The Sound of Music

 This weekend I watched The Sound of Music for the first time. I'm visiting Austria (Salzburg) with friends this summer, mainly for the purpose of making a Sound-of-Music-obsessed friend's dreams come true by visiting the filming locations. A few of us in the group had never seen it, so I organised a film night for educational purposes.

We first had a walk around the bay in the gorgeous sun with sticky ice creams & Mark showing off. We later had a lovely film evening with plenty of snacks and pizzas. Great film!! Next up on our list is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (which I have seen lots but love and yet my Sound-of-Music friend hasn't seen it!). 

On Monday I went for a leg-ruining gorgeous run in the sun. Long runs I enjoy, but progressive paces in the heat means my legs are still hurting now. 

That afternoon I took the train to Bristol to visit the lovely Katharine, who is living there now and working her plastics surgeon fellow dream. 

Porthkerry Country Park

 Found a new (new to us) day out location this weekend - Porthkerry Country Park. Park-wise it has woodlands, trails, playing fields, and a beach. Amenities-wise it has a cafe, another ice cream cafe, toilets, parking, benches and play areas. Scenery-wise it has a beach and viaduct. What more can you want!!

It's also the start of the new Llwybr Coedwig Cymru trail - the first 80km in a planned Wales long national trail. 

My panini even came with salad - fancy!

28

Yesterday, it was my birthday! I sent Mark to fetch some breakfast goodies from Ty Melin bakery before we drove to the Brecons for a birthday walk around Pontsticill Reservoir. 

One of the best things about Mark having a licence is that I can now eat when we drive to places. 

Despite the inclement weather, we had a gorgeous walk. The walk had everything we wanted - nice clear paths, variety of reservoir-side and forests, waterfalls, a cafe (with public toilets!), a pub at the end, a steam railway (Brecon Mountain Railway), and even a sheltered bus stop perfectly timed for putting on waterproofs when the first shower started. What else do you need? It picks up the Taff Trail in parts, which is definitely a gravel bike rather than a road bike trail. 

Ready to go!

Steam train or Mark's ear on fire, you decide. 

The reservoir wasn't quite full enough for us to see the plug hole spillway in action. 

Pontsticill station. 

Toilets!! (I'm easily excited)

Happy walkers (this is Mark's happy face). 

Path alongside the railway. Choo choo! We (I) ran up the small hill to catch it as it passed - worth it. 

Waterfalls in the distance through the forest. We stopped nearby next to a footbridge and had some flask tea (hot drinks in flasks always have a peculiar taste, don't they?). 

Pub time - chips for lunch (shh, don't tell my mum). 

Pen-y-Fan in the distance! We weren't able to see this on our walk but we spied it as we drove off and pulled over to snap a quick picture. 

We spent the afternoon opening presents and cards (thank you everyone!), cooking moussaka, eating cake, and watching Harry Potter. 

Now I have the birthday blues - only 364 days to go...

Burnmoor Lodge

 Over Easter weekend we took a trip to the Lake District - Eskdale Green - to say goodbye to Grandad, my mum's dad who died just under 2 years ago. Burnmoor Lodge near Eskdale is a remote lodge sat just above Burnmoor Tarn, and Grandad spent many happy times staying there. The Lake District also holds special memories for my mum, as they had regular camping trips there when growing up.

Mark & I drove from Cardiff to Eskdale (7.5 hours - but sharing the driving!) to meet Caitlin, mum, & JC there on Friday. During the drive I learnt that Mark didn't know the word for cattle grid - and was calling them 'slated fence on the floor'. 

We had a wee surprise when two of Grandad's sisters - Maggie and Linda, together with their husbands - popped up to our airbnb. They were staying nearby and had recognised our cottage. It was at this point that Cait clocked all of the men were plus ones/not related (Rob, Keith, JC, Mark).

On Saturday we all went for a walk around Boot. We'd originally planned to get the Ravenglass and Eskdale railway there from our nearby station, but at £17 a pop it wasn't quite worth it - and those on the train looked quite cold anyway!

Proud moment of Mark in his new gear - new coat, new shoes, and new (mine) bag. 

We started off with the acquisition of snacks from the station cafe. 

Then a lovely walk ambling along the river, up some waterfalls, and back down again. 

Photographer at work. 

Friends!

This is Caitlin's best worried look when we found a viewpoint for the waterfall with grated flooring looking a long way below. 

Said waterfall.

Everyone together now. 

Some of the clearest water I've ever seen! Not photographed well but it was gorgeous.

At one point mum wanted to visit the campsite she remembered visiting decades ago. It's changed a lot since she last visited - not least the playground.

We also looked at Eskdale Mill but didn't fancy paying to go in. It wasn't until we later lost Maggie & Keith that we discovered they had indeed gone in. 

The wee train. Some of the seating looked quite cold!

Everyone met back at our airbnb for a picnic style lunch, before we broke and re-convened again for dinner in a pub that evening. 

On Sunday we had better weather (in fact - the whole weekend was better weather than we anticipated), and headed for our longer celebratory Grandad walk. 

Mark was wrapped up warm. My new bag!

We started off through a farm. 

Before emerging onto some gorgeous moors. 

Mark found some tadpoles. Hundreds of them!

Hello!

We then met with Burnmoor Tarn, and Maggie cracked out the mini mini eggs. Next to the Tarn was Burnmoor Lodge - an ex-hunting lodge where Grandad used to stay. 

We took a few minutes to say goodbye to Grandad. Shortly after this, a hailstorm hit us - he did love a practical joke.

Then back to the beautiful moor, we headed downhill to see Wast Water. 

We decided to not do a ridge walk that day due to the unpredictable weather (Storm Dave), and headed back along the side of the ridge. 

Adams girls. 

On Sunday afternoon (Easter Sunday) we adults (1 of whom is turning 30 this year) were treated to an Easter egg hunt. Final scores were 22 vs 12... I like to win big. In the evening we headed over to Maggie/Linda/Rob/Keith's for a lovely home cooked dinner. We were again treated to another Easter hunt - this time for Lindt bunnies, with different rules - they could be hidden inside things too! Yes, I won that one too.

Our cottage for the weekend. 

Monday called for another long drive back (8 hours this time). Getting out of the Lake District and North England was quite slow, with even service stations being too full to park. The last 3 hours were fortunately a breeze. Home to 2 loads of washing and falling asleep on the sofa!