A Simple Life of Luxury

Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means

Author: Alan Cole

Conwy Youth Hostel 1

General

Conwy Youth Hostel

I spent the night in Conwy Youth Hostel over the weekend. A very nice hostel with a modernised building just on the edge of Conwy. The food was good and the staff were friendly, but I’m still not completely convinced about Youth Hostels. For a start the shared dorms mean you just don’t know who...

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Nature

Moths Hotting Up

Despite the temperatures dropping to 1.1ºC last night we still had quite a few moths to contend with. Many of them were on the pergola rather than in the trap, but there were a few unfamiliar ones to me so it took a bit of effort to identify them all. The catch comprised of: Shoulder...

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Lifestyle / Nature / Photography

Naturalist Weekend

I’ve just spent the weekend in Conwy. I decided to head up to North Wales as there was a North Wales Moth Recorders’ Meeting at the Pensychnant Conservation Centre. I travelled there on Saturday, stopping on the way to do a few geocaches and arrived in plenty of time for the meeting. After a coffee...

Mottled Grey Moth 0

Nature

Mottled Grey Moth

The moth-trapping season is just getting underway and although we’ve yet to catch any moths in the moth trap, we are getting some attracted to the porch light. As I’m still fairly new to moth trapping, most of the species I catch at the moment are new to me, so here’s a new one from...

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Nature

Moths at Last

So far this year my moth-trapping exploits have been a little disappointing. We’ve put the moth trap out a few times but have had no success. This has been made more frustrating by the fact that I have seen plenty of moths on the wing in front of my headlights whilst driving between Aberystwyth and...

Mawddach Goldrush 2010 – Results 0

MTB

Mawddach Goldrush 2010 – Results

The official results for the Mawddach Goldrush 2010 are out. Click here to see them. It’s an excel file with 3 worksheets. Two for solo, one for those who didn’t cross finish line after 1st lap, and the other for those who did. 3rd worksheet are the relay times. Unfortunately there was quite a mix...

Adobe hits back at Apple iPad 3

Technology

Adobe hits back at Apple iPad

In case you didn’t know, the new, soon to be available Apple iPad doesn’t support Flash. Not a bad thing in my view as Flash is a memory hog, drains batteries and isn’t the most standards compliant technology out there. It is also a proprietary Adobe technology rather than an open standard. Apple claim these...

MTB DVD’s 1

MTB / Technology

MTB DVD’s

I recently discovered that iTunes had some Mountain-Biking videos for download and I couldn’t resist them. The first I downloaded was ‘Seasons’ from the Collective which was amazing, loads of good footage, some excellent filming and a good mix of riding. At about an hour long you just can’t go wrong for £1.89. The sound...

1,000 miles old 3

MTB

1,000 miles old

I’ve just noticed that my Commencal Meta 5.5 Mountain bike has recently hit the 1,000 mile mark. Not that far in the grand scheme of things, but not too bad going for me really. It has actually logged 1,067 miles to date, so hit the 1,000 mile mark on the ClimachX Trail on February 13th,...

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Fitness / MTB / Wales

Mawddach Goldrush 2010 – Race Report

March 7th 2010, Mawddach Goldrush day. The first MTB event of the year for me. Last year I did it as part of a 3 man team so only did one lap but this year I had decided I ‘should’ be able to do it solo and do all three laps on my own. The...