Back to reality!

There's nothing like spending 45 mins brushing your dog's teeth to bring you back home with a bump (and incidentally remind you who's boss - and it ain't me!! :) ) Luckily with Spot positioned in front of the chicken coop I can do pretty much anything to her, so spent time scraping the plaque that brushing hasn't dealt with, with my finger nails!!! - oooooh lovely job! (and thanks to the genetics of my family I have nails easily hard enough to do this! )

Obviously the last 2 posts were a blow by blow account of what we did on holiday, but I just want to add a few points that didn't fit in with the "left here and went there" kind of posts.

Wales was beautiful! - It had an essence all of its own which was somewhere between the cornish coast and the wilds of Scotland (given its geographical location I guess that's no surprise). The sea was just the most beautiful colour though - a real turqoise blue - especially at Abersoch where I think the depths must change quite significantly off the long flat beach. Honestly, you could not have hoped for a more beautiful setting if you were in the South of France. All the villages were picturesque and everyone was friendly and helpful. There were small cafe's and plenty of places to sit out in the sun and enjoy a coffee or an ice cream (have you noticed the plentiful mentions of ice cream?) and often quite a mediteranean feel to the menus - often including dressed crab and other seafood delights. And do you know the best part ??? NO McD's or Tesco's or KFC............ what a triumph for the welsh coastal villages...... and there were real honest butchers and little Spa's that reminded me of my Grandfather's grocers too many years ago to mention, that stocked normal everyday groceries without all the frivolities we've got rather too used to in my neck of the woods! It was a revelation! I also found it pretty sad that I noticed, despite having a hatred for McD's and all things that commercial, I can't believe that I have become so accustomed to That Logo, that I noticed it was missing!!! grrrrrrr.

There were no motorways (although occassionally the locals seemed to want to drive as if there was one) as life seemed a little more relaxed and pleasurable than it is round here (I am currently listening to some buffoon with his hand on his hooter presumably because someone hasn't moved off from the lights promptly enough.)

We saw loads of buzzards - and both remarked that Welsh Buzzards must be a bit more "show-off" than their English counterparts as they were far more often seen low and close to the road - properly showing off that amazing colouring they have underneath them, often hunting or having a bit of a set to with crows or kites, rather than the high altitude gliding that we only ever seem to see them do around these parts. Maybe it was just because of the kind of roads we were travelling on, but it was awesome to see, they are so utterly beautiful.

Right - I must think about putting on some dinner!!! - anyone got any suggestions?

Wales 08

Will write up the blurb later when I have caught up on sleep lost by staying 2 nights in a tent when apparently the Welsh coastline became a wind tunnel experiment!! :)

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Off for a week!

Going to Wales for a week........ and looking at the weather forecast it's going to be fairly typical welsh weather!! :)

We are starting with a weekend in Abersoch for the annual Jazz Festival, which will be great fun. and then we decided to extend that into next week and just mooch around the general area with a tent and an inflatable bed (Well I'm 40 now you know - I can't sleep on the ground!)

So in a minute I'm taking Spot to the kennels. We did think about taking her but if the weather does get hot I worry about her in the car, and she's not the best at drinking. Plus it ties us to places where dogs are allowed.... and it would be nice to have a little "us time" for a week!! - She doesn't seem to mind the kennel, in fact last time I picked her up she didn't even run to me in the office when they brought her out - she ran straight to another man (a stranger) who was eating a biscuit!!! - She's only loyal to the consumer of food!!!!

We've also got all the bits to set up an auto-drinker and a 12kg feeder for the chooks. So, although my neighbour will come in to get the eggs, she can please herself (and avoid the wet weather) as they won't actually need anything as such. So that needs to be done this afternoon.

I have started knitting Tempest, and it's beautiful (Thanks Sarah!) but I don't think I'm going to take it away. I think I'll start some socks instead as they are infinitely more portable. I have a plan to do more express lanes for a friend of mine in Opal rainforest (snake)

So, best get on with it then. Have a great week whatever you're doing, and good luck to all my friends who are running their race for life over the weekend.