Welcome to Melanie’s December Delights. It’s been a while! I have to say the weeks have slipped by so fast this year, I have been getting more and more behind with my general admin and blog duties. I know I missed out the November blog, which is not usually like me. Work has been hectic, we have both been busy bees in general life and the studio. I will have plenty of blog posts to write in the New Year with all the artwork we have been creating.
Life has been quite tricky with the weather too and sometimes it’s just the little things that happen which can put you behind a number of days in your schedule. I have posted weather related photos below…but let’s start with the fun things… Christmas and Lily Grooming!
Lily Grooming
Lily is doing well and this photo of her was from her latest grooming session. Suffice to say she doesn’t quite look like this now and is due to have a bath on Christmas Eve. I absolutely love it when she has a session with our groomer in December as we get a festive photo like the one below. Lily surrounded by the Nordic Gonks really makes me smile!
Looking back… A Year of Cottage and Garden Maintenance
It’s been quite a year! If any of you reading this have been following the personal side of our blog this year, you will know how busy we have been. We had a lot of jobs build up during the Covid years that we weren’t able to tackle as Nicholas was poorly during that time. He is still on the road to recovery but he is much more improved now. We made a long list and stuck to it!
We tackled all of the log splitting and stacking. Over the last few years, because we had various storms that gradually blew down the temporary log shelters, I ended up moving the huge log rounds a number of times around the garden. They were huge and heavy and I cant believe I did it. Grit and determination. It’s unthinkable. So it is a huge relief to see them all stacked and done. The storms of course blew three trees down on our boundary, so that was more to clear and we fenced that part of the garden. We tided the garden getting rid of junk we had accumulated too which really helped.
We also moved the chickens to the other side of the garden. They are much happier under the trees. Cladding the storage shed which was a huge job. We also painted outside and inside the cottage. Not to mention general maintenance jobs. It’s amazing how long and how much energy this has taken. I really hope that next year it will be a lot easier to maintain everything.
We still have a few things on the list, including painting inside our studio. Maybe that will be a New Years job! But hopefully next year will be a slightly more organised one.
Merry Christmas
So with all that said and done, we are so happy to have made it to Christmas in one piece. We are looking forward to taking a few days off to relax and recuperate. I have decorated the cottage and added a few photos for you to see. The cottage, I have to say, is very magical this time of year. The tree and lights really do make everything cosy and we are so lucky to be guardians of this place for the time we are living here.
A lovely lady called Kay recently gave me this homemade Christmas decoration of an angel. It is adorning my Christmas Tree. Isn’t it fabulous! I love it! Kay handmakes many amazing items and gifts and you can follow her on Facebook under Merlin’s Makes. I gave her some Laura Ashley fabric and I am looking forward to seeing what she comes up with. I’m sure she is going to make some amazing things. Please do follow her and if you are in Wales you can keep up to date at which craft stalls and fayres she is at.
Melanie’s December Delights
Lily of course is always watching out the window.. in case anyone passes. She has a good view of the inside of the cottage from there too. Not a bad place to see the world go by… although not a lot goes by our little lane!
We added some waterfall style icicle lights above the window and I love them so much. I’m not sure I want to take them down when Christmas is over! We got the idea from the Mill we stayed in, when we were in Cornwall last. They had some across the huge mill windows and they looked incredible. So I might keep them up until the clocks change so we can have a bit of sparkle in the dark evenings here!
And finally the stairs are festive with greenery and a few decorations. It feels good that its all painted and clean in the hallway. The ceiling hadn’t been painted since we had the new Velux window installed in 2019 when we had the roof redone. So the Christmas decorations feel lovely in a fresh clean hallway. I hope you like our decorations and they give a lovely festive vibe!
Unplanned Snowfall
So as I had mentioned at the start of the blog post, the weather has been somewhat excessive lately. It has been oddly warm for this time of year and then all of a sudden a really cold snap. Then back to warm again. We had a few frosts where I managed to get all the outside pot plants in the greenhouse and under cover. Then all of a sudden it snowed. From nowhere. Plus we seemed to be in a snow bubble as it was so localised. 10 miles away they had no snow whatsoever. It snuck up on everyone so fast the council hadn’t even gritted the roads.
So unfortunately many, many people ended up being stuck in their cars in the snow. Roads were closed. The police were out in force turning motorists around and vans were sliding backwards down hills!
It wasn’t a huge amount of deep snow, but it was enough to cause a lot of chaos. We were snowed in for two days on our lane. It always looks very pretty though and here is a photo of Lily trundling down to the village. We really needed to get to our local town that day… but there was no way of doing it. When you live in a hilly place and the only way out is up a hill… you aren’t going anywhere!
Storm Darragh
Once the snow had gone…Storm Darragh arrived. It was forecast to be pretty bad, particularly on the coast of Wales. So that was another few days we didn’t get to work in the studio. The government even sent out weather warnings of danger on our phones, with the most piercing alarms! Do not go out, stay at home and find torches and batteries… or something along those lines.
We secured everything outside that afternoon and went to bed just hoping that nothing would happen as the storm arrived over night. 80mph gusts and by the time the morning came the storm was still howling. It lasted most of Friday night, Saturday and into Sunday. Thankfully we only had one tree down from our neighbours land that missed our shed by a foot!
We spent most of Sunday chopping it back, clearing up the leaves and sticks that had come from trees around us. The chickens were ok too. Amazingly their run was fine, it was just the electric fence that had been blown over. So we are very grateful as many homes around us were without power for 7 days. Many hundreds of trees came down on the roads and telephone lines were down. The electricity board worked their socks off to get it all fixed. Kudos to all who went out in the night and worked solidly to get the power back to homes in Wales.
The Elements
So with the weather being quite bizarre of late.. and while typing this I can hear the wind whizzing outside. I have collated a few photos of the elements. The photo below is along our lane and the mist and fog was laying across the valley down in the village. You can just see the top of the hill popping up above the mist. Beautiful day but you can see its pretty cold by the feel of the photo.
An afternoon walk just as the sun was setting behind the hill and the light was amazing. It never really shows it like it is in real life, but hopefully you get the idea!
The lane we walk Lily has really started to look autumnal since the storm with all the leaves down. Still very pretty though.
Finally, the last photo of the year in Melanie’s December Delights, is another misty morning. Early one Saturday while out for a quick run. Can’t help but take photos when you see a good view!
Melanie’s December Delights
We hope you have enjoyed reading Melanie’s December Delights. That’s all from us for this year. We hope that you have enjoyed the blogs we have posted this year, and of course we always love feedback. If there are any subjects you would like us to blog about in 2025, we are all ears! If you missed our last blog post head over to Melanie’s October Oracles for that update. Lastly we would like to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all the best for 2025. Here is an ink and stamp festive card that I did and collated in photoshop, hope you like it. Keep safe and well everyone!
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