We got absolutely soaked on our day trip to Hay-on-Wye. Just after lunch the heavens opened and we were drenched by rain of Biblical proportions. Driving home was a little tricky to start with due to standing water on the country lanes.

Wearing soggy trousers made me feel unclean so when we got home I had a lovely refresshing soak in the bath.

I stepped out of my door into brilliant sunshine for an afternoon walk. As I closed the door a few drops of rain started to fall even though the sky was mostly blue, they soon dried up. I chose a familiar route that I have not walked for a while with the potential to explore other pathways along the way.

By the time I reached Leegomery pools the promising blue sky had turned several shades of grey without a hint of blue to be seen. I lingered a while enjoying the view over the pools and made my decision to take the shortest route back home.

It started to gently rain, a few minutes later the wind blew up and the rain got more intense. A few minutes later, rain was dripping of the peak brim of my weatherproof coat. By the time I got home my trousers were soaked but the rest of me was dry. I fumbled for my house key, water dripping from the brim of my hat into my bag. The key (as always) had mysteriously relocated to the bottom of my bag.

Key retrieved, I opened the door, at which point the rain stopped and the sun came out!

As I stepped inside Mr C poked his head out of the room where he was ‘working from home’ and we both burst out laughing at my watery predicament.

Jerry Yang

PS: Although the quote fits my recent circumstances I am not being melancholy. I chose the quote because the rain started just as I stepped out of my house for a sunday afternoon walk. I almost changed my mind (about stepping out for a walk)…  I am glad I stuck with my plan I experienced some delightful pleasures along my walk including this beautiful display of pink standing in contrast with its surroundings.

Despite the rain being heavy at times I remained dry

Overnight the weather had turned from sunshine to showers. Mr C was working from home so I couldn’t do round the house circuits to meet my ‘Walking Challenge’ step count. This meant that despite the weather I had to head out on a walk… As I set off on my walk, the rain had eased off and there was only a slight moisture in the air.

I stopped to take a photograph and when I turned around a gentleman who had briefly paused from his cycle ride asked me what I was  photographing. It was difficult for me to explain that I was taking a photo to show the sudden shift in weather from the hot sunny days we had been experiencing recently. I think the question was his excuse for starting a conversation. He shared a lot of his life experiences with me; monetary hardships in early life, the sadness of the death of his wife and bringing up two young children on his own, meeting and marrying his current wife who also had children (four) and how proud he is of all their achievements. I learned that he lives just around the corner from me so there is a chance will bump into each other again on our travels around the local area.

In other news… the ducks that were in my garden when I returned from my Sunday jaunt to Broughton Castle were sleeping quite happily in my garden this morning before waking and flying off. I was sitting quietly after I had returned from my walk when I heard a clunk on the roof causing me to look outside. The ducks were just landing on my garden path. They spent the rest of the afternoon in my garden, sitting, exploring sleeping, preening and eating. The male duck was very protective of the female duck, following her around everywhere. I think the lady duck may be choosing a suitable place to set up a nest…

When we got up we found that the weather was rather inclement so, after we had finished our breakfast and checked out, we decided not to go into York but instead to keep our options open and perhaps visit a property or museum on the way home.

As we were driving the weather soon turned to snow and the world either side of the motorway became white. We decided that stopping off was not the best option and made our way straight home. As we got close Shropshire there was no snow at all, just rain, so rather than go straight home we stopped off at David Austin Roses for lunch which was a nice end to our short break away.

I handed mum her birthday present before we tucked into the delicious breakfast that was on offer. There was a good selection of cold buffet items and an option for a cooked breakfast to order. After we were comfortably replete, we walked to the Yorkshire museum via the museum gardens. The gardens were pleasant with the spring bulbs flowering and there was just as many squirrels as there were on my last visit.

The museum was excellent covering, amongst other displays, the Roman and Mediaeval eras. The special exhibition is Jurassic World with a fine display of dinosaurs. This part of the museum was rather crowded due to to Easter weekend and the exhibition had only recently opened. We had arrived as the museum opened but when we left a huge queue had formed outside so it would be much more crowded very soon.

We then made our way to Fairfax House whilst trying to find a suitable tearoom for lunch. This proved a little difficult as there weren’t many tearooms in that area of York. We found somewhere eventually, although it wasn’t quite what we had in mind.

Fairfax House was once the winter home of Viscount Fairfax and his daughter, Anne. This branch of the Fairfaxes were a prominent Catholic family who owned extensive property and land in the county of York.  The house passed through various owners before coming a gentleman’s club and friendly society and eventually becoming a cinema and dance hall. By 1980 the house stood empty when, due to the historical importance of the building, the York Civic Trust undertook restoration of the house and housed it with the collections that we see today.

As we left Fairfax House and made our way back into town it started to rain so we ducked into Marks and Spencer so that Mr C could buy an umbrella. Upon opening it he nearly cleared the store as it has a rather fierce spring loaded opening mechanism. Suitably equipped for the weather, we went in search of a tearoom. This proved a little difficult because most people had had the same idea and they were all full. Eventually we found one that was almost empty. There were some delicious cakes on display but I decided not to indulge.

After our tea we made our way around the corner to the Treasurer’s House; former home to wealthy industrialist Frank Green. The house displays his collections of antique furniture, ceramics, art and textiles. Sadly, by the time we had finished looking around the house, there was no access to the gardens. I have yet to see the garden; on each occasion I have visited there has been no access to them.

We returned the hotel to freshen up before dinner in Bennett’s Bistro. Once again the food was delicious, I chose Gnocchi with butternut squash and red onion.

Click on picture for a short video

Click on picture for a short video

The warmth of the early morning sunshine made it possible for us to eat breakfast outside on the hotel terrace. We lingered a while enjoying the atmosphere even after it had started to rain. After a while the wind changed direction and drove the rain underneath the covered area, in our direction. We beat a hasty retreat inside and as we did so the light rain turned into a torrential downpour. There was no point in going out in such weather so we returned to our room where we could enjoy watching the rain and the comings and goings in Tartini Square whilst keeping dry.

When the rain had subsided we made our way down to the square for a drink before visiting the Giuseppe Tartini Memorial Room. Tartini who was born in Piran and christened in St George’s cathedral in 1692 became a violin virtuoso and composer. The Town Square and the hotel we were staying in were named after him. The custodian of the museum gave an interesting talk on the man and the collection.

Next we intended to visit the Museum of Underwater Activities but unfortunately it was closed so I took a leisurely stroll along the harbour whilst Mr C risked his ears again by climbing the bell tower next to St George’s Cathedral. After this it was time for lunch which we enjoyed sitting on the seafront with a glass of wine, watching boats coming in and out of the harbour.

After lunch we visited the Sergej Masera Maritime Museum which is dedicated to Slovenia’s naval history and heritage. After the museum made our way to the art gallery which was exhibiting paintings that were all painted in the same week. The artist was required to present a blank canvas to the gallery and complete his/her work within one week. It was an interesting exhibition with many painting styles. There were some excellent works of art on the walls along with some that didn’t quite work for me.

On our way back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner we noticed that the temperature was 82^o after the rain had cooled the temperature down earlier in the day. After dinner we spent the evening chatting with one of our fellow travelers who was holidaying on his own.

Today was my first day back to work after the bank holiday weekend. Weather-wise it can only be described as a wash out. Rain, rain and more rain. However the weekend itself was not a wash out.

The new cooker has been repaired, all that was required was a new bolt on the fan. It turned out that the one it came with was not to spec and also threadless!!

On Saturday we undertook a two hour journey to spend the day with my 90 year old aunt. This left us with Sunday and Monday free to do as we pleased.

The weather looked promising on Sunday morning so we ventured out to Ludlow for the afternoon. As soon as we set off the weather turned and it started to rain. When we arrived we visited Ludlow Castle book shop because Mr C thought there might be some books to interest him there. He came away empty handed. We walked through the bank holiday stalls and detoured into The Parish Church of St Laurence which we found to be a lovely church with interesting history and spectacular stained glass windows.

We didn’t stay very long because whilst we were there a baptism service started to be conducted near the main entrances to the church. Both Mr C and I thought it was inappropriate that visitors should still be allowed to wander round the church whilst a religious service was going on so we discreetly made our way back to the entrance and left. We will take time to visit the church when we are next in Ludlow. It was raining as we left the church so we returned home via the Ludlow food centre.

On Monday it was raining again so we spent the day at home working on the house and I had an extra day off on Tuesday when to be honest I didn’t really do anything at all… I was feeling rather tired and lethargic.

Over the weekend we were also informed that Yodel had ‘lost’ another of our wine deliveries!! On the plus side the new curtain material eventually arrived and have now been made up into curtains and are now looking rather splendid in our living room nicely framing the view to our garden

It is my turn at Vision & Verb today.  My post is about the extreme weather that has been taking place in the British Isles recently.

I invite you to join me there.