Bright colours
Extend the season,
Bishop of Llandaff,
Daliahs, Red.
Verbina and ice plants
Feed the bees.
Roses and autumn crocuses.
Asters and cone flowers
All sparkle and show.
Dont fade yet,
Wait for the snow.
Autumn flowers
Tag: Wales
Bodnant Gardens, Wales
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.
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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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High on a hill
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.
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Dragons
Found these three cuties in a shop in Llandudno. Well the red dragon is the symbol for Wales. 🏴. And the country is full of mountains and valleys where they could be lurking, strangely England’s patron Saint is St George, although he was Turkish as far as I know. By the way, Scotland has Nessie (the Loch Ness monster) that could be of dragon like proportions. I’m not sure about Northern Ireland, perhaps they have their own myth. Although snakes never made it to Ireland and dragons seem to be a distant relation to snakes and lizards.
Being mythological doesn’t mean they may never exist. Maybe a bit of gene slicing could bring about something similar to fire lizards described wonderfully by the fantasy and sci-fi author Anne McCaffrey. She is a splendid author and I would recommend her books. Hopefully though they would not include breathing fire!
A few sketches of Llandudno
Orme head.
Other side of the bay.
Grand Hotel from Llandudno pier.
View from top of the Great Orme.
Back of the hotel.
Sculptures Mostyn gallery.
View through a doorway, Mostyn gallery.
That was a busy day!
Hotel View
Well it’s not a sea view although it is pleasant. I can’t see it because I’m having a lie down after a long drive. Hotel seems nice and friendly, we will see what its like for noise later on. That’s one thing that bothers me in hotels, noisy neighbours. I think people should respect each other. That’s why we usually choose caravans. I also bring coffee and sweetener with me in case there isn’t enough. And I hate uht milk….
Memory of the sea
Sunny day, top of the steps, Rhyl.
Over beyond this wall is my sea, the one I remember as a child, the one we visited on steam trains when I was very young.
Out beyond this wall the beach is flat and spreads far out. The sand is yellow and ochre. There are ridged ripples in the sand caused by the waves. Lines of groynes (posts with flat planks in between) hold back the waves and stop the long shore drift washing the sand away. New sea defences have been built to try and prevent flooding during storms. In summer planes fly over for Rhyl air show. Thousands of people arrive in mid summer like a migrating flock of starlings to see the show. Then disappear as quickly. Sometimes the days are wet and windy, other times the sun beats down and uv rays and ozone help burn your skin.
This old lamp post was once lit with gas. Now it’s rusting in the salt air. It looks like it was highly decorated in years gone by. Rhyl itself sometimes feels like time is leaving it behind. There are attempts to restore its faded glory though. If you want to see the sea its worth a visit. Just follow the A55 road North West of Chester and on into Wales.
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Drawing outside
Here are coloured pencil drawings I did a few years ago. They are views of church rock at Tenby, Tenby beaches, Tenby Harbour, Laugharne Castle and the boathouse at Laugharne where Dylan Thomas lived.
Tenby and Laugharne are both in the county of Pembrokeshire in South Western Wales. It is a beautiful place. Its known as little England in Wales. It is also the location of Pendine sands. A long flat beach in the Laugharne estuary where several land speed records have been achieved..
Clouds in Wales
Bars of clouds ascend on high.
Coloured lights paint the sky
How I wish I could return,
to that land of woods and fern.
Mountains high
and valleys deep,
Singers from the Mines and Steel.
Workers with their hands and feet
Love their land through wake and sleep.
I can only look from far
Wishing always to be there.
Welsh by ancestors alone,
Looking cross the border land
Perhaps one day I will lie
Between the earth and cloud barred sky.
