It was the day of my aunt’s funeral, the primary reason for my visit to Wales. My mum was one of twelve children, but now there is just one left, an uncle. The church was packed and the service was in Welsh and English, and on a bright, sunny day there was an emotional burial at a remote church surrounded by stunning hills. Whenever I see a hill or mountain I always want to be up there on the top.
It’s all very well blogging from an iPhone but it does require a signal and here in the village there is no Wi-Fi in my cottage and a very intermittent mobile signal! Nevertheless with a bit of perseverance I’ve managed to construct this post. The walk to the waterfall from the village is a relatively gentle hike, nearly 4 miles along a single narrow lane. It’s a beautiful walk marred only by the occasional vehicle. The waterfall is stunning and with all the rain there’s been it is particularly spectacular. The rain also means there’s water pouring down the hills and onto the lane as well as filling the river.
Blogging from a small iPhone – is it possible? I’m on a trip with no laptop or iPad, so I’m evaluating the possibilities of travelling light. The trip began with a train cancellation and consequently a squeeze to catch the connection in London, but it turned out ok. Another connection from Birmingham and then buses from Gobowen and finally from Oswestry took me to the lovely village of Llanrhaeadr. This final leg wasn’t without incident due to diversions that required the bus to negotiate even narrower country lanes than the normal route. After a settling in at my holiday cottage, followed by an hour or so with my aunt, I picked up a few basics from the small supermarket. Being a Saturday night, a pub meal for dinner seemed very appropriate, and a steak and ale pie and a Shiraz were duly consumed.
When did Saturday’s paper stop being interesting? We’ve always bought a Saturday paper. A couple of years or so ago we switched from a lifetime reading The Guardian to The Times. But today I switched back, partly because we were getting tired of The Times. But today’s Guardian is no improvement and costs a monstrous £3.20 (The Times costs £2!).
Is it that we’re already saturated with news? We listen daily to Radio 4’s Today programme and to TV news bulletins, as well as checking out many of the newspaper sites on the Web.
Our daughter has suggested switching to a Sunday paper so maybe that’s worth a try.
I think that at my age I’ve become worn out by politics, endless tragedy, conflict and disaster. I need a rest. I need to block it all out.
Yesterday, on a lovely, sunny day, I drove along a country lane from Headley towards Leatherhead and saw this amazing display of Autumn colours. Today I was determined to have another look and so I took a driver with me so I could capture the scenery. Well it turned out to be a foggy day, but with some help from Photoshop, the pictures taken through the car windscreen have captured some of the beauty.
By the time we had arrived at Polesden Lacey, our coffee-break destination, the fog was more obvious and the resulting pictures look better in black and white. And gosh, wasn’t it cold!
A glorious Autumn day and I was hoping to see some lovely colours, this time walking from Ripley to Send. Success! A bus from Send back to Ripley, followed by a coffee and cake in the always reliable Nest Cafe, rounded off a perfect day.
Shut Up and Deal, by Jesse May, is a gritty, relentless exploration of what it’s like to be an addicted, professional, poker player. Sometimes it got a bit wearing but I kept on being drawn back into this fascinating tale of hopelessness and addiction.
2 comments on I would love to be up there
things change 