I am gathering up inspiration for a whole host of Stitchscapes whilst travelling around the country at the moment. July and August were/are very busy for me as I have booked a holiday narrow boating around Manchester with friends next week, there are events out with the family, a Hen Do happened this weekend just gone, and the corresponding wedding is in Birmingham in three weeks time. I haven't got a spare weekend until mid September!!!
Happily (touch wood) things haven't overlapped too much and I am trying very hard not to double book myself.
My most recent trip was to Brechfa in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Essentially it is a slightly remote village on the very end of the M4 and we were staying in an enormous converted barn on a working farm; home to a flock of Soay sheep, chickens, ducks, horses and a sheepdog called Shiva who liked to play football.
The barn itself was nice and just what we needed for a good time. My friend isn't one for going to town and getting plastered, her request for her dream hen do would be to avoid the public and go hiking, so that is pretty much what we did. We had to take our own sleeping bags but there were bunk beds on which to sleep on, a big kitchen and lots of sofas to settle down in.
We travelled up in various cars on the Friday, and spent TEN HOURS getting there- it was gridlocked on the M25, which wasn't entirely unexpected, but then it was even worse on the M4!!!! Luckily we had lots of things to entertain us, and I made a Carpool Karaoke playlist which, combined with the Percy Pig sweets, kept us relatively happy. My poor friend who was driving was pretty knackered once we got there, and things took a pretty interesting turn at about 11.30pm, as a group of friends were messing around in the yard, and the same driving friend managed to fall over and dislocate her shoulder, ending up in hospital!!!! Who says that being in the back of beyond is uninteresting?
The next day we carried on with the party as planned, and went for a stroll through Brechfa Forest, which has three designated routes that you can follow depending on how energetic you are feeling. The forest was pretty wet as the heavens opened once we reached Wales (typical), although actually during our walk the sun came out and the trees sparkled in the sunshine. Just look how pretty the forest is!!.......
The group split up part way round as some of the ladies wanted to keep walking and others had various reasons for turning back along a shorter route. I was with those who turned back, which was a pretty sensible idea as it turned out because just as we got in the car, the clouds starting throwing buckets of hail and water down at us in a very relentless sort of fashion. Those still walking had to try and find shelter under the trees but the rain wasn't giving up and eventually they just braved it and carried on back to the car park. They were soaked through when they got home, despite wearing waterproof coats!
The colours are starting to change now in the trees which is sad as it is the first sign that Summer is quietly drawing to a close. There was a surprising amount of orange and burnt umber along the pathways and I wonder whether an early Autumn has been brought on by the lack of rain we had prior to the weekend?
That evening we had a fantastic meal at The Forest Arms; grilled halloumi and Hunters chicken with raspberry and white chocolate brioche.....mmmmmmm and ended the day back at the barn with Hen Do inspired games and prosecco. The sun came out and it was rainbows all around!!
We returned home on Sunday afternoon after a small recovery period and brunch, and thankfully the journey was much quicker! A beautiful weekend in Brechfa!!!
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