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Sharing My World Week 5
It’s Sharing My World time again, part of the weekly “Share Your World” challenge hosted by Cee over at Cee’s Photography blog. Pop over and see her, and join in if you like. Share your world too!
If you had a choice to live anywhere would your preference be salt water beaches, forest, fresh water lakes, hot tub, ski resort or desert?
In common with several people this week I’d like to cheat a little and go for a combo. A cabin in a forest on the shore of a fresh water lake. Lovely!
I’m thinking we combine Colliford Lake in Cornwall (up the road from me) on the left, and Coed y Brenin Forest Park in North Wales on the right.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Carefree
Weekly Photo Challenge – Carefree
On a recent holiday to Wales I visited Coed y Brenin forest park. After walking for a while I sat under the tree you can see on the far left of the photo.
For the first time in years my mind just emptied as I watched the water flow past – for the first time in years I felt completely carefree.
So Far So Good
Daily Prompt: State of Your Year – Write up a mid-year “State of My Year” post.
I’m a couple of days late with this but (as well as having no time at all on a Monday) I realised that some stuff has actually happened to me this year.
Since stuff happening to me is quite a big deal I felt I couldn’t let this prompt go unanswered, regardless of my slight tardiness.
Three, yes three whole things have happened and they’ve all been good :-).
After a three month wait, at the end of January my new car finally rolled off the assembly line. This is the first new car I’ve ever owned! Well, I say “owned”. The bank currently owns most of it. Here’s a picture (it’s a Ford Fiesta Zetec S Ecoboost thingumy, if anyone’s interested).
It’s a lovely car to drive! Since I had to wait so long for it I ended up having to sell my old car so the dealer gave me a courtesy car to knock around in (for free!). It was a SportKa with go faster stripes and sporty trim. Unfortunately, it looked like it would go a lot faster than it actually did. Here it is in all its sporty glory. It’s not really me!
Courtesy car with ironic “go faster” stripes
Next up we skip forward to the middle of February, when I was given this:
This is my AA “10 year long service medal” :-). It’s a bit tarnished-looking – it’s a sad fact that the higher the year, the longer they sit in the box waiting on a recipient. Maybe I can chuck it in some Coke or something. Apparently that’s good for cleaning coins.
And finally in June I had my little Wales holiday. Going away by myself was quite a big deal for me (I sound like a 10 year old!) and I had an amazing time. If you want to vicariously relive the experience, the photos are here, here and here.
So all in all, not a bad start to the year. And, of course, this was also the début year of DraliDoodles :-).
I hope your year is going well too!
Wales Holiday – The Final Chapter
After my trip to Dolwyddelan Castle and Bodnant Garden, I decided to try some walking. I’m quite keen on forests and whatnot so I headed off to Coed y Brenin, a forest park owned by the Welsh division of the Forestry Commission.
It wasn’t far, though it took a while by the time I’d made my way through the roadworks. At breakfast (bacon and tomato omelette) I’d joked with the waiter that I’d brought three coats with me just in case, but I hadn’t needed my wet weather one. Obviously that put the jinx on the weather and down came the rain. Fortunately, it settled down to a light drizzle as the day progressed.
Anyway, on with the pictures!
I noticed as I walked round that the landscape is very similar to parts of the Highlands in Scotland, even down to the thistle!
My Wales Holiday Part 2 – Bodnant Garden
Welcome back to my little Wales mini-break! In the first part I visited Dolwyddelan Castle. That was actually an unscheduled stop – I saw a sign marked “Castle”, hit the brakes and swung into the car park (rather too fast considering the cattle grid just inside the entrance).
I then continued northwards to my planned destination – a National Trust property called Bodnant Garden. A bit pricey, but since I’m a National Trust member, I got in for free!
It was a lovely day and the place was packed – I was in the overflow overflow car park I think.
I had trouble picking just a few pictures, so there are quite a few here!
Two Days in Wales
I don’t usually prattle on about my largely uninteresting life, but since I just had a holiday (my first in five years!) in Wales I thought I’d share some pictures.
Well, I say a holiday. Two full days is more of a mini-break, I guess, but I lost two days on the road (it’s a six and a half hour drive).
Here’s where I went:
Map courtesy of Google Maps
The area to the north of the arrow is Snowdonia – mountains, forests and whatnot.
The trip up was fine apart from some panic around Birmingham. So many motorways branching off. Why is it that when you’re desperately looking for a turn off, all the road signs are obscured by lorries? Still, I didn’t get lost even once, and when you’re on your own with no navigator, and especially if you’re me, that’s quite a feat!
After arriving in a lovely little Bar/Grill/Restaurant/Hotel (six rooms!) I booked a table for dinner. Quality food! Grilled brie in breadcrumbs for starter followed by a massive home-made burger with onion rings, a mushroom so big it should have had some sort of faerie creature sitting on it and home-made chips (with the skins on!). For my US friends, that’s chips as in “French fries”, or is it “Freedom fries”? In the UK, the term “French fries” is reserved for those rubbish chips you get in fast-food places like MacDonald’s.
So, enough rambling, on with the pictures! I don’t want this post to get too long, so today I’ll show you some pictures I took at Dolwyddelan Castle.
Set on a hilltop (as many good/effective castles are!) it commands a dominant position over the surrounding countryside.
It was manned by Welsh soldiers – at that time Wales consisted of several kingdoms and there was also the threat of Norman/Anglo-Saxon invasion from England.
After visiting the castle, I continued to Bodnant Gardens, a National Trust property to the north. I’ll post some of those pictures later!
Weekly Photo Challenge – The World Through Your Eyes
Here is my first ever try at the weekly photo challenge!
Photo taken through an arrow slit at Dolwyddelan Castle, North Wales.
Imagine an archer, arrow nocked in his bow, peering out over the Welsh countryside searching for any sign of the Norman invaders…
Back on the Grid
I’m back everyone! What’s that you say? You didn’t notice I was gone?
Hmmph.
I was only away for a few days to be fair, and since I only post a couple of times a week there’s been very little difference post-wise from the draliman stables.
I do want to apologise to the people I follow. My philosophy is “If you post it, I shall read” but I only had my phone with me and I didn’t really keep up with reading all your lovely blogs – the screen is a little small :-(.
I’ve been on a little holiday in North Wales, near a town called Dolgellau. I’ll pop some photos into a couple of posts in the coming days – here’s one I took during a forest walk at Coed y Brenin.
A waterfall in Coed y Brenin forest park, Wales
For those of you who know me a little bit, you’ll appreciate that this was quite a big step for me. I haven’t been on a holiday for five years, and I’m so driven by routine it’s sometimes difficult to leave the flat, let alone drive all the way to Wales on my own (350 miles). I’m always convinced that if I do something out of my ordinary routine something bad will happen. There’s probably some psychological condition for that – “mild routine-itis” I expect it is.
Anyway I had a lovely time :-). Nothing terrible happened (except to my bank balance and waist line). Maybe next year I’ll have another holiday, who knows?
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