Train strikes are upon us again and I had to alter my plans and swap my ‘home’ and ‘home from home’ weekends. Avanti West Coast drive me insane. They cancelled my 15:35 Chester to London Euston direct service for the third time in a row, blaming staff shortage. I hear a lot of people missed the recent Coldplay gig in Wembley because of delayed trains. Absolute shambles.
Still, I had a nice weekend at home, and enjoyed what was probably the last of this summer’s heatwaves. I hoped it would be slightly cooler in Cheshire; it wasn’t. I steered clear of the city centre on Saturday. It was the Pride day in Chester but I just couldn’t bear the crowds and noise on such a hot day. Instead I walked the Chester Greenway to Mickle Trafford: there were lots of ripe and very sweet blackberries everywhere and quite a few people picking them. I stopped at Waitrose on my way back and bought the most delicious gazpacho – lunch sorted!
On Sunday I went to Llangollen, a cute, retro-chic Welsh town very popular with visitors all year round and extremely popular in the summer… I wanted to have a mini picnic by Horseshoe Waterfalls but there was not a chance in hell for a quiet spot with literally hundreds of sun worshippers on the river shore so I made a sensible choice and sat down in the nearby Llantysilio church graveyard. One can’t beat a nice graveyard, really 😉
On return to Llangollen wharf I decided I quite fancied going up the Dinas Bran hill. It would be windier and cooler up there, I thought. Well, it wasn’t, not until I was right by the ruins that I could finally feel some breeze. It was so hot on the exposed, steep slopes I actually regretted it half way there, fearing that I would faint and lie there helpless among the sheep, but I carried on. I had a massive sense of achievement afterwards. Everyone has got their own Everest, they say 🙂
I stayed there, sitting on nice, cool stones for a good 45 min, in splendid solitude – apart from one young couple there was not a soul nearby.
A lovely kitten was more interested in eating grass than acknowledging my presence 😉
Kat in the North 