“A poor fisherman who knows the beauties of the misty mornings is much richer than a wealthy man who sleeps till noon in his palace!”
Mehmet il dan
A perfect misty morning in Wales.
Category Archives: Wales
this day
A letter a very sweet woman wrote last week has had me thinking. She recently found this space and had been reading through the archives. She asked if I ever wrote about homeschooling or life in a very large family with a wide age spread. What is that really like, she asks? I have begun to explain several times. I sit at this keyboard and type and type and then hit delete and go to bed. : ) Increasingly, what is in my heart is easier to show in images than to try to sum up in a few words.
I can point to this day was a pretty good example. It was beautiful. It was messy. It was loud. It was full of gritty sandwiches and soggy socks. And smiles. Probably a couple of tears. Handholding. Running ahead, falling behind. A lift when needed. Exhilarating and exhausting. Worth every minute. It ended like so many other nights, squished together on couches, covered with blankets, debating who is going to be in charge of the remote.
It was good. Very good.
Simple and not easy.
Harlech Castle, Wales
The trip to Harlech Castle was just missing a soundtrack. Seriously. It was a fairy tale castle with incredible views. It was drizzly the day we visited which meant we had the place nearly to ourselves. The children scrambled up and down the towers and lookouts til they wore themselves out. I don't think we could ever tire of this. We will leave here someday but I am so glad they got to do this.
Harlech Castle has a bit of a checkered past. It has played roles in many battles and changed hands many times over the years. It is in ruins today but you can see the footprint of the original interior rooms. Castles like these are built around a large central courtyard and the rooms line the outside walls. (one room deep) Sort of the opposite way regular homes are built. This means the actual usable interior space is much smaller than you would imagine looking from a distance. The courtyard in larger structures could house local villagers as a fortress in case of attack.
Enough of all that. Come traipse through with us…
to the falls
It was a little drizzly the day we decided to hike to the falls in Wales. It was apparently "that" kind of cloudy day where it would be staying overcast but not going to progress to a downpour. I still have not become savvy enough at reading clouds to know for sure which is which, but Alannah and Allen seemed pretty confident and sure enough we had a good climb.
This was a remarkably steep trail but it led to some incredible views. Also an incredibly high overlook which tempted one boy enough to earn him a tongue wagging from his sisters. It's like having 3 mama's for the second set of kids around here. We don't miss much between us. ; )
We lunched at the top and then made our way back down in time to cross the little wooden bridge (by car) across the lake to the cabin side before the toll man closed up shop. I wish I had gotten a shot of that. The girls were joking it was only missing some goats and a troll. White painted wood bridge. One lane. Across the whooooole lake. I couldn't shoot. I was busy breathing.
Starry Sky Journal 