Author: Alan Cole

Catastrophic Chaffing 2

Catastrophic Chaffing

I’ve been trying to fit some training in during the Christmas period, despite not having a structured plan to follow. I have also been trying to spend plenty of quality family time with Anna and Morgan so have spent lots of time out walking in the hills, geocaching in the woods and strolling on the beach....

Into the Woods we go 3

Hafod Walk

We’ve just returned from a nice little walk with the Devil’s Bridge Walkers. We’ve been meaning to join them on one of their monthly walks for a while now, but things have conspired so that we’ve been unable to do so. We made it today though and what a day for it. Chilly, but clear...

Off-Season Hyper-gravity Training 2

Off-Season Hyper-gravity Training

Hyper-gravity Training? What’s that. Well, it’s just a silly term applied to training of any sort whilst carrying extra weight. The idea being that the extra weight and therefore extra work you are doing by carrying that weight whilst, running, cycling, or even doing household chores means that you burn more calories per hour whilst...

Too Windy for the Bees 1

Too Windy for the Bees

I think we may have had a lucky escape with the bees this morning. It’s been blowing a hoolie here all day, after starting to do so last night. I took a quick look at the hives this morning and all looked OK, although it was dawn so the light wasn’t great and I was only...

2014 Calendar 1

Creating a Family Calendar

It’s become a bit of a Christmas tradition for us now. Every year I give the family a gift of a calendar based on photos of the previous year. It doesn’t actually take too long to do thanks to the built in calendar creation tool in iPhoto. I use iPhoto to manage my photographs anyway...

Presents under the tree 5

Christmas Traditions with the Cole Family

Christmas started for us on Monday afternoon once Anna had finished work for the day. It started with the traditional supermarket battle as we joined everyone else by buying our last minute supplies for the holidays. It wasn’t too bad really, yes it was busy, yes the shops were running out of things, yes the...

Evolving Curry Recipes 1

Evolving Curry Recipes

We quite like curries, nothing too hot and spicy but a nice thick saucy curry with plenty of flavour. We have always cooked them and often enjoy a curry night. I don’t remember having ever used a jar of curry sauce though as we like to cook from scratch if possible and of course our recipes...

Wind Gust 0

Strongest Wind Gust in Borth and Ynyslas

We experienced the strongest wind gust here yesterday at Borth and Ynyslas since I began recording the weather in 2005. The wind peaked just after dark at 16:29, hitting 62.6 knots (that’s just over 72mph) recorded by the Borth & Ynyslas weather station. I think we may have lost all of our garden furniture, dustbins...

Chocolate coated Xmas Cake 1

Christmas Cake Decorating

The time had come or some Christmas cake decorating. I made the cakes a few weeks ago and then fed them with alcohol for a couple of weeks before coating them with marzipan last weekend. This weekend it was time to cover them with icing and then decorate them. A Chocolate Christmas Cake I started...

Mole Hills 0

Getting Rid of Moles

Our entire garden seems to have been taken over by burrowers. Does anyone have any good techniques for getting rid of moles? The garden was looking a little neglected anyway as our lawn-mower is broken and I’ve had very little time to work on the garden lately, but the moles have certainly not helped. In...