Sunday 28 August 2016

Where the mountains meet the sea























Photos from a few days in North Wales. Just about my favourite place on the planet. We swam in the sea and shimmied up mountains and ate chips and ice-cream overlooking the harbour. It was all good.

On our way home we stopped in at a sheep dog trial and I caught up with Annie which was a pleasure. The sheep were doing an excellent job of not being penned.

Oh the pain of re-entry into normal life. The littlest boy made many dog friends and is taking it the hardest. We are hatching a plan to go and live there forever. Just like we were last year in fact.

Tomorrow the garden awaits. Apples and tomatoes are lying on the ground, beans and figs are waiting to be picked and the grape vine has flopped onto the patio. Then maybe a picnic by a river somewhere. There's still some summer left to be enjoyed. Wishing you a good week. CJ xx

37 comments:

  1. Your trip looks and sounds amazing, and you my friend are absoulutely stunning!
    Mereedith

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  2. I love Wales too! Spent ten days there at the end of June. The only place that comes close is Derbyshire. Have you been there? If not, check it out, you would have a great time there with your camera.

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  3. Stunning photos - I do love North Wales, although the last time we climbed Snowdon my knee kept locking for a fortnight afterwards - I think I'm getting too old for climbing! Enjoy the last of the summer hols. xx

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  4. Lovely isn't it! I live in a less idyllic part of North Wales but we still have some lovely views. It sounds like you had a wonderful time x

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  5. Stunning CJ! The landscape is breathtaking and your boys look to have had a great adventure. My friend was proposed to at the top of Snowdon a couple of years ago and she said it was the most perfect place for him to get on one knee! :) Have a great week and enjoy the garden xx

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  6. I love the photo of you on top of the world! Wales looks just like the place I would enjoy visiting, glad you had a great time. Wishing you a lovely gardening week, it helps to keep busy after a holiday to keep the holiday blues at bay. xx

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  7. Wonderful photos CJ. Thank you so much for sharing - they could have been ours c. 2006. And yes, I always used to dream about never coming home too. What a fantastic year it is for produce. If you half-cut your figs in quarters so they look like a baby bird's open beak, drizzle them with runny honey and bake them in the oven for about 10 mins I think your boys will love them, especially if topped with a scoop of ice-cream or (healthy option) Greek yogurt.

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  8. A lovely post and wonderful pictures. Good to see that you enjoyed a few days away, far from the maddening crowds.
    Thanks, and you too. Flighty xx

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  9. Great photos. I'm glad you all had a good time :)

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  10. Gorgeous sweeping photos, CJ - I especially like the last two, so calm. Also nice to see you featuring in one of the photos - a rare sighting! Who needs to go abroad for holidays when we have such wonderful countryside here in the UK!! (Apples already in your allotment? I must go and check on my Braeburns, I usually reckon they're not ready until late September!) Cxx

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  11. Gorgeous landscape - thanks for sharing your beautiful photos with us! How about our two families join together and buy a homestead with an old stone farmhouse? I have a pack of Corgis - your son would have a ton of dogs to play with! That second to last photo from the bottom gave me goosebumps, with the mist over the mountains - amazing.

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  12. Oh, you've taken me back to my roots. I need to go back. I hope Annie is well?

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  13. Sounds blissful. It's somewhere I used to go often but haven't been to North Wales in years. I'd forgotten how beautiful it was.

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  14. beautiful moments... both in words and pictures - thank you for sharing.
    have a lovely week!

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  15. what a truly fantastic trip you've had x happy memories x

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  16. Beautiful photos.... reminds me a little of the west coast of Scotland. I agree, it is sad to goodbye to the special away times but I think they are so extra special because they are not the normal and when my normal just gets a bit to dull I love to escape to memories & photo of those special times. Hope you had a good harvest from your garden!
    Anna xx

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  17. It is hard, returning to everyday life after a wonderful holiday (I feel like my body is here and my head is completely somewhere else). Gorgeous pictures and, clearly, very happy memories.

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  18. I love Wales. I would far rather go there than the Lake District, probably because not everybody goes there. With no holiday this year (new office = no money) I am loving all the vicarious holidays I get from my blogging friends. wales is usually our cheap holiday (we borrow a house) but even that couldn't be due to time pressures, so this was a lovely chance to enjoy a beautiful place.

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  19. Look at your beautiful self in that photo! Re-entry into normal life is hard, isn't it? But you are making so many good memories for your family. Xx

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  20. It does look lovely in your wonderful photos. Feels like lots of summer left here at the mo, what with all the heat, but only a handful of holiday days left :-(. Good luck with the garden tidy. Ps lovely pic of you xx

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  21. So glad you had a wonderful holiday. xx

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  22. North Wales' tourism authority needs to buy your photos, pronto! you make me want to move there too! you are so talented, CJ - and so lucky to have places like that near you!

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  23. My stopping by have given me a great pleasure. You took many photos of the beautiful landscapes.

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  24. Beautiful collection of photos.

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  25. oh my. those photos make my heart twinge. they really do. i can see why you'd be hatching a plot to move there. how could you not? re-entry can be brutal and shocking, can't it?

    xoxo

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  26. Spectacular holiday snaps. You can't beat the beautiful countryside xx

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  27. Such lovely photos! I'm so glad you allowed one of you too. Life looks great!

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  28. Wonderful photos dear Claire, I'm so pleased you had a great time with your lovely family...I love the photo of you, so beautiful you are!
    Much love, Dianne
    xoxoxo. ♥️

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  29. My childhood holidays in North Wales were not nearly as nice as yours. We used to creep up the coastline a little each year. Having no car made it excruciatingly boring for us teenagers and the photos show a lot of very glum faces. Come to think of it my first school field trip was to Snowdonia and that was pretty grim too. Coming from the burbs I was very intimidated by the mountain outside the youth hostel. I think it's time to go back. I love the colour of that front door in the fourth photo.

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  30. What a gorgeous place, CJ. I'm sorry to have missed your post but I'm just finally getting back into the swing of blogging after some time off. I'm glad you had such a nice time, it really looks beautiful and like there was something to see in every direction.

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  31. Super photos of a beautiful place, CJ. Re-entry is horrible isn't it? While we're away I always think "what if we don't go back??" Riverside picnics sound just the thing, to pretend you're still on holiday!

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  32. Beautiful, North Wales was the destination for the first holiday we ever went on before we were engaged, and we took the children back there when they were 11 and 9. Our holiday too included sheep dog trials,climbing mountains and the sea. Keep that dream alive and try and make it happen. Sarah x

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  33. Hi CJ, please could you tell me exactly where you were in North Wales, it looks absolutely stunning. I would love to do a holiday like that, just have to persuade the rest of the family!

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  34. Hi CJ, please could you tell me exactly where you were in North Wales, it looks absolutely stunning. I would love to do a holiday like that, just have to persuade the rest of the family!

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  35. Very beautiful photos! Hope you are having a wonderful evening ♥

    summerdaisycottage.blogspot.com

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  36. These are stunning photos CJ and you've included one of yourself! You look beautiful, just like the scenery :). I'm glad there are still some summer days ahead. It's such a magical season.

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  37. It's not often that I am envious but after looking at these photos, I truly am! I can almost taste the hot chips and ice cream. Wish I was there, even though I am perfectly happy here on the other side of the world!

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