City Break

Few days off, so decided to have a bit of a break and head to Cardiff for a long weekend.  On the way down stopped off at St Fagans - visited the castle, which we'd missed on our last visit, and then on for a wander round the other museum properties in the Spring sunshine.

Slightly frazzled journey into Cardiff proper, but made it in the end, and had a pleasant evening out, topped off with a very nice curry.

More castles on day two - this time Cardiff Castle itself, from the old Norman motte, to the lavish Bute interior of the Victorian mansion:

 

Finished the day with an Imax 3D showing of Avengers: Age of Ultron  . . . and another curry!

Finally headed home via Duffryn Gardens where the National Trust are restoring the Edwardian gardens - although I must say the house is a bit of a mess!

Looks like another beautiful day here, but there was an extremely chilly breeze - gardens will be well worth a return visit in due course as the work continues.




All in all a very pleasant few days - now back to the decorating!

The Gates of Hell . . .

. . . well, that's how some people see it.

The arrival of Tesco in Aberystwyth has not gone smoothly to date - it didn't start well back in 2011 with vigils over threats to the old people's day centre on the proposed site  (they were still protesting even after its demolition!)

Then we had compulsory purchase orders, and the demolition of a 'grandmother's home'.

It hasn't been an auspicious start then - we may well end up with another Tesco ghost store in due course - but at least the plan includes a Marks & Sparks!

Painting the Hall Cream

Our Easter break didn't involve much 'painting the town red', but we did get an awful lot of decorating done.

The hall (upstairs and downstairs) is now a nice shade of cream (or was it magnolia?), and the woodwork has all been refreshed as well.

Touching up the paintwork was one of those jobs we'd been planning on doing for ages, so glad it's done . . .

Can forget about it now for another ten years hopefully!

Keeping Out the Mice!

Someone had the bright idea today of using some of the waste slates from the roof to mouse-proof the fruit cage - it was hard work bashing them all in, but he got there in the end:

Now we'll just have to wait and see if the strawberry nibblage rate goes down . . .

Eclipse!

The office emptied briefly today at around 9.30am for the much vaunted solar eclipse.

Tried to get a good look via a sun 'selfie', taken over my shoulder - but as you can see it didn't really come out that well (you'd never know there was an eclipse going on!).









As it turned out our best view was via  projection through a pair of binoculars, which showed up the crescent beautifully.


At least we saw something - it was too cloudy to see much last time we had a 'deep' partial eclipse in 1999, and there's quite a wait for the next one in 2026!

Decor Done

Finally finished the downstairs guest bedroom - floor done - wall round the window sealed, and plastered over.  Time to varnish the new skirting boards, and paint the walls and radiator.

All done now - looking good - just hope the window area is fixed and the water stays out!

Out East

Few days off, so headed over to see family in Cambridgeshire.


Nostalgic walks round the old home town . . .  mad moments, with the 'grand-dog' . . . and the sun actually shone (at least some of the time!).





On further into East Anglia, to catch up with more distant family members - great to see everyone.

Finally, fitted in a visit to Bury St Edmunds - had a wander round the town and Abbey gardens - before returning home to Wales.