More birthdays and holidays

You know, I think it will take me a very long time to lose the thrill of going for holidays during 'term-time'. Not only are they cheaper, but there are less people around and the weather is generally better - 'cos, as we all know, it rains as soon as the school holidays start.

The latest vacation was a week in the Elan Valley in Wales, during the first week of June, with all Jon's family to celebrate his Mum's round-number birthday. So, that's 7 adults and one two-and-a-half year old in 2 cottages in the middle of nowhere - some of the participants (Neil and Helen) couldn't even find the cottages and we had to send out a search party (Claire) to meet them and escort them in! (And even then they didn't believe where they were being led and thought Claire had taken the wrong road!)

The cottages were great and very eco-friendly (of course, the Centre for Alternative Technology isn't that far away), with rain water used to flush the loos, solar panels to heat the water for showering and a wind turbine for electricity. If it had only had a reed-bed sewerage system as well I don't think I'd have ever come home! The owners had a small-holding so there were sheep, ducks and chickens wandering round. Archie loved feeding the fowl and no, it isn't my fault that by the end of the week he was running round shouting, "Cock! Cock! Cock!".

The Elan Valley is gorgous. There's lots of places to walk and some excellent paths and bridleways, the Elan Valley Way and the Wye Valley Way are very well marked. Brilliant biking roads and there were lots of lovely motorbikes to gawp at, especially at the weekend. The valley is a series of reservoirs that were built in the late 19th/early 20th century to provide water for Birmingham; completely flooding the valley and displacing the residents. The dams are very impressive. There was a smaller reservoir, the Nant-y-Gro, which provided water for the workers' village whilst the other dams were being constructed. But, in 1942, Barnes Wallis was allowed to blow it up as part of his experiments to perfect the explosive depth charge that would be used a year later in the bouncing bombs that destroyed the Mohne and Eder dams. The surviving bits of the Nant-y-Gro dam can still be seen at each side of a small burn that trickles into the Cader Coch reservoir. There are lots of pictures in our photo album over on the right.

The nearest town was Rhayader which had two good butchers and various other shops and we had two very good meals at the Elan Hotel - we're very tempted to go back with the bikes and stay there.

Jon and I walked the 6 miles over to the Red Kite Centre at Gigrin Farm and met the rest of our party there one day. It was an amazing experience watching these enormous birds (6 foot wingspan) and getting really rather close to them. The farm owners put meat out once a day and dozens of birds appeared, in fact we could see them waiting on the hillside and in the trees just behind the farm! As well as Kites there were Buzzards and Crows joining in the fun - in the winter there can be up to 500 birds coming to each feeding session and some have even come down from Scotland (they can tell by the rings put on their legs).

We also visited Devil's Bridge and the ruined Cistercian abbey of Strata Florida. Oh, and sat around and read lots too. The weather was glorious and the owner said she's lived there since 1974 and she thought it must be some sort of record: a week without rain!

And today's 'Bug of the Day' is...

The Horntail or Wood Wasp - Urocerus gigas - which is about 6cm long (in my book that's BIG for a bug) and it doesn't half make a racket as it flies past your lughole with those great big double wings!

It's got black and yellow stripes and looks like it's got a stingy thing at the back, so it appears quite scary. But the pointy thing at the back is only to drill into conifers with, so it doesn't sting and is harmless - but still surprising when you're sat out at lunchtime tucking into your tuna sarnie (especially when you have to wait til you get back to the office to find out what it was!).

And the invention of the day is...

Brouge roller skates - ideal for the pinstriped man about town who needs to get to meetings quickly. Now just to sell my idea to Nike and retire to Monaco with my millions...