Summer Fun

Argh I've been meaning to post this for sooooo long! Life (and the slowness of Blogger) got the better of me! I could probably post an Autumn fun blog soon! But let's get this out of the way first...

Sometime in September...
OK, so this post is an amalgam of all I've wanted to say over the past month, but what no-one told me was that there aren't enough hours in the day for blogging! Please bear with me, I have a PhD to finish, don'tcha know! :P Oh, and also this post has nothing to do with the move (I think), I just wanted to share the awesome time we had over the past few weekends :) Which were very welcome in between the stresses of trying to finish in the lab, which I won't even talk about!

Medieval Melee

For N's birthday we decided to check out the Medieval festival in the grounds of Cardiff castle. Yes, it was mostly for children/families, but we still had fun watching the trebuchet demonstration:

Seeing a guy enthusing over his medieval weaponry:

And watching some falconry:

Among other things, which included my first visit inside the Castle apartments in the 6 years I've lived here, and likewise a walk around the walls, plus eating hog roast and buying mead (both for N, not for me!)

Then we went home to bake birthday cake! Hazelnut mocha to be precise:

Tasty, but did absolutely nothing to satisfy my craving for coffee cake!

Green Man Festival

View of the main stage

Oh. My. Word. The Green Man Festival is easily the best festival ever! (OK, so it's only my second festival experience, but still)

The Green Man himself / I can hula-hoop / Laura J Martin flauting!

I had such a lovely weekend, the setting was gorgeous, nestled in the Brecon Beacons, the weather was fantastic, the people were all lovely (and there weren't too many of them!) and the atmosphere was just so relaxed. I just let it all wash over me. And that's without even mentioning the music! Laura Marling, Fleet Foxes, Benjamin Francis Leftwich, Ben Howard and the Gentle Good, plus some new discoveries: Laura J Martin and Bleedin' Noses (awful name, great sound). See here for my Spotify playlist of all my favourites from the weekend.

The moon came out behind Fleet Foxes

Oh my word, I almost forgot! We saw Tim Minchin! He played the Thursday night before the festival officially started, and he was incredible! Completely hilarious! Although the audience participation version of Hallelujah that he led nearly made me cry! If you've never heard of him before, go and look him up on YouTube. N and I particularly liked his song "Predjudice"

And of course it was great to spend some quality time with family :)

Sis and Daddy

And we ate some great food: soup, pasta, nachos, stir fry, wraps (enjoyed in a very dignified manner, as seen below), lots of tea, and several crumpets from the strumpets (incredible! :D)

Me + sis enjoy yums :D

And also got a little wet in between the lengthy sunny spells, but that was fine, it was only one day, and the whole thing was too awesome for us to care!

So the moral of the story being: go to Green Man festival! But not too many of you because then it would be too busy and would spoil the charm :P

Bank Holiday Weekend

Anybody reading this who knows me well will know that this wasn't the easiest weekend for my family, anybody who doesn't, well maybe I'll go into it one day, but not now. But despite that, we still managed to have some pleasant times in the area around home.

For instance, I spent a lovely afternoon wandering around the house and gardens of Forde Abbey with my sister:

 Where I got a bit snap happy, and she played with water snails:

And we saw the highest powered fountain in England:

Which incidentally I saw again today (October 28th, a beautiful autumn day, I could have stayed out all day it was so warm) but from a distance, from the top of a hill near our house :)

Talking of hills, the following day was lovely and sunny and saw us walk to the top of Pilsdon Pen to see the sea:

Pretty awesome right?!

I also wanted to post a picture of my sister, step-dad and I, but it's not too flattering, and I don't think I'd ever be forgiven if I did!

So, stayed tuned for updates on a trip to London for N's visa, moving, and N leaving for America coming soon!