I woke early that morning to more blue sky and sunshine, weather which was far too good to miss and which was just right for a dog walk along the beach. When I got down there the sun was burning off the remains of an early sea mist, the tide was on its way out, and with no beach warden on duty until much later on I was able to walk across the main part of the beach to the water's edge. The retreating sea had left a large area of water-filled ripples in the sand and the sun's rays reflecting on the water made a shimmering silver path all the way across the beach and the surface of the sea right to the horizon - it was worth attempting a couple of photos even though I would be shooting directly into the sun without a filter, but I decided to try it anyway and the results came out better than I expected.
My first port of call after breakfast was the car boot sale at the show ground over towards the far side of the island. In good weather this sale is seriously big but in spite of the huge number of stalls I didn't see anything which particularly interested me so for once my money stayed firmly in my pocket.
From the show ground I drove back down the A5 and round to Menai Bridge town and Plas Cadnant Hidden Gardens. I first went there a couple of years ago and though the flowers and plants were beautiful the weather wasn't; it was a very dull and grey day so my photos didn't look as good as they could have done, but now with the current blue sky and sunshine I should get some much better shots. And I make no apologies for the number I've put on here - these are just some of the seventy eight I took in total and it was really hard to choose which ones to include.
Now I must confess I don't 'do' gardening, I have no interest in it at all and other than the obvious ones I haven't a clue about plant and flower names but I do enjoy looking round established gardens such as this one, especially when such a riot of colour gives me lots of good photos.
It was while I was wandering round that I was approached by a couple with a small child, they asked if I knew anything about snakes as they'd found one lying in the middle of the path just round the corner. When I went to have a look I realised it wasn't a snake but a slow worm - it was partially curled up and appeared to be asleep. Not wanting to leave it there but not really wanting to touch it I found a stick and hooked it up off the ground, and in doing so realised that it was a very dead slow worm. It didn't look like it had been there long though so maybe the hot sun had got the better of it - it was laid to rest in the nearby shrubbery then with a few more photos taken I headed up to the nearby cafe for coffee and cake. This was followed by a dog walk round the large grassy car parking area, then satisfied that I'd seen and photographed everything I wanted to I drove away from Plas Cadnant and headed for my next port of call.
The ridiculously early time of 5.45am saw me leaving home for my bank holiday break on Anglesey. With blue sky, sunshine and quiet roads all the way the driving was very pleasant and I arrived at the camp site dead on 8am. Any hope I had of beating the crowds and getting a decent pitch with electric hook-up soon went out the window though as the site was already extremely busy - tents and caravans were everywhere, the large headland field looked like a mini Glastonbury and just like last year my favourite small field had been taken over by seasonal caravans.
I've never before seen the site so busy on a May bank holiday weekend - I could only assume that some schools in the north west had a different holiday week to those local to me and many of the campers had been there all week - and I was just resigning myself to spending the weekend without power when I finally found a vacant hook-up point on the family field. The nearby patch of grass wasn't in the best of places, being both close to the access track through the site and also surrounded on three sides by large caravans, but it would do, so I parked the van and set about sorting out my home for the next three nights. With that done I took the dogs for a walk round the site - they'd been so good in the van while I was busy - then made some tea and toast and sat for a while in the sun.
It was late morning when I decided to see if the car boot sale was on at the country club just outside the village - it was, and that was where I got what must be one of the best bargains I've ever had. A good friend of mine has, for reasons only known to herself, recently decided to start collecting paperweights and as it's her birthday soon I'd thought about getting one as a present for her, though I wasn't really sure what sort to get - it was very much a case of 'I'll know it when I see it'. And I did see it, in fact I saw several on one of the stalls - they were brand new, gift boxed, very unusual, weighed a ton, looked expensive and no two were the same. And the price? Originally £18, now just £6 each or two for £10 - definitely a bargain, and they were so nice I got one for myself as well. The glass is actually clear but the light is reflecting through so these photos don't really do them justice.
By the time I'd looked round all the stalls my early morning start was beginning to catch up with me and I didn't really feel like going anywhere else, so I drove back to the camp site and spent the rest of the day and early evening relaxing. There was a lot of music and noise coming from a nearby tent, which I rather hoped wouldn't go on too late - one of the downsides of being on the family field - however it didn't, and not long after I'd taken the dogs for their bedtime walk everything went quiet, and as I settled down in bed the only noise came from an owl as it swooped over the site on its night time hunting mission.
