I am feeling a little Bohemian today...hardly any sleep and the second lot of champagne in three days!.....how daring!We loaded up the car with the welsh terriers and drove over to Llanberis in Snowdonia for lunch with a colleague and friend of Chris' Jo and her husband Nick.
They live in a picturesque converted chapel that nestles snugly amid the piles of slate and bracken high above the town,with their three dogs and 4 hens (some of my old buffs!)
The countryside in Snowdonia is typically beautiful and rather harsh for my taste, The cottages dotted almost inside the mountains do feel just a tad too isolated, especially as I do like conversations with passing locals, but it is, I'll admit, very, very scenic.
We had a lovely lunch, a bracing walk on the precarious mountains of slate and a tour of their allotments and land..........I must admit I was ever so slightly envious of their pond and orchard....
Home at 6pm, just in time to water the ducklings and doze on the couch
Below pic..(Centre Chris, far right Jo)
I prefer seclusion myself, so it really sounds idyllic. The photo is stunning. The name, Snowdonia, sounds like make believe. I'll have some of that champagne thanks!
ReplyDeleteOkay, here's the skinny: Up in farr N.Idaho, I hide my doorbell button outside my house in the gas grill and only tell a few folks where it is! That's the kind of hermit I like to be. People are okay, but in small doses.
BTW, I thought you were going to go to SF. Have you come & gone?
Having grown up near Snowdonia and in the Lake District, I have to say I prefer the bleakness of the former. But my favourite Northern countryside has to be either Swaledale or The Cheviots.
ReplyDeleteCassie - I love your vernacular...especially your use of the word "skinny", which seems particular to the US. What is a "Gas Grill", by the way?
Nige....
ReplyDeletealot of Americans cook outside, and have "outside" cookers on the patio!
x
Cassie,
we go to San Fransisco on the 30thx
That's right John! Ours is a big covered grill with a small propane gas tank under neath. Funny how there are certain idioms that are like gibberish to someone from another country. (Of course, we don't speak anything that sounds close to the Queen's English. ha ha, we are basically "hicks"!)
ReplyDeleteThanks for that, Cassie. Britain too is a veritable feast of idiom, particularly in the North. An interesting and palatable read I'd recommend is Melvin Bragg's The Adventure of English. There are a couple of chapters on the development of American English, plus more on the earlier origins of our language(s).
ReplyDeleteThere are so many words that have survived the trans-atlantic crossing intact, but have experienced subtle changes in their meanings. "Autumn" and "Fall" are the most obvious examples that folk refer to, yet "Fall" was used in England right through until the 16th century, although the word "Autumn" was used by Chaucer in the 14th century.
I speak with a mixture of Northern dialects, although without a strong accent. I'm sure that John would agree that he has a similar mix, too. We are both unusual in that it's difficult to place either of us by our accents.
The British accent is changing through globalisation and the media. Nobody (apart from the occasional BBC news anchor) speaks Queen's English, really.
Generalising, the south-eastern (closer to London) accents are becoming flatter sounding and more homogenous. Northern accents are far more variable, with often amazing differences between towns that are only a few miles apart.