Not a bad life really

As we head into yet another Bank Holiday weekend and towards the end of May – it has been a great month for us, when we have enjoyed both work and play. Despite running a busy B&B Les and I do get the work/life balance right sometimes, and May has proved to be a good example for us. Although as we go forward into the summer months we know there will be more work than play! But that’s the beauty of our lifestyle choice and we so enjoy meeting all the new people who come and stay with us from around the world. Our visit to Bodnant Gardens last Sunday was spectacular and we always feel so privileged living so close to such a great place. Gardening has featured heavily this month with still so much to do but we did manage a trip to Chester for some shopping and dinner too.

We recently got back from a long weekend in St Grégoire in Brittany. We went with the Holywell and District Twinning Association and a group of about 35 went by coach from Holywell catching the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo. It’s a wonderful weekend and starts off well on board ship with a fabulous meal and a good night’s sleep. Arriving in St Malo refreshed on Friday morning we drove to St Grégoire a small town just outside Rennes. There is much kissing and Bon Jouring when we arrive and we quickly head off with our host families to renew friendships and in some cases make new ones.

We had the first of our three hour lunches in the garden of our hosts house and starting practicing our bad French as they in turn practised their English. It’s amazing with just a little effort and a good dictionary the range of topics we covered over the weekend. Off to another hosts house for another meal in the evening with 24 of us sitting in their lovely garden - the Champagne flowed, the bar-b-que was lite and we all had a great time.

Saturday we had a trip to Fougéres, a very pretty town with a magnificent Castle which we toured in the afternoon. We spent a lovely time here and had a great lunch in a local hotel. Sunday we spent with the family and they took us to a Fois Gras farm in the middle of nowhere. Which was a bit strange as we had a tour of the factory and even met the poor old ducks who were being fed corn and whose livers would eventually be the Fois Gras. We then had lunch with 130 French people in a huge barn – obviously we started with Foir Gras and then had Duck Breast as the main course! They sold everything in their shop; from every part of the Duck, the wine they served with lunch and the cheese. Only the French could turn such an operation into a commercial enterprise. It was enough to turn many people vegetarian I am sure.

Sunday evening we had a farewell get together with all the hosts and guests and enjoyed another buffet, more wine and some really good Folk music, and plenty of dancing. We always sing a few Welsh songs and the Breton national anthem is sung to the same tune as the Welsh National Anthem so we always sing it together at the end of the evening.

We left on Monday morning with more kissing and a few tears with promises of seeing every one again next year in Holywell. It will be the 10th anniversary year and we will need to put on a good weekend for our Gregorian friends.

Because our ferry wasn’t booked until the evening we travelled to Bayeux and had a look around the British Cemetery and all felt emotional reading some of the 2nd world war grave stones – so many young people died so we could be free. A really emotional visit for everyone. We had lunch (did we really need more food?) and then a trip around the Tapestry – an incredible thing of beauty and colour still after all this time. We then drove up to Arromanches and had a look at the Mulberry Harbour and went around the museum. It was a lovely day and after a picnic we drove along the coast to Caen for our overnight ferry back to Portsmouth.

Twinning is a great experience and having been part of the Holywell one from the beginning we have made so many friends both in France and locally through the Association.

In fact tonight we are hosting a party for everyone who came on the trip with us so I really should stop typing and start preparing for the Soirée.

Welsh Cakes and Bara Birth

Continuing with the cooking theme, I have had a busy week baking. Most of the baking has been for the freezer as my husband has a big birthday coming up soon and we are having ‘a bit of a do’.

But also I have been making Bara Brith and Welsh Cakes. When our guests arrive at our B&B, if it is an appropriate hour, they are offered Tea (or Coffee) and either Welsh Cakes or a piece of Bara Brith - although sometimes it is only a biscuit if the cake tin is empty.

Having lived in Wales for so long it’s easy to forget that for many of our guests it is their first trip to Wales and they haven’t any idea what a Welsh Cake is – let alone a piece of Bara Birth.

Welsh Cakes are a bit like normal scones but much flatter and have spices in. They are also known as griddle scones, and bakestones as they are traditionally cooked on a bakestone or a cast iron griddle. However I use a heavy based frying pan which works just as well. They are very easy to make and lovely served warm with butter and jam but equally nice just dusted with caster sugar.

Bara Brith (speckled bread in Welsh) is a cross between Fruit Loaf and Fruit Cake. The fruit is soaked in tea overnight and then mixed with flour, eggs, sugar and spices and baked like a loaf. There are recipes which have fat in and those with yeast. However mine has neither and surprisingly always rises and is delicious. A slice spread with butter is yummy.

So there you have it – two delicious Welsh delicacies for those who aren’t lucky enough to live in Wales.

It's just a new cupboard!

It’s funny how ‘things’ can change our lives.

I have put ‘things’ in quotes because on this occasion I do mean a ‘thing’. My new kitchen cupboard to be precise. I don’t consider myself particularly materialistic (though others may not agree) and have always believed that life changing events need to be rather more dramatic than having a new cupboard.

However I have to say that my new cupboard has changed my life. Let me explain a little. We have lived in our home for 24 years and during that time have extended, improved and decorated on what seems like a continuous basis. Although still our home it was transformed somewhat when we started offering Bed and Breakfast to guests in 2002. Gradually we started having more ‘things’ about the place. Extra linen, china, pots and pans etc as well as keeping stocked up on fresh provisions. Added to my love of gadgets (maybe I am just a bit materialistic) the kitchen cupboards in particular became overcrowded: pots fighting to get attention over pans and cups demanding to be matched to saucers.

A few months ago I had had enough of my overcrowded cupboards and decided I needed a new something for this overflow of equipment. I sat down at my computer – my preferred way to do my initial shopping these days – and started searching for big cupboards. Needless to say nothing was suitable because they came in two categories 1) not the right size and 2) too expensive.

My very lovely husband Les then offered to make me one. Of course I jumped at the chance knowing what a handy chap he is with a bit of wood, hadn’t he already made our lovely Welsh Dresser over 10 years ago. Although it would be a lot of work I knew he would enjoy the task. So began the weeks of work, the drawing up of plans, the hunting down of old pitch pine, hours in his ‘shed’ cutting, planning, tapping, banging and generally ‘wooding’. He was in his element and I was going to get a new, purpose built cupboard made to measure. I have now been using my lovely new cupboard for a couple of weeks and it has literally changed my life. All my other cupboards have been sorted, cleaned and refilled in an organised way. I can see everything easily, everything I use daily is in easy reach and I am no longer searching for that dish that I know is somewhere. What’s more I know my cupboard was made just for me with love.

Maybe it’s a stage in life where contentment seems much more attainable or do we just appreciate things more – but my cupboard has literally changed my life. Thanks Les xxx.

Convent Girls

Running a B & B is an interesting and rewarding way of life. You welcome strangers into your home and the majority leave as friends that you look forward to seeing again. For the last few years during the first weekend of July we have been welcoming to our B & B a very jolly group of ladies affectionly refered to as the ’Convent Girls’. This is the weekend when Pantasaph Friary and Retreat hold their summer fair, and visitors arrive to spend a few hours looking around the hallowed grounds and enjoying the beautiful surroundings, spending their pennies on cake stalls and tombola’s. It is a happy and reflective time for many. The Friary is a beautiful peaceful place where you can go on retreat to get away from the rigors of modern day life. It is run by just a few Franciscan Monks these days.

Opposite the Friary there used to be St Clare’s Convent. For those of you who know Pantasaph you will have seen the conversion of the old Convent into luxury housing and apartments. It was closed in the 1970’s and for many years the old buildings were an eye sore, as you looked at it from the A55, but now it has been beautifully restored and converted.

The ‘Convent Girls’ now only number a handful as they are all in their 70’s and as time goes by their numbers diminish but not their memories. The ‘Convent Girls’ spent all or part of their childhoods at St Clare’s Convent during the second war and post war period. Some were evacuated, some were orphans and some were from families who had fallen on hard times and couldn’t or wouldn’t look after them.

Last year we accompanied two of our guests June and Margaret on an emotional walking tour of the old convent and they painted a picture, as we walked around the converted buildings, of their life there. Their stores were at times very funny, extremely interesting, but mostly harrowing and incredibly sad. They weren’t treated well and had to work hard in harsh surroundings, often hungry and cold. What they did have was each other and their annual pilgrimage back to Pantasaph is a chance for them to see their ‘family’ and revisit their childhood.

Living history is so rewarding and this year we have been lucky enough to listen to more stories about their lives. What is so incredible it that all the ladies we have meet who were ‘Convent Girls’ are really lovely, happy, well rounded human beings who having left the Convent went on to self educate and have full and rewarding lives. Most have married and have families of their own to be proud of. Cruelty and hardship didn’t turn any of these lovely ladies into embittered degenerates or set them on a path to crime. Yes they all have regrets, issues to deal with and a past that for some have questions that will never be answered. But they are not victims and are proud to have risen above their cruel start in life; they are a real credit to their generation. They spend most of the weekend laughing and really enjoying themselves.

Nobody should endure what these lovely ladies went through during their childhood but today’s generations could learn a lot from them.

The healing waters of St Winifred ?

One of the Seven Wonders of Wales ' St Winifred’s Well' here in Holywell has long been known for its 'miracles'. However apart from my verruca incident - which frankly is best left forgotten (see Dixi Wills article in the Guardian March 1st if you want to read about it) - I have only heard in general terms about the miraculous cures. That is until this morning. We had a guest staying with us en route to Ireland – our B&B perfect for an overnighter for the Holyhead ferry – and after our usual post breakfast chat he mentioned that he was off to the Well to load up on holy water before heading for the ferry. He then recounted the following story.

In about 1992 he was with an Irish couple who had visited the Well several times before, but on this occasion the lady decided to go for full immersion. She had been suffering with bad knees for years having already had keyhole surgery on one knee, and was told there was now nothing to be done expect replacements for both knees. She went in the water (luckily prepared by wearing her swimming costume under her clothes) and because she believed you had to have three goes – she ducked in and out three times. She then changed and left with her husband and our guest and got into his car. After only 50 or so yards she started to scream in pain and say ‘my knees are burning’. They stopped the car and tried to help offering to take her to hospital but she was convinced that it was the holy water working. After sometime the pain eased and they continued their journey. Our guest finished he story "That was nearly 20 years ago and she has had no problems with her knees since. She does now need a stick but that is to do with her sciatic nerve and at more than 80 she is entitled to I think".

Well my husband Les and I were quite opened mouth about the story and I may well be off to the Well myself. But as our guest said ‘is it because she believed it would work – or it in fact a miracle? ‘