Life's journeys

Yesterday we travelled through the Forest of Dean to visit a property in the unwooded strip where it reaches the mighty River Severn.  It was in a quiet spot overlooking fields, on a river's edge, and within walking distance of small shops, Dr, etc, yet handily placed for travelling back to Wales to see our children or up to Yorkshire (ditto).  It needed a chunk of money spending on sorting out a damp problem - the vendors had chosen to splash their dosh on high-end en-suite bathrooms until they were skint, and just paint over the damp and do some VERY dodgy DIY "improvements".  However, the asking price was cheap enough to allow for proper improvements to be made.  There is so little on the market at the moment that even less than perfect properties are being deemed possibles, should our recent viewing here bear fruit.

We began the day having a wander (and a shop) around Abergavenny Fleamarket, and bought a lovely pine trunk to go in the Unit when my OH has replaced the hinges with the size of the set in ones which used to be on it.  I bought a cookery book and two new Kilner storage jars (for the nuts which OH couldn't resist in Lidl this week).  I think we had every season of weather yesterday.  As we sat in the car park with a cup of tea, we could see it was snowing up on the Brecon Beacon hilltops, whilst it then rained with us, then the sun came out and later in the day we had hailstones and finally a cloudburst just outside Llandovery!





I am making progress on my x-stitch - gate and sheep so far.  I need to work on it under my craft light though so can't take it with me to work on.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my breadmaker decided to pop its clogs and so I bit the bullet and bought myself a Panesonic one as everyone says how good they are (pleased with mine).

Hand-made (though I can bring it to dough in the Panny)

vs. a quick bung it Panny loaf!

See you on my return.

White Castle

The Castle Cat.  Such a sweety and we had lovely cuddles.

Not the most flattering photo of Danny as the sun was SO bright, hence his eyes shut.

As you can see, the cat had his eyes shut too!  More than a passing resemblance to Sharon's (Morning's Minion's blogspot) Bobby McGee.

I'm sorry, I am in the horns of a dilemma  today, so I'm not really up to words tonight.  You will have to make do with photos.

The hill in the distance is the Blorenge which overlooks Abergavenny.

A lovely view.

Moat outside the curtain wall and towers.

Above and below: Offa's Dyke runs right in front of the cottage you can see.

The tempting trackway which leads you on to Skenfrith and Grosmont Castles.  This triumvirate guards the border lands between Abergavenny and the English (Herefordshire) border.

Castles post - Raglan first

Shall I be mean and say which Welsh Castle is this?

If you know this castle, this might help . . .  Wasn't I mean to tease you all yesterday.  It is - of course - beautiful Raglan Castle.  If I had shown the photo below, you might have had a sporting chance . . .

I will apologize for the blue smear which is obvious in many of the photos.  I obviously put a grubby thumb mark on the lens.  Smack wrists.

Anyway, we were out visiting castles yesterday, mainly because we had planned out a day around viewing a cottage near Ross-on-Wye, only to have a last minute phone call cancelling because the vendor had Shingles.  So, we went anyway, and started off at Abergavenny, where there is a Fleamarket every Wednesday.  It has been several years since we last went and we were looking forward to having a wander round, especially as there are usually a few Militaria stalls.  We had a lovely stroll, whilst Danny set off to explore the town and came back later with a coffee to see what we had been interested by.  There are a couple of good book stalls (one had some very tempting cookery books and I may get tempted next time . . .) and we met up with some friends of ours from the Fleamarket circuit, which was nice.  I spent just £2 on an old horse book.  Then it was on to Raglan.

No photo of the main gateway as they "had the builders in" and they had parked their van outside, and there was scaffolding all over the place.  So instead, a view of the left hand side of the castle and the bow of the moat.

The entrance into the Pitched Stone Court, above and below.

I stood inside the great hall yesterday, looking out through this beautiful Elizabethan window, and thinking of how its occupants must have felt the day Colonel Fairfax and his cohort of Roundheads came pouring through the gatehouse.

It was built relatively late, this beautiful castle, around the mid 15th C.  I doubt they thought then it would ever see war or be besieged or attacked.  How wrong history was to prove them.

Here is the business end of things, the red sandstone walls hiding the large kitchen area behind them.

One of the fireplaces in the vast kitchen.

And the other . . .

The view from the rear of the castle, looking across to the Sugarloaf.

More details later.

Life as we live it

Danny had some friends round last night.  He made a meal for them - a huge Chilli with extras - a good splash of Kentucky bourbon and some stout to give it depth and take away some of the tomato-iness of it.  10/10 from me!  He asked for a Victoria Sponge, so I made this one, which is full of double cream and chopped up strawberries.  It has been a busy week, one way and another, but it's nice to have someone to bake for again.  I've made Chocolate Blackberry Brownies to hand round to fellow stallholders tomorrow, and a Mincemeat Cake for a friend who appreciates some home baking after his wife left him.

I have made a start on the new x-stitch project.  The area I've done so far is the tree and few sheep to the right of the gate and just above the wall.  I shall outline the sheep tonight, and try and do my outlining as I go along as there's a fair bit of it.



Tomorrow Danny is holding the fort here whilst we go off to man our stall at the Fleamarket in Carmarthen.  It is a long day so I doubt we will be late to bed tonight.  The car is packed within an inch of its life - we always pack carefully and when we unload the other end, it always have enough to spread onto two stalls, so we will have to "pile it high" as they say.  After buying two spare Dyson vacuums at auction recently, when my Dyson stopped sucking up and despite open heart surgery, we couldn't find why, my husband had another disembowelment of it and found a chunk of fluff where I swear there was none before!  Anyway, as that is now working again, we have kept a spare and I ordered fresh filters for one of the replacements as one was missing, and it is working perfectly so we will sell it on now.

Does anyone follow The Archers?  I have been a fan and follower since 1973, when I got fed up with just hearing the top 20 played over and over on Radio 1 and tuned into Radio 4 instead.  There is a very compelling story line at the moment (and for the last few months) involving Rob Titchener's manipulation and bullying of his wife Helen (nee Archer).  Is he a psychopath (sorry, sociopath they are now I think?)  He has many of the attributes . . . I think Rob is on every Archer fan's hit list and it can be chilling listening especially if the listener has any experience of that sort of behaviour in a partner (which I did in the distant past).  I am back to listening every day in the week now, as I'm out on a Sunday so can't listen to the Omnibus as is my wont during the winter months when we are normally at home.  Any episode I miss just HAS to be listened to on catch-up!

I am glad I have managed to string a few words together for a longer post today.  As the whole world can potentially read this blog, I try to avoid emotions, politics, problems, worries and "personal stuff".  That doesn't mean it isn't happening sometimes.  Gosh, I could write some good scripts for The Archers just from personal experiences.  I don't think I'll volunteer though!

Shields and a local walk

Well, details of 3 of the shields.  I will have to take the last tomorrow for a close-up, but  if anyone can throw any light on these, I would be grateful.    A Welsh dragon here, but over an open book/pick/anchor?/hammer?

Strange is this one.  A snake on a shield background? with a rising or setting? sun above it.

This one I have found: the two-headed lion with a mermaid and a motto - Per adua ad alta - through efforts to high things.  Connected with Birmingham University.  So I expect the others are and they all probably came from Aberystwyth University as they have Aberystwyth chalked on the back.

Two little metal shields came with our purchase.

Yesterday it was dry, and when the sun came out, very pleasant.  I walked down the hill and along by the river, which had dropped quite a bit overnight.

Then up to the junction, and turning up the lane to go up past Eisteddfa, which is a farmhouse on a very ancient site connected with our local Saint Egwad, who had a preaching cell there.  Here are the first Pussy Willow "paws" I have seen.

The lane ahead, one of the few flat bits.

Climbing up, there's a nice view across to the hills behind Black Mountain (Brynaman is behind these hills).  I can just see the Bronze Age cairns up there but I know where to look!

Looking across to the Towy Valley and the far side of that valley.

A pair of Kites who were synchronistic in flight.

On my way back I took a zoom in on one of the farmhouses on the hills above our house, N-E of it.

Finally, a view all regular followers will recognize.

Have a good weekend.