Rugby season

Tryfan has started playing rugby on Sunday mornings.
We've had awfully nice weather and so we've been making a full morning of the practice by joining a couple other families who also do rugby.

Rhiannon looking after baby William in the midst of the Under 7s

Knocking stuff down

Proper demolition has been going on here at Chalfonts!
Basically, we are bringing down the wall between the kitchen and the living room. This is the same wall where the chimney and fireplace were, so they are going away too.

View into the kitchen with crumbling chimney

View from living room past chimney into kitchen

 During all this demolition, we have been taking refuge in our (me & Rhodri's) bedroom and converted into a lounge/ dining/ bedroom. Crumbs everywhere on mattress mountain, but its pretty fun.

Croissants and cartoons on Mattress Mountain

Bentley doesn't like these loud noises one bit. Poor little guy! He can be found hiding in the darkest recesses of the house or else sulking outside.

Speedgolf !!

Ah yes, our new hobby! Some famous person famously said that "Golf is a good walk spoiled". Well, I say it is a good run made much more interesting!
Some friends of ours in the community somehow latched onto this idea to expand Speedgolf into Great Britain, and they used Rhodri as the face of British Speedgolf as they were building up to the Inaugural British Speedgolf Championships, which took place on Sunday 21st Sept. Here is the trailer that they put together to promote this event...

So we all went to this event on Sunday and even were able to recruit several families from the village to be ball spotters out on the course - the Dons, the Coldbreaths, the Denslows - and it was so fun! I was a little shocked to be the 2nd one to tee off at 1:36pm though. The event started at 1:30 pm and start times were staggered by 6 minutes. Photos don't really capture the challenge and adrenaline that the day involved, but they are a start!

Rhodri on his way to the next tee

Me pulling out my rescue club near the fairway of the 9th

Note the awesome outfit I'm wearing! I was so lucky to be the only female representing Britain in this event, and so I got to wear a sponsored outfit by the company Loudmouth. I was hoping it would bring me magical golfing powers, but it didn't. One of the highlights for me this day was meeting Catherine, a Canadian Speedgolfer who traveled all the way from Toronto to deepest darkest Sussex just to compete in this event! She and I were the only ladies and we had some really good chats about all sorts of things. She is a retired police officer and is about to go pro at Speedgolf.

As a follow up to the event, Dave (our friend who is promoting the sport) got the BBC to do a little broadcast of this for national television next weekend. Rhodri and George (the club pro at the Crowborough Golf Club where the event took place) did some filming.

Dom, Mike Breakfast, Rhods, Dave and George

So.. watch this space!

Rhodri's birthday

Today was Rhodri's birthday and we tried to make it really special for him. First he had breakfast in bed (of course). Later in the afternoon, we dropped him off at the driving range so he could hit some balls ahead of tomorrow's Speedgolf event. Then we sped away and got his car cleaned inside and out until it was all shiny and nice-smelling. We picked him up from the golf course, stopped to get some fish & chips, and went home to have a picnic on the floor. Oh yeah, and I also made him some white chocolate cheesecake for his birthday cake. We think he was happy with his birthday!

Cycling tour of the French Alps

Rhodri is a lucky dog and got to meet his cycling homies for the 2nd year in a row to ride some of the Tour du France hills over a long weekend. He got a lift with Jules and Simon on Thursday morning and came back late last night (Monday).

The cycling gang (2 missing)

There were 6 of them this year and they shared a chalet in Bourg St. Maurice which served as their base for the day rides they did.

Rhods and Huw

 They had amazing weather and gorgeous views, and most importantly, nobody got injured! 

Old friend comes to visit

Our long lost friend and colleague, John, was in Gatwick for some training for work and he came home with me on yesterday (Fri) afternoon so that we could spend a few hours socializing.

Rhiannon, Tryfan and John at the Coach & Horses pub

First we picked up the kids from Emma's house, then we gave John a tour of our house and yard before we went down to the Red Lion to see who the new managers were. The kids rode scooters and we let Bentley come with us too. As it turns out, the bouncy castle was NOT up yet, but Rhiannon made a new friend (daughter of the manageress) and we had a good time chatting at the pub. Then we decided to take Bentley home and go out for dinner at the other pub in the village (Coach & Horses), except we ended up driving to that one because it was starting to get dark.

We had a lovely meal and everyone behaved themselves, then the kids voted to take John to the train station ourselves rather than calling a taxi. So they got into their jammies and we piled into the car to drive John to Haywards Heath station. Tryfs and Rhiannon were so sweet and thoughtful and engaging with John. It helped that he has a son who is Tryfan's age! They thought he was hilarious and they loved his stories.

The next day when we spoke to Rhodri (who is now on a cycling tour back in the French Alps), they were able to tell him (in a Texan accent), "Dad, we're goin' to Texas!". Anyway, it was a really great night and I'm so grateful that we were able to make it happen.

A new school year

First day of school 2014! In front of the garage... Rhiannon ready for Year 4 with a new teacher, Mr. Wilkins, and Tryfan ready for Year 2 with Miss Copp again.

Lined up with Oscar, Harry, Carter, Arthur, Nathan and Harrison

Back to the Gate

(Chelwood Gate, that is)

Beautiful water of Lake Annecy

We had a last minute change of plans and decided to fly Rhodri back home as well on Tuesday Sept 2nd. We had thought that school started on Wed Sept 3rd but at some point during the summer, East Sussex County School district announced an Inset Day for that day and children start school on Thurs Sept 4th. This messed up our plans because I had to be back at work and Nain/ Taid had to get back to north Wales, and Rhodri was planning to stay in France to join his cycling friends a couple days later.

Anyway, we booked Rhodri a flight from Geneva and then on Tuesday morning we drove from Val d'Isere through Albertville, along Lake Annecy, and on up to Geneva. Then I turned back south and returned the rental car to Lyon airport to catch my flight (which ended up being delayed by a whopping 5 hours!).

 Rhodri got home around 5pm and I eventually got home at 1:30am, but we were all happy to be reunited safe and sound. We had a leisurely morning on Wed, then I went to work and Rhodri stayed home with the kids and we all went out to dinner at La Casa.

Now the plan is for Rhodri to leave with his cycling buddies to drive back to the French Alps reallly early tomorrow morning while I take the kids to their first day of school.

Old stompin' grounds

Today was the day I was most looking forward to: the full day hike around my old geology field area. Not only was it the first day of September, but we had crystal clear skies to start with and all the right clothing and provisions that we needed. Bliss.

Map showing our starting point and the main loop around Roche des Fours

We hiked up to Col de les Rocheure and had lunch on the other side of the saddle looking at the Mean Martin complex.  Then we hiked along the ridge line and down towards the Refuge du Fond des Fours,but then went off piste to explore the troubling area which had me scratching my head while I tried in vain to understand the geology back in the day.

Complicated geology in the Fond des Fours area, with Mt Blanc peeking in the background

 We saw two mountain goats - an adult (guessing the mother) and a baby! We had been heading towards a big black boulder which was situated in a prominent position on a small ridge, and as we got closer, the goats appeared in silhouette next to the boulder!

Adult mountain goat near black boulder

We navigated our way through the area that I had been dreaming of (and still none the wiser about the geology) and down to the valley floor to rejoin the trail to the refuge. We stopped for a beer and snack here before heading back down to the car.

Peeking over the edge of the cliff, with the Refuge du Fond des Fours in the center of the photo

 We had a nice chat with the 3 people who were already at the Refuge - the manageress, her son, and her son's girlfriend who had been working at the Refuge all summer. This is a place that one can spend the night, have a hot cooked dinner and breakfast, or just call in as we did for light refreshment before continuing on. It is open all summer and most of the winter, though not sure about the in between seasons.

Relaxing at the Refuge

Because we were visiting this area during the period Aug 29th - Sept 2, we saw the whole town literally wind down for the season. Most shops closed on Aug 31st and would reopen in December for the winter season. Fortunately, our hotel was still open and so were a few restaurants. It was absolutely lovely to have the place mostly to ourselves! What a luxury. And apparently they had experienced a very rainy, cold summer so the gorgeous weather we enjoyed was very special for this year.

Rhods on the path back down the hill

I had forgotten what a long path down it is from the Refuge back to the end of the road - it took us an hour and that was by walking quite quickly. Hard to believe I used to do this every single day for 6 weeks!

Mobile cow-milking set up at the base of the mountain where the road ends.

Finally we got to the car and drove back to the hotel to clean up for dinner. We have to leave tomorrow which is sad, but we definitely made the most of our time in Val d'Isere.

Another stop

Part of the fun of this whole via ferrata hobby is navigating to the alleged route. We (fortunately) had bought a book before we went on this trip so we could read all the descriptions and directions for these routes, but things don't always go to plan!  After we left Aussois, we still had enough hours in the day and energy left to try another little via ferrata that looked like it was close to the road on our drive back. We followed the directions but they took us up a really dodgy road which we eventually turned around on and drove back, then walked up and sniffed our way to this route which was on a different road. Good thing it was a lovely day.

Our rental car with the dodgy road behind

This route was built onto these 2 weird limestone monoliths that had a 2-cable crossing. There was also a tree that you had to climb in a weird way (which I didn't after seeing Rhodri struggle with it).

 Anyway, it was challenging and after we were done, I had really had enough via ferrating for the day so was happy to make our way back to the car and hit the road.

We did stop for a beer in Lanslevillard

 Beautiful clouds came rolling in as we crossed over Col d'Iseran and headed back down into Val d'Isere.

We stopped on the side of the road so that I could take a good look at the campsite where I lived for that summer 19 years ago. Now there are chalets/ houses right up against the spot where we had been camping.

Awesome Aussois

After getting a little bit spooked by the exposure and solitude of Roc du Toviere (but also very pleased with ourselves for doing it in the first place), we talked to Fred at our hotel about our other via ferrata options, and he suggested a place that was a bit of a drive away but it turned out to be SUCH a great outing! Again, we got ourselves pretty spooked again but it was somehow fun.

The village is called Aussois but the feature is called Les Forts de l'Esseillon (Fort Victor Emmanuel) and it was on the other side of the National Park to Val d'Isere. It is an old fort where the Piedmontese fought to keep the French out and it is located on this really spectacular gorge. There are 7 via ferrata routes that are here, and they are meant to be for all ages and abilities. What a cool place.

Near Aussois, with the fort in the middle of the photo

Route map showing the 7 via ferratas

Here is a great photo from across the valley of the complex

We ended up only doing one of the routes - Les Diablotins - which traversed around the cliffs below Fort Victor-Emmanuel.


As we were going along, we could see people in other parts of the gorge doing the other routes. Crazy! I would like to come back here on a day when I was feeling a bit more brave.

Our route ended by climbing into one of the gun tunnels within the fort - really cool! Then we explored inside a bit before making our way out and down the trail to find a lunch spot.

Self take in front of the fort