Happy New Year!

All the Very Best for a Great 2015!

Bunnies on the Cake

Little late icing the Christmas cake again this year - all in white, with bunnies!

Cheers!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

One and All!

#beerselfie

Super Sizing

New bed arrived today - knew it would be bigger (moving up from double to king-size), but hadn't registered in the shop quite how 'tall' it was . . .


At the moment it seems to be dwarfing everything else in the room, although I'm sure we'll get used to it with time.

We did buy the bed specifically for its 'hideaway' storage feature - which takes up a fair amount of room - so it was bound to be higher than our previous bed (I can't touch the floor when sitting on the mattress).

At least we've managed to get lots of stuff (books, papers, etc.) hidden away, so it's doing its job!

Shower Room Re-Boot

Last job of the year.  Builders were back at the beginning of the month, and finally left us today with a newly tiled and fitted out downstairs shower room (just in time for Christmas!).
  

 

  Before                                    During  

We've now got a nice new shower cubicle (a bit roomier than the old one) and a new shower:

After

Couple of final jobs planned for 2016 though - so we'll see them again then!

Blinding!

We've been having a bit of an ongoing debate around keeping the heat in in the front room at night.  We used to tuck the curtains behind the old radiators, which wasn't a terribly sightly solution, but now the new radiators are much closer to the wall.





Eventually hit on the idea of fitting thermal blinds to all the windows, and ordered some in a silky red finish to tone in with the upholstery / curtains.

Looking good - hopefully they'll do the job!

Explore Your Archive 2014

What better way to raise awareness of archives, than a bright pink serviette with your cake?

Works for me!

Nant yr Arian

Trip out to Nant yr Arian this weekend with family visitors - hadn't been for a while, and it is looking so bare now they've had to take down the trees around the lake.

I guess it had to be done - they were infected with the 'sudden oak death' fungus - but the light through the trees, and the reflections in the lake were beautiful things



. . . as seen here in 2010.




The Red Kites are still there though - and feeding time is just as busy!

Bedroom Blue(s)

With all the work that's been done on the house this year, you'd think we'd have had enough - but instead we seem to have generated some momentum to tackle other jobs.

Redecorating our bedroom was high on that list . . . well high on my list, not sure that certain other people were really that bothered!

Stripped back the damaged wallpaper off the main back wall, and between us repainted the ceiling, other walls, and woodwork.


After much searching / ordering of samples of wallpaper finally decided on a duck egg blue feature paper for the back wall, which Martin and his Dad duly put up for me.




Really pleased with the result - just waiting for the new king-sized bed (on order) and that's another room more or less done with!

In a Flap!

Latest from Bird-Cam . . .

Rook or Crow?

Great Tit                                                  Grey Wagtail?

Nice Bunch

Looking better this year, but still more skin and pip than anything else - time to make some jam methinks!

Mutant Tomatoes

Good crop of tomatoes again this year - but some of the beef tomatoes took a bit of a funny turn:









Not sure what happened - they probably tasted ok, but the skin was so enfolded into the tomato it was difficult to get at the flesh.


At least the mutant gene seemed to be limited to the one plant!

Borth Trekking

Sun shining, on holiday, let's go for a walk - how about a section of the Coastal Path?

So off we set . . .  had to get to the coast first, which involved a cross country pootle over to Clarach - then up the hill and down the hill to Wallog and Sarn Cynfelin.

Everything got a bit harder after that - a lot more uphill and loose dirt paths, which a certain person stormed up like a mountain goat . . .



. . . while a certain other person huffed and puffed like a steam engine while trying desperately not to lose her footing!

By the time we got to the cliff in Borth said person wasn't in a terribly good way - the legs had pretty much had it - never had a train station (down the hill and along Borth's unending street) and our ride home seemed so far away . . .


Made it though - 8 miles, 394 metres of elevation gained, 450 metres of elevation lost, 4 hours - and back to Aberystwyth for a much needed pint!

Northern highlights!

September holidays and off to pastures new for a few days - a bit of a 'northern' tour this time.

First stop, a couple of nights in Malham - walking round Malham Cove, up to the Tarn, and back round to Gordale Scar and Janet's Foss (all the 'sights' of the area, including the limestone pavement up above the Cove):














Great day - glad of a pint by the end of it though!

On to Durham, walks round the river path, visit to the Cathedral and a tour of the Castle (now part of the University) with the oldest still working kitchen in the UK, dating back to the C15th!

From Durham we were on our way up to Berwick-upon-Tweed, via Cragside (a Victorian property, and the first in the world to be lit with hydro-electricity).

Great gardens as well - and some very interesting sculpture out in the woods . . .




We weren't particularly taken with Berwick itself, but it was a reasonable base for travelling around.

The ramparts were pretty cool mind you, and there was some great wildlife out in the waters - including seals, and this heron stalking its next meal . . . .


From Berwick found our way to Bamburgh Castle - not the nicest of days to start with, but the weather eventually cleared up, and there were some great views out along the coast.


Special activities on offer included our new snail-stacking game out in the grounds, and watching a film crew making a new kids tv drama.

Our final 'day out' was a visit to Lindisfarne - the sun did (eventually) shine, we visited the Castle, listened to the seals on the sand banks out to sea, and sat with a pint watching a barn owl swooping around the field next door in broad daylight!

September Moon

Taken through the telescope in our back garden:

Not quite full mind you!

Pinning down the Greenhouse

After the high winds in February we had to replace a lot of the glass in one of our greenhouses - and we ordered some polycarbonate panels for this purpose.


Unfortunately windy weather in the last couple of days, had dislodged the polycarbonate (ended up chasing them round the garden and even into the field next door!).

Martin came up with a solution in the end - fixing some old metal bars over the panels to hold them in place - hopefully that's done the job!

Down Came The Rain!

Phenomenal rain storm today - less than half an hour in duration, but so much water . . .

Dramatic stuff!

Floored!

Waved goodbye to the builders today - floor done, lights up - and furniture finally back in its place.

Still a lot of tidying up to do, but we're getting there - of course we're also really pleased with the floor too!

Already thinking about the next job mind you . . .

Pile of Piglets

Off to Aberaeron / Llanerchaeron today to enjoy the summer sunshine. Some good wildlife:

Ducks in a row . . .

. . . Apoidea wars . . .

. . . and perhaps not strictly wildlife, but an adorable pile of piglets!

Lakeside

Couple of days in the Lake District this weekend, catching up with old schoolfriends.

First stop Sizergh Castle in the (very hot) sunshine - the gardens were looking lovely - before moving on to Milnthorpe to meet up with everybody.

Barbecue on the beach at Silverdale that evening - good to catch up with folk, and in such a lovely location.  All those years living in the Lakes and I never made it to this bit of coast!

 
Great sunset too:

Next day, sun still shining (although not quite as hot) and we headed for Windermere and a visit to Wray Castle.

Although it's been National Trust since 1929 they've only just opened it to the public.  Lovely building, in a fantastic setting, although it doesn't have quite as much 'history' as most NT properties.



Had a bit of a walk and a picnic by the lake as well, before returning to Milnthorpe for a very nice dinner in a local restaurant, and to toast our hosts' 20th Wedding Anniversary (how the time flies).

A good weekend.

Winging It . .

The latest from Bird-Cam . . .

 

Or is that Butterfly-Cam?

Bunny On The Drive

Aww . . .

On with the Next Job . . .

Here we go again . . .  final job (hopefully) - replacing the somewhat manky downstairs carpets (particularly in the living room), with an oak-engineered floor.

We've been living in a shell of a room for a while now, will be good to get it all finished, and all the furniture currently scattered round the rest of the house repatriated!

Days Away

In between all the work on the house, we did find some time for a few days away in North Wales. 

First stop Llanwrst - a spot of lunch and a walk in the sunshine by the river:

Then on to Betws-y-Coed for two nights:

• more sunshine
• chips on the bridge 
• too much English breakfast 
• a walk up to Swallow Falls 
• a few beers / ciders in the pub

All good stuff!

Finally from Betws we headed off to Chester for a couple of days . . .

Not so much sunshine this time, but we walked the walls anyway - visited some cool pubs - ate some nice food - and watched the local wildlife:

All in all a good break - needed to get away from the chaos for a few days (we still have a lot of the living room furniture stuffed into other rooms) - before returning to await the next stage of the building works.