The hat and shoe shops of London

Between Christmas and New Year's, I had a weekend in London visiting friends with my husband.  We had a day to ourselves on the Saturday, to allow our hosts some rest from our Friday night of talking and drinking late into the night.  First stop was St James's Park, to meet another friend (not pictured, she's blog-shy!).  We had a long overdue catch-up over coffee and then headed out for a walk to send her toddler to sleep.  We passed Buckingham Palace and stopped for the obligatory photo opportunity, amongst the throngs of people doing the same.  I don't remember seeing the palace up close before.

Pontypridd Museum

Sometimes it's good to be a tourist in your home area.  Despite being regular visitors to Pontypridd, neither my husband nor I had been to Pontypridd Museum.  On noticing an advert mentioning their suffragette exhibition we decided to put that right.

The museum is in a former chapel, and the original organ presides over the building with its impressive and ornate wooden dais.  Despite the grey stone exterior of the chapel, inside it's fairly light, with beautiful stained glass windows and a fabulous ceiling.  Like many chapels of its type, there is a galleried landing running around the outside of the main room.  Hung from this are many union banners reflecting past workers' strikes from mining and the railways.

Weekend in West Sussex

On the weekend we had a roadtrip to West Sussex, a lovely part of England that one of my sisters calls home.  I mentioned in my last post that we were enjoying staying with her in a rural countryside spot.  It's the best part of 4 hours drive from Wales, and the route we took veered off the M4 around Newbury and then cut across the South Downs.  It was a lovely drive and even though we did hit some congestion, it was nicer being in congestion on a pretty road than being in congestion on the concrete hell that is the M25. Once properly past all of the traffic hotspots, it was then a smooth run along country roads, with beautiful scenery, autumn colours, quaint villages, and the most amount of pheasants I've ever seen in my life.  All with a death wish incidentally - they have a tendency to take flight across the road in front of you when they hear your car coming, so that one nearly hit my windscreen.  It was sad to see so many dead at the side of the road, I was glad I didn't add to the roadkill numbers.

Midhurst was a pleasant town to stop in, all very picturesque looking, and with a few charity shops.  There was one shop, Revamps, that had a mixture of vintage and secondhand.  I had a nice chat with the owner and bought a houndstooth skirt.

Storm Brian

Would a storm put you off staying in a caravan on a cliff-top?

Storm Brian visited western parts of the UK this weekend, but we still went ahead with a last-minute weekend away to West Wales.  A friend had very kindly said we could have use of their static caravan before the site locked up for the winter season, so as one never to say no to a free trip away, we packed up the car and headed into the eye of the storm.

First stop en route was Newcastle Emlyn, where there are a couple of very good (and very reasonably priced) antique shops.  We were last there a couple of years ago, just after we got married, and I remember buying a rather sumptuous 1960s' velvet and gold lame stole from one of them.  The shops have a fair selection of clothes and jewellery, and I enjoyed trying lots of things on, including a Victorian mourning cape, and a beautiful 1940s' coat.  Once again I was powerless to resist their wonderful selection, and I came away with a wool jacket from the sale rail, a belt, and a bed jacket.  My husband found a classical guitar that tempted him, but he came away empty-handed.

Above: I was rather taken with this Victorian mourning cape, and at £30 I was seriously tempted.

Malaga Automobile and Fashion Museum

The Museo Automovilistico y de la Moda in Malaga has concocted the perfect recipe for design lovers.  Fashion, cars, and art - what more could you want from a museum?  We had a day trip to Malaga, which is an hour or so on the bus from where we were staying in Nerja.  Once in Malaga, it's a 20 minute walk along the waterfront from the central bus station to the museum.  We were fortunate to be visiting on a day when it wasn't too hot, so this was a pleasant stroll.

The building housing the museum is a beautiful former tobacco factory, set in pretty grounds with some other buildings.  It's a huge space, housing an incredibly extensive collection.  Rather than take a purely chronological approach, the space is divided into themes, e.g. Belle Epoque, Dream Cars, Popular Cars.  Mannequins dressed in a mix of vintage and mainly designer clothes are placed among the cars, sometimes seated inside them, whilst works of art are displayed on the walls and columns within the space too.  There are also some rooms purely of fashion.  It makes for a very immersive experience - I honestly didn't know where to look when I walked into the first exhibition space.  I was so agog that I missed out on a few rooms and had to retrace my steps to find them.  I won't say anymore - have a look at some of these photos, and put this museum on your list if you're planning a trip to Andalucia.


Above: 'Cocktail in the forest'.  Yes please, especially if I can wear one of those haute couture beauties!

Short Trip to West Wales (again)

Last weekend we had a jaunt to West Wales again.  On the Saturday we went to Llanelli - my husband's home town - and did a spot of charity shopping in the afternoon with his Mum.  I did make a few purchases, but you'll have to wait for September's purchases post to see.  My mother-in-law did really well, she bought some adorable 1970s Clarks shoes that she got as part of a 'fill a bag for a £1' offer, so they probably only cost about 20p.  In the evening we headed to a party at a friend's house,.  It was a lovely evening catching up and swigging prosecco, apart from the bit where someone dropped a champagne flute on my foot.  Unfortunately my shoes were peep-toes, and so I had a bit of a bruise and some under the skin bleeding.  On the plus side, my toe broke the fall of the champagne flute and it survived!  It wasn't a late night as we had a full-on day planned for the Sunday.  It was my toe hurting in the morning, not my head...

After a big breakfast, we headed to a recording studio in the countryside, where my husband was being filmed as part of a series on Welsh musicians.  I'll share the link when it's published.  The studio is in a couple of outbuildings on a former farm, with pretty views across the fields and a little babbling stream.  It felt rather idyllic.  The sun was blazing hot, and I hadn't packed facial sunscreen so I was a bit worried about burning, whilst at the same time sweltering in a too-thick shirt.  Ah well, it was a fun morning spent with some nice people - relaxing for me as I was mainly just drinking tea - and I got into the spirit of things towards the end, yelling 'Action!' at Chris.

The Best Beach in Europe

My summer holiday has begun, and there could have been no better start than the absolutely glorious day trip we took to the beautiful Gower peninsula here in South Wales.  Our destination was Rhossili Bay and the famous headland of Worm's Head.  Rhossili beach was voted the top beach in Europe this year, thanks to its three mile arc of sand, remote location and dramatic backdrop.  Judge for yourselves with this first photo...

Wild Pub Walks: Crickhowell Circular

A long walk and a good pub lunch are staple weekend activities for us Brits.  I grew up on the edge of the Brecon Beacons here in South Wales, so there was never any shortage of hills to climb, nor pubs to rest in afterwards.   I was recently contacted about the book Wild Pub Walks for review.  This is no ordinary walking book, because like all of those published in association with CAMRA (The Campaign for Real Ale), every walk is chosen partly for its proximity to decent pubs.  What a good idea!

The book contains 22 walks across the UK's prettiest mountain regions, covering the Peak District, Lake District, Highlands/Islands, Scottish Borders, Snowdonia, Pembrokeshire/South Wales, North York Moors National Park and Yorkshire Dales National Park.

The walk I'm giving you a snapshot of today is one of the South Wales walks, the Crickhowell Circular, taking in the Black Mountains.  Crickhowell is a pretty little town in Powys, close to where I grew up.  The walk takes you up firstly to the peak of Table Mountain, followed by a long circuit around the peaks of Pen Cerrig-calch, Pen Allt-Mawr and Waun Fach.  You can see the peaks from Crickhowell itself.

The Big Road Trip East

724 miles, one puncture, several counties, four National Trust properties, a country barn conversion, a seaside guesthouse, and one wedding.  Phew!  We certainly packed a lot in on our recent roadtrip to the East of England. Today is a pictorial roundup of some of our adventure - I will then be sharing lots of outfit posts from this trip over the coming weeks.  I should mention that the weather was glorious, an all-out heatwave, unlike our last holiday.  When the sun shines, the UK is a truly wonderful place to be a tourist.

Lavender at National Trust property #1, Paycocke's

Art Deco at Portland House

Following up from Sunday's outfit post, I have pictures galore today of the gorgeous Art Deco villa, Portland House.  The property is owned by the National Trust, but is not usually open to the public - it's actually a holiday home, that you can rent out.  It's fairly pricey, with rental prices at £1600 to £3500 for a week (sleeping up to 12 people).  The location is a most special one, in an upmarket residential area outside Weymouth, with sweeping views across the bay.  For one weekend only, the National Trust held an 'open weekend', so that visitors could pay admission like with any other of their properties, to tour the villa.  I found out about it months ago, and immediately knew that's what I wanted to do for my birthday weekend!

The villa is built on the site of a grand Edwardian mansion, that was demolished, and the original lodge is still at the driveway entrance.  Once through the gates, you can see the 1930s' influence straight away, with a palm-tree lined path leading to what looks like a rather unassuming bungalow built in the popular Californian style of the time.  Don't let it fool you though - inside it's Art Deco paradise!

Airbnb Ecohouse in Pembrokeshire

I make several trips to West Wales every year with my husband, usually a mixture of a holiday and work.  Each time we go, I try to find places that are a little bit 'different' to stay in, whether that's an Old Woollen Mill, or a lodge resort like Bluestone.  On this visit (which I blogged about here), we stayed in an architect-designed ecohouse on the Pembrokeshire coast, just outside the village of Little Haven.  It was very 'Grand Designs', and a change for us to stay somewhere with a very contemporary feel rather than rustic.

The building is clad in wood so that from a distance it blends into the trees.  Once up close you can appreciate how it's been designed to make the most of the views across the little wooded valley in which its situated, with a long balcony running alongside the living area.  The top floor is angled differently so that the bedrooms all have good views too.  Don't be fooled by the apparent sunshine in these photos, it was wildly wet and windy for most of our visit!

Spring Break to Pembrokeshire

A Spring break has become a lovely tradition in our household.  I start planning it straight after Christmas, to make it bearable to get through the dark months of late winter.  Last year we went to Torquay, and the year before we were in Pembrokeshire, staying in the Bluestone resort.  Despite visiting that area of Wales a few times a year, there are still many spots we've yet to explore, so back to Pembrokeshire we went last week.  This time we stayed on the Western edge, in a little harbour village called Little Haven.

Tredegar House

One of the things I love about the National Trust is that they promote conservation in action.  This means that you still get to see the buildings that haven't been fully restored yet, or in the case of 17th Century Tredegar House, have a missing roof and are wrapped in plastic like a giant present!  We unintentionally timed our visit to coincide with the first day the house was open after the winter, a free entry day, and the school's half-term break.  You can imagine just how busy it was.

Jazz Age Exhibition at the American Museum in Britain

I was sad to have missed the Jazz Age Fashion and Photographs exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London.  You can therefore imagine my delight when I found out that part of the exhibition was coming to the city of Bath!  A city in the South West of England, Bath is an easy 90 minute drive from us.

I last went to the American Museum in Bath a couple of years ago for the wonderful Hatched, Matched, Dispatched and Patched exhibition, and was thrilled to be making a return to this superb museum.  The museum is closed over the winter, and launched its reopening and the Jazz Age exhibition with a special 1920s day.  Visitors were encourage to dress up in order to receive free admission for the day - my husband and I needed little convincing!

Pastel Pink Coat at Aberdulais Falls

Since we bought our National Trust Membership, I've been determined for us to get our money's worth.  That means that days out are scheduled, regardless of how wet and cold it is.  It's not all grand mansions set in parkland though.  The National Trust also preserves miles of coastline and countryside, and relics of Britain's industrial heritage.  One such relic is Aberdulais Tin Works.  Once a beauty spot beloved of painters, including Turner, the Victorians blasted the pesky rocks out of the way to put a tin works there.  The falls are really quite impressive, they crash down with incredible force that comes as a surprise looking at the calm river upstream.

It's a small site; you can easily do it in an hour, and there's a café and gift shop to warm up in afterwards.  There's an exhibition, detailing the works' history, and showing the raw metal and some of the end tin products, from the first beer in cans in 1935, to toy cars.  There's also a short documentary - very well done - that conveys the history of the site and the hardships of the workers.  Sweltering heat, dirt, long days, poor pay, and the risk of horrible industrial accidents (such as falling into molten metal).  The workers were men and women of all ages (no nice early retirement) and children as young as 8 years old.  Life must have been excruciatingly hard.

On to the outfit.  I know pastels are supposed to be for Spring, but I quite like pastels in winter too.  My husband thought I was very unseasonal and couldn't understand why I wanted to wear a pastel pink coat on such a wintry day, but I was trying to cheer up all that grey!  Also, he looked at my tights and commented that they were 'bold', which amused me no end.  I've dressed up in a silk gown to roam the mountainside in, and been to the supermarket in a pink wig and silver shoes, both of which passed without comment.  But my grey knitted tights were apparently a step too far...

Tyntesfield in Photos

My last outfit post was set at Tyntesfield, a sprawling Victorian mansion set in a beautiful spot in the Somerset countryside.  I promised some more photos of the house and grounds itself, so here you go, along with a potted history.

St Fagans Welsh National History Museum

Happy Saint David's Day!  If you ever visit Wales, I recommend one place above all others to soak up Welsh history and culture - St Fagans National History Museum.  It's one of the top open-air museums in Europe.  The photos of my traditional Welsh costume were taken there.  A very fitting location!

Imperial Hotel Torquay Review

"We were sitting on one of the terraces of the Majestic Hotel. It is the biggest hotel in St Loo and stands in its own grounds on a headland overlooking the sea. The gardens of the hotel lay below us freely interspersed with palm trees. The sea was of a deep and lovely blue, the sky clear and the sun shining." Agatha Christie, Peril at End House

Gourmet Break at The Metropole Hotel, Llandrindod Wells

In today's blog post I'd like to share my report on a gourmet break to a Victorian spa town in Mid Wales.  My husband and I stayed at the Metropole in Llandrindod Wells for a little pre-Valentine's treat.  Well, you need all the adventures you can get in February, don't you?

Llandrindod Wells is about 60 miles from us, on a route that takes us over the moors and into the Brecon Beacons National Park.  It's a lovely drive, but it was snowing as we crossed the moors, and I was praying it wouldn't stick too much so we could get to our destination!  It was fine, and the snow eased up once we crossed through the spectacular Horseshoe Pass and down to Brecon. 

A Beret for Bletchley Park

Last weekend I ticked off a UK tourist attraction that I've wanted to visit since it opened in 2014 - Bletchey Park.  A site of national importance, Bletchley Park played a pivotal role in WWII, when it was the centre of code-breaking.  Public interest in the site has increased since the films Enigma and The Imitation Game, and writers such as Eileen Younghusband have written about their roles at the site.  Thanks to Heritage Lottery funding, the once derelict site - that shockingly was at risk of being flattened to make way for a supermarket(!) - was saved, and has been sympathetically restored.  It was a cold, dark and dank December day when we visited, which made it all the more atmospheric.  I wore the cosy brushed cotton Lisa dress from Seamstress of Bloomsbury, which fittingly is based on an original 1940s' pattern.