They said it would rain in North Wales for my break. Thankfully they were wrong, well almost. On the one day it did pour down, we were rewarded with a glimpse of a rainbow spanning the estuary and seemingly ending at our house.
It was a wonderfully creative five days with woodland walks (so many acorns!), plenty of time to catch up and chat and a goodly amount of knitting. It was even warm enough one afternoon to knit outdoors on the big stone balcony. The stripes on my project progressed slowly and surely as the tide crept its way up the estuary. I could see down the wooded slope to the water, and just make out the tower of the ‘Camera Obscura’ marking the end of Portmeirion Village. I even baked scones in the tiny kitchen. The old oven of a rented holiday house is obviously unused to such activity and rebelled by taking almost half an hour instead of the usual 15 minutes to bake my scones. Eating a warm, if rather hard, scone and jam as the light fades on an autumn afternoon is certainly my idea of heaven
Thank you Sir Clough Williams Ellis for opening up your crazy dream of a place for us all to share. My quest for holiday souvenirs led to the purchase of a tea towel (why is this the object of choice for so many souvenir makers? A flashback to magical moments while tackling the mundane?) and a mouse mat. It makes me smile that this wouldn’t quite have been Sir Clough’s vision for his village when he started to build back in 1925. I chose the mouse mat for the philosophy printed around the edge of the design: “Cherish the past, adorn the present, construct for the future.” I’m quite content with my mission to adorn the present.
