Northern Menus: February – let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

February started out with a rush. We were preparing for a leisurely walk to the railway station when Kathy's parents rang, so we had to rush to catch our train to Bristol. As a result, Kathy left her warm top at home. Anyway, we caught the train to go to Bristol to meet up with Liz, one of Pat's cousins (Pat being Matt's Mum). On the train were a bunch of goths who were talking about getting 'lightsabers' and jedi gowns. Sad... Anyway, we were met by Liz at Bristol Parkway, then went back to her place for a really good chat and to look at photos.

Kathy and Liz

After lunch Liz took us to Blaise House. It's a big house which has been obtained by Bristol City and has been turned in to a museum. The Museum was a bit odd, as it seemed to focus on toilets, baths and the like. Bit odd and disturbing. Attached to Blaise House are a set of cottages, which originally were provided for the pensioners from the estate.

Blaise Cottages

People still live in them, and they were really pretty. There's a green in the middle of the grouping, which is open to the public. Must be a bit of a hassle living in the cottages, though – constantly having people peering at and in to your houses. Still, they'd be pretty amazing to live in....

Roof of one of the cottages - complete with thatching

When we got back to Liz's place her daughter Cathryn had got home from her shift at the hospital (she's a nurse). We enjoyed talking with her, and had a lovely meal with Liz and Cathryn before we were dropped back at the railway station. It was a great day, although cold and really windy.

The day after, it snowed. The snow started falling gently on Monday night, kind of like solid snow. It fell quietly and gently, but constantly. When we got up everything was covered in snow – it was beautiful.

View out the spare bedroom window

View out the bedroom window

Kathy wiping snow off the letterbox

Matt was working from home that day, so he got out for a walk and took some photos.

The view up Cathedral Road from Dogo Street

End of Dogo Street, right by Sophia Gardens Caravan Park

There were dogs going nuts in the snow with excitement,

Dog in the snow

bright sun was breaking through the clouds,

Pontcanna Field, looking towards Cardiff

Pontcanna Field

and little snowmen had been made.

Little snowman, sans carrot nose and coal eyes

His feet squeaked when he walked. Kathy walked to work,slip sliding as she went down Cathedral Road until she decided to stop walking on the slates then and to walk on the bricks instead. She was the only one taking photos until she got closer to the Taff. The river

River Taff looking back towards Sophia Gardens

and Castle looked really pretty.

Cardiff Castle

The Norman Keep, through the gate of Cardiff Castle

The sun came out in the afternoon and there was beautiful blue sky, but the snow melted and was nearly all gone by 4pm. It snowed again on Wednesday on the way to work, and sleet fell on Friday. We weren't as badly hit as the rest of the UK, but people at work were disrupted because the 'couldn't' get out of their driveways, or their kids schools were closed.

That weekend, on the 7^th, it was a beautiful day. So we went to Roath Park. There was a heavy frost that day, and there were some lovely ice formations in the ice. There were dogs playing on ice over puddles and getting surprised when the ice broke. We had some problems locating Roath Park on maps and on Google, because it turns out it's actually called Roath Botanical Gardens. We even managed to get lost on the way there, because street signs were only on 1 side of the road. Never mind, we had a lovely walk. When we finally got there we sat in the sun in an empty rose garden and had our picnic breakfast while we watched the dog walkers. After breakfast we headed off to the lake.

The lake at Roath Park

There were lots of swans

The swans on Roath Lake

and geese,

one of the geese at Roath Park

and people could buy feed for them. The swans were really, really big!

Matt with some of the swans

More swans

We even played pooh sticks, and decided that we needed bigger sticks to make it work. Especially if we were playing 'extreme pooh sticks' down waterfalls. At one end of the lake was an ice cream van, and it was placed to look out over the lake – towards the hills which were still covered in snow. There were kids buying ice creams and they were wrapped up like Nanook of the north.

Sunny - must eat ice cream

“It's sunny – we must have ice cream!” Nuts. Near that was a Scott Memorial.

which looked like a lighthouse, but had a clock at the top. We also saw swans running along the water to take off, crocuses and snowdrops – the first signs of spring! There was still fairly thick ice on the lake – well, thick enough for gulls and swans to stand on. After our walk, we caught a bus back in to town, had lunch, then went to the Halfway to watch the opening round of the 6 Nations.

The next weekend, we were in the pub having just watched the Italy v Ireland match. Dave, the butcher, came up to Matt and said 'Matt, you like rugby don't you? There's someone I'd like you to meet – you may have heard of him'. Matt said 'It's not Barry John is it?' - and it was! For those who don't know who he is (like Kathy), here's his wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_John

Our big expedition for the month was to Raglan Castle.

Raglan Castle

We caught the train to Newport, then a bus to Raglan. The bus trip was fantastic – it wound around and along B roads and through villages and picture-book countryside full of rolling hills and small paddocks with sheep in them.

Brilliant! Raglan Castle was very cool.

Matt on the road up to Raglan Castle

It's mostly damaged,

and was abandoned after the Civil War – some of the towers were mined in efforts to topple them and destroy the castle.

The crenelations and gargoyles at the top of towers were really amazing.

We were able to climb to the top of a tower and look out over the countryside.

It was brilliant. In the castle were huge kitchen fireplaces,

Matt standing in one of the kitchen fireplaces

which made you think about the numbers the kitchens prepared meals for. Many of the towers were square rather than round,

even though it started life as a Norman castle. The last owners of the castle were the Beauforts.

Beaufort family crest

Matt at Raglan Castle

Just making sure you know which country you're in

After walking around the castle we sat in the sun and had a picnic lunch. We also sat in the sun waiting for the bus back in to Newport, which was just lovely. We were sitting opposite a pub which had been there since the 16^th century. Oddly enough, we didn't go in. On the way back Kathy saw a cock pheasant in a field.

The last weekend of the month saw St. David's Day nearly upon us. On the Friday night we caught up with some of the folks from Matt' work. We had a meal out – Terry joked that he could see it now, a family in India sitting down to a meal of Chicken Tikka with a side salad containing Spanish onions!

On Saturday we decided to head in to town and check out a 'Welsh Food Festival' – again a bit of a lame event, but did eat mussels and daffodils. On the way there we came across a squirrel eating a banana skin!

Mmmmm, banana...

He was so intent on his treat that he completely ignored us. Anyway, after going to the food thing we went to the trooping of the colour for the Royal Welsh regiment.