Aber Bucket List #9: achieved

Firstly, {and this won’t mean anything to people who don’t watch British TV or don’t care about nature} Spring Watch is coming to Ynys-Hir.

Yeeeaaah! That’s our patch! So excited!
I’m totally going to end up stalking the presenters around Aberystwyth like a FREAK!

Anyway …the real reason for this post is our Aberystwyth Bucket List.

Strata Florida Abbey was originally founded in 1164 and was a pretty influential place for hundreds of years. Nowa days it’s just a ruin but I’ve wanted to go and visit for a while now and last week we managed to make it out there.

It’s such a beautiful spot and if you ever get the chance to visit, go! It was so quiet and there were birds everywhere. We got great views of Redstarts as there must have been about 8 individuals flitting about.

There is also a grave-yard there which I was pretty excited about visiting. Dafydd ap Gwilym is buried there BUT I was more interested in…

The leg grave. Duh duh duuuuhhhh…
{Can you tell how thrilled Josh was at me making him pose? haha}

Apparently some guy had to had his leg amputated in the 1800s and so he had it buried here with a stone, inscription and picture of his leg. Amused me greatly.

We then headed up into the mountains to walk to the Teifi Pools.
On the way we met this little guy.

I haven’t had such good views of a stoat before so this was very exciting.

It was SUCH a beautiful day and we had a lovely time walking up the valley to the pools. Definitely worth being on the bucket list.
One down…nine to go;

Josh and Rachel’s Aberystwyth Bucket List

1. Watch the sun rise from Pendinas {the hill above the town}
2. See the submerged forest in Borth
3. Visit Soar y Mynydd
4. Buy a love spoon
5. Walk from Llanfair Clydogau to Tregaron
6. Have a bonfire and BBQ on the beach
7. Have a meal at the Harbour Master
8. Go dancing with all the gang
9. Visit Strata Florida
10. See Aberystwyth from the sea

I’ll leave you with this sheep. Notice anything weird?!

Aberystwyth Bucket List

Last week I realised that I’ve only got eight working weeks left before we start packing up to leave Aber. We’re not quite sure when we’ll be moving to the big city yet, but we won’t really be around in Wales much during our summer of fun, so these are really our last chances to make the most of living here.

With that in mind Josh and I have been compiling a list of things that we want to do before we leave Aber. Some are things that we haven’t done before and some are things we love and want to do again.

We’ve laid down the challenge to ourselves to achieve each one of these things before we move, and to blog about them too…

Josh and Rachel’s Aberystwyth Bucket List

1. Watch the sun rise from Pendinas {the hill above the town}
2. See the submerged forest in Borth
3. Visit Soar y Mynydd
4. Buy a love spoon
5. Walk from Llanfair Clydogau to Tregaron
6. Have a bonfire and BBQ on the beach
7. Have a meal at the Harbour Master
8. Go dancing with all the gang
9. Visit Strata Florida
10. See Aberystwyth from the sea

We’ve actually already achieved one of these things today…so stay tuned for a post about that tomorrow.

In other news – I’m on a winning roll! I won a photo competition over at Little Somethings today. Horray!

Hope you’re having a great Thursday people. Are you celebrating the Royal Wedding tomorrow?

Looking Up

Today I’m taking part in ‘Foto Friday’ for the first time!
This week’s theme was Looking Up and I think this photo is perfect for it:

Today Josh went for a walk in the woods {while I was stuck in office – I’m not bitter at all!!} and he said that the trees were alive with Pied Fly-Catchers and Redstarts.
I’m so happy it’s spring and that the countryside is buzzing with frantic wild activity!

So not only is this photo literally ‘looking up’ it’s a sign to me that things are also looking up metaphorically. I’ve finally got a spark of energy back and I’m beginning to have a desire to be out, doing things – feeling the wind in my hair and the sun on my face.

Why not go and check out how the other Foto Friday participants got on.

Recovery

Today I have been super frustrated stuck in the office while everyone else frolicked in the beautiful sunshine.

 

But after work I was able to escape for a blissful two hours on the beach.

 

And all was right with the world again.

Springing into the rest of the year

I love those moments in the year when you can just tell that the season has changed. Spring has been just around the corner for a few weeks now, but last Thursday as we climbed Plymlimon we could just sense the change: spring has finally sprung.

I love the area around Plymlimon and Nant-y-Moch. It feels so wild and isolated. We would occasionally just stop and listen and hear nothing except the wind moving through the grass and the geese on the lake below us.

As we climbed higher (without coats for the first time this year!) we heard a sky lark singing high above the moorland. Surely that must be a contender for one of the best sounds in the world?! Perfect.

Gradually the track levelled out and we reached a series of pools where we could hear a chorus of frogs calling to one another.

It all just makes me so excited! I love winter for many reasons, but there is just something about Spring that promises potential for the rest of the year.
It has spurred us into action for planning our summer break and this week we’ve organised and booked quite a bit.

So far we’ll be visiting the Lake District before spending a few days hostelling in Glencoe.
Then we’ll be travelling to Knoydart. I’m so excited about this leg of our journey! Knoydart has been called the last wilderness in Scotland because there are no roads to it. To reach it you must hike 18 miles over the mountains or by a 7 mile sea crossing. Eeek!
We’ll then be spending a week on Skye before meandering our way back down South spending time in Devon, Wiltshire, the Cotswolds, London and the Lake District again.

My problem is that I’m an administrator through and through. I love to achieve things and tick them off my list. It’s not just office things – I find that I do it in normal life too. Even as I’m doing something, my mind is often on the next thing to be achieved.
However, I don’t want to be like that with our last few months in Aber and with the time we’re taking off from work. I want to try and enjoy each day as it comes and make the most of it because I know it’s going to pass really quickly. I’m not very good at sitting back and letting things happen, but I’m working on it!

Sunsets and Starlings

Two of the (many) highlights of living in Aberystwyth can be experienced within 3 minutes of my front door.

Firstly, with nothing to the west of us except sea we get the most wonderful sunsets throughout the year.

Secondly, we are so lucky to have one of the most amazing natural spectacles taking place every day right next to where we live throughout the winter months.

Every day thousands and thousands of starlings come into roost under the pier and form the most beautiful aerial displays. Having several hundred birds swooping down around you as they dive under the pier is something that must be experienced!

I’m trying to etch these memories in my mind for when we’re stuck in the city!

Gwlad, Gwlad!

My day off started badly today when we realised that someone had stolen all the hub-caps off our car AGAIN. I’ve been trying to tell myself all day that it doesn’t really matter and it’s only £30 or so, but I just can’t help being really frustrated. This is the second time we’ve had all our hubcaps taken, and we’ve also had our aerial taken – from a church carpark! Why can’t people have respect for other people’s property.  RAAAGH.

So, where should you go when you’re having a bad day?

We drove up into the Snowdonia National Park for a rather misty walk in the hills above Happy Valley.

We climbed up into the hills to Llyn Barfog (or the Bearded Lake). This area is the setting for a local legend about King Arthur. The story goes that a terrible monster lived in the lake and continually raided local villages. When King Arthur heard about this he went to the lake, threw a huge chain around the monster and killed it.

Apparently at the right time of year the lake is completely covered by water lilies, but even in February it was still a beautiful place to have our dinner.
Homemade lemon drizzle cake and chocolate cookies with a view like this? Lunch can’t get any better!

Then we walked down to the beach to chase some waves.

I never want to take the beauty of Wales for granted! We are very lucky to live here.

How would you plan your perfect holiday?

Last Thursday, as I’ve already mentioned we drove over to Pontrhydygroes for my day off. After we’d seen the Golden Eagle we walked steeply up from the village into the mountains.

I love being up in the mountains where you can see for miles over the hills without a house or person in sight. It was beautiful.

While we walked Josh and I talked lots about the future.

It seems so strange. In the space of a week we’ve gone from having no idea what we would be doing with the rest of our lives, to being able to pin-point what we will be doing, God willing, for many years to come.

However, in the short term we still need to make some decisions about what we’ll be doing.

Josh’s course starts in September sometime, and we’ve decided that we’d like to take some time off from work before we move to Cardiff. I started work directly after finishing my degree and getting married and this could be the last time that we have a free space of time with no other ties or commitments for many years, so we want to make the most of it.

But what to do?! Obviously money is factor, but really the world is our oyster! (although we’ll probably stay in the UK!)

Although things are up in the air at the moment we’re vaguely thinking that we’ll finish work in June. Some of our current ideas include:

– visiting lots of family and friends across the country
– Camping in Pembrokeshire
– Go to Britain’s most remote pub
– Going to Soul Survivor with our church youth group
– Helping out at the SU Beach Mission in Aber
– Going on holiday with friends?
– Hostelling/ camping around Scotland

Just thinking about all that makes my stomach knot with excitement!
Have you got any tips? What would you do if you had a free summer of fun but a limited budget?