still working on it, but the kitchen courtyard is looking a lot tidier - some flower planting, pots with herbs, and even a water feature.  A much nicer place to sit out and enjoy the evening sunshine!

Time to Diet?

 

  Too  . . .

  

 

            . . .   much  . . . 

                                                                

  . . .  Cake!        

                                                                                                   

Toad in the Hole

Found this fine fellow while working on the ongoing 'kitchen courtyard' project - and while maybe he wasn't quite in a hole, the courtyard area itself had certainly become something of one.

It's space we've always rather under-utilised, and it had gotten very scratty.  So in the spirit of lockdown home improvement, we've been clearing out the ivy and weeds from the surrounding walls, and dismantling the old pots with half dead bits of bush in them.  

Hopefully we'll end up with something a bit more attractive, where we might actually want to sit out on a sunny evening - although it's still a work in progress at the moment . . .

Birthday Visit

With lockdown finally relaxing, and visitors to Wales now 'legal' - time for a family visit to celebrate another 'special birthday' . . .

The weather could have been kinder perhaps (managed to rain on us more than we would have liked) but we did have one sunny-ish trip to Aberaeron - spookily found pictured (well the Harbourmaster anyway) on one of Dad's birthday cards . . .

At least the sun shone for the birthday celebrations (barbecue in the garden), and we got out and about a bit despite the rain.

And wasn't he a cute baby!

Copper Creations

Had been looking for a towel rail solution for the guest bedroom for a while - but the wooden towel ladders I was looking at all seemed quite expensive for what they were.

Then while surfing the web came across people selling structures made from copper piping.









So here we go - all the bits purchased from Screwfix . . .  some assembly required (courtesy of Martin) . . .

Et voila - one shiny new towel ladder: