Lodge Life :: December 2025

Hi there everyone 😀

It seems an age since my last Lodge Life post, which was back in October last year. With our week in Yorkshire in November we didn’t manage a lodge visit … but we did get over for a few days early in December with mum and then headed back over after Christmas for a longer break to see in the New Year with Jackie and Phil. 

Whilst we weren’t there for long with mum we did manage to pack plenty in … starting with our visit to Attingham’s Christmas event on the way over …

This was followed swiftly by our visit to Penrhyn Castle for a further fill of pre-Christmas cheer …

… followed by a brisk walk on Bangor Pier … though I have to say we have braved it in much colder, wetter and windier weather … so this was a breeze …

We also managed our usual wander along the Criccieth seafront …

… where it was considerably windier …

… which made the warmth of Dylan’s for coffee a welcome treat …

Our walk on the beach the other side of the castle had mum staying in the car but Martin and I braved the weather for a very bracing wander …

That was pretty much all we did really. We’d stayed for just four nights but it had been really lovely to get back to our happy place.

It was the 28th when we got back over. We had a few days before Jackie and Phil joined us to celebrate the New Year.

We spent the day of New Year’s Eve walking around the Dorothea Quarry. Martin and I hadn’t done a full circuit before so we ended up being quite pleased with ourselves.

We parked in Talysarn and and headed along the track which took us towards the quarry …

We were walking clockwise around the quarry … and soon came to the old gates of Talysarn Hall …

There really is loads to see on this walk with lots of views of quarry pools …

… and lots of old building that are slowly being reclaimed by nature. It really is a fascinating place.

The track takes you up to the top of the main quarry …

… and then down past the spot where the diving school operates from.

This was as far as Martin and I had walked this way before so it was intriguing to find out what came next.

We ended up with a bit of conundrum when we found the path we had expected to be taking to be blocked off … as it was considered dangerous … so we weren’t quite sure of our options. I really did hope we weren’t going to have to retrace our steps.

Luckily a friendly dog walker made an appearance and was happy to show us the new route … which we probably wouldn’t have been confident in on our own as it seemed to be leading us away from where we needed to go.

Anyway we were soon on our way again and heading back towards the quarry … where we found a steep and narrow track that took us through lots of old slate piles and very close to the edge … it was a little hairy but good fun and made for a very interesting walk …

The track then carried on past lots more old buildings … which looked like workshops … before bringing us back to the old beam engine … which is where Martin and I had walked to before … but from the opposite direction …

This felt like a good place to stop for our lunch … which was flasks of hot soup, which were just the job.

From here it was just a short walk back up the hill to take us back to where we’d started …

Doing the full circuit made for a really nice and interesting walk … and one that I’m sure we will do again at a different time of year. We’d been really lucky with the weather though … whilst it had been cold it was certainly nice and bright … and no sign of any snow just yet 😜

It was time to head back to the lodge where we had a New Year’s Eve feast, escape rooms and fireworks on the TV on the cards … and I know it’s a bit late but …

**********************************************

Christmas Charm & Historic Halls #9 :: Penrhyn Castle

Hi there everyone 😀

I am sure you will be delighted to know that this is the last of my Christmas Charm & Historic Halls posts for this year.

I can’t quite believe that we visited nine different places full of Christmas trees … over the course of just a couple of months. Eight were National Trust properties … so I think I can say we had great value from our membership last year.

Having taken mum to North Wales for a few days mid-December we managed to fit in a visit to Penrhyn Castle in Bangor to see what they had going on.

We have visited Penrhyn at Christmas before and, whilst only the ground floor of the castle is open at this time of year, it’s still a nice thing to do on what actually turned out to be quite a bright day for December …

The first thing we encountered was a Christmas story time session which was just lovely. The lady doing it was so calm and she had the children absolutely enraptured. It was magical …

As well as plenty of beautifully decorated Christmas trees looking fabulous in the ground floor rooms …

… there were lots of tiny mouse scenes depicting everyday life in the castle …

Once again our favourite tree was the one at the bottom of the grandest of staircases … it was spectacular …

It was a fairly short visit but we were only a stone’s throw from the pier so that’s where headed to next … for a bracing walk and drink at the cafe at the end …

Thanks for following this series of posts … I promise there will be no further mention of Christmas trees until at least November 😜

*********************************************

Sunshine & Snowdrops

Hi there everyone 😀

Today’s post is a bit of a novelty for me at the moment … it’s actually about today 😜

It seems that most of us in the UK have experienced nothing but rain for weeks on end and when I saw the forecast for today I just felt we should actually get out.

We were lucky that the weather decided to be good on a day when we had no other commitments so we decided to have a drive over to Calke Abbey, a National Trust property in Derbyshire, and not too far away.

As it’s Shrove Tuesday I had actually been very organised and made pancakes yesterday so we started our day with these before heading out …

Whilst it was bright it was still pretty chilly but we got well wrapped up and headed out. The house wasn’t yet open for the season but that was ok …

We were in search of snowdrops …

… and we certainly found plenty …

They were abundant in the woodland …

… and whilst the walled garden was looking very tidy it was very different to how we usually see it in the summer time …

The pièce de résistance was the plant theatre, which was laden with snowdrops of all varieties … just looking lovely in the sunshine …

Having had our fill of snowdrops we headed back through the woodland, making the most of the winter sunshine …

We had a quick walk up to the church … to find the heather in full bloom …

… before making our way back up the hill for a warm up in the tea room … where jacket potatoes were the order of the day …

We were both quite pleased with ourselves on a number of counts … we hadn’t used the National Trust buggy at all … normally we would take it either to the gardens or back from them. We’d really enjoyed the walk and both weren’t feeling too achy for it either.

We’d also managed to stick to the diet with our jacket potato … no butter and no dressing on the salad. I know it sounds a bit sad but it was a real achievement for us. I even took my own grated cheese so I knew how much I’d had. My goodness I feel like I’m turning into a diet bore 🙈🙈🙈

To finish off our day out we had a call in at the Staunton Harold Garden Centre and the Ferrers Centre for a mooch.

We came home agreeing that we need to make the effort to get out and about a bit more … whatever the weather. We don’t need summer days and sunshine to enjoy a bit of fresh air … as you will find out when I get to tell you about our visit to the lantern show at Twycross Zoo a week or so ago ☔️☔️☔️☔️

*********************************************