Easter fun and car stresses

Just before Easter my daughter took her car into our regular garage as there was a knocking noise when she went round corners. The guy in the garage took the wheel off to have a look and found that the brake callipers were worn and rusty. So advised my daughter to go round to another guy that does car repairs to get him to have a look and see if he could get it done quicker. To cut a long story short, the brake callipers got sorted out, but much to my daughters dismay the original knocking was still there !! This causes so much stress as any car repairs are a major financial headache in this house, so she knew that even more money was going to have to be spent on the car. However lack of cash was going to stop the 2nd job from being done anyway.

My daughter was so het up about the car later in the day, she accidentally let it slip that one of my sons was planning a surprise visit with some friends of ours from Birmingham the next day !! Friday duly arrived and my son and our friends arrived a little fraught as the traffic on the M6 was terrible. After some discussion they booked into the Auckland Arms in Menai Bridge for two days. I felt terrible when they went to drop off their luggage and came back saying that the place was way below the standard they expected from the website. The kettles were filthy inside and had to be brought round to my house to be scoured out before being used. Not a good start !!! They came back and we talked quite late into the night catching up on each others news, and my son bought us a chinese meal for our dinner ...I had king prawn curry it was yummmmmm lol. Then off they went to their B&B for the night.

The following day they came round ready for a day out sightseeing. It turned out that things didn't improve when they got back to the Auckland Arms, as the beds were very uncomfortable, also the breakfast in the morning wasn't up to much either. It took ages to get served and even when it did arrive it wasn't very warm, the toast had been put on top of the disgusting tasting beans, making it go soggy. My friends were not impressed !!! At £240 for the two nights they were here they expected better, so I advise anyone looking for B&B's on Anglesey to avoid the one I've mentioned here. It's obvious from the link that follows that my friends weren't the only ones that found this place substandard either, just wish I'd found these reviews before they'd booked in there !! Trip Advisor.Co.Uk

It was a warm and sunny day, so we set off to Porthmadog's black rock sands, for a day on the beach followed by a trip through the mountains on the way home. Much fun was had by all, playing frisbee and football.My youngest sons huge 6ft kite was the most popular thing to have a go at though lol. My friend Mandy went off to the loo and was gone for at least an hour and half, we were all wondering where she'd got to when she back clutching a load of leaflets and telling us all to get in the minibus she'd got us an invite to a free bbq lol. She'd gone to have a look round a caravan holiday park and the owners had invited her and the remaining 6 of us to go to the bbq too. By the time we left there, there's no doubt in our minds that if she'd have had the money to buy one of the holiday homes there and then she would have, she was so impressed. After that we took a leisurely drive back through the mountains to get home. We were quite surprised how much snow there was still on the ground in places, some of it quite thick.

Another sunny day dawned on Sunday, and we'd arranged to go to the car boot at Mona. Much to my surprise my youngest son and his heavily pregnant girlfriend had managed to get up in time to come too. This son is not known for getting up early I might add lol. I was disappointed to see that there were only 4 rows of booters even though it was Easter, but I suppose as the weather had been so unpredictable earlier in the week, it wasn't that surprising. I managed to find myself some new books to read, a little tea light lamp and a cardi. My friends Mandy and Mart surpassed themselves and bought an X box and a motorbike lol. That's the first time in all the years I've gone to car boots that I've known anyone spend over £600 lol.

Once we'd got back to my house and had a coffee, my older son decided he wanted to treat us to Sunday lunch before they set off back home. As we all have healthy appetites it was decided to try and find a carvery not too far away. We found one in Pentraeth but sadly it was already packed to the rafters, so we carried on towards Benllech and found a little pub which didn't do a carvery but their food was gorgeous. I just wish I could remember the name of it to give them a plug but I can't :o( All to soon it was time was my son and our friends to start their journey back home to the Midlands again. The time had gone way to fast, but we'd all enjoyed it !!

I need more hours in the day

I really do need more hours in the day, 24 is just NOT enough lol. This last few days I've been busy building a couple of blogs for other people. The first was a blog to showcase a friends greenwood carving workshops, she is going self employed and needs a blog to show off what she can offer. Her plan is to do festivals, fete's and any community days, it appears to be popular as she's already got some bookings. Here's a link to her blog http://thewoodcraftscrew.blogspot.com/ The second blog was for Bryn another person who is going self employed, Bryn provides training and support for anyone who is dealing with their own or another’s anger and also stress management. He is currently working with some children at a Holyhead school and is very pleased by their commitment to his program. Here's the link to his blog, if you click on the tab called information there's some free downloads and a free online anger test both are very interesting http://welshassociationofangermanagement.blogspot.com/ Please feel free to pass their blogs on to anyone you think may find them interesting or might like to use their services. As if these two blogs weren't enough, I've also started to design myself another one too, I've decided I need a separate blog with my arts and crafts on, as they are getting lost in amongst my waffles on here. I'll also be putting some of my work on one of the craft selling sites and doing direct links to that too. I'm quite excited about this, especially as I've got a new project in the pipeline, which I think is going to be very popular.

Sunday saw my daughter and I off on a wander in the car as my mothers day treat....my perfect present :o) First we headed off to Pwllheli to a little part of a huge beach called Gimlet Rock. Here I managed to find some small bits of driftwood something that is sadly lacking on Anglesey. I was also on the look out for some interesting but bigger bits of wood for my garden. On our way to Black Rock Sands in Porthmadog, one of the few beaches I know where you can drive your car onto the beach, we saw loads of pieces of wood but the lanes were so narrow there was nowhere to park !!! As there was a bit of a breeze that day I hoped there might be some kite surfers around for me to photograph. But as luck would have it, the tide was out and there were some wind buggy's flying around the beach too, also one lone guy having a go at kite boarding. The kite buggy's look like amazing fun and was I younger and a lot fitter, I'd love to have a go at this. On the way home we were still scouring for wood for the garden, my daughter screeched to a halt and started reversing, she'd spotted something she thought I might like out of the corner of her eye. Not quite what I was looking for but just as good, some dead ivy roots had fallen off a tree, I do love these twisted gnarled pieces of wood, they look so lovely hanging up with some crystals or gem stones attached to them.

My waffles seem to be getting longer and longer, to anyone that's made it this far ....... well done lol !! If anyone fancies saying hello, just click on the comments link just below the bottom of each entry, you don't have to have a blog yourself and can even be anonymous if you like :o)

What a fantastic day

Well I've just had a fantastic day. A good friend of mine took me out and we visited some stunning places, the thing I like best about this friend, is that he knows all the out of the way places that hardly anyone else knows about. Even the weather changed from being dull, grey and wet all week to being sunny all day.

The day started at 10ish and we went off towards Porthmadog, to a cafe we'd been to a good few times in the past, I'd been given strict instructions not to have any breakfast so I was starving lol, and it filled the spot perfectly. From there we went round winding roads, passing by stunning scenery and as I was told to shout up when I saw anything I wanted to take photo's of, I needed no more encouragement so there was lots of stopping and starting lol. We passed through somewhere we'd been previously and camped out for the night a good few years ago, I was sad to see that the forest close by it had been chopped down, and unlike most of the forests we passed through there was no sign of it being replanted either, such a shame.

After passing my friends ideal house, and I can see why it was that.... oh to win the lottery lol. We headed off to see a waterfall he wanted to show me. Even though he was hoping it would have more water rushing down it, I was quite happy with it. I love waterfalls, along with mountains and the sea they're my favourite things. The sun hardly ever gets to the side that the waterfall was on so everywhere was covered in a thick rich green moss, which only added to the magic of the waterfall. After this it was off to a picnic area he'd chosen for us to have our dinner. Although this place had been made more attractive for tourists by adding picnic tables and signs for woodland walks, there was only us there and we got to enjoy our sandwiches by a babbling trout stream listening to the birds tweeting away in the background.

Then it was off to visit a folly near the village of Portmerion, I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to actually get to the folly itself as it was up a smallish but steep hill. But where there's a will there's way and I managed it with a hand from my friend, but I did have to stop a few times lol. On the way up we walked through a beautiful bluebell wood, and saw the biggest rhododendron bush I've ever seen, it was in full bloom, a deep fushia pink and was absolutely gorgeous. By the time we got to the folly my legs were shaking like a leaf lol. So I had to sit out climbing up it to see the view, but even from where I was sitting they were amazing. All too soon it was time to make our way back down again, and as luck would have it we saw not one, but two lesser spotted woodpeckers, if only I'd have had a camera with a good zoom lens. I was very relieved that we didn't have to go down the slippy hill we'd climbed up as I'm sure I'd have ended up on my back !! Once back to the car we set off towards home, as we went the long way way round we passed through Cricketh and stopped for a welcome cuppa and sat overlooking the sea while we drank it. All too soon it was back on the road and we were heading back to Anglesey, I really didn't want the day to come to an end, I'd enjoyed it so much. But even then, my friend managed to surprise me at the last minute, and it became the perfect end to a perfect day ;o)

The babbling stream where we stopped for our dinner.



One of the photo's the stunning waterfall.



The folly near Portmerion.

Lovely day out

Having decided to have a break from any stained glass today, I was sat in the garden with my daughter. Just as I was thinking to myself how much I'd like to go out for a drive, Jenny asked me if I fancied going out for the day ...hows that for reading my mind ??

We decided that Black Rock sands in Portmadog would make a nice day out, as you can drive on to the actual beach and take dogs too, so off we went the sun blazing through the car window. After an hour we arrived on the beach, and my daughter jumped out and told me to drive for a change. First of all I almost got the car stuck on the fine dry sand !! Then for extra measure once I'd manouvred off that safely, I only went and got the car stuck on soft wet sand !! Despite both of us trying to get off it, the car stayed firmly stuck and I couldn't help but notice the tide was coming in pretty dammed quickly !! We got carpet squares out of the boot and put those under the back wheels no good, then under the front wheels no good again. Then two helpful guys tried to help us by pushing the car out, that was no good either as the car had sunk almost up to the sills of the car. Luckily then the beach wardens arrived too, it took all 4 of them to get the car out of the sand !! How annoying that I hadn't thought to get the camera out of the car and photograph the whole thing dohhhhh lol !!

After that, I told my daughter to drive instead lol. We drove up to the other end of the beach and bought a cuppa, before we settled to watch a guy launching himself in the air using his wind surfing kite, and watching all the water sports going on. Then later, we drove close to the sea and I got out and joined the dog in the sea for a paddle, the water was surprisingly warm considering how early in the year it is. Two or three hours later we left the beach and drove back through the mountains via Beddgelert, where the illustrator Alfred Edmeades Bestall, of the famous Rubert Bear books used to live. The scenery there is breath taking, I wish it hadn't been Bank Holiday as there was lots of lovely little waterfalls I'd have loved to have taken photo's of, but I couldn't. Nevertheless, we had a great day out finished off with a portion of chips with curry sauce from a local chippy on out way back up the island.