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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My Decluttering Journey #3 :: The TV Cabinet

Hi there everyone 😀

I’ve completed another step on my decluttering journey and … to be honest … I thought it was going to be harder than it was.

We tend to pull out the furniture in the lounge a couple of times a year just to generally dust and vacuum behind but we worked out today that the TV cabinet hasn’t been pulled out for about four years 🙈

There are reasons for this … feeble as they may seem. The bottom cupboard is full of a lifetime of photos … so it’s pretty heavy. There is also a rats’ nest of cables behind … all dusty and tangled, so it really isn’t a quick and easy job.

With the good weather we’d had at the weekend we’d kept putting off doing any housework at all, in favour of working in the garden. We decided that today would finally be the day for cleaning and we’d start with a good deep clean in the lounge, including tackling the TV cabinet.

I have to say I surprised myself. I’ve always taken lots of photos and back in the 80s I used to put them all in albums … nicely labelled.

I decided I would empty the albums … as they take up so much space … and also have a serious slim down of the photos that I would actually keep … some were very faded, lots were pretty much duplicated and some were just rubbish photos. 

Once I got started it was actually really easy and, whilst it was nice to look back through the memories, I didn’t feel sad dumping two bin fulls at all … in fact it felt quite liberating …

What I decided to keep fit easily into the three boxes that I have and I tried to make sure to write on the back the dates that they were taken.

All the albums were totally emptied and all of those are definitely going in the bin …

We then had a good sort out of the cables at the back of the TV … just keeping those that are currently in use … and gave the corner of the room a good dust and de-cobweb …

Once the cabinet was back in place Martin insisted he wanted to keep his PS3 and all the accompanying paraphernalia … even though he has not used it for goodness knows how long. That fits nicely on the middle shelf and the photos all fit easily in the bottom. There is even plenty of room for other bits if we feel the need …

One other thing that used to be in the cupboard is an old notebook computer, which we no longer use and was never much good anyway … I think we’ve agreed that can definitely go too.

So quite a successful decluttering session this time … with lots of stuff let go and a bit more space created.

Can I say the lounge is completely clutter free? Probably not quite. The bookcase is ok and I did go through the candle and vase cupboard not too long ago … but there is a big basket and bag full of wool … I think that will be harder to let go of than the photos … it’s just so pretty 🙈🙈🙈

I could always just move it out of the lounge and say have a room that is fully completed … though I guess that is kind of cheating 😜

Time for a break now before we crack on with finishing cleaning the rest of the room. 

🧶🐏🧶🐏🧶🐏🧶🐏🧶🐏🧶🐏🧶🐏

Exploring :: Menai Bridge

Hi there everyone 😀

We spent the second of our sunny days of the Easter weekend exploring Menai Bridge and I can definitely say there is a lot more to Menai Bridge than the Menai Bridge … though personally I do find the bridge itself pretty spectacular and very photogenic. 

Whilst we have driven through the village of Menai Bridge numerous times we have never actually stopped … other than to take a few photos of the bridge or to visit Plas Cadnant. 

Somewhere that I really wanted to see was ‘Church Island’ or St Tysilio's church … to give it its proper title. 

Once we were over the Menai Bridge we parked in a car park just past Waitrose and soon spotted the path leading down through the woods to the edge of the Menai Straight. 

It wasn’t too far, though it was quite steep and we soon found ourselves at the bottom with a fabulous view of ‘Church Island’ with the Britannia Bridge in the distance …

There is a raised causeway across to the island, making access easy, presumably whatever the tide. It was low for our visit, but I imagine everything would look very different with a higher tide …

Once on the island we decided to head right and soon passed the original causeway … which was only accessible at lower tides …

The path took us along the edge of the island, passing well tended graves on the left. A lady working on one of the graves told us that the people laid to rest on this part of the island were buried quite shallowly because the water table was quite high …

There were some fabulous views down the Menai towards the Britannia Bridge from the end of the island …

It really is a lovely spot, especially on such a lovely day …

Once rounding the bottom of the island the views are the opposite way along the Strait … towards the Menai Bridge …

The church is tiny and, sadly, wasn’t open when we visited …

There is also a little walk up some steps to a war memorial, but we didn’t look at that on this visit. 

Instead we headed back across the causeway and decided to follow the Belgian Promenade towards Menai Bridge …

The Promenade was built by Belgian refugees in gratitude for the hospitality of the people of Menai bridge who provided accommodation during the First World War. 

There are some fabulous views in either direction along the Promenade …

… with plenty of spots to sit and take in the sunshine …

At the end of the Promenade we carried on under the Menai Bridge …

… and onto Dylan’s where we had a quick pit stop …

From here we made our way back up through the centre of the town and back to the car. 

We needed to find somewhere to eat our car picnic and we knew just the spot …

If you zoom in you can see St Tysilo’s church and Church Island to the left of the Menai Bridge. 

We’d had another really lovely day out. We’d been lucky with the weather and got to see a beautiful new place and got some totally different views of the Menai and the bridges. Definitely worth a visit if you get the chance 😀

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Exploring :: Dorothea Quarry

Hi there everyone 😀

In line with the final push on my ‘50 Things to do before I am 60’ project I am trying to make sure that we explore as many new places and experiences as we can on our visits to North Wales.

During our Easter visit we managed to visit a couple of places that we hadn’t been to before … starting with the Dorothea Quarry.

We have already visited the Dinorwic quarry at Llanberis and the Penrhyn quarry at Bethesda and were looking forward to seeing what we might find at a quarry that was just a little further off the beaten track.

Whilst they can be dangerous places to explore, if not sensible, Martin and I both find disused quarries absolutely fascinating and strangely beautiful.

We knew that to see anything of the Dorothea quarry would involve a bit of a walk and we managed to find a roadside parking spot in Talysarn. It seemed quite a popular spot with plenty of dog walkers coming and going so we guessed we were in the right place.

We headed off towards the quarry along the very well defined track … dodging the puddles and the mud …

There were certainly plenty of points of interest along the way with the first being a smaller pool on the left hand side of the track, which we spotted through the trees …

We carried on along the track …

… and soon spotted some old buildings through the moss covered trees and couldn’t resist having a bit of a closer look …

A bit further on and we hit the old gates to Talysarn Hall …

… which was definitely looking ripe for renovation …

Once past the hall the path follows the edge of the quarry for some really good views …

We carried on as far as the parking area for the diving pier, which isn’t accessible by car for members of the public, before pausing for a bit of a breather …

I think we were probably just short of halfway round but decided to retrace our steps, rather than carry on as we weren’t quite sure how far there was left to go …

It was a really lovely walk on a lovely day, with plenty of gorse and blackthorn (I think) blossom to be seen …

… with spectacular views …

Next time we might take the footpath away from the main track to see if this might take us around in the opposite direction … as I believe there is still plenty that we didn’t get to see this time …

From the quarry we drove up through the mountains … it really was the most glorious day …

We ended up in Y Felinheli, where we had our car picnic overlooking the Menai before having a bit of a wander …

We’d had a really lovely day and definitely made the most of the sunny weather. We’d explored somewhere new and managed to avoid any Bank Holiday weekend crowds … just the way we like it 😀

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