Emerald Celebrations

And five year's on . . .

Holi-Days

A week off and a bit of a 'staycation' . . .

Started out in the cold - icicles on the car and flurries of snow - walking the prom in the sun as snow fell around us! 

Made sure to keep the bird feeders well stocked - although they weren't the only flying things in our skies:
















Martin cooked up a batch of bara brith (here wrapped and ready for freezer) while I made sticky toffee puddings, and cherry brownies - getting the baking done while the rayburn is still on!







Got out into the garden, went for a few walks, and took a trip to Aberaeron - spotting fairy doors on the path out to Llanerchaeron.



Ended the week though in almost-summer sunshine, with a nordic walk looping round the hills across from the house, and some fantastic views . . .

Bunny in the Flowerbed

Beast from the East

After a couple of bitterly cold days (even got sent home from work when the heating failed!), the so-called 'Beast from the East' finally brought snow West with high winds and snow flurries overnight on Thursday.

Got up Friday morning to a snowy world - with drifts of snow around the garden (some deep, although in other areas there was very little snow cover at all):








Took a 'snow day' since there was the promise of more snow to come, and I'd brought some work home with me.

Still very windy out as well, blowing the snow into more drifts - although the forecasted further snowfall never really materialised.

By this morning much of it was already melting, at least in our garden - the mountain road into town was closed though (no milk or fresh veg to be found in the shops today!).



The snow drift at the end of the drive might also be with us for a while yet . . .

Wadi / Badi / Vadi

Basically these are dried spiced lentil dumplings - sun dried in India, but rayburn dried here in Wales. 

Prepped them earlier this month - soaking white lentils (urad dal), which were spiced and ground to a paste, then dished up into teaspoon sized droplets for drying.  The Indian sun may be quicker - these took nearly 3 days in the warming oven of the rayburn - but they should keep for around a year. 

Today they went into a chicken curry - most recipes said to deep fry them first before putting them into a sauce, but these went straight in - after around 2 hours they were just tender, so maybe the frying would have helped . . .

Tasty but a bit of a faff!

On Safari

Well maybe not quite a 'Safari', but an overland trip round the country for work and leisure, encountering a variety of (almost) wildlife along the way.

Here we have Lego beasts in Cardiff Bay . . .

. . . an upturned 'crane' near Llandrindod Wells . . . .

. . . and a 'Dirty Duck' by the river in Stratford-upon-Avon

Concluding with swans on the Nene in Cambridgeshire (they are there, you can just see the wake!):

Did actually get some work done, enjoy a few sights, and meet up with family too!

Winter Wonderland

Left the house this morning just as it started to snow - already a light dusting on the car . . .









Arrived in work - just a few minutes later - and it was snowing quite heavily, already settling on the road outside the office.


And it continued to snow for most of the rest of the morning - with Aberystwyth gradually turning into a Winter Wonderland:

By lunchtime though it had stopped snowing, and by the time I left work it had almost all melted - a different world.  It was pretty while it lasted though . . .