Monday 22nd July, 2013

North Wales 2013 – Friday/Saturday – The day we went to Bangor

Posted by at 9:41 pm in Great Escapes, Summer Holidays.

Given the task of finding a place to stay in Snowdonia looked like it was going to be a bit of an ordeal. The remit was: cottage, quiet, remote yet close to sufficient activities to keep the kids happy, close to some interesting mountain walks, within a couple of hours' drive of a beach, and fairly close to Bangor and Menai Bridge where Chris was a Maths undergrad.

In the end the task was a doddle. Choose a mountain (Moel Siabod), use Google to find a nearby cottage (Siabod Holiday Cottages near Pont Cyfyng), all sorted in ten minutes. I passed the details to Chris and let her do the rest.

Why Moel Siabod? Well, it's the best mountain in Wales, bar none. And I know it fairly well - I spent over eight weeks mapping it in the minutest detail for my B.Sc. Geology thesis.

Why Siabod Holiday Cottages? Apart from the fact that the price was right, it looked like the place had everything we'd ever need. Oh, and at about 850ft we'd have a significant altitude-advantage over the valley-starters when we got go up the mountain. We chose Ty Llewelyn, the middle one of three in a row that was derelict the last time I walked past. The recent restoration and renovation of these cottages has been done to a very high standard and the facilities and welcome were second to none. I'd recommend the cottages to anyone, the place is exceptional.

Rather than sit in a roasting car jammed in with all of the other holiday traffic on the A5 on Saturday, we chose to book an extra night and execute our getaway plan straight after school-time on Friday. It turned out to be a good idea, the traffic was light and driving in the evening was much better than braving the midday weekend sun. We were greeted by the owners on arrival, and soon we were installed after making inroads into the welcome-pack (tea, coffee, chocolate, Bara Brith, Welsh Cakes, cookies, shortcakes, sweets...) We had a chill-out night with much moderately-loud music, taking advantage of the fact that the other two cottages were unoccupied that night.

Saturday was hot and clear from the start. The others had a lie-in, I went outside for a mooch around the grounds and a play with the camera:

360+ pano: cottage-to-cottage via Carneddau and Llugwy

The same view in a temperamental scrolly-thing

The track to Moel Siabod

Hawthorn and Foxgloves

Foxgloves

 

A lonely cloud over Carnedd Llewelyn

 Dôl-gam campsite

 Between a rock and a hard place?

Standing stone

The cottages use renewable energy technology (but NOT wind-power!) Heat for underfloor heating, radiators and all of the hot water is generated by Air to Water Heat Pumps. I soon learned that standing in front of the units' exhaust fans was a good thing - the strong flow of heat-depleted air was better than any air-con unit.

When the others surfaced we decided to have a drive out to get some supplies. We headed off up the A5, stopping briefly to take in the views:

Tryfan. I told the kids that we would be going up the clearly-visible Heather Terrace. They weren't amused.

We pushed on through Bethesda and Bangor and over the Straits to Menai Bridge. After parking up we went for a snack followed by a stroll to Church Island's St. Tysilio's Church where Luke was christened:

St. Tysilio's Church

 

 

Up on the hill is the war-memorial from where there are fine views of the bridges and The Swellies:

Menai Suspension Bridge

 

Pont Britannia

Strong current in The Swellies

After doing a supermarket-sweep in Bangor we got back to the cottage just before sundown. After the evening meal it was camera-time again:

Carneddau evening

Moon and Moel Siabod

After that we retired in good cheer, mainly due to the lashings of cider that we'd brought back from Bangor  😎

Thursday 30th December, 2010

Good Tidings of Great Joy

Posted by at 7:33 pm in Celebrations, Thanks.

Of all the gifts given and received this festive season, the greatest of all was delivered by the postman just before Christmas... a parcel from Luke, containing a letter and gifts for his sisters and a letter for his Mum. Luke will probably never realise just how happy they are now, and there's no way that we could adequately express it on here, but we felt that we had to let the world know about it. In his letter he says that he's doing well and is enjoying his life, and we're happy for him.

In the letter to his Mum Luke raises many issues which are of concern, some of those issues are valid, some are not. It's clear that there's a need to deal with those issues, but sadly Luke did not include either a postal or an email address, so there's no way that we can have two-way communications to get things sorted. This also means that we can't send Luke the presents and mail that have been accumulating here for him since his departure.

The "Missing Luke Talion" Facebook group page has now been taken down by the page's administrator because it has served its original purpose and because Luke said that it was having adverse effects on his personal and professional lives, despite his claim that he'd not actually read it. We would like to thank everyone that supported the group, and also those who offered support via this blog. If you're one of them then you have our gratitude and we wish you well. If you still need to contact us off-blog about this, you can use the Contact Page here, it's email-based so whatever's sent doesn't get published on the blog.

One of the readers of the Facebook group kindly sent the page's administrator a recent photo of Luke out with some of his friends, here it is with appropriate pixelation:

 

 

BTW, I'd decided on the title for this post some days ago, but I thought that I'd Google it to be sure that I'd got it about right. I'd say it's a coincidence of biblical proportions that the text is from Luke 2:10

Saturday 24th July, 2010

HEADS UP!

Posted by at 9:38 pm in Thanks.

We'd be much obliged if all readers could have a look at the "Missing Luke Talion" Facebook page, and spread the word about it. The page was set up by our niece Katherine in the hope that somebody out there can help us to find out if Luke is OK.

I think that most of the info we have is on that Facebook page, but for the sake of clarity I'd like to add that my other half, Chris, is Luke's mother, I'm his step-father and Mike is his natural father.

If you have any info that can help, please post it via Facebook if you can. If you don't want to communicate via Facebook, you can email us via this blog's Contact Page.

Thanks for your attention.

*** Click here for an update posted 30/12/2010 ***

Sunday 29th June, 2008

25 years ago today…

Posted by at 1:01 am in Congratulations!.
Tags:

... only two really important things happened...

The Black Adder, Episode 3 of Series 1 (The Archbishop), was first broadcast, and;

A Welshman, Luke Talion, was born:

 

Who would have guessed that he would grow up into this handsome fella?:

 

The whole family would like to wish you a happy 25th birthday, Luke.

Your sisters send their love and can't wait for you to get in touch again.

Wherever you are and whatever you're doing, we'll always be here for you.

You know where we are if you need us.

Love from Mum, Stef, Ella and Anna.