wales

I've just had three days at a favourite place in North Wales. Favourite things -

the lilt
changing light on the mountains
views across Conwy castle
waterfalls
bara brith
gardens with water in and around them
Anglesey
the Glassblobbery and -

excellent company. We were joined by eldest son and his lovely girlfriend who introduced us to another hidden Welsh joy, Cadwallader's ice cream parlours. I can recommend the white chocolate with ginger and the turkish delight.

It's also such a land of stories, and I think the Welsh tales are influenced by the landscape - misty and mysterious. I have mixed English, Welsh and Scots ancestry and am mostly Northumbrian. I'm the red-haired, Pictish type. So, as a mongrel, I have no connection at all with the appalling brutalities of Edward I and his cronies against the Welsh and the Scots, but also as a mongrel I would like to apologise for them anyway. God bless Wales and all who live there, (especially eldest son and only daughter, who have had the sense to move there.)