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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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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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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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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Title: Penmaenmawr Prom Weekend
Location: Penmaenmawr, North Wales
Description: weekend of fun on the prom
Start Date: 2008-08-23
End Date: 2008-08-24

Didn’t manage to go on the Saturday and missed the storming of the beach on Sunday!!

The weekend was a trip back in time to world war 2 with a re-enactment group dressing as American, British and German soldiers on the prom along with vehicles from the war as well.  Up in the town was a shop containing a fantastic display of WWII memorabillia.  The couple who owned this collection (sorry I didn’t catch your names) were very friendly and helpful.  We were disappointed to find that we had also missed a Saturday night dance.  It’s all on again next year and the plans sound brilliant, so I’ve marked it on my calendar now.

We managed to get there in time today and the re-enactment group explained the weapons that were used and also fired the guns (some of which were very loud).  We had fun and took plenty of photographs.  This was most definately a good bludger’s event as there were no entrance fees, we took a picnic and really had a great family day out.  Look forward to next year

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I’m not a train spotter but steam trains are quite interesting and have character – does that sound train spotterish?

We took a trip to Porthmadog to the Welsh Highland Railway.  Yet another leaflet we picked up at the tourist information centre.  It wasn’t a long trip on the train but £15.00 for a family ticket I didn’t think was so bad and the ticket lasted all day.  The return trip included a stop off to view the train sheds where volunteers work on steam engines.  There is a miniature railway here (included in the price) for the children, you are allowed to climb on the different engines. 

Volunteers are presently working on this line and extending it to join up with the Ffestiniog Railyway.  By Easter 2009 the Aberglaslyn Pass and Beddgelert part of the line should be finished. I freely admit I am looking forward to that next year. 

We are really blessed to have such beautiful countryside and I love visitng Beddgelert.  Before they started re-doing the old train track we used to walk along that path and through the tunnels, the path is now just a bit lower down.  One of the best times to walk along the river in Beddgelert is when the rhododendruns are out (not sure I spelt that right), everywhere you look is purple and its gorgeous.  Also they have a fantastic ice-cream parlour.

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Living in North Wales we are blessed to have some of the most beautiful places to walk in.  We have a number of beaches close at hand, quite a few hills and a bit further away some mountains.  One of our favourite hills is quite close – The Vardre.  A great place to walk, have a picnic, admire the scenery and grass slide.  On one of the few sunny days we have had this summer holidays we spent an afternoon on the Vardre with a picnic and some large bits of cardboard.  Grass sleding was an activity we did as children with no thought to all the health and safety aspects that plague us these days.  I had recently bought a small vacuum cleaner and the box came in handy for this afternoon’s adventure. 

Having split the box in two and given a piece to each child we sat back to enjoy watching them slide and tumble down a slope at the top of the Vardre.  Who needs to pay to go to an amusement park! We spent a good 3 hours here enjoying the picnic and laughing at the children screaming as they slid down the hill and not always on the cardboard.  Yes they came away with a few scuffs and grass burns but they didn’t care they had really enjoyed the afternoon.  I did have a go but did not go as high up the hill as the children did I’m not quite as brave now as I was when I was a child.

A couple of days ago we decided to walk along Conwy Mountain in spite of the weather.  Conwy Mountain is a nice and popular area with plenty of paths leading the way from Conwy to Sychnant Pass.  Depending on how fit you are you can take a path over the top or slightly lower down. 

Only me and Jake decided to go for this walk and as it threatened to rain took macs and as it turned out we only had one shower.  So don’t let the threat of rain put you off chances are it may not.  We haven’t been to Conwy Mountain for about a year and were pleasantly surprised to see how many Welsh Mountain Ponies and their foals were up there. (also a pheasant and some lovely butterflies)

There are so many places local to where we live that we may not know about them.  A visit to the tourist information and I found some leaflets marking out walks close to home that we didn’t know about.  Another example of living somewhere for years and not really knowing the locality is when I used to live in Maidstone, Kent.  I had gone back for a visit with my hubby and he wanted to see some the different places around my home town.  We decided to go to the TIC.  I had often spotted signs for the heart of Kent tour but never had the time to find out what it was about, so we asked at the TIC and were given a guide to follow.  Most of the heart of Kent tour is driving but at different places around the route places of interest are pointed out, which you can visit.  I found places I had never known were there! We have a really great day and ended the day at a hop farm (we never finished the whole tour).

Walking is a great way to find places you whizz past in the car, to get fit and to have family fun.  If you have young children who might whinge a bit, why not make a quiz for them to do along the way or play games like I-spy.

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Title: Eglwysbach Show
Location: Eglwysbach
Description: Agricultural show
Date: 2008-08-09

In all the years I lived in North Wales we have only been to this show once and we really enjoyed it.  We forget because this is one of those events we only see advertised on little signs in the local area.  I should make a note of when it is as it is an annual event.

Last year we had great fun, there was a wide variety of stalls, a few fun fair rides, food and a tent set up for judging of local produce and art.  I’m not much into animal shows but I found it really interesting to watch the judging of sheep.  There was also a gymkhana (I know I have spelt this wrong) and we watched as the little children were riding their ponies around to show off their skills.  There was even a bird of prey display in which the star of the show flew off and sat in a tree not answering the call to come back.  As a family there was something for everyone (including face painting).

We were a bit disappointed to have missed it again this year but hopefully we will remember for next year.

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I love visiting Anglesey, there is quite a lot of different places to visit considering its an island – beaches, nature reserves, national trust properties, castles etc.

We went to Llangefni yesterday, the weather wasn’t too good; varying between light to heavy showers.  On a previous visit I discovered a well laid out walk. Some of it is boarded for easy use by wheelchairs and pushchairs and some of it is woodland path and concrete path called The Dingle.  Along the walk are some wood carvings.  Also some interesting wildlife to look out for such as tree creeper, dipper, kingfisher etc.

It was a great walk despite the rain, we spotted the tree creeper, but we never got to the end (I had given away the leaflet I had about it).  It was a gentle walk but as we left our picnic in the car (cheap car park) and so turned back as we were hungry. 

We visited Llangefni on a Thursday which is market day. 

Just as an aside if you are into researching your geneaology – family archives are also in Llangefni.

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Title: Conwy Honey Fair
Location: Conwy, North Wales
Description: Annual Honey Fair
Date: 2008-09-13

I love going to this and have done for quite a few years now.  Conwy Hight Street is taken over by various stall holders – honey ‘farmers’ mostly, local WI goods and a few other charities.  Always worth a visit no matter the weather.  Always on the 13th September (except when it falls on a Sunday).  No entrance fee, you only pay for local car parks and any goods you buy (of course)

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