Harlech castle for us was the “been there done that” castle: we had seen enough of Master Builder St. James’ work that Harlech never really stood out—it was a little too well done and not enough character.. That said, it certainly gets imposing done very well, and it was too nice an example of a castle for us to pass it up!

imposing!

imposing!

imposing!

imposing!

not at all imposing! Awfully cute and very sweet! Castle cats are so much fun!

For all that imposingness, look at how tiny some of it’s stairways are!

The towers without stairs were again, really neat!

The sea used to come all the way up to the edge of the castle—now there’s a few miles between the castle & the sea

Our next castle visit was on the isle of Anglesey. Beaumaris castle was never finished because it was started very late in the King Edward I’s war to subjugate Wales, but was really imposing none-the-less!

This should have had another story on top of it!

it had an impressive moat all the way around:

It had impressive gate houses

and impressive towers, even when the stairs are gone

And the views to outside the towers are fun:

There were so many amazing views and objects on the Snowdon hike that I couldn’t whittle my choices in photographs down, so this is part two of the photos I chose. I hope you enjoy!

Another view of the road home..

There were so many amazing views and objects on the Snowdon hike that I couldn’t whittle my choices in photographs down, so this is part two of the photos I chose. I hope you enjoy!

This was a neat bridge to walk over!

Ooh, stairs up!

Talk about the road going ever on and on; it was amazing.

There were so many amazing views and objects on the Snowdon hike that I couldn’t whittle my choices in photographs down, so I’m going to be putting them up for the next several days.

Devils Bridge is a neat place, with three bridges built on top of another to cross some rather impressive falls.
It was quite a long trek down, and a hefty one back up, but it was well worth it to see the amazing fall colours that were everywhere and the gnarled trees.

The falls themselves went on for quite some time, with several nice splash pools on the way down:

The chasm the river has cut through the valley is impressive and beautiful as well!

And finally, a picture of clouds moving in toward Aberystwyth from the tall hill to the north of the town:

We traveled out to a nearby park (Bwrch Nant-yr-Afan) for a hike and to watch the feeding of some Red Kites, a medium sized raptor.
The hike was nice, though it was drizzely, but you can definitely see that the moss grows well.

There are advantages to hiking up tall hills:

and advantages to paying attention to moving flowers:

The Red Kites are being fed by the Welsh Kite Trust, who are trying to bring back the Kite from near extinction. Watching the swarming is impressive, and they are just impressive birds:

I’ve always liked paths in the woods, so they will show frequently here:

And this bridge is always neat in the summer when everything is green..

It has been a heck of a busy month, and we finally got a chance to go for a hike today. It was nice and sunny (with some snow), but mostly it was nice to get out and move, so we didn’t stop to take as many pictures as usual, but this one with the moss collecting drops of water was neat!

Today felt a lot like spring, perhaps because it’s the first time in a while I’ve gotten to take an extended walk around, but maybe it is just feeling like spring out.
Someone felt like decorating their front lawn with lots of Saint Patrick’s day decorations, so that was a fun green sight!

Most flowers are still rather shy about peeking out, but occasionally they do peek out and say hi!

And sometimes they are brazenly hanging out on the corner, being all bright and pretty!

Can’t wait for more to come, especially now that everyone here is healthy enough to go outside again, yay!

The water comes!
It was warm and rainy this past weekend, and we took a trip up to Cougar Mountain and trekked to a small waterfall we visited last summer. It was completely different from the dry summer trickle, and was a very nice, if loud, place to sit & enjoy.

Summer:

After lots of snow melt and rain: