Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone all the best for a Healthy and Happy 2009!

December Weather

Well December has given us some interesting contrasts in its last couple of weeks - from frosty days to damp and mild ones, then back to clear and crisp, and frosty once again.

2009 will bring a whole new technological Weather Extravaganza courtesy of the Weather Station I got for Christmas . . . and hopefully something resembling a Summer in due course.

Watch this Space!

All Things Christmas . . .

Another year, another Christmas . . .













Always feel a bit strange about it - not really religious, but love the Tree and the Lights and everything - maybe I'm harking back to Pagan Midwinters or something.


Kind of enjoy the cooking bit as well - although of course we then have to eat it all. Must admit to being rather chuffed with the way the cake turned out - well the way it looks anyway (the holly leaf cutter was well worth the £3.40 investment!) - of course it's already Boxing Day and there's so much else to eat we haven't got as far as cutting it yet!

Anyway, hope yours was a good one . . .

Nadolig Llawen!

Frosty Days Gone By . . .

It looks like we're in for a mild Christmas at the moment, but Monday gone was beautifully frosty. Walked into work somewhat more slowly than usual as kept stopping to take some photos. From frosty fields . . .

To icy leaves . . .

And more lovely scenery . . .

Couldn't resist this final shot, but did rather feel I was the one being watched . . .

And again . . .

Two for the price of one . . .

Back to the Weather!

Found a frosty symbol!

Christmas Cake and Candy Skies

Christmas is rather creeping up on me - can't believe it'll be December in a couple of days. Bit late but finally got the Christmas cake in the Rayburn, after soaking the fruit for the last few days. Haven't made one for a couple of years, but having heard a Rayburn cooks a good cake thought I'd give it a try.



Tweaked the recipe a bit since I'm not keen on candied peel and currants - substituted these for glace cherries and dried cranberries - and added a few crushed pecan nuts as well. So we'll see how it turns out . . . it smells pretty good anyway (maybe that's the brandy and cherry liqueur!). Cooked beautifully, went in at 7.30am, came out about 1pm.

And to finish my second blog of the day (that isn't entirely weather related!) here's a picture of today's candy pink sunset:

Frosty Frosty Day . . .

It's been a cold and crisp one - time to add a frost to my weather symbols I think - although it all looked very pretty.

Unfortunately cold meant condensation, with water running off some of our windows, notably the ones in the lounge which aren't double glazed. Until we can afford some new windows we've gone with double-glazing film - plastic sheeting stretched across the window and taped in place, and then heated with a hair dryer to taughten it.

It's a bit fiddly but seems to work really well - if you look carefully you can see the water running down the window pane on the left, while the film has insulated the one on the right. At £6.99 for four windows it's a darn site cheaper than double-glazing, although it only lasts one winter obviously.

Doesn't look as odd as you'd think either!

More Welsh Weather

Must think of something else to blog about!

Welsh Weather

Back to the weather in Wales . . .

It was a bit of a mixed bag last week, with a weekend less of rain, than of cloud (except we were sitting inside it!). Another damp one.

Swans and Shakespeare

Well as you may have gathered there's some belated blogging going on here. There'll be no weather for last week as we weren't actually in Wales, but travelling round the country.

We saw Swans in Welney . . .

and Ducks in Ely . . .

and strange signs in Stratford-upon-Avon . . .

Waiting is apparently prohibited on 'Even Dates' - but why hanging around on a corner of the pavement in Stratford should be such a heinous crime is anyone's guess! We were careful to move on quickly - didn't want to get locked up on the night we had tickets for Hamlet.

Here the question was 'To Wear a Beanie Hat . . .

Or Not To Wear A Beanie Hat?'

Not sure it's quite what the Bard himself would have expected, but very good - David Tennant made an excellent Hamlet!

Nice Weather for Mushrooms!

Well the end of October proved just as damp - although November brought something of an upturn . . .

The mushrooms on our drive seem to like it anyway . . .

Weather Round-up

Here's the round-up on the weather for last week - decidedly wet.

And it looks like we're in for more of the same.

Water, Water, Everywhere . . .

Got up today to more rain (after a pretty wet day yesterday), not for too long though as the blue skies pushed their way through. I don't think one breezy sunny afternoon is going to do much to dry us out though - with more rain on the way next week.

The university playing fields in town were a veritable lake when we drove past them earlier - and then we discovered that we had a lake of our own (well relatively speaking!).

A small pond had formed at the bottom of the garden, where water drains in from the field behind us, and hopefully drains out through a pipe into the field next door. Martin got the drain rods out and we soon heard the water gushing away, so we're back to a soggy puddle now.

The garden itself isn't too far off achieving lake status of its own though - a good half of it is so waterlogged that it's actually pooling at the bottom of the path leading up to the wood 'shed'.

Drainage strategies are already under consideration . . .

Glorious Skys

After what can only be described as a really rather ghastly day yesterday - ranging from plain dull to driving wind and rain - we were graced with this amazing sunset.

Overall the weather this year has been really disappointing - it seems in retrospect to have rained for most of the summer - but that may just be my poor memory I suppose. So, in keeping with the 'British' obsession I've decided to include a round-up of the week's weather in a Sunday post. Will actually have the evidence then to back up my impressions, and it'll be interesting to compare with future years.

Bittersweet October

Was trying to find a nice literary quote online to sum up how October was going, and came up with this.

Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.

(Carol Bishop Hipps, In a Southern Garden, 1995)

It just seemed to fit the autumnal experience - one day warm, the next decidedly cool. Leaves everywhere. Sunshine and showers (unfortunately a lot of the latter round here recently). In fact it's been so damp we have tiny mushrooms growing on the drive! And here's the photographic evidence to prove it . . .

The garden is beginning to wind down now for winter, the summer flowers are dying back, although a few autumn specimens can be seen - miniature cyclamen, primroses . . .

. . . kaffir lilies . . .

 . . . and some of the fuschias are still putting on a good show.

The cabbages and sprouts are also recovering nicely from their earlier caterpillar infestations and putting on some growth. The bunnies aren't so evident now, at least they don't venture into the garden quite as much as they did. And the swallows are long gone.  Otherwise the birds are in fine voice, with the Yew Tree acting as bird central; the nuthatch appears to have taken up residence, and there always seems to be something flying in and out.

I was peering through the branches earlier and got a photo of what appears to be a one-legged thrush (although I might be wrong).

Martin also got some good shots of fat robin having a bath . . .

Doubtless October will be over before we know it, and it will be time to get stuck into the accumulated firewood, and light the Rayburn. Halloween is dominating the shop displays at the moment, but it won't be long before Christmas takes over . . . how many shopping days does that leave us?

Time for a Haircut!

It seems that Saturday was the Last Day of Summer (at least that's the way it feels after the last couple of day's weather) and it was time to give the Ornamental Pear a bit of a trim.

Before - all frondy, but getting rather out of control

After - all neat ready for next year's growth . . .

Belated Blogging

Herewith the 'Blogs that Were Meant To Be' . . .

Sunday 7 September: Cool . . .

Well we finally got round to ordering the new fridge and freezer we'd been promising ourselves ever since moving - no more going out to the utility room every time we want milk for our tea! Sunday morning delivery - lots of polystyrene packaging. The fridge - actually in the kitchen - makes a subtle whooshing noise from time to time, which took a bit of getting used to, and the freezer (which has gone in the utility room) finally means we have room for something other than peas from the garden . . .

Sunday 14 September: Carrots (at least that's what I think they are) . . .

Pulled our first crop of carrots, strange creatures every one . . . a regular family of Mandrake Roots -they tasted ok though.

Wednesday 17 September: Sunshine . . .

Finally!

Saturday 20 September: Strictly Come Leching . . .

Men like Strictly Come Dancing too - but for entirely different reasons. Think the BBC has got the Saturday night ratings sewn up, Merlin was pretty good too . . .

Monday 22 September: Bootifull . . .

Not exactly free firewood this time, offcuts from the local building suppliers / wood merchant - help yourselves from the pile round the back, £4 for a boot-full.

Mind you I guess it will burn quickly being mostly pine. Took some unloading, but it's all stacked round in our drying area now, filled up a fair amount of space . . .

Free Firewood

Took a wander past some workmen cutting back an oak tree at the side of the road (just up from the house) today. Asked them what they did with the cut wood and managed to secure some of the 'smaller' logs. Some of them seemed pretty big, especially after 8 wheelbarrow trips up and down the road from where they'd left them!



Pretty good haul all in all - will need to season it, so it probably won't be ready for burning until next year, but it's added to our stock for then.

Grey Grey Grey Grey Grey

The weather that is. It's all getting a bit depressing - and the satellite picture just shows more cloud on the way . . . .

Beginning to feel as though I need to stand under a sun lamp for a week.

The Winter Garden is Open for Business

A reasonable day weatherwise (for once) - the sun actually came out mid-morning and we managed to get a fair bit of work done in the garden.

With the peas and onions up - the onions 'drying' in Martin's patent drying rack (see right) - Martin dug out the good stuff from the compost heap and dug it into the liberated space, and we got it all planted up with the sprouts and cabbage we'd been hoarding in various pots. So that's the Winter Garden in hand - there's already more broccoli on the way, and the courgettes are still producing at present.

Probably planted more sprouts than we'll ever want to eat mind you!

To Eat or Not To Eat . . . That Is The Question

Finally got out into the garden today - the rain actually stopped for long enough to allow us to cut the grass (which was getting a little out of hand to put it mildly). Got a bit of weeding done as well - Martin found the following under the Yew tree - the question is whether they are edible or not . . .

Anybody got any idea? Tried to identify them, think the white gills might be a bad thing . . . So I gues the answer is 'Not To Eat' this time . . .