I'm back--Part Two

The second part of this year's trip to the UK was the Wild Wales Walking Tour. My daughter booked it, and I think she thought I'd be able to do some of the hikes. I hoped I might do one or two, but as it turned out, they were either too long or too difficult for this old lady. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. Taff Roberts, the leader, was knowledgeable and always ready to share stories related to the places we visited.
I've been to Wales a couple of times before. When I was about twelve or thirteen, I visited my aunt and uncle and cousins in Swansea, staying with them for about a month, I think. Then, many years later, my husband and I drove through parts of the countryside, and another time travelled there by train. Just last year, February 2017, my husband and son and I took the train from London to Aberystwyth and had a couple of days there en route to Liverpool and beyond.
But this trip, was different. Catherine, my daughter, and I were in the company of Taff Roberts and two couples who actually knew him from their home town of Winona, Minnesota, where Taff now resides.
Our first stop was in Aberdaron. A little town on the tip of a peninsula way up north--but not quite in Anglesey. There we stayed in a modern styled bed and breakfast, and Taff's brother and sister-in-law joined us for a meal. We stayed there three nights. Unfortunately, I couldn't get into the town by myself because the road was long, steep and windy. So I mostly stayed in the B&B and read the book I'd brought along for just such an eventuality. (The book, THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN, set in London, England--movie notwithstanding--an excellent read). One day, however, Taff arranged for a taxi to take me into town so I could attend a church service. Anglican. I felt right at home. Then, while there, before the taxi came to take me home to the B&B, I visited the local museum.

Our next village was Dalgellau, (pronounced dal-gell-ai, the double L doesn't occur in English, but it's not difficult. Just put your tongue for the letter L, but don't use your voice, just blow around your tongue. Try it!)

Missed February! Already we're in the second week of March!

Oh dear!  Where does the time go?  February is already a blur.  The weather has been most unVancouver-like.  Snow!  Repeated snow days.  Snow lasting for days on end.  At last the rain has returned, and the temperature is almost spring-like.  Almost.  Not yet. 

So what have I done with my month-and-a-half of nonBlogging?

 Monday mornings are filled with  sandwich-making followed by noontime Mass at the cathedral.  Then in the evenings, it's Welsh class.  I've started a Welsh study group. Initially it was to be once a month, but then it was confusing as to which Monday night it would be.  So, I've increased it to "the Monday after Welsh class"--but February Mondays were filled with other events at the Welsh Hall, so we haven't had a study group since the first one.  Best laid plans....  So, next Monday evening should be our second study session.

Tuesday & Thursday mornings are spent volunteering at the elementary school and afternoons at UBC studying creative writing.  An hour and a half at school, an hour and a half on the bus, an hour and a half in the university classroom.  I get home about 3:30 or so, and am exhausted.

Wednesdays and Fridays are more or less free, as is Saturday most of the time.  (Friday evenings it's
back to the Welsh Hall for choir practice.)

March is shaping up to be much the same so far.  See next entry, I guess.

October and November

November swept by so fast this year that I hardly remember any of it. I recall that the weather was generally nice here in Vancouver. 
It began with my visit to the Okanagan to see my kids and their families.  I had only a few days, beginning on October 28th and returning home on November 2nd, but that would be the last full week with no "optional" meetings that could be cancelled.  The next time I'll have a full week free will be in April or May of 2014. 
Monday mornings are spent at Christ Church Cathedral, making sandwiches for the street people.  After sandwiches, I walk to the library for a brief browse and then back to the cathedral for the noon Mass.  The afternoon is supposed to be for writing, but I usually find myself too drowsy to focus.  Then on alternate Monday evenings, my husband and I attend Welsh language lessons!
Tuesday mornings are spent at an elementary school, reading with the children (grade 2/3 split) or helping the teacher with marking, etc.  Again, afternoons are not well used, unless napping is considered a virtue.
Wednesdays are generally free. I call it my writing day, but ... my heart isn't in it as much as it should be.  Tell the truth, I'm still grieving for my sons and grandson.  "Getting over it" isn't as easy as it seems to other people who haven't walked in my moccassins.  But I do try.
Thursdays and Fridays seem to fill up with appointments or chores, and Saturdays generally have some sort of meetings or workshops that need to be attended. 
Sundays, of course, begin with church, and end with visiting and social interaction of some sort. 
October and November had some evening activity:  I think it was four Tuesday evenings we went to the cathedral for lectures on St. Paul. The first was the most interesting because it was presented by a rabbi!!!!  He was extraordinarily well-versed in the New Testament.
And on Thursday evenings, 6 of them, I think, my husband and I decided to confuse our Welsh language studies by taking on New Testament Greek!  This was taught by a professor whose first language was modern Greek, but studied Koine Greek (not ancient Greek, spoken by Socrates and the boys, but about 500 years newer, Koine--which is already 2000 years old now and not the same at all as the modern version currently used in Greece--any more than the languages of Shakespeare or Chaucer or as found in Beowulf is used now by us).

September 2013 review

It's been a month.  The summer is passing so quickly--but it's not quite over yet.  Today, the weather is very hot, sunny, and I'm indoors as usual.  The garden is looking very neglected, as well it should as I haven't been near it in about a month.
I have been writing, but not as much as I should.  Not if I'm really a writer, as I claim to be.  Still, I haven't quit yet. 
So what have I been doing?  Aside from watching TV and playing Scrabble on facebook? 
Hubby & I have been studying Welsh, and singing with the Cambrian Circle Singers.  We've joined the Richard III Society (more on that later, probably). And we've sponsored a 14-year-old girl in Ecuador.  Her name is Ivonne, and she likes foreign languages and playing soccer.  More about her later, too, I hope.  I've sent her an email, but it has to go through the office in Ecuador to be translated and taken to her.  I hope we can correspond better than I have done with previously sponsored children.  This one is through World Vision, my favourite charity.

St. David's Day

Yesterday was St. David's Day.  To celebrate the day dedicated to the patron saint of Wales, we went to a party at the Cambrian Hall.  As new members of the Welsh Society, we have been taking Welsh language lessons and have made a number of new friends.