Stormy, stormy night!

So, did you have a good one?

Apart from me having a cold (I tried to deny I was getting a cold, but after two days of blowing my nose I had to admit defeat), we had a lovely Christmas.  After a bacon butty and present opening, we went for a nice walk, starting off in the rain and getting wet (probably not the best idea with a cold, but I survived), but then the sun came out and we were almost dry by the time we got home.  We walked up the Moelydd which is a hill near here with a stone on top showing the direction of Snowdon, the Long Mynd, etc.  On a clear day (and it was beautifully clear by the time we got to the top) you can see for miles across the Welsh hills which had snow on the tops, in one direction and across the Shropshire plains in the other.  It looked as though a good deal of Shropshire was under water as there were unexpected lakes shining in the sun.  We had a wonderful piece of steak (Chateaubriand) made into beef wellington in the evening - you hardly had to chew it it was so tender.  The leftovers made very posh sandwiches with homemade bread and sprout-coleslaw with horseradish the next day - yum!

This is my present from Bob made by a local Blacksmith.  It is
a copy of a medieval (I think) design for a three-way candlestick.
You can have it as it is with the candle in the top or you can jab the
spike on the left upright into something and put the candle into the
opposite hole or you can have it the other way up and hook it onto
something.  Clever, eh?

Laura has been busy and made us this felted picture of a moody
sunset over the hills with two little sheep.  It works really well against
the wiggly stones in the living room and the colours are just right.
We were wondering what we were going to put in that space!

I bought Bob a dart board for Christmas and that is now up in the workshop with an oche line drawn on the floor.  I had a go and I'm absolutely rubbish at it - we'll have to make sure there are no precious bits of wood stacked underneath it when I'm playing or they might end up looking as though they have woodworm!  I'll just have to practice I guess!  I also got him a Sony Walkman (not the old cassette ones we used to have but a new-fangled thingy where music magically gets onto it from the computer).  Being in the workshop all day, he gets a bit bored with the playlists on the radio so he can now listen to whatever he wants.  I can now just imagine him in the workshop, woodburner lit, polypin of beer at hand, music playing and darts in hand . . . . . we'll have to think of a name for this new pub!  The Chairmakers Arms perhaps or The Chair and Chicken.  

My goodness, it was windy last night.  We didn't hear the tree fall down just across the bridleway from our bedroom though.  Mind you, I think it might have just laid down gracefully rather than crashed down.  Its trunk has been split vertically for quite a while and it had kind of bent over rather than fallen down.  So our first job this morning was to clear that as it was blocking the bridleway completely.  Luckily it didn't take too long as the weather was still really horrible - the rain was really so wet!

Luckily, it wasn't a very big tree otherwise it may have reached the
lean-to.  As it was though, no damage was done and we haven't
found any more casualties.  I think we have had so many violent
storms in the last couple of years that most of the vulnerable trees
have already gone . . . lets hope so anyway!