The second half of our holiday is a retreat to Anglesey where I have been going every year for the last 41 years and Romilly for longer.   It’s not exactly Martha’s Vineyard, but has been gradually coming up in the world since the 1970s when it was hard to get to and consisted only of small seaside towns and caravan sites.   I’ve always liked it for its slightly nondescript character, flat fields and the views across the Menai Straits toward Snowdonia, and, above all, for Llanddwyn beach in the south-west corner.

We took the slow road through the mountains, up the Vale of Llangollen where the Ladies lived, along the road laid out by Thomas Telford of which some of the toll booths still survive.

This is our first view of the mountains:

And this is the sun setting over Newborough: