Friday 31 August 2012

Out and About in Chester

Deanna came to visit for the day yesterday so that she could be fitted for her bridesmaid dress - she looked lovely. I can't let you see pictures of her bridesmaid dress yet - you'll have to wait until after the wedding in October...

It was nice and sunny in the morning so while she was here we had a wander round the lovely city of Chester. After a look round a few shops we walked along the old city walls as we made our way to the bridal shop.  Here's a picture of Vicky and Deanna taken on the city wall at the back of the Cathedral, 

and another of Vicky and myself taken a little further along the wall. 

After being fitted for her dress we had a little drive to Flint to see the post box that has been painted gold to celebrate Jade Jones winning a gold medal in Tae Kwon Do. There were banners everywhere welcoming Jade home... a good idea painting a postbox gold in each of the medal winners home towns I think.  

Tuesday 28 August 2012

On Holiday

The weather hasn't been great over the summer holidays but that hasn't stopped us having a nice time. I've not had chance to write in my diary so there's quite a few things to tell you about - a few days out, news about what I'm working on and lots of other things.

In August we spent a lovely week in Tenby, a small walled town with beautiful beaches in Pembrokeshire, on the south coast of Wales. We had some lovely sunny days and a couple of wet days but we still managed to get out and about, visit a few places and have a nice time.

Here's a view of Tenby harbour and one of the beaches...



It's quite a long drive to Tenby so we didn't do a lot on the first day other than unpack and have a walk into the town for a nice refreshing glass of er... lemonade.

On one of the nice days we travelled down the road to visit The Manor House Wildlife Park (you might have seen this on television, but if you haven't you can click on the link above and it will take you straight to their website). The Manor House Wildlife Park is dedication to conservation and it was interesting to see the work they are doing to conserve animals and plants in the wildlife park. As well as seeing some of the animals in their large enclosures there's also chance to walk among some of the animals and feed them... Manor House Wildlife Park isn't a big as zoos like Chester Zoo, however, it's well worth a visit to see what they're doing there.


Here's Vicky feeding one of the wallabies with a special food pellet that are especially for them to eat - you can't just give them a piece of your sandwich or a packet of crisps.

We were very lucky to be able to see some baby meerkats whilst we were there too. The babys are normally kept hidden away in their nest as they can't see but the mother was letting them have a bit of sunshine. You can see one of them here with dad staying close and keeping guard.




We drove across Pembrokeshire to visit St Davids - the smallest city in Great Britain. Here's a picture of St Davids Cathedral which dates back to the 12th century, and behind it you can see the ruins of the Bishops Palace.


  
While we were in Tenby we read about the Cwm Deri Vineyard which was nearby so we couldn't resist going along for a visit. It was a bit of a damp day but we really enjoyed walking through the vineyard and sampling a little bit of wine and cheese - Yum!
The grapes on the vines were only tiny as they won't be harvested until October - it's also been a very wet year (you might have noticed) and that hasn't helped much. We brought a few bottles of wine home with us and are saving them for a special occasion...