There is not enough time to do all the nothing we want to do

Bill Watterson

Because I’ve managed my time so badly this week I’m going to fill this post with some recent pictures, which will save you all from wading through my usual drivel. Normal service will hopefully be resumed sometime in the next fortnight – until then, enjoy spring and don’t forget your umbrellas xx

Early spring sunshine at Blaen y Glyn waterfalls, Talybont-on-Usk

Sad to say that what I thought was an ancient pilgrim marker alongside the highest waterfall is, in fact, a hoax. According to the National Park it was placed there about 10 years ago by some naughty person…

Blaen y glyn falls again, on the Afon Caerfanell

Spring definitely on the way – and there’s plenty of plant activity in the countryside…

  …and in the garden, where our quince tree is covered in blossom

We spent a couple of days in London over the Easter weekend; Mr B and I travelled by train with a frozen leg of lamb in the case. Yes, I know that they sell lamb in London – but they don’t sell Welsh lamb straight from the farm about two miles from the house. Buying local food supports the local producers and shopkeepers, as well as tasting fabulous. The meat had defrosted by Sunday and as soon as Lizzie, Katie and Garth got back from the weird but wonderful Wellcome Collection, lunch was under way. Mr B, Alex and I soldiered on to explore the medieval weapons and other paraphernalia at the Wallace Collection.

Antony Gormley’s sculpture ‘Feel’ defying gravity at the Wellcome Collection

A mean man on a horse – Otto Heinrich, Count Palatine of the Rhine 1502-1559. Ok, not medieval but I’m sure you won’t hold that against me!

Back home again we’ve been busy planting trees with the woodland group – probably about 100-150 saplings in all. A mixture of oak, sweet chestnut, bird cherry, rowan and hawthorn have been dug in, some of them on a steep slope that almost got the better of me!

Other members of the group occupied themselves with safer activities…

After all this hard work we decided to treat ourselves with a day at the beach, and headed across the Bristol Channel to Weston-super-Mare.

And for once we could see the island of Steepholm from the other direction…

True to form, we returned home by a different route. This time we headed further east to the gorgeous mini-city of Wells in Somerset, once part of Alfred the Great’s Wessex. The cathedral there houses some extraordinary treasures, although from the outside it’s a little too ornate for my liking.

Inside it’s breathtaking…The nave: the ‘Scissor Arches’, dating from 1338-48 were constructed as a practical solution to the problem of a potential collapse of the roof

Another view of the Scissor Arches

The best moment inside this unique building came when we opened the door to the Chapter House, completely unaware of what we were about to encounter:As we were confronted by this glorious staircase with its steps worn down from the footsteps of over 700 years, two thoughts struck me: firstly, that I’d seen photographs of this before and hadn’t made the connection that we were actually in the same place; and secondly that I was overwhelmingly grateful that we hadn’t joined the free guided tour, which was already creaking under the strain of a coachload of German tourists. I’m sure they were delightful people but this was something to be savoured alone, in peace and quiet. The photographs (mine and also others, even professional ones) do not do it justice – if ever you have the chance, go to Wells and see this for yourselves.

Outside the Bishop’s Palace at Wells

There’ll always be an England…croquet on the lawn of the Bishop’s Palace

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Then it was time to come home – and who wouldn’t want to come home to this?

Along the hills, above the blue

Robert Louis Stevenson