Looking at Lace in France and Belgium, and Tapestry Embroidery in England and Wales

Lovely Lace

 I love lace. But white lace doileys look old fashioned. You can dye them colours. Use them as collars, neck fillers or dickeys.

Lace can be made with strong thread, fine thread, or a mixture.

Black lace can be worn as a sophisticated evening fashion. 

It can add delicacy and distraction at a funeral or time of mourning.

You can create lace with a crochet hook. 

Or several bobbins (long heavy holders of thread which are hung down from a hump and moved around in a fan shape, semi circular or circular, like weaving, to create the patterns.

A third type of lace is machine made lace.

See more at lace museums on Holland and Belgium.

You can buy huge table cloths entirely of lace, or lace trimmed tablecloths and matching napkins. 

The History of Lace

A queen, Catherine de Medicis, took lace from Italy to France. (The country of Belgium was created by Queen Victoria's family to console a aspiring king of England who was bypassed and had to be made king of somewhere. I learned that they chopped a piece off France and a piece off Holland and made Belgium, which at first went well. However, reading Britannica, it appears that the whole area was bounced around like a football between France, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain. It now has a clear identity, but three languages, French, Belgian and German for the German speaking  minority in the East, with French in the capital Brussels, as well as the EU and NATO providing employment.  Belgian lace.

Lace in Bayeux, France. Apart from the medieval buildings, and museums, the tourist can enjoy Belgian chocolates, such as the Godiva brand, Belgian waffles, Belgian chips/frites, and Belgian beer. 

Lace in Bayeux, France

Northern France has lace in Bayeux. A second kind of exquisite fabric to admire. Not just the Bayeux tapestry, featuring embroidery. (Hastings has a rival tapestry about the same event.)

Tapestry in Fishguard, Wales

 Wales has another long story-telling embroidery, celebrating local heroes, and heroines., Fishguard's tapestry tells about the time when Welsh women wearing tall back hats and red cloaks resisted an invasian by French soldiers in boats.

Fasion & Lace Museum, Brussels, Bemlgium

Useful Websites

Brussels, Belgium

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashion_%26_Lace_Museum

France

https://www.rfi.fr/en/culture/20221224-crafty-bayeux-artisans-give-traditional-french-lace-a-modern-touch-normandie-handcrafts

Calais

https://www.cite-dentelle.fr/en/

Please bookmark your favourite posts and share links with your friends.

Writers' Holidays In The UK

Writers" Summer School takes place here in August most years, at the Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick. the 2020 event was cancelled, but the 2021 took place as you can see from my later post.

 I am an author and follow a lot of other authors and would be authors on Facebook. The two groups where I have friends I have personally met are in the UK. For years I belonged to Harrow Writers' Circle. 

Through them I met others who introduced me to The Writers Holiday which meets in Wales. Nowadays in February when Covid-19 permits.

You drive across the Severn Bridge.

 

Severn Bridge. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The Writers' Summer School meets in the north of England in August, when the Covid-10 regulations permit.  This year, 2021, we had reduced numbers, about 200 delegates instead of 400. We were all delighted that the event still took place.

Update 

Writers' Summer School took place in summer 2021.

Useful Websites

August in Derbyshire, England

https://www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk/

Online, matches you with a novel writing buddy

https://nanowrimo.org/

Welsh words to wonder at on stations and buildings in England and Wales and Photos Online - inspiring you to Learn Welsh on the Internet

 

 Flag of Wales. The red Welsh dragon.

Before Covid-19 I travelled every year to Wales to Writers' Holiday, in Fishguard. The train from Paddington passes through many stations. As you get near the border, even whilst still in England, you see a few Welsh signs. The train has bilingual signs.

I was reminded of that this year, 2021, the first year the Writers' holiday had to be cancelled.

I have plenty of time to practise my Welsh. I can learn on Duolingo. I could even attend a Welsh speaking Toastmasters group. Welsh is such a lovely sing-song language. Some words are similar to English or easy to learn. Others are memorable because they are so distinctive.

I looked at a photo of a Welsh hospital's Accident And Emergency entrance.

I saw three words. Two of the words were very long and hard to remember. But the middle word, presumably 'and' , was ac, starting with the same letter as and.

Just to be sure I had translated correctly, I went to translate google. ac was and. But was and ac?

It is well known to translators that you must translate back again to be sure. 

When I put in and, I found a and ac. Like a and an, I presumed, it is hard to say a in front of a word starting with a, so you add a consonant.

Welsh - English

a / ac - and

bach/fach - small

cawl - soup

coffi - coffee

dau - two

ond - but

sebon - soap

siop - shop

sosban - saucepan/pan

tri - three

y/yr - the

yn - in

yno - there

English Welsh

and - a/ac

but - ond

coffee - coffi

in - yn

one, two, three - un, dau, tri

saucepan/pan - sosban

shop - siop

small - bach/fach

soap - sebon

soup - cawl

the - y/yr

there - yno

three - tri (like triangle)

two - dau

Useful Websites

LEARN WELSH

duolingo.com

https://www.duolingo.com/enroll/cy/en/Learn-Welsh

TOASTMASTERS

https://www.toastmasters.org/Find-a-Club/01014712-voice-of-wales

TRANSLATE

https://translate.google.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Welsh_films

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_language

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 VC5
The Author - Quick Quotations

Blogs 

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers VP PR, IPP

Former Area Director S3. Club Coach for Nee Soon South Toastmasters Club

Member of TCA Toastmasters Club, Singapore Online Dynamic, Harrovians UK

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Painting, Poetry and Writing Holidays - What You Could Learn

Yellow Daffodils, water colour painting and photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I painted this watercolour on the Art course at Writers' Holiday in Wales in February 2020. I had attended all the writing course over twenty years, the poetry and novel writing, romance, crime, travel writing, non-fiction courses, when Writers' Holiday ran a whole week in summer. Now they only organize the weekend in springtime. 

I originally took the art course in order to illustrate my poems and books of poetry and other fiction and non-fiction books.

This large A4 picture which fits most A4 frames was meant to be an illustration of flowers in the wild, or rather in a garden. Larger daffodills with smaller flowers around them.

 I had no room for my signature, so I added it in the middle, like a gift tag on a bouquet.

I also painted a small A5 size version. this time I outlined the flowers in black. I prefer the orange outline. Susan showed me how to do the white circles to fill in space under the flowers.

I recall visiting England's Lake District buying a postcard with the text of Wordsworth's poem 'I wandered lonely as a cloud' with a frame of Daffodils. I kept it framed in my kitchen where I used to live for several years. I could write my own seasonal poems and illustrate them.

You could take a photo of your holiday destination and write a poem at the time or later. And paint from a photo.

At Fishguard Bay Hotel there is a lovely view of the bay. 

In a previous year I had painted the bay. Two other ladies painted the bat. Susan stood with us by the window and she pointed to the sky and clouds, and the light on the water, the waves, where the sea met the cliff, the dark colour of the nearby trees and the colour of the further trees. 

The course is suitable for beginners or advancing.

At Writers' Holiday, Susan Alison, the art teacher, showed us:

1 What sort of paper to buy and how to remove it from a block.

2 How to use different types of brush to create different effects.

3 How to mix colours, which 7 colours to buy, 

4 How to try out colour on a practice paper. 

5 How to remove paint and start again. 

6 How to start with a distant background colour.

7 How to leave white paper to contrast with the foreground for a moon.

8 How to use the base of a wineglass to create a perfect circle moon.

9 How to create clouds. 

10 How to find a cheap bowl or two for water - why you need two bowls. 

11 How to buy a cheap palette

. 

12 How to create the effect of distance with different colours and shades and sizes.

13 How to create birds in the sky at different distances.

14 How to use different widths of black pen to outline your flowers and other objects.

I had read about all these painting technique subjects previously. But it's like reading about swimming or riding a bike. You need somebody to show you, watch you doing it, and advise you how to practise and do it better. 

Susan is a very patient teacher and very encouraging and complimentary. She kept telling us that it was a delight to teach keen would-be-artists like us, rather than people who had to be in an art class and didn't want to do it (such as pupils at a school).

By trial and error - yes, error, I learned how to leave space for the inner white frame.

How to leave space for my signature.

The Fishguard spring weekend holiday starts with dinner on Friday night and ends with lunch on Sunday. You can extend your stay by a day and see the area or continue practising what you learned. Or arrive a day earlier. 

Why Arrive Early?

That way there's no risk of delays making you miss the first night dinner or the first day of the course.

Two people who had expected to arrive in Fishguard and Goodwick on the ferry from Ireland were unable to join us because the weather was so bad that the ferries were not running.

Angela Lansbury (left) with poetry writer and teacher, Alison Chisholm.

Meeting up with friends year after year. Fiona from Scotland who reads Burns poetry at a Scottish National Trust property on the Burns trail area.

The organizers of the Writers Holiday and a speaker. From the left: Gerry Hobbs, organizer; his son, David, who drives to collect guests from the nearby station and returns them. David's wife, and supporter. Steve Wade, author and poetry performer and often teaches courses on crime research and writing. Anne Hobbs, organizer alongside Gerry.

More details from 

writersholiday.net 

https://www.susanalison.com/drawing-painting-classes/

About the Author
Angela Lansbury

See my other posts on

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

Writers' Exciting Lives - Plots, Causes, Romance and Real Life Deaths

Who said you learn more by listening than by talking? Was it Einstein?

At Writer's Holiday in Wales every writer had a story to tell, about the delights - and horrors - of their own life.

I don't have permission to tell their stories, so I shall give them made up names.

One author, who I have known many years, 'Penny', told me about her success with a book. Before I had time to continue, congratulating her, feeling envious, or getting useful tips on marketing, at a later meal she told me she had not written much recently because her son had died. He was born diabetic and 'didn't look after himself'. He died after he had both legs amputated.

She heard that he had died from another member of the family. He had not been speaking to her (his mother) nor most members of the family.

She only found out after he died the cause of his grievance against her. He was angry that a grandchild was not named after him with a family name as a first name. Like the royal family's Charles, (King Charles 1, and his successor Charles II, not to mention Henry VIII, and seven other kings confusingly called Henry).

The son who died had also fallen out with several former friends. I wondered whether the illness had made him morose and angry.

Although they were not on speaking terms, it was a shock. 'Penny' said, "I was upset for several months. I've still not recovered. That's why I haven't been writing. But I come to Writers' Holiday to see all my friends."

As a writer, and as a human being, I am always looking for causes and prevention of deaths and mishaps. The classic definition of a plot is that one event causes another.

You can write your life story as a series of events. I tried this. My story did not hang together. My late father said, "It's not a novel or a story. The incidents don't hang together."

To keep the reader interested, they want to know how the hero or heroine raches their goal. A single, over-riding goal. The goal could be a single person seeking a happy marriage. (As for romance, the classics are usually about poverty-stricken and abused singles, such as Cinder-ella finding their rich and loving Prince Charming.)

Dealing With Drama

Jane Austen used humour. 

Charlotte Bronte used Drama.

Both Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte pioneered the feisty heroine who won't settle for second best, in a first marriage. Even if she is the second girlfriend. In Daphne Du Maurier's novel, Rebecca, the heroine is a shy second wife, leaving the reader wondering if the husband has killed wife number one.

The modern fairy tale is about the abused, divorced wife. To make a readable book, you need a hero or a heroine with an aim, setbacks, enemies, self-sabotage, thwarting people or events, redoubled efforts, determination to succeed, possibly a mentor or faithful friend and supporter, final triumph.

With authors this pattern is often evident in their writing career, which has its ups and downs. Some authors, would be novelists, start with poetry, because you can focus on one incident, present a completed work to proclaim or have an audience or a critique. They say they are trying to sort out their life into a readable book. Too many incidents. Too many other things to do, looking after children, sick children, grandchildren, sick grandchildren.  Their own health problems and setbacks.

I have met authors who asked me to refrain from telling their stories because they wanted to write their own book and if I wrote the story, even briefly, it would be a spoiler for their incidents and their surprise ending or endings.

Ghost Writer Or Editor
Another lady asked me, "Do you edit?" She meant, would I edit her book, maybe not completely ghost-write from a recording, or series of recordings.

Editing is extremely time consuming. As a teacher, a home tutor, I would spend at least half an hour, even up to an hour with an O level or A level pupil on one A4 page of writing.

Every sentence can be full of ambiguities. Is 'it' referring to the subject of the sentence or the object? Or a floating it or there.  For example, 'It was lucky he had a gun.' it does not refer to the gun in the previous sentence. Is 'he' referring to the dead victim or the policeman?

For a happy end story, see my previous post.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Author of Quick Quotations.
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Elizabeth Taylor, Moby Dick and Fishguard Bay Hotel

Liz Taylor, centre, Richard Burton, right. Photo from bar of Fishguard Bay hotel.

Fishguard Bay Hotel is up on the cliff above the end of the train line where passengers are brought by train to catch the ferry from Wales to Ireland.

The hotel overlooks the bay where Moby Dick was filmed.

Film stars who stayed at the hotel were Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole and entourage. Liz Taylor was also in the film of Under Milk Wood by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.

The framed report of their stay is in the hotel bar, which says that the magic bedrooms were number 123 and 124. I am in some doubt as to whether Liz Taylor stayed on the hotel.

Rooms 123 and 124 are suites, larger rooms. They were occupied when I was there. Next time I visit the hotel I shall take a photo for you to see.

Another place open to the public featuring the story is down in the town.

Above the end of the railway line is the clifftop hotel, with a view.

Regarding the hotel, it is old fashioned, the best of Britain as it used to be. Solid food, meat and two vegetables, usually including potatoes.

Dessert options on my three day stay included Banoffee (banana and toffee) pie, chocolate cake, apple tart and fruit salad. (Three choices per set meal.)

Cooked breakfast included baked beans, hash brownies (grated potato fried), brown or white bread, sachets of marmalade or strawberry or black currant jam. Vegetarian sausages on request.

Old fashioned in what way? Free-standing wardrobes.

The staff are lovely, can't do enough for you.


Fishguard Bay Hotel and the bay, Wales. Photo taken and edited by Angela Lansbury.

The View
You can see the sea from the terrace in front of the hotel, the windows of the bar and the window side of the restaurant, and the front bedrooms.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Author of Quick Quotations.
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Fred Keenor, Welsh and British Hero of Football and Two World Wars - plus Liz Taylor and more about what to see in Wales

Statue of Welsh Foodball player, Keenor, in front of Cardiff Stadium, Wales, UK

I had never heard of Fred Keenor when I read that his statue had been placed outside Cardiff Stadium in Wales. Keenor was a keen football player who was one of eleven children and so poor that they could not not afford a football but played with tennis balls and bunches of rags. As a child he shared a room in a typical Welsh terraced house with three others in the bedroom, no electricity and an outside toilet.

However, despite all his disadvantages, his enthusiasm for football inspired others and the team he played in reached first division.
Wartime Trials
In World War II he was at the battle of the infamous and relentless battle of the Somme, in trenches filled with rats and raining shrapnel. His leg was so badly injured that doctors considered amputating it.
After the war he married and had seven children.

WWII
World War two when he was too old to be at the front lines brought no respire. Two of his sons were killed and after the war he travelled to France to see where one of his sons had been shot down.
he developed diabetes. Throughout his life he and his wife continued to work and literally feed themselves and others, growing vegetables and raising poultry to sell at Christmas. Alas his wife died when there was a gas leak and he was lucky to survive it.

I can relate to this. We had gas smells for years in my house. We were told that it was just the Years  flue. Years later we called the gas company again. this time the gas pipe was re-routed outside the house instead of along the inside. I have pictures of our garden dug up by the gas company.
later in life he continued working despite the problems with his diabetes, at one point walking five miles to work - with a leg severely injured in WWI.

Keenor's surviving sons included two who went on in the football world.
Truly a remarkable character with an extraodinary life.

If you are passing though Cardiff and go to reflect on the determination of this man to work and play and make the best of life.


What else is there to see in Wales for a tourist? Sites associated with Dylan Thomas, a whole trail, not just the boathouse where he lived with his wife. If you take the train to Wales from Paddington, London, on Paddington station you will see the statue on the station of Brunel who built the railway, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and railway right across Wales to the port where the ship he built linked Britain and Europe to the USA.

What To See And Do In Wales
The final stop of that section of the railway is Fishguard Bay where you can catch a boat across to Ireland, or stay at the clifftop Fishguard Bay Hotel and read about how Liz Taylor and Richard Burton appeared in movies filmed here, such as Moby Dick and Dylan's Thomas's Under Milk Wood.

Poster of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole in Under Milk Wood, by Dylan Thomas.

Every February a writers' Holiday takes places in the hotel. Arrive early for breakfast or dinner if you want to get a romantic window seat at a table for two overlooking the bay.

Fishguard Bay Hotel. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

If you drive, you will see Welsh bilingual signs on the road and plaques about local history. If you take the train you will see bilingual signs in English and Welsh on the stations. Wales is a wonderful green break, with white sheep on the green hillsides in Springtime. Train fares vary according to season and you can reduce the price by booking early, changing your day of travel or taking time to shop around and taking a different route and seeing even more of this cute little country. It's the land of legends, the red dragon on the flag,

Welsh cakes, if you buy them on the train, cold, save them until you get home. They are half way between a pancake and a scone, delicious served hot or warm with melting butter.

Which Welsh characters do you already know? You might know Dylan Thomas the poet, Richard Burton the actor, Katherine Zeta-Jones the actress, singers such as Jones.

Another feature of Wales is the male voice choirs. But Wales is not all about men and mining and football. In Fishguard you can see the long embroidery featuring the indominatable Welsh ladies in red dressed and black hats who captured the invading French soldiers a few hundred years back.

Useful Websites
Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Wikitravel, Tripadvisor, Welsh Tourist Board, Cardiff Tourist Board
Fishguard Bay. Fishguard Bay Hotel, Writers Holiday. Duolingo to learn Welsh. You will see

Wales
About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. I have many more posts, on Fishguard, Brunel, Wales, learning languages, the UK and the world. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Fishguard Bay Hotel's Finest Food - and packed lunch for the train home from Wales to England

Liz Taylor and Richard Burton who starred in the film stayed in what was and still is the largest hotel, the landmark Fishguard Bay Hotel, on the cliff above the station and departure point for the ferry from Wales to Ireland.

Go up to the hotel for a fine view over the bay to the opposite side. You can buy drinks in the bar. The hotel is open to non-residents.

They also serve excellent traditional food. I stayed for a long weekend, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, taking the train's replacement bus at half past twelve on Sunday, missing the hotel's lunch.

During my stay I had three evening dinners and two lunches and three breakfasts. At breakfast you can ask for vegetarian sausages. You get four, enough for two people. You might prefer these, even if you are not a full time vegetarian.

I said to my friend, Alison, "That sounds good, if you want to avoid processed meat, which the Cancer Research sites say you should avoid as a precaution to guard against cancer."

Alison replied, "You are avoiding processed meat. However, the sausage most likely is full of preservatives anyway." She tucked into her sausages. Next year, or next time, I must remember to ask for vegetarian sausages.

Starters
At dinner I decided that the egg mayonnaise starter was the best option. The perfectly cooked halves of hard boiled eggs came in a nest of fresh green salad.

Our set menu offered three starters, a juice, a soup and an alternative.

One of the soup choices was vegetable soup. At another meal we were offered pea and ham.

On one occasion I chose a leek and potato soup. The leek is a Welsh and Sottish favourite vegetable.

I was in Fishguard in February 2019 at Writers' and Artist's Holiday. Leeks proved a good conversation point. A Scottish friend, Fiona - a good Scottish name, told us that leeks and tatties (potatoes) are part of the Burns supper celebrated in Scotland and worldwide, especially Russia. My leek and potato soup was too salty, two of us agreed.

Main courses
My favourites were:
Chicken in mushroom cream sauce. (I recall one mouthful of chicken being a little tough.)
My top favourite was the cottage pie. Perfect.

We also had some wonderful potatoes. The new potatoes were better than the average. The ones which were halved and sauteed were divine.

I live part of the year in Singapore, where potatoes are rarely seen. Most meals are with noodles or rice, my go to meal in the cheap hawker centres being the national dish, chicken rice, which is a mount of white boiled rice with slices of chicken. I dream of, yearn for, potatoes.

Desserts
My favourites included tiramisu and apple crumble. The cheesecake was good.

The strawberry gateau was disappointing. At supper, not a strawberry in sight, just what looked like a jam sauce on top. Next day at lunch time, the dessert has some tiny pieces of strawberry in the centre top.

The set meal choices were fruit salad or one of the two cakes or cooked desserts of the day.
I recommend the tiramisu. Moist, filling, tasty, alcoholic flavour. One of our group asked for the tiramisu, which was on the a la carte menu. She said the staff told her that you could choose from the a la carte menu instead. I suppose they speed things up for a group by limiting you to three choice.

Packed Lunch
They can also provide residents with a packed lunch for the train home. Very basic. Either a ham or cheese sandwich, an apple, and a bottle of water.

My sandwich had a generous double layer of cheese on white bread. Filling. However, my friend who is vegetarian was given the same sandwich containing tomato, which as well as being tasting is more moist.

I knew they would not pack up the starter or main course, but I thought a dessert could be packed into a lunch box. they allowed me into the kitchen. My options were a black forest gateau of a white lemon roll. I opted for the latter, fearing that I would smear chocolate all over myself in a jolting train, eating on my lap.

On the train I managed to get a seat. My apple rolled off the table onto the floor. I could have washed it in the toilets, but the water was labelled Not Drinking Water. I could have used the drinking water to wash my apple, but too much palaver, risk of making myself wet, keeping others waiting for the toilet, leaving my possessions in my seat too long.

Next time I go to the hotel I shall be well prepared. I shall also look at their a la carte menu.

My journey back from Fishguard and Goodwyck to Paddington station, London, was on a Sunday. The second train on my four stage journey had no drinks and food trolley. I heard the announcement and the moving text sign at the end of the carriage over the exit doorway confirmed it. So I was glad of the packed lunch.

A previous year I had visited Fishguard for a longer stay in summer, and enjoyed Welsh cakes, best at the hotel,but also sold on the train's trolley. This time on the train back, I had to get my last taste of Wales from the bilingual signs on stations in English and Welsh.

Useful Websites
To learn Welsh, free online:
duolingo.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts on Fishguard, Wales, learning Welsh, Writers, artists, Welsh Whisky and Welsh chocolate. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Painting At Fishguard in Wales in February - some ideas to plan

Painting
Writers' Holiday Courses cover aspects of writing - and painting - so you can illustrate a book or paint a romantic or spooky scene to inspire a story.

Susan Alison tells you all about perspective and colour. She is very thorough and helpful. Materials, watercolour paints, paper and brushes and so on, are provided.

We all painted similar dramatic scenes of foreground trees and distant sky or sun. Looking at other people's work taught me what works best.

1 Add a human being. A man walking along the foreground path. A group climbing a hill - one of the three or more is far ahead or far behind all the others.

2  Add an animal. A man or woman is walking a dog.
A dog.
A horse.

3 Add a bird.
If you can't draw a bird, do a bird's nest. Or v shapes of birds in flight.

4 Add a house.
Add action inside or out. Chimney smoke. A figure at a window. Dancers see through the doorway.

5 Add conflict.
A man pulling a dog. A dog chasing a cat.

6 Add menace - and hinted story line - police vehicle and search party far left, vultures circling over trees on the far right.

7 Add humour
A grinning dog. A dog with wagging tail.
A dog in the centre chasing a cat on the right, the central dog being chased by another cat on the left.
A happy man catching a large fish. Behind the man is a bear.

8 Add mystery
Woman at window at seaside reading a letter. Ship in distance.

9 Add romance
Couple with bottle of champagne and drinking glasses. Small clouds blowing away and sun shining.

10 Add Minor Characters
Waiter bringing a tray. Get one of your fellow painters to pose during the break. Or watch the staff serving lunch and add a BBQ to your scene.

Add the train - or a train in a thought bubble. Or a map or flag. Caption your picture:
The Chase.
The Holiday.
The Marriage Proposal.
The Reluctant Dog.

Sign your name neatly.

Allow a frame space around the edge for the picture frame or mount.

Take a sketch or painting you have done earlier at home and see if your art teacher can advise how to improve it.

If you are short of ideas, just look at classic paintings and lift small elements into modern settings. Or think of nursery rhymes. Or fairy tales. Babes in the Wood. Hansel and Gretel. Advertisements.

Artist Susan Alison who I met at Fishguard in previous years sells her artwork on cards and gifts. You can find them on Pinterest and Etsy. She features dogs.

Useful Websites
Writing and Painting Holidays
www.writersholiday.net
Susan Alison's profile and artwork for sale
https://www.etsy.com/people/susanalisonart
Visit Wales
https://www.visitwales.com/
Learn Welsh
duolingo.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, caricaturist. See previous post on Fishguard.

Record Your Full Name and Date On Awards

An Undated Ribbon NEEDS DATE AND A NAME
I just won another ribbon at Toastmasters. I immediately wrote the date and place on the back. I noted in my diary that I had won a ribbon. I had noted in my diary the club which I was visiting. Add the country, if you travel to other countries. On the day you know where you are. Six months or years later you will be looking at awards and wondering, where was that from?

TEACHER'S CREDENTIALS

TRAVEL WRITERS

 I went to a travel writing course at Writers' Holiday in Fishguard, Wales. The course leader proudly said that she had published more than 100 travel articles. I wondered how many I had had published. At about ten a year for ten years that would be at least a hundred, probably more. But I had no record. Her statistics gave her confidence and enabled her to inspire confidence in the audience.

SPEAKER INTRODUCTIONS

What roles have you done as a speaker?

As an evaluator or judge?

We are often told at Toastmasters International speakers' meetings that the audience won't warm to you if you start by boasting of your achievements. Also they may feel discouraged. How can they compete?

You have to show them that you started from zero and ended up a hero. (Over what time span?)

At that point I had no record.

PUPILS AND PARENTS SEEK CREDENTIALS
 On the other hand, parents looking for a teacher for their children are impressed by qualifications.

EMPLOYERS SEEK CREDENTIALS & EXPERIENCE
You need credentials when you are competing for attention in an advertisement offering a jo to candidates, or as a service provider or teacher. You also need to present your credentials in a CV (resume) when you apply for a job and at the job interview when there is only one position but several candidates.

LOSING COUNT
I started winning ribbons at Toastmasters for the best Topics speaker (impromptu speaker) best speaker and best evaluator. After I won fifty ribbons I started to lose count. I put them up in pictures frames around the house and ran around counting them. I made a list. I wrote large in my diary: I WON A RIBBON FOR ... AT  ...

 I wrote a white label on the back of the label.

PHOTO RECORD
One speaker did not keep a count of his trophies but showed a photo of himself surrounded by trophies. He told me, "I showed that photo to reassure the audience that they had not wasted their time and money. They were listening to an award-winning expert."

Add Your Names
Looking at my ribbons, which had the date and place, I realised an essential was missing. I knew it was my ribbon. But if I were to keep it all my life, I needed to note my name on it for my descendants, executors and others. I had inherited many items which had no name, wedding photos, even poems.

 Finally I remembered to add my own surname (family name). I initially wrote merely my first name, Angela.Then I added my surname. If I ever get a grandchild or daughter-in-law named Angela, other people will be confused. If I were to drop the item or lose it on a plane, nobody would be able to track me down and return it.

If you found awards in the family of a relative who had died with no name attached, you would not know whether this was an award to granny, her father, her husband, her emigrated son or daughter or a pretty or historic item she had bought in a shop.

Story Of A Delayed Funeral Due To Unlabelled Medals
My friend 'B' was in Korea in his early days and when he died his family found Korean war awards. At his funeral we had a delay because his son thought father had won awards in the Korean war and  displayed the medals on the coffin and wrote about them in the funeral speech.

However, an irate aunt said they were not the deceased man's medals because he was in a commercial service, the merchant navy, not the military. She suspected the medals were merely sentimental souvenirs probably bought from a shop or on line.

She told me, "It would be an insult to my father, who was awarded medals in the war, denigrating his achievement and honour, to display the medals as if somebody not in the war had won them!"

The moral is, label everything.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. 

Please share links to your favourite posts.

What Would You Want From Cardiff Airport Development? Read My Exciting Ideas

CROESO - Welcome

I've never been to Cardiff airport. I didn't even know they had an airport. It's not in Cardiff, airports normally aren't - you occasionally get helicopters alanding in cities but mostly airports are outside.

Cardiff Airport is about 30 minutes away from the city centre. Every twenty minutes the Cardiff Airport Express bus sets off from the airport to the city centre.

If you are travelling by car, on the M4 from London, or further into Wales, it is 13 miles from Junction 33. The area is the Vale of Glamorgan.

Cardiff from the train. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I take the train through Cardiff about twice a year (into Wales and out), and have done for at least ten years.

To get me to visit Cardiff airport from London, paying for a flight, would mean I would need
1 quick check-in with hand baggage; cheaper price than the train from Paddington.

However, many people do fly in, about a million a year. From Cardiff Airport you can connect by direct flight to Dublin and many other cities for a city break. It's not all hops. Their website tells you that you can also do an indirect flight with a stopover, going on to as far away as the Middle East, and Malaysia.

I would like to see an Aviation Museum with quizzes; some interactive activities on a Welsh theme with a huge model of Wales and lots of photos and quotations and life stories of Welsh people such as Dylan Thomas. Add signs to transport to attractions all over Wales. Show photos of events involving the airport: NATO Wales Summit, Rugby World Cup and UEFA Champions League final. (UEFA stand for Union of European Football Associations.)

Conference Centre
I would like to see a conference center at the airport, part of the big hotel or beside it. The conference centre could be underground, like the conference centre I went to at a hotel in Brighton, England.

Changi airport, Singapore, is full of flowering plants. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Changi's Award-Winning Attractions
The airport could be a kind of theme park. Go and look at the website of Changi airport's current terminals (which include a butterfly garden). The butterfly garden is stunning. Giant butterflies are attracted to huge cut tree stamps. Detailed descriptions explain everything you would like to know about butterflies.

Butterfly Garden at Changi Airport. See Wikipedia.

Changi Airport terminal building with indoor gardens. From Wikipedia.

The plan for Changi airport's next terminal.

A proposed new Changi terminal includes a giant fountain and waterfall. I've seen the outside started, as I drive past.

In Cardiff, build at least two storeys underground to make more space; and a safe refuge area - with an escape tunnel.

Airport Hotel Or Hotels!
The Draft Masterplan says the Cardiff development organizers are considering building a hotel, implying just one hotel.

However, Wales on line talks about a four-star hotel plus a budget hotel, which sounds a better option, pleasing more passengers.

My view is, don't just have one hotel, but two or three, at different prices. Better still, six types of accommodation, 1 to 5 star. Also have short term bunks, like the Japanese hotels, with alarms for people who want to sleep, rest, or hide away and shut eyes with their belongings secure, between flights.

Activities
Have a masterplan of connections with other airports so that people can plan a two centre holiday, staying at both airports in the airport hotels.

Run a Welsh language course at the airport, or even a three hour or one day course for business people, those relocating, or a weekend away.

Have an underground garden of things which can grow in the dark, such as mushrooms and potatoes, and serve them in the restaurants or export them freshly picked on flights to other countries, or as Welsh airline meals. Plus leeks.

How about a mascot, the flying sheep.

Welsh Music
I would hope to hear some recordings of Welsh music.
A Welsh male voice choir.
A Welsh harp.

This lady performed at Writers' Holiday in Fishguard, Wales, where I have seen her several years running.

I would like to hear a specially commissioned Welsh song - in English and Welsh so everybody can sing along. Something along the lines of Men of Harlech, Que Viva Espana or Take me back to Sorrento.

Bilingual Signs
I'm delighted to hear that all the signs are bilingual. The same applies to the motorway signs and the railway station signs. Before you reach your destination, as soon as the train or car crosses the border, you start to see the Welsh words. You think: I'm in another country, another language, I'm on holiday!

Welsh Food
See my posts on destinations in Wales, Welsh food and drink, learning the Welsh language. Please share links to your favourite posts.
Wales has Welsh cakes.

Welsh cake. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Welsh cake with butter. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Welsh Drink
Wales has wine and whisky.



















Penderyn whisky Distillery, Wales. Photo supplied by the Distillery. (I met the people who run it at an educational slide show at a wine and food show in Singapore.)

I've driven to Wales, I've taken the train from Paddington to Wales. Maybe it's time I took a flying visit.

What to See in Cardiff
Cardiff Castle.
Cardiff Museum - free!

Elsewhere around Wales -
If the Cardiff airport is not only a connection to Cardiff, but the gateway to Wales, you have lots to see. The Dylan Thomas boathouse and Dylan Thomas trails.

Fishguard's embroidery of the Last Invasion of Wales is fascinating. (A few feisty Welsh women in high black hats frightened off the French soldiers.)

Onward Train Connections
Heathrow and Changi airport both have underground railways into the capital city centre. Cardiff should have the same.

Instead of competing with the trains, the airlines and trains should co-operate on combined tickets. You could even do the travel equivalent of a triathlon. Fly into Cardiff. See Cardiff.

Take the train to Fishguard. See Fishguard.

Stay overnight at the old Fishguard Bay Hotel, where Liz Taylor and Richard Burton stayed, filming Moby Dick and Under Milk Wood.

Take the ferry from Fishguard to Ireland.

Bilingual sign on Cardiff Central railway station.

A million people fly into Cardiff, Wales. Now you know why.

Useful Websites
cardiff-airport.com
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/plans-new-hotels-cardiff-airport
http://www.changiairport.com/en/airport-experience/explore-changi/things-to-do-articles.html#recommend-4 (Shows the butterfly garden and giant sculpture and flower arrangements.)
visitwales.com
visitbritain.com
visitcardiff.com
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2018/04/where-to-find-welsh-whisky-and.html
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/days-out/regionwales/wales
https://www.duolingo.com/course/cy/en/Learn-Welsh-Online

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Where to Find Soft Water and How To Deal With Hard Water

Problem
London has hard water. It's a joy to visit other areas of the UK which have soft water.

Derbyshire
Swanwick in Derbyshire has a Writers' Summer School in summer. You go there to meet writers, learn to write plays and poetry and short stories and novels. The soft water is a bonus.

Wales
In Springtime, there's a Writers' Holiday at Fishguard in Wales. Again, to Londoners, the soft water is a recurring pleasure.

Madeira
Countries such as Madeira also have soft water. In Madeira, my hair was so soft that another traveller commented on it. She asked what I had done.

After I washed my old night-dress, it felt silky smooth and like a new garment.

London, England
In London, you need to wipe around taps. Be sure not to use a cleaner which damages the chrome plating, aluminium or the enamel surface. This involves a lot of reading of small print on big bottles of ferocious cleaner.

You would not want to use bleach on items which you later use for food. You need to use vinegar on glassware and jugs to clear the white limescale smears.

Limescale
https://www.wikihow.com/Remove-Limescale
Own brand lime scale removers can be bought at under £2 from supermarkets in London, England, UK.
https://groceries.morrisons.com/webshop/product/Morrisons-Limescale-Preventer-Gel

Useful Websites
Madeira
visitmadeira.pt
(The abbreviation pt is for Portugal. Madiera is a Portuguese and Portuguese speaking island.)

England
visitengland.com

Britain
visitbritain.com
Derbyshire
visitderbyshire.co.uk

Wales
visitwales.com
writersholiday.net

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Gorgeous Gardens And Wonderful Walks In Wales

Problem
If you want to walk along coastal paths, clamber up and down, for free, you have coastal paths galore to explore in all weathers.

Answers
1 Portmeirion
The big attraction in Wales is Portmeirion, Italian style buildings in a tropical setting. The site was used as a film set for the TV series The Prisoner. There's a charge to enter. In high season it's quite crowded.

Portmeirion central piazza from Wikipedia photo by Chris Jones. Jones is a popular surname in Wales.

Fishguard from the window of Fishguard Bay hotel. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

2 Fishguard
In the far north west is Fishguard, last stop on the train from Paddington, where at Fishguard-Goodwick you catch the ferry to Ireland. You can walk along the coastal paths, and downhill from Fishguard to the Lower Harbour, fresh sea air, and all for free. The bay was used as a setting for Welsh poet Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood filmed starring Welsh Richard Burton who stayed at the Fishguard Bay Hotel. The Bay was also in Moby Dick.

The main sound is the seagulls. In February the hotel is host to Writers Holiday, a weekend event which starts with a Welsh male voice choir and a harpist on the Friday night. They sing in English and Welsh.

Walks from Fishguard Bay hotel. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Path down to the Fishguard Fort. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Fishguard Fort. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

If you are looking for tea and cakes, postcards and pictures and souvenirs, flowers in pots, labelled plants and chats to local people, what then?

Portmeirion
https://www.portmeirion-village.com/visit/

3 Dyffryn Fernant Garden
(Dyffryn means valley)
 Plants for sale.
Indoor library with floor to ceiling shelves, drinks machine and honesty box.

I was intrigued by their leaflet in the rack at the Fishguard Bay hotel. It gave a guide to where to find plants and some of their history.
Bamboo, which you see in the courtyard, is a quick-growing plant and the symbol of long life in China.
Lily, also in the courtyard and front garden, is the symbol of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Meadowsweet is in the Bog Garden and Waun Fach.
Myrtle, in the Rickyard, is the symbol of new life and rebirth in Europe.
Also in the Rickyard is Holly, which the Romans used for saturnalia, celebrating the God Saturn in December, pre-dating Christmas, a jolly festival when masters and slaves swapped places for a day.

See reviews and photos in TripAdvisor.

4 Penlau Uchaf
Tea room on a hillside farm between Fishguard and Newport (East of Fishguard along the north coast) overlooking Gwaun valley. Farm shop sells lamb. Tea room serves Welsh cakes (like small round pancakes) and sponge cakes. Garden has herbs and flowers. You might hear people speaking in Welsh.
Penlau Uchaf, Gwaun Valley, Fishguard / Newport, SA65 9UA. Tel: +44 1348 881388.
http://www.visitpembrokeshire.com/explore-pembrokeshire/towns-and-villages/gwaun-valley/

From Fishguard you could take the bus down to St David's with its small cathedral. Buses are at long intervals and don't run every day.

Glossary
Welsh-English
dyffryn - valley
Fach - little, small
gärdn - garden

English - Welsh
garden - gärdn
little/ small - fach
valley - dyffryn

Dyffryn Fernant Garden
Christina@dyffrynfernanat.co.uk
www.dyffrynfernant.co.uk
Signed from A487 between Fishguard and Dinas SA65 9SP
Open from the end of March, 12-6 pm, 7 days a week.
£6 per adult in honesty box.

You can buy day tickets for Portmeirion on line, about £6-8.
WALES
https://www.portmeirion-village.com/visit/day-guests/
http://visitwales.com
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotels-g552012-Portmeirion_Gwynedd_North_Wales_Wales-Hotels.html

BRITAIN
https://www.visitbritainshop.com/world/

Trains from Paddington, London, to Fishguard/Fishguard and Goodwick, Wales, on Great Western Railway:
gwr.com
writersholiday.net

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Learn to paint at Writers Holiday

Sunrise. Painting and photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

If you want to learn to paint in watercolours, or draw, as a beginner, or to improve, or have a restful holiday, I recommend Susan Allison's course at Writer's Holiday.

This is the view from the painting room.

All materials were supplied: paper on a pad, watercolour paints in tubes, pencils for sketching, a roll of kitchen paper for lifting our drawing board and rubbing away pinting mistakes or parts we wanted to be white.

Susan has put up paintings by half a dozen of us on her Facebook page.

Look at Oliver's painting to illustrate the poem by Rudyard Kipling.
It's stunning. It tells a story. You don't know the ending. The birds are watching, The bear is hiding. The horse is resisting. Maybe there's a moral here for artists. Nobody is moving, yet it is full of life and movement. Characters, Action. Plot. Take a famous poem, or one of your own books as inspiration. I suppose you can choose either of the two extremes, dramatic action, like Oliver's or restful, soothing inaction, like some of Susan's and Lizzie's. Oops - I've written so much you can't see the other paintings. Please scroll down.

https://www.facebook.com/susanalisonart/posts/10156259308051757?comment_id=10156265195751757&reply_comment_id=10156268618276757&notif_id=1519987449224208&notif_t=mentions_comment&ref=notif

The holiday includes accommodation, meals, a glass of wine the first of the two nights (Friday), and packed lunch for the train on Sunday if you leave before lunch is over. Gerry will arrange for you to be met at the station which is only a short walk downhill (when leaving - uphill when arriving) and if you leave Sunday lunch time he can get you back to the station.

The route I took was the GWR train from Paddington, which involves a change or two, depending on the time of day.

You can have an extra night for about £50. If you stay an extra day and leave after Gerry has gone, you might be able to get a lift from one of your new friends. If not, the distance in a taxi is minimal.

If you are looking for a lower price train fare, options include: buying a two persons for the price of one card, a family card, or a card for seniors, or booking in advance. On some trains, the advance booking makes you eligible for an upgrade to first class for only five or ten pounds.

writersholiday.net
Free watercolour painting tutorial:

https://unlimited.craftsy.com/play?p=5234&e=11805

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. please share links to your favourite posts. Also see another post about my paintings in my blog on art:
http://cartoonsbyangela.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/art-by-angella-from-writers-holiday-at.html