Nadolig Llawen!

Christmas Eve shadows on the prom looking out to sea (after a day of preparing for the Christmas 'feast').

Christmas Day - cooking too much, eating too much, and washing up too much!

But still lovely to enjoy the day with family.

Then time to relax by the fire - with a glass of wine, and a special 'Christmas tree' from Martin - lovingly made from his used hankie!

Hope your day was just as full of good food, good company, and Christmas spirit (of whatever kind!).

Merry Christmas!

Project Home Automation

For the last month or so Martin has been working on various elements of home automation . . .  from Wi-Fi plugs that switch appliances on and off (e.g. my Christmas Bling!), to Zigbee lights linked to motion detectors, which come on as we move from room to room, and remote sensors for temperature, humidity and the oil tank level.

We've now also got a new heating controller, and automatic valves on most of the radiators, to regulate the temperature in each room.  All controlled via the Google Assistant and Drayton apps, and which mostly work well.  

Just have to remember which lights I actually have to switch on myself!!

Time To Be Civilised

After 25 years together we thought that maybe it was time to do something about making it official.

So today we registered our civil partnership, which means our relationship now has legal recognition, and we're officially each other's next of kin with all that entails - unfortunately a consideration as we get older!

No big party  - the registrar said the necessary words, we signed the document, and went for lunch in Wetherspoons!

It's Christmas!

Well, it is December at least.

It may not quite be Christmas yet - but it doesn't seem inappropriate now to break out the decorations, and get the tree up.

Need to make the most of my Christmas Bling Time!

Project Shoe Rack

Martin's latest project has been to use some of the pallet wood we'd accumulated to make a new shoe rack for the porch - et voila!

And here it is in situ, complete with shoes, wellies, boots etc.

All the layers lift off, which makes it easier to move when we need to, everything is nice and accessible, and the porch looks much tidier.  

Job done!

Lighting Up

Time for another visit to family - fitting in some pre-Christmas tasks (such as sorting out the festive lights in the parent's garden, and bringing down the Christmas decorations).

Our visit also coincided with the switching on of the town Christmas lights - and with the 'fountain' in storage this year (due to the ongoing revamp of the town centre) - the 'tree' was the focus of the festivities.

And boy did it attract some attention - perhaps you can see why!

Likened to the 'leaning tower of Pisa', it made the evening news bulletin, and was even trending on the BBC News website!  

Apparently it is all down to a 'bent trunk' and it is perfectly safe, but they are going to contact the supplier 'in the hopes that next year's tree is a better one' . . .  

This one at least won't be forgotten any time soon!

Lest We Forget

 Welshpool Postbox from our recent trip - says it all.