A Simple Life of Luxury

Summer is at last back with us, so we had another family day out in the welsh hills. We took a nice drive up towards and around Nant-y-Moch in glorious sunshine. The weather really doesn’t get much better here in Wales than it was on Sunday. we then dropped down into Ponterwyd and off towards Ystumtuem where we parked up and as organ was asleep in the car I headed off across country to find a geocache.

The Bryn Bras geocache was pretty easy to find and I simply took a straight line following my GPSr right through bogs and blueberry bushes galore to the cache. The box itself was easy to find with the co-ordinates spot on. I left a geocoin and was intrigued by a small package in the ammo can that was sealed with a ote on the outside saying ‘FAO N. Gregory Sept 2007. I don’t know who N. Gregory is or why he/she has to wait until 2007 to open the package, but it is all very intriguing!

Back at the car and there was a camper van parked behind us and a German family just about to set off across the hills in search of h cache as well. We had a little chat and wished them well before heading off across to hills and wisty roads, past the wind turbines and on to Nant yr Arian. Here we had a drink, let Morgan play in the playground and then went off to pick some blueberries. There was still plenty of fruit on the bushes, although nowhere near as many as there were on the less frequented hills by Bryn Bras. Whilst at Nant yr Arian I also took a few leaflets about the mountain bike trails there as I’m planning to buy a mountain bike soon, so will hopefully making full use of the local routes.

All in all another pleasant day in the Welsh countryside.

As you may have already read, we had the first ever Ynyslas Fun Day here at the weekend. A low key affair, but you have to start somewhere.

One of the events was a ‘Treasure Hunt’ arranged by Anna and myself, which we think went well Everyone set off with their instructions sheets, and had to complete a few puzzles at a puzzle stop at our house before continuing on towards the dunes, over the boardwalk and then back along the beach. On their way they had to answer various questions about their surroundings and also collect various items such as a feather, a bag of rubbish (to help keep the beach clean), a bivalve shell, a gastropod shell and a few other items. There were a few more questions and some things hidden along thew way and a tricky little crossword for them to complete based on the housenames of Ynyslas. Everyone put quite a bit of effort into completing it so I think they enjoyed it.

The other big competition of the day was a sandcastle building contest on the beach. Thankfully the weather co-operated and some artistic sculptures were created. We were pleased with ours but I think we were voted down as adults had helped in the construction, and the prizes went to those built solely by the children… Mind you, it has to be said that ours lacked any originality or artistry, as it was just a simple castle, as opposed to the lizards, Highland Cattle, Sea-horses and moles built by others.

We had the first ever Ynyslas Fun Day yesterday here. It is an idea we had been talking about for a while as Anna and I along with other ynyslas residents always felt that the Borth Carnival was really aimed at the tourists and wasn’t for the residents of Ynyslas and that we would like to have a ’show’ in much the same way as other rural villages do.

Of course, as this was the first Ynyslas Fun Day we kept it as a rather low-key event with just a few simple competitions. No giant marrows or perfect runner beans for us. I’ve always liked the sillier categories in country shows so suggested an ‘Animal Made from vegetables’ category. As it was mys suggestion I thought I had better enter it so created a Giraffe from a potato and a carrot… When I turned up with it and saw everyone elses entries my giraffe suddenly looked a little silly. Everyone else had put in loads of effort and some of the entries were really good (as usual I forgot to take photos of them though). My personal favourites were the snails and the crab. Thankfully Sarah turned up with a pig made from a potato which which meant that my giraffe didn’t look completely outclassed.

Strangely though everyone seemed to like my giraffe and I took the prize for the best animal made from vegetables…. Amazing, I wonder if the votes were in pity for the poor little creature.

Other categories that were hotly contested in the show were the flower arrangement, the crafts and the artwork of a local scene. There was also a treasure hunt that kept Anna and I busy organising it last week and everyone else busy doing yesterday morning, and a sand-castle building competition on the beach. All interspersed with a ‘picnic’ lunch and a BBQ in the evening.

We had fun and I think everyone else did too.

Its been an expensive week for me… At last the wind returned so I was able to get out windsurfing. Wednesday afternoon was lovely, I sailed all the way up to Tywyn, then back to Ynyslas and thought I’d continue on to Borth, but just as I thought that my boom snapped and I was dumped unceremoniously in the sea. Luckily I was able to waterstart using the other side of the boom and sail back to the beach using my ‘asymmetric boom’, but it did bring my session to an early end… The boom was only 3 months old so will be replaced under warranty. I’ve spoken with Gun where I bought it from and they will replace it with no questions asked.

Then on Thursday I went out, and after half an hour landed from a jump and snapped my lovely Naish Hybrid Freewave board in two. It wasn’t a big jump, I never do anything particularly big as I’m not THAT good, and I certainly wouldn’t have expected it to snap that easily… The board is a year old and was the only board I’ve ever had from new, so it is pretty disappointing that I’ve snapped it as it was the best board I’ve ever owned. So far I haven’t heard back from Naish, but it would be good if they would replace it under the warranty as I’m sure a board should be able to take more abuse than I’ve thrown at it over the past 12 months… We’ll have to wait see.

Here are some photos of the damage… Don’t think I’ll be sailing it again.

Just a few photos of Morgan messing around with a pair of glasses.

Don’t you just hate having to keep turining your pillow over at night because it gets too hot?

Anna never quite understood why I did this, but she found a product called a ‘chillow pillow’ and began to realise that maybe I wasn’t the only one who liked to have a cool head. She ordered one for me and it arrived today. I haven’t tried it out overnight yet, but it seems to do the trick and says it keeps your pillow cool all night long.

Everyone we’ve mentioned it to seems to think it sounds like a great idea so finally Anna has realised that she is in the minority and most people like to keep their head cool at night. Lets hpe it works and I get a nice nights sleep with a cool head and no pillow turning tonight.

Thought I’d post about our new cooker and the excellent service we got from Aber gas and Electrical Appliances in Aberystwyth.

We looked elsewhere. Curry’s had one or two we liked the look (and price) of, but they were a little vague with the dimensions and fitting advice and the ones we could afford didn’t have free fitting etc so actually became fairly expensive. they also told us that we couldn’t have a 60cm cooker for our 60cm ga but had to have a 55cm one.

We took a look in AGEA and at first they had some nice looking appliances, but we wern’t too sure about their prices, but as soon as we asked about them they were off like a shot trying to give us the best deal they could. We told them that we had around £500 to spend. The first one we like they reduced from around £500 to £400, then there ws a really nice on that was £1000 but they said we could have the ex-display one for £750, then finally there was one marked at £584 that they said we could have for £400, so that was the one we went for… We were in the showroom at around 4pm on Wednesday, paid by credit card and at 10am the next day they were at the door, took the old cooker away, fitted the new one, made sure it all looked good and worked propoerly and left us with a nice new cooker…. All I can say is I’m glad we didn’t buy one from Curry’s as we would still be there trying to tell them we didn’t want an extended warranty.

Top marks to Aber Gas and Electrical… their prices are better than they look and so far their service has been exemplary.

Call them what you like, blueberries, blaeberries, bilberries, it’s that time of year and on Saturday Morgan, me and Sarah from next door set off in search of a free tasty treat.

Tradition on the Isle of Man is that you shouldn’t pick blueberries until after Tynwald Day (5th July) and I wasn’t sure if due to the strange weather we’ve been having this year there would be many berries to pick. We decided to try our luck at Nant yr Arian as at least here there is a tea room and playground if all else fails. Morgan fell asleep in the car just as we arrived so we sat for a little while to let him have a sleep. Then we noticed them, right by the car, blueberry bushes packed with large juicy blueberries…..our luck was in!

Once Morgan woke up and we’d had a cup of tea we set off to start picking. We did n’t have to go far from the car park to find what we were looking for and in no time had a decent amount. morgan did his best to help but he did keep falling down the odd hole and I think decided it was much better to eat what he picked than try and keep them in his pot!

We collected well over a pound of berries which I think is pretty good going. Morgan realises that blueberries don’t just come in plastic pots from Morrisons and we all had a nice afternoon out.

I’ve put most of mine in the freezer for now until we have time to make some muffins. morgan is a good cook and makes excellent banana buns so next time we will try blueberry muffins. Here is our favourite family foolproof recipe:

8oz (200g) Self Raising Flour
3oz (75g) sugar
1egg
3oz (75g) Blueberries
third of a pint of milk (200ml)
4 tbsp (60g) oil

Heat oven to 200 degrees C.
Mix sugar and flour then add wet ingredients, leaving the blueberries until last. Mix lightly (this mixture does not need to be smooth). Put into bun cases and in the oven for 15mins.

Hope you like them!

I recently joined a site which advertises products using word of mouth. They do this by sending samples, money off vouchers etc to member and ask them to let people know what they think. nowI have seen this sort of website before but it has never come to much, however I now have 3 different products to comment on.

The first of these is a new book, The Second Wife, from author Elizabeth Buchan. I don’t really have much time to sit a read with Morgan around but I’m trying to make time for this one. So far so good and I’m enjoying the book so watch this space for a review once I’m done. This is the second in the series and I havent’ read part one but it doesn’t seem to matter. The story line deals with lots of issues I’m sure lots of couples go through and is a nice easy summer read.

If anyone wants a bit more info for now try going to www.elizabethbuchan.com where there is an extract from the book or get in touch.

Sorry for the lack of posts here recently… It isn’t that we haven’t been doing anything worth writing about but more that we just haven’t had chance to blog.

We have however been treating ourselves to a few meals out (and in) lately. It was our wedding anniversary earlier this month and our neighbours Dave and Sarah kindly offered to babysit for us so Anna and I ventured into Aberystwyth to have a meal in Le Vignoble, a relatively new and much recommended french restaurant. We had heard many good things about the food there but had also been told it was expensive. Luckily they have an 6-8pm offer of two course and a glass of wine for £16, or 3 course and a glass of wine for £20, so although a little more expensive than our usual meals out it was still affordable and it was our anniversary after all.

It was worth the money too. The atmosphere was really nice, the food was delicious and the service was really good too. All in all I’d highly recommend it and as most other people have said it is probably the best place to eat out in Aberystwth at the moment.

The other bit of excitement as far as ‘dining; goes is that Borth has now got an Indian (well Bangledeshi actually) restaurant and take away. The Borth Tandoori Balti House opened last week and we have already sampled their offerings in the form of a take-away. Once again the food and service was excellent and we shall be using it again. We need to support local businesses and hopefully it will be a success and be open all year round saving us a trip into Machynlleth or Aberystwyth in order to get a decent take away.

From what we’ve heard the owner used to part own the Indian in Machynlleth and has other restaurants in smallish towns around Wales, so hopefully he knows hat to expect from a full year in Borth. The restaurant isn’t quite laid out how he had hoped, but that is because he decided to open earlier than planned in order to make the most of the summer season… A good move as the summer here in Borth can be quite short.