Wednesday 25 April 2012

A Day on the Welsh Highland Railway

My Dad is staying with is for a few days so we asked him yesterday what he would like to do. In typical old person speak (he is 83) he said 'I would like to go up Snowdon on the train before I die'. Well after getting the violin out and looking at the weather forecast we decided that the better option was to go on the Welsh Highland Railway.So despite the heavy rain this morning we set off with a sense of hope that there might be a bit of the day that would be rain free. Caernarfon is only an hour’s drive and we were quickly parked and purchasing tickets. Dad treated us to First Class returns and we boarded the beautifully restored steam train and settled into our comfortable arm chairs. It was still raining. After about half an hour the rain stopped and gradually the mist lifted from everywhere but the tops of the mountains. We had a fabulous trip to Porthmadog - it takes about 2.5 hours and then after a stopover of about 45 minutes it was time to make the return journey. By this time the sun was shining, we had enjoyed some surprisingly good refreshments and we were all really relaxed. The scenery en-route is breathtaking and even on a day of sunshine and showers (mainly showers ) it was a fantastic treat.
We stopped at the Black Lion at Babell for Pie night on our way home which really rounded the day off. Great day.

Thursday 19 April 2012

A long overdue painting day


Joy what joy. Today I have had a full day of painting.
My blog is called ‘Living in Carmel’ Thoughts of family, friends, dogs, painting, bed and breakfast and whatever comes to mind! I have pretty much been consistent with all categories except ‘painting’ – mainly because all the other things drive my life. But painting is something that I want and need to make time for, not what I have to make time for.
It’s been many months since I picked up a paint brush and so I decided to go and spend the day with Ann Fellows a very talented artist and teacher who runs Brush Strokes and offers painting courses throughout the year, as well as having regular classes.

I was somewhat nervous when I arrived as I felt very rusty and not at all confident, but Ann soon put me at ease. I first met her when I went on one of her courses in 2003, all held in a lovely old chapel in the small village of Dolwyddelan about five miles from Betwys y Coed – in the Snowdonia National park - a truly lovely part of north Wales. Dolwyddelan has a wonderful castle which we didnt get to paint today but is definately something I want to try in the future.

We had a wonderful day and I produced quite a few pictures. I must get the gazebo sorted out and get back to regular production – I feeling inspired again.

Monday 2 April 2012

Eggs as big as Eggs

We get our lovely fresh free range eggs from a small holding just up the road and when they dropped off their latest batch we were presented with an extra large one. A goose egg. So Les and I shared it for breakfast today - it filled the whole frying pan and tasted just like chicken (egg).