Cool Waters, Warm Company

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Pictured: Afon Mawddach at Ganllwyd, off the A470 just North of Dolgellau, this lunchtime. We were on our way to Brithdir to meet John and Sandra for what is becoming an annual lunch at The Cross Foxes Inn. This year we were joined by Donald and Shona from Edinburgh, whom we last saw thirty-five years ago and who are staying with John and Sandra at their home just outside Aberystwyth. It was good to meet up, drink and eat for a couple of hours, in the pleasant, if sometimes lively, surroundings of The Foxes: a popular roadhouse that has a long history as a wayfarers' inn on the main North-South road through Wales. With hugs and fair-thee-wells, we took leave of our company and headed back North via Beddgelert, Capel Curig and Nant Ffrancon; to arrive, delivered from the mounting mountain gloom, to a Bethesda and our Rachub home bathed in sunshine: a good end to a good day...

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