Coed y Brenin and Abergwyngregyn

Since I've been home, my daughter and I have been to a couple of beautiful places, the first was Coed Y Brenin and the other Aberwyngregyn. Coed Y Brenin is a beautiful forest nestled in the Snowdonia National Park, it's well known for it's mountain bike trails, some beautiful walks, and a high wire course called Go Ape, picnic area's, a children's play area and a visitors centre which includes a cafe. We sat down by a babbling stream for a picnic, while my old dog wandered around enjoying all the sights and smells, I'd advise using the picnic tables as there are loads of huge wood ants on the ground, they must be the biggest ants I've ever seen lol !! From there we went up to the visitor centre area, here's there's a number of mountain bike trails in varying from a family route to some for experienced riders, and some lovely walks through the forest. One of the highlights for us was watching people on the high wire course that's newly opened called Go Ape. For anyone that's fit I can definitely recommend this it looks great fun. We chatted to some of the people running the course, who were very friendly and they told us that there's 5 different courses, these courses include high-wire tree crossings, zip wires and tarzan swings. It costs £30 for 3 hrs and although that sounds a lot, it's certainly good value compared to go cart racing which costs £30 for 30 mins !!

The second place we've been this past week is Abergwyngregyn, this little village leads to Aber Falls, in the Coedydd Aber nature reserve. This is another stunning place to visit, the scenery is stunning and a 1.5hr walk takes you to Aber Falls. I did this walk before all the arthritis kicked in and it was well worth it to see Aber Falls. This time I just managed to get a short way in, but it was still worth it as the scenery is spectacular from the word go. The cafe in Abergwyngregyn, is well worth a visit after a long walk too.

Yesterday my son Billie came round and put up a fence for us in our garden. We've wanted this up for ages, as now our dog can wander freely in the garden with no fear of escaping. Road sense is something my dog has no concept of, so until now he's always had to be on a very long lead to go in the garden.

Photo's today are of one of my gorgeous grand daughter Raggz that I took while I was staying at her house. One of my 13th grandchild Kacey Louise who was born on 14th April, and is my youngest son Billies little girl, one of me that I actually like ( which is rare lol) and one of a beautiful wood carving at Coedydd Aber nature reserve.

Waitrose in Menai Bridge !!

A little bit of excitement on sleepy Anglesey, we have a new Waitrose supermarket opened up in Menai Bridge. Even though we don't enjoy shopping my daughter and I thought we'd go and give it the once over. The car park was busy as you'd expect, and no doubt the powers that be at Waitrose, thought someone directing the traffic there would be a good idea. WRONG ..... the only thing holding up the traffic, was the guy that was trying to guide people to parking spaces !! Maybe they should have thought of employing someone that could see over the tops of the cars, rather than someone who had to continually run up and down to see if there were any spaces ....dohhhh.

Once inside we started looking at prices ...OMG all branded items were at least 40p dearer than they are at the regular supermarkets. Even their own cheap brand was expensive, so it's back to good old Tesco's for us !! When we got to the checkouts, although friendly enough, the cashier was a little too sickly friendly if you know what I mean. I didn't really need to be told to check my change, or be told to have a good day or to be told to come back soon ...because I won't be lol.

Much to my surprise my daughter stuck her head round the door yesterday morning and asked if I wanted to go to Mona Car Boot ..did I ever !!! I got changed in record time and within 10 mins were off for some rummaging. How disappointing, only 2 rows of booters, my daughter kindly pointed out even if there were more booters, it was doubtful I'd have managed to walk round many more anyway :o( !! Still you never know what little treasure you might find. As it was the only things I bought was a keyboard for my pc and a couple of books. I was quite pleased with the keyboard, as I'd worn the letters off my one, but once I'd plugged it in I found out why it only cost me 50p !! It had some weird affliction which made it go up and down the pages all on its own lol. Being the frugal type person I am, I decided rather than just throw it away I'd pull off all the keys and put them on my old keyboard ...success !!!

So later on there I was happily surfing the net, when all of a sudden there was a bang and our electric went off. As the noise seemed to come from my daughters room I went to investigate. She confirmed that yes indeed something in her room had caused the bang. As our electric fuse box has one of those trip switches I foolishly thought I'd just have to flick the switch and normal service would be resumed. Wrong ... for some reason flicking the switch didn't work. While I was stood there wondering what to do next my daughter joined me, and we crouched down looking at the fuse box for inspiration as to what to do next. Then we made the biggest mistake of all we started randomly flicking switches up and down, completely forgetting to keep track on where they were in the first place. After 10 mins we were defeated, and as I didn't have a clue who to ring, I used the intercom system in all these bungalows. The guy that answered asked if I wanted him to ring Manweb on my behalf, not knowing any different my reply was ...If that's who has to be rung then yes please. About an hour later the Manweb man duly arrived, and with a few quick flicks he sorted out the fuse box and power was restored. As he was leaving he asked if the bungalow was council I said yes, and he told me that they weren't the ones that should have been called, apparently the council have their own emergencies contractors ...so I hope there's not going to be a bill land on the mat !! The one odd thing about the whole saga was, that I noticed when the switches are in the right place, the little indicator colour below the switch was red. Yet if you flicked it off then the indicator colour was green. Now to my mind that's the wrong way round surely ?

Anyway ramblings aside here's a couple of photo's I took yesterday.

Treat of the day

I had a rare treat yesterday, a trip out to the car boot at Llandygai in Bangor. Last time we went there it was rubbish, but it seemed much better this time. The reason for the treat was to look for a dvd player for myself, and I managed to find one for £3 and whats more when we got home it worked perfectly ...bargain. I also picked up an ornamental metal bird cage for £2 to hang in my bedroom...if I can find a beam to screw a hook into.

I was very lucky on Freegle (Freecycle) this week too, I was picked to get a large under the bed storage box, a small bbq for the summer and a couple of nighties, so I was very pleased about that. I'm hoping when the warmer weather arrives I'll be able to pick up some bushes and plants for the garden too.

My motivation has returned I'm pleased to report, so I've been cracking on with the big oil painting for my front room. This is an abstract painting in vibrant yellows through to oranges, deep blues, aubergines and purples with a background of brown. It's not everyone's cup of tea but I like it. I spent yesterday cutting some pieces of glass to use on parts of the brown background, to add some sparkle, which I'll probably add on today sometime. Next on the agenda is a small house warming present for a traveller friend of mine, who has just decided that a home base feels like a good idea, after a very close call where he almost lost his eye due to accident with a hawthorn bush while he was laying a hedge. Plus like me he's not getting any younger, and doesn't think he can face another long winter in his van.

All being well I should be getting a tattoo on my ear sometime today too, if my daughter manages to come up with a design I like. I did a rough sketch of one the other night, but she thinks it should be more of a statement than that, so I'll leave it up to her. I've wanted an ear tattoo since we went to the Llandudno tattoo convention last year, and saw quite a few people with them there. Perfect for me as I can't wear earrings as I get an allergic allergy to any metal.