Nadolig Llawen... Not...

The weather here has been consistently horrible for weeks now...

... and now this news...

What I achieved last week

On the way to Carmarthen against a 12 mph headwind in the rain!  (You've got to watch it full screen to be able to see the speed camera, but it clocked me at 20 mph...)

FFS!

Good news, but wish I'd known this in advance as we could have saved ourselves so much work!!!

Sainsbury's Shelve Cross Hands Store

Lleuad Llawn

The view out my bedroom window at 6 this morning:

Hyfryd!

Ysgol beth???

Went to Llandeilo show on Saturday and got my first view of the new school close up -- it is so bit that I couldn't even get it all in the frame...  A bit scary IMO -- the kids will need maps to get around...  Just waiting for it to flood now!

Towy Texels

Llongyfarchiadau to Bridget for winning 4th Place with her Shearling Ram at the Royal Welsh on Monday!

Cartrefi Redwood Homes

Section 162 of the Highway Code says that before overtaking you should make sure the road is sufficiently clear ahead...

Section 163 says that you should give motorcyclists, cyclists and horse riders at least as much room as you would when overtaking a car...

Is this driver following either of these rules?

Spring onions!

Check out the size of these monsters I got in my veg box yesterday -- have included the apple for scale -- yum!  So much better than the anaemic trimmed things in the supermarket...!

Y Tywydd! Y Poeth!

What on earth are we looking at a photo of you might well ask...  This was a difficult thing to try to photograph!

When I went to do my hair this morning, I took the top off my coconut oil, and my initial thought (not a morning person!) was that somebody had poured some water into my tub of coconut oil.  Of course, this was completely illogical, and then eventually I realised that at some temperature, it must become a liquid, because it melts when I rub it in my hands...  According to Wikipedia, coconut oil melts at 76 °F -- so now we know how hot it was in my bathroom overnight!!!

Leaves

Some number of years ago now, my friend J gave me an early 1970s salad spinner.  It's worked well over the years, but it is made of plastic, and, as everybody knows, once things made of plastic break, they are only fit for the bin.  Plastic is the great un-repairable substance...

So imagine my great delight on Saturday to come across this lovely unbreakable vintage salad shaker -- I will never need to buy another one as long as I live -- I just have to hope it's not raining when I want to wash my salad...  :)

Bike for sale

Have bought a new (to me) bike -- photos to follow later -- in the meantime, the old one must go...  Nothing wrong with it, just too small for my body!  I rode it today after riding the new one for the last two weeks and it suddenly feels SO small!!!  Anybody interested?

Fleeting archaeology

In between the old plaster coming off and the new lime render going on, we get a brief glimpse which shows that my house did in fact used to be pink once upon a time...

Am very much looking forward to how much cooler it should be this summer now that it will be insulated -- this room has been quite the oven on a sunny summer day...

Handlebars...

Went down to Cardiff on Saturday to get mudguards put on my bike -- despite what the website said, they were NOT easy to fit one's self!  Now I just need it to rain - which it might to towards the end of the week...

And I also discovered that I can't raise my existing handlebars any higher, so the guy in the shop suggested a buy a new bike...  :(  Or I could just get upright handlebars?  Thoughts?

Defiance Bike Ride

I've been riding to work for nearly a year now -- through rain, sleet, hail (painful!), frost, wind, and occasionally sunshine -- but have never done a longer ride.  Few weeks ago I did 30 miles as part of the Defiance Cycle Ride and am pleased to report that my legs didn't ache afterwards at all -- a year ago that would have been unthinkable!  So a big thank you again to all the residents of Amsterdam who inspired me to get on my bike...!

Am going down to Cyclopaedia tomorrow to get some work done on my bike so my ride into work on Monday should be better than ever...

Controlling the Mind

"People say: 'One can't help one's thoughts.' But one can.  The control of the thinking machine is perfectly possible.  And since nothing whatever happens to us outside our own brain; since nothing hurts us or gives us pleasure except within the brain the supreme importance of being able to control what goes on in that mysterious brain is patent.  This idea is one of the oldest platitudes, but is it is a platitude whose profound truth and urgency most people live and die without realising.  People complain of the lack of power to concentrate, not witting that they may acquire the power, if they choose.

"And without the power to concentrate -- that is to say, without the power to dictate to the brain its task and to ensure obedience -- true life is impossible.  Mind control is the first element of a full existence.

"Hence, it seems to me, the first business of the day should be to put the mind through its paces.  You look after your body, inside and out; you run grave danger in hacking hairs off your skin; you employ a whole army of individuals, from the milkman to the pig-killer, to enable you to bribe your stomach into decent behaviour.  Why not devote a little attention to the far more delicate machinery of the mind, especially as you will require no extraneous aid?  It is for this portion of the art and craft of living that I have reserved the time from the moment of quitting your door to the moment of arriving at your office.

"'What? I am to cultivate my mind in the street, on the platform, in the train, and in the crowded street again?'  Precisely.  Nothing simpler!  No tools required!  Not even a book.  Nevertheless, the affair is not easy.

"When you leave your house, concentrate your mind on a subject (no matter what, to begin with).  You will not have gone ten yards before your mind has skipped away under your very eyes and is larking round the corner with another subject.

"Bring it back by the scruff of the neck.  Ere you have reached the station you will have brought it back about forty times.  Do not despair.  Continue.  Keep it up.  You will succeed.  You cannot by any chance fail if you persevere."

Bennett, A. (1959). Controlling the Mind. In How to live on 24 hours a day (pp. 54-56). Kingswood, Surrey: World's Work.

Be happy, it's Adar!

I made these with wholemeal flour this year instead of white, and there is so much fat in them that they are still ridiculously indulgent, but you end up eating them four at a time rather than six at a time, so...  :)

This is something that I salvaged from the photography department at Tisch School of the Arts when I took Dave there in August 2013 to see where I'd grown up -- and I was horrified to see it in a skip -- so Dave had this lovely wooden box made for it for me for Valentine's Day, and then he fitted it out with a bulb this morning....  Happy!

And thank god it's not the '70s any more!  :)

Bar Mitts

Just realised that I never reported back about the bar mitts -- so for all those of you waiting with baited breath (which is probably nobody...) they are brilliant.  I wear them with just a pair of thin Merino wool glove liners underneath, and they have kept my hands from feeling pain through -4C starts...  My old motorcycle gloves have now gone to the charity shop...!

AND, failed to take a picture of this, but I dried my sheets on the line outside today, which must mean, despite there being ice on the line when I first put them out this morning, that spring is on the way!  Yippee!

Sunset

The view out the bathroom window as I was sorting the laundry earlier:

More winter salads

Haven't quite got where I want to be with it totally yet, but my mayonnaise is improving...

And I then used it to make this version of a heartier celeriac remoulade with hard boiled eggs...

Brawn

From this:

To this:

Yummy!  :)

I want to make a piece of jewellery or something out of this tag -- any ideas anybody?

Snow!

Yes, that is indeed snow you see there on the skylight in my kitchen... Snowed a bit this morning, then it all melted, and then it snowed a bit more again this afternoon.  Biking home this evening was okay as long as I stayed in the tyre tracks, but there's more snow forecast overnight and should be right around freezing when it's time to go to work tomorrow so I might be walking for a change!

Cheery winter food

One thing I miss in the winter is lovely fresh salads -- particularly anything with tomatoes and cucumbers...  So, a winter salad -- carrot and beetroot salad with ginger, and accompanied with some lovely honey smoked ham...

Taking pictures indoors under modern compact fluorescent bulbs is not the easiest thing -- this salad really looks much more jewel-toned in reality...  But it's dark out now, and I'm leaving the house in the morning to go to work before it gets light out, and then my salad will get eaten at lunchtime, so...  :)