Month: November 2021

Adventures on Welsh Railways – Part 2

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We had an amazing time at Caceres, it exceeded all expectations and I have a couple of hundred pictures to sort through but for today I am going to finish my UK tour posts, otherwise I will get very confused! My final stop on the tour was the lovely campsite Ynys Faig which I chose both for its location and the fact that it is right next to the railway station.

The journey there was beautiful, as I mentioned in my last post, and although the forecast for the afternoon was bad, the gods of camping were with me and I managed to pitch just before it started raining. I was really lucky with all my camping trips, I managed to pitch and strike in good weather and only got rained on a few times. This five days in Wales was the wettest part of the tour but that is only to be expected. There is a reason it is so lovely and green!

Fairbourne is at the edge of the Snowdonia National Park, with fantastic views behind into the mountains and across to the Llyn Penisula. It is a little village with a couple of shops, including a village store that sells absolutely everything, and great transport links, being on the mainline between North Wales and Birmingham. I also chose the site as the village has a miniature railway, which was used originally for mining in the area but which is now a tourist attraction.

I was in train heaven on the trip as not only was there the Cambrian Coast Railway and the miniature train, which I already knew about, but I also spotted another heritage railway on my way there, at the nearby town of Tywyn. The Talylynn Railway is the world’s first preserved historic railway and was developed for the slate industry. It is a gorgeous trip on the narrow gauge track up into Snowdonia and there is plenty of opportunity to get off and walk to various viewpoints and waterfalls. It was such a fun day out, needless to say I loved it and the whole area.

I also went on the Cambrian Coast Railway to Porthmadog, I have many happy holidays there so didn’t spend much time in the town but just went for the amazing train ride, especially the part where it crosses the bridge over the Barmouth Estuary. The moody weather just added to the dramatic scenery.

Barmouth itself was another day out and I combined this with the miniature Fairbourne railway and a trip across the estuary on the outward journey on a little ferry. On the way back I had a quick boat tour of the estuary and that was lovely, especially seeing the bridge from the boat. This was the wettest day so after a good soaking in Barmouth I was very happy to find a lovely cafe with delicious soup and gluten free cake to dry off in.

My final day was a long walk around the estuary, following a little part of the Cambrian Way along the estuary. Again it was a fantastic walk and I would love to go back and do more of the walk the other way into Snowdon one day.

This is an area that Jacky and I would like to go back to so we have added it to our list. I would definitely go back to Ynys Faig campsite again as it was a lovely friendly little site and the best bit was that I was able to hire a firepit! Due to the rain I only used it for 2 nights but it was brilliant to sit and read while watching the flames.

I have preliminary plans for next year’s tour, I will hopefully return to Wales and am also thinking about more of the South West and North Yorkshire. We have lots of lovely events and festivals already planned so fingers crossed they will all go ahead and I can fit my tour stages in between them. We are also working on our travel plans for Spain for when I return, we have just booked a trip to Galicia in May with a coach tour and are working on a trip to Granada as a postponed 80th birthday trip for Mum.

I really am living the dream here, still can’t believe this is my life. I am sitting here looking out of the window at the most glorious sunshine and am off on a bike ride later this afternoon.

This time last year I had just finished my 9th Saturday of term 1 teaching and would have probably been sitting freezing given the horrible storms they have been having. My heart goes out to all of the people who have had damage, especially my lovely friends who were due to trade at the Ludlow Medieval Market which got cancelled due to storm damage on Friday.

I hope that you are all ok and have had a good week. I have an exciting week ahead, our sewing group has been holding a two day workshop to make an etui, (needlework box), which has been great fun so far. This is a rather messy work in progress shot, the process involves a lot of gluing fabric to card to make the box.

I am going to finish that this coming Weds, and then I am off to see the Christmas lights in Alicante next weekend. I am putting my tiny tree up this week, I did manage to bring a few ornaments over from the UK so am looking forward to having those up for a couple of weeks.

I will be back later in the week with some of the Caceres pictures, until the enjoy your week ahead, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Actual crafting going on!

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You’d think I would be posting a bit more about actual makes now I am retired, especially as this is supposed to be a craft blog. I have always posted about travel but obviously that has been the main priority of the last few months, although there has been a little bit of making in between all of the adventures.

The big news is that I have finally learnt how to crochet, after several previous attempts. My lovely daughter Ellen was very patient with me, and after lots of encouragement I got to grips with at least two stitches. I still need more practice on trebles, but have been watching some further videos on Craftsy as I got a very good deal on a year’s membership. I decided to make a project while practising my double crochet, and am very proud of what I have done as my stitches are quite neat. The lovely sparkly variegated wool is from our trip to Alnwick earlier this year.

This is a little pouch for my new crochet hooks, as well as the couple I have bought here, I have a set waiting for me in the UK so hopefully Ellen and I will have the chance to do some more crochet when I spend time with her over Christmas. She is now a crochet genius, and has made so many wonderful things.

As I mentioned last post, some things are more difficult to find here. Wool is no problem as all of the Merca China, (a cross between a pound shop and a homewares shop), have a good selection and there is a lot of basic haberdashery. Fabric shops are few and far between, and the postage and import duty since Brexit makes it very expensive to get mail order, so I am going to have a good stock up when in the UK.

I bought this lovely wool, and some Christmas fabric, at the little craft market I mentioned in my last post. The wool will probably be either some crochet, or dresses for animals. I love variegated wool and the rainbow one is so bright! The other ball is very subtle and beautiful shades so I might use that for crochet if I can decide on a good pattern.

The red fabric is going to be used for this year’s set of ornaments. I was looking for something quick to stitch and decided on some Scandi inspired ones before I found this lovely fabric. I am using one of Jenny of Elefantz’s stitching patterns here. The holly fabric will go to back some cross stitch ones that I have had in progress for a few years.

I have also finally completed another Little Cotton Rabbits project, another elephant this time. This is Edward, and he is my 21st animal and my 5th elephant. He is a present for one of my old colleagues, for her grandson. I love making the little outfits and am now pretty confident at the removable shoes. My current LCR knit is a fox and I will be trying the slippers for the first time for that one.

I will be back next week after our latest adventure, we are going to have a really hard time choosing what to visit, I have been doing the research this morning and there are so many museums and palaces, very excited now.

I hope that you have a good weekend ahead, whatever you are doing have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Adventures on Welsh railways – part 1!

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When I was planning my UK tour I spent so many hours trying to work out the best route to take. I wanted to also include some heritage railways as well as some of the scenic routes that I have watched on TV. I love trains and so was very excited to be able to go on some amazing journeys on this trip.

Part of the reason why I chose to visit Tenby is that the trainline goes all the way along the coast. I did not have time to visit all of the places on the route, but did have a trip to Pembroke Castle, the place where Henry Tudor was born. I have visited many castles but few in South Wales and this was a wonderful one, it is so magnificent and really dominates the small town.

The interpretation in the castle was very good, and covered the history of the town as well as the Tudor connections. It has been restored to some extent, and there was a beautiful little herb garden that had been created to show what the original would have been like.

One of the very interesting exhibits was a piece of crewel work telling the story of one of the most famous of medieval knights, William Marshal, who was the first Earl of Pembroke. This was done in crewel work, in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry by Pamela Earl and six other embroiders from Sussex, and the piece took 4 years to stitch.

As well as the castle there are beautiful ponds around the side and beyond which were gorgeous so I spent some time talking to the swans and geese there before the return journey.

I left Tenby a couple of days later and took the train back to Carmarthen, passing the castle there. I then had a fabulous bus journey through the Welsh countryside to Aberystwyth. The Welsh railway network is a little limited in the west of the country but being on the bus was a great way to see some more of the countryside, and we passed through many very cute villages before going along the coast.

It was very hot in Aberystwyth, an unusual for the UK 29 degrees the first day. I had booked accommodation (with an all important laundrette!) for a couple of days, so I had a quiet first day on the beautiful beach reading a brilliant book, The Book of Lost Names. I have done so much reading since I finished work, which I love doing, and the day on the beach was a wonderful relaxing time.

The following day there was a little railway adventure on the cliff railway, which meant that I could have a walk along the Ceredigion Coastal path with stunning views over the Ceredigion Bay and over to the Llyn Peninsula, which is the part of Wales that sticks out into the sea just below Anglesey.

I then loaded up the bags again for a wonderful train ride from Aberystwyth to Fairbourne, along the Cambrian Coast Railway. The views around the Dovey Estuary were amazing and I passed another couple of castles as well on the route.

I will tell you about the last part of the tour a little later on as I had five more brilliant days at a campsite on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park. I have already started planning my trip for next summer, fingers crossed I may have a camper van by then, as I am going to try and pass my driving test when I am back in the UK for 3 months from Jan. However I had so much fun with my little tent and mini camping kit this year, and it all worked so well, I will be just as happy to do another train and bus adventure. Everything I needed for 5 weeks away fitted into the two bags in the picture below, plus a small rucksack with my books, knitting and IT supplies, so it was a great test of what I could do by train.

We are off on a Spanish train adventure this week, we are going to the medieval walled town of Caceres, in Northern Spain, another trip inspired by travel vloggers, this time Spain Revealed. I am very excited to be doing this, we are going to stay in an apartment within the old part of the city so I will have a wonderful time looking at old buildings, cathedrals and museums! So many lovely things happening, and I am so lucky to be able to be doing all this, it really is a dream come true.

I have also been doing a little crafting, Ellen taught me to crochet while she was here and I have nearly finished my first project. I am also getting sorted with Christmas ornaments, not helped by the fact that I gave away all my Christmas fabric and most of the charms and beads. For some reason I didn’t think that I would be making ornaments here! I have managed to find some things here in the local shops and a very kind new friend from my sewing group took me to a craft market this week where I bought a bit of material. I will stock up on things when I am in the UK as I have the potential to get more storage here. It will never quite be the old craft room proportions but there will be room for a little more stash 😉

I hope that you are all well and happy too, and have a good week ahead. Have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

November sun

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I am still getting used to the fact that it is so bright and sunny here, even with the clocks going back we still have daylight until about 6.30pm and the temperatures have been back in the high 20s this week. Ellen has been here and we have had a lovely week, we have been for a walk around the salt lakes to see the birds, including lots of flamingos, had a swim in the sea, been on a couple of coach trips and to the spa.

The sunshine makes me feel so good, although I don’t like it really hot as I burn easily, waking up to blue skies is wonderful. We have had a couple of very impressive thunderstorms with really good lightening, so it does rain sometimes here, but mostly at night.

It was a beautiful day for both our coach trips. We went to the medieval market in a little town in the mountains and to the old town in Altea, which is a beautiful little coastal town with a famous church. The sky was so blue all day and we had wonderful views across to the rock at Calpe.

We went to the church after a delicious tapas lunch at this restaurant in one of the old town houses. We just came across it on our walk up to the church, and it had the most beautiful decor and really delicious food, these are one of our favourite tapas dishes, croquetas.

The church is stunning, both outside and in, the tiles on the roof are very traditional on churches in this area and there were a beautiful selection of statues in the alcoves.

We loved wandering around the streets up to and beyond the church and there were some beautiful little houses . The views of the mountains and the sea were brilliant.

There are some really lovely shops with quirky displays, the umbrellas on this one are gorgeous!

As always there were some stunning doors, I think that this first picture is my all time favourite door, so far.

Ellen left today so I have been busy with some gardening, all of the cacti at the front of my house have been removed and instead I now have beautiful pots with geraniums in. I need to get on with some more decorating as I only have five weeks now before I return to the UK.

I plan to go on a longer bike ride tomorrow as it is going to be about 19 degrees so am looking forward to that. I have also almost finished putting together my latest knitted elephant. Ellen has attempted to teach me to crochet as well, while she has been here so I am going to fit in a bit of practise with that each day as well.

I hope that you have had a good week and are having a nice relaxing weekend. I will be back later in the week with some more of my UK tour pictures. Have fun whatever you are doing, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.