A Day in the Mountains

Hi there everyone 😀

One of the reasons we chose the Llyn Peninsular in North Wales as the spot for our holiday lodge was the wide range of options in both scenery and activities available locally.

We definitely wanted somewhere close to the sea but the mountains were a massive draw too and have become a real favourite.

For our first big day out when Jackie and Phil came for a long weekend back in April a day in the mountains was on the cards … not climbing them I hasten to add.

We decided to start our day by heading for Beddgelert … with a very quick stop to take in the view of the Aber Glaslyn on the way …

Beddgelert is a beautiful village and one of our favourite places to visit. It’s in the most beautiful spot … at the heart of Snowdonia, or Eryri, to give it its Welsh name. It’s surrounded by mountains and at the confluence of the Glaslyn and the Colwyn rivers …

After a mooch round the crafty gift shop we did the river walk, taking in ‘Gelert’s Grave’ and crossing the river to come back along the other side …

We were then on our way again … heading for The Ogwen Valley … with a quick stop off along the way to take in the view across to Snowdon …

We stopped at the National Trust car park by the lake for a bit of a pasty break …

… and a very short walk … for a look at the mighty Tryfan … of the BBC’s SOS: Extreme Rescue fame …

We only went as far as the waterfall but it was just lovely …

We made our way back down to the car …

… and headed down the old Roman road for a last stop at Zipworld where we had some good fun watching the more adventurous partaking of the activities … whilst we just generally chilled out and had a drink …

Whilst none of us had any real inclination to partake of any of the hair raising activities on offer we were all quite keen on the idea of a quarry tour … driving round and up to the top in one of the bone shaking red lorries … that could well be on the cards for a future visit. 

It was time to head back to the lodge for a lazy evening. We’d had a lovely day and had, once again, been so very lucky with the weather, with plenty of blue skies and sunshine ☀️

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Lodge Life :: April 2024

Hi there everyone 😀

April started with us already at the lodge, at the end of our Easter break. Having had a couple of full days out, and with the weather not quite so good, we didn’t venture out at all on Easter Monday. On Tuesday we had a ride into Criccieth for lunch … to be greeted by a lovely bit of unexpected sunshine …

That was it then really for that visit. We had another day of cleaning and packing before heading for home.

It wasn’t long before we were back … full of excitement for a three week stay, including a long weekend visit by our good friends Jackie and Phil. 

We had a lovely drive over through the mountains. It seems ages since we’ve driven over in the sunshine …

We couldn’t resist a quick drive along the front at Criccieth for a good look at the sea …

We arrived on the Tuesday and Jackie and Phil were due to arrive on the Thursday evening. We spent our first couple of days settling in and getting organised for our guests … including checking out a local hostelrey for our Saturday night out. We’d had Whitehall in Pwllheli recommended to us by a few different people and it was just the job. Fab service, a lovely ambience and great food … and not too pricey either …

As usual the weather forecast wasn’t brilliant for the weekend but, yet again, ended up totally missing the mark … and we had three days of really good weather … which we absolutely made the most of.

We spent the Friday in the mountains … starting with a lovely walk along the river at Beddgelert …

… before having a drive through the mountains to The Ogwen Valley, where we had another short wander …

… before finishing our day off with a fish and chip supper back at the lodge. 

We’d had a lovely day … packed lots in and I took lots of photos which are definitely worthy of a post of their own. 

On Saturday we headed into Porthmadog, where we had a good wander up and down the High Street, before being lucky enough to get to see the arrival of The Snowdonia Star …

It’s always fascinating to see the High Street closed to allow the arrival of a steam train into Porthmadog station. It’s definitely always worth a watch. 

We had lunch at the station and headed back, via Borth y Gest … where we got to see another train heading out across the cob … it may have been The Snowdonia Star but it was too far away to be sure …

We got back to the lodge mid afternoon and all had a bit of an afternoon dose before heading ‘out out’. Not something we often do on a Saturday night, but we ate out at Whitehall in Pwllheli, and very nice it was too. 

Jackie and Phil were heading for home on the Sunday and we had a drive to Tanygrisiau to the Lakeside Cafe for breakfast, before having a short walk at the Cwmorthin waterfall …

We parted company and our guests headed for home and we headed back … calling in at the Bron y Garth Emporium on the way. It’s a place we’ve passed many times but either we’ve not had time to stop or it’s been closed. We had a really good mooch round … they had some really crazily fabulous stuff …

We’d had a fabulous weekend … the weather was due to change and we were looking forward to a few days just chilling out before getting out and about exploring some more. We’d got lots of plans to see lots of new things … but it was not to be.

Over the weekend we’d had an oil pressure warning light come on in the car and on Monday Martin had a drive round several garages locally to see if anyone could look at it. 

Unfortunately no one could look at it for several weeks so, after being advised by the local dealer that we shouldn't drive the car, there was no real option but to pack up and head for home.

It ended up being a bit of a stressful experience, with not the best of service from Green Flag, but we were soon on our way …

We actually ended up having a lovely journey home. The driver was fabulous. Patient, friendly and we chatted about anything and everything all the way back. He brought us home, helped unpack the car, then took Martin and the car to the garage and then brought Martin home again …

Whilst we were glad to be home safe and sound … we were both a bit gutted at having to cut short our break … but at least we are fortunate enough to know that, once the car is sorted, we can head back over again. Hopefully it won’t be long 😀

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My Decluttering Journey #4 :: Finishing off the Kitchen

Hi there everyone 😀

We’ve been dipping in and out of decluttering over the past few weeks and I’m more than delighted to say that we’ve finished a room. It’s definitely been a ‘we’ achievement, rather than an I, as I’m not sure I would have had the motivation to do quite so much without Martin’s help.

First off we defrosted the freezer, a job which was well overdue …

We did it just before we went away at the end of April. We managed to squeeze all of the contents into our selection of freezer boxes whilst the great defrost commenced …

I know it’s probably not the advertised way of defrosting a freezer but we were going for speed and Martin sat with the hair dryer and a complicated arrangement of tins and towels for catching and soaking up the water.

Considering we’d left it so long it didn’t actually take that long and we soon had a frost free, clean and organised freezer …with almost a full empty shelf …

With our holiday unceremoniously cut short by car trouble we actually made the tiniest of starts on the shed … on what just happened to be our 15th wedding anniversary.

This was quite a productive one as a couple of the drawers were full of what I would call random tat … but what Martin would call Geocaching supplies. Well … we decided that our days of setting our own caches was pretty much over and managed to empty two full drawers …

There were a few bits that we thought Bobby might like …

… plenty for the recycling bin …

… some bits we decided to hang on to but rehome …

… a bag of bits for the scrap man …

… and a bag of general waste …

We had a good sort through another couple of drawers and just have two more left … one full of glass jars for jam making and one full of random garden bits and pieces …

This weekend we decided to finish off the kitchen and emptied, cleaned out and sort through the contents of the rest of the kitchen cupboards and drawers.

There were a few bits and pieces that we decided to put in the charity pile but everything is now put back away, nice and tidily with the things we use the most in the most accessible spots …

We even sorted through and tidied up the cupboard in the back porch … which just leaves the coat rack and the seed box to finish that space off completely too .

It certainly feels good to know that we have one whole room fully cluttered 😀

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