Croeso i'r ffin Saesneg / Cymraeg.
Yes. Those are words. Welsh words which say "Welcome to the English/Welsh border", where I am currently!
For the first time I met some more of the family up north just below Chester. Karen and David have been the most welcoming people. The farm is full of different animals - dogs, cats, horses, peacocks!?, chickens..... I am staying in the barn, an old done up barn with the biggest luxuries my eyes have ever seen.
I was welcomed with fresh eggs from the chickens for my own scrambled egg breakfasts, a huge bed with the most cuddly quilt and a view over the fields stretching miles.
On Sunday, I met Karen's son Paul and his family, we had a delicious three course lunch at the Mytton and Mermaid, then went to see Paul's Helicopter and have a hot chocolate at the cafe at the Sleap airfield. It was a perfect, windy day and I enjoyed meeting new people and relaxing in good company.
Karen and I went to Chester on monday and walked around the thousand year old city walls, then went for a bit of shopping and bought Roccoco chocolates (dark chocolate salted praline! The only thing that matters in the world!) and had a geez in the oldest pub in town.
Yesterday was a lazy day, with a morning visit to Oswestry to the hair salon, constant Marilyn Monroe experiences in the wind with my skirt and then we chilled out for the afternoon before heading to watch Tom Cruise do some acting in Wrecsam, Wales. After the movie we went to Pant-yr-Orchain Manor House for dinner, where I noticed a familiar face walk past. Fancy seeing my friend's Dad from Port Macquarie in a quiet Welsh pub in the middle of nowhere!
Today, however, was probably the cutest day of all with a trip to Pontcysyllte aqueduct near Llangollen, Wales, taking Molly and Hattie for a walk along the monstrous bridge and up to a tea garden for cream tea and hot chocolate before winding around the mountainside in the car and ending up at The Corn Mill, which sits right on the river at the foot of the valley with raging currents straight down the middle of town. It was wonderful to see things like the Narrowboats and see the horsedrawn boats (JUST LIKE THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS ERMGAHRRSJKDFKJG).
Also, there is a Welsh town called "Ruthin" hehehehehehehheheh