Category holidays
Exploring a beach
There’s more to a beach than sand. You can anticipate the waves, the pebbles and shells, a little seaweed or a lot, or none at all, as was the case with Talacre Beach in North Wales, but what makes each location different is the landscape and the view across the sea. This was our second […]
Patterns of life #flashfiction
Today’s contribution to Friday Fictioneers’ 100 word flash fiction blog hop brought to life by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields In perpetuity. Wasn’t that the commitment? Day after day of togetherness. Except Muriel had married a mathematician and one obsessed with fractals. The patterns she loved. He generated pictures, turning shapes into works of art, covering the walls […]
Lost in the woods
Our family holiday to the Wye Valley didn’t just include castles, we disappeared into the forest. The Forest of Dean is ancient woodland and the second largest crown forest in England. The Romans occupied the forest to mine for coal and charcoal burning and the last colliery closed in 1965. We visited a small wood […]
Twisted perceptions – Chepstow Castle and Tintern Abbey
I had it the wrong way round. I had a memory of Chepstow Castle being gigantic and lots of walls to climb. Perhaps it was huge for a small child, but visiting it again, it seemed less than what I recalled. On the other hand, Tintern Abbey, which I remember as lacking much turned out […]
Gardens and eccentricity
How to make gardens more appealing to children? Add grottoes. Henry Oakley purchased the Dewstow Estate, near Newport, in 1893 and being a keen horticulturist, he commissioned London landscapers Pulham and Son to create a garden with subterrean elements. Without descendants, when Oakley died in 1940, the estate reverted to pastureland, the hidden aspects filled […]
By the river
Another trip down memory lane. This time it is due to Goodrich Castle. So much has changed since my last visit over 30 years ago. I wrote a little about that during the A-Z blogging challenge. Back then there was no entrance fee, you could walk right into the ruin. The ground was grassy and […]
Red and green – adventures in a forest
I’m on holiday with my family in the Wye Valley, which spans the border of south Wales and England. The last time I visited the area was when I was a child, probably ten or eleven. My memories are vague and I think I visited places, but maybe I hadn’t. One of those is Clearwell […]
The Quiet Writer 