Capital Times

Had a few days off at the end of April and decided to spend a few of these enjoying the bright lights of our capital city, Cardiff.



We stayed down in Cardiff Bay, home of Torchwood, and now home to what can only be described as a shrine to the Torchwood character Ianto Jones:

The last couple of days we were there were distinctly wet but we managed to amuse ourselves wandering round the shops, including gawping at the (rather expensive) delights of the new(ish) Cardiff John Lewis store - which rather puts the new Debenhams in Carmarthen in the shade.

Luckily on the first day, when we visited St Fagans: National History Museum, the weather was really lovely. Had promised myself a proper look round earlier this year, and it didn't disappoint . . .






. . . from Celtic round houses, to 1940s pre-fabs, and everything in between!

In addition to the buildings there was a nice selection of livestock - as ever I was particularly taken with the sleeping pigs - they always look like they are really appreciating a good snooze!

Out and About

February seems to have gone almost before it arrived. Not actually done much around the house / garden - it's remained rather too cold to start planting anything - there are still no daffodils out yet (I'm sure that by St David's Day last year they were almost over!).

Been really busy at work though, was down in Cardiff one week, attending a conference at St Fagans: National History Museum.

The conference was good, but it was also really interesting getting to look round some of the buildings, and spotting the bits they'd used to film Dr Who episodes! It's definitely on the list for a return visit later this year for a proper look round.

This last week was up in North Wales for a couple of days - luckily the weather stayed nice for the most part, and I could admire the snowy views on the drive, without actually getting caught in any blizzards. The road through Beddgelert was particularly stunning (should have taken the main road, but SatNav was set to shortest route and I didn't twig that it was taking me over the high ground at first!), unfortunately I didn't have time to stop for photos .

[You can (just) make out a snowy mountain in the background of this shot taken the following day from Bangor University.]

Otherwise where we are seems to have escaped any more snow - no more than an occasional dusting / hard frost anyway - just enough to provide some good photo opportunities: