Title: Conwy Seed Fair
Location: Conwy, North Wales
Link out: Click here
Description: annual seed fair
Date: 2009-03-26

Another of my favourite annual events - Conwy Seed Fair.  Similar to the Honey Fair - both held in Conwy, North Wales and both have a variety of stalls to wander around.

A great trip out for families as you only have to pay for parking and whatever you buy.

Local crafts, plants, cakes and usually some honey.

Conwy is a great place to visit

26/3/09

What a yucky day!  Still went to the seed fair and boy did I get wet!

From the car to the ticket machine I felt as if I had walking through a waterfall, I could not believe how the rain came down (well I can really it is North Wales).

Anyway, went to the main street in Conwy and the rain hadn’t put everyone off.  There were stalls spread out along the high street all covered in plastic and the usual stalls in Lancaster Square.  I walked down the high street having a quick look at those stalls that braved the weather found a nice chocolate stall right at the end (bonus), bought some for the children and then walked back to the W.I. stalls for cake.

The ladies of the Women’s Institute are the backbone of this country; braving all types of weather and crises with cakes, jam and biscuits.  With all the recession and job losses occuring in the country I think the only time I will really panic is when the W.I. gives in - thank you ladies.

And as is typical as soon as I got home the sun came out!

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Boy doesn’t time fly by.  I didn’t realise how long it had been since I had posted anything here.  Ah well.

February half term is fast approaching and the weather is not very predictable at the moment so I will have a look and see what I can find for indoor activities.  A couple that spring to mind is one of my earlier posts about having a theme day and also as it is still winter perhaps making some bird feeders.  Another thought is perhaps to start thinking about spring and planning what to do in the garden: tidying up and preparing to plant spring plants and veggies.  Gardening can be a great family activity.

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I like this time of year, the leaves changing to wonderful colours, cold day, hot chocolate and marshmallows, the promise of snow and food festivals.

Llandudno’s Celtic Winter Fayre has grown from the council car park in the town centre to the car park on Mostyn Broadway from 19 - 23 November 2008.

http://www.celticwinterfayre.co.uk/index.htm - is the address you will need to type in to go and see the website for more details (still haven’t sorted out making addresses clickable).  As a family we have enjoyed going (we missed last year) to see what different foods and crafts there are.  I see that Parisella ice cream will be there, which I am pleased about, and that they will have their Christmas pudding ice cream - their ice cream is gorgeous.

Here’s hoping the weather stays dry.

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I haven’t disappeared I have just been working hard and simply not had the time to write anything.  The weekend weather hasn’t been too bad lately so we have tried to get out as much as possible.  This weekend coming (25th & 26th Oct) is the Conwy food festival, which we are hoping to go to.

http://www.conwyfeast.co.uk/

Above is the web address for this event so that you can get a better idea of what it is all about.  This is the first year we will be going and are looking forward to it as anything to do with food gets our vote.

Just to let you know £8 lets in a family of 2 adults and all children under 12 for the day.  Having read the front page of the website it sounds a great event.

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Title: Conwy Food festival
Location: Conwy, North Wales
Link out: Click here
Description: Annual food festival in Conwy, North Wales, a weekend event, all things food and drink
Start Date: 2008-10-25
End Date: 2008-10-26

We didn’t get to go on Saturday but went on Sunday and despite the cold and the rain enjoyed ourselves even if we spent a bit too much money - but food is so tempting!

There was plenty to see, a wide range of food, sweets, cakes, ice-cream, bread and other items and we chatted to some lovely people.  After paying our £4 we visited all the tents on the quay before going into the town.  Despite the weather there were lots of people there and it was with a lot of stopping, starting and patience we made our way through the tents on the quay, where there were cooking displays as well as a wide range of goodies.  I was glad to see a lot of local produce about as I try to buy local and it was nice to see what a range of stuff there is locally, so we collected cards and leaflets from a lot of stalls.  It was also nice to sample some of the produce like cheese, milk, spices, curry sauces and different meat - thank you.

I know we missed a few bits as well but we will try and see more next year (and hope the weather is warmer too).  Well done to Vasilly the acrobat, who we saw a bit of as he balanced on top of a pole, we were cold you must have been frozen.

We ate a lot and bought more than I’d intended but we had a great time out as a family and the children really enjoyed being allowed to try new foods.  We were very cold by the time we left but we thoroughly enjoyed wandering around the quay and town.

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Can’t believe we are still getting a few sunny days!.  I have added a page to my blog called useful bits and pieces - this is where I have decided to list all my favourite and useful websites.  At the moment I don’t know how to make them clickable links but will resolve that as soon as I admit to my husband I’m clueless and feel in the mood to endure a lesson in computing (lol).

Anyway, the first in the list of this new page is for activity village, where yesterday I found a good idea for getting the children out and about enjoying the last sunny days, being environmentally friendly and kind to birds.  I think, if I remember, the craft is under the Autumn section.  Take the children out to search for pine cones, make a day of it with picnics or a type of treasure, or a competition to see who can find the most, the biggest, the most unusual etc.  Then turn the pine cones into bird feeders, using the instructions on activity village - I would list how to do it here but their website is brilliant to visit.

Keep an eye out as well for Autumn activities at places like the National Trust.

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Saturday 13th September 2008

After so much rain Saturday was a gorgeous day - not that the rain would have put us off of visiting the Honey Fair.  We had a great time as a family wandering around - starting off, as always, at the WI stalls as they usually sell out quickly - homemade cakes and biscuits are so popular.  We perused the seeds and flowers, homemade cards, knitted items, wicker basets (mum bought 2 trugs for £1 each and gave me one - yay thanks mum x), handmade sweets, antique table and of course honey.  We noticed there were a few absences this year - charity tables running tombola, which the kids love and a lady who always dresses in Welsh costume selling jam - perhaps they didn’t want to chance the weather.

After walking round everwhere, we then walked around again buying honey, jam, biscuits, trugs, seeds and sweets (turkish delight).

I love the Honey Fair, it’s all set in one street so you don’t miss anything and its nice just to be able to wander up and down.  It does get busy and a bit crowded round the honey stalls but its fun and I now look forward to next year and hope the bee population doesn’t decline anymore.

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Well, almost the first week back to school over and as I look out of my window it’s all grey and wet!!  I have a feeling it’s going to be a long, damp end to the year.

But we mustn’t let that get us down - NO!  The worst thing about rainy days is that we are all stuck indoors and the day seems to be a constant grey colour - so let’s add some colour.

I meant to put this idea out during the summer holidays but kept forgetting so perhaps now is the best time - Theme Days.

Ever so simple - a theme day is simply a day dedicated to a particular theme such as pirates, princesses, cowboys, explorers etc etc.  Yes, just like you would organise for a party but without the tons of sandwiches, jelly, cake and presents.  There is absolutely no reason why these ideas should be confined to birthdays only.

Make it bright and colourful, let it take over one room (preferably the children’s) with tents, islands, palm trees, caves etc.  Everyone should dress up, including the adults - this can be a fun family day and not just for visiting friends.  Appropriate music playing in the background, themed food, games etc. You are only limited by your imagination.

As the days grow shorter and greyer make your house brighter and more colourful and on those rare dry days we may get, don’t forget to go outside or if you’re like me and have wet weather gear go out anyway.

Have fun and let me know about any theme days you hold.

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Wow they go fast don’t they!  Well according to your kids they do.  If like most parents, you have ran out of things to do with your kids by now you could try sending them across an assault course!

OK before you go and phone the army, I don’t mean that sort of assault course.  Well almost.  When I was younger I set up an assault course in my garden using anything and everything I could find, I had ladders to climb, ropes to swing across, blankets to crawl under, plant pots lined up to dribble a ball through, hoops to skip across and all this in a garden measuring 45ft x 30ft!

With a bit of imagination you could build a lot of fun for your kids and the neighbours kids too.  My assault course attracted a lot of attention, most of the neighbourhood kids used it and had a blast - not bad for a nine year old’s imagination!

If the weather is suitable, you could even include water into the course, such as a water pistol target range, a paddling pool with objects in the bottom to fetch using only mouths - you get the picture.  SAFETY NOTE - if you have a deep paddling pool don’t get your kids to retrieve things from the bottom!

If you are anything like my family, you used up all your great ideas at the begining of the holidays, now you are at the end you are struggling.  I like to try and treat the holidays like a good novel - a great begining, a great end and some compelling bits in the middle.  Lets give our kids an awesome last week, one they will remember!  Don’t forget, most teachers get our kids to write an essay about their summer holidays the first week back, lets give them lots of materials.

In our family, great fun doesn’t mean great expense.  Try doing some of the ideas found earlier in this blog and you will have some great memories.

Jon Roberts
Guest Writer
Websites for only £35.00

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We walked part of this not cycled as I fancied a walk, but next time I think I will get the bikes out as its a nice route.  We only went from our house to Penmaenmawr (that was quite a distance!).  It was fun to walk along where we hav usually whizzed by in the car and go around the outside of the tunnel.  It was a very blustery day but not cold.  We didn’t rush and had a picnic along the way.  We left home at 11.30 and got to Penmaenmawr beach cafe about 3.30 - 4pm.

A bit nervous walking along the part from Conwy Marina off-ramp along to the tunnel as the path had no rail between us and the cars and was a bit narrow in places but once we reached the tunnel the path led across the rail line below and around the tunnel and from there it was set back from the road and had a fence between us and the cars.

Its amazing how much we miss driving in cars.  The beach along this part of the coast is all sand and we found a tunnel running under the railway that went down to the beach.

I love Penmaenmawr the prom is wide and there is a lovely beach cafe there - well worth a visit.

While waiting for our lift home we decided to walk in the direction of the town and found a small wooded park with swings and slides and a sort walk around a stream and mini waterfall.  As my legs were aching we decided to stay in the park.  We had a fun day despite being tired.

As I said its amazing what we miss by driving everywhere so its worth finding out about the footpaths and cyclepaths and setting off with a picnic.  Next time we are going to be dropped off at Penmaenmawr and walk on from there to Llanfairfechan and then towards Bangor.

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