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: