What a weekend! One of the houses in the village recorded 35 degrees on the Sunday afternoon. We were able to make the most of it with Pete and Sue, dear friends and weekend guests. Breakfast was enjoyed on the terrace! As you can guess from the picture, we enjoy a huge breakfast, cereals with fresh fruit, a “green” smoothie made with sunflower seeds, banana and either mango or avocado, a herb salad and some natural yoghurt, a freshly pressed fruit drink, and, because we had guests, croissants and coffee. We believe that breakfast is the most important meal of the day!
Breakfast is ready.
On Saturday morning we went north to Llanidloes. Llani, as it is known locally, is a brilliant town. Like Rhayader it has all the charm and friendliness of a Radnorshire market town, but is also a bit more “alternative”. In history the riot act was read there to a Chartist gathering, so it has always been a centre for alternative thinking, latterly it has been leading efforts to re-think our energy usage. It has a good market with an excellent cheese stall. Last Saturday Great Oak Street was filed with plant stalls. The Great Oak Café is one of the best whole food/vegetarian cafés that we know (and we’ve tried a lot), we had their marvellous veggie burgers for lunch. Another attraction of Great Oak Street is an very welcoming antique shop with a lovely range of stock and an eclectic choice of background music.
Saturday night the four of us attended a gig by Dan Cassidy, Eva Cassidy’s brother, at CARAD the Rhayader Arts Centre. Dan has a swing quartet, largely modelled on Le Hot Club de France, the group led by Stephan Grappelli and Django Rheinhart. http://hickmanandcassidy.co.uk Dan plays violin, however his lead guitar player was stuck in his home country – Iceland, by the dreaded cloud of volcanic ash. His role was filled very well by an Aberystwyth guitarist, and Django follower, Brian. CARAD don’t have a drinks licence, but are happy for you to bring your own. Peter, as duty driver, was despatched to fetch goodies and returned with a selection of wine and nuts. This was a class evening! I am constantly amazed by the quality of live music that is made available in mid Wales. Both CARAD and the Wyeside in Builth Wells have some fabulous artists.
It was far too hot to work in the garden on Monday, so, having written a letter, but missed the post collection, we took it into town to post, along with a boot full of re-cycling. Being in the car we thought a little outing might be deserved. Since retiring such outings can be counted on one hand. We had thought that they would be a feature of our retired life, not realising that retired people do not have time for such fripperies, we’re far too busy!! We decided on Aberystwyth, and went on the main road via Llangurig, a glorious road with wonderful scenery. Here are a few photos of Aber on a sunny evening:
We returned via the Cwmystwth mountain road from Devil’s Bridge to the Elan Valley dams and home. This road is single track in places, but we only encountered three cars, and one of those was parked! The scenery on this road is breathtaking. One of Britain’s greatest secret places, come and visit it for yourself – but don’t tell anyone else about it.
