Bodnant Gardens, Wales

 

The weather is changing, getting colder, wet and windy and the leaves are starting to change on the trees. DSC_2419

The Acers are the ones that turn deep red and orange, at the same time the seed pods also turn bright red.

All of thus beauty can be found at Bodnant Gardens in the Conwy Estuary, near Llandudno in Wales. Travel along the A55 and turn off at Llandudno junction and take the A70. Up and down some hills you will see a National Trust sign on your left hand side. Follow the long drive up to the car park up a hill on the left. There is a green pavilion at the bottom of the carpark by the drive and you walk down and past it into a landscaped spiral ramp down to a tunnel under the road and into the garden centre, shops, and entrance into the gardens.

There are tall trees, pines, redwoods, Acers and oaks. Autumn flowers and mountains in the distance. Formal and informal gardens surround the Bodnant Hall with an old conservatory or greenhouse attached to it. There is no entrance to the hall but there is plenty to see anyway.

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Betws y Coed

We stopped off at the village of Betws y Coed on our trip through the hills and mountains of Wales. It’s at the junction of the A470 and the A5. The village has numerous shops and is always busy with tourists. There is an environmental feel to the shops that line the front of the train station, with images of gorillas encouraging visitors to the village to support and donate to charities that are working to stop them being hunted to extinction.

After lunch in a cafe with recycled lampshades made from discarded plastic, we had a look at the station. My hubby went off to the model shop and museum over the railway bridge on the other side of the train track. My sister and I went to browse the shops.

Finally back on the road. More photos to follow.

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Going back

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Going back to a haven in the sun, a place where I was happy, a home from home. I won’t give you a clue, just a generic photo. I hope the weather will be bright. I might take my paints. Now I need a break, a rest. Somewhere to breathe. To be calm, to listen to water and waves. Cold weather may affect things, I’m hoping not too much. May not be about much this coming week.

When I start I can’t stop….

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Another start, luckily I don’t need a starter handle to get going. Something switches on in my head and I suddenly can’t stop. It’s weird, my mind must be wired up in a strange way.

Today I have started painting a lion, a car, ivy, a planet, a latch for a gate. All very random, but a challenge to myself. I have a little cartoon at my studio which says I will paint anything, and I think that’s true. I might not be able to get things exactly right but I do try.

I’m thinking about what to write or paint here. I will try and do a few more spooky stories when I’ve finished this lot of art work.

Toot toot, off I go!

Got to paint

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I’ve got to get on and paint. I’ve been distracted recently. I’m going to get my paints and brushes out tomorrow.

This is a close up of my Holly and Ivy painting that I started a couple of weeks ago.

We live in a  world where art can be worth millions or pence, where there is no set price for anything. If you buy a TV they generally are a certain amount of money. If you do a painting of a TV then it seems to depend on who painted it, how well known they are. Whether there is a resale value. It also seems to depend on scarcity and if the person is alive or dead when generally the art is worth more. It’s a funny old world.

Anyway all that said I think art is important and I will keep making it.

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Tired

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I want to sleep, I need to sleep. The noise is keeping me awake. I drift off into slumber, but wake because I can hear the noise outside, loud shouts and broken bits of arguments. Screams and music. But I nod off- +bibb ghn – typed on the screen without my knowledge.

Sleep tries to take hold and yawns crack my face. The screen on my phone darkens and I have to dart out a finger to keep it on. So tired…… Then car doors bang, two men shouting obscenities, a woman shouts and screams to be let in. Bright light in my living room burns through my eyelids… Awake again…

 

Who switched my Bluetooth on?

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Oi! Who switched my Bluetooth on? she shouted to her two teenage sons.

Not me! No I didn’t! Came the swift replies.

I’ve told you not to mess with my phone! Don’t do it again. Shouting up the stairs seemed to be the way to communicate these days…

She popped her mobile phone in her handbag. Walked to the bus stop. Waited for the number 9 up to town.

As she stood at the stop her phone buzzed. Bluetooth again? A photo had been shared to her photo album. A picture of the cemetery. One word, “come” was superimposed on the image.

Those boys, she thought, always playing tricks. She found the sender and sent a ‘no’ gif with a tiny black kitten jumping up at a goldfish.

She got on the bus, wondering what they would do next. Buzz…

Same picture of the cemetery, ‘come now!’ the exclamation mark worried her. She sent back ‘why should I???’ this was getting silly.

It was when she was getting off the bus that she got the third Bluetooth picture. Now it was a hole dug in the grass next to a grave stone. The name carved on it was hers!

No way, she thought. The boys would not have done something so elaborate. She could have gone to the police, but her imagination had been piqued.

The cemetery was only down the road, it was broad daylight, there were always people there walking their dogs. Why not?

She felt the hairs on the back of her neck start to rise, but she put her nerves aside and walked into the cemetery lodge where they kept a list of all the people buried there. ‘Victoria Crewe’ was there. Headstone 121, west Chapel section of the graveyard.

She walked slowly among the headstones. Each one had the details of death, family and sometimes a poignant motto. As she reached the end of the row her phone buzzed again. This time the Bluetooth message was white letters on a dark blue background. ‘look in the hole’ it said.

Who was sending the messages? She thought they must be close or the message could not have been shared. But for once the cemetery appeared empty.

Then she saw the hole. Not in the grave area, but next to it. Next to the grave marked with her name. She looked down. There was a metal tin in it. Buzz… ‘yours’ was the writing on the screen.

She held her breath, wiped away the soil from the small tin and opened it.

Inside lay a gold rolex man’s watch. A warranty for it in her father’s name, and a letter from ‘aunty Vicky’ wishing him a very happy 21st birthday and explaining to him that she was sending him a gift of this very special watch. The letter was dated on the same day as Victoria had died!

Ice

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I just took this photo, you can photograph anything and get an interesting result. In this case I like the way the cartoon cats surround the block of ice and almost seem to glow.

My tips for photos?

Look first. Even if you are seeing something through a lens look at it to see if you are including things you don’t want.

Don’t be scared to crop your photo. Got a streetlamp sticking up in the sky? Crop it if you don’t want it.

Don’t filter too much if you can help it. Once you start adjusting colours it’s hard to find the right balance. Sometimes you have to, but don’t over do it.

Use your on screen focus if you have it. If you can see something interesting you can us the focus option to just select that area. It also changes the depth of field.