Life's about experiences. These are mine.
Today is the last day of my 6th decade. Tomorrow I will be eligible for free prescriptions and a senior railcard. I don’t feel old enough to warrant those and other concessions but the grey hair tells me otherwise! While browsing the bookshops in Hay I came across these magazines from around the time I …
The final two stops on our Welsh tour today waking in the lovely Portmeirion and then travelling on to the bookish Hay–on–Wye. Portmeirion After all the hoi polloi paying day guests had left the village it became very, very quiet there and it was a pleasure to walk around the grounds. There were a couple …
Continue reading “Wales 2025 – Day Four – Portmeirion & Hay–on–Wye”
We moved on from Conwy today winding our way on towards our next top of the Italianate village of Portmeirion. Anglesey Our first stop was to be the island of Anglesey, where we had planned three stops, the first of which was the town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrn-drobwllan-tysiliogogo-goch, whose only claim to fame must be that it …
Continue reading “Wales 2025 – Day Three – Anglesey, Caernarfon & Portmeirion”
For our first full day in Wales we had decided to start at the nearby Bodnant Gardens, a National Trust property with extensive grounds. Bodnant Gardens We arrived just after opening, and there was hardly anyone there. Three hours later when we left, the car park was heaving, and there were plenty of people in …
Continue reading “Wales 2025 – Day Two – Bodnant Gardens & Llandudno”
We’ve talked about doing a Wales road trip for quite a while now and just never quite got round to it. Then when we were planning a few days away for my birthday, which may or may not be a big one, we decided now would be a great time to go, so here we …
Sandwiched between the good weather and the shops reopening is our “holiday” week. Originally it was going to be spent at Centreparcs but that has been shoved out by 13 months due to the Covid situation. Our employers are keen that we use up some of our leave entitlement and so here we are on …
Last last year I read Ken Follett’s Fall of Giants, the first novel in his Century trilogy. The book follows the fortunes of a number of families in the UK, US, Germany and Russia. One family comes from a mining community in South Wales and the story paints vivid picture of life down the mines. …
A coupe of years go we visited the small town of Hay-on-Wye, famous for its second-hand bookshops. We’re back this weekend to stock up on more books (and vinyl too if possible). Once again we stayed at The Bear bed and breakfast. I would recommend that you stay there too but the owners told us …
Having read in the National Geographic that the drive from Hay to Abergavenny was a “castle-dotted route” that “brims with vistas” it sounded too good to be true. However, there are two possible routes and no clues were given to help us pick the right one. Given that one route was an A road we …
Some years ago the utility room in our house was full of shelves overflowing with books. Then along came the all powerful triumvirate of kids, kitchen and Kindle and all the books went (along with all my LPs). Over the years there has been a pang of regret for the loss of both books and …