Paradise lost

 

Progress has been made in the pink bedroom.  The wallpaper STILL looks much darker than it is, due to the vagaries of the camera, but I  love it and the paper is lovely to work with and hardly any loss with the pattern repeat for these short drops.  I had to start at the "wrong end" of the wall because of the furniture at the other end.

    However, the first thing to hit my stomach this morning were two Ibuprofen as my arthritic neck is complaining and running down across my shoulder from all the flat-out painting I've done.  Tam arrived yesterday evening, for a 24 hour visit (working from home today) and I need to finish that end of the room before she leaves so she can help me put the furniture back in place.

    We had roast lamb for tea last night - rarely do we have a roast and lamb is our favourite, so it was a treat.

    I had to see the GP yesterday morning and have been put on blood pressure tablets (no surprise).  I am hoping that I won't need to be on them forever, and that worry levels over Keith's health might calm down a bit.  I have to have more blood tests taken in a fortnight too, including a fasting one for Cholesterol as mine's not been done for 3 years and it's meant to be done annually.

Pylons would look so good marching across the landscape don't you think?

    Another hit to the Blood Pressure was the arrival of a map from Green Gen Towy Usk mapping out the proposed route of PYLONS to take wind power from Radnor Forest to Pont Abraham, near Carmarthen.  Blardy hell - the proposed route bad enough - clearly in sight across neighbouring farmland but the alternative route (the one not running right beside the holiday chalets at Caer Beris) would be within spitting distance of our house!  There has been one meeting on the showground already.  I shall be going to the next one, have signed the petition and everyone is up in arms about it - wherever it goes it would bean eyesore and a ruination of beautiful Welsh scenery.  In this day and age, underground is the only way to go.  They mention delivering "clean green energy" - but at what cost to the landscape and inhabitants?  Of course they want pylons at a tenth of the cost of burying cable.  There is already great opposition and the Countryside Alliance is against it, and the Campaign to Protect Rural Wales, and our MP will be hearing from me this week.  Billy Blue Eyes - check the route, as it goes down through Hundred House too . . .

The alternative route appears to be not far behind the stables . . .  This is the view from our bathroom window . . .

    Anyway, one good thing is I have taken my DNA sample and it's in the post to Ancestry now.  I have to wait 6 - 8 weeks for the results.  I'm not good at waiting!  Meanwhile, I am going great guns with my tree on Ancestry and have over 200 rellies on there now.

Wild, Wet and Very Windy

 

I've braved the weather and done the grocery shop this morning.  I nearly got blown across the Tesco car park in Llandod!  It's become a habit to take a walk around the Lake there, but this morning's weather deterred me today.  Above and below Pippy has a new game (well they both do, but it was Pippi who was most determined this morning). She scrabbles at and bites the "cord" for the kitchen blind.  It is discouraged, needless to say . . .

Saturday was an interesting day - Alfie caught a well-grown baby rabbit and brought it in to show the kittens - and eat in the warm.  This was discouraged, but he came in again behind my back and I found him under the table in the Library, excited kittens at his elbow.  I chucked it out again, and he and Ghengis went to scoff it.  Mind you, as Ghengis has no teefs, it was more sucking it for him.  Half an hour later I went into the living room and thought, what's that pong (Keith hadn't noticed a thing!)  Ghengis had been spectacularly sick all over the sofa - managed to get all three throws covered in rabbit insides (I'll spare you the details), so I had to clear all that up and then chuck the remains of the rabbit outside, over the paddock fence into the woods.  Yeesh.  Can do without that.

On Sunday, Keith wanted to go to Carmarthen Fleamarket.  I wasn't bothered tbh as it is getting worse and worse - not advertised, just one board on the A40 roadside to say it's on, and no customers and very few dealers.  I set the alarm - then of course woke up at 2.30 and couldn't sleep after that.  Keith was breathing heavily, which didn't help.  Well, we went down there - just 25 dealers or so, as the weather a little rainy and the forecast hadn't been good.  I just bought one thing - and debated about that, as I was so tired.  We got a tenner off the asking price, but research has shown it is pretty rare.  It is a French wrought iron ship's candle holder.  The little cap at the top swivels round so you can change the candle.  It's probably 150 - 180 years old and "has the look" . . .

I did some more of the family tree but now have to go back and change one whole branch as somehow I missed a generation filling in the details on mum's side.  Aries don't like to go back and do things again, but it must be done. However, as Tam is coming to stay overnight tomorrow and work from home on Wednesday, I need to finish the end wall in the hot pink bedroom, which means moving furniture (on my own as Keith can't possibly help, bless him).

Keith has gone backwards again, as the new patch which gives him benefit around the clock, has also given him VERY low blood pressure, so he struggles to walk far because of THAT.  We can't seem to win.  Anyway, we're still a bit forwards as he can walk round here without a stick but has to be careful when his blood pressure makes him dizzy. 

Hope it's not blowing a hooley where you are.  I baked some Cheese Scones for our friends P&D who we met up with yesterday at the Fair, and also made a small batch (too small, they are LOVELY!) of Apple & Cinnamon Scones.  I will put the recipe up tomorrow.  Sadly no photos, as Keith loved them too and the half dozen are gone now.

For once the forecast was right - more snow

 More snow overnight - fortunately, not too much.  We had rain all day yesterday, then a couple more inches of snow last night.  I went for a walk first thing to take some photos whilst it was still on the tree branches.  It was heavy going walking through the snow on the fields as it was deeper up there.  Nothing like John Gray (Going Gently) up in North Wales though or further north.  No winds here to blow it around either.  Anyway, I shan't be doing too much today.  I've got a loaf started in the bread maker, will get changed shortly and get back to decorating.  The "hot pink" bedroom has irked me all the time we've been here and as I have three rolls of wallpaper and that has more wall to cover than the guest bedroom (which is reasonably respectable and not so desperately in need of improvement) I spent a couple of hours yesterday listening to Wolf Hall on Audible, and getting some pretty yellow paint on the top walls (which are boarded).  Before I can put the wallpaper up in that corner though I will need to put some white satinwood on the dado rail and deep skirting boards.  I had to empty the bookcase and carefully manoeuvre it onto the top of the chest of drawers next door to the one it was on.  Managed it without it falling on my head.  I will have to take the drawers out one by one before I can move the first chest of drawers out of the way.  What fun!

Shimmering light on the wall but you get the idea and you can just see the pink below the dado rail.  A whole room of that was Too Much!

Now this looks SO dark and ochre-ish but it was late afternoon and raining, and the light not good.  It was taped up on the wall where the light comes in, so not getting natural light.  I love this wallpaper and chose it because my dad once painted a copy of the original Almond Blossoms by Van Gogh.  Anyway, it cost an arm and a leg each roll, so it's being used!!

"It's cold out there" - the two brothers Alfie and L. Whale deciding it's warmer indoors!

Turn right out of our gate and down the canyon. Our woodland on the slope on the right.

A tracery of snow on the branches makes such a pretty scene.

Up onto the first field, where it was a trudge through the snow - about 4" deep up here.  My legs soon began to complain.

Looking back the way I'd come. Everything so still and for once, the farmers further up hadn't come down on the quad bike.

View across to the heather hills.

Birds on skis?!! Not sure what these straight or X marks are.  Perhaps just melt from branches above?

The girls know the best place to be!  They have developed a very bad habit of dabbing fingers when they see them over chairs of when Keith slowly climbs the stairs.  Something to be discouraged!

Now, back to the decorating . . .

A snow day - but not quite the Beast From the East 2 that was threatened!

 

Remember the Andrex puppy?  Well, this is the kitten equivalent.  Keith started laughing last night when we were having our evening meal - as behind me the girls had retrieved a spare loo roll from on top of the toilet cistern and had dragged it, protesting, down the stairs to the kitchen where they killed it good and proper!  Oh they're SO funny.

We woke up late (for me) around 8.30 and it had snowed a little in the night and then set to in earnest and by the time Keith had to go and have his (low) blood pressure checked at the surgery, there was about an inch on the ground.  Fortunately the roads were too wet for it to settle.

I am glad that the oil man came to top up the tank on Monday, and that it has gone down to 70p a Litre now.  

I am going to spend the afternoon enjoying my (very early) birthday present from Keith - which is an Ancestry DNA test and on offer, at the moment, for just £1 more, a 3 month membership of Ancestry.  I let it drop when I was having a break from family history research, but now it helps get me out of the house on these grey winter days.  Having found I have a drop of French Huguenot blood amongst my Devon roots (the Legassicks, from Gascony or as I prefer to think of it -more romantically - Aquitaine) I am keen to learn more.  The line goes back to the 1690s.

Keep warm all.

When your legs don't want to work! Plus a visit to St Thomas a Becket Church, Huntington.

 Well, it was just as well we went to Brita's lovely little Antiques Fair at Llandeilo on Saturday, as our planned trip to Malvern Fleamarket didn't happen on Sunday.  When we got back from Llandeilo, we both felt like we'd walked there and back (about 70 miles!)  I got Keith's Mobility Scooter into the car, and was thinking about making the rolls up to eat on the morrow, but put that on hold.  We ate our evening meal but both of us were feeling worn out and groggy, and so listened to our bodies and I didn't set the alarm. I woke around 6 a.m. but was so glad to be able to just turn over and go back to sleep.  

Yesterday we had an appt. with the Solicitor in town to have a fresh will made up for this property, but when the phone went at 10a.m., I said to Keith, "That will be the Solicitor cancelling our appt", and indeed it was. I was pleasant, but called into their office when I was in town and then I said, this has been going on since November when we first made an appt. and had to wait until mid-January for that, and then that one was cancelled.  Perhaps they didn't want our custom, in which case we would go elsewhere.  Hopefully they will get themselves in gear now but tbh, I think I will try a different solicitor.

Right, change of subject - I saw this old farm cart on the way to visit St Thomas a Becket Church at Huntingdon.  Quite a rare dedication apparently.

It is believed that this church stands on the site of a much earlier Saxon church.  It's certainly in a quiet spot - you drive through a farmyard to reach it.  It is reputed to have been rebuilt in 1210 at the behest of Richard le Bret, one of the murderers of Thomas a Becket as part of his penance. Post-Reformation, all but 4 churches dedicated to Thomas a Becket were rededicated, as he was deemed not to have been a saint.

By 1890 it was in quite a state of delapidation, as were many churches by the Victorian era and was rebuilt at the expense of Lady Arabella Romilly of nearby Huntingdon Park. There is more info HERE.  Also HERE.  The 2nd link gives excellent photographs of the interior and more information.

On the approach I noticed the remains of a tower beyond the fields, and it was connected to the Norman establishment in the area, and at one point the Chaplain lived there. This is right by Offa's Dyke, a wild border area which needed controlling.

The glass in the porch was very pretty.

The font is 14th C.

Lovely solid oak pews.

A Lancet window with a beading of stained glass surrounding it.

Memorials to the local Watkins family.

Sorry, not good light down this end of the church, so you can't see the Rood screen very clearly.

Sorry the photos are rather blurred.  This was the old camera which has been playing up more and more so in future I will just use it for local walks and stick to my new camera for  trips out.

I've made a big pan of soup/stew for lunches for the next few days - there were sad looking veg at the bottom of the fridge, and I had some mince to use up, plus two tinned chopped tomatoes, one of green lentils etc.  I did the grocery shop early yesterday as snow is on the way (just a tiny sprinkle on the hilltops first thing so far) and we are all stocked up now.  Keep warm everyone.

Llangorse Lake

 

Llangorse Lake has a long and fascinating history, although the Crannog (photo below shows the modern reconstruction of it, now used for a wedding venue I believe).  Irish kings and princes settled here and  Brychan Breichiniog**, son of the Irish King Anlach settled here, giving links to 5th-7th C Ireland - where indeed Crannogs are to be found in goodly numbers.  In 1925, a hollowed out tree which formed a dugout canoe (dated to the 9th-10th C) was found and preserved, and can now be seen in Brecon Museum.  (I can recommend this museum, especially if you are interested in Early Christian Monuments).

**He had several wives and MANY children - any number between 12 and 63, but 24 is the most likely.  Many became Saints . . . 

HERE is a link to more information about the discovery and excavation of the Crannog and HERE is the Wikipedia page.

There were Mallards, Coots, Canada Geese and Swans on the water.

Looking across to the far shore of the Lake where the little Gothic church of Llangasty Tal-y-llyn is to be found (just out of shot on the left).

Canada Geese (I think) flying over and preparing to land.

A single Cormorant.

It is worth visiting in the summer for the wildlife.  These darters and dragonflies are to be found in goodly numbers.

A Coot (Moorhens have a dab of red on their faces, and Coots don't).  

Next time, before it gets forgotten.

Baking and planning a morning out

 

One slightly scorched Orange, Banana and Cranberry Loaf.  I've not baked for weeks and though I had to literally force myself to do it, the end result was worth it.  It's so difficult to shake off the Glums at the moment.  Here's the recipe, from Emma Patmore's Baking:

175g/6 oz/1 1/2 cups self raising flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

150g/5 1/2 oz/1 cup soft brown sugar

2 bananas, mashed

50g/1 3/4 oz chopped mixed peel

25g/1 oz chopped mixed nuts ( left them out)

50g/1 3/4 dried cranberries (I only had mixed fruit with cranberries in)

5 - 6 tablespoons orange juice (I used up an old orange for this)

2 eggs, beaten

150ml/quarter of a pint/ 2/3 cup sunflower oil

75g/2 3/4 oz icing (confectioners')sugar, sieved (I didn't bother with the icing)

grated rind of one orange (I added this to the mix instead)

Grease a 900g/2 lb loaf tin and line the base with baking parchment.  Sieve the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl.  Stir in the sugar, bananas, chopped mixed peel, nuts and cranberries.  Stir the orange juice, eggs and oil together until well combined.,  Add the mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until well blended.  Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in a preheated oven - 180deg. C/350deg. F/Gas Mark 4 for about 1 hour until firm to the touch or until a fine skewer inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean.  Turn out the loaf and leave it to cool on a wire rack.

Mix the icing sugar with a little water and drizzle over the loaf.  Sprinkle the orange rind over the top, and leave to set before serving.

I was planning a morning out yesterday, but had to wait until the Care and Repair chap had come to fit a rail in the bathroom for Keith.  I had suffered a very bad night's sleep too - still awake at 1 a.m. and felt fit for nothing, so I didn't go any further than town just to get a paper and then tried to have a nap on the sofa, but of course, I had kittens either burrowing under the blanket (Lulu) or landing on me from a height (Pippi) so it ended up just being half an hours' "shut eye" and NO sleep.  By the end of the afternoon I had rallied enough to make home-made Pizza for tea.

Anyway, I sat quietly in the evening and planned a little trip out today to the Garden Centre for various veg seeds, and then on to bother a church at Llangorse. I have been there before but not inside.  It is apparently open daily.  Still grey and cold and miserable outside, so a wrap up warm day.

Have a good weekend.

An elastic kitten . . .