Bank Holiday

Today I set off at 7am for Bristol, the plan being to bring Dad back tomorrow for a week with us. Normally, I would never in a million years venture forth on the first day of a bank holiday, but the date was determined by the fact that my sister and family, who live in Bristol,  are all going on holiday and she didn't want Dad to be on his own. The whole journey was undertaken with lights and windscreen wipers on for the whole journey, through swathes of traffic, most of which was towing caravans and with the added delight of severe jams from junction 13 southwards on the M5. So a journey which should have taken just over three hours actually took four and a quarter.
My only consolation was the knowledge that sister would suffer even more protracted traffic holdups further south as she was travelling to Cornwall. Only joking! (Well, sort of...)
Anyway, suddenly, the sun has appeared and the rainclouds have disappeared - for now, anyway.
Great stuff!

Today's walk

We went for our walk on the new route today, Paddy and I, the one where we very briefly caught sight of a fox the other morning. Today, the weather was lovely, breezy and not as hot as last week by any means, but still sunny.

And  on our way back,I caught sight of a fox cub - a brief flash and it was gone,  far too quick to get a photo.
So, you'll have to make do with these instead, I'm afraid.

What a great idea!

Every now and then, a genius comes along with a life-changing idea, like
this one for example. If only someone had thought of this when I was still teaching. Stress, overwork, premature ageing - all would have been unheard of for us teachers!

And that was summer?

When I was little, I remember hearing a rhyme about this time of year:

"Ne'er cast a clout till may is out." Roughly translated, this means, "It is ill advised to remove any of your winter clothing until the may blossom is visible on the hawthorne trees." I noticed the profusion of may blossom on the trees at the bottom of the field this morning when we were out on our walk and that reminded me of the rhyme, (usually quoted at me in my youth when I wanted to go out to play without a coat.)

Given the chilly weather and rain which have returned to haunt us today, it seems that there will be no clouts cast just yet or for the foreseeable future, i.e. next week. And it's no good any of you gardeners saying that we need it; I definitely don't! I like the sun, so there!

Still it was nice to see the horses back in the ajoining field and even Paddy steers clear of them, probably recognising that, given their size, it wouldn't be a good idea to invite them to play! 

Sunday

Sunday really lived up to its name over here in north Wales. The weather was beautiful, hot and sunny with not a cloud in the sky - just like most other places in Britain really. After the disastrous summer last year, followed by a winter that would have been more suited to the Steppes of Russia, it seems so long since we last had some decent weather, but this last week the Weather Fairy has done us proud.

So off we set, Keith and Paddy and I to follow the winding road to the west coast.

"Let's go over Hellfire Pass," Keith suggested, and so we did. This is where Austin used to test drive their cars back in the first half of last century.
Apparently, 'an Englishman' named it Hellfire Pass but the Welsh soon returned it to its original name of Bwlch y Groes and it's the highest pass in north Wales, or, as the Welsh would say,
"Rydych yn sefyll ar y bwlch uchaf yng Ngogledd Cymru."
Not bad, eh?

Paddy here

You know, I sometimes wonder what I have to do to get into Jenny's good books. OK, so she's started giving me little treats when I let a dog go past on our walks without barking at it and I am getting the hang of that, but seriously, would any self-respecting dog stand quietly by when he's got a rabid bulldog growling at him? Of course not, so I do a bit of barking back, just to let the other fellow know I'm no pushover. And then, there are the rabbits. Jenny has discovered a new walk. We have to go halfway round the lake and under a bridge. There's a stream running beside the path there and steps up to another path which leads into a field. This field is one of my favourite places, especially if we go there early in the morning. The reason? It is packed full of delicious scents of rabbits. The place must be full of them! Of course, they keep well out of my way and, as she's got my on this long lead, I can't follow my instincts and charge all over the field like a lunatic until I find one. I only want to play with them, honestly!
Today, we had a glimpse of a fox. It was a bit of a shock actually. It came charging out of the bushes, saw me and shot back in again. Then I spotted a lovely little rabbit and of course I did try to chase it - it was practically shouting 'Come and get me!' but 'the boss' wouldn't let me.
She's such a spoilsport sometimes...

Another car

We had a flying visit from Elder Daughter, Kathy yesterday - in her 'new' car. It's a very nice, well- looked after Saab, which takes a little getting used to for her as it's an automatic.

Mind you, they sold the Porsche first... :)