Sunday April 1st 2018 - Part 1- Chirk Castle gardens

My previous night's metaphorical finger-crossing must have worked for once as I woke that morning to sunshine and a cloudless blue sky, perfect for making a return visit to Chirk Castle to get the blue sky garden photo I really wanted. As I was getting ready to go out after breakfast I noticed some little bluetits flitting about and landing in the lower branches of a nearby tree so I grabbed the camera to try and get some shots of them. They were very quick though and no sooner had they landed than they were off again so I missed most of them, though one stayed still just long enough for me to catch a shot of it but it's not exactly a brilliant photo.

After giving the dogs a decent walk I left the site at 10am and though it was still lovely and sunny in that area it was a different matter a few miles further east. As I went along the A5 it started to cloud over and by the time I got to Chirk the sun was only coming through in fits and starts - not what I really wanted but I was there so I decided to make the best of it.

I didn't bother going in the castle itself as it was only last year that I was in there and nothing would have changed since then so I concentrated on looking round the gardens. I must admit to being very disappointed though - there was very little colour anywhere this time and it seemed like everything had been pruned and cut back to within an inch of its life. The flower border nearest the castle was bare except for a dozen or so tulips, most of the lawned areas had been roped off because the grass was so wet, and the mass of white daffodils which had been in the foreground of my lovely photo last year were nothing more than clumps of dark green leaves. Fortunately while I was wandering round I did see a bit of blue sky and sunshine through momentary breaks in the cloud so I managed to get a few shots but I still didn't get the one I really wanted. 

After going round the gardens twice to make sure I hadn't missed anything I made my way back to the car park; I would have taken the dogs for a walk but everywhere was so wet and muddy they would have got absolutely filthy so unfortunately they had to stay in the van until later. As I made my way back through the parkland I passed a dead tree, completely stripped bare but with its twisted branches making a fascinating shape, and not far from there was the black-and-white gatekeeper's cottage which I recently featured in the photo hunt post on my other blog. I couldn't resist taking a photo of each of them so I parked up just outside the exit gate and walked back to get my shots.

By this time the sun had disappeared completely and grey clouds had taken over the sky once again but the rain was managing to hold off. Driving along the A5 earlier I'd noticed snow from a previous occasion lying on top of the highest hills so I headed back to Llangollen - a visit to Horseshoe Pass, at 1,368ft above sea level, might give me some nice snowy photos if I was lucky.

Saturday March 31st 2018 - A rainy afternoon in Llangollen

It was still raining when I woke that morning so the first dog walk of the day was a quick one - Sophie and Poppie didn't want to go out in it any more than I did. The rain never let up all morning but by early afternoon I'd had enough of being marooned in the van so I decided to drive into Llangollen for a look round the shops. I've looked round Llangollen heaven knows how many times before and the shops never change but at least it was something to do and the rain eventually eased off so it stayed fine for a while.

After looking round the shops and photographing the swollen River Dee from the bridge I went down a side street I'd never been along before and discovered St. Collen's church; the door was open so I went in to have a look and discovered a lovely half-timbered ceiling and some beautifully colourful stained glass windows.

When I'd seen all I wanted to see in the town I made my way back to the van and headed back to the camp site. The scenery along the A5 between Llangollen and Corwen is really nice and looks beautiful when the sun is shining though it didn't look quite as nice on such a grey day; the views were still clear though and with sheep dotted about here and there I thought it worth making a couple of brief stops to get a few shots.

I'd not been back at the camp site for very long when the rain started again, lasting right through the evening and well into the night, so the last dog walk of the day was again a very short one. With nothing else to do but read I retreated to my bed early that night, keeping my fingers crossed that the rain would die out by the morning and I would finally get a decent 'going out' day.

Friday March 30th 2018 - If only I'd known in advance....

....what was going to happen over the weekend I wouldn't have gone camping for Easter. The day started out well enough when I left home in the sunshine for four days at Felin Uchaf in North Wales, and although it clouded over a bit en route the sun was out again by the time I reached the camp site and things were looking promising. I'd been given pitch no.1, the same pitch as last Easter, though this time instead of it being a grass pitch it was now a hard standing one; it was no problem though as I had plenty of rock pegs so I laid out the footprint groundsheet and set about putting up my nice new tent. With only three poles it proved to be very easy to erect and once it was securely pegged down I found that there was more space in the living area than there had been in my previous tent, though I didn't need to put too much in there as I'd already decided before I left home that I would be sleeping in the van.

With the tent up and my few things set out inside I took the dogs for a walk down to the village and back then spent a pleasant hour or so chatting to Nan and Gwyn, the site owners, and a couple of the other weekend residents. The late afternoon and early evening were spent relaxing in the van with a book then just before it went dark I took the dogs for a final walk down the site track to the lane and back. I'd just got back to the van when the first drops of rain appeared and from then on it was heavy and prolonged showers on and off all night; it was great for testing the waterproof-ness of the new tent but as I got into bed later on I was just hoping that this rain wasn't a sign of things to come for the rest of the weekend.

**Tent photo taken from the internet, I didn't manage to take one of mine in situ.