Saturday 25 February 2017

Welsh Treasures

Hello, thanks for popping in, it's so lovely to see you here.  Today I am linking up with Amy at Love Made My Home for Five on Friday, even though it's Saturday and I am chasing my tail again. 
 
So, this week was our half term holiday and like most teacher households, we have spent it catching up with the things we don't have time to do during term time.  We have helped our daughter and her husband with a bit of garden building, spent some time with my parents,    caught up with a good friend and done some admin and chores at home.  I have been with my lovely Holiday Husband and it's been relaxed, sociable and very satisfying.  However, in an unabashed bout of selfishness, we snuck away to the seaside in North Wales for a couple of days at the beginning of the week.  The cloud was so low that we didn't see the tops of the mountains - in fact, sometimes it was so low that we couldn't see the mountains at all - and the sun didn't shine once, but we didn't really care. 
 

We spent hours on the beach, walking, sitting, looking down on the sand and the stone and looking out at the waves and the birds.  We came home with earache,  aching legs, faces encrusted with salt and grinning from ear to ear.  Here are five things we saw while we were there.
 
1.  Welsh National Dress
 
 
St David's Day is fast approaching and it is customary for young children to wear traditional Welsh costumes to school on their national day.  We saw these hanging up at the front of a large supermarket - entire costumes, complete with hat and fabric daffodil.  For little boys, there were white shirts with red and black checked trousers, waistcoats and bow ties, the waistcoats adorned with a printed leek.  I have it on good authority that older children simply wear their national rugby shirts!
 
2.  A Mermaid's Purse
 
 
We have a saying in our house that whenever we go to Anglesey, I find a mermaid's purse, the eggcase of a shark or ray.  In fact, I found this one at Dinas Dinlle on the mainland, west of Caernarfon, a beautiful specimen.  It's curly tendrils, which attach the case firmly to bunches of seaweed, told me that it came from a shark rather than a ray and its large size and thick edges identify it as a nursehound case.  However, I think I prefer to believe that it belongs to a mermaid, who might keep her shiny little shells in it.
 
3.  A Spider Crab
 
 
I found this dead juvenile spider crab on Llanddwyn Beach on Anglesey.  It was very small and looked absolutely perfect.  Some people apparently think it's odd to take photographs of a dead crab but it seems quite reasonable to me!  Twenty-first century beachcombing.
 
4.  Brent Geese
 
 
As we arrived at LLanddwyn Beach, a small flock of Brent Geese flew in and landed in the shallows.  I spent quite a long time watching their comical behaviour - and Barbara, I thought of you! 
 
5.  St Trillo's Chapel
 
 
Tucked away on the promenade at Rhos-on-Sea is St Trillo's Chapel, one of the smallest churches in the country.  It's so small that we drove past it twice before we found it, despite the fact that we knew almost exactly where it was!  It is a little gem and deserves a whole blogpost of its own, but our visit was as much a part of this trip as the beachcombing and birdwatching so I wanted to share it with you here.
 
Happy weekend, everyone.  It's grey and gloomy here again.
 
See you soon.
 
Love, Mrs Tiggywinkle x
 
 
 
 
 
 

36 comments:

  1. We've spent some time in northern Wales and Anglesey and thoroughly enjoyed it. Loved your photos. I thought I hadn't seen a mermaid's purse, but my husband says I have, nice to see yours though. As a retired teacher I sure remember looking forward to the breaks and trying to get everything done and relax too.

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    1. It's about getting the balance right isn't it Janet, and we managed it well this time. We feel so fortunate to live only a couple of hours' drive from North Wales and I think it's the combination of coast and mountains that I love so much. x

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  2. The Great Escape sounds magical and quite as you'd expect weatherwise for a seaside holiday in this country. Glad you enjoyed the break. x

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    1. Now now Karen, we have in the past enjoyed wonderful sunshine in North Wales, even in February! x

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  3. Your beach treasures are wonderful. I love the Welsh coast. It sounds like you have had a great time:)

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    1. In days gone by I would probably have brought the mermaid's purse and the dead crab home with me! Thank goodness for digital cameras. x

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  4. Looks like a great break away, despite the weather. I have never come across a mermaids purse before, how wonderful.

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    1. You'll have to look for them in the Hebrides! I was surprised to discover that the nursehound can grow to more than 5' long, I didn't realise we had sharks of that size around our coast. x

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  5. Sounds like you had a wonderful escape despite the weather. Glad you thought of me watching those lovely geese. I'm still chasing them in this little corner. I agree they are very comical birds :). B xx

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    1. It was lovely to blow all the cobwebs away, Barbara. x

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  6. I think for good luck you can put a penny in a mermaids purse and throw it back in the sea, maybe one day the mermaid will repay the favour

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    1. I've never heard that before. Not sure I could bring myself to throw something into the sea, though! x

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  7. What a lovely little getaway. I've never seen a mermaid's purse, but I'll be on the lookout next time we go to the beach. The Brent geese have beautiful markings.

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    1. I'm not sure I'd ever seen Brent geese before but I've since discovered that they overwinter nearby. x

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  8. Sounds like you've had a lovely getaway in Wales. I love the Mermaid's Purse. I've never seen one before. Thanks for sharing your Five on Friday!

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    1. It was a lovely break, thank you, on a small budget. Give me a beach at any time of year and I'm happy. x

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  9. Sounds like you had a lovely break in Wales even if the sun did not shine. It is good to get away and relax for a few days. I hope your batteries are recharged ready for the rest of the term. Love all you beach coming finds.

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    1. I think my batteries are now fully charged - and it's just as well. North Wales always does that for me. x

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  10. So glad you had a time away in beautiful north Wales. I'm sure it was a much needed break and an invigorating one as I can see from your five photos. All the best for the second half of the school term.

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    1. Thanks Linda. I've enjoyed your posts about Berks and Bucks as I used to live on the border. x

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  11. Not living by the seaside, I've never heard of a mermaid's purse. You share such interesting things! The tiny chapel looks like something straight out of a medieval story, and I hope you DO write a post of it's own. Sounds like you had a perfect week-long break. My son is off this past week too, and we ended it by sending him to the dentist to get four wisdom teeth pulled. I think he might have enjoyed a trip to Wales a whole lot better ;)
    Wendy

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    1. Ooh, I send your son my best wishes. I had my wisdom teeth removed under general anaesthetic when I was 21 and spent three days in hospital! Tiny chapel post is in the pipeline. x

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  12. Some lovely beachcombing and birdwatching time... and some wonderful beach treasures.

    Wishing you a beautiful week ahead...
    Brenda

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    1. Thanks Brenda. Digital photography means that my beachcombing finds don't have to come home with me, which is handy when you live in a tiny house! x

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  13. Catching up late - but loved your post! I think I could beach comb on one like that for hours. I love the magic of the "mermaid purse" especially. ;)

    Thanks for sharing and I hope you have a blessed week ahead! xo

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    1. Not as late as I am, Carrie! Thank you. I think the magic of the mermaid's purse holds so much potential... x

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  14. I've never heard of a Mermaid's purse so I was happy to read about that. Sounds like a great getaway. I do love combing the beaches. Hope your new week goes well.

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    1. It was a super break, Ellen, thank you. Two days on the beach sets me up for months. x

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  15. What a wonderful get-away! Beach combing is on my list of the best things in life. I've never heard of a mermaid's purse - how magical. Glad you were able to escape for a few days, despite the clouds. It is snowing here tonight. Hope your week is lovely. xx Karen

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    1. I envy you the snow, Karen, as all we have had this winter is one brief dusting which soon melted. x

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  16. You can't do much about the weather so you may as well enjoy yourself I always think, especially when on holiday. We spent a couple of days in Southland earlier in the year and it was cold and blustery there but we enjoyed the break from the usual routine.

    Diana

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    1. Quite right, Diana. As they say, there's no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing! x

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  17. I love those five things..Thank you for visiting my blog..

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  18. I am sorry to be late visiting, but I wanted to wait until the link had closed and I could write to everyone who had taken part. Thank you so much for your support of Five On Friday this week and in the weeks gone by. I do so appreciate it and have really enjoyed reading your posts. I hope that you will enjoy going to the new link up just as much and will continue to take part. I hope that I will still see you at my blog sometimes, I will of course still be visiting you sometimes too! Best wishes and many thanks.

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  19. Really enjoyed your five this week. Mermaid's purse is new to me. I envied you the beach combing. I grew up in California near the northern coast where it's cold and overcast as your beach was this day. We used to walk for miles and the best was when we would camp at one of the campgrounds and shiver around the campfire and couldn't wait to snuggle in our beds. As for the comment you left on my post about purging possessions, I got a kick out of thinking about you keeping the friend's ex-husband's wooden hand-crafted piece long after the wife had ditched him! Sounds exactly what I would do, and have done. That's why I have so much I've been carrying for years!

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    1. I have been beachcombing since I was a child, Sugar - at least now I can photograph the treasure and leave it behind! I have several old mermaid's purses and crab claws in my childhood tin of shells, and I know that's ridiculous. I love a campfire! By the end of the day my body was tired, in a happy, exhausted way, and I was happy to sink into bed very early. Bliss. x

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