North Wales and another Scavenger hunt picture

Teething

We decided that we would take Eldest son and family on the Welsh Highland Railway as a treat. Having a Kia Sedona meant that we could get all of us - four adults two children - into one vehicle so we packed up the mountain of stuff needed for a three-year-old and a two-year-old and set off from Rhos on Sea to Caernarvon.
I love engines, Steam engines and some of the early oil-fired ones so this was going to be a really good day with my grandsons. As we got to the railway depot the sun disappeared and it was really quite chilly.
The two year old is teething - those dratted canine teeth - so he had the familiar bright red patches on his cheeks and his fingers were continually in his mouth. He fretted. We discovered that we had missed the first train and had a wait of nearly an hour and a half so we took a walk up into the town. we found a cafe with outdoor seating and had a cuppa where those teeth gradually became more painful. we walked along the streets and looked at a really good fountain

A Fountain

 A FOUNTAIN? that's on the list! I took some pictures while the little one fretted. Then it started to rain. By this time both the boys were heartily fed up with just wandering about. We were all cold and now we were getting wet and we still had over half an hour before the train was due to leave.

The thought of sitting in a carriage with no windows all the way to Porth Madog in the rain lost its appeal so we went to Morrisons for lunch and then back home to Rhos-on-Sea where the little one slept for an hour and woke up pain free and happy

Lunch in the smallest Morrison's cafe EVER!

If you want to see other pictures from other people who are joining in the Scavenger Hunt just go to Rinda's blog  and take a look

scavenger hunt, more success

We went up to north Wales last Friday, just for a few days with my eldest son, his lovely wife and my two newest grandsons. They are age 3 and nearly two and are just delightful. Hearing two little voices calling "Grandpa, Grandpa" throughout the day was just lovely. I digress.
On the way up - we go up the A49 because we can stop in the OK Diner for a meal on the way - we go through Onibury where the main rail line crosses the road. We were behind an ambulance, not any old ambulance but one you can hire. It was driven by a....... no that's another story. We came to the level crossing and the lights were flashing so the ambulance stopped, we stopped and the three cars behind us stopped. There is always a short time of nothing happening at level crossings and suddenly Mr M said "Have you got the camera ready? We need a train." I switched on and pressed the necessary buttons and pointed the camera at the little bit of crossing gates that we could see from our position behind the ambulance. We had the engine turned off and the windows open so we could hear the rails singing as the train came nearer. With a great whoosh of noise it was speeding past the gates. I managed to press the button as the front of the train reached the gates.

Another one to cross off the list!

Getting better....

Mr M listening to what Gordon is telling us

Gordon telling the man who touched things about the mill leat

 I have already blogged that I was ill, well yesterday Mr M took me out for a little ride to make me feel better. It took a while. For some reason what ever made me ill took away the internal sensor that stops a person feeling car-sick. The light was too bright, the air coming through the window was just full of perfumes and strange smells and quite honestly it was almost overwhelming what with the swoop and glide of the car too. It got better and we went to a lovely place called Talgarth. We have been through it many, many times and alwaysliked the look of it. When the by pass was done it was much easier to go straight past but a couple of years ago there was a TV programme about the old water mill there and how the people had acquired funding and a project manager to restore the mill and make it a tourist place. It is delightful and if you are ever in that area you must go look at Bronlleys Castle and climb the staircase and then go to the town centre and go into the mill.


If you are very lucky you will have Gordon as your volunteer. He knows about mills. He helped restore Gelligroes about five years ago and he has done the volunteer guide thing there too.

a cool place to sit and admire

 We had a cuppa in the cafe there simply to add a little to their coffers. The service was lousy the coffee was good but as the staff are all volunteers it is just something we are supposed to accept. Just as well I don't live there or they would be feeling the benefit of my years of expertise.

for the scavenger hunt

We then went to Brecon and had a late lunch in Morrison's. We had fish and chips and I managed to eat all the fish so that stopped Mr M worrying. When we set off again it was as though I had found the off switch and the queasyness was completely gone. We will go there again with the Bluefunnels. Not much walking and a very interesting man to talk to.

On the way home we saw the outside staircase so we added that to the tally for the scavenger hunt.

We braved the rain...

We always start with a good breakfast,
this time at Jo's on the A40 northbound at Whitchurch

It wasn't as bad as predicted where we went yesterday. We try go go out once a month with Mr and Mrs Bluefunnel. We all agree that a day out together is the best tonic we can have. They work so darned hard during the week and have so many calls on their time that it is important to get away once in a while, although Mr B can slip into sales mode as easy as taking a breath.

spelling mistakes always catch the eye

Mr M looking for a four leaf clover. What you can't
hear is him counting. 1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3.

For the scavenger hunt

Lower Brockhampton House

A glimpse of the Wye at Monmouth, just not flooding

We had decided to go to the Brockhampton Estate, a National Trust property just outside Bromyard in Herefordshire. It was the B's turn to drive so they picked us up around 8.30 and we headed for Monmouth and places north. We were going to have breakfast at Jo's place. It used to be a little chef many moons ago and then it always looked closed even though it might not have been. Then we noticed that there was a new sign so we stopped to have a cuppa one day and liked how clean it was so we had a breakfast. We are now confirmed customers and we highly recommend it to everyone. We took Pete there when we were going to Coventry for the Weeding last November and he agreed with us. The Bluefunnels love it too and they stop there if ever they are heading up the A40. From there we went to The Hop Pocket near Ledbury. Actually it is Bishop's Frome. We didn't realise until we got there that we had been before. Mrs B likes to shop but not your designer shopping she likes handmade quirky craft stuff and she shops all year to find that special present for people for Christmas. She loves Christmas.
WE noticed the notice outside the Butcher shop at the Hop Pocket. we didn't go in and tell them we just took pictures

The SatNav decided that the place we really wanted to be was Brockhampton Care home so it took us ten miles out of our way and this meant ten extra miles of Mr Blue complaining and telling the lady inside the SatNav to shut up because she didn't know what she was talking about.

One of the first things we saw at Brockhampton wass the sign for the nature trail. The rain was holding off although we had driven through several flooded lanes on our travels. This was fine because Mr and Mrs B have done the Landrover experience with Landrover so driving their Discovery through a flooded bit of lane was a doddle. Because of the saturated nature of the nature trail......... who am I kidding, we don't do walking, Mr M's knees don't allow it and Mr and Mrs Blue both have knees awaiting surgery.

Lower Brockhampton House is a delight. because the owners built themselves a newer, more fashionable house further up the hill in the 1700s the old house was used as a farm house and wasn't modernised or messed with at all so it still retains a lot of the original timber and stuff from when it was built around 1430 something. It has the remains of a moat, a gatehouse that was built in Tudor times lots of red brick outbuildings that were built during Stuart times and later and even though it is small it is well worth a visit.

We then came home because Mrs Blue remembered that she had to get things for dinner that night and I could feel The Cold beginning to take hold. Mr M has suffered with it all week now it seems to have caught me.
I managed one quick snap of the River Wye at Monmouth as we sped along. It is still below the top of the banks but it won't take much more rain in the next day or two to push it up. Fortunately we seem to be having mostly sun today. So that's a relief

The Thing is....

 This scavenger hunt has made me think. We went out for a little drive around today, pausing at the Carnegie Library on Corporation Road so that I could take a picture. Mr M suggested that I could write about Andrew Carnegie and why he endowed these libraries when I make the album of the scavenger hunt. I think this is s a Good Idea.


We went the pretty way out to Chepstow and discussed what we would do for the "tour" when a friend brings a friend to visit and then because the stupid driver in front of us turned onto the racecourse road we didn't go up the Wye Valley through Tintern as I thought we might but we carried on down the hill and past Chepstow and onto the Gloucester road.


This is where I got to thinking. Mr M slowed down and said "An outside staircase!" I looked and said "Nah, those are steps". He gave me a funny look and carried on driving while I was examining my statement and I realised that I had a picture in my head of most of the things on the list and as long as the image presented in front of me was close to the image in my head I was alright with it. If the image presented did not ..... conform to what I saw in my mind it was "wrong".


We had quite a discussion about it and decided that as I am the one with the camera I get the final choice. Mind you, as Mr M is far more observant than me he will be presenting lots of good images to me during the next several weeks.


By this time we had reached the Silver Fox Cafe at Broad Oak so we just had to stop for a cuppa. On the wall was a framed print of a movie poster! so I took a picture of that.  I can highly recommend their fish and chips and they do a fantastic roast dinner on a Sunday. We had eaten a cheesey bacon baguette as our breakfast so we were full up and could only manage a cuppa.


We then carried on around Gloucester and off towards Tewkesbury before being deflected by yet another Sunday driver who took the road Mr M had planned on so we went a different way and headed towards Bromyard. "Get the map off the back seat and get me to Brockhampton Estate," he said while sitting behind a spackweasel in a Citroen. I did both. We stopped in the New Old Apple Store Tearoom and had a cuppa and a sandwich - and a special treat of a packet of crisps. We are going to Brockhampton with the Bluefunnels next week so we didn't go to the house this time. Then we headed home via Hereford and Abergavenny. I just love our little trips out. Mr M loves to drive and it is just us we can talk to our hearts content about everything and anything and while we are both tired when we get home we can also talk about what we have seen and done. I suppose that one day we might run out of things to talk about, but not for a while yet.

A pair of shoes for Mr M

Last year we went up to North Wales for the Baptism of my youngest grandchild. While we were there my son had to go to the supermarket for some essentials for the food. Mr M went with him and came back with a new T-shirt and a pair of canvas shoes that he had bought in Asda. He has worn the T-shirt once but the shoes he has worn every day. Now they are paper thin soled and mud coloured even though they were blue when new.

such a cute little stallion

I love the peeling letters

Shadow take one

Shadow take two

We went to Asda "down Duffryn" - people who live in Newport will know exactly what I mean for the rest of you here's an explanation. Duffryn is an area of Newport. We never go up to Duffryn because it is on the levels. We go Up the Gaer, and out Ringland or out Alway but always down Duffryn.

Now where was I? Oh yes, Asda. We found the shoes that was easy but they didn't have the size he needed. They had smaller and larger but not it. I suggested that we could, perhaps go to Cwmbran to the Asda there and Mr M appeared to agree.

We got back in the car and headed up to Cwmbran but we took an unscheduled left turn that put us on a lane that led to the coast road to Cardiff. "Um, why are we going this way?" I asked as we squeezed past a white van coming in the opposite direction. "I thought we could go along the coast road, get a picture of a horse and then go to Penarth and photograph the pier." He said.

So that's what we did. We went to the Asda by Costco so we had a jacket potato for lunch as well as buying his new shoes (he hasn't done the dance yet) and then carried on to Penarth where I photographed the pier. Not a bad picture as I only had to contend with ten miles an hour. A traffic jam in Penarth! then on along the coast for a while before turning right and heading for Pontypridd and then a few more turns and twists brought us home via Machen, Rhiwderin and Basseleg.

I am still undecided about the shadow picture. I was fascinated by the way the shadows flickered across the dashboard but the picture is quite dark and really doesn't show what I want it to show.

The shadow on the rock is pretty good and I do like it but I wanted the dashboard one to work...:( I will have to read the destructions for my camera and see if I can't improve on the dashboard one. I have a while yet.

Busy Sunday

We had to go out on Sunday and while we were out Mr M decided to do a little detour and we stopped at the Visitor Centre for the Transporter Bridge

The Tranny, from the west bank of the river Usk

I don't know if you have heard about our bridge, I'll assume that you haven't and tell you a little about it.
It was designed by a frenchman to carry workmen from the west bank to the east bank of the river. The Council launched a competition because the bridge had to incorporate certain features into the design.
1. Tall sailing ships had to be able to sail under it at high tide (there is a 14.5metre tide on our river, the second highest in the world)
2. Carts and vehicles had to be able to cross using it.
3. It had to be usable at all states of tide and weather.
The design they chose is wonderful - and this was 1904 when the competition closed. A bogie runs on wheels along tracks high above the river. Suspended from this is a platform, called the gondola, the cars and people troop on through the gates. The driver gives the signal, the gates are closed and the bogie high up above our heads begins to move. The cables wind and across we go, suspended above the river by a few strings - they are pretty substantial cables but they look like string.
There are only eight transporter bridges left in the world - there is one in Middlesborough but I don't know if it still works or not. Ours came [pretty darned close to being dismantled not long ago and the council still cannot seem to get their act together and really promote this thing as an exciting tourist attraction. The opening hours change every week. The visitor Centre has four parking spaces in its teeny weeny car park and it is altogether a very uninviting place to try and visit. ~sigh~

After a brief stop at the Transporter Mr M took the pretty way home and surprised me by a sudden left turn into the local cemetery. "Why?" I asked. "We'll surely find an angel or two in here." he muttered and stopped in front of a whole flight of them. I was spoilt for choice!

We went home and I topped and tailed the gooseberries we picked and bought on Saturday and made four pounds of Gooseberry Chutney. We took the little bit of left over, there's always a little bit of left over isn't there? We took it with us when we went to the Bluefunnels for dinner and my Cuz said "Wow, that's got a bit of a kick!"

My sense of smell is off at the moment and the sense of taste is just not reliable. I tasted it and thought it was just like eating the smell of Mr Sheen polish so I have to rely on my taste testers.

So that was Sunday. Two more pictures for the scavenger hunt see here and some Christmas presents made and in the cupboard to mature. I even made pretty labels - oooh, I should take a photograph!