A pre-Christmas walk

The sun shone yesterday!  We couldn't stay in, and set off to have a walk in Brechfa Forest at Abergorlech.

This info from the display board tells you a little about the Forest.

Sunshine and shadows across the track ahead.

Water . . .

Water . . . .

Everywhere.  It has rained here every day since 3rd November and the land is so saturated.  Here it trickles from the rocks to join the stream in the valley bottom.

Looking down from the bridge across the stream.  A short one mile walk which loops around and returns the other side of the valley along a leafy (and muddy in parts) track.

My lovely daughter Tam.

We drove home along the narrow road which links Abergorlech with Llanfynydd.  There are lovely views from the top, as you can see in these photos.

The pastureland of the hilltops begins to degenerate into poorly-drained land as you descend into the steep scrubby valley below, but that has its own charm and is somewhere I find easy on the eye and it has a protective feeling as the valley sides wrap around the little lane.  Unfortunately there wasn't really anywhere I could stop to capture the atmosphere of it.

Finally, a photo of what must have been the old mill near the village, undergoing restoration.

Have a lovely Christmas all.  If you live in Wales, keep dry!

An addled pre-Christmas brain!

Note to self: perhaps blue lights were not such a good idea . . .  They are flashing ones so part of the tree goes dark whilst the others are lit up.

I am finally getting sorted here, although I don't feel in the least bit Christmassy really, and worse still, I am NOT in a baking mood.  The only things I needed to make this week were some biccies for the good folk at the Unit and the recipes I wanted to make (fancy American ones) called for ingredients I didn't have (which is not normally the case here) and were so terribly fiddly to do, and many required delicate icing which I am not any good at.  In the end I used a recipe from an old British cookbook with Christmas recipes, but having mixed it all, I read the next bit and it said "chill for 24 hours".  I know, always read the recipe through to the end before starting.  Sigh.

Anyway, I bunged it, like a dead arm, rolled in cling film and a teatowel to hold it together a bit more and when I couldn't sleep on Monday night, got up at 4.30 a.m. ish and went down to bake the biccies.  Well, it was still very soft and only freezing it would have made it cuttable.  I can't help thinking two eggs in a biscuit recipe wasn't right (so I shan't make THOSE again).  I ended up having to take chunks, combine more flour and roll out and cut with cutters.  I tasted one when cooked and it was . . . unremarkable.  I couldn't really taste the orange zest which was in it.  I made up some icing, too stiffly, and so after icing they were tasteless AND carp-looking, so I scraped the icing off (which had been made with the last of my raspberry jam, pips sieved out, so that at least tasted nice).  I then melted some white cooking chocolate and bunged that on.  NOT my finest hour, I can tell you . . .  So I quickly threw together a bunch of Plum Muffins in case they decided to chuck the biccies . . .  You can see why I don't feel like any more kitchen adventures.  My brain is still addled since last week when I had one night when I only got 2 1/2 hours' sleep.  I would have liked a good brisk walk to help matters but it has just been pouring and pouring and I got soaked to the skin just trying to get the blasted parking ticket in the John Street car park the other day - having decided to pay for parking for once, as we didn't want to get soaked walking up the town from the free parking at Tesco . . .  (The machines had run out of tickets, so you put your money in, got no ticket and got no money back . . .)

We got the wreath made yesterday.  Because of the rain I just went as far as the front gate with my secateurs to cut some willow for the base, and in the same outing, cut an armful of the long trailing bits of ivy which hang over the front wall. I got some sprigs of holly and some Hazel catkins the other day and I'd bought a wee box of silvery bells in The Range, so all done now and looking pretty although I need to move the middle bottom bell to the right).

We arrived home yesterday to a pretty basket of Hyacinths sent by my aged aunty in Romsey.  9 Hyacinths - they will smell wonderful when they flower.

In memory of my dear friend Annie - a rag rug wreath she made.

A bargain from Wilco's - a natural-looking swag reduced to £6.  The little bell decoration in the centre came from The Range.

Lastly, my Christmas present from Middle Daughter G, early.  Very timely too as the tyre on my ancient abandoned-by-the-builders-it-was-so-bad wheelbarrow perished right through this week, so will have to go to that Wheelbarrow Tip in the sky . . .

Towy Valley flooding

I stopped on the way to and from Swansea today to take photos of the flooding in the Towy Valley (something which happens regularly because of the confluence of the Rivers Cothi and Towy, and the wide flat flood plain all the way between Llandeilo and Carmarthen.  Above and below is the view upstream from the bridge at Nantgaredig.  The trees delineate the normal banks of the river Towy at this point.

Downstream, heading towards Carmarthen and the sea.

We came back by the route which allowed me to take some photos of the flooding higher up in the Towy Valley.  This is right by Dryslwn Castle.

A little to the right of the photograph before this is the hill with Dryslwn Castle atop it.  Look to the left.  The valley we live in is the cleft to the top right of the photo.  "Interlocking Spurs" I believe this is called (about the only term I remember from Geography at school).

A slightly different angle, looking downstream. The village you can just about see 1/4 way down and in on the left would be Pontargothi.

This flooding would have been more extensive yesterday.  Our own river has dropped about 4 feet overnight and today because there hasn't been much rain, but there are heavy downpours forcast for tomorrow and Tuesday and again on Christmas Day.

We stopped in the Castle car park to take a few more photos.

Swans with some biggish waders with long beaks.  Not sure if they are Curlew, Whimbrel or what.  Update:  my friend Fi tells me they are Black Tailed Godwits - that's a first for me.

Trees were submerged to several feet up their trunks.

Above and below, Dryslwn Castle against the kyline.  It has seen flooding like this thousands of times before.

Keep warm and dry all . . .

It's a wee bit wet out there . . .

We have had many rainy days recently, saturating the ground, so when a band of heavy prolonged rain hit, this was the result.  When we set out to pick our daughter up from the train station, the river was already across the bottom lane by the Mill, so we had to cross the bridge and turn left and then up the very steep hill on the far side of the valley.  We were gone a while, and knew that it would probably be across the lane this side on our return and came back the top way, behind the house.

Just before dark, Tam and I had a walk down the hill to see how bad it was.  As you can see, it is pretty dire.  The Cothi hasn't risen to these levels in a few years, and there is more rain to come . . .

The river backs up onto the lane, helped by the stream (below) which has spilled out over the bank as it can't get away through the culvert beneath the road.

Things aren't looking good for our neighbour in the bungalow.  The river is nearly in his garden where it passes on the far side of the bungalow, and where the ford used to be at the bottom of his garden, the river will by now have joined up with this "lake".

The link fence around the caravan is normally 20 feet away from the edge of the river bank . . .  I fear it is worse this morning and more heavy rain is due tomorrow.

The people who were supposed to view last week (and cancelled) asked if we flooded here.  Fortunately our house is a good 100 feet up the valley side and no, we don't flood.

We have to go out later on, but will take the top road out.  I will try and get some photos of the floodplain of the Towy (which the Cothi joins).  I should imagine there is really bad flooding from Carmarthen to Llandeilo and then on up to Llandovery, as it was bad yesterday when we drove home.

Christmas X-stitch finished

Finished, including the edging.  This lovely Mistletoe design came from the Just X-Stitch Christmas designs magazine that Maria (Dotty's Daughter blogspot) sent me after our recent meet-up in Newcastle Emlyn.  It's been a good while since I last did x-stitch and I thoroughly enjoyed making this.  I am now stitching a little house design from the same magazine.

I am feeling completely bejeebered today as I have been sleeping badly and last night just got a total of 2 1/2 hours' sleep in all, due to stress (our daughter is in a tizz at the moment) and then just after I HAD dropped off (after coming downstairs to read for an hour), my mobile phone jangled to tell me that the batteries were getting low.  I never normally have it on at all, and had forgotten to turn it off.  Then my OH had a nightmare where he was kicking and punching someone again, so I had to wake him up to stop the dream.   I thought I turned my phone off, but, many hours later after I had spent half the night downstairs and seen 4 o'clock come and go and then 5 o'clock too, I was just dozing off again when it did it again.   How it avoided being embedded in our bedroom wall I'll never know . . . but I had to get up and take it to where there was a light (we leave one on in my office so we can see our way to the bathroom in the wee small hours) and turn it off properly.  How I am still awake now I'll never know!

Anyway, T is home tomorrow and I can take her mind off her worries, and we will make the Christmas wreath together, and go for walks etc.  Her sister is just home for Christmas day and night because of work commitments, but we will make the most of our day of freedom.

I hope you are all sorted for Christmas.  I'm nearly there . . .

Deck the halls . . .

I am sure all of you have had your decorations up for weeks now.  Ours began to go up last weekend, but only after we had had a phone call about a viewing (subsequently cancelled), but it was enough of a prompt to get us working flat out to get every room spick and span and the decorations up.  I decided that the Mistletoe bough would look lovely over the archway in the hall, and imagine my delight when I found a wee set of "ice cube" LED lights for £4 in The Range, which turned out to be all different colours.  Aren't they gorgeous?  Tam is home on Saturday, and I expect she will want to tweak them so they aren't all at the bottom.

I am in a mind to bake some Christmassy biscuits this afternoon, now I have finally got all the deep cleaning done (and the people viewing haven't made a fresh appointment as they first said they would).

I think some stressy days this week and sleepless nights have caught up with me, as since I've sat down here, all I want to do is sit downstairs with a good book!  Note to self : do not sit down!

Right, time to top up the bird-feeders again.  Perhaps the fresh air will wake me up.

Christmas in Hay-on-Wye Pt. 2

A few more Christmas shop windows in Hay.  I have to say, lighting is all . . .

A dog (or wolf?) in one of the galleries.

Booths - for once we didn't even go inside.  Stock is slow-moving here at present and anyway, I'd already spent my money at the Poetry Shop, when I spotted a book edited by Myfanwy Thomas (and her mother Helen Thomas, Edward Thomas's daughter and widow) - Time and Again.  A 1st edition (not that I am a purist about such things) in hardback.

You'll see what I mean about lighting (and colours - lots of yellow and gold in this window display) making a difference.  This shop is a couple of doors down from Booths and in summer we always wander through to the tiny garden at the back, which is an absolute delight, with a little water feature and lovely plantings.

Another of Hay's flower shops, but what a shame the tree didn't have a bit more oomph in the lighting department.

A lovely display here, with a bit of wild wood turned festive.  I can remember my mum making similar creations when I was small and we couldn't afford a proper tree.  It was a branch of gorse one year, stuck in a pot, painted with flour and water paste, and sprinkled with glitter, before being decorated with the smallest of our painted glass baubles.  It was beautiful.  My mum was quite resourceful and practical.  Shame she was a hopeless cook!

A festive stuffed deer head at our friend Rob's antique shop.

This shop is a new addition.  It used to sell mid-European antiques but they have ceased trading.  Now it's a cookware shop and I didn't dare go in!

One of the original Castle outbuildings, this old barn is now a shop selling locally-sourced beers, perries and ciders, so I bought a few for Christmas.

As we drove away, the sun had set behind the flat-topped peaks of Pen-y-Fan.

Another view just to the right of Pen-y-Fan showing that the daylight was fading.

Last one - mackerel sky above some clouds which looked like they'd been airbrushed in with a feather.  Mackerel sky, mackerel say, never long wet, never long dry . . .