Wales, Chester and Leeds 02 09

These pictures tell you about our weather through February.

When the geese have to learn to walk on the canals and the lakes freeze over it doesn't take a meteorologist to declare a severe winter, although to be fair it is somewhere between 10 and 8 degrees as I write this and the deep snows have finally melted away. The tulip, daff and other bulbs are breaking through the lawn and spring is felt to be around the corner.

Despite the cold snap, We did manage to get out and about. Spent a few days in Chester and Wales.

Chester is one of the most complete, in use, historic walled cities in Europe with parts of the existing walls dating to the Roman times and with medieval streets and buildings of some antiquity it is a fantastic place to roam, shop and eat. We took a river cruise, walked the walls and had a cocktail in Duttons all of which were wonderful experiences.

Staying in our Chester hotel also placed us on the boarder of England/Wales and as we had read a lot about a little town called LLangollen (pron: Klangoughlan) http://www.llangollen.com/ we headed off to see if it was open in mid winter.. It is famous for a few things, a working river-powered corn mill, now a restaurant,

the world's highest canal aqueduct, horse drawn canal boat trips, and the house of Britain's first "civil partnership". This was set up by two Irish femme known as the "Ladies of Llangollen" , one a teacher and the other her teenage student as the relationship started, they were not able to stay in Ireland so came to the UK in the late 1700's. When they set up this house and did some Gothic decorating, farming and astounding gardening they bought much notoriety to the town . They also attracted many regency notables and titled folk who were no doubt tantalised by the social scandal as much as entertained by the ladies charm and wit by all accounts. The gentry came to stay and made Llangollen quite the trendy tourist place of the early 1800's http://www.llangollen.com/plas.html .

The aqueduct in the nearby village of Trevor (no I don't make these names up) is an amazing thing, high and elegantly fine.. It has stood for over 200 years and has only needed once to be restored as it is built of marvelous stone and beautiful cast iron and was sealed with welsh felt and treacle syrup. (it's true, look it up) It bridges the river Dee and a beautiful little valley. This village, together with the horse drawn canal boat tours would make for a great day out in the summer season. http://www.chirk.com/aqueduct.html . I would bet though that the tourist crowds make it a nightmare to park anywhere nearby. We however did have a great time, even if it was mid winter, as despite lots of places being closed we enjoyed the peaceful walks, deliscious meals and managed to get access into all the places we wanted to see.

A few days later, Gail got a couple of days off work and we decided to have a late Valentines day by booking a suite in a fancy hotel in Leeds city http://www.residencesix.com/, had a smashing dinner in a special eatery in the Corn Exchange http://www.anthonysrestaurant.co.uk/piazza/ and , just to make the two days a bit different we caught the #98 bus from our front door, into Leeds, right up to the door of the hotel. Most convenient, scenic and relaxing.

We have been doing a bit more holiday planning and March sees us heading off to Sydney, June hopefully down to Cornwall and the Scilly Isles, September, if we can organise our friend Kathy in Canada to provide guide services, a week touring Nova Scotia then a few days at Niagara Falls and a few in New York. Gail also has a week holiday booked in both July and December so 2009 will be an exciting year of adventures for us. We are falling into a nice groove of life here, Gail has received praise from her employer for the efforts she puts in to her learning, teaching and work so her stress levels have reduced and making a planned structure around our activities is becoming more viable.....

Will tell you all about our Aussie adventure next blog, we will be doing a lot of business and personal stuff there but I am sure we will have some great experiences to update.

snowfall feb 2009

We have been asked if the snowfall that has stopped the UK for two days has affected us here in Yorkshire. Other than encouraging me to stay indoors more, no. Gail as managed to get to and from work in her little mini, most of the the roads here 'up north' have been getting regularly snow plowed and gritted and by and large, other than the schools being closed, everything is going along as normal. Driving on standard road tyres is challenging but people help those who get stuck and there have not been too many incidents.

There is much debate as to why the UK gov't has not spent the money on snow management infrastructure, the impact of no trains buses and planes, and the knock-on effect on business here makes the northern Europeans and Russians shake their heads in disbelief. This has not been bad snow in comparison. The falls have been less than a foot but everything in London ground to a halt.... some 6 million folk couldn't make it to work. The last similar "weather event" was 18 years ago and before that there was one in the mid 1960's.

The photos below show about half our snow as Gail had the camera during the Monday/Tuesday falls and today is the forecast day between the snow falls, it's a warm and cozy 4 degrees at the moment so the melt is well underway. More heavy snow is expected tomorrow and Friday. Some are postulating that as global warming ramps up the winters will be more severe and these heavy snow days more common in winters.... time will tell. For now, a pic of our rear yard and the back of our house and a couple of shots at one of the hospital grounds where Gail was working at Bradford. More on our February at the end of the month.

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