A Week on The Llyn Peninsular #4 - A Tin Man & some Whistling Sands

Hi there everyone 😀

I'm writing this post on a Friday and it has been raining pretty non stop since Monday. All plans of gardening and days out have been thrown by the wayside and, whilst we have made the most of a really lazy week, I am really starting to crave some sunshine 🌞and I know just the place to find it ...

For today's post we are back on The Llyn Peninsular and picking up on our week's stay back at the beginning of May. So far I've shared our very lovely Porthdinllaen walk, our visit to Plas yn Rhiw and our big day out at Llanberis, inclulding our trip on the Snowdon Mountain Railway.

This time we are exploring a bit more of the coast ... starting with the beach at Llanbedrog, where the draw for me was definitely the beach huts, but I have to say we all ended up getting just a bit more  than any of us bargained for.

We parked up easily on the National Trust car park, where I was surprised to find a row of beach huts ... now, that wasn't what I had been expecting at all ...
I mean ... they were colourful enough and great to photograph, but who wants beach huts on the car park? All did become clear though, after we'd had a look at the National Trust information provided in another beach hut on the other side of the car park.

In March 2018 Storm Emma certainly left her mark, not that we would have been any the wiser if we hadn't had a look in the hut ... a lot of hard work by a lot of people has totally restored the beach to it's former state. It really is a beautiful spot ...

It's but a short walk down to the beach from the car park, passing the Aqua Beach Bar, which feels more akin with being somewhere in the Med, rather than North Wales.

The beach itself is just beautiful. It was pretty much deserted and looking to the left seemed to stretch away for miles ...
The view to the right was pretty impressive too ...
And ... there were my beach huts ...
... every bit as lovely as I'd hoped.

We had a bit of a wander on the beach and that was really all we had planned to do here but Martin had been looking at the GPS to see if there were any Geocaches around. Oh yes ... there was one at the tin man, which I'd read about but forgotten about. We decided we couldn't leave without seeing the tin man, after all ... we love an outdoor sculpture.

The path leading to the tin man leads up from the beach, just to the left of the house on the left of this picture ...
If we'd really thought it through, I'm not sure we would have attempted this walk. We didn't realise it when we set out ... but the tin man is actually situated pretty much directly above the house on the left. When I really zoom in on this photo I can actually just about see his head.

Here we are, bright eyed and bushy tailed, at the start of our climb ...
It's certainly not for the faint hearted and there were times when we regretted starting out, but it was a case of once we'd started, that was it, there was no going back ...

There are good solid hand rails pretty much all the way up and they were an absolute Godsend ...
We all just took it steady and had plenty of breaks for a bit of a breather ...
On this break we met up with some other walkers coming in from the path you can see behind mum. We were so pleased when they told us that we were nearly there. Not only that, there was another, far easier way back. Well that spurred us on for one last push ...
The view looking back down across the beach was just stunning. We were all pretty impressed with ourselves ... after all, mum and dad are both over 70 and Martin and I are both totally unfit. Now, just to find the tin man ... we didn't have to look far ...

It is a stunning sculpture and we got to see it on the best of days ... plenty of sunshine and the clearest blue sky ...

After catching our breath and a few minutes admiring the view we were on our way back down. This time taking the easier route. There were steps ...

... but plenty of nice gentle pathways too ...

About halfway down there is an information board sharing the history of the sculpture ...

... and from there it was a nice easy walk back through the woodland ...
The path brought us out in the grounds of Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, which is an arts and heritage centre. It is in a truly beautiful and very tranquil spot, with some interesting things to look at outside ...

They do have a cafe and do afternoon teas, which I'm sure would be absolutely lovely, but we had other plans. We were heading back to the Aqua Beach Cafe, for a quick refreshment break looking out over the sea.

We were all just a bit surprised to realise where we were when we came out of the grounds of the art centre ... we were pretty much opposite the entrance to our car park!

It was just a short wander back down the road towards the beach, before we had chance to make the most of our rest stop, where we finally realised that we could actually see the tin man at the top of the cliffs, though only just ...
With our legs rested and refreshed it was time to move on. We were heading further down the peninsular and across to the north coast where we were hoping to find Porthor beach, or ... 'The Whistling Sands'. Apparently named because you can hear a 'whistling' sound when sliding your feet on the dry sand at the beach ... well we just needed to test this out.

We parked up at the National Trust car park and were hoping for a bit of a wander down to the beach, along the coast and back up into the car park.
It was one heck of a hill down to the beach, we seriously hoped we would not have to walk back this way ...
We also really hoped that the cafe would be open as we were all ready for lunch.

I was walking in front and I was actually stopped in my tracks by the view that I got as the beach came into view. It was most definitely a wow! moment, which did literally take my breath away ...
It only got better ...
This was the view looking the other way ...
And ...
... result!! Cafe was most definitely open for business, so first stop was lunch. It was our 10th wedding anniversary and I couldn't have imagined a better spot to sit and eat ...

Fully refreshed it was time to get on the beach and test out that 'whistling' ... and yes, we most definitely could hear it. It was really weird.
We headed left on the path that led around the headland ...

... following the narrow, windy path along the edge of the coast ...
We clambered over broken stiles ...

... and took in the views, which were just glorious ...
It wasn't long before the path petered out and we were left with two options ... either retrace our steps, or ...

So that was mum and Martin sorted ... dad and I opted to retrace our steps ...
... and I have to say ... walking back up the road was an absolute killer. I did keep expecting Martin to bring the car down to pick us up, but no ... so we just took it slow and steady and eventually the car park was in sight!

What a day ... glorious weather, fabulous beaches, lunch by the sea, a good walk ... what more could you ask for 💜💜💜

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

Joy in the Everyday Ordinary - June, 1-10

Hi there everyone 😀

We seem to have been out and about all over the place since we've been back from The Llyn Peninsular. To finish off May we had our random meander around the Leicestershire countryside and a visit to Shugborough Hall, which I still have to tell you about.

It's only 10 June and we've already managed to visit Tissington in Derbyshire for the annual well dressing festival and we've also had our annual catch up with a group of old work friends, this time in Broadway in The Cotswolds, where we weren't totally thwarted by the typical British weather and managed to get out and do a bit of exploring.

The rain is most definitely set in for this week, which has put the mockers on a planned visit to Hidcote and Kiftsgate gardens, but to be honest, I think both Martin and I have been glad of being able to just spend a bit of time at home, before he is back into work for the next two weeks. We might even have a sneaky afternoon of binge watching the second series of Killing Eve 😀

Day 1 - The first Saturday of the month is always craft group at the church at the top of the road. It's a lovely way to spend a morning. Lots of lovely ladies just chatting, crafting, drinking tea and eating the odd bit of cake. In between seeing what everyone else was up to I cracked on with another set of this 'dad's shirt' bunting, ready for my next craft fair.

Day 2 - After spending the morning on a long overdue tidy up, I spent the afternoon doing some button art, which I haven't done in absolutely ages. I always seem to be inspired to do more crafts after I've been to my craft group.

Day 3 - Today we had a bit of a big day out. It was my first visit to a Derbyshire well dressing festival. We spent the morning in Tissington village, looking at the wells. This one is the 'Coffin Well' tucked away, pretty much in someone's back garden. We moved on for the afternoon and headed over to Ilam Hall, where the sun came out and we spent a lovely couple of hours sitting in the tea room garden and having a bit of a wander by the river. 

Day 4 - This rose has just been absolutely beautiful this year 💜🌸💜

Day 5 - All of a sudden it is looking like it will be another bumper year for blueberries 💜💜💜

Day 6 - We were off to Broadway for a long weekend, for our annual catch up with old work friends. It's the eighth year we've done it and we always have a great time. We always tend to try and visit somewhere on the way and this year we made our first ever visit to Sudeley Castle. I will tell you lots more about it in a separate post, but it was absolutely beautiful. This photo is one of my favourites as the sky looks very foreboding. Look the other way and it was blue skies and sunshine.

Day 7 - Today, it rained pretty much for the whole of the day. We had a walk up the High Street in Broadway, mooching in the little shops, trying our best to avoid the rain. Obviously there were call ins at tea shops and pubs too.

Day 8 - The rain held off for the afternoon and we managed to find the ROC Listening Post up by the Broadway Tower. Too unfit to go down, but we always love to find one of these.

Day 9 - Time to head for home and, whilst it's always good to get home, I will certainly miss having this view from my bedroom window.

Day 10 - We had all kinds of plans for outside today, but rain most definitely stopped play and we were confined to barracks. I took this photo on a visit to Packwood house a fair few years ago and I've recently shared it on a Facebook group that I'm a member of. So far it's had 333 likes, loves or wows!

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

A Random Meander

Hi there everyone 😀

It was the Sunday of the late May bank holiday weekend and the weather was a bit grey with the threat of showers on the horizon. It was one of those days when you know you want to do something, go out somewhere, we just couldn’t decide where.

We ended up going on a bit of a mystery drive, with every next move determined on the flip of a coin and were both keen to see whether we would get to see anything interesting, where we would end up and whether or not there would be cake.

We had to throw a few loose rules into the mix, otherwise we may have just ended up back where we started very quickly. We randomly chose a starting point ... the church at Orton-on-the-Hill ... and decided that our first move would be either first left or right, depending on the toss of the coin. The second move would then be second left or right, again dependent upon the toss and the third would be the third left or right. We would then just repeat the exercise until we were ready to head for home.

If a turn we were due to make was a dead end, or a loop round a housing estate, we would take the next available turn and if we came to a T-junction before our turn was due, we would use that as the turn ... if that makes any sense at all.

So there we were Sunday morning parked up outside the church at Orton-on-the-Hill.

Our first move was 1st right, so we pulled on to Sheepy Lane and headed off.

When we are out driving about when we are away on holiday we are always pulling over and stopping to look at things that have caught our eye, it could be anything, a view, a tree, a pretty hedgerows, new born lambs ... you get the picture. We were both interested to see whether we could be as interested in what we were passing driving around the countryside so close to home.

We needn't have worried. This part of Leicestershire is pretty rural, crisscrossed with public footpaths and with the countryside pretty much taken up with farming ... both animal and arable.

We were aiming to find something interesting enough to photograph on each step of our journey and our first pull in for a photocall was at one of the public footpath signs, where a fairly narrow gap in the hedge led to a well defined footpath leading off into the distance ...

Not far along the same stretch and we just had to pull in again, at a field entrance to capture the pop of colour of these poppies which had caught both our eyes as we were sailing past ...

We were on the look out for our next turn which was the 2nd right, which took us on the B4116 through Sheepy Magna, where we didn’t really have chance to stop for any photocall, though we did pass the Black horse, which was calling to us but it was a bit early in our travels for a pit stop.

We took the 3rd left into Ratcliffe Lane where we got to see a field full of fairly young lambs ...

I was just getting back in the car when I noticed the view from the other side of the road. The green barley was rippling and swaying in the wind and definitely worthy of a capture ...

It was then 1st left into Pinwall Lane, through the pretty village of Ratcliffe Culey ...

... before taking the 2nd right onto the A444. 3rd left then took us onto Fenn Lanes heading towards the Bosworth Battlefield. It was all familiar territory but we were both certainly looking at things from a different perspective and interested to see where we would go next.

We took the 1st right heading towards Stoke Golding and were supposed to then take the 2nd right, but had to do a bit of a diversion because of a closed road. We ended up taking a left into Fox Covert Lane, where we spotted the next few photo ops ...

... another public footpath ...

... an intriguing use for an old railway sleeper, according to the Yorkshire railwayman I was travelling with ...

... and a rural landing strip ...

2nd right had us back on Fenn Lanes and I said I was sure we couldn’t be that far from Sutton Wharf, a nice canalside cafe we have visited a couple of times before, when, hey presto there it was. What a result.

It was time for a pit stop so we called in for lunch ...

We spent a very pleasant hour or so just watching the world go by, doing the crossie ...

... and working out our new few moves ...

Before heading back off on our meander we had a closer look at some of the more interesting and unusual vehicles parked up ... both on ...

... and off the water ...
Back on our way and we were looking for the 3rd left which took us past the Bosworth Battlefield, then it was 1st left ...

... which took us past the station at Shenton ...
2nd right had us back by the horse in the crossroads we’d seen earlier and from here we decided to head for home ...

We’d been out a couple of hours, we’d had lunch, seen lots of the Leicestershire countryside and generally had a nice relaxing drive.

I was quite surprised really at how well it went, if the area had been new to us I’m sure we would have been out a lot longer as we’d have spent time at the battlefield. We also passed signs for a flowers festival in one of the villages, so we could easily have made a day of it.

This could definitely be something to try again, either at home or when we are somewhere that is new to us. It’s good to get off the beaten track and we always say that's where you tend to find the best things to see 😀

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

Joy in the Everyday Ordinary - May, 21 - 31

Hi there everyone 😀

And so, another month ticks over and we are in June ... officially summer in my book. I think the garden thinks so too, with us having waved good bye to the yellows and whites of spring and having welcomed in the hot pinks and purples of a new season with open arms.

The weather was a bit mixed for those last days of May, plenty of sunshine, but a fair amount of grey cloud too. I've been hit with a bit of a summer cold which left me feeling a bit lacklustre for a week or so and not really feeling like doing very much at all.

We have another busy month ahead with our annual catch up with old work friends in The Cotswolds next week, a couple of craft fairs on the calendar, plenty of local open gardens and scarecrow festivals coming up and hopefully a few nice days out but first ... here are our last 11 days of May ...

Day 21 - It was a strange old day today. Martin was at work and I pretty much spent the whole day gardening, something I don't often do solo ... I tend to need a bit of company for motivation. I had a really good day, taking it slow and steady doing lots of tidying, sweeping and watering. I am really pleased that the seedlings we potted on are looking so healthy, we don't normally have much luck at growing flowers from seed, but fingers crossed this year is going to be different.

Day 22 - It was a day of pretty much nothing but ironing for me today, not really having done any for about three weeks. I did get chance to have a wander in the garden though and was chuffed to bits to see the succulents flowering again. These tiny vibrant yellow flowers always give me something to smile about 😀

Day 23 - After a couple of pretty busy days it was nice to not have anything on the agenda at all for today. I did a bit of blogging and actually just sat outside for a while having lunch, doing a bit of reading and just enjoying the view.

Day 24 - It was Friday and I was full of cold and didn't feel much like doing anything at all. I did have a mooch round a neighbour's garden, after we'd got chatting out the front, and then she paid a reciprocal visit. I'm so proud of my diamantina this year, it really does look amazing at the moment ... absolutely covered in the frilliest of pom pom flowers in my very favourite colour 🌺🌺🌺

Day 25 - This little fellow has brought us both joy and stress by the bucket load. We spent a good part of two full days trying to protect the blackbird chicks, which have fledged. One seemed to be particularly struggling, but we were oh so pleased that he made it through the night. He has hung around all day, with mum and dad tirelessly visiting to find him and top him up with food. He seems to be eating plenty, but not that mobile. When I went in close to find out where he had moved to, he even opened up his mouth for me to feed him. I really hope he makes it 🤞

Day 26 - It was Sunday and the blackbird chick was nowhere to be seen this morning. I want to think that he has toddled off somewhere and is doing well, but he did look a bit weak. There was no sign of any feathers though, which tends to be a good sign. We did our very own 'left, right' challenge today, which involved us having a very random drive out and around the local countryside, where we found plenty to see pretty much right on our own doorstep.

Day 27 - The foxgloves in our tiny front garden are looking fabulous this year and are getting lots of comments from regular passers by. I nipped out in the sunshine today to try and capture some photos and managed to catch this bee just about to take his fill 🐝

Day 28 - Well it wouldn't be a 'Joy in the Everyday Ordinary' post without any crafts would it? I finally got to have a go at making some 'dad's shirt' bunting today and I love how it's turned out, especially the fabric made up of scraps.

Day 29 - We went out for another bit of a random drive today and ended up at Shugborough, where we finally got to visit the Lichfield apartment, which was really worth a look. I always love their wisteria, which is amazing and just managed to catch this shot whilst we were waiting for the buggy for a lift back to the car park.

Day 30 - I'm still trying to shake off this cold and feeling a bit lacklustre, not really feeling like doing much at all. This rose made me smile though. It's doing really well this year. It doesn't cope well with rain, which tends to stop the buds from opening, but ... so far, so good.

Day 31 - I spent the best part of the afternoon at the hair dressers, where all traces of grey were covered. It took till late afternoon for the grey in the sky to disappear, but it turned into a lovely warm and sunny evening and it's good to see that the hanging baskets finally seem to be starting to fill out a bit.

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