Inspiration
Foodie Gifts From North Wales....
Its no secret that being a foodie these days is up there in the cool stakes…….garlic mayonnaise is now commonly referred to as aoli, chilli jam goes with everything and salad creme is definitely something you eat in secret! North Wales is home to many small, artisan food brands that are fast becoming popular and we love them not only because they put us on that ‘cool’ foodie map, but they also taste delicious! So if you’re looking to give your friends and family something different for Christmas that also tick the useful box, look no further as here is a list of the best foodie gifts from North Wales …. The Snowdonia Cheese Company: With names like the Little Black Bomber, Green Thunder and Red Devil , the cheese board has gone up a few notches from a simple offering of cheddar and red leicester. Beautifully packaged in colourful waxes, these cheeses will be a…
Pieces for Places | Retail Therapy In Barmouth Just Hit The ‘Jack’pot!
Pieces For Places is a new furniture come lifestyle store that has just opened on Barmouth High Street. Off the back of seeing lots of people proudly clutching their ‘Pieces for Places’ brown bags this week, I thought I must go and visit. It is the brainchild of Jack Brooks, who when you walk into the shop, clearly has an innate sense of interior design. With his brother Fred, the two have bought the old Caersalem Chapel back to life and installed 3 floors which now house a fabulous eclectic mix of furniture and homewares. The product offering is great and everything is covered, the idea being that you can kit a full house out from this one shop. From sofas, beds and beautiful chests of drawers to the smaller bits like candles, photo frames and vases, there is a lot on offer and everything has clearly been chosen carefully, including a bijou gardening collection! It…
What To Do With All The Blackberries....
If you are lucky enough to be with us in sunny Snowdonia this September, you will find it hard to miss all the blackberries – the crop is good and there’s plenty for everyone. So what to do with all the blackberries? You could go all nouveau cuisine and spend hours boiling and reducing for some fan dangled jus or if you’re on holiday, a good old traditional Welsh blackberry pie or a Welsh blackberry pudding could be your preferred option – they are simple, quick and absolutely delicious. Welsh Blackberry Pie: Take an oven proof plate and roll enough short crust pastry to cover to the edges. Put 400g of your freshly picked blackberries over the pastry and sprinkle 200g of granulated sugar over the berries. Roll out the remaining pastry to cover the blackberries, using a fork to crimp the edges of the pastry together, trimming the edges as you go along. Prick the…
Wild Swimming Snowdonia Style….
Wild Swimming Snowdonia Style, not only enriches the soul and pushes you out of your comfort zone, but quite honestly its really good fun! It always amazes me how many people visit Snowdonia without experiencing it. Snowdonia is full of waterfalls (Rheadar in Welsh) and rivers and its such a unique part of the area that if you come to visit, you really should jump into at least one waterfall pool. Its exciting, its fun, its an adventure, its a challenge and…. its free… There are many ways to enjoy the pleasures of wild swimming; be it getting suited and booted for a 1 mile lake swim with a group, or, like me, grab your kids, the dog and a towel and go forth looking for the waterfalls and river pools for a quick dunk or a swim around if the temperature allows! Yes, it is usually a cold affair jumping into the pools, but that’s…
PORTMEIRION FESTIVAL NO 6
Portmeirion Festival No 6 is coming to Snowdonia for the third year running and is set to be the best yet. The festival has made the Daily Mail’s the top 10 UK Festivals as well as being voted Best New Festival and Best Small Festival. It is magical – hard not to be when the location is Portmeirion Village in North Wales. Clough Williams-Ellis created this little piece of the ‘Italian riviera’ in wales during the earlier part of the 1900 – a true visionary. A visit here transports you to a fantasy world of beautiful buildings and gardens. So what is it all about? They say its an intimate, bespoke weekend of music, arts and culture….it doesn’t disappoint. This year sees the likes of the Pet Shop Boys, Kellis, Beck and Nineh Cherry take to centre stage and the DJ line up is pretty good too with legendary Laurent Garnier, nordic disco king Todd Terje,…
Top 5 Mountain Biking in North Wales
Nothing comes close to the feel of a rugged tread plunging into the fresh soil of an undiscovered path, rushing through undergrowth, scaling up a rocky trail and emerging, triumphant, to be greeted by a breathtaking vista of endless coastlines and rugged, forested mountains – unless you have found your way to cosy pub at the end of it all as well, of course. With some of the world’s most beautiful untouched territory at hand, the North Wales has just about everything that an avid mountain biking enthusiast can possibly thirst for – and we’ve got five fantastic routes that you’ll just have to put on that 2014 itinerary. Coed y Brenin Meaning “King’s Wood” in Welsh, this spectacular piece of land rolls out in true Welsh regal style, imposing and supernatural in its scale and presence. Part of Snowdonia National Park, it features several single-track courses as well as a dual-slalom course, and is a…
Horse whisperer tames Carneddau ponies in Snowdonia
This story really caught my eye. I’ve been fascinated by the wild horses of the Carneddau mountains in Snowdonia since I was a little boy. I was lucky enough to see three of the ponies whilst walking with an elderly aunt near Sychnant. We came upon them unexpectedly one cloudy morning. The encounter caught us and them by surprise. The horses stopped to look at us for half second before charging off across the fields into the mist. My auntie went on to explain how they had never been tamed and how the English king, Henry the VIII, had failed in his attempt to have the horses “exterminated”. They were truly magical and lived in the imagination of this 9 year old boy for a long time afterwards. But as ever, their future in our modern world is far from certain. So, in an effort to make the breed more commercially viable for Snowdonia farmers, efforts…
