Blogs from Powys, Wales, United Kingdom, Europe

For several years I've wanted to go to the Green man festival at Clun, but due to working on Mondays, haven't made it. Today dawned sunny and warm, so off we went. Its a great bit of theatre as the Green Man meets the Ice Queen on Clun bridge, and after a bit of a tussle, winter is driven from the valley. Of course there's plenty of folky stuff and entertainment, and it was a lovely day out. Besides which, Clun is a lovely little village, with a river running through, and village owned ducks quacking about too.... read more

Today is Mum's birthday, 88 years young. She and Dad went out for lunch, and Alex and I called with a birthday cake, candle and presents this afternoon. We had a jolly time, and the sun shone.... read more

Martha Emily arrived on Saturday morning at dawn. She and Sophie are both well, Martha feeds happily and we are all pleased as punch. The days are full, but mostly revolve around watching every move and gurgle she makes, and we can't say we're that busy exactly. Tom has gone shopping with a long list of stuff for Martha as well as mundane food items for us. we await his return with interest.... read more

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. ~Mark Twain After months of negotiating sabbaticals, researching destinations, planning our itinerary and saving some money, we are now less than 100 days away from our wedding and the start of our amazing honeymoon. We are both lucky to have had the opportunity to travel to many weird and wonderful places. For our honeymoon, we wanted something extra special, something that neither of us had done before and something we'd always remember. This is our trip of a lifetime covering: 19 States... in 80 days... over 8,500 miles... and 150 hours of driving. ... read more

We did it. The clans gathered from 4 corners of the world and we had a really good night. There were 90 people, family and friends, a band, good food and a spectacular cake. In the end Dad had 55 or so cards, and three celebratory meals before the party - one with Mum on THE day, one with Alex and me, Pat and Kerry the following day, and yet another with Liz and Jerry on Friday, when theyarrived. Lost of relations had a catch up, some staying close by. And an old colleague of Dad's was brought up from Somerset by his daughter and son - who arrived armed with a photo of when they visited our house in Ilford about 55 years ago - and which I'd forgotten all about. For some reason we ... read more

the last week, and a good dollop of snow too. Alex managed to get to work by leaving the car at the bottom of the drive, but mine was snowed in by the house, so I got out a new jigsaw, and turned up the fire! We really had a lot of snow - we couldn't even walk on the field for 4 days. And it was hard to clear from the roads as there was nowhere to put it. There are still huge mounds of icy snow in all the car parks and on the sides of the roads. These are mostly Alex's pictures.... read more

Yesterday being St. David's Day, there was a village get together with some Welsh themed celebrations. And lots of food. We enjoyed ourselves.... read more

We needed to give Alex's ankle a test before he goes back to work, and I'd seen a bit in the paper aboout the Ironworks in Oswestry. So we went for a look. It was a bitterly cold day, (despite 4 days of summer before that!), but the sun came out for us. I believe that the animals are going to be placed around town as a safari trail.... read more