Monday, March 30, 2009
Normal Monday and a look back to Wales.
Life begins to get back to normal.
Ekatarina and I enjoyed throwing stones into the river - she loved to make a big splash.
A bullfinch - unless you tell me differently. I think he is a bit big and fat to be a chaffinch.
A mallard duck.
Lots of wild geese overshadowed by Penrhyn.
I wish our voices would do the same!
I have coughed far less today but my voice has gradually faded down to a croaky whisper.
Yes, of course I have been talking more!
But I did spend a while this morning on my own. After 2 weeks away from the shop I felt the area needed freshening up a bit and so I moved everything around.
We have sold well enough in our absence - there has been a small profit for March.
It has felt good to be out and amongst friends and customers - though one (or maybe it was a gang of 2) walked out with a fairly high priced item of Monika's at about 2 o'clock.
It was quite large - and one wonders how they managed it. But determined thieves have their methods and it is almost impossible to stop them.
No doubt in our innocence we were concentrating on somebody intent on advice and help and ignored the "innocent" browser.
We shall be back there on Thursday to cover for Hilary. Normally she does more duties than she needs to and between us Bill and I do less than we should. It normally works out fine - unless Hilary is selling at the Newark Antiques Fair.
This evening I am coughing again - and I look forward to some sleep.
I am of course, still looking back to our Welsh trip and relishing good memories.
On the Saturday morning - after a boot sale and Bill's handwork putting up some shelves in the kitchen, we went with Ashley and Ekatarina to the beach where the River Ogwen flows into the sea.
There is a little nature reserve close by.
This area lies below the imposing Penrhyn Castle only 2 or 3 miles from Ashley's house.
The beach had an eerie feel to it - a wide expanse of pebbles and then sand, for the tide was out.
There were masses of standing wooden posts and old railway sleepers - all well weathered by the constant flow of tides in and out. Once they might have been solid breakwaters, but on that day there was an air of ruin about them and they could have been ruins of some long ago beach dwellers' huts.
Penrhyn Castle stands on the hill on the other side of the river.
Bill created an image which depicts exactly the almost ghostly feel.
He called it The Sentinels.
But there were only a group of very normal 21st century souls there on that day. Ekatarina has a bag for interesting stones and shells.
The Ogwen Estuary.
It is hard to say that the river meets the ocean because it is such a short distance to the land across The Menai Strait.
Bill's telephoto shot shows Beaumaris across the water on Anglesey
Ekatarina and I enjoyed throwing stones into the river - she loved to make a big splash.
The bridge was built in the 1800s for the Penrhyn Estate.
The Castle is a 19th century mock castle - but much admired nevertheless. Perhaps we will visit next time we are in Bangor - it is a National Trust property, so we wouldn't have to pay; and the web site says there are a railway museum, gardens and an adventure playground - so most of us would be happy!
We turned in from the beach to the small nature reserve. We left the serious photographer in the hide which looked out to the estuary and chose to spend a little while in the hide overlooking the ponds and bullrushes.
We didn't see very much really - ducks, coots, moorhens and lots of woodland birds which came to feed on the feeders put out by the warden.
Nobody spotted an elusive kingfisher.
A bullfinch - unless you tell me differently. I think he is a bit big and fat to be a chaffinch.
A mallard duck.
Lots of wild geese overshadowed by Penrhyn.
I think this picture needs clicking on to enlarge it - to see the geese.
Tomorrow I will share with you a few pictures of people just relaxing at home - Ekatarina mostly. She is the most lovely of us!
