A Walk on the Beach 🏖️

Hi there everyone 😀

We were so lucky with the weather on our first visit of the season to our lodge in North Wales.

It’s not every year it’s nice enough at the beginning of March for a sunny wander along the beach but on Tuesday that’s exactly what we did.

After a quick visit to Asda for supplies we decided to head for Nefyn, hoping to find one of the few parking places down by the beach and the tide out.

We got lucky on both counts …

… and had a lovely walk along the shore to the harbour area …

There is just a small cluster of properties around the harbour … with the only vehicle access being along the beach when the tide is right …

Though it’s only a tiny enclave there is plenty of interest to see with colourful huts …

… some spring daffodils …

… boats in all states of repair …

… and plenty of maritime paraphernalia …

It’s a really nice walk out onto the harbour wall, with plenty of spots to sit and take in the sunshine … 

… before heading back …

It really is a lovely little spot and just about the right length of walk for us. In the season it’s always nice to sit and have a drink and a piece of cake from the cafe by the small car park but we were a bit too early for that this time … definitely next time though 😀

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My Decluttering Journey #2 :: The Walk-in Wardrobe

Hi there everyone 😀

I know you may have been expecting my next decluttering update to show me finishing off the kitchen cupboards but today I’ve hit the walk in wardrobe. 

I know it may seem a bit of a random way to go about things but the cupboard was overdue a spring clean so it seemed to make sense to have a good sort through at the same time.

To be fair I did do a big clothes declutter a couple of years ago and I have been pretty good at keeping on top of things with a bit of a ‘one in one out’ mantra.

However, I was still surprised to find that the only thing that ended up leaving the house on this session was an empty cardboard box … which basically just had the spare coat hangers it had contained being moved into one of the suitcases.

I did completely empty the cupboard of clothes …

Suitcases …

… and two boxes of craft stuff and fabric …

I washed all of the walls down, cleaned the skirting boards and vacuumed the carpet before basically putting everything back in 🙈

Clothes wise this cupboard holds winter coats, dresses and tops for special occasions (which very rarely see the light of day), my one and only skirt (which hasn’t actually been worn for a number of years so is on its last chance), a bag of very summery and, possibly, just a little bit tight tops that I can’t bear to part with just yet and cut offs, shorts, leggings and trousers …

I have turned the coat hangers around the wrong way so I can keep track of what I wear this year and I am promising to myself that I will look at this cupboard again in the autumn when I’m sure there will be a few bits that hit the charity shop pile if they haven’t seen the light of day …

The suitcases were sorted through … they just really hold bags and rucksacks that do all get used on different occasions so there was nothing to go from there … other than the cardboard box. 

I wasn’t up for decluttering craft stuff or fabric today as that will be a job all of its own as I have craft stuff and fabric squirrelled away all over the place, including in some of the wardrobes at mum’s, so I think that will all need getting out in one go … I will certainly need to build myself up for that one.

I know it’s only a small step towards my overall goal but in the words of that big supermarket … Every Little Helps 😜

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My Decluttering Journey :: The Top Kitchen Cupboards

Hi there everyone 😀

After a week of blue skies and sunshine we came home from the lodge to a Sunday of cold and rain.

Somehow we were very organised … with all the unpacking having been done on Saturday afternoon after we’d got home … and we found ourselves at a bit of a loose end on Sunday.

It was the perfect opportunity to make a start on my goal of decluttering the whole of the house before I hit my 60th birthday in November.

I decided we’d start small and hit the upper cupboards in the kitchen, which were overdue a tidy and wipe out anyway. Now I’m not sure how interesting my kitchen cupboards will be to anyone else but I kind of think that documenting my decluttering might help keep me on track and give me more of a chance of achieving this goal. 

We (Yes … poor old Martin got roped in too) started off with the open shelving next to the fridge, which had become a bit of a dumping ground for a variety of random bits and pieces …

After a sort through the tins I ended up transferring some leftover walnuts and a bag of very out of date sunflower seeds to the bird food supplies … I also had a good sort through and pack away of the medication …

… and put the pasta and the savoury biscuits in the food cupboard where they really belong. It is now looking back to how it should …

Next it was one of those corner cupboards, where it is a pain in the jacksie if you want anything from the back. Other than taking everything out, giving the cupboard a good wipe out and getting rid of this small glass dish … 

… everything went back in as it was …

Then it was the cupboard to the left of the cooker …

Again … it was emptied out, given a good wipe, all the plastic tubs matched up with lids and pretty much everything went back in …

The only casualties were the dribs and drabs of two vinegar bottles, which either out of date or looking a bit ropey …

This is just a handy tip you may find useful … we bought one of these cafe order strips from Amazon and we keep our shopping list, freezer inventory and weekly meal planner here … it is so handy …

The cupboard over the top of the hob was next and didn’t take much sorting …

… I just discarded a number of lids to takeaway cartons as we seemed to have a lot more lids than containers … we find these really useful, especially for freezing batch cooking, and more environmentally friendly than using lots of plastic bags …

On the right hand side of the cooker there was nothing to be got rid of …

Then we were at the other corner unit …

… where I decided I could let a few bits and pieces go … how many corn plasters do two people who do not have corns need anyway? 

The last of the upper cupboards is a full height glass fronted one … so you can see all of the contents …

It was emptied, rearranged a bit, the kilner jars were restocked and the majority of it all went back in … though the additional tea bags were resited …

Whilst we were feeling invigorated we did also have a sort through Martin’s knife drawer …

… where we said good bye to a useless pair of scissors and an even more useless knife sharpener …

We hadn’t actually got rid of much stuff … 

… but I’m happy with that as the kitchen had been Konmari’d a few years ago, so it was good to see that more stuff had not accumulated.

I know it’s going to be a big job to work through the whole of the house, especially the garden sheds, but at least I’ve made a start and … there are a fair few other areas that have already gone through the process, be it some time ago, so hopefully we will see some quick wins 😀

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Some Spring Sunshine ☀️

Hi there everyone 😀

Saturday, 2 March was the first full day of our first visit to our lodge in North Wales for the 2024 season and, surprisingly, we were up early and greeted with a lovely bright and sunny day so we decided to make the most of it … starting out by heading to Trefor for a short walk along the beach.

I think Trefor was the first place we visited after we’d took ownership of the lodge a couple of years ago, and it’s somewhere we usually try and take any visitors. There’s not a lot there but we really like it. It’s just a tiny harbour area and beach … backed by the mountains … with fabulous views over to Anglesey. It always really feels really tranquil and mindful.

It’s usually nice and quiet and this time was no exception. We parked up by the harbour wall and headed up towards the beach …

We went left first … following the footpath alongside the beach … spotting some llamas … which we’d never noticed before …

No amount of calling or whistling was working in getting them to come any closer so we carried on to take in the views in all directions …

We didn’t walk far … just up to the kissing gate, where the path heads up and over the cliffs …

We then headed back getting to enjoy the views in the other direction … along the coast towards Caernarfon …

We walked out along the outer side of the harbour wall … before making our way back down the steps and alongside the more sheltered side of the wall …

I walked back along the road towards the car park to capture some pictures of the boats …

After leaving Trefor we went on a bit of a magical mystery tour. I was on the hunt for good views of mountains with snow on the top … with a blue sky background. Well it took a while but I was very happy with what I ended up with …

By now we were almost back in Porthmadog so decided to have a ride through Tremadog, somewhere we’d passed lots of times but never stopped. There wasn’t an awful lot there but it was a pretty little village with plenty of pubs and a very picturesque church …

From Tremadog we headed for another place new to us … Tan y Bwlch railway station … which was a real treat …

… and the tea room had just opened for the season so we had to pay a visit …

We’d had a lovely day … a nice walk … a lovely drive … seen some new places and discovered a new tea room 😀. 

One of the reasons we chose to buy our lodge over this way was because the area has just got everything and in just one day we’d seen the coast, the mountains and the steam railway. If we’d managed to throw in a castle we’d have had a full house 😜

We made our way back to the lodge via Criccieth where I had one last stop to capture one of the new spring post box toppers … which always raise a smile …

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