The Great Orme

Posted on September 10, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged bronze age, cable cars, chair lift, copper mines, Great Orme, History, Llandudno, Road, Steam engine, summit, Town, Trains, victorianLeave a comment

The mountain by the sea

A pier stretches out into the water, a grand hotel sits behind it on the shore. Drive round the coast and rise up to the summit by road, or use the tram service, which takes you past a bronze age copper mine. Or up the cable cars to the summit cafe. There is a small nature reserve at the top where indigenous plants are encouraged to grow. The mountain stands above Llandudno in North Wales. The town itself has grand terraces of three and four storey houses, hotels and apartments. Many of them from when the town was a Victorian resort and tourists arrived on steam engines. A good place for a day out.

Bara brith for tea.

Posted on September 10, 2024 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bread, Food, Fruit, Life, Llandudno, spices, Tasty, tea shop, Treat, Wales, Welsh, Wikipedia, YeastLeave a comment

With a cup of tea.

Just back from Llandudno in Wales where my sister bought me a Welsh fruit loaf for a treat. I just had a couple of slices with some butter and a cup of tea. Very nice. Apparently it’s lost favour with younger people but I’d urge you to try it.

Wikipedia says :

History:

Bara Brith derived its name from the Welsh language, bara meaning bread and brith translating as speckled. It was traditionally made in farmhouses by adding fruit, sugar and spices to the basic bread dough to make a sweet treat for special occasions. It has subsequently been used as a colloquialism—to “over spice the Bara Brith” means to do something to excess.

We got two loaves from a little tea and cake shop in Llandudno.

Knickerbocker glory

Posted on June 28, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1981, delicious, Drawing, Great Orme, Ice cream, knickerbocker glory, Llandudno, Memory, sundae, Wales4 Comments

What’s the most delicious thing you’ve ever eaten?

A knickerbocker glory in the cafe at the top of the Great Orme mountain in Llandudno in Wales.

Why? It’s the only one I ever ate, I was a child, and I was amazed by it.

A tall cold glass with a long spoon, a fan shaped wafer in the top. Vanilla ice cream, fruit (I think cherries and peaches), chocolate and raspberry sauces, and fresh cream…. Well that’s how I remember it! We had gone up on the cable car and it was a real adventure. I think we were staying in Rhyl and had a day trip down the Coast to Llandudno.

I remember deep blue sea and bright blue sky, tall houses and wide, quiet roads. The cable car was scary but fun and the cafe had cool drinks and ice-cream for sale.

I don’t know if I ate the whole knickerbocker glory or if I shared with one of my sisters? It seemed to be huge. I think we chose it because of the picture on the menu? It certainly cooled us down on that hot sunny day. Fifty years later.. I still remember…. Delicious!

History

Posted on January 17, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, Art, Bodnant Gardens, Drawing, Felt pens, Life, Llandudno, North Wales, Sketching, WalesLeave a comment

Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was history. I decided to draw the pool at Bodnant Gardens, a house and gardens run by the National Trust near, Llandudno in North Wales. Its well known for its beautiful laburnum walk and many flowering shrubs and plants. The upper part near the house has lawns and perennial plants while the garden slopes down to a river and has lovely wooded areas.

Pier

Posted on February 26, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Beauty, Blue, Llandudno, Ocean, peer, Pier, Poem, Poetry, Sea, Sky, victorian2 Comments

I peer from the pier

At the sea

Look at the blue

Waves and sky

The handrail mimics the ocean.w

White clouds the balustrade.

Llandudno pier

Victorian beauty.

Dragon

Posted on April 16, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Dragon, George and the dragon, Glaze, lava, Life, Llandudno, magma, Photo, Wales4 Comments

Seen in a shop in Llandudno in 2019.

I would have bought it if I had space in my house. The flame like decoration makes it appear as if it were molten. Like magma or lava erupting from a crack in the earth. Like an Icelandic fumerol. So we’ll modelled, gnashing teeth, mouth open, ready to spit flame.

Welsh dragons are amazing symbols, whilst the English Saint, St George, is famed for killing one. Anyway, I still wish I had bought him. X

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Want to visit Wales

Posted on September 7, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Covid 19, Holiday, Life, Llandudno, North Wales, Pier, Sketch, Travel, Visit, WalesLeave a comment

Over a year ago we visited Llandudno and walked along the pier at the seafront. This is at the far end looking back at a magestic hotel. We also went up the Great Orme mountain in a tram car (there is a chair lift too). We went back to North Wales at Christmas and stayed for a couple of days, but that’s the last time we had a trip over there because of covid 19. I would love to live over there but we would never be able to afford it and I would miss all my friends here. But once life has got back to a more normal situation I think we will start visiting the beautiful countryside of Wales again. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Bodnant Gardens, Wales

Posted on October 3, 2019October 3, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged A470, Beauty, Blogging, Bodnant, Conwy, Day out, Environment, Llandudno, National Trust, North Wales, Visit, WalesLeave a comment

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

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.

Llandudno Tram

Posted on August 7, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cable car, Day trip, Goat, Great Orme, Half way station, Llandudno, Mountain, Roads, Toll road, Tram, Visit, Visit WalesLeave a comment

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We decided to go up the Great Orme on the tram. There is a tram station at the bottom of the mountain (reached by a steepish road) one half way up and a final one near the top of the Great Orme. You transfer from one tram to another at the halfway point or you can walk up if you feel fit. There is also a chair lift which runs from near the toll road at the base of the mountain to the top. The carriages for this are quite high up in the air. I was a bit to nervous to ride on it!

These photos are from the bottom half of the ride. As you can see the track is a single line hauled up and down on a cable embedded in the road, but there are passing places with two lines where the trams pass. They run about every twenty minutes, although when you are in a large queue you may have to wait a while longer.

The halfway station is quite large, you can see some of the workings and tools of the trade. There are also display boards with information about the teams. If you walk down slightly from halfway there are Roman copper mines that you can explore.

Whan you reach the top tram Station you are greeted by a statue of a magnificent mountain goat. There is also a visitor centre with a piece of land with wild flowers growing there. The top of the Orme has a trig point which has a stone to line up with other prominent points on the map. There is also a restaurant, cafe and bar with other attractions at the top. There are paths all over the mountain, and as well as the access road that you can use following the team line there is also a steep and winding road up from the toll road side of the Orme.

If you go to Llandudno for a visit and you fancy a gentle adventure try going up the Orme.

High on a hill

Posted on August 4, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Environment, Great Orme, Homelessness, Life, Llandudno, Mountain, North Wales, Travel, Wales, Weather2 Comments

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I think I need a longer holiday. One whole day by the sea plus travelling there and back makes for a tiring schedule. Maybe we should have taken the train to Llandudno. I will have to find out what the service is like. It is so muggy inland, I miss the cool sea breeze.

Up on the Great Orme mountain it was lovely. With views out over the sea and looking into a misty sky.

The town itself seems to be much improved since we visited about ten years ago. More things to do. We did bump into a homeless man selling the big issue magazine. He is trying to raise enough money to buy a motor home to live in. At least he has a job selling the magazine that he can help to support himself.

I have to think there but for the grace of God.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Llandudno