The Beast from the East 2.0

Winter is back with a vengeance. Yesterday the strong easterly winds were back with winds above 40 knots all day long and gusts up to a massive 64.5 knots again. It was only just above freezing too with some snow flurries. My trip to North Wales was cancelled as it was likely to be too windy for surf skiing and the drive there may have a been a little treacherous for some too.

Instead I had a ‘rest day’ at home.

After a satisfying our OCD with new spice racks and a clear out of some cupboards I baked a ‘Coriander Seed, Star Anise and Semolina Cake‘ – A weird combination but I discovered that we had a excess of coriander seeds, star anise and semolina so decided it was time to use some up. What better way to use up excess (out of date) ingredients than to bake a cake.

Annnamarie, Geoff, Evie-Rosa and Archie popped in. They left Archie with us and went to the Libanus Cinema in Borth while we looked after Archie. They came back to collect him and stopped for coffee and cake afterwards. They seemed impressed with the cinema as it was their first time there and were impressed with the cake too! There were heavy snow flurries on and off all day and the wind continued to howl. I took a walk over to the beach, wandered around the garden, did some work and fiddled with my latest pack of GoPro mounting accessories. I had lost a little nut from my suction cup and it was cheaper to buy a pack containing 45 different accessories than it was just the suction cup, or probably even a bag of nuts! Not only did I have a new suction cup and a load of spares from the other, but I had plenty of spares of everything else too. The adhesive mounts are always handy, the spare bike bar mount will be useful too. I don’t really need extra helmet, head and chest mounts but I’ve got them. Nor did I need another monopod. The new gorilla-pod style tripod is nice though and so is the clamp mount. Who knows if I’ll ever use the wrist mount though or many of the other things but for £11.49 you can’t really go wrong.

The wind eased a little overnight and we were greeted on Sunday morning with a Winter Wonderland.

It doesn’t look like I’ll be getting out for a ride today either now. Hopefully once the others are up I can encourage them out for a play in the snow somewhere and I guess I’d better spend some time on the turbo trainer.

There is a little wave too so if the wind doesn’t pick up as much as it’s forecast to I might just have to go out for a little sub-zero surf-ski session.

Snow at Ynyslas

Snow at Ynyslas

Snow on the beach

Snow on the beach

It’s almost 7am, minus 1.8ºC with a 15 knot NE wind at the moment. I’ve been for a walk already but now need to get out and do something slightly strenuous!

[UPDATE] It’s now 9:10am and I did go for a nice ‘chilled’ surf ski session and even a little swim.

4 Responses

  1. Avatar forComment Author Anonymous says:

    There are worse obsessions than spice racks. I hope the cake was nice. I presume the semolina replaced wheat?

    • Avatar forComment Author Alan Cole says:

      Yeha, the recipe called for Farina (Whatever that is), I just used out of date semolina instead!!

      We do like our spices. We subscribe to thespicery.com and get an exciting recipe box every month with a batch of fresh spices. And we’re working our way through their ‘Curry legend’ recipe book too. Always tasty stuff.

      Al.

  2. Avatar forComment Author Mark says:

    There are worse obsessions than spices. I hope the cake was nice. I presume the semolina replaced wheat?

  3. Avatar forComment Author Mum x says:

    Looks lovely before anything has gone on it doesn’t it,? Our garden and fields are still untouched at the moment and still snowing .Enjoy your day x

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.

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