Blogs from Welshpool, Powys, Wales, United Kingdom, Europe - page 20

At the weekend, Alex and Ineke bought a new (second hand) Canadian canoe. Believe it or not, it came home on top of Alex's little Nissan, though we took Ineke's car too, in case it was needed - we thought we could tie the cars together you see. Anyway, they couldn't wait to get it to the water, as you can see! - and I was too late to snap it on the roof rack.... read more

Today is Caroline's birthday, and she'd spotted a walk she wanted to do. So we started - as all good walks should - with a coffee, then walked the walk, arriving back at the café in time for lunch. We went right up into the hills not far from here, along lanes none of us had been on before, and found some tracks that need exploring another day. Near a pool we saw herons and geese, and in the bog were curlew and peewits. Looks like spring is making an effort. And the sun......... well, lovely, and blue sky too. Happy birthday Caroline.... read more

Its that time of year again, and we set off for Chirk castle to see the snowdrops. Unfortunately we felt rather ripped off, as entry to the gardens where the snowdrops are was very expensive. And as we found afterwards, when you do some of the woodland trails, you get a good view of them for nothing! However, we enjoyed the sights and had a lovely walk. We spotted lots of trees that had been blown down in the gales, you could see the line of the gusts by the carnage. And guess what - found 3 hidden caches!... read more

Ineke's birthday dawned sunny and blue skied - which certainly makes a change - and I took her out for a mystery trip to a nearby village where there are 2 geocaches we hadn't found. One of them was one of those where you had to go round finding clues before you could put in the co - ordinates for the actual cache. We weren't so good at counting exits from the churchyard - you'd think that would be simple wouldn't you, but we got there in the end and the cache was duly found. Dad joined us for a celebratory lunch of soup in the little café next to the church, called very sensibly - The Lychgate! In case you're wondering, there is a sickness bug at the Rhallt and no visitors have been allowed ... read more

Four friends had decided on a walk today, with lunch out, midway between two birthdays. Planned a while ago according to days off etc. And the day dawned wet! There were 4 of us and 4 dogs, and as we'd walked 2 and a half miles to Dolgellau we decided that even we couldn't inflict 8 wet coats on a café. So we walked back to the cars, drove up to the car park in town and left the dogs in the cars. lunch was wonderful - a bowl of steaming home made stew, and lovely cakes for pudding. So the birthdays were celebrated, and 4 kitchens are no doubt full of wet clothes and boots. AND we all enjoyed ourselves.... read more