What adventures can we get up to in Snowdonia?

We've just had a mini heatwave here in southern Snowdonia so some of our guests have been making good use of our field, playing football, rounders and generally lazing around outside in the sunshine, while families have been venturing to the local beaches, building sandcastles and catching crabs off Aberdyfi pier.
So...... our thoughts turn to summer holidays and what to do around north west Wales whether the weather is hot and sunny or not.
For the more adventurous holidaymaker you're lost for choice this year.
In nearby Aberdyfi is a company called Coastriders,  www.coastriders.co.uk which runs courses in kitesurfing, kite buggies, land buggying, paddleboarding and more.

Just up the road in Coed y Brenin you can experience the adrenalin rush of hurtling downhill on a mountain bike on trails of varying difficulty, or negotiate the high tree top obstacle course at Go Ape. For the not so adventurous there's an excellent café, visitor's centre and children's playground, or you can volunteer to be the official photographer for the rest of your party!

If you prefer to get a little bit wet then why not try white-water rafting just outside Bala, where there are grade 2-3 rapids (with one grade 4 rapid) on the Lower river and grade 3+/4 rapids on the Upper river. www.balawatersports.com

Blaenau Ffestiniog is a mere 40 minute drive away , where you can find the brand new Bounce Below , www.bouncebelow.net , which is the world's first subterranean playground and also Zip World, www.zipworld.co.uk which has the longest zip wire in the northern hemisphere. Many of our guests have experienced both of these and loved them!

There are also more downhill mountain bike trails at nearby Antur Stiniog.














If that's not enough for you and want to try something new then in the summer of 2015 Surf Snowdonia , www.surfsnowdonia.co.uk will open at Dolgarrog in the Conwy Valley. This will be the only artificial surfing facility in the UK and newcomers to the sport will be able to have tuition in a controlled environment from qualified surfing teachers, while experienced surfers will be able to surf all year round, with guaranteed surf.
Of course you can always go surfing for free off many beaches around our coastline including, Aberdyfi, Tywyn and Black Rock Sands.

 All sounds too much effort? Then just relax on Pentre Bach's (www.pentrebach.com ) patio with a large glass of red and watch out for dolphins passing by out in the bay ;0)

A few words from Nellie

Well I'm a big dog now (although some would call me a big bitch) and I love living here at the seaside.
A few weeks ago Big Mike and Big Wilma went off somewhere and left me with Big Sue, Big Brian and my quite big cousin Mizzle. It was great. They fed me, took me out for walks by the river and even let me go UPSTAIRS!
When BM and BW came back then Mizzle came to stay with me for a while. I loved chasing her round and round the field and nipping at her ears. Oh what fun we had. Mizzle's getting on a bit though so occasionally we left her for a rest in her bed when we went out for walks. Mizzle brought her big bed with her but we liked nothing better than snuggling up to each other in my little bed. Mizzle loves a good swim in the sea, lake, stream , pond or river. I'm not so keen on the cold water but sometimes you just have to go with the flow! She's gone back to BS and BB now so I've got the place to myself again.
BM thinks he's got me trained. Ha ha! I sit when he says 'Sit' - sometimes, and stay when he says 'Stay' - sometimes - well whenever

he's got treats in his pocket. But if there's a seagull or squirrel to chase then suddenly I can't hear a thing. It's very strange.
My favourite things to do are racing round on a long sandy beach and pulling socks and knickers (or any old bits of cloth really) off the clothes horse and chewing them to bits.
I also like to help out a bit with the gardening. I can dig really well and I help to carry the watering can around. However its got lots of holes in the bottom now. No idea how that happened.
It's a dog's life......

Heaps of honey at Pentre Bach!

When we got our hive and small nucleus of bees , complete with queen, earlier this year , we thought it would just be a case of establishing a colony, keeping them alive and healthy, in the hope that they'd produce enough honey stocks to help them survive throughout the winter ready to multiply and produce lots of honey next year. HOWEVER!!! We didn't take into account what a brilliant summer we would have this year, plus the fact that our hive is the only one for miles around so they had free range to forage far and wide (well up to 3 miles away)in an around the village of Llwyngwril. Our hive was also situated in our walled garden where there was an absolute abundance of foraging material from flowering fruit trees, flowering green bean plants and dozens of sweet pea plants. In early September I cleared and removed the top super (a section of the hive with 10 frames of honeycomb, where the bees store honey and the queen is excluded from laying eggs). It was groaning with capped honey! Meanwhile I'd added another 10 frames of fresh wax foundation to another super in the hope that they might still be collecting and storing nectar and pollen. I asked my mentor, Paul, if I could go and watch him extract some of his honey , so that I would know what to do when I borrowed a spinner from the local beekeeping association. He kindly suggested that I bring my frames to his place and use his electric spinner. I was there like a shot! The whole process took less than an hour. My 10 frames were turned into 26 jars of clear runny honey with minimal fuss, effort or stickiness! Paul told me to put the super of wet frames back into the hive for the bees to 'lick' the remains of the honey off the combs to take back down into the brood box to store for the winter. I did this and after inspecting the hive a week later , found that they hadn't 'licked' it dry but continued to produce more honey! They'd also filled and capped the frames I'd added a week or two earlier. The bees were doing so well, I had to buy another super and make up 10 more frames! I couldn't keep up! So after a fantastic October we had another 20 frames full of capped honey to extract and the bees still had a super full of honey to keep themselves, as well as lots of honey in the brood box (where the queen was still busily laying eggs!). I didn't want to impose on Paul again so managed to track down the beekeeping association's manual extractor and brought it back to Pen y Lon. Mike and I spent an exhausting afternoon using this extractor. We had to take turns, with one vigorously cranking the handle while the other sat on top of the drum to keep it from jumping around the kitchen! We managed to extract a couple of plastic bucketsful of deliciously smelling honey but there was also honey everywhere and the buckets had a scum of particles of wax about 2 cms deep on the top. What to do now? We'd passed it through a double honey sieve but that obviously wasn't fine enough. Muslin! That was the answer! The honey wouldn't go off so it could wait until we'd been over to York for a family visit. We managed to buy some muslin in a Lakeland shop. We were all set! Back home and we set about straining a ladleful of honey through the muslin into a clean jam jar. 12 hours later and it was still straining - literally! Back to the drawing board. We tried cheesecloth but the holes in that just stretched so anything could pass through. In the end we just strained the honey again through finer plastic sieves and eventually all the honey was jarred up- 44 jars in all! It does have a fine film of wax on top but hey, what does it matter? SO ........ we were just going to give jars of honey to friends and family as presents but we'd still have shelves groaning with jars of honey. We may as well sell it. Anyone know anyone who would like to buy some? We've also got the Beekeeping Association AGM coming up where everyone tastes each others honey. How will ours compare? Will they be able to taste runner bean and sweet pea?

The new look Pentre Bach!

Mike started cleaning the main house back in April then gradually over the next weeks and months he worked his way round the house masking windows, painting walls, replacing guttering, repairing and painting facia boards, etc. This all had to be fitted in between guests staying and so during the busy summer months , nothing could be done at all. He used ladders, cherry pickers, scaffolding, ladders on top of patio roofs, etc. It was a momentous job but now its finished and it was all worth while - it looks a treat. What an improvement on the dull grey walls of the old look Pentre Bach House. Now all that remains to be done is change all our website! And lets hope it doesn't have to be repainted for many years to come!

Little Nell

I was born on the 21st of May, 2014 in a stable on a farm near Talsernau, not far from Harlech. I had lots of fun growing up with my three brothers and two sisters. One by one they all went away to new homes far away , then on the 31st of July , when I was 10 weeks old, my new mum and dad came to collect me in a little white van and I sat on my mum's knee all the way back to Pentre Bach. I saw all sorts of interesting things on the way but it was a bit scary! It's great here at Pentre Bach. I've got loads of space to run and chase leaves and butterflies and things. Last week they took me to a place where there was a huuuuuge big puddle and kept throwing stones into it for me to get but every time I jumped into the big puddle I couldn't find them. Every time we go out for a walk we meet lots of big friendly humans who like to make a fuss of me. I wag my tail a lot and lick their hands and they seem to like that. A few days ago another big dog just like me came to stay. She was called Mizzle. I was a bit scared at first and hid behind my mum and dad but I soon got used to her and really really liked playing with her, chasing her and jumping up to nip her ears or her tail. She didn't mind a bit! She's gone away again but she's going to come and stay again sometime soon. Ah well I better go and give my dad a hand with some jobs. We're going to do some digging- my favourite!

Tweet , tweet , tweet at Pentre Bach!

We do our best to encourage birds at Pentre Bach by providing nesting boxes and putting out food on birdfeeders around the house and gardens. We also leave access to the barn through a special 'swallow door' so that our regular swallow visitors can get back to their nest in the roof of the barn where they've been returning to raise their young for a number of years. We don't really mind putting up with the bird poo all over the work bench for a few weeks! The house transformation from dull grey to magnolia has been coming along a treat and two sides have been completed. However, thanks to our feathered friends, the painting of the front has now been put on hold. The swallows have built a total of 14 nests under the eaves all around the main house and Y Popty. They're fascinating to watch as they come and go, sometimes landing on the nests and squeezing them selves in and at other times just swooping in near to the nests and swerving off into the sky again. we'll enjoy watching the young making their first attempts at flying in the next few weeks and then we'll be able to resume with our painting again. We've also been busy planting and growing a number of hanging baskets which have been coming on nicely in the greenhouse. It was time to hang them out this week but as we were coming and going from the greenhouse this week we noticed a little wren hanging around. Then when Mike was hanging one basket outside the back door of the main house, he noticed a perfectly round hole underneath. On further examination he could feel five or six tiny eggs inside the hole. So... ...... back to the greenhouse with that particular hanging basket until the wrenlets fledge.

The wren's nesting place! Then this evening, after a stroll down to the beach, we were just closing up all the windows and doors when we just caught sight of our local, friendly robin, hopping around the back porch. One more minute and he would've been locked in there for the night. Mind you that wouldn't have been the first time!

Summer Events coming up!

If you're very active or just prefer to watch then there are loads of events coming up in the next few weeks. The first is tonight- Race the Train in Fairbourne - I was tempted to take part but it clashed with my Welsh class. What a shame. This weekend the fantastic Three Peaks Yacht Race starts from Barmouth harbour (around 3.30ish on Saturday June 7th). I was hoping to help set them off with Batala Bermo at the quayside but unfortunately have to be elsewhere that day. You can follow the race all the way to Ben Nevis on the website www.threepeaksyachtrace.co.uk Other events coming up include the Trail Marathon in Coed y Brenin on the 21st of June. We have some guests staying at Pentre Bach that weekend who are taking part. Good luck to them! Also that day is the North Wales Country Fair in Bala. Merrionnydd Beekeepers' Association have a stall there! And on the same day is the Tywyn Summer Solstice Lantern Parade! Busy day. There's a Country Music and Line Dance Festival in Barmouth over the weekend of 5-6th July. Yee Ha! Then of course there's the annual Talyllyn Race the Train setting off from Tywyn on the 16th of August. Will I take part this year?