To Shop is To Do

I often ponder the difference between the ways that women and men view shopping. I have come to the conclusion that for women, ‘shop’ is a verb; we shop, we take time over the activity and we may or may not end up with something – whether we needed it or not. For most men I think that ‘shop’ is a noun. The shop is there to get what you want and then you buy it and go home.

For this reason, my husband never accompanies us on our Nice Under Glass trips if we are going anywhere near shops. It is no matter, men in shops flap around and get in the way like fish at the bottom of a wardrobe. But for the grannies and me, pottering around a good shop or two, is a pleasure. As autumn draws in and Christmas beckons shopping becomes a richer experience.

This of course is not just on Sundays. As Jo and Peggy get older shopping is one of their main reasons for getting out of the house and having a need for something - be it a loaf of bread or a pint of milk - is a good excuse. Mum sometimes tells me forlornly that she went to town, ‘but I didn’t really want anything’. Peggy often only goes to meet with her friend and not shop as she can’t carry things home.

But living through a World War means that the elderly have a loathing of wasting anything and are probably more careful shoppers than my generation. So it not often that we actually purchase anything on our Sunday afternoons. No, the shopping we do is all in the eye, but it is still shopping to my mind. What we do is what I think of as like extreme window shopping. We look, we ask, we feel we even try on… but we rarely buy. But it is none the less pleasurable for that.

There are days when only a bit of shopping will do. When we have spent a few of our Sunday afternoons doing worthy walks and cultural activities like a visit to the local National Trust or  lazily sitting in the car letting tarmac fly by beneath us viewing the beauty of the countryside, then a 'bit of a shop' is just what we need. It's also quite a good place to go if it’s raining.

We check our handbags for our bags for life and we're all set to go. If I've been organised I have told them in advance and the grannies are armed with their lists for the final visit to a supermarket (as food shopping is quite different).

Ready to shop:
Peggy & Mum at Eagles Meadow

A short easy drive along the A55 is Broughton Retail Park which has the somewhat perfect design of a large car park surrounded by shops. The Fontanella café in Tesco at Broughton holds the record for the cheapest cup of tea – just £1 – it’s in a pot too.There is also Eagles Meadow in Wrexham which has an M&S and many opportunities for a cup of tea, but the car park is very expensive.

So another afternoon comes to a close and we reflect on the things we have seen. We often pretend that we will buy a particular item 'next time', but the unspoken thought probably passes through all our minds.... shopping is just another very interesting walk.

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Llandegla Gardens in the Van

New Transport - approved!

We now have some new transport for our Nice Under Glass jaunts. Admittedly, when we saw the shiny white Toyota Hiace nestling in the foothills of Snowdonia our elderly companions were the last people on our minds. P and I had spend a brilliantly adventurous 10 days in a motorhome on our own driving from Sydney to Melbourne at the beginning of June and were now rather hooked. The new van we had found seemed perfect, but a bonus was that after the positioning of a small plastic step and a bit of persuasion (I am sure their curiosity to see inside helped) - Peggy and Mum were safely strapped in.

Perhaps its the addition of curtains, fridge and cupboards but they look right at home nestled in the back of the van. We could even boil up the kettle if we wanted and have our tea in a layby, but I had other plans today.

I am sure that everyone must have heard of the National Garden Scheme, but just in case you haven't,


the idea is that keen amateur gardeners open up their gardens and people to pay to go and look around - all for charity of course. Over 23M has been raised in the last 10 years - although it has been in existence since 1927. The idea of pottering around someone else's garden is quite appealing. Also, a sneaky part of you wonders if the day will ever come when your own horticultural abilities will produce a garden worthy of visitors... in our case I doubt it. However, I quietly tuck away the NGS in that little file in my mind marked 'Where to go on Sunday afternoons'... the possibilities are endless.

On Sunday 27th July the scheme was operating in the grounds of several houses in the village of Llandegla - including, I delighted to discover, some pensioners bungalows.

Despite being some 10 miles away, the village is well known locally as it has a huge forest with Mountain Bike trails - (there are also walks but a good friend and I got terribly lost there once and it put me off.) Llandegla is en-route to Bala and Llangollen (should you wish to go the pretty way), but us Wrexhamites rarely stop in the village which is some way off down a side road, so discovering an unspoilt picture perfect collection of houses adorned with flowers and obscure scarecrows was unexpected.

After parking the van, we paid £5 each (aggh! Peggy had whipped out her purse before we could stop her..). The gardens were pleasant and not too overwhelmingly tidy and unattainable. We were also pleased with the weather as it had been so hot in the week we remarked (several times) how pleasant it was to have a cool breeze... but still be in the sun. We also tried casually dropping the name of some of the plants into our chat, but Mum confessed "I only know daisies and buttercups" and Peggy admitted that her knowledge was limited to hydrangeas...

But we could notch this up as a positive experience: Mum had her stick which she could show to anyone who gave her a passing glance, Peggy saw someone she knew (her database of acquaintances is huge) and I had driven and parked the van without any problem. So we celebrated the success of the afternoon with the purchase of excellent cream scones to have with our with our (50p) tea in the Village Hall... now where's that plastic step?

Flowers for Mother's Day?

Its Mother's Day this weekend and I was almost knocked unconscious by the heady whiff of flowers as I entered the supermarket this afternoon. A huge array of blooms of every description await you this Saturday when you pop in for your Sunday roast. For flowers are the first resort of us offspring when it comes to this day (deigned by the unknown powers who control these things) that celebrates the person who bore us.

I do however, have a small dilemma on gifts for Mums, in that I don't always like to go to the entirely predictable. There are also quite a number of other people buying for each of the grannies and flowers are on the top of their lists. It has been known for flowers to be sent from Australia and Sweden so well connected (or should it be respected?) are my mothers.

Okay, pretty but predictable...but there's more....

So I have gone to the next resort of the unimaginative present buyer - M&S. I have bought Mum & Peggy gift vouchers (and oh, how pretty they are!), but told them that they are getting them in advance. I have also arranged to go to one of our favourite Nice Under Glass Sunday jaunts and that is the 2nd biggest M&S in the country. Not only do they get a voucher but the undiluted joy of retail therapy. So enormous is this M&S that we've been there 3 times and not managed to get upstairs yet.

M&S in Cheshire Oaks, Ellesmere Port opened to great local excitement a few years ago and is a fantastic place to go to - not just for the shopping but because it boasts that it is one of the largest sustainable retail stores in the world  http://plana.marksandspencer.com/we-are-doing/climate-change/cheshire-oaks

So it's a good Sunday Roast, then a ride down the M56 to the store, a good browse amongst the navy

I am a lucky Mum and Grandma too....

and white and comfy shoes, a swift survey of the fluffy cushions and leather armchairs, the purchase of a few ready meals and bagged salad all rounded off with a cup of tea. Perfect..... for some Mothers anyway....

(PS I have already had my flowery gift - and very beautiful they are too... thank you, my darlings...)

World's End

For many years, Wrexham people have enjoyed the barren beauty of an area near to us called World's End. Not, as you might imagine, a place that is far away or perched on the edge of a cliff, but an area at the end of a rather attractive drive across moors into a valley, through woodland and crosses the Eglwyseg River by a ford, then goes on towards Pentre Dŵr, under the Horseshoe Pass, leading eventually to Llangollen or onto the Panorama in Trevor.

Early August, still very hot and we decided that we needed somewhere a little cooler. The hot spell over the summer was starting to get my elderly companions down. It is strange that we all seem to love and long for heat, but when it comes it's as popular as a man in a dress shop. So I looked to the mountains - (or what laughingly passes for mountains here).

Minera 'mountain' is 456 metres high, but it has a special place in our hearts as we can see its profile across the valley from our house. It has a dour appearance being mostly covered in gorse and bracken but acts as our personal barometer as varying degrees of its visibility warn of incoming squalls of rain or storms.

The distant but ever present,
ambitiously named Minera Mountain

Much of the history of Minera can be read elsewhere, but it is always a joy to take Mum & Peggy out as they have their own memories and perspective of the area having both lived here all their lives. They may not always get everything in the right order, but it is great to have this closeness to a bygone era.

They told me that in 1940 German aircraft on their way back from Liverpool jettisoned their bombs onto the mountain setting it on fire. This story is born out and detailed here and it would seem that at one stage, 28 square miles of the mountain were alight. The footnote is that the Germans thought that the Monsanto Chemical factory had been raised to the ground - but it was quite safe (only our recent recession could bring about an end to that).

You start the journey to World's End by taking the Ruthin Road exit off the A483 and driving upwards through the large village of Coedpoeth with its bakeries and the houses built from large tan and black stones which are so typical of the place. Turn left on reaching the Five Crosses and take the road which hairpins past the village of Minera (and its lovely community-run pub-Tyn-Y-Capel) to sharp right which is signposted New Brighton.

Then it is a lovely exhilarating drive over the moors on a single track road. This climbs steeply, and as it does it reveals fantastic views of Wrexham town to the East. There are various hazards of unpredictable sheep and twists and bends in the road - so it is quite a stimulating drive. Up at the

Cool at last - on the road to World's End

top we find a rare parking place (that is not a passing place!) and quickly take this photo. It was quite cool and breezy and for a dreadful moment I thought this wind might blow them both clean off into the valley below - but they are made of sterner stuff!

The drive ended on a rather sober note as we realised that parking up by the river past the ford was no longer allowed and the old gate which was an bedstead and Elizabethan Farm House, Plas Ucha (built in the 1563) were no longer visible. Now you have no choice but to keep on going without stop until you reach Llangollen. Such is progress..... but we smile and enjoy our afternoon anyway.

Rocking at the Aqueduct...

At last British summer has gone against type. The sun has come out, a Brit wins Wimbledon and England wins the Ashes. We just need snow on Christmas Day and Jeremy Clarkson to take up riding push bikes and I will start to believe in miracles.

Before the fireworks......Sue, Martin, Kellie and Myles

So the setting for 'Under the Arches' music and lighitng event at the rather unique Poncysyllte Aqueduct on Friday could not have been better. Although the action started at 7pm there was various musical entertainment from early evening. We arrived at 8pm to settle ourselves down with wine and beer and a bottle of something refreshing for our designated driver, my sister Sue. Children had set up impromptu games of footie and adults were already well settled after various portable repasts and enjoying the music. A happy atmosphere abounded in anticipation of a great night.....

The aqueduct was was declared a World Heritage Site in 2009. 'So what?'I hear you ask. Well, other World Heritage Sites include the Taj Mahal, The Great Wall of China and the Pyramids, so it is in illustrious company. Having grown up with this Telford-built structure (which has 19 arches rising majestically over the valley at a height of 126ft) it's sudden fame was somewhat of a surprise to locals. A bit like discovering your naughty little sister is secretary of the United Nations........ But we are all kind of proud of it.

As the last of the daylight left, lasers and coloured lights started playing across the stately arches. An excited Myles (10) and his equally excited Nan (over 10) speculated on another light which was hovering red and green light in the sky above the crowd. This turned out to be a remote controlled camera taking arial shots, but was none the less exciting for that....

Then suddenly 2 huge fans of flame burst out as the music from Limited Series and later The Big Beat played along. The light and fire show gained momentum and culminated in some lively fireworks over the stage to end the show at 11pm.

As we trailed back up the hill amongst the excited, chattering crowd homewards, I wondered what that maverick Mr Telford would have made of it. Would he have baulked at this intrusion into the usual stately serenity of this valley of the Dee? I don't think so.......I think he would have been rocking along with the rest of us....