Catching up May - Sep 2008

Well it has been one rollercoaster of six months since we landed in the UK on May 1st 2008. Besides getting the house ready and seeing friends and family we have managed to pack in an extraordinary number of visits to places of interest. Now the nights draw in yet our schedule continues unabated. Maybe in darkest December all things will stop but as long as there is light, there is exploration. Catching up over six months requires a little effort since the memory fades quickly so in point form here goes:

1 May was spent visiting the local area specifically the town of Bewdley which lies on the River Severn and is three miles walking distance. It is a Georgian town and full of interesting 18th century buildings. There is also a station on the preserved Severn Valley Railway (SVR) that works a steam train route from Bridgenorth to Kidderminster. There is also a fine museum with tea room and souvenir shop. Bewdley is also home to an award winning fish and chip shop called Merchants and we can atest to these absolutely superb chips with many days spent next to the river enjoying the food. It has become our local hangout on days when we don't want to travel being our destination on any walk through the Wyre Forest.

2 June we started with a visit to Malvern set aside the Malvern hills, a feature that lies along a major fault line in the UK and the rocks that make up the hills are very old. We visited Malvern Priory that dates back to the Normans and is very large for a church. On June 10th we visited Kidderminster Station to see the arrival of Prince Charles and Camilla. They were travelling to Bridgenorth behind steam engine King Edward I to celebrate the rebirth of the line after the floods of 2007. We aso visited another local town, Bridgnorth, that is the other end of the SVR. It too is an historic town replete with ruined castle blown up by Cromwell in the 1642-49 Civil War. A lot of these towns are local to our area (eastern Shropshire and northern Worcestershire) and so in the future will only be referred to if there is a visit of significance. Included is Church Stretton lieing between two hills, Caer Caradoc and the Longmyndd both following the same fault line as the Malvern Hills. This town is very picturesque with many 17th and 18th century buildings. Two more places of interest that we visited in June and make up the local area are Worcester and Hereford. The City of Worcester which has a grand Cathedral and contains the tomb of King John and Prince Arthur (Henry VIII elder brother who died young at Ludlow Castle) and the City of Hereford that also has a grand cathedral albeit built of sandstone and looking the worse for wear these days. June also saw our first major excursion to London staying at a cousin's in Woodford Green 162 miles from home. The occasion was the 97th birthday of a great aunt and to see many relatives but on the way back we managed to stop at St Albans, a busy town but famous for the tomb of St Cuthbert martyred by the Romans. The Roman town was called Verulameum from which the River Ver derives it's name. We only had time to see the abbey so the ruined roman remains awaits a future visit. Much of the stone in the abbey was 'stolen' from the roman villas.

3 July. We went on holiday to Aberdyfi. This is where my family's cottage lies and we spent a lot of time looking at the views of the Welsh coast and visiting many of th local towns such as Dolgellau, Tywyn and Machynlleth. Aberdyfi was an important fishing village in the past and was equipped with jetty and railway line to rush the fish to market. It has now become a picturesque tourist town. Four miles up the coast lies Tywyn on a broad swath of flat land and is a bustling thriving town. It is also home to the oldest narrow gauge railway in the country, the Ta-y-Llyn railway. If anyone wants to know how to pronounce Ll the sound is similar to the English word 'Antler' where air is expelled between the cheeks and the molar teeth. Due to numerous visits I will again only refer to Aberdyfi if something interesting takes place. Otherwise it is simply a place to relax, drink tea and paddle in the sea.

4 August. Exploration starts in ernest with a visit to Gloucester. The city is about 40 miles away and therefore outside the local vicinity. It has a superb cathedral and contains the tomb of another King Edward II who was the first Prince of Wales and murdered around 1327. The gate where the bishop received the body still stands. There is also a beautiful Victorian post box on the cathedral grounds still in use and wonderfully inscribed with her signature. Just outside the cathedral grounds is a small shop on which Beatrix Potter based her book 'The Tailor of Gloucester' upon. The shop was preserved due to the connection and the shop can be seen in the book. We also made a visit to another local town, that of Ludlow, famous for its castle and the Ludlow Shakespeare Festival held every June. We made a second long distance excursion to Cardiff to see more relatives but also to visit the docklands which are renovated and used as the settings and studios for the Dr Who adventures. Cardiff is the capital of Wales and has undergone heavy restoration in recent years. The main street, Queen Street, is fully pedestrianised and great for shoppers and people watchers alike. I must confess to beeing a bit of a celecrity junky and the local news presenter visited Kidderminster to open a shop. Suzanne Virdee posed for a photo with me. Finally we made an excursion to Bath and saw the roman baths and the royal crescent, world famous I am told, oldest house in Bath (1482) and Bath Abbey. We managed to dodge the rain showers and saw much of the town. On the way home we stopped at Laycock, an original surviving medievil village where nothing has been knocked down, the village is so well preserved that it is used in many historical films and TV dramas including Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.

5 September. I haven't mentioned that there was considrable rain in July and August whereas in September the sun came out. So the shortening days were offset by the better weather. This was the month of the Tour of Britain cycle race and we watched the cyclists flash by at Bewdley. The highlight of our second trip to Aberdyfi was to see Mama Mia at the Tywyn theatre and I must say it wasn't half bad. We spent quite a long time there since I was painting the outside of the house plus we made a visit to Harlech with its massive castle for Chris's birthday. Tea rooms and beach walks were the order of the day.