This one ended up more as a fruit bowl shape than a globe, because it's overnight placement meant its lower half was partly covered by snow, stopping the water from freezing (it's been inverted in this pic)
The structures of formation inside were quite intriguing
What makes these particular pieces of snow and ice hang on the way they have? Everything around them is doing something else - I guess they're marching to the tune of a different drummer!
Busy! The house is being picked over, and sorted ...
Is this the new dieting mantra?
"The secret of happiness is not in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less"
Haruki Murakami, known for dreamlike atmospheres in his literary work, said “No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself.”
So I'll still be being myself in Wales, just in case you were wondering ... but maybe I'll also be a bit more naturally and consistently cheerful than here in the below zero wasteland of Maine. I'm so awfully tired of the cold.
In the meanwhile, I try hard to appreciate the beauty of a rose pink morning in achingly cold conditions.
We were surprised to see the previous owners had left this lush carpet behind in our living room. It looks rather fuddy-duddy to me (and is a color that I'm not enamored with), but it feels so exquisitely deep and soft that I thought I might be able to find a way to live with it. And then last week, we discovered why it had been left there. We rolled up the carpet and found an underlay, feeling a little squishy, taped to the floor all around the edges. Of course, speculation was rife as to whether that was where the bodies were kept (!), but ...
We had 3 ring-necked pheasants (introduced from Asia in the 11th century) pottering about in our Welsh garden one day, one of which was melanistic, a rare, dark coloration. Dale was able to get a lovely pic of a regular one from our living room.
Phew, we had a long day of travel and transfers to make the journey home - one of us (moi, of course) slept quite a bit. Dale was across the aisle from a mucus-gurgling, sleeping child whose parents kept holding the barf bag to her face when she choked on mucus - a little disturbing, and not sleep inducing.
We had a couple of hours delay at both Birmingham and Paris airports on our return trip. Charles de Gaulle was shrouded in thick cottony mist - it was weird to imagine being so invisible in Paris. This photo was taken on our inbound journey; none of this was visible on the return flight.
Arriving back in Boston and waiting for the C & J bus was like arriving unequipped in the Arctic. Last night the temperature was recorded at -18°F (-27°C). It's brutal and fierce out there! We also had to clear snow off the car once our bus journey was over, but it really wasn't too difficult, just awfully, deeply cold. Thankfully, the depot has a collection of snow shovels for patrons to borrow. We had snow brushes and scrapers in the car, but a shovel was needed for this amount of accumulation.
What a welcome surprise awaited us as we arrived at our house - a cleared entryway! How incredibly lucky we are to have such kind friends who thoughtfully shoveled a space to park our car as well as a walking route to our front door through the 2 feet of snow. Just ... amazing! This made our long-awaited arrival back home after dark so much more manageable. Thank you, friends.
And, talking of amazing, Dale's cousins skillfully finagled a way to send a bottle of French brandy to our Welsh bungalow, that was hand delivered from our local Spar shop. What a delightful surprise that was - we felt so loved.
My brother and his partner were, as always, super welcoming, helpful and accommodating, offering all sorts of ways to help us transition smoothly, and providing anything we needed or mentioned. Besides a blow-up air mattress and some folding chairs, we set off for our new home with a home-baked lemon drizzle cake!
We didn't hear any Welsh spoken in any of our interactions - it was all straightforward English, except for 'haitch' being used instead of 'aitch' when spelling a word.
On one of our excursions to collect some comfy chairs for our living room, we struggled to find the exact house ... so we endured a drive along a convoluted, rutted, potholed, muddy farm track into the Welsh hills with a steep drop off on one side only to realize we were in the wrong place. We eventually managed to turn around and drove back down to the civilized part of town where we could get phone reception. Turns out the D-I-L had used the cottage name that she could spell in the text to us, but which wasn't to be found on Google maps! The other unspellable, named house on the property was traceable, though. The elderly farmer's wife stayed on the line with us and directed us to her gate and showed us around. It was an old rambling, run-down building that had moisture and damp creeping all over the walls, with musty carpets and curtains. The family was committed to emptying out the place so they didn't have to continue paying Council tax on an unused building.
We struggled to get both armchairs into the rental car, and didn't want to have to do a second trip in the dark, so we started questioning how we would tie the trunk down when the old lady remarked that she had some string because of course, this was a farm. Before she returned with her farm string, I remembered that we'd been traveling with "stretchies" in the car for just such an occasion, and we were able to secure the load very easily.
In all the uncertainty and stressful driving conditions, we didn't take any photos! Thankfully the chairs were not fabric-upholstered, and I was able to clean them thoroughly and immediately we got home - we had been 'gifted' numerous cleaning agents in our home, one of which was appropriately called "Bang! Black Mold Remover." Hey presto, we were in business ... but still didn't remember to take direct pictures of them, so here is an incidental peek at our newly acquired/earned armchairs.
Our new fridge arrived, much later in the day than scheduled so it limited some of our other plans, but it will at least be available to us when we return. We had no trouble with food spoiling without the fridge at this time of year. Look at how tall it is - perfect for Dale (now he can make himself useful in the kitchen 😀)
Our last day in Isfryn was ... sunny and dry (i.e. no rain). It made for a beautiful morning, but this was also the day we had to leave! What a tease.
On arriving in England, we were astounded to encounter someone we know at the supermarket we stopped at! How is that possible? It was the lovely old guy who once lived next door to my brother in Ludlow, and who had accompanied us to the pub in June last year! Amazing, indeed.
Dale and I got to the point where we'd switch off who was drinking tea with the neighbor each time someone new stopped in, as we were getting tea-ed out! And each 'cuppa' would take and hour or more, which cut into our tasks, but was also, oh so lovely and welcoming.
One person we spoke to described the fall her mother had by saying, 'the stupid woman fell and broke her shoulder'! We were quite surprised by her description, to tell you quite honestly.
One person we met was called Ceri - we were told it's pronounced Kerry.
Since landing in Llanfyllin (make the sound of dentures dropping down from your top jaw and clacking when you say the double ll), we've bought a couple of second hand items advertised for free or cheap, and it has opened up doors, conversations and sharing a cuppa with many new people. What a great way to get to know the locals.
Here's Dale squeezed into our car with a king size bed and frame compressed in with us ...
There's still so much I haven't mentioned thus far - on our first day here we had to do an expansive grocery shop, ranging from toilet paper to sugar, veggies and pillows, all while bearing in mind we had no fridge. I was so happy to find my greatly-missed Bovril - that yellow stuff on my bread is a buttery spread we bought under the illusion that it was butter - we'd read through (and rejected) all spread ingredients in plastic tubs, and settled on this one, wrapped as a block in foil, just like the salted butter next to it. By this time we were weary and worn out from reading labels, and made a mistake.
