A steep grassy mound built as a stronghold before the coming of the romans in the 1st Centuaray AD. 100 ft high, and provides sweeping views of Angleseys western coast. The White lighthouse on LLanddwyn Island, 5 miles away is a prominant land mark. Below is the small holiday village which takes its name from the mound. The sandy beach which sweeps north for 3 miles towards fort Belan is backeed by a steep bank of shingle which protects the low lying farmland

AA Book of the Seaside-1972. I have to say it has changed a little bit, but not a lot!

Right so that is the backdrop for where we spent a couple of hours today. And where whilst playing with the waves, and building sandcastles we found the following beach items..

If  you can correctly lable  anyof them, i would appreciate the assistance!

Sand Crab and his / her underneath.

Possibly the mates shell!

Asha like these little white stones, and often uses some to decorate her castles.

The photographs dont show you the orange glisten of these two stones.

Now I was always taught that rocks were round in school, and the errosion was round. Can anyone explain this water errosion to me!

We love the lines in these three stones.

And finally this little rock, we were interested in the different colours speckles in it.

Tuff is technically a sedimentary rock formed by the accumulation of volcanic ash plus pumice or scoria.  link

So onto the shells.

Bi-valve, razer shell.

Mussel .. yummy!

And now we have this.. Can anyone name the next two items?

And something which i dont recall learning about in my biology lessons.. ever!

Is it a metal crab?

Back to some of the more common shells we can enjoy for a minute longer…

I hope you have enjoyed a sample of todays find’s and hopefully by tomorrow we can have a list to go with them of what they all were!

Yes, playing on the playground at the slate museum..

Home to bed… some of these houses would hold as many as 8 children… I took Asha back into one, with this idea, she was fairly amazed…

Some of the tools used for working the slate, for making the tiles, etc.

From inside the quarry mens homes, different items from the different years. Can you name them?

We went on Thursday with some friends, we didnt try and see all the way around, as it is fairly local to us, and Asha (and I ) was very tired by now.

A log saw,

and the saw blades!

The length of these was about 1.5 meters long!

There is a series of terraced houses at the national museum, Asha particully liked the babies crib in this house.. :d

however Asha was busy colouring in a picture of the houses,, much more interesting than her ice cream or orange juice!!!

for more info on the slate museum : http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/slate/

And we went to the cafe, and I just couldnt resist this picture!

Day one, we went for a potter around Torquay. We found the joke shop

We went there a few times, they had a good range of fancy dress accessories, as well as adult masks, outfits etc..

The window was well decorated as well.

Be afraid, very....

In 199* it was year of the pedestrian, during this time a statue was put up in Torquay and the following fountains built. Whilst they are quite beautiful, I cant but think that an orchard, could have been planted instead!

There was a statue, also built to celebrate this!

Statue of Pedestrians in Torquay

I have always had a great respect for the emergency services, and feel that this is a wonderful gesture, of Art, meeting religion, meeting rescue…

“A stained glass window which took eight years to come to fruition has been dedicated at a church on an RAF base.

The two-part window, depicting rescue work, is sited to the side of the altar at the RAF Valley church on Anglesey.

It was the brainchild of 38-year-old Simon Allen, a former winchman who now trains air crew instructors.

The window was created by Karen Newby, who makes stained glass windows, and Lindsey Abbott, who paints and restores them.”

source :http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/8473055.stm

This is partly because of the christmas spirit, and partly because Asha has had a snuffly cold for a while, so were still not onto “written work”

However she now has full command of the following three works of literature :

Little Women – Louise Alcott.. to the extent that yesterday, when I asked her which was her favourite book, she informed me that ” little women is, because Joe is like you and me mummy” Slightly abashed I asked her what she meant by this” she has a tempor which rises up and we both try and control it.. but fail misserably” Well there you go…

She also asked why daddies cant always be around, and what the war was in the story. She seems to empathise a lot with the girls when they are sad..

The secret Garden – Frances Hodges Burnett. She has loved this title for some time now, and I am seriously starting to tire of it. But her games have gone from Colin;s nautyness to being an Animal Charmer.. She is no longer wanting to be like Mary Lennox, recognising that Mary has a terrible temper, which Asha says isnt like a princess… It has also encouraged a great amount of interest in india, and if anyone has any recommendations for indian literature suitable for a 5 year old i would like to hear them!!

The Little Princess, also Frances Hodges Burnett.
This is interesting as it is encouraging her good behaviour and her love of literature and her sympathetic nature. Its also bought up questions about mineing, death, quarrying.. and slavery / maids… Wonderful stuff!

She also has some command of the following works.

The Hobbit. – daddy is currently re-reading it to her.
Winnie the poo.
Hiawatha.. All these have developed a lot since November and I am pleased with these outcomes.

In December we went to a violin concert in liverpool held by the Liverpool Suzuki group, it was wonderful. Asha had a lovely evening, though she was fidgetty, after a long day in birkenhead and liverpool, visiting such wonderful places as Woodside, Birkehead, etc..

Her violin practice has been slow this month, but hopefully we will get back on track once her snuffle has gone.

Currently Asha is not interested in reading or writing. Were encouraging these skills by ensuring she always has access to pens, paper and reading fodder… I am not worried about these skills, as last time I worked on them with her, she was well within her age group needs… and well.. there is more to education!

Her fascination with local birds is continuing.. we feed them every day, and she watches them every day.. often for hours at a time.. I plan on doing more work with bird life, once I have found some more resources on it.. We certainly seem to enjoy talking about there shapes, feet, wings etc….

Crafts, before Christmas we made loads of decorations.. snowmen, candles for on the wall, birds to hang up.. all sorts, since christmas we have done some painting, some drawing and talked about the chemical reaction needed to make a crystal snow tree.

Asha has contined to spend much time doing skateboarding, walking and enjoying time outside. We have also enjoyed a trip to portmerion…

I am generally more than happy with Asha’s level of education. She is a sociable, happy child.. what else can I want?

Portmeirion has served as a location for films and television shows, most famously serving as the Village in The Prisoner.

Williams-Ellis designed and constructed the village between 1925 and 1975. He incorporated fragments of demolished buildings, including works by a number of other architects. Portmeirion’s architectural and fanciful nostalgia have been noted as an influence on the development of postmodernism in architecture in the late twentieth century.

The main building of the hotel, which in 2009/10 has its incurvilinear entrance lobby rebuilt having been destroyed in a fire in 1981. It was not rebuilt when the hotel reopened in 1988.

Clough Williams-Ellis’ bigorapher and Architectural Historian Richard Haslam has advised on several aspects of the project including floor finishes and authentic detailing.
source : http://www.portmeirion-village.com/content.php?nID=8;ID=189;lID=1;offset=

and the cottages called “White Horses”, “Mermaid” and “The Salutation” had been a private estate called Aber Iâ (Welsh: Ice estuary), developed in the 1850s, itself on the site of a foundry and boatyard which was active in the late 18th century. Williams-Ellis changed the name, which he interpreted as “frozen mouth”, to Portmeirion – Port to place it on the coast, Meirion from the county of Merioneth / Meirionydd in which it then lay.[2]. The very minor remains of a mediaeval castle (known variously as Castell Deudraeth, Castell Gwain Goch and Castell Aber Iau) are in the woods just outside the village, recorded by Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales) in 1188.

In 1931 Williams-Ellis bought from his uncle, Sir Osmund Williams, Bt, the Victorian castellated mansion Castell Deudraeth with the intention of incorporating it into the Portmeirion hotel complex but the intervention of the war and other problems prevented this. Williams-Ellis had always considered the Castell to be “the largest and most imposing single building on the Portmeirion Estate” and sought ways to incorporate it. Eventually, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the European Regional Development Fund as well as the Wales Tourist Board, his original aims were achieved and Castell Deudraeth was opened as an 11 bedroom hotel and restaurant on August 20, 2001 by Welsh opera singer Bryn Terfel.

The grounds contain an important collection of rhododendrons and other exotic plants in a wild-garden setting which was begun before Williams-Ellis’ time by the previous owner George Henry Caton Haigh and has continued to be developed since his death.

The trusted hound of Prince Llewellyn the Great of Wales.

Llewellyn the Great (in Welsh, Llewellyn Fawr) was a prince of north Wales who united all of Gwynedd. He was born in 1173, probably in either Dolbadarn or Dolwyddelan castle, and died in 1240, of a stroke, in Aberconwy.

Llewellyn was married to Joan Plantaganet, the natural daughter of King John of England, with whom he had a son Daffydd. He was also married to a Welshwoman named Tannsgwyl Roch, with whom he had another son, Llewellyn, and a daughter, Helen.

He is also thought to have built the castle at Criccieth, on the Llyn Peninsula, around 1230.Having been left to guard his master’s infant son, the hound,  Gellert killed a wolf that attempted to attack the child Daffyd. Llewellyn, returning home to find the baby missing and Gellert’s muzzle stained with blood, assumed that the dog had destroyed his son, and stabbed it. He later found the child unharmed beneath the overturned cradle, with the wolf’s corpse beside him. The remorseful prince caused Gellert to be honourably buried on Mt. Snowden, and he named the place Beddgelert (Grave of Gellert).

If anyone fancies correcting this or adding to it, please comment it!

The Grave of Gellert..