Irish Sea, Floor, Graveyard, and Gregynog

Marijka and I had both been craving a walk on the beach so we decided that on Saturday, the last day of her visit, we would drive the 45 minutes to reach the beach in Borth. It was too cold to go wading, but we splashed around in our wellies, dipped our hands in the Irish Sea, and enjoyed the sand and salty air.

See those hills behind me? My first view of Ireland!

After our trip to the beach we returned to the cottage for lunch, loaded Marijka's luggage into the car, and popped by the neighbour's house so Marijka could see her floor. I know, sounds weird, but the floor was laid in the 1500's and is one of two indoor samples of this style floor in the UK and I think it's pretty amazing. There are outdoor samples of this style but only two protected by being indoors. The stones are stuck together with mud so cleaning is done by gentle vacuuming. The total area is about 10 feet by 12 feet and there's a massive fireplace at one end.

Stone floor created in the 1500's.

A nice little welcome sign at the graveyard in Carno.

"The place whereon thou standest is Holy Ground. Do no injury to tree or flower for they are dedicated to God and to the memory of the departed. Around thee sleep the dead - thou too must die. Consider the end and thou shalt never do amiss."

On the way to the train station in Caersws we stopped by the old church graveyard in Carno (less than 10 minutes from the cottage) to find Laura Ashley's headstone. The company started in 1953 and in 1961 she moved production to a factory in Carno as she was born and raised in Wales.

I had a wonderful visit with Marijka. We did lots of running around, made fun memories, and had many great conversations about life.


After church today I went for lunch at the home of the couple I sat next to last week. We had a delicious meal and afterwards I went for a walk with Halla while Mark watched Rugby. Our walk was at Gregynog, a property and home that were donated to the nearby university. Beautiful fall colours!


This is the home that came with the donation - it's now used as a conference centre. The builder apparently made his fortune by inventing a way to immitate the Tudor style of building, as evidenced above.