Elidir Fawr

Today Rhods, Bentley and I climbed up the so-called mountain of Elidir Fawr. This is just behind Llanberis on the slate mine side of the lake. Since Snowden is on the other side of the valley, this is normally where people go walking. I wasn't particularly impressed with this walk, since we were down slogging through boggy hummocky terrain for most of the day, but once we got up high it was better.

Map of our route

Finally starting to climb up the head of the valley, looking back at the boggy grassland

Finally on the high path, summit of Elidin Fawrn in the background.

Beautiful clouds and mist across the valley on the Snowdon side

Me and Bents with the boring boggy valley behind me - this was on the way back down

It was an ok walk. Neither of us felt all that great but it was wonderful to be out in the fresh air and mountainous terrain. Plus it is always nice to be able to get immersed in one's own "trail thoughts" and just be free to think and daydream while walking.

Cousins

This morning the 3 local younger cousins came over. They got dropped off at 7:30am and all 5 kids were out in the back garden "playing" (i.e. combination of laughing, screaming, and crying) just after 8:30am. Rhiannon was a little star at keeping the peace and caring for whichever little one needed a bit of extra attention.

I think they got to play for nearly the whole day while Rhodri, Bentley and I went for a hike near Llanberis.

Anglesey adventure

Today we piled into 2 cars and did a day trip over to Anglesey, which is about 45 min drive away from Nain and Taid's house.

We stopped first at Penmon where there is a lighthouse. There is this awesome painting that is permanently installed out on the bluff. The painting itself was partially created by the landscape, because the paint was still wet when some hail, wind and then rain slashed through the area, adding to the artwork itself. How awesome is this?!

We walked around the coast for a bit and then reunited with Nain and Taid at the cafe there in Penmon. It was a bit chilly but wonderful to be out exploring on this beautiful day.

At the cafe with Nain and Taid, mainland Wales across the water in the background.

From Penmon, we backtracked to Beaumaris and then headed north a bit to Red Wharf Bay, where there is a relatively new restaurant called The Tavern on a private beach. We had a lovely lunch and then spent a few hours just hanging out on the sandy beach.

One of the great things was that Bentley was allowed to be here, too. We were going to go swimming, but discovered that quite a few jellyfish were around and people near us got stung just as we arrived, so in the end none of us went in the water.

It was a glorious day, and to top it all off Rhodri and I got to go out to dinner in Colwyn Bay with Bleddyn and Geri later that night, so that was an extra treat.

End of school and start of summer holidays!

Finally the school year has come to an end and we are off up to Wales for a week starting tomorrow morning! It is such a good feeling to finish up the year although quite a few people have snuck off already since this week has only 2 school days in it. There are 3 teachers leaving now, including one of our favorite TAs, Ms Wain. The good news is that next year Rhiannon will have the same teacher she had this year (Mr Wilkins) and we all love him. Tryfan will get Mr D, and that will be quite good for him as well. All good! But now we are ready for summer.

Teacher Gifts

This year we made Elderflower Champagne to give away as end-of-year teacher presents. We made these 30 liters some weeks ago, so they are really super fizzy now! We made fancy labels that show a photo journey of our distillation process. It took us quite a few hours to assemble the bags to give away tomorrow, but it is worth it because the teachers and staff at the school work so hard for us all.

Growing up

Our little Minx is really starting to look grown up. She has been doing a good job of brushing her hair more often and it is really long now (though you can't really tell from this photo).  We think she is such a beautiful girl.

New apparatus

Rhodri installed this nifty contraption at the end of the hallway so that we can all work on our upper body and core strength. The kids have been making up little routines flipping back and forth on the ropes. It is easily removable from the thresholds (just lifts off) and everyone who sees it want to come and play on it!

Quiet weekend of recovery

Rhods and I both didn't feel too well this weekend, so we just laid real low and hung around the house all day yesterday and most of the day today. In the late morning, we did venture out for a walk in the Ashdown Forest to have a bit of a picnic. We chose a place that none of us had been to before and we stumbled upon this lovely little spot in the middle of some lush trees. Here are two views of our lush little spot.

Nights out

My friend Chris had a friend from Germany visiting, and he wanted to go out one night in Brighton, so Cat and I went along on Thursday night. It was a really fun night out on the town, and it was lovely warm evening with good company. The only bad part was leaving to go back home - it is always hard to leave a party atmosphere and be sensible! But I did have to work the next day so needed to go to sleep at some point.

And actually, Friday night I had committed to going out with some work colleagues (which I very rarely do), so by the time this weekend rolled around, I was really tired and didn't feel very well at all!  But now we have just a couple days of school left, and then we are off to Wales for a bit.

Volleyball

One of the games the kids made up recently was volleyball in the living room. They use Bentley's leash as the net between the door and the breakfast bar, and then hit a balloon back and forth.

Sometimes singles turns into doubles... 

Eventually the balloon lost all its air and then the troops were begging for us to go buy a pack of balloons so they could continue to play. Hasn't happened yet but I'm sure we will keep the games going.

Barn Dance

So yes, tonight was the Barn Dance with the Greenwood Family Band and they were so good. Nobody knew what they were doing but everyone was smiling. Rhodri and I rode bikes down to Gordon and Anne Marie's house for some aperitifs, then we all rode bikes down to the village hall.

Greenwood Family Band

Someone took this photo of me and Rhods

150 year celebration

This has been a big weekend for us and our whole school community because the school turned 150 years old, and this happens to coincide with the year that Alice in Wonderland was published (1865). So the school decided to take on the theme of Alice in Wonderland and host a big celebration of the 150 years of history. There were various scheduled events during the afternoon, and Rhiannon had to go to a birthday party as well in the middle of it but everything turned out fine. Today also happened to be the hottest day of the year!

Rhiannon waiting for her turn to read, and Tryfan in the audience listening

Rhodri and I worked the BBQ with our friends Susie and Jason and it was really fun.

Rhiannon with her classmates Grace and Amelia, and teacher Mr Wilkins

It was an exhausting day, but we needed to conserve some energy for tonight's barn dance!

Swimming gala

Rhiannon was one of the handful of students from her school invited to compete in the Mid Sussex swimming gala. There were 9 schools competing, and ours came in 3rd but only very narrowly missing 2nd place despite being a much smaller school than the others.

Rhiannon won her race swimming backstroke and Rhodri was there to cheer her and the other swimmers on. We are so proud of her and the rest of her team!

Love Supreme

Today was my friend Emma's "Hen Party" (aka Bachelorette party) and she decided to have a group of girlfriends spend the day/ eve at a music festival in the area. This was the first music festival I've been to in the UK and it was really fun. Summer festivals are really big here in the summer, and this particular one - "Love Supreme" - was quintessential because it was held at Glynde Place in the heart of Sussex. It happened to be the most gorgeous Saturday in the world and we had a lot of fun!

Danya, Becks, Susie, EMMA, Viki, me, Jane and Corinne

View of the festival from the ferris wheel

Stripping the Willow

This evening after work, Rhodri and I met up with some other villagers in Canary Wharf to celebrate our friend Julian Wild's art exhibit opening night. His exhibition is called "Stripping the willow" and is a sculpture exhibition in the lobby of some big office building. It was a really fun Tuesday evening, although it felt quite strange to see the familiar faces of our neighbors in the context of Big City London.

Birthday pizza party

Tryfs went to Jake's birthday party today which was held at Pizza Express. Look how cute they all are in their little hats!

Communal worship

Every week at school, one of the classes hosts the "Communal Worship" session which parents of that class are invited to. This is a fairly new way of doing things as it replaces the Friday morning assembly where the former headteacher used to recognise a few pupils each week who had done something special or notable. Parents were pretty reluctant to be excited about this change, but actually it has been so wonderful. Each week there is a theme for the school, such as humility, enjoyment, generosity, friendship, etc... Nice themes which the school then explores throughout the week to really understand what the word or concept is.

This week was Foxes class who were presenting something about the theme(s) of "Enjoyment and love learning". They sang 3 different songs and also explained the 5 ways to pray to God: praising, saying thank you, saying sorry, asking for help for someone else, and asking for help for yourself. After each way of praying was presented, some of the kids played soothing inspiring background music on the xylophones while the audience was invited to pray. One might expect that such a scene populated by about 25 6-7 year old boys and a meager handful of 6-7 year old girls would create a rowdy din of gong banging and giggles, but actually these kids were so earnest in their attempts to create soothing music it brought tears to my eyes.  Their grand finale was a song called E-N-J-O-Y which I wish I had videoed but my phone's memory was full by then. What made it great was that everyone was invited to stand and sing along and/or dance. It was such a joyous song. The song was accompanied by a slideshow of nice things, so the song went something like this: "Birthday cake! Birthday cake! It looks good. [repeat] E-N-J-O-Y! God is good, God is good. God is great!" and then repeating with another something that sounds good, tastes good, feels good, and all done to a samba beat.

Anyway, the video I did take was pretty cute too. It is just so sweet to see all these gorgeous kids singing and dancing so earnestly.

Sports Day 2015

Today was Sports Day and it was a truly gorgeous day. Tryfan had been gearing up for the annual running race where he would try to beat Harrison while Rhiannon was hoping to not come in last for her running race. Both of their ambitions were not realised today, but they both ran really well in this race and also in the other 5 events. Tryfan came in 2nd and showed great sportsmanship, and while Rhiannon was technically last in her race, all 5 of the girls were pretty close together so she wasn't last by much.

Rhiannon doing standing jump

The events were: standing jump, throwing distance, throwing accuracy, sack race, obstacle course, and then running.

The Year 2 Fox class - Tryfan is in the back row, middle

 It was actually probably the hottest day of the year so far - around 28 deg C/ 85 deg F - and so we all clustered in the shade for a picnic lunch at the end. This was the first time the school has done it this way and it was so lovely to just gather together in the soft grass and picnic!

Village Day in the Gate

...Chelwood Gate, that is.
A few years ago the parish council bought the piece of land adjacent to the Chelwood Gate village hall and established a village celebration day sometime in mid-June. This year it was held on Sat 20 June, which was also Solstice, also the day of a sponsored walk with the school (along the same route as the one a few days ago with Beavers), and also the day of a party for our friend Roland. So it was quite a busy day.

Tryfan dressed up in party accessories

Kids tug-of-war which morphed into general tug-of-war

Girls side pulling their way to victory

It was a fairly overcast, mild day which eventually turned to drizzle. Not too glorious weather-wise, but we had a fun and full day anyway. 

Friends in the Gate

Our long lost friend Sarah came over this afternoon with most of her kids and also her new husband. Sarah used to live around the corner from us here in "the Gate" but moved to another village a couple of years ago. It was really nice to see her again, and the kids fell right back into familiar playing as if no time had passed.

Tryfan, Joe, Rhiannon with Maisy and Hattie with Poppy

 Later this afternoon we had some other friends around for dinner - the Denslows, who have really looked after us as we've been undergoing the house renovations. We had a lovely afternoon although the sun wasn't shining quite as brightly as we expected it to. The kids played "Grandma's Footsteps" while we adults sat around chatting.

Rhiannon as the Grandma in Grandma's Footsteps - boys trying to sneak up on her

Our little monkey

Today Tryfan went on a sponsored walk with his Beavers troop. Bentley and I came along too, since they needed an extra adult and the walk was in "our" part of the forest anyway. The whole troop dressed up like monkeys and just ran around the forest like real monkeys.

Monkey Beavers in the rhododendren

BBQ at Little Bridge

Our friends Rob and Macha invited us around for a BBQ today and it was all rather spontaneous and wonderful. There were a herd of kids there from our 3 families and soon they were riding on wheeled vehicles down the lush, grassy slope.

Flossie, Leonie, Rhiannon, Tryfan, Carter, Ellis and Teddy

Tryfan on a wagon coming down the slope

Many kids coming down the slope!

Elderflower champagne triple batch

This year we decided to go big with our elderflower champagne and we invited Ms. Wain and her daughter Brooke over to make it with us. As always, we followed this recipe. We started on Friday eve after work and then Sunday morning we reunited to strain the precious liquid into sterilised bottles.

We ran out of bottles though, so we did have to make a quick trip down to the recycling bins at the village hall. Fortunately we didn't have to dig too deep before we found some perfect bottles to use for our champagne.