I'm Back!

Hello everyone - nice to be back.

We have just returned from a fortnight's holiday in the north of Wales in a little village called Llanaelhaearn (pronounced lan - eyel - hern apparantly) and am feeling much refreshed. The area we were staying in was essentially a farming area, as could be determined at the local newsagents - magazines about computers = 0, magazines about gaming = 0, magazines about knitting and stitching = 0, magazines about art = 0, magazines dedicated solely to tractors = 11! The holiday was biased towards walking and visiting ruined castles (which doubled up as some superb research for my fantasy series - I found the perfect setting and the perfect example of castle, as well as the perfect layout of medieval house as the Foresters Hall. I have been inspired!). We managed a couple of visits to the beach, but my complexion blushes at the mere mention of the sun, so I end up taking an umbrella and embarrassing everyone!

Here is the local beach with the almost mountain in the background which we climbed on our first day. I say 'almost mountain' because it is 50m shy of the official UK government definition of a mountain - ah well - you can't win 'em all.

Here is another view of the local beach / harbour. We managed a bar-b-q here one evening - had to light three of the portable ones before we got one that worked!

We visited Harlech castle when they were hosting a tournament. The castle was wonderfully situated and absolutely worth the visit, but the tourney was frankly a bit naff! Admittedly they might get into trouble if they injured each other mortally, but the participants merely knocked the swords together ponderously until one of them decided to fall over. Ah well, at least the show kept all the visitors in one place while I wandered around! Anyway, that's enough of photos. Suffice it to say that we did lots of things in a beautiful corner of the country.

Now I'm back to the internet I can go visiting and find out what you have all been up to while I've been away.