Ooooh! Did I say Grimsdale has been scattered with sawdust? Do I hear hammering from upstairs? Looky here now!! A window!
This is the first of the big windows. There are another 9 to go. All the 10 curved tops have been cut out, all the machining for 10 frames has been done but the glazing bars havent all been cut yet because the details will vary – some will have opening lights and some won’t.
Sunday morning walk to clear my party night head. The dog was happy, the day was lovely, the woods smelled of autumn: what? bracken, leaves, dust, berries and a tang of horse manure.
It’s been a long long lull on the building front, but I’ve been noticing sprinklings of sawdust on Grimsdale recently – could it be that things are happening again, up in the woodowrk nerve centre? Watch this space. But dont hold your breath. Like all women partnered with joiners and builders I know better than to expect hasty completion on any project, but this one is getting ridiculous!!
Anglesey ís a pretty low key kind of a place. Families, beaches, buckets and spades, pretty scenery, Welsh speakers. Ynys Mon, the isle of the druids. The OS map will show you where all the ancient cairns and burial mounds and monuments are. You can spend a whole holiday visiting those.
Most people cross the Menai Bridge and head for Beaumaris, but let’s instead go clockwise round the island, turn left after the bridge and head for Newborough. A small grey two-sheep village with a couple of shops and a good chippie. Now discover the secret of Anglesey – like all the small grey terribly local villages, Newborough sits on the edge of a secret and brilliant place.
Newborough Warren was once the home of ancient Welsh kings and is now a national nature reserve. There ís a friendly small campsite and beyond that miles and miles of sandy dunes, pine tree woodland and pure golden endless sands along the edge of the Menai Straits. Wonderful views of Snowdonia’s mountains just over the water accompany your walk. Beach is dog friendly outside holiday season.
Maltltreath Sands is next, making a whole corner of the island a paradise for birds and the place where Tunnicliffe the famous bird artist lived. Great walking or cycling.
Next come a series of beaches filled in summer with the bucket and spade brigade: Rhosneigr, Trearddur Bay which sits right next to Valley, where the RAF base is. You can build your sandcastle right underneath the giant jets as they take off straight over your head. There’s a campsite even closer to the airfield which is filled with the roar of jets and small boys and dads with big smiles on their faces.
From Holyhead catch a ferry to Ireland for the day, otherwise don’t linger in the town but head out to the cliffs of North Stack and South Stack and Holyhead Mountain.
Come back off Holyhead island and start taking left hand turns off the main A5025 onto the yellow lanes that wind and trundle up and over low hills by the coast. They’re all lovely, they all lead you down to someone’s special, magic beach. If you’re hungry, head down to Church Bay for simply the best of everything homemade beach cafe in the universe, serving the biggest crispest scone filled with a mound of whipped cream and dotted with strawberries; the lightest crispest pastry on the cheese and onion pie. Sleep it off in yet another delightful sandy cove, filled with families, windbreaks, tottering toddlers and tail waving dogs.
Carry on north, turning east at the top of the island and stroll out along the shingle of Cemlyn Bay where the natural lagoon is a bird sanctuary.
It wasn’t enough to go once, it wasn’t enough to go twice, no three visits to Wales this summer. Camping near St Davids.
