The New Kitchen

After several busy months of planning and preparation, our new kitchen is being fitted and nearing completion.  Our last kitchen lasted 25 years but became dated and a bit battered so my semi-retirement became an excuse to have a refresh.  Here are a couple of photos that give a flavour of what we did have (these were taken at Christmas many years ago):

I am sure I took some before the refurbishment started but seem to have lost them....a senior moment perhaps?

I won't bore you all with the pictures of an empty kitchen or one with half plastered walls etc......I am sure you'd rather see the (almost) final result.  This is how it looked last night before the replacement floor was started today:

Not bad, eh?  For anyone that is interested it's a Cooke and Lewis kitchen in gloss cream fitted by B&Q contracted fitters.  They have done a good job with a few very minor snags to come back and sort.  The cooker is a Rangemaster Toledo in champagne.  It's a cracker!  We even managed to get a glass splashback in a matching colour so are chuffed to bits with the overall look.

Let's hope we can keep it as clean and tidy as it looks at the moment.

Holiday in North Wales

We have just spent a week in North Wales in a querky cottage on the outskirts of Caernarfon.  

We have stayed here twice before and came back again as the cottage is great and it's location is superb.  It has a beautiful river running through the back garden just a few feet from the patio doors so we can sit and watch the wildlife any time of the day.

Some lucky visitors have spotted otters - which I would love to see.  We saw some red faced mergansers swimming down the river on one occasion which we had not seen before.  The heron we have seen in other years was nowhere to be seen.

The weather was typical of Wales - cool, mainly cloudy and, at times, wet.  Nevertheless we managed a nice walk on huge sandy beaches each morning (when the tide was low so there was a huge expanse of sand for Lucy to run on).  We were treated to helicopter and (red arrow) hawk jet pilot training (from RAF Valley) a few times to amuse us on the nearby beach.  From the cottage we could walk along the river and alongside a railway line for 20 mins and then arrive to a splendid view of Caernarfon castle and the harbour.  

The railway line is the Wales Highland Railway at this point so runs with rather quaint steam trains.

Another place we visited was the Copper Mine in north east Anglesey.  It was both fascinating and beautiful.

New wild flower meadow

A new wild flower meadow has been planted near us.  This used to be farmland and the council have now taken it over.  Using it as a wild flower meadow for us to all enjoy seems like a wonderful idea but the council,has plans to turn it into a football field in due course.   That woud be a shame as we need fields like this for the wildlife and also so we can have some fields in this area that are not football fields.  Sometimes I think councils lose sight of the fact that not everyone has children and not everyone wants to play football!

This morning Rod, Lucy and I walked around an adjoining corn field which we think the council also now own.  It will be interesting to see what happens to that over time.  Guesses anyone?

Where does the time go?

Who would have believed before I semi-retired that I would be so busy that I would hardly have time to write this blog?  My feet have not touched the ground in the last few weeks as we have been trying to decide who will fit our new kitchen for us.  We finally decided on B&Q.  Only time will tell if that is a good decision or not.  Over the last week we have had our friendly bathroom fitter, Phil, come and refurbish our cloakroom and utility room.  Interestingly, we used B&Q cabinets in the utility room and were somewhat astounded that all 3 base units were damaged when taken out of the box.  They all had minor nicks on various edges.  One of the units would not go together properly but there was no time to have it replaced.  As it won't fall apart and looks OK from the outside I said we'd just have to live with it.  As you can imagine, I am now a little nervous about the quality of cabinets we will get for the kitchen but will send them back if they are as bad.

Added to all that excitement we have done a fair bit of entertaining lately.  I love cooking and did an almost splendid meal for my cousin that came to see us at weekend.  I cooked all day on the Saturday but that made me realise how much I am looking forward to getting my new range cooker in September as I could have done the cooking in half the time with two ovens.  My fruit jelly made with rose wine was delicious but my chocolate and hazelnut cheesecake was less good as I did not spot that the recipe said to turn the oven down from 200 degrees to 130 degrees!!  I had thought it was far, far too hot and read the recipe several times.....obviously I need to go to Specsavers for some new glasses!!

The hot weather continues but it is possible we might have rain and cooler temperatures tomorrow......we'll see.

Phew, it ain't half hot!

After a rubbish weather during the winter and spring, summer is here at last.  Today is a scorcher - the hottest day of the year so far for us.  At 4pm, in the garden, I have just registered 88 degrees in the shade and 105 degrees in the sun.   I bet a few people will get serious sun burn today!  Me?  I am staying indoors where it is cooler and will come out tonight when the temperature drops a bit.

Pembrey, South Wales

We have recently returned from a week staying in a beautiful cottage on the outskirts of Pembrey, South Wales.

It was wonderful even though the weather was a little 'Welsh'....dull, windy and damp at times.  There were several fantastic beaches to explore within a short distance of the cottage.  The best for us was the beach at Pembrey Country Park.  It was 7 miles long, with a huge expanse of clean, flat sand when the tide was out and a small strip of fine sand when the tide was in.   Lucy loved running up and down the beach searching for bits of seaweed to chew!

Richard, a long time friend, spent the first 2 nights with us.  He had travelled all the way down from Skye to see us and other friends and family.  It was great to catch up with him.

One day we went to see Dylan Thomas' house and stopped for a cream tea on the terrace.  Lovely (and sod the diet that day!).  On the subject of the diet, I have now lost 1 stone.  I have deliberately done this very slowly as I am not a fan of crash diets (in fact, I am not a fan of diets, full stop).

BBQ weather

Although it is raining today, I thought I would record the fact that we had a second BBQ of the year at the weekend. The main reason was that we had invited my step-mum over for lunch and she does like a BBQ.  It was warm enough when the sun was out but a little chilly when the clouds came over - hence the need for the cardigan.

Christine was looking forward to her feast but Lucy was looking on in eager anticipation!

The blackbirds are still nesting in the foliage behind Christine.  For the record, it is Euonymous that is growing up the fence.  It has been there for about 24 years and has made a brilliant covering for the fence.  Last year I put some manure under it and it has really taken off this year!