A little Welsh trip ...

We live close to mid / north Wales & I try to visit it several times a year because the space just feeds the soul. I grew up with lots of space so I love the vastness of the space, the mountains & the scenery in Wales. 

Today, on a whim,  we decided to revisit Lake Vyrnwy. We stayed there 5 years ago for Ms M's big anniversary & it was lovely looking out over the Lake, then covid came & locked us down for ages & we realised we have not been that way in a while.

    

After parking up, we followed the walk along the river, crossed over to the park & were by the dam wall with its castle like turrets & details.  A recently fallen tree was carved with both Welsh & English sayings, a reminder of the importance of the native language here. 

     

It is always a thrill to drive over the dam wall with its look outs, turrets & details set in stone. It is a reminder of the importance of water, a natural resource we take for granted because we can just turn on a tap. Many of the places we visited across Africa value it much more highly as it is carried up from the river on a head, collected from a solitary tap in the middle of a village - a scarce life giving resource that we are largely disconnected from. 

 

     

Dampness set in as we crossed the bridge again to return to Shropshire, the drive around the lake closed due to fallen trees from the storms this week.

You can feel the openness, the need to put the windows down & take in the fresh air, the trees, the bleating sheep ... 

The walk along the river under the lake & look up at the stunning Victorian architecture is special - the Victorians could have built something ordinary to move the water from Wales to Liverpool but they built this stunning dam  with its road over the dam wall, the towers standing proud & across the lake, the most beautiful fairy tale turrets on a tower that is the utilitarian straining tower. 

The green copper roof & turrets is right out of a fairy tale & I love it, I loved it when I first set eyes on it more than 20 years ago. It is  just a magical space. 

Look at this previous blog post from 2014 for the background to the dam .. 

Amidst the busyness of December, it is good to step away from it all & just get back to nature. 

I had it in my mind that I still need to add greenery to my advent candle holder & while walking in the little forest with its towering trees, a fallen tree was surrounded by beautiful fallen bits of spur branches. The blue / silver branches caught my eye & I just knew they would be perfect. I always have a fold up bag in my crossbody bag & so I picked up a few fallen pieces along with a few bits of lichen / moss to do my holder. I have always been drawn to nature & so it is perfectly natural for me to be connected to natural foliage. 

I will show that in another post. Thank you for spending time with me, for leaving a comment or sharing the blog. It is very much appreciated. 

Dee 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🌲🕯️