It's as black as a . . .

 . . . Kangaroo's jockstrap in my house.  That erudite expression was one my late ex-husband used to use.  Pretty sums up how it is in the house - without the kitchen light on I couldn't see the other side of the room.  Thunder is rumbling round and it has been really chucking it down.  In fact, it rained overnight and then we had steady heavy rain this morning.  I can practically see the green bit of my lawn in the shade of the house at the back, growing as I watch.  Now it has rumbled past the Epynts and over towards Hereford, giving Glascwm a good soaking on the way over.  Just a little blip there on the FireMap now and the ones around the valleys, also well soaked and faded on the map.

As it had cooled down and felt like Autumn this morning, I made a pan of soup - a sort of Minestrone type with tomatoes, bacon, onions, carrots, leeks, cauliflower, potato - using up stuff which needed using.  Tea tonight was a mince and rice "thing" which doesn't look very colourful (should have used passata) but used up a tin of just out of date Kidney Beans, some tomatoes that Ed gave me, and bits and bobs.  Edible but not exciting on the palate . . .

I had a lovely day with family here yesterday.  Today feels rather flat with the house empty again.  We were making Christmas plans and it looks like Gabby and I will be here alone for Christmas Day and I suggested an Indian meal, leaving the roast until the others were here.  Danny and Emma and "I" will be moving into their first home together in mid-September, and will obviously want to spend their first Christmas day there.  I am now having to share Tam and Rosie with Jon's folk and it's their turn for Christmas day this year .

I have just had an enquiry about Keith's mobility scooter, so am hoping that it will sell.  Positive thoughts please, for a sale (could do with the money for the heating oil . . .)  I would have to deliver to Pontypridd though, but hey, that's a day out.

I popped to the Library today to collect the Library book I had ordered, Andrew Wilson's Death in a Desert Land. His heroine is Agatha Christie.  I'm enjoying these . . .

I found a new-to-me Jason Statham film to watch last night, "Shelter".  Keith and I always loved watching his movies.  He's got a new one hitting the cinemas shortly, but I will probably have to wait until it's on tv.

I hope you have all had rain in the UK.  Lord knows we need it.  Farmers are debating whether it is worth sowing crops for next year, so we could be in dire straits with food supplies if they deem it's not worth it . . .

Is this neat enough Miss Huggins?

 

I found this x-stitch Robin when I was tidying up my sewing things this week.  I thought I would turn him into the Christmas tree hanging he was originally meant to be.  So, I folded over the edge and neatly tacked it . . .  Not too difficult to do on Aida.

Then I found a film on Amazon Prime and stitched as I watched Twisters.

I enjoyed the film and the sewing.  I have also discovered some Laura Ashley 1980s patchwork hexagons which I had started edging, so I will finish them off and list them on Ebay.  

Well, I don't know how far my cake went as I found out that there were 12 Fire Crews from all around the area working on the fire at Glascwm. . .  A few crumbs each perhaps!

We are meant to have rain starting today and very heavy tomorrow, so I hope that helps to put out remaining fire.  The one at Maerdy looked very bad in the posts on Facebook.

I forgot to mention something that brought me such joy on Monday morning.  I was in the bathroom and craning my neck out of the window to see if my neighbour's friend's car was still down there.  The House Martins suddenly began flying up to the nests, 30 or so of them, just inches from my face, and their shadows swooping across the wall beside me.  There is one last lot of eggs being laid and brooded.  I'm not sure what the fledged youngsters were doing flying up to the nests in such numbers, but what a delight it was.  I really miss them when they leave, even more so this year as we have had 6 nests built (2 in previous years) and so LOTS of House Martins about.

Now, I have been awake 2 hours.  Perhaps if I read a bit more I may get back to sleep but I am about to hit the exciting and scary bit at the end of the book so perhaps it won't exactly lull me to sleep!

Sky full of smoke

 All across the town and heading Eastwards, there is a pall of smoke from the fire and the air is thick with it.  I will definitely have to use my mask today to go and water round at Ed's.  I have to go to the PO too, to send back the dreadful mascara I bought online.  It is rubbish.  Then hair wash and clothes in the washing machine.

This is the smoke coming up from the Glascwm fire.  Yesterday my friend whose home overlooks a broad vista, saw some kids running along the top of a nearby hill.  Then a little while later, 9 of them on top of it again, one with a bag . . .  She was worried sick that they would set light to it.  Then she saw them in fields below the hill and managed to alert the owner of the land, who came out.  Who is to say what they had planned?  I see that two farm barns full of hay/straw have been set alight to in Herefordshire.  I feel so sorry for the farmers - loss of barns and all their winter feed/bedding . . . 

There has been a dreadful fire at Drummau Mountain too (towards Neath).  I think a Nursing home was evacuated.  Never wanted torrential rain for a week so much . . .  There looks to be some coming in on Thursday.  

Right, not a good note to start the day on.  Off to do something POSITIVE.

Update - the Something Positive.  Ginger cake.  One on the left for my family tomorrow (Gabby, Danny and little "I" visiting).  The big one for the Fire Crew.  They have earned it.

A lucky haul from Tesco's recycled shelves and Fire Updates

 

I thought I would do the week's shop today as I needed fuel for the next Malvern Flea, and Tescopolis had an offer on the cat biscuits the cats like (Iams).  I checked out the charity bookshelves before starting my shop, and struck lucky.  All of these appear to be brand new so I wonder if they are remaindered stock from the Tesco shelves.  The two Lord John ones are particularly welcome anyway, the Elizabeth I biography looks good, Michael Jecks' books are good and the Witchfinders one could be good too.

My stye has finally calmed down, after a week, and I tried the new mascara today.  What a waste of money - managed to effectively hide my eyelashes rather than enhance them, clumped them into wafer thin bits and was very difficult to remove . . .  Back to Max Factor 2000 then . . .

Finally - pudding today - a meal early as I had a skimpy lunch of home grown Red Zebra tomatoes (I will grow these again, they're lovely) and a chunk of one of Ed's cucumbers, and the last two slices of Pastrami . . .

It's quite windy today, but I shall let my lunch go down and go for a short walk and perhaps find time to carry on with the gravel weeding.

Update, minutes later.  Another fire - Glascwm, over towards Hundredhouse, which may have started up afresh and with this wind will really spread.  Fire Brigade in attendance.  Update 3 p.m. - I can see smoke billowing up from Glascwm - it's 7 miles away as the crow flies, and there are multiple fires by the look of things on FireMap.

A lovely weekend but a fresh worry . . .

 I spent yesterday morning baking, as I was in the mood for it.  I stewed up the fresh blackberries I had picked and the windfall apples I had been given and made a sponge topping for them.  Done as plain stewed apples with a sponge topping, I have this recipe in my hand-written recipe book with "Danny's favourite" beside it. No photos of the food - sorry.

I also made some Plum Muffins, but took the skin off the plums as it was pretty tough.  I had a failure with my Cornish Fairings (Ginger Biscuits) as the oven cooks too hot for the recipe and they needed 7 mins and not 10.

These sky photos were taken on my walk on Friday, and the clouds were tremendous.  Rain sporadic, though a couple of heavy showers helped the land.

Tam, Rosie and I had a quiet weekend and stayed around here.  Rosie has been playing outside in her little Wendy house - we took her farmyard buildings and animals out, and she helped me do a little bit of weeding too.  I am working on the gravel strip at the top of the steps, which has become very overgrown with Aquilegias and Linaria and Fox & Cubs.

Just before T&R left to go home, my friend Pam was on the phone, asking me to check the FireMap, which I have up on my computer most days lately.  She had taken her dog for a walk along by the River in Rhayader and was horrified to see first smoke and then huge flames on the top of Gwastedyn Hill.  She thought it had been put out, but clearly enough of the peat was still smouldering beneath to reignite.  She phoned 999 immediately and the Fire Brigade is now back out there trying to quell it again.  She was quite shocked to see last week's burning had gone right down the hillside to the road for a long way back.  She is quite newly-come to Wales (4 yrs I think) and you don't have this sort of thing happening in Surrey . . .

I left this post in the hope of hearing that T&R safely back, and they are.  I feel so sorry for the Firemen and FireWOMEN who have had to drop everything and go out to fight that same fire yet again . . .  My apologies to Denise, who is one of those hard working Firewomen and all of her compatriots.  It takes a very special sort of person to do this job as of course, it isn't just about fires.  Many thanks to those of you who have worked the clock round for weeks on end because of stupid idiots setting fires for a challenge, quite apart from naturally-caused fires, house fires etc.

Now I'm thinking about something to eat although I don't really fancy last night's leftovers . . .

St Cewydd's Church, Aberedw

 Aberedw Church -  The porch is really pretty with a solid oak fret.  Musicians once sat here to provide the accompaniment for dancing which took place in the church green outside.  It is dedicated to St Cewydd - the Welsh equivalent of St Swithun - who was a 6th C saint, and son of a Celtic Chieftain called Caw.  St Cewydd is also patron of the church at Disserth, near Howey, and at Cusop, on the edge of Hay-on-Wye.   Interestingly, some 200 skeletons were found on the north-east side of the church, dating from around the middle ages.  The earliest elements of the church date from around the 14th C, and the Nave and Chancel date from around 15th - 16th C. Like many of its contemporaries, it underwent a dramatic remodelling in Victorian times.  It is believed that what later became Llewllyn's Cave, was St Cewydd's hermitage . . .

 Kilvert was greatly enamoured of Aberedw - he loved the train journey on the old - extinct now - thanks to Dr Beeching - Mid-Wales railway, as it followed the Wye river valley and the towering rocks above it (Tam and I were somewhat taken by it too).

    Here he is in full flow: 

"Oh, Aberedw, Aberedw.  Would God I might dwell and die by thee.  Memory enters in and brings back the old time in a clear vision and waking dream, and again I descent from the high moor's half encircling sweep and listen to the distant murmur of the river as it foams down the ravine from its home in the Green Cwm and its cradle in the hills.  Once more I stand by the riverside and look up at the cliff castle towers and mark the wild roses swinging from the crag and watch the green woods waving and shimmering with a twinkling dazzle as they rustle in the breeze and shining of the summer afternoon, while here and there a grey crag peeps from among the tufted trees." 

Internally, the church has an unusual late (16th C) medieval rood screen.  Notre barrel roof.

Below: the font.

As you can see, those pesky Baskervilles got about a bit.

A pensive Mary with Jesus (degradation of this has given them both a beard . . .) A rather eerie hand of Jesus is by her chin.

Here's another warning along the lines of "Reader, prepare to die!" - "When on this Stone you cast your Eye, Think of your Own Mortality, Remember me you follow must, And lie as I do in the Dust."  You have been warned:

St Cweydd and St Teilo beautifully rendered in stained glass, windows in memory of William Thomas Rees of Pontshone. I think was the lovely house with the open garden Tam and I went to when we first moved here.

A rather Arts & Crafts style pulpit.

These flutes belonged to the late William WIlliams of Hendre (1822 - 1897) who played them in Aberedw Church.

Inside the porch, this memorial and below, unknown who died in 1604.

My stye is hopefully improving now - I have been bathing it with hot water and this morning woke up with my eye glued shut with pus.  It isn't so sore today and hasn't needed bathing every couple of hours.

I had a nice cool walk and picked some blackberries and took photos of the most amazing skyscapes (new header for one).  I peeled some windfall cooking apples Pam gave me and stewed them up with the blackberries, so we will have a pie tomorrow.

I have listened to more of the Rest is History podcasts about the Georgian period, in particular Samuel Johnson and James Boswell.  It made for very interesting listening and a change for the six episodes about Elizabeth I and the intrigues and Cold War in her time, which was fascinating.  TV - A House Through Time was very enjoyable and what a lovely historic building it is (in Edinburgh).  Reading: Joy Ellis - Shadow over the Fens.

We had a very heavy shower before tea so I won't need to water round outside this evening now.  I managed to do a little bit of weeding in the garden after my walk, and have done a little bit on Rosie's dress, but it's like wrestling a conger eel . . . the bits end up where they are not meant to be!

Have a lovely weekend all.

Distractions

 Every morning I look forward to reading various blogs and catching up with what my blogging friends are up to, and to looking at the posts on my Instagram page.  I don't often post on there, but I love to be distracted by various doing-up-an-old-house posts that I follow.  Two new ones today, one in Bavaria -  they appear to know what they are doing when it comes to tile stripping and revamping a roof anyway.  The other a family buying an old Norwegian farm.   Then there are various church and cathedral posts (sioz4026 has British ones and lots of amazing Spanish ones too.)  I follow a few antiques posters as well, in Wales and Cellar Antiques in Yorkshire.  I follow some equestrian posters too - American rescues as well as following our equestrian teams as they perform.  Lots of sewing and quilting posts as well - very inspirational.  Then the not-a-thing-out-of-place lovely old homes which are at least easy on the eye and I love to see how other people furnish and decorate their homes.  Do any of you follow Instagram posts?

It is raining a little here today.  Happy for it to do so all day long tbh, as we need this rain so much.   Tam is now here with Rosie at the weekend so I need to go out for a bottle of wine and a new washing up bowl (this one desperately needs replacing), washing up gloves (one split), mango chutney etc.  I would like some decent fish, but it has shot up in price.  The good large cod fish fingers that Tesco sell have gone up from £4 for 6 to £4.75 . . .  I made the mistake of buying two pieces of cod in crumb from Aldi last week.  Froze one but will chuck it as the one I ate I left most of - it was disgusting and mushy and didn't taste the least bit fishy . . .  It was £2.99 - you get what you pay for.

My bed is stripped and first load in the wash, and bed made up fresh with help from the girls of course.  They appear from nowhere the minute I start to strip it.

I had a nightmare last night - woken at a scream from Pippi.  Of course, I didn't know if I had dreamed it or it had happened and woken me.  But I searched the house and couldn't find her anyway - though I was certain she hadn't gone out after teatime.  Eventually I looked under the upholstered chair in my room (draped with my dressing gown) and she was there . . .  Of course, by then I was wide awake and came downstairs for an hour or so.  Went back up, chilled (4 a.m. is cold) with a hotty botty and put the duvet back over the bed.  Too cold for just a think patchwork quilt and a sheet now.   Cool enough to wear jeans again, so hopefully that will keep some of the bitey things away.  They have had a good season munching me.  

Right, this won't do.  I have a painful stye in my right eye and must bathe it again.  Yesterday it felt like I had been punched in the eye.  The pharmacist said to bathe it for 5 mins twice a day but I have been doing it more often than that.  It burst once, but has reformed overnight.  I asked the cause and he said it was often using old make up applicators.  Guilty as charged.  I have chucked out my mascara too as I have been using that for months - you are meant to chuck them after 3 months . . . this is older.  I ordered a nice new one for "older ladies" from Mr Amazon.  I will bathe my eye again and venture to the shops.

I have two churches to write up, so will do one for tomorrow.