Wales

Over the May holidays, I visited North and Mid Wales, the towns and cities of Caernafon, Bangor, Porthaethwy (Menai Bridge), Llanberis, and Aberystwyth. The weather was hot over the bank holiday weekend—the kind of heat that makes it feel like you'll never be cold again. What are socks and why would I ever wear them? It also makes for amazing thunderheads and pretty sunsets. It actually felt nice to plunge into an icy cold lake! I'm still not accustomed to swimming in salt water, though, so I just dipped my toes in at Cardigan Bay. 

In Caernafon, a friend and I explored the castle and enjoyed the views towards the mountains that make up Eryri National Park. But my belief in Macsen Wledig was shattered by discovering that the tale of his dream from the Mabinogion is all Norman propaganda and that if Macsen and Elen did meet, it would have been at the Roman camp, not the castle! We visited the site of the Roman Segontium, too, and watched the sun set from Twthill Trig. In Bangor, we saw the Cathedral and University campus and also crossed over to Angelsey to visit Ynys Tysilio (Church Island). The church there is from 650 and it's also where the WWI era poet Sir Albert Evans-Jones, who wrote under the name Cynan, is buried. In Llanberis we saw Ceunant Mawr at the base of Snowdon and Dolbadarn Castle ruins, then had a nice swim at Llyn Padarn. My friend speaks Welsh and has family from North Wales. It's really interesting to hear his perspective on Welsh history and stories about the area's mining industry.

Castell Caernafon

Castell Caernafon

View of Caernafon

View from the castle

View from the castle

Roman Segontium, Caernafon

Castell Caernafon in the evening

On Twthill Trig

Caernafon at sunset

Sunset at Twthill Trig

University Library in Bangor

A view of Bangor Cathedral

At a café in Bangor

Menai Bridge from Ynys Tysilio

Eglwys Sant Tysilio

View from Glyn Rhonwy, Llanberis

Dolbadarn Castle, Llanberis

I travelled by bus to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. The current display of treasures features women writers, artists, and activists like Mary Dillwyn, Brenda Chamberlain and Dorothy Bonjaree. I read more about Bonarjee in the introduction to The Hindu Bard, where her work is compared with the Romantic poets and W.B. Yeats. In addition to my visit to the library, I got up to some thrifting, climbed Constitution Hill, and visited the castle ruins and beach there.

National Library of Wales

Book window at the National Library

Thrifting in Aberystwyth

Aberystwyth Beach and Constitution Hill

View from Constitution Hill

Castell Aberystwyth

View from Castell Aberystwyth

At Castell Aberystwyth

At Castell Aberystwyth

Knitting a cardigan at Cardigan Bay!

Pebble beach at Bae Ceredigion (Cardigan Bay), Aberystwyth

Thanks for reading!

Liverpool

Hello friends, I was in Liverpool over the recent bank holiday weekend. I visited the Picton Reading Room at the Central Library, the Walker Art Gallery, Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight, Speke Hall, and the coast at Crosby Beach. The Lady Lever currently has a small but well-presented exhibit on the textile artist May Morris that is open until November. On Sunday, I visited Gustaf Adolfs Kyrka in the Baltic Triangle, which holds services in English and Swedish, and celebrated the installation of the new pastor there. As always, I really enjoyed my time in this friendly city!

Isabella by J.E. Millais

Railing detail at Walker Art Gallery

Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight

Westward Ho! designed by May Morris and
stitched by Jane Morris

Dress embroidered by May Morris

An embroidery by May Morris

May's sketchbook

The Beguiling of Merlin by Edward Burne-Jones

The Annunciation by Edward Burne-Jones

Spring (Apple Blossoms) by J.E. Millais

Port Sunlight

Speke Hall

A mantle at Speke Hall

Table setting at Speke Hall

Wallpaper at Speke Hall (original Morris!)

Bells at Speke Hall

A haze of bluebells in May

Woodland path at Speke Hall

Crosby Beach

Cotton bonnet in progress

Thanks for reading!

Cotswolds

Hello friends, I've just spent my spring break in the village of Cam in the Cotswolds. It feels like spring here with more and more birdsong from chiffchaffs, blackbirds, goldfinches, sparrows, titmice, magpies and jackdaws. The leaves seem to have popped out overnight, too. They are all unfurling in their soft, velvety freshness. During the month of April, the daylight increases by almost two hours in England. 

The cottage I stayed in had two long-haired cats named Freya and Siggy and a spacious private garden for sitting out on nice days. My reading list included Bröd och mjölk by Karolina Ramqvist, Kometen kommer by Tove Jansson, the books on the Carnegie Medal for Writing shortlist, and Mansfield Park as an audiobook: 'If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient; at others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control! We are, to be sure, a miracle every way; but our powers of recollecting and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out.' –Fanny Price in Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Cam is nearby the villages of Dursley and Wotton-under-Edge, where I found a stash of vintage knitting patterns—a lot of Aran ones, for some reason. There's also a sweet bookshop and a natural foods shop in Wotton. I went on a couple of rambles during my visit as well as to Gloucester Cathedral for a performance of Bach's St John Passion by the cathedral choir and La Serenissima.  

Cottage home

Walled garden

Spring blossoms

Snail patio

in the garden

Siggy

Freya

Beginning a cardigan

Vintage Aran patterns

Easter Sunday dandelion pancakes

On the way to Cam Peak

The view from Cam Peak

Early spring woods

Cotswolds sheep

Illustration from The Tailor of Gloucester

The tailor's house, Gloucester

Gloucester Cathedral

Cloisters at Gloucester Cathedral

Floor tiling in the cloisters

Old pub in Gloucester

The path up Stinchcombe Hill

View towards the Severn River

View from Stinchcombe Hill

Walking near Stinchcombe

Cotswold Book Room, Wotton-under-Edge

Crooked house in Wotton-under-edge

Thank you for reading!