Two more butterflies...

To add to my 7 April butterflies I now have ...

... the Painted Lady (above) and the Gatekeeper butterfly (below)

Arum maculatum

I found this growing in the garden and I had to look it up to find its name. Apparently it is called Lords-and-ladies, Cuckoo-pint, Wild arum, Jack in the Pulpit, Devils and Angels, Cows and Bulls, Adam and Eve, Bobbins, Naked Boys, Starch-Root, Wake Robin, Starchwort, Adder's Root, Friar's Cowl, Kings and Queens, Parson and Clerk, Ramp, Quaker and Arum maculatum.

An unexpected result ...

Right after we came back from holiday we had been invited to a 5oth birthday party of an ex work colleague. We were told to be on time because there was a murder mystery as part of the evening.

So we duly sat down and the events of the "Murder at Redfriars Reunion" gradually unfolded.

It is all good fun - but we never take these things too seriously (unlike some other teams we can think of) so when it comes to filling in our 'solution' to the mystery it is usually a matter of making up something on the spur of the moment. There were characters like J Bravo and P.C. Whirled in the story which caused us to choose a name from police tv history.

Anyway it came as a great surprize to everyone, especially us, to have it announced that we had won - but here is the evidence ...

Holiday - part 3

We stayed at Old Mill Farm, Trawsfynydd where there is an interesting garden containing a mill wheel, a pair of llamas and this Canadian style outside railway.

But we may remember Trawsfynydd as the place where we got stopped by the Heddlu for an ARAF violation **.
Our first day out was to Portmeirion

Of course we came away with some souvenir crockery.
The next day we set out for Anglesey and the first stop was at Llanfair PG

But the main target was the RSPB centre at South Stack...

...where there were thousands of penguins (sorry, guillemots) but sadly no puffins

On our last full day we thought we ought to try one of the steam railways, so we travelled on the newly opened section of the Welsh Highland railway through Beddgelert

You might like to read the legend of Beddgelert (=Gelert's grave)

Later that day we travelled on an underground boat through the magic waterfall to hear the legend of King Arthur.

We returned home via Stoke and visited the Portmeirion shop there - as my credit card will testify.

[**Translation from the Welsh: Heddlu=Police, ARAF=SLOW - yes, we were stopped for driving too slowly]

Holiday - part 2

Our second stop was at Chester where we were met by Dave who had promised us a tour of the city. So we made use of the park and ride and arrived in the city centre.

One of the best ways to see the city is to 'walk the wall' and this is one of the many joining points with its ornate clock tower

By coincidence there was a singing festival on the day we visited and there were spots in the city being visited in rotation by various music groups. This group of youngsters sang well arranged 'spirituals'.

Also coincidentally it was race day and the city wall takes you past the race course giving as good a view as some paid-for places.

The next day we set out to explore Llandudno (passing the Belmont where Nana has stayed with the MinToEs), taking a 'tram' ride up the Great Orm and visiting Conwy with its impressive castle

Holiday - part 1

En route we called in on Auntie Dot and had a cup of tea with her and arranged to take her to Christopher and Rachel's wedding in August.

Our 'Welsh' holiday started with two days at Ironbridge. We had trouble finding our first B&B. It turned out to be up a hidden driveway on a hairpin bend. And then when we did find it the place was guarded by these geese that were wandering around loose.

Our first visit was to the Blists Hill 'Victorian' town where the bank changes your £p into Lsd and you can buy bread and biscuits and cake, etc. with your old pennies.

Our passport ticket allowed us to visit all the other museums in Ironbridge but we only went to the pottery museum and the (clay) pipe museums.

Of course we had to visit the Iron bridge itself which is just a footbridge now - but they have had the sense to build the new road bridge 'round the corner' so that it does not spoil the setting of the original.

We were looking for a place for a picnic and came upon a pull-in which had a seat and all these wonderful wild flowers. There were not many birds about but we did see a kestrel and a sparrowhawk.

Jacqui had heard on the news that the Olympian games were being held at Much Wenlock while we were there so we visited to find out what was going on.

The next stage of our holiday was in Chester.

Trinity, Cheltenham

The music group were invited to attend a one day worship conference called "Heart, head, hands" at Trinity, Cheltenham. We had to set out at 7:30am in the church minibus. You can see some more pictures and read a short report of the event. We got some good ideas for worship - its just a pity that the music group is currently 'on holiday' so we won't be able to try anything out until August.