Another roller-coaster week!

It's been great having Rich here and I've been taking advantage of every fine day to take walks with the family. Late one afternoon Julie and I took the track from her place up through bracken covered hills, fighting our way through undergrowth as the path narrowed and almost disappeared.

This is a view of where she lives; away from the madding crowd!

As always, when exploring a new route it can seem a long way, especially when pausing to take in and photograph the views, but actually it wasn't very far and we soon descended to a road, where Julie kept meeting people she knows. Although she's just moved here, she lived in this area many years ago while her daughter was very young.

It was such a lovely evening that we decided to continue along the little Tourist railway that runs along the lakeside and reached Llanberis as the sun was setting. The railway was originally built to transport huge quantities of slate from quarries on the hillside that are now picturesquly covered in trees and bracken, but only a hundred years ago or less was a scene of industrial hard labour.

We couldn't stop taking pictures as the setting sun lit up ancient Dolbadarn Castle nestled against the flanks of Snowden, hidden by cloud, as we approached Llanberis.

It was beginning to feel quite chilly and we were very glad to find a pub where we had a Pizza and Pint of Guinness before catching the last bus back to the village where Julie lives. I always feel grateful for being able to live in such a beautiful part of the world.