Thursday 11 August 2011

Joyous holiday in Wales

Well we've been back home a few days now and viewed the photographs and talked fondly of our holiday memories, here are a few snippets of our week away in Wales. More in depth posts to follow on a couple of things we went to see another day.

Wales is somewhere I went on holiday a lot as a youngster, easy access from the West Midlands where I grew up, but this was Imogens first trip there. We had lovely weather despite my memories of rather indifferent weather in Wales - I know it can be lovely and sunny some times but is very prone to wet weather. I'm pleased to say we only had some drizzle one morning which soon cleared, and all other rain was overnight a couple of nights.

In short we visited New Quay, Harlech Castle, Centre for Alternative Technology, Llanaercharon, National Wool Museum and Aberystwyth ... think that was most of the main places anyway, with little stops here and there. Fun filled days and relaxing too. Here's what we did and saw ...

 New Quay Harbour and beach
 Excited and thoughtful on our boat trip
 Rock pooling with her beloved net!

 Exploring Castles

 Taking in the views at the top of Harlech Castle

 climbing many steps to the top

I could go on for hours about the next place (there will be a blog post dedicated to this soon)
- the National Wool Museum - a wonderful visit, I thought maybe we'd spend and hour or so there and move onto something else but we were there for hours and delighted with what we saw, not just me!


Imogen with the Great Wheel
Mastering blanket stitch on the childrens story of woollen cloth activity card
Look at this pro carder!
beautiful room of spinning equipment and more
watching the weavers in the working weaving mill next door


We drove past beautiful views
and up in the clouds

We visited the Centre for Alternative Technology near Machynlleth
visiting CAT and loved this dome
painted bunting in the straw bale theatre
enjoyed the spectacular view
 and the Forest garden amongst the other gardens


What a wonderful place CAT it to visit, it had been almost 7 years since we were last their on one of the members conferences we attended, much has developed since then and we all loved our visit, learning and exploring.


We visited Llanerchaeron - a National Trust property that was an 18th century self sufficient estate.
there was dressing up to do
 gardens being renovated and to explore
 wonderful old orchards and gnarly trees like above (what do you see?)
and one of my favourite apples below, the Worcester
 beautiful mosses and lichens on the ancient fruit trees still heaving with fruit
 glorious medlar
and old knotted vines

We returned to the beach ...
 more beach fun at Aberystwyth
and collecting seaweed
... many different types of seaweed to identify later
seaweed collection and sand castles
and spotting fantastic cloud formations
(something we do a lot whilst out these days - seeing what we can see in the clouds)


I think she had a great holiday ... no, I know she did! I asked her what her favourite thing was
and her reply after a little thinking was ... EVERYTHING!


Imogen especially enjoyed visiting these neighbours of our farm location cottage, feeding them grass and giving them names - we looked for them and visited them on our way out, on our return and before bedtime.

 Alice the horse was a firm favourite and a very placid horse
Sammy the Ewe
Alex the Ram
 
we didn't name the flock of white sheep (a few in the picture above)!
Billy the goat!

A great holiday, lots of fun days out and adventures, and memories to take home with us. We were also delighted to see many Red Kites in the area - just a few miles from the cottage was an official feeding station which we passed a couple of times at feeding time, how glorious to look up and see up to 30 Red Kites flying above. I didn't have the opportunity to photograph them at that time so you'll have to take my word for it, I did take a few but they were further away.
Red Kites

... and of course we saw many sheep, and photographed a few like these hill dwellers, and no I didn't bring any wool back with me!

So that was our Summer holiday of 2011, great memories.

10 comments:

  1. The first thing that went through my mind when I saw your blog post title was "I wonder how much wool she brought back!". Seriously? None?!!

    Looks like a lovely time was had. We went to Harlech Castle and CAT this time last year, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Didn't realise there was a museum of wool too!!

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  2. Nope, honest ... none! Except Imogens rolag sample on her card.
    I did buy a piece of woven fabric from the mill to make something for myself but nothing to spin ... I have more than enough in the house! ;-)

    The museum is near Newcastle Emlyn - http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/wool/

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  3. Looks like you had a fabulous time xxx

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  4. I love Wales. You visited some great places and your photos are wonderful.
    Aren't the beaches amazing and the countryside, the stunning views, the old castles....

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  5. Lovely pictures, looks like you had an amazing holiday - the sheep pictures made me laugh and I love Imogen's smile :-) Can't believe school hols are going so fast! Year 1 soon! Thanks for the comments on my blog - Meg had a wonderful year R and can't wait for yr 1, what about Imogen? Hugs top you all Clair xx

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  6. Hi Clair, yes Imogen is looking forward to year 1 - has been since Whitsun half-term! It's been a good year for her, will have to email you to chat more.
    love Dawn x

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  7. What a lovely holiday. Didn't you find Harlech castle just a little bit scary, so high and such short walls, I had awful visions there last year........
    CAT looks fab, can't believe we haven't been yet and the caravan is only 20 minutes away! Hmm think we might take in the wool museum when we next go down - next week woohoo, can't wait.
    Thanks for a lovely post, really makes me appreciate our little hidey hole. Pity we didn't know you were down there we could have planned to be there at the same time ;)
    xx

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  8. Hi Becks, never thought to see if you were that way. You really must go to CAT - something for everyone and the little ones will love the Mole Hole!
    Imogen and I were fine with Harlech, Alex isn't so great with heights so the walls were enough for him and he was happy to go down and leave the high tower to us. I can see why some would find it scary though, but not me or the little girl ;-). Imagine what it was like when it was right by the sea before the dunes etc built up?

    The wool museum is a must too, would love to get back there again sometime. If it was on my doorstep I'd work there, or volunteer or at least go to the knitting club that meets there.

    Have a lovely week next week x

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  9. Hi Dawn
    What a special holiday! And yes, just like you to have to have wool and sheep aspects to your holiday!!
    Best wishes
    Kelly

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  10. I love going to Wales. It suits our family perfectly.The beaches are fabulous and uncrowded. We can take the hound practically everywhere with us.

    Just to echo the other comments, I can't believe that you didn't bring even a smidgeon of wool back for yourself!

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