The weather here today is proper miserable - you can tell it's bad as all the cats are in and glad to be! First thing, I went across with some carrots for Baz, the lovely fleabitten grey horse in the field across our track, and for a natter with his owner, P. It was pretty cold then, and I didn't linger. Then I had to go into Llandod for sewing things (good Gutermann sewing machine thread and some more white Anchor embroidery floss for a x-stitch project I'm working on for a friend. As I drove back the rain arrived. Plans of a short walk for Keith were promptly shelved. It's been raining most of the day since - the only benefit of this is the Narcissi I VERY belatedly planted this week will have a much-needed drink.
The photos are from a recent walk when the sun was out in various places in the landscape as it escaped through gaps in the clouds. We had bright sunshine about 8 a.m. and then the clouds arrived. It's meant to be getting windy too, but hasn't yet. . . . literally just as I wrote that the trees across the track began to dance, but it's more gusts than full-on gale.
The forecast for tomorrow is heavy rain and strong winds, so we are debating whether to go up to Ludlow for the Antiques Market. It won't be ANY fun having a stand there, that's for certain (poor traders), and neither of us can work up much enthusiasm to get up early to go!
I have finished the Elly Griffiths novel I was reading (The Blood Card, which I thoroughly recommend - I had no idea who the baddy was. She's very skilful with that). Now I'm back to reading a bit more of John Lewis-Stempel's "Woodston". It was fascinating to read how much rent (in kind) was payable on the land farmed for the Lord of an area. In the 7th century , every ten hides of land (1,000 - 1,200 acres) had a food rent of: 10 vats of honey (the only sweetener and used for making mead, as a preservative and medically,) 3,000 loaves, 12 ambers of Welsh ale (an amber being half a mitta or 32 gallons), 30 ambers of clear ale, 2 full-grown cows or 10 wether sheep, 5 salmon, 20 lbs of fodder and 100 eels.
Our tea tonight is going to be proper comfort food as I have a beef casserole in the slow cooker, and it smells delicious. Our butcher sells excellent beef in all shapes and forms and I bought a kilo there today, the other half being frozen for a beef curry in the not-too-distant future. So I had better peel some spuds to go with it and sort out some Broccoli.
