Jubilee Cup Cakes

Ok so its wet today after days of lovely hot and sunny weather. So I decided to start thinking about the Jubilee weekend and as we are full up with guests I thought I would try my hand at some Jubilee cup cakes. Here are the results. If you want to make them I just used a 4 egg sponge mixture with extra baking powder (half a teaspoon) and then played about with the icing. Hope everyone has a lovely long weekend and that the weather stays fine for all the many celebrations that have been organised. Happy 60th to Her Majesty.

Is being busy the key to happiness?

Have you ever volunteered for anything before? If you have then you will know that once you put your hand up it tends to stay up for a very long time. The last few weeks have been hectic it say the least!

Added to the usual business of running a Bed and Breakfast Les and I have been heavily involved in the local Twinning. We are ‘twinned’ with a small town near Rennes in Brittany called St Grégoire. This year is our 10th anniversary and last weekend we had nearly 70 French people visiting Holywell to celebrate the fact. We had a fantastic weekend, but the organising has been incredible and all those involved worked so hard to make it such a success. Finding new hosts is always a challenge but this year we managed to find lots of new lovely people willing to give up their weekend to entertain our French friends. All of them have said they enjoyed the experience and let’s hope they develop lasting friendship like Les and I have over the years.

Unfortunately during all the excitement I have developed a bad knee and have had to curtail my antics at Erddig house volunteering with the education department for a while, which is a shame as I enjoy working with the children so much. I also help with Flintshire Tourism and try and keep their website up to date. It was Lucille Ball who said ‘If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it’. My days are full of cooking, cleaning, making beds, organising, planning, negotiating, chatting, shopping, typing, emailing, telephoning, checking and booking, meeting, greeting and ironing. Oh and trying to find time to knit and paint and garden and have time for friends and family. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. When you hear me moan that I am a little stressed or under pressure – don’t sympathise too much as really I’m having a blast.

Some years ago before working for myself I used to sit my office in Chester bored with the job I had been doing for many years. It had become repetitive but at the same time increasingly demanding and I felt resentful of the time I spent there - I constantly wished for something different. So when our life changed and we started running our B and B we also started getting ‘involved’ with more and more things locally.

I thought I was busy then – huh! Busy I maybe but enjoying the madness of it all! So be careful what you wish for it may just come true.

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.

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.

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).

Knitting Frenzy

Is knitting something to do with age? I have literally gone mad. Ever since my new niece was born last August and I started knitting again I seem to never be without a project. I have made loads of baby clothes for her and then went onto dolls for Christmas and now have started making little Welsh dolls as well – had no pattern so adapted one.

Also found some great patterns on the internet for other sorts of dolls and when I sit down in the evenings (Cos on some evenings I do) I pick up the needles and clack away like a demented person. Several people who stay with us have asked about buying Welsh dolls so the little knitted ones may appeal (I have already sold a couple).

Unfortunately my painting has taken a back seat again and but I am going to spend the day with an artist in April so hope to find some renewed enthusiasm.

The garden is looking lovely at the moment with all the spring flowers and with this lovely hot March weather it is making everything look especially wonderful. The water shortages in other parts of the country are worrying but here in Wales all seems to be well at the moment. Wouldn’t it be lovely if we had a long hot summer? I expect we will be back in sweaters next week!

St David's Day update

Phew! That's February gone. It’s been a busy month for us with the B and B picking up, a trip down South to collect our daughter, friends from France visiting and all systems go in helping to plan the 10th anniversary of the Holywell and District Twinning Association.

The garden needed a bit of a spruce up too and after only a few hours weeding and cutting back the spring flowers are looking lovely.

Our daughter Megan heads off to Canada on St David’s Day to work. She has a 12 month working visa. Hopefully we will be able to go and visit her later in the year. It was very sad saying goodbye but we know she will have a good time. Both Les and I (those of you who know us will have heard Les talking about all his travels) benefitted from travel when we were young and it’s just as well that we had no idea what our poor parents felt like saying goodbye to us. These days we have mobile phones, email and Skype to keep us in touch but back then it was just the odd airmail letter arriving on the doorstep which was then re-read many times. When Les’s mother died, 10 years ago, whilst sorting out her things we found all of the letters he had sent her when he was travelling. Rereading them had brought the memories back to life for him. Will we get the same nostalgia from Facebook in years to come I wonder.
Last weekend we had a visit from our old Au Pair who came with her mum for a few days. When Meg was seven, she came and stayed with us and since the first day we met her she became part of the family. We have spent many happy times with her and her family over the years, including her lovely wedding seven years ago and she now has two small children of her own. Several girls came to be Au Pairs as I worked full time, and we have kept in touch with most of them, little did we realise at the time what an impact it would have on our lives.
Getting to know and understanding people from other countries and cultures can only really be done by interaction with their daily lives – just going on holiday and seeing the face they want us to see tells us nothing really. I suppose its why Les and I got involved with the Twinning Association 10 years ago and here we are helping to plan a big anniversary weekend in May. The twists and turns we take in life lead us to many interesting places. And 26 years ago today on March the 1st 1986 we moved to Wales – so happy St David’s Day everyone.