What's not to be missed in and around Llwyngwril this summer!

If you want to come to North West Wales for a peaceful, relaxing time then you can! Sit on one of our patios, gazing out to sea and possibly catch a glimpse of passing dolphins or sailing boats gliding gracefully across the bay. Unwind with a chilled glass of Pinot Grigio and watch the sun go down spectacularly behind the Lleyn Peninsula. Perhaps you might summon up some energy to stroll down to the beach or play a game of boules on the lawn, or cricket on the field?

If, however, you're up for something a bit more adventurous then this undiscovered corner of Wales has a few surprises up it's sleeves.
Next weekend sees the start of the Three Peaks Yacht Race from Barmouth. Teams of sailors and runners, set off from Barmouth on Saturday afternoon ((15th June),and sail up the west coast to Fort William , but stopping off en route so the runners can tackle Snowdon and Scafell Pike on the way. After Fort William the runners then have to run up and down the highest mountain in the UK, Ben Nevis. The winning team is the first to complete the Ben Nevis ascent and descent. A truly epic race. See www.threepeaksyachtrace.co.uk for more details.

If mountain biking is your thing then why not join in (or just spectate!) the Trail Marathon Wales at Coed y Brenin Forest Park, just north of Dolgellau, on the 22nd of June.
While there you could always while away an hour or three negotiating the tree tops via cargo nets, zip wires , etc at Go Ape. You can get discount if you book through us!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Dx4LpX-X9JY


Something a bit different? Why not go to the Barmouth Kite Festival over the weekend of the 13th and 14th of July? Take your own kite or just sit , watch and be amazed at the stunts. Always a colourful event. www.barmouth.barrikiteflyers.com

If that's not enough, the same weekend hosts the Mawddach Paddlesports Festival between Barmouth and the stunningly beautiful Penmaenpool. Some fun and some serious races for rafts and canoes. Can be very exciting in extreme weather! www.paddlewales.com

From the 19th - 21st of July is Sesiwn Fawr, a music festival with craft workshops, puppet theatres, etc. at Dolgellau.

Who watched Carolyn Quentin's programme about Snowdonia National Park? One event she covered was the wonderful Race the Train that starts from Tywyn on August the 17th. Hundreds of runners participate and attempt to beat the Talyllyn Railway engine back to it's starting point. There are races of different lengths that attract runners of all ages from across the country. It's on August the 17th this year , in aid of Action for Children and definitely should not be missed!!!

Shortly after that, on August the 22nd,  is Children's Duncan Days at the Talyllyn Railway. This narrow gauge railway was the original inspiration for the Reverend Awdry's 'Thomas the Tank Engine' stories. www.talyllyn.co.uk

Watch this space for more news about events in this beautiful part of Wales.







Come and play!

I just happened to spot a little article on Independent Cottages website telling cottage owners about a company that sends out free games to be used in holiday cottages. Its a clever marketing campaign, to get holiday makers to enjoy playing the games , in the hope that they'll then buy them at a later date. We sent off a quick email to the company to say that we'd be happy to accept any games and within a few days a large package was delivered to Pentre Bach with a total of 8 boxed games! They're now distributed around our cottages for all our guests to enjoy.

Fully Booked this weekend!

All our cottages are booked for the next two weeks. Eek! That means the caravan for us! I don't think so. Not if this weather continues.........
Will it be like this

         
               


                                  or like this?

We've got some vacancies later on in April if anyone fancies a break. We can do some late availability deals!

Work Work Work!

We arrived on Thursday the 14th ready to finally get on with lots of jobs , including finally finishing off upgrading the heating and hot water system in the main house and two cottages. Mike spent most of the weekend taking up carpets and floorboards, hanging radiators, etc,.  He did take a break to watch Wales crucify England at rugby. And of course Scotland lost but they didn't disgrace themselves. Good job we didn't go to the pub to watch it!
We did manage a walk on the Sunday, another attempt to walk across the new Dysynni bridge only to find that it still wasn't finished and open so we had to make do with a stroll along the beach and even had our first picnic of the year.

Monday arrived but Stuart and Steve didn't. Well did we really expect them to? Of course not!

Tuesday arrived and so did Stuart and Steve. Hooray!  Some progress was made on the new radiatiors but not much.  I went back to Macc ready to teach on Wednesday.

Wednesday arrived and so did Stuart and Steve. Hooray again! The radiators and new pipework were completed but very little, in fact next to no progress made on finishing off the hot water system so phase 6 or is it 7? has been pencilled in for May. Ah well, this Wales.

Thursday arrived, I returned and so did reliable Gareth to wire up the unfinished new hot water system. Great story about the Brazil nuts Gareth!

Meanwhile Mike completed his new recycling storage area outside Y Popty, I did a bit of sort of reupholstering of some rather tired bucket chairs and potted A LOT of petunia and lobelia plugs, as well as assorted seedlings.

Friday arrived and the rest of the country was more or less covered in snow. Llwyngwril wasn't but we worried about our guests getting here from deepest Buckinghamshire. The first couple arrived well prepared in a Land Rover about 5pm. The other two couples arrived much later but unfortunately the couple who booked , were ill so couldn't come. Their plan was to climb Cader Idris this weekend,  which wasn't going to happen with the high winds we had all weekend.  I think they made it as far as The Last Inn in Barmouth.

Other jobs achieved over the last few weeks include new carpets in Y Popty and Pen y Lon. Much needed new curtains made and hung in Pen y Lon and new shower installed in downstairs shower room in Pen y Lon.

A huge new bed installed in the master bedroom of Pentre Bach and new windows all round in Y Llaethdy.


The table tennis Scotland v England continues. I think England perhaps just has the edge at the moment but Scotland is putting up a good fight!


Oh and Mike got a mole on Saturday!

It's all happening at Pentre Bach!

What a busy and productive weekend we had.
After 5 weeks without a landline and therefore no Internet connection, last Thursday BT finally got their act together and sent out a team with traffic lights so that the Openreach engineer could safely repair the fault in the junction box up on the road coming into the village. We're can now communicate with the world again without having to go to Ro and Gerald's house to access our emails or wander half way up the drive to get a mobile signal!



On Friday a new bed was delivered for the main house. It's a zip and link bed so can be used as two separate single beds or connected together to make an extra wide double bed. In fact its big enough for 4 people!






On Saturday Mike successfully installed a much needed new shower in Pen Y Lon, lifted the old carpets from Y Popty and Pen y Lon and lost to me at table tennis! Oh and as it was such a glorious day, we managed a walk to see the new bridge over the Dysynni. However the approaches aren't finished yet so we couldn't actually walk over it.

On Sunday, I managed an early morning run along the beach, then Tony Carpet arrived at 11am to fit our carpets. Hoorah! We'd bought them back in October! 6 hours later we had badly needed new carpets fitted in Y Popty lounge, Pen y Lon's biggest bedroom, landing, stairs, hall and lounge. What a difference.
Oh and Mike beat me at table tennis.

All in all a busy and successful weekend.

A celebration of 5 years at Pentre Bach!

Last Friday was the 5 year anniversary of us buying Pentre Bach so on Saturday we held a party to celebrate.
It started off sensibly with drinks and canapes in  the kitchen at 3pm, with a TV lounge in Y Popty for those who couldn't miss out on watching Wales v France  at rugby.
Many, many thanks to Rosemary and Gerald , who provided the majority of the buffet, (yummy homemade bread, flans , roast beef, salmon and salads) and many thanks to Helen and Sue who helped me prepare the rest earlier in the day.
It went down well to say the least!
Unfortunately as we were too busy circulating, we forgot all about the cake, which was probably just as well, as in the heat, it  was slowly subsiding over on the sideboard!
Apres food , and some time to let it settle, the games started...... Gerald takes the prize for the effort, creativity and sheer entertainment!
It was a long day but it was lovely to be able to share our celebration with so many people who'd helped us over the last 5 years and also made us feel so welcome in the village.
Here's to the next 5!

2 very different weekends

Last weekend we were delighted that all our cottages were occupied- a great result in early October. What a shame that the weather was so awful on Saturday evening when most of our guests wanted to have a bonfire and fireworks display. It turned out to be a bit of a damp squid of an evening.
However on the Friday evening, after welcoming our guests into their cottages we set off to Machynlleth, to watch the Lantern Procession. We parked up by the station and walked into town where small crowds were gathering in anticipation of the annual event. We weren't expecting much , perhaps just a few children carrying some small lanterns. We had quite a wait beyond the expected start of 7pm but when the procession eventually arrived, proceeded by a percussion band, we were absolutely amazed. There were hundreds of people of all ages, carrying lanterns of all different shapes and sizes, but all linked by the theme 'things with wings'. Obviously masses of work had gone into creating these lanterns and what a spectacle they made. Well worth the wait. The participants and most of the watching crowds were then going on to somewhere, where there was going to be a grand fireworks display but we left them to it and returned to the village with a quick stop off at the Riverside in Pennal for a drink on the way.



This weekend, only Heather, Maggie and friends were in residence at Pentre Bach. A great weekend was had by all, including a rather wet walk across Barmouth Bridge, a live game of Cluedo, organised by Rick and the usual poses on Fairbourne beach.

This apparently spells TRIBE!

Meanwhile, this morning, before any of the above opened an eyelid,   Mike and I set off into the hills above Arthog in search of a memorial that we knew existed but had never been able to find before. Despite having to negociate a very muddy and prolonged landslide, we eventually came across the memorial plaque set into a wall in a beautiful spot, overlooking Fairbourne and Barmouth in the distance. Our research on the Internet, before setting off, informed us of the sad story of the American bomber , heading back to the states on the 8th of June , 1945, just after WW2 had ended. The plane somehow got lost in bad weather and ended up crashing into the side of the mountain, just yards from safety, with the loss of all the crew and passengers inside, 20 men altogether.
We sat and had our coffee, thinking about those poor men, before leaving our poppies and headed back down the mountain.

On the way back down we met a couple, probably in their 60s,  on their way up and started chatting. It turned out that they were on their way to find the source of the river Gwril. After finding that , they only had another 3 river sources to find out of all the rivers in the whole of England and Wales. They'd already climbed all mountains over 2000 feet in england and Wales. what an achievement! I just hope Mike isn't getting any ideas!