Buddha

Mr C has recently retired and today, I managed to persuade him out of the house for a local walk around Apley Woods. After leaving the woods I led him back home taking the long way round. Although in a familiar place he wasn’t quite sure where he was until the local shops came into view. Then rather than take the direct route home he decided on the most scenic route home.

It is our intention to complete the Telford Coronation Walks but today wasn’t the day for one of those.

Today we had lunch at The Granary, Weston Park. Lunch was ‘Gift Experience’ from Christmas 2024 and we had intended to use it on one of our holiday adventures last year. That didn’t quite work out so we chose somewhere local where we hadn’t dined before.

We waited until Mr C retired so that we could enjoy a leisurely lunch. As you can see the sun put its hat on to celebrate the occasion.

The dining experience was well worth the wait.

A few days prior to a procedure to fix Mr C’s unexpected health condition that caused us to cancel our Madeira trip in October we had a last minute day trip to London.

We enjoyed a special meal deal in The Ivy looking towards Tower Bridge, our destination for the day. Tower Bridge with its glass walkways and views of London from above is well worth a visit. After our tour of the bridge we had hoped to visit the nearby Tower of London but in winter months it closes earlier, meaning we had run out of time. Instead we visited Foyles book shop where neither of us were tempted to buy anything.

A couple of days later I took Mr C on the 50 minute drive to the hospital (in appalling weather) where his procedure to remove some anomalous non-malignant cells was due to take place. General anaesthetic was administered but when the consultant prepared to do the procedure he found that the anomalous cells had vanished…

He was allowed home rather than having to stay in hospital overnight. Another 50 minute there and back again journey for me. We stopped on the way home to pick up something for our evening meal. A cup of tea was in order and we were tempted by naughty cakes.

Today was my birthday so I enjoyed a cup of tea in bed whilst opening prezzies. Breakfast was much as I remembered it although now it is completely self service whereas on our previous visit some of the breakfast items such as eggs were cooked fresh to order.

After breakfast we walked through misty Harrogate to Valley Gardens then through the Pinewoods to the RHS Harlow Carr.

By the entrance to the pinewoods, I stopped to take a photo of the beautiful autumn trees. A gentleman saw me and asked if Mr C and I would like him to take a photo of us together; he had also seen the photographic scene. After he had kindly taken the photo, we got chatting to him and his wife. They told us of a potential walk near Knaresborough where the trees are spectacular at this time of year.

It was mizzley and misty as we walked but by the time we had arrived at the garden the mist lifted to reveal brilliant sunshine. We enjoyed our early lunch of poached salmon and prawn sandwiches in a window seat in Betty’s where we enjoyed looking at the garden lit up by the sun.

Rather than follow our sandwich with a cake, we decided to take advantage of the sunny weather to enjoy the gardens at their best. The autumnal colours were spectacular. The sun graced us with its presence until we left the gardens through the shop and made a return visit to Betty’s for the cake we had promised ourselves.

The weather had become overcast as we walked back to town, with a lite sprinkling of rain. I had also been rather forgetful after my recent visit to Cardiff and had not recharged my second camera battery! So, part way through the return walk, I had to resort to plan B, my mobile phone camera.

Back in town Mr C took me to the board game shop, Gamers Crusade and bought me an extra birthday present, Kelp, the game that caught my eye the previous day.  Back in the hotel room we weren’t able to crack it open and play it. Although the room was large there was no table to play it on.

Later we dined in the hotel restaurant, The Pickled Sprout. Before dining we had an aperitif in the bar, once again perched on high stools which I found difficult to navigate in a skirt. When it was time to dine, we relocated to more comfortable seating in the restaurant. The lighting was rather dim making it difficult to read the menu (the couple next to us resorted to their mobile phone torches). I chose fish and chips; the fish melted in my mouth but the meal portion was enormous! Mr C chose salmon which was slightly overcooked accompanied by undercooked stringy beans. Perhaps not quite the gourmet experience for a ‘special’ birthday meal.

Before returning to our room we rounded off the evening with a nightcap in the bar where, thankfully, there was room to sit on the more comfortable lower-level seats.

Working my way round all the breakfast options, today I chose traditional breakfast items from the hot buffet area.

After breakfast we drove the short distance to St Fagans national museum of history, avoiding the bus lane which hides in plain sight. The 100 acres of parkland at St Fagans is free to enter and houses over forty original buildings that have been re-erected there from different historical periods and areas in Wales. We started our tour of the site in the “Wales is…” gallery which is located in the main entrance building.

We then followed the route around the parkland using the map to visit the buildings mainly in the order that they are numbered on the map. We paused for lunch in the building that houses Gweithdy galleries and workshop. One of the first buildings we visited was Melin Bompren Corn Mill where a guide explained the workings of the mill to us. As we were leaving the mill he asked me if I was Welsh, he thought he could detect a slight Welsh accent. I don’t think I have but perhaps I have picked up a bit of a twang living just across the border in Shropshire.

We had another interesting conversation in the Llys Llywelyn (Llywelyn’s Court) building where an English lady who had learned Welsh explained the Welsh alphabet and how to pronounce the letters. She also told us that all public facing staff had to be able to speak Welsh.

We had to miss out a few of the buildings to make sure we were able to visit St Fagans Castle and gardens. Only part of the castle is currently open to visitors but the gardens are stunning, we wished we had more time to explore them.

We returned to the café before it was due to close for tea and cake but for some reason it was closing early and only provided a takeaway service. This meant that our chosen cake was shared from a paper bag! Other people turned up just after us and were ignored leading them to leave empty handed.

Before all of this I had visited reception to purchase a guide book only to be told that they had sold out and there were none available in the shop either. After finishing my cake and drink I visited the shop on the off chance that a guide book was available. I noticed two ladies at the till with a guidebook in hand and there seemed to be some sort of problem. I approached to ask about guidebook availability. I was told that there was a misprinted guidebook where the map was missing from the back of the book. The shop manager had just allowed one to be sold to the two ladies and I also purchased one (on a non-returnable basis).

The journey back to Cardiff was tedious. The traffic was heavy and the SatNav kept trying to navigate us along bus lanes which meant we had to go the long way round to get to get back to the car park. Eventually we arrived back at the hotel later than we had intended.

We freshened up for dinner which was in the nearby Laguna restaurant. The service was a bit disjointed but the food was delicious and all the staff were lovely. As our dessert arrived the waiter insisted on taking a photo of the two of us.

By the time we had finished our meal it was too late to walk into town so we returned to the hotel for a nightcap.

The lady who served us complimented me on my co-ordinated look and how lovely my skirt was which reminded me that earlier in the day one of St Fagans employees commented on how lovely my scarf was. The previous evening a passer by had said how lovely my skirt was. Cardiff seems to be the town of compliments.