Today was planned to be Retail Therapy day. During our last stay in Wales we visited Betws-y-Coed and noticed quite a few “Outdoor shops” (as in shops full of stuff for outdoors, not shops with stock in the rain) and yesterday we headed to Betws-y-Coed to take advantage of end-of –season sales. We saved a fortune. We didn’t buy anything. Shockingly, all of the retailers expected payment in full, no discounts, and so instead we went on what I’ve learned to call a photography expedition, a sort of marketing term that I use to sell the idea of a walk to Chantal.
We found a very pleasant riverside path, through meadows of sheep dotted with trees, and rocks and pebbles leading down the bank to the river. We spent quite a while photographing an obliging heron, that stayed still for us for such a long time that Chantal was convinced that it was plastic, until it eventually flew off.
It started to rain, and so we found a cosy dry rock beneath the spreading bough of a mature oak and sat down for a picnic. The rain got heavier, and despite the path entering woodland, we got increasingly damp. The path became increasingly uneven, with occasionally rocky scrambles, muddy stretches and slippery tree roots lurking to trip up the unwary walker. I fell over, landing hard, and Chantal was full of sympathy – “Is your camera OK?”.
We eventually reached a high wooden bridge across the river, which at this point was cascading as white water over rocks, and we stopped briefly for just a few photographs, before continuing along the bank on the far side of the river, where, thankfully, we joined a level gravel path. Chantal stopped to take photographs of glistening wet mushrooms, we walked just a little further, and she announce that she was wet, her camera was wet, and she’d had quite enough of this walk.
I reminded her that it was, in fact, a photographic expedition – technically the walk had only commenced after her last photo, of the mushrooms, just a few yards previously. I got a bit of a look, and decided not to labour the point. Fortunately during the mushroom photo-shoot, I had investigated a branch of the nice gravel path, and found it led to the main road, with a pavement that led back to the village and so we took this easier and quicker option back to the car.
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
