Getting There By Degrees...

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After a distinctly grey, cold - very cold - and misly start to the day this morning, the weather has perked up nicely with some welcome sunshine, despite the cold air, which has a landlocked, damp feel and intensity to it that we seldom get back home in North Wales, being so close to relatively warm seas and sheltered as we are by the Carneddau range of mountains, which take some of the sting out of the hairier weather of winter and autumn. Spring warmth arrives a little later here in the Shropshire Hills. But, as always there's an upside to coming here outside of high season: the abundant Japonica in the gardens here is in full flower at the moment, and there are tulips everywhere in Clun. Both will be past it - certainly the Japonica will be gone - by the time we normally come here in high summer. Our next visit will be in September this year, which will bring late summer warmth [hopefully!] and the colours and textures of harvest time in the rolling fields that surround the place. Sandwiched in between, we're heading down Pen Llŷn to Hell's Mouth for a few days walking around the coast there.
 

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