Well that’s two months blogging done – 59 days gone 306 to go!
This is a picture of our youngest cat Oskar – named after Kokoschka.
He’s a very happy cat at the moment, but then he doesn’t know that on Friday he takes a trip to the vets surgery for a short nap. When he wakes he’ll be a little sore and no doubt a little miserable, but nothing a tin of tuna won’t cure!
I went into the garden today to do a bit of tidying and move the remnants of last nights fireworks. I thought I would update you all on the crocuses that I spotted braving the cold weather on the 18th January. When I planted these about 5 years ago there was a mixture of purple and yellow, why do yellow crocus disappear? Anyone know?
The other thing I noticed is my daffodils, they’re not ready, I always gauge how bad a winter we’ve had by when my daffodils flower, for the last few years they’ve been ready well in time for the 1st March, St David’s Day. They definitely won’t be this year – we’ll probably be celebrating with Spanish Daffs.
Small party at home tonight and Owen donated some fireworks left over from bonfire night to celebrate. Ewart even gave up watching the Wales vs France rugby match in order to be the chief fireman and organise the display, and amazingly the rain held off as well.
Not sure it was worth staying up and watching it on the iplayer until 4am but nevermind!!
Congratulations are in order today as it’s my youngest daughter, Jessica’s 21st Birthday. Having a small party at home tomorrow but we had pressies, birthday cake and champagne tonight.
Happy Birthday JESS !
This is a shot taken on the move as usual travelling towards Abergele from Llandulas down what used to be the old A55. The wall on the right is part of Gwrych Castle, a gothic folly built by Lloyd Hesketh early in the 19th century. Queen Victoria stayed in the castle in 1832, but it has had a succession of owners since, in recent years it has not been occupied at all and sadly its condition is slowly deteriorating.
I just liked the way the shadows of the crenellations fall on the hedge on the other side of the road. (There’s a big word for a Wednesday night!)
My niece Jen, came to visit the other day on the hunt for family tree info and we ended up searching through bags of old photographs. We found some scary pictures so I thought I’d share some with you, but only of me because I don’t want to upset anyone. Believe me, some of the pictures we found would definitely be able to scare those with a delicate disposition.
The first picture is me on holiday in 1971 just 10 years old, the second is a school photo from 1974, aged 13 years at Convent Grammar, Bury (complete with freckles – I wonder when they vanished) and the third is me as a bridesmaid at my older brother Peters’ wedding in 1977, sweet 16.
This is a stormy sky just before it started snowing again. I’m sure we are due some warmer springlike weather soon.
I know there are a lot of people who really dislike even hate the windfarm on the horizon, but I can’t help finding them intriguing. They seem to belong out there, appearing to float on the sea, silently waving at us. When I stand and watch they always make me feel calm and peaceful, but then just spending some time on the beach does that too. Anyway I’ve decided, I like them.
Sorry, I know this shot is a little blurry, it is because we were travelling down the prom at about 30 mile an hour at the time.
I might not quite have a view like this from home but I only have to travel for a few minutes pretty much in any direction from home to get a glimpse of wonderful countryside. This was the view on a cold Saturday afternoon, just coming down to Black Cat roundabout, the sun was shining today but even when it isn’t, this view always reminds me of what a beautiful part of the world I live in.
This was taken at the farm shop in Bodelwyddan, in between the snow showers. I did try to get a shot of the little piglets who kept peeping out of the barn but they were very shy and I was very cold. The view over the field is towards Rhuddlan and you can just see the castle in the centre on the tree line.
Not so much a birthday party but a birthday cuddle with Great-Grandma to celebrate today, born in 1935, it’s her 75th birthday,
A cold walk on the beach at Colwyn Bay and I decided to take some pictures of our threatened pier. I’m not 100% sure but I think at the moment the local council have control of the pier since it was taken into administration, and recently there is a group trying to get together to set up a charitable trust to buy and restore it. I believe there is to be a structural survey in the near future to establish its’ condition, I hope the decision is to repair and restore rather than demolish and destroy a piece of local history.
If you look closely above the pier, you can see the flock of starlings who roost underneath it every night.
Lily-Jane is now just over 8 months old and has become so used to the camera being around that she poses beautifully as soon as she sees it. I thought this one just shows the amazement and curiosity with which she views everything in this world of ours.
This is a little picture of Dougie, he owns Seren and Owen and shares his house with them. This is where we have been connecting the computer to the broadband so that we can race MarioKart wii against Seren and Owen without leaving home, it worked too, Great Fun !!
I don’t care if it was Valentines Day there was no kissing when I spotted this frog at the side of my car outside Seren’s. I decided I already had my Prince Charming and so left him for somebody else to find walking home from the pub in the fog!
This is a shot from the top of what I have always known as Dinosaur Hill in Eirias Park in Colwyn Bay, so called because there used to be a dinosaur themed area for children in the park. I am now reliably informed by the children next door that it is now called Teletubbie Hill. It is a great view down the A55 towards Rainbow Bridge and then onto Rhyl with the Clwydian Range in the background. In the picture it could be a warm spring day, it wasn’t, it was blowing an icy icy wind and I did not stay there long.
Such a shame, I didn’t get out to take any photos in the daylight today so unfortunately I had to force myself to play with the lights on the way to Tesco for some shopping. The things I do for my Blog, no in case you hadn’t noticed already, I love messing with shots that I shouldn’t be able to take. Besides Barry likes them, so these are specially for him.
The first one is taken by holding the shutter open while travelling round Black Cat round-a-bout and the second one is travelling on the A55 up to the Tesco Junction.
A pleasant walk on the cycle path at Llandulas beach gave me a few nice shots. I know this year seems to be flying by really fast, but I really can’t wish Spring here quick enough.
Amazing, the sun is shining again, I’m sure that the weatherman was forecasting snow, maybe the mountains have protected us. Anyway it meant we could go back to the park and take the dog with us for a quick run. He enjoyed himself, but he is aching now that all his joints have stiffened up, my joints by the way still feel fine even after exercising two days running!
Hooray, the sun is finally shining in North Wales. We had to visit Eirias Park on an errand and hang around for an hour, it really wasn’t too much of an inconvenience. It was nice to waste the hour walking in the wonderful sunshine, just a shame that the wind felt like it was coming straight from the North Pole onto the North Wales coast.
Oh and by the way Happy 19th Birthday, Emma.
I thought I’d have a play with the camera again today, so I have been messing about with a red glass paperweight and using different coloured filters to cover the light from the flash. What I did find quite fascinating was how the cloth that it was sitting on changed colour so much with the coloured light from the flash.
I just thought I’d introduce you all to the lightswitch that my eight month old grand-daughter has started grinning at when she wakes up, and then again as she says goodnight. I’m not sure who it resembles, but I hope it’s not me, besides the hair is too red and too straight.
Had a wonderful lazy day, watching the first day of the Six Nations – very difficult day when Wales play England – a definite conflict of interest – I never know who I’m supporting, but it was a good match. Afterwards I had a lovely meal cooked for me and then a game of cards – a very lazy Saturday.
I’ve decided I’ve had enough of Winter so I have been looking for signs of spring and found a few patches of snowdrops in Colwyn Bay that I couldn’t resist. I also noticed a few daffodils on their way up for St Davids’ Day, although if it goes as cold as the weatherman says this week, they might not be flowering in time.
Hi – not done a lot today, bit of shopping in Colwyn Bay and then on to Rhyd y Foel and Bodelwyddan to visit parents. I spotted this parked next to my car in the car park, no I didn’t run the trolley over and NO I didn’t bring it home with me, well, only in the camera anyway.
Noticed on the Google homepage that today would have been Norman Rockwell’s 116th Birthday, so I had a look at some of his work and decided to sketch this one it’s called New Television Antenna. This was the cover picture for the Saturday Evening Post in New York on November 5th, 1949. Starting in 1916 in all he produced covers for the Post depicting American life for a total of 47 years.
I noticed today that we seem to be accumulating a lot of ducks – from cuddly ones that make strange noises, to bright pink plastic ones. (Lou says one of them makes a noise like an American fire truck ?~*?)
There’s a tiny brass one, a ceramic one whose wings are the lid of a container, and even a teddy dressed as a duck. There’s the one who floats attached to a bath plug, who some of you will know lives on the dashboard of my car, but the scariest by far is that one at the front with a big smile showing all those teeth, have you ever seen a duck with teeth.
Does anyone know the collective term for ducks – a floatation maybe?
I have been thinking about how fast time goes, January flashed by so quickly. My grand-daughter will be 8 months old tomorrow, and she was born just 3 days after our Degree Show opened last year – where did all that time go. Days just seem to merge into weeks and then all of a sudden months have gone by and I still haven’t done all those jobs that I’ve been promising to do, I’ve been part way through decorating the bathroom for at least the past two years.
Anyway I saw this beautiful old tree, in the Fairy Glen, Old Colwyn again and wondered just how old it might be? Maybe this is where the Fairies of the Glen live!
I think I’ve had enough of winter, I’m beginning to feel old, Hurry Up Spring!
