Little Journeys

Lovely views, Hywel and what great blue skies!
I like a cup a soup, too...I take one to the farm with me when I'm working there!
I think the noise and shadows from those wind turbines can be quite creepy when you are near then.

Hywel you do live in a most beautiful part of the world......I am very envious of those fabulous views, we spent many happy if wet holidays in Wales and still remember them with great affection..... please do put on more of your lovely countryside photos....

The views are spectacular. I bet the fish n chips taste better up there.

Hello Hywel
What a lovely idea to take your wife out in the car. A change of scenery does us all good. Love your picnic ideas, you are very well organised.
The Welsh scenery is beautiful. My favourite picture is the curious cow.
Best wishes to both of you and Bella.
Marjorie

The views are wonderful Hywel and its the best therapy I can think of for you and Beryl, we'll be stuck in long enough soon so you enjoy your trips whilst you can. I enjoy a trip out and nothing nicer than a picnic with somewhere lovely to admire and well lets face it fish and chips eaten out always taste better, lol...
Some lovely pics here Hywel, you would laugh but if out and about anywhere I cannot resist taking pics of any animals that I come across, my family always laugh at me because I have a little natter whilst I'm doing it, they say if something answered me I'd run a mile... I hate those wind farms, they give me the creeps, my skin literally crawls if I pass near any..
When my dad passed away it was his wish that we scattered his ashes in Burslem on his mum and dads grave, a few weeks back Derek and I spent a few days in Cheshire so the first place we visited on our travels was the cemetery in Burslem, its a massive place, I had a vague idea of where to look but a cemetery on a snowy, foggy morning in Feb looks nothing like it does on a gorgeous day in midsummer, we parked the car and set off in different directions, two hours and lots of grave searching later hubby said" its like looking for a needle in a haystack isn't it" we had both been heading back to our car, I was stood with my hand on a gravestone, would you believe it was approx thirty feet away from our car, if I had stepped out of the door and walked in a straight line I would have spotted it immediately...Its quite emotional looking at ones grandparents grave when you'd never met them isn't it....

Thank you all for reading my blog :)

I also think the wind turbines are creepy lol but since I saw them going up, in stages, I think I gradually became used to them.

Whatever we take with us to eat tastes much nicer in the fresh air on top of the hills or by the sea. We often have our meals out in the garden or in the shelter by the back door lol we are daft !

Oh Sue you are much like me - I'll stop in the middle of nowhere to take photos of animals and also plants, Beryl will say 'What have you seen now ?' lol People in passing cars give me strange looks when they see me kneeling down in a wet ditch with my camera :D lol
I've made a plan of the graveyard where my mum's parents are buried Sue. It's a huge place and I find it makes it easier to look at my plan when I take flowers there. Dad's parents are in a smaller graveyard and I know exactly where to go.
I remember 3 of my grandparents - mum's mother and father, and dad's mother. Dad's father was a collier and got killed in an accident under the ground many years before I was born. The roof fell in on top if him and fractured his spine.
Although I don't remember him, I remember his father - my great-granddad :)

amazing Hywel

Now even more people know why we live in Wales

You cant beat fish and chips , so glad you and Beryl had a lovely day out

Gg

My father passed away while I was on tour of Cambodia. When I visited his grave at Calverton, I discovered a vacant plot next to his he had purchased for me.

Those trips out must be a lifeline for Beryl - awful not even to be able to go down your own garden. There's nothing like a lungful or two of fresh air to cheer you up is there!

You live in a dream area Hywel ?

What beautiful photos and views, and what a beautiful area for a trip out. The last Hospital I worked at was NHS. It was only a small assessment unit and we had our own minibus when I 1st started working there. Our matron then was really good and on nice days we would take some of the patients out for a drive to see the tree blossom or new born lambs in the fields and if warm, to the beach for a ice cream. Our patient were suffering with mental health and these trips did wonders for them. Better then any drugs us gave them. Fish and chips sound wonderful with such a view!

What a lovely trip out you and Beryl had. very lucky with the weather too it's been so changeable!

Beautiful views, I bet fish and chips tasted great.

Thank you all for your comments :)

Interesting to know your gran was Welsh Sheila, and spoke it too :)

Looks wonderful Hywel and nice weather too. Hope you enjoyed your day out.

Beautiful country Hywel. Glad you enjoying your little journeys.

sorry to hear that Beryl is not so good but so pleased that you are getting out and about still. My Oh takes water and a primus stove every where we go so he can make a 'brew'.

the scenery is beautiful Hywel. Well done for looking after their resting place too. Most of my family were scattered and I do miss having a permanent site to visit them.

Where was the Colliery accident Hywel ? I remember them all, such a hard way to earn a living, they just had to accept it. We burned the coal on our open fires when I was young. Didnt realise the human cost.

Beautiful countryside with such a tranquil feeling.
Fish and chips in front of picturesque countryside under sunny skies- you couldn't improve on that Hywel!

Thanks everyone :)

It was a small colliery Diane, and only my grandfather was involved in the accident. It didn't make the news.

You can't beat the feeling of looking down on those Magnificat views and breathing in the freash air, clears the mind and brings a lovely calming effect over you! ..... a picnic with your wife too...lovely!
I took holidays in both Llandudno and Tenby this year, enjoyed them both very much, Llandudno with its Great and Little Orme ( which we climbed up) and Tenby with its lovely seaside town. Love Wales! ?

Maggie I wish I'd known you were going to Tenby! Not too far from us.
Diane, do you remember Aberfan when the tip collapsed over the school? A chap I know was first on the scene when the rescue started - how he got there so quickly I don't know as its a fair way from here. Not the sort of situation you can ever forget.

Hywel, sorry to hear about your grandfather - mines were dangerous places...

Steragram..... we were there for first week in September so only just recently back from there really. Picked a lovely quiet time to go and
really loved it.... went out on boat trip and also speed boat trip to see the seals too....great fun.....such a lovely place.... would definetly go back in a couple of years!

Thanks for your comments :)

Maggie I'm gad you enjoyed your holidays in Wales. I don't live near either of those places but I have been to Tenby several times - It's beautiful.
Never been to Llandudno.

Never been to Aberfan either. I think it's near Merthyr Tydfi ?

My grandfather's accident was many years before I was born Sue :) Nobody would/could talk about it - not my gran, aunt, nor father, ... nor any of my grandfather's brothers/sisters.
It was my mother who first told me about it, and she'd never met him either.

?

I remember Aberfan well. I was at Gresford Training Camp in the Army. They showed us the stable where the last tappings were heard. It was too dangerous to attempt a rescue. The poor souls were left to die. It was under our Parade Ground. I got very upset about marching about on it. But life has to go on.
Think mine work and rescues are better organised now
probably due to geological knowledge. Except in China
and South America.
We are so lucky with our gardens and gas central heating.
Now they are importing and exporting gas. Whenever will the mathematicians get it right ?

That must have been quite emotional Diane.

That sounds distressing Diane.

So sorry to hear your wife has difficulty getting about. The car journeys must be a godsend.

Hywel, your images made me really home -sick. I know your area so well and I shall probably never go there again.

The last time we visited,Other Half and I took flowers to my sister's "grave". (her ashes are buried in the family site). I always loved that little chapel on the G****** Mountain and was upset when I heard that the very old circular iron candle holders had been stolen. Despicable!

I was also upset to find that I knew more people in the little cemetery than I did in the village! My poor Other Half did his best to stop my morbid comments!

We made our way that day over the mountain to your old stomping ground. Found some changes there also.

Aberfan was a shocking tragedy. My BIL and my O. H. visited the place not long after the catastrophe as my BIL had known one of the teachers at the school that was obliterated. They were both greatly affected by what they saw.

We went past that chapel on this particular day Eirlys, and also through your little village.
I had a great uncle who was minister in the chapel for a few years in the late 1800s.
The cow in the last photo was coming down the steep hill between the village and the chapel - I think it's called the 'Rock' ...
The next photo after the wind farm was taken from the road leading down to Gelliwarog.

The "Rock" was our village inn. Women were not "allowed" inside and when I visited the owners, I was always shown into the parlour. When our doctor bought me my first drink here, (a sherry), I thought I was really grown-up!

Mr Roderick was the Minister who officiated at my wedding. He was a very distinguished-looking man, who "always looked good in a wedding photograph" as a neighbour used to say.

The Chapel and the school were both for sale when I last looked on line. No shops at all. ( I remember four).

Gelliwarog Farm: A distant Uncle lived here. He was a handsome man who was always dressed in breeches and high polished boots. The "boys" who lived at the farm had a reputation for getting up into all sorts of (innocent) mischief.

It's great to have had such a wonderful happy childhood.
Thank you for reminding me, Hywel.

Croeso :)

I didn't know the chapel was for sale - that's very sad.
( I take it you mean the one on the mountain )
There was no for sale sign on it last week.

No. sorry, in my village. It's not a pretty chapel and as there is a community hall already, it's difficult to know how it could be used.

Quite a few round here have been converted into private houses but it must be a big undertaking.

Many around here are houses now too. One nearby has been converted to flats.

Hardly any land around it. Not much scope for flats in the village.

I still remember how I felt when I saw my first BIG Christmas tree there, all lit up. Health and Safety would have a fit today. They were ordinary candles on a 9/10 foot tree!! I thought it magical.

I haven't noticed that chapel Eirlys. I'll have to look next time I go that way.
Life revolved around the chapel in those days, and everyone spoke Welsh :)

So true!