Llanbedrog

One of my favourite places to visit whilst staying on the Llyn peninsula is Llanbedrog.  I love its beach for walking,  its wooded cliff paths and the wonderful art gallery.

We didn't manage the cliff walks on this visit but did walk along the beach and visit the gallery.

The little white cottage is called Foxhole and had a for sale board outside.  I looked it up when we got back to the hotel.  It could be yours for £850,000.

Llanbedrog lies in a sheltered bay between Pwllhelli and Abersoch.  The beach seem to stretch for miles and we walked for quite a while.

Another favourite on the beach, the colourful huts. We once saw them being winched off the beach at the end of the season.  I think they used to spend the winter undercover. I'm not sure if this still happens.

Little treasures were found as we walked.

The art gallery can be found inside Plas Glyn-y-Weddw. The house was built in 1857 for Elizabeth Jones Parry the widow of Sir Love Jones Parry of Madryn.  It was built as a dower house for her use after her son married.  As it was he didn't marry during her lifetime so she never lived there but visited quite often.  In Welsh y-Weddw means window.

The stained glass window represents the family and depicts various coats of arms relating to the family.

The Summer exhibition was still in place and there were two wonderful photographic exhibitions of images taken locally during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. One was rural life through the lens of Geoff Charles and the other Moments by Anna Higson. I was fascinated by them and their social and historical significance.  One was labelled 'The Pwllhelli Chip Shop Choir' which made me smile.  Here is a - link - to more about the art gallery.

When we first started to visit the tea room was in an ordinary conservatory but look at it now. We headed inside for coffee and cake.  It's splendid inside too.

It was time to head back towards Porthmadog but we had one more place to visit along the way. Up a very windy lane close to Criccieth is Penarth Fawr a 15th century Hallhouse.  We'll visit there and Harlech Castle in my next posts.

A few days away

 We've just returned from a few days away in Wales.  The weather wasn't too bad at all and beaches were walked and explored. Castles, art galleries and ancient houses were visited and wonderful wading birds were spotted along the estuary, reached by a path just a short walk from our hotel.

The view from our bedroom window.

On two different evenings we had a rainbow to view.

Sunrise was so beautiful over the water.

As we walked every evening along the path  by the Glasslyn estuary we heard Curlews burbling as they flew in to the feeding areas. Three or four together sometimes as many as six at a time. Other waders, maybe Godwits, were spotted too, grazing the mud flats along side Curlews and Red Shanks.  They flew in like shiny, feathered darts but we weren't sure what they were. Cormorants rested on rocks and Herons stalked in their lugubrious way along the edges of the grassy reeds waiting to catch their supper.

Heron

Cormorant and Canada Goose

One of the Godwits?  There were quite a few different waders that were hard to identify.

I'll be back with more later, for now I've got a lot of  catching  up to do.  I'm going to miss those Curlews.

Spotted in Early September

 My birthday flowers from last Friday are still looking good a week later.

Below a few photos from this week.  Mostly animals, birds and signs.

Red Panda at Peak Wildlife Park.  This is the new panda, a male called Nilay.  When the pandas first arrived at the wildlife park there were two sisters Esha and Riya. Now Esha  has been moved to another wildlife park and the male introduced.  They are part of an international captive breeding programme for endangered species.

Red Squirrel at Peak Wildlife Park.  He was more a conker brown than red.  We noticed a few years ago that the red squirrels at Formby in Lancashire were a nut brown colour whereas the ones we saw in Scotland were a definite gingery red colour.

Little Egret on the River Trent at Trentham.  Little Egrets have a black bill.  The Great white and cattle Egrets have yellow bills.

Young Herring Gull at Westport Lake.

A ghost sign in Buxton.  I remember Maypole shops and also Home and Colonial shops from my childhood.  I also remember the first small supermarkets, Fine Fare and  Macfisheries.  Also the small Co-op shops with separate butchers, grocers and electrical goods.  One of my Uncles was manager of a Co-op grocery shop and a cousin worked in a small electrical shop.

I've never seen a warning sign for badgers before.  This one is in the city close to the A50.  I know both urban badgers and foxes are increasing, we have three badgers and a couple of foxes regularly visit our garden.  I guess there is a Badger sett somewhere close to the slip road at Heron Cross.

I'm having problems commenting both on my own blog and others.  Things seem to freeze on publishing, not sure what the problem is or how long it will last.

All for now.

Hares in the Churchyard

I'd read about the hare sculptures that could be found during the last week of August in the churchyard of St Peter's Church, Ellastone, Staffordshire.

We often pass through the village on the way to Ashbourne but had never stopped there.  We were able to park quite easily at the village hall and walk across the road to the church.

You can spot the little hare by the WWI soldier.  We counted twenty three hares as we walked around, all painted by local community organisations or businesses.

 My photos aren't great as it was raining, the air was misty and I was trying to hold up an umbrella as well.  I've chosen a few of the entries to show you. the last one was in the church porch.  The church itself was closed when we visited but it looks an interesting building and the views across the countryside from where it stands on a hill are lovely.

The village has an interesting history, standing as it does, on the Staffordshire/Derbyshire border.  It has a literary connection with the Evans family.  Mary Ann Evans visited family here and when she wrote her first novel, as George Eliot, she used the village as a setting.  In Adam Bede, published in 1859, the village of Hayslope is based on Ellastone.

St Peter's Church is a Grade 2* listed building which dates from about 1163.  The church tower was added in 1582 but two of the church bells sited in the tower are earlier in date.  It is believed they may have come from nearby Calwich Priory.

In the Garden

 The Tulip Tree has been having an early Autumn.  

There are leaves everywhere.

We are gradually taking out some of the old, unproductive raised beds to create a new space.  We'll think about what to replace them with through the rest of this year.  New higher, raised beds that badgers can't get into? A flat seating area?  A new shed in which to keep the garden furniture over Winter?  A summer house or gazebo?  We'll see.

The Holly hedge along the back of the garden has lots of red berries.  I think Autumn has arrived early this year.

There are lots of apples on the tree.  Many were removed a few weeks ago but there are still lots of fruit weighing the branches down.  We've had to prop them up with canes to stop them snapping off.

I'm not sure when they will be ready but I think they will be much smaller this year.  I miss the plum tree we had to take down a few years ago as I'm fond of Victoria plums at this time of year.  I'd love to have a Damson or Greengage tree.  Fruit trees seem to grow well in this garden.

 I think the apples and the holly berries are the most colourful things in the garden at the moment.  All is very dull and dreary after the hot weather.  We've lost Hydrangeas, Japanese Anemones and peonies, all brown with crumbling papery leaves.  I'm hoping some of them may revive next year.

What we do have now is rain.  At last!  

Much needed of course to fill up the pond and the water butts.

Of course it is a holiday weekend here.  I don't think we'll be going very far, so it's a good job I've got three library books to read.  Oops, Wilfred sneaked into the photo.  He came as a free gift when I ordered a jacket on line about three years ago.

Have a lovely, peaceful weekend everyone, wherever you are.

Coincidence

I've been trying to find out more about the unusual memorial stone that was spotted under the trees near the wall in Sudbury churchyard.  I showed Paul's photo of it on my last post - I turned it monochrome to make it clearer.

I had the idea to try ancestry and put in the name of Vernon, which was the name of the owners of Sudbury Hall.  I added the date 1709 and was taken to a reference to Dorothea Vernon who died in 1709.  This gave me access to the pages of the parish register for that date.  There were no references to any children.  I looked either side of 1709 and found several in both 1708 and 1710, assuming that 'son of' would indicate a child.  I took down all the names but had no hope of joining the dots.

This morning I was browsing face book, as you do, and a page came up for the Church Memorial Society.  I wondered if I could follow the group and see if I could find out more.  I clicked on the page and I couldn't believe the first thing on their page was the very memorial from Sudbury!  What a coincidence.

The person who had added the details had, unlike us, looked at the back of the stone - all the details were there.  We must go back sometime to take a photo as there is a carving on the back as well as the inscription which reads:-

 'Here lyeth the body of Henry Whitaker who departed this life on ye 21st day of October 1708 aged 25 years'

So, not a child but a young man.

Armed with his name and age I again went to Ancestry and there was a whole family tree.  Lots of information which looked well researched. I know you have to be careful with ancestry and check all details.  

Henry Whittaker married Elizabeth Wooley at Sudbury church in 1703, they lived in nearby Draycott-in-the-Clay and had three daughters Ann born 1704 and Catherine and Elizabeth born 1706, such young children to leave behind.  There was a will in which he left instructions for the education of his daughters and for each of them to receive the sum of £60 at the age of fourteen.  In the will Henry is described as a Yeoman definition of which is 'a free man who owned and farmed a small plot of land, ranking just below the gentry'

All for now.