A Night In Betws-y-coed

To celebrate our wedding anniversary ( our 9th last Wednesday )this year we booked a night away. When we do this we are never too far from home so if an emergency ever arises we can be back home within a couple of hours. This may strike others as being a bit odd to stay overnight in a place we can visit in a day but we like to explore and generally do things that teenagers and little kids have no interest in.
On the way we stopped off at Fairy Glen. A popular place for artists and photographers to visit and the image is featured on lots of postcards and art work. This Fairy Glen print that hangs in our house we bought about 11 years ago on our travels. 

To reach the Glen you need to descend some rather steep stone steps. The sun was out so I again was wearing flip flops, not great for the steps and certainly not when my husband suggested clambering around on some moss covered rocks to take some photos. I did but I probably would have been better off doing it in bare feet. It was a beautiful place, the water was lovely and clear though icy cold (I had to dip a toe in to check).Climbing back up the steps seemed worse than coming down, they appeared to be made for a giant. My husband was fine though, he has legs like a stork.

We arrived in Betws-y-coed too early to check in to the B&B so we went for a wander around the town. Considering it was a normal Friday with no school or bank holidays, it appeared very busy. We had a quick look around the shops then off to the B&B. This was the view from the front. Two other couples who were staying were also celebrating their wedding anniversaries.

After checking in we were off out again. We walked over to St Michaels which is the oldest building in Betws-y-coed

then over Sappers suspension bridge which is right next to the church.

 Anders took a quick look at his maps to find any other places near by to visit and found this chapel. I can't remember the name of this one though.

Then we grabbed a bag of chips and sat on some flats rocks on the bank of River Llugwy. The chippy is only across the river so there were quite a few people doing the same thing.

This photo was taken from the bridge. When I was down there I managed to bruise my knee by trying to climb over a rock and kneeing it when I cocked my leg over it.

The next morning my legs were refusing to cooperate, they felt like they had seized up. On the way home we stopped off at Swallow Falls. It was around 9:30 so we were the only people there. I saw the steps and just groaned. There is a barrier to prevent anyone from going in to the water but you can still get close enough to feel the spray from it.

After our night away I think the only thing not hurting on my legs were my shins. Anders watched me bend over to pick something up the other day, said I looked stiff and offered to get his oil out of the shed. They are almost back to normal now but I can't remember the last time I ached so much, must be my age.

Visiting Sis

Last month we paid my sister and her family a visit in their new home. They moved due to my brother in law starting a new job and in his line of work the house comes with it. When I was visiting their old house last summer and asked if she would miss the views as this is what you could see looking out from one side of her back garden.

She told me that the views were more spectacular where they were going to move to. I was dreading the visit as the house is on the top of a mountain and the only way up is on a narrow lane that only has room for one car so if another car meets you on the way, one of them has to reverse. Plus there is no wall or fence next to the road, its just open. I don't know how they can drive up and down it everyday, my nerves couldn't take it.

It is beautiful there and the house is a lot nicer and bigger than her last one. Even though the garden is a bit overgrown you can see that someone did care for it at some point. My sis has already cleaned out the pond and dug over the veggie patch. Little L loved the tree house that they found and was straight up there with her older cousin.

These are some of the views from their back door.

Plenty of lambs to been seen.

After we had been there a while and after they had made me a coffee, my sis started talking about the water filter and how she doesn't think it works right. The water comes from a natural spring and she said you can get odd bits coming through in it like tadpoles, little shrimps, etc. I think they make people a brew first then tell them about the water supply.

It is a lovely place to live but if I lived there I'd probably venture off the mountain about once every six months to avoid the trip up and down.

Dressing Dolls

This week I had my sewing machine out to make some quick clothes for Little L's dolls. Both the patterns that I used were free ones which I found on the internet.

These dresses to fit a LaLaLoopsy doll were lined in plain white cotton and fasten at the back using velcro. I've never sewn velcro on using a machine before but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The stitches look slightly wonky on the loopy side but I don't suppose Little L will notice.

 There doesn't seem to be many patterns about to fit this type of doll and I'm not sure if they sell them in shops. I've not seen any. Little L now wants me to kit out her boy doll with a new set of clothes so he can get changed as well. I'll have to see if I can rustle up a pattern using the existing clothes. The pattern for this dress can be found here.

The other thing I made were these dolls nappies. Some were lined with blue cotton, others with flannelette from one of Little L's cot sheets. Little L loves these as she has been playing with her baby doll more lately. I think that might be because she had her first hold of a real baby a few weeks ago, she loved it and wants us to have one. Not a chance, my baby days are over so Little L will just have to be content playing with her dolls and visiting real babies that we don't have to bring home with us.