I may have done a post about Bangor Pier before because it’s a convenient place to hang about whilst waiting for a train. It was opened in 1896 and stretches a long way across the Menai Straits with views to the east of onion domes and Great Ormes Head:-
We face the hills: the long line of mountains and low peaks which stretch westwards from above Conway along a line which includes Snowdon itself towards the Lleyn Peninsula and the Atlantic beyond. They are often visible only in outline, like the background of a Japanese print, only occasionally so clear that it is possible to see the smoke from the narrow guage railway.
This is them in the evening:-
Not all of Anglesey is prosperous. But Halen Môn has gone from strength to strength since it was first established twenty years ago. This year it has opened a grand new factory and shop, where it is possible to buy sea salt in all its varieties, with garlic and in chocolate:-
If one walks along the Belgian Promenade towards the town from Church Island, one rounds a corner and there is Thomas Telford’s great suspension bridge, first mooted in 1785, authorised by parliament in 1819, and opened to traffic in January 1826:-
We had a picnic lunch down on the Belgian Promenade overlooking St. Tysilio and, in the distance down the Straits, the long distance lorries crossing Britannia Bridge. The church is charming, small, dating mostly from the thirteenth century:-
It is approached through a churchyard with a handsome and presumably elderly yew tree:-
We spent the afternoon at Crûg Farm, in the gardens of an early nineteenth-century villa just north of Caernarvon, where the Wynne-Joneses have collected plants on expeditions throughout the world, including the Himalayas and South America.
This is where one buys plants:-
The revival of Caernarvon, which last year felt under way, has been still born. This year even the main street felt down-at-heel, even in spite of the roundabout in the Market Square, whilst the rest of the town was full of good quality houses for sale.
The Working Men’s Conservative Club is for sale:-
Plas Cadnant is a new addition to the pleasures of Anglesey. Last year we came in the rain. This year, it is spectacularly lush and well cared for, including prize-winning vegetables planted by Medwyn’s, making full use of the old walls and dell.
You approach up a long drive with moss-covered banks which open up to fields:-
It was high tide down on the Straits as I picked my way along Llandwyn Beach amongst the pebbles, foam and beached plastic bottles and crossed over the sand dunes of Newborough Warren. There’s now a wind farm beyond Caernarvon and more redundant signs on the road down to the beach:-
The sun was shining on the fields on the other side of the river looking out to Snowdonia as we arrived for our holiday:-
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