A Simple Life of Luxury

As part of our couple of days away, after a day at the Blue Planet we stayed in the Premier Inn Wrexham. Although close to Wrexham it is a little way out of the town and felt nice. It was never going to be a luxury night away but it was perfect for us. Cheaper than a Youth Hostel despite having YHA membership, clean, quiet and comfortable and therefore everything we needed for a night.

The room was plenty big enough we had a bath and a shower and confortable beds and a friendly enough greeting.Of course, having a proper flush toilet is always a luxury for us!

There was a pub / restaurant next door called The Beeches which is co-owned by Premier Inn so this is where we went for our evening meal and where we were to go for breakfast in the morning. Once again we have no complaints. The restaurant was nicely laid out, the food was good and the service was excellent. We therefore had a nice relaxing meal, even Morgan ate OK and the waitresses were friendly and helpful. Breakfast in the morning was good too… Eat as much as you like which is something I always like and in addition to the full cooked breakfast there was plenty of cereals, toast, croissants, yoghurts, fruit, juices and coffeee etc. Just what I needed before a day out mountain-biking at Llandegla.

Certainly recommended.

Unusually for us we decided to conform to the norm and have a couple of days away during a Bank Holiday weekend!

We drove up to the Blue Planet in Liverpool on Friday morning. Morgan’s travel sickness seems to be coming on in leaps and bounds so it took a little longer and quite a few changes of clothes to get there than normal but it isn’t to bad a drive.

It isn’t cheapt to get into the Blue Planet but we had booked into a Premier Inn  for the night and got a free child ticket with that and the prics compare to most other attractions. I have to admit that I wasn’t that impressed to start, but I did used to work in an aquarium so I guess I was expecting a little more from the tanks in such a large aquarium. The big shark tank did of course impress though and that is really what it is all about. The ’show’ was a little corny but the tank itself and the fish were pretty impressive. Thankfully it wasn’t too busy so (when not chasing Morgan around) we were able to take our time and have a good look. We bumped into a friend of Morgans which was good as they seemed to enjoy each others company and when we ask him what was the best thing about the Blue Planet he says it was seeing his friend there!

After a little play in the playground and some lunch we had another quick circuit around the tanks before heading off to find a chemist and some travel sickness tablets for Morgan and our hotel for the night.

Overall the Blue Planet was good. I still think it is quite expensive and I think the smaller tanks could be a lot better than they are as they just feel like padding for the main attraction of the Shark Tank.

Shark at The Blue Planet

The Blue Planet Aquarium

Burning up some Energy

Playing in the water at Somerford Keynes

After a busy day on Saturday, the plan for Sunday was a day by the lakeside at the Cotswold Water Park.

Thankfully the weather co-operated and we had what was probably the best day so far of the summer with temperatures at around 30ºC and glorious sunshine. A little too hot really, but we are British and therefore never completely happy about the weather!

Of course, the warm weather and the school holidays meant that it was pretty busy at Somerford keynes, but we soon found a spot and set up camp for the day. The lake itself is quite large with several different areas. We had been to one area before where you can hire canoes and such like, but today we went to the area specifically for under 8’s. It has various bits of playground equipment, a small artificial sandy beach and a small enclosed shallow area of the lake. This meant that the little-ones could run around and play all day long whilst the adults sat and relaxed. Not really my sort of thing so I soon had itchy feet and wanted to do something, but Morgan was having fun so in the end watching him play with his cousins was my entertainment for the day, interspersed with the odd little stroll here and there.

There is also a large beach-like area opposite the children’s area where there are playgrounds for older children and a designated swimming area. This area is larger than the ‘younger children’s’ area. We did have out inflatable canoe with us and probably should have pumped it up and put it on the water but we weren’t sure of the restrictions. Also I would have had to do this away from everyone else which wasn’t really the idea. I was hoping we would have been able to use it on the lake and let everyone have a go so that I could have taken the children on trips of ‘adventure and exploration’ around the lake. Maybe next time.

As well as the various swimming areas and the watersports region of the lake, there is also a shop, lots of barbeque area and a high ropes adventure facility. It is also possible to fish on the lake and I’m sure there are some decent fish in there. We saw loads of baby fish in the swimming area and from the balcony around the shop it was possible to see loads of huge mirror carp too.

All in all it was a good day out with perfect weather, nice lake scenery and most importantly Morgan got to play with his cousins all day long.

It didn’t end there either because once home The water-slide came out in the garden and Morgan, Megan, Harry, Charlie, Jack, Kia and Shaun had a whale of a time playing in the garden too.

Anna enjoying the sunshine

Morgan playing in a rubber dinghy

Fun in the sun at Cotswold Water Park

Somerford Keynes Water Park

We’ve just got back from a busy weekend. We drove to my parents house in South Gloucestershire on Friday evening. Saturday was then spent first taking my car to a garage in Dursley. Mitsubishi had recalled all cars like mine to have a part exchanged so as they were doing it for free in it went and we found a playground for Morgan to play on.

Next stop was a trip to Ikea for Anna. It isn’t often that we get to go to ‘big’ shops. We had breakfast in Ikea although I think I was cheated out of a sausage and a hash brown! We then bought a few bits and pieces before heading off to the Early Learning Centre where Morgan bought a new toy! Next was lunch in the Pizza Hut Another treat whilst in the big smoke!

We then drove out of Bristol and back to South Gloucestershire, up onto the Cotswolds and visited the National Trust property of Newark House. Morgan fell asleep on the way there so we sat in the car park for a while. Anna had a sleep too so I sat there twiddling my thumbs waiting for them both to wake up. By the time we were ready it was getting late so we didn’t have much time but we did manage a quick look around the house and a quick stroll through the woodland garden.

Newark House is situated high on Cotswold Hills so has some really nice views over the rolling Gloucestershire countryside. Many of the views are completely devoid of anything from the 20th Century. The house itself started life as a hunting lodge in 1550 and is now owned by the Clutterbuck family who bought it in 1790. The Clutterbuck Family still own it and live in it although some parts are open to the public.

Morgan quite enjoyed his quick look around the house as there was a little teddy-bear hunt with bears hidden in each room for the little-ones to find.

After wandering around the house we had an ice cream and then took a stroll through the woodland and down to the lake before heading back to my parents for dinner.

As with many National Trust properties, the admission price is quite steep unless you have an annual membership or are particularly interested in the history. We like stopping off at these places and with a membership it doesn’t matter if you don’t spend too long there or visit often for a nice little walk. To be honest we aren’t that interested in the history. I do like the gardens and we do like to have a quick nose around the property. The advantage of the membership though is that it doesn’t matter if you don’t spend too long there as you don’t feel as though you need to get your moneys-worth on that one visit.

Newark Park Gardens

Morgan with ice-cream on his nose!

Anna and Morgan at Newark Park

Newark Park

Sunlit garden building at Newark Park

Summer Foliage at Newark Park

Newark Park House

A tired 3yr old!

Coastal Gardening

All gardens have a unique set of parameters that will determine whether or not a particular plant will thrive, merely survive or perish. Most of these, such as the amount of sunlight, soil type and drainage are fairly obvious and well documented. Other equally important parameters include the amount of time, energy and money you have to spend on your plot.

Living our ‘Simple Life of Luxury‘ here on the west Wales coast means we are affected by all of these parameters. Whilst I don’t want to sound hard done by (as I wouldn’t change it for the world) we do seem to experience some extremes that make gardening here very challenging.

Over the next few weeks I shall be publishing articles here looking inn a little more detail at some of the issues affecting gardening on the coast and offering some potential solutions, for now though a brief overview.

First up, the socio-economic side of things. As a young working family, money and time can be a little tight. Again, I’m not complaining as it is all a matter of priority but at this stage, for us, family and work tend to come before gardening when it comes to use of our resources. I shall be looking at ways around this in a future article.

Climate: Frosts are fairly rare here but can catch us out. Wind is common. In fact it is ALWAYS an issue and I shall be looking at wind resistant plants and ways to minimise wind damage and frost damage too.

Soil and Drainage: Our soil is sand. No, not sandy, just sand. Pure, simple beach sand! Drainage is therefore extremely good, too good in fact and it may actually be affected by the height of the tide!

Salt-laden air is also an issue, and in case you missed it earlier, it is also very windy here all of the time.

Most gardeners will have to pick plants suited to the individual parameters in their garden, but usually these will be slight variations from a fairly standard mid point. This means that the choice of plants is wide and often, even if a plant isn’t perfectly suited to the conditions it will still survive. Here, the conditions are extreme, right at the edge of the scale as far as the various parameters are concerned so choice of plants that will actually survive is limited. Finding a variety of readily available plants is difficult and achieving your perfect garden near impossible. However, it is possible to mould the environment to a certain extent and with a few compromises here and there lots of patience surprising results can be attained.

I don’t claim to have achieved this goal yet, but I’m working on it. Progress is gradual (This isn’t Ground Force as I’m not Alan Titchmarsh and Anna certainly isn’t Charlie Dimmock!) but progress is being made and the coming articles will chart this progress highlight the successes and the failures and hopefully give inspiration.

At least we had a blank canvas to work with

Seaside Gardening

Related Articles

Articles in this series on coastal gardening:
Coastal Gardening - Wind

I keep saying that it is all too easy to take what you have around you for granted and not make the most of it. So, to make sure didn’t fall into this trap we joined the holiday-makers and had a nice day out at the beach last weekend.

Actually we beat them to it really as Morgan and I loaded the car up with all the tourist trappings; beach towels, beach shelter, swimming stuff, wetsuits etc etc first thing in the morning. Slapped on the suntan lotion and headed off in the car. Less than a minute later we were on the beach at Ynyslas which was virtually deserted. We could have walked of course but we also had our canoe with use which is a little heavy to carry.

I started setting up our little beach campsite for the day when along came one of the wardens from the nature Reserve. We got chatting as they were organising some kids activities at the visitor centre all about the weather. I therefore told her about my weather station and offered to arrange a data feed to the visitor centre if they wanted one.

Once the beach shelter was set up and Morgan and I were in our wetsuits, I pumped up our inflatable canoe and we headed off on an adventure on the waters of the Dyfi Estuary. The tide was low so we explored the channels and went up the River Leri a little bit. We then stopped for a picnic on one of the sandbanks before slowly making our way back to the car. The water was really calm which was good as our first attempt in the canoe with Morgan was a little rough, but he enjoyed it this time.

Back at the beach and Anna was there so we played in the sand for a bit before going across to look at the displays in the visitor centre and getting an ice-cream. By now the place was pretty busy with holiday-makers so we headed back home and spent the rest of the day in the garden.

It was however nice to spend the day on the beach and make the most of the things on our doorstep.

It was our wedding anniversary on Thursday so although we felt a little guilty about it we sent Morgan off to nursery as usual and had a day out together.

Typically I had come down with the dreaded lurgy the night before so wasn’t feeling great and the weather didn’t look too good to start with either. First we drove to Aberaeron but as it was pouring with rain decided to continue down the coast towards New Quay. We stopped off at a little garden centre in Llanart and had a wander round then dodged the showers in New Quay before heading off to the nearby Honey Farm for some lunch.

We hadn’t been to the honey farm before and although small it was a pleasant place to stop. We had a cream tea here and a little look around. They have a nice little picnic area, a tea room, an exhibition and a meadery. I discovered that the term ‘Honeymoon’ comes from the fact that honey was considered an aphrodisiac and was given to newlyweds for a lunar month after their wedding, hence the term honeymoon… Quite an appropriate thing to learn on our anniversary.

The weather had brightened up by now and it was actually a lovely day. The wind had picked up too so had I been feeling well enough I would have been dying to get out for a windsurf but as it was we headed back towards Aberaeron and off to Llanerchaeron House.

We’ve just got back from a nice weekend away visiting family in the South West. We went this weekend as there was a windsurf demo day at Axbridge Reservoir. Although this isn’t the sort of place I would normally windsurf my brother moors his boat there so we though it would be nice to meet him there and play on his boat too.

As it happens there was very little wind. There was just enough for jays boat though so after he had a quick sail in it I jumped in with Morgan and went for a little sail too. I hadn’t been in a sailing boat for years and even then had only sailed one once or twice, but I soon worked it all out and did manage to sail out, backwards and forwards a few times and then sail back to where I started from all without getting me or Morgan wet!

We then sat in the sun watching people on Stand Up Paddle boards playing around and a few people just about get planing on windsurf boards. It’s a shame there wasn’t more wind so that I could have gone windsurfing but it was a actually nice just sitting in the sun chilling whilst Morgan played in the water with Harry.

Certainly a nice way to spend a relaxing morning.

We have recently been having a clear out and plan to finally get around to sorting out Morgan’s bedroom. He’s getting too big for his toddler bed and needs some proper storage where he can put all of his toys, and believe me there are lots that need a proper home.

I have been a member of the Aberystwyth Freecycle Group for about a year now and have done some good transactions through this group in both directions. It has been really useful as a way of getting rid of bits and pieceswe no longer use without just throwing things away. It works both ways though and I keep an eye on the offered ads to see if there is anything we need. The good items do get snapped up quickly but we’ve had a couple of pairs of sandals for Morgan, some left over pull-up nappies which is always useful and a booster seat for the car to use when we visit my mum. Someone even gave us their entire Mr Men books collection when I posted a wanted add for the free Mr Men that were available in washing powder at the time.

Recently however, and as a way to help Morgan understand that stuff costs money, I decided to try and sell a few things in the paper to help pay for Morgan’s new bedroom furniture. So far we’ve managed to sell a number of items and have made about a third of the cost towards the new furniture. I didn’t think people would be interested in some of it but so far so good and every advert I’ve put in has had some response. The adverts are free so it’s always worth a try and of course I’ve always got freecycle to fall back on if I can’t sell something before making a trip to the tip. Morgan has been very good about it as well. He wasn’t too impressed that his toybox was in the car one morning going to a new home with another little boy but once I explained that we were selling it to buy his new bed he seemed happier about the situation (he hasn’t missed it either since it’s been gone!).

There are down sides as well to both systems. Because we live about 10 miles out of town I have to take a lot of stuff into town and arrange to meet people there rather than them coming out to us but that is more to do with where we live than anything else. I also find our local freecycle moderator to be a bit of a control freak but again I’m sure she does a valuable job keeping out the junk posts from the group and ensures everything runs smoothly.

I had a clear out at the weekend and found lots more things we no longer need. I think I’ll try my luck in the paper again before offering them for free.

It was Sol’s(climbing in the adjacent photo) birthday at the weekend and Morgan was invited to his party at the climbing wall in Aberystwyth. We had never been to it before and although fairly small (I’d call it a bouldering wall) it was nice in there and Morgan seemed to enjoy it.

Morgan never really got very high and didn’t have a go on the rope with the harness, but we’ll probably take him back soon as it was good fun and is a good way to burn off some of his energy! I had a little climb too and having not climbed for several years it was a bit of a work-out for me as well!

Anna of course didn’t have a go but sat there with the other mums having a natter and did a terrible job with the photography!! At least she took some photos I guess which is more than I would have done.