Betwixt Christmas and New Year

Hubby and I popped down to The Pines in those days betwixt Christmas and New Year. Three nights at our little place by the sea. The weather forecast was not good. Gales and Heavy Rain for the days we were to be there. No matter we decided it would be lovely to just snuggle up and relax for a few days, take our waterproofs and venture out if we needed to.

A few days before Christmas we had an email from the people who owned the flat below us. The flat next to us had had a burst water pipe in the flat and it had damaged their property below and they were not sure if it had spread sideways and damaged ours. There wasn't much we could do as we had plans and did not have the time to go down to check it out. So when we arrived in the dark, in the wind and rain we did not know what to expect. As it happened there was no damage so phew!

We warmed the place up, got the lamps on, lit a scented candle and made a feast of left over foods from Boxing Day. We snuggled down and relaxed.

The next day was very grey, wet and windy. We ventured out to Porthmadog.

and enjoyed an hour in the lovely Browsers Bookshop.

Then we drove over to Criccieth...we spotted the sun briefly!

Time for lunch in Cadwaladers Cafe.

Walked down to the beach.

The next day we put up our Wales Travel Poster and a little Printers Tray to house some treasures.

It was sunny! we couldn't resist....off we went for a walk at Borth y Gest

Parked the car on the main street...

we then walked along the coastal path towards Black Rock Sands.

we were watching the oyster catchers...

We took a slightly higher path near the end back towards Borth-y-Gest.

and dropped back down into the village.

The Sea View Cafe was still open and looked so inviting so we popped in for a coffee and cake.

And then headed home to The Pines.

The next day it was back to being grey. It was at least not raining so we popped along to Llandanwg and collected some shells for the Treasure box.

Then treasure was put into the boot of the car and we went to Caffi Castell for lunch.

Welsh rarebit and tomato soup.

Back at the pines and we dried off the treasure...

                                          

Hubby noticed something moving inside a large whelk shell...

The Tale of Herman. 

On a grey, windy day, we were walking on Llandanwg beach. We noticed lots of lovely shells had washed up in the high tide and decided to take some treasures for the treasure box. A cockle shell, a tiny muscle shell still attached like a pair of wings and a rather lovely large whelk. They went into a small plastic bag and taken back to The Pines after a detour for lunch at the Castle Cafe. When we got back we placed the treasure on to a piece of kitchen roll to dry out…. "Oh we seem to have a visitor" declared Hubby! Inside the Whelk was a hermit crab!! In a panic I decided to drive it to our nearest beach, Harlech. Back into the bag went Herman. Into the car, I parked at the car park and quickly pay for a ticket… it’s a bit of a walk over the sand dunes but eventually I arrive at the beach… not a rock pool in sight! I should have taken Herman back to Llandanwg but in a panic I was here and had to think on my feet. I turned right and walked but after 15 minutes and no plan as to what to do I turned around and remembered there were rocks at the very end of the beach to the left… probably about an hours walk (it’s a very long stretch of sand!) So off I set… I walked and walked, wadding briefly into the rolling waves to put a bit of sandy water into the bag. Now Harlech beach is a popular beach especially for dog walkers. I passed many of them as I was striding purposely along the beach. The low winter sun was setting and we were due to leave for home… panic set in again. I thought about throwing Herman into the sea, I’m rubbish at throwing things! I needed someone to throw him in for me. A young man walking two dogs with an older couple were near by. I approached them “You are going to think I’m crazy but you couldn’t chuck this shell and hermit crab into the sea for me?” As it happened the young man was good at cricket his mum declared, but they had a better idea, they were planning to walk all the way to the end of the beach and would release Herman into the rock pools at the end! So I waved him off and started to walk quickly back to the car. The moral of this story is, always check shells are not being lived in before you take them home, better still leave them on the beach!

back in to the car with Herman

Over the sand dunes

Start walking to the right...nothing but sand!

Change of plan, walk to the other end of the beach.

Off goes Herman 

I head back to the car

On the way home we stop briefly at Betwy y coed to see the waterfall