The Monstrous Regiment of Women

We drove out to Anglesey on Wednesday to visit Plas Newydd, which we'd somehow failed to visit when we actually stayed on Anglesey.



The original house on the site was built in the thirteenth century but the current building was started in the early fifteenth century and has been expanded many times since. I failed to take any photos inside (I have very definitely lost the habit of taking photos), which I'm regretting now as some of the rooms were presented in the state that they would have been in the 1930's. That's a lot more recent than most National Trust properties and I found that very interesting. But the thing that I really should have taken a picture of was the amazing Rex Whistler mural in the dining room. There's a picture in the Wikipedia entry that really doesn't do it justice. Not that a photo was really going to capture all the perspective tricks in it. As you walk from one end to the other, some of the perspective changes and things like the wet footprints on the quayside change direction.

The house is set in a lovely garden that we would have explored more of but we made the mistake of taking the path out to the rhododendron garden first. There is a warning sign that the path is a little tricky but that didn't really cover how slippery it was after the rain. Inevitably I stumbled and slid a little about halfway along the route and my ankle twinged. I thought it was okay but by the time we actually reached the rhododendron garden it was quite sore and battlehamster ended up taking my rucksack on the way back so that I wasn't putting too much weight on the ankle. We sat and had some ice cream and took a very gentle walk along a much smoother path, saw a couple of red squirrels, and then headed back to Portmeirion.

I don't think I've done anything serious to the ankle but we're back home now and it's still unhappy enough that I caught the bus into town to get my hair cut this morning rather than walking down the hill. Which is a bit frustrating because I enjoy walking and it's my main form of exercise. Hopefully the ankle will settle down again in the next couple of days.

We're on holiday in Portmeirion this week. It was so hot over the weekend that even I was starting to wilt a little and a lot of ice cream has been eaten. We've been for a few gentle walks around the woods here and said hello to the Bristol Colonnade:



This was originally the facade of the bath house at Arnos Court in Bristol. Arnos Court is just down the hill from our home, so this would have been part of the view when our late 1920's house was first built. The bath house was damaged by bombs in the Second World War and was scheduled for demolition by the council in the late 1950s but Clough William-Ellis, the architect of Portmeirion came to the rescue and transported the colonnade to the village and had it rebuilt there.

We'd planned an expedition today but the temperature dropped dramatically overnight and the forecast rain and windy was extremely rainy and extremely windy, so we decided to stay relatively local. We got a takeaway lunch from the extremely nice street food kiosk in the village. The weather was so bad that the usual queue was completely absent and the only other customer was a small bedraggled blue tit that was determinedly eating the contents of a mayo packet.



This afternoon we went out to Porthmadog and strolled up and down the high street and visited the maritime museum and the local bookshop. I've been trying to learn Welsh so I picked up a Welsh grammar book and a kids book in Welsh to see if I could translate any of it. The cashier rang everything up, thanked me for the purchase, and I automatically said thank you back while I was putting my purse away. It wasn't until we left the shop that battlehamster said I'd got a big smile from the cashier because her last sentence had been in Welsh and my thank you had been in Welsh too. So, I guess that despite the brain fog, I've managed to pick up something from Duolingo. Which is encouraging.

I'm currently halfway through a very much needed two week holiday and I think I've finally unwound enough from assorted work and family stress to realise how tired I am. We spent last week having a gentle staycation at home.

On Monday we went to Slimbridge Wetlands Centre and ambled around admiring the birds:





There were a truly surprising number of flamingos there:



...and a very odd looking chicken. Not sure what breed that one was:



We pottered out to Weston Super Mare on Wednesday to visit the tiny museum there as they currently have a Paul Kidby Discworld exhibtion. I spent quite a lot of time giggling at the descriptions and I was not the only visitor doing that. The musuem has some exhibition space downstairs and a very nice cafe and the permanent town history exhibits are upstairs. I'm still a little confused about this sign though:



Is a Werechurch a church by day or by night?