New Home: Aberystwyth, Wales, UK

Right, so I moved to Aberystwyth in May this year, four months ago. Yes, I've been slack. But anyway, Aber, as it is known locally, is located half-way up the West coast of Wales. Essentially a University town these days, it had its hay-day in the 1800s when it was a favoured sea-side resort for the upper class. The Georgian promenade is still an attraction but it is the Welsh who come here for their holidays now.

It is at the end of the train line and with roughly 12,000 inhabitants, not including the annual influx of 8000 uni students, it is a rather small place. The smallest I've lived so far in actual fact.

For all that, living here has been lovely. It's a very relaxed place. The weather has so far been great (I'm told to expect endless rain in Winter, but Summer was brilliant!), it's very easy to get around, with lots of interesting independent shops to browse and walking along the sea of an evening has been just perfect. Very easy to lose track of time in a place like this.

Really, how could I not love a country whose flag sports a dragon?!? And it is oh-so-easy to imagine that 'There be Dragons' in them thar hills!

Anyway, some pics for show and tell: 1. The view from my Attic, 2. Along the Bay, 3. The ruined Castle, 4. The Foreshore, 5. View of the town from the top of Constitution Hill.

Powis Castle

Ok, as promised, a start to the backlog. Well, this actually only occurred last weekend, so not so much backlog but at least it's keeping abreast of things!

So, this last weekend, I visited Powis Castle with R & H & A. Powis is located just outside the town of Welshpool, in Wales, near the English border. It dates from the Medieval period and has the most beautiful gardens I have ever been in. Absolutely humongous! Some 26 acres or so they say. I couldn't take any photos inside the castle itself, so you'll just have to be awed by the gardens. I was!

Finishing the Book...

Something else rather major I did in May was finish the final draft of my 2009 NaNoWriMo book. And sent it off, to get a real-life, hard copy thereof.

So damn exciting, and I'm so damn proud of myself! And I'm swearing too much again... shall stop now!

But WHOHOOOOO!!!!

... of course, the very first sentence I read contained a typo. My dragons don't die, they debate the philosophy of right and wrong. But them's the breaks! :D

Yoiks!

Time got away from me. It is now the end of August which means I've been in Aberystwyth, Wales for four months and haven't blogged about it once. I shall remedy that very shortly - I promise! Really!

It has been a very timeless four months actually and I can't process the fact that I've been here that long. The job is so endless - I do pretty much the exact same thing every day of the week - that it is really difficult to pin-point any markers that actually distinguish one week from another. Time is diffuse and relaxed and kinda endless. Nice really, but not very productive!

I have done stuff though.

I visited Nottingham and saw R & H on the weekend of the 29th of May. We went to Nottingham castle and saw jousting there, and I visited the caves under the city.

I went to see Shrewsbury and the Iron Bridge World Heritage Site with Pat and Alan on the 28th of June. We wandered around a few places, got lost and saw a Victorian era town.

And last weekend - the 21-22 August - I went to Birmingham and visited the Festival of Quilts, and had a major shopping spree.

I have also completed blocks 4 through 7 of Aunt Millies Garden, started knitting a winter shawl for myself, took up Mandala drawing again and will hopefully soon be singing with the local choir - the start again in September.

I will write further about all of these soon. I just wanted to make sure I wrote now, so I wouldn't forget again.

Sorry to have been so lax guys! I'll pick up the pace again asap.
Kat