A day in north Wales
When my contracts end I quite like to take a few days out and have a bit of a break. This time around I had booked a couple of nights stay up in Beddgelert in north Wales. This is one of herecirm's favourite parts of the world and she wanted the chance to show me around Portmeiron, which she has visited often on family holidays from an early age.
We arrived late in the evening - but happily just in time for dinner at the hotel. After a lovely breakfast yesterday we drove through the mountains - all washed with russet and autumn gold, the sunshine glowing through the trees and sparkling off the river- to the coast.
Sari looking super-excited to be showing me around her place.
Oddly, although I have seen many things that reference it, I've never watched The Prisoner, so it didn't have that immediate recognisability that other people apparently experience visiting the village. Also I have apparently visited before on a family holiday when I was a child and I have literally no recollection of this, so this was an effective first visit.
One thing I did hope to do was to try and create some written snapshots. Now I used to write a bit of poetry in the past and although I barely dabble these days beyond working on song lyrics I wanted to try and do some immediate off the top of the head written snapshots as we went around. These were simply written in a pad as I thought of them and I'll transpose them here for your enjoyment or derision. It would be fair to say they lack polish, but that isn't the point of a snapshot.
This was the first one:
The sun draws geometry
You descend between carronades
And stand on the seafront
of this portico village.
Between the shadows of clouds
Islands of emerald and russet
And the sun draws a bright line
Across the water, to you.
Walking off around the headland, with the tide starting to recede.
The view through a porthole on the little metal lighthouse we stopped and clambered into. Mostly the rest of the walls were decorated with sundry graffiti, some of it quite amusing.
We stopped off on a bench overlooking Sari's favourite beach and a little Robin popped up and fluttered around us. I tried to snapshot him:
We named the robin Cei,
His red beard edged with grey,
The sun a catchlight in his eye
With the estuary behind
The hunter flew
Then we wound our way through the woods and found a secret path out onto the beach. This was where I put together my third and final snapshot which was, in some ways, a little more pre-meditated:
Meiron's Cove
And beyond the sea-shaped stone
Receding tide reveals rippled sand.
Rain touches us and passes on.
You and your camera create art and
My heart sings to see you happy.
Everything is love.
I showed it to Sari and had a beautiful moment of suspension between her reading it and pointing out that it was an acrostic. Then she said "that's nice" in an offhand sort of way and I had to point out that no, I really did mean it. Obviously her next assumption was that I was joking. Luckily I had this little guy on hand to back me up:
Because she can't wear rings but has a belly-button piercing, I commissioned this belly bar and hare charm. It is a really beautiful piece- only a couple of centimetres across and I am ever so pleased with how it was made. I'm also pleased to report that she said yes, so I walked onto the beach with a girlfriend and left with a fiancé. And not just any fiancé, the actual best one!
We made our way back from the beach through the woods on a kind of high, both full of love and joy and happy to be in one another's company.
This picture is an actual trellis, in north Wales. I only realised that just now when I was editing it. Genius.
Looking out at the textures on the estuary.
Two people who will, at some future point, be married.
So all in all it was a good day. I would definitely recommend being totally in love with the person who seems as though they were actually made for you and going through months of planning to prepare a special proposal in a very special place. It really makes for an enjoyable day out.
We arrived late in the evening - but happily just in time for dinner at the hotel. After a lovely breakfast yesterday we drove through the mountains - all washed with russet and autumn gold, the sunshine glowing through the trees and sparkling off the river- to the coast.
Sari looking super-excited to be showing me around her place.
Oddly, although I have seen many things that reference it, I've never watched The Prisoner, so it didn't have that immediate recognisability that other people apparently experience visiting the village. Also I have apparently visited before on a family holiday when I was a child and I have literally no recollection of this, so this was an effective first visit.
One thing I did hope to do was to try and create some written snapshots. Now I used to write a bit of poetry in the past and although I barely dabble these days beyond working on song lyrics I wanted to try and do some immediate off the top of the head written snapshots as we went around. These were simply written in a pad as I thought of them and I'll transpose them here for your enjoyment or derision. It would be fair to say they lack polish, but that isn't the point of a snapshot.
This was the first one:
The sun draws geometry
You descend between carronades
And stand on the seafront
of this portico village.
Between the shadows of clouds
Islands of emerald and russet
And the sun draws a bright line
Across the water, to you.
Walking off around the headland, with the tide starting to recede.
The view through a porthole on the little metal lighthouse we stopped and clambered into. Mostly the rest of the walls were decorated with sundry graffiti, some of it quite amusing.
We stopped off on a bench overlooking Sari's favourite beach and a little Robin popped up and fluttered around us. I tried to snapshot him:
We named the robin Cei,
His red beard edged with grey,
The sun a catchlight in his eye
With the estuary behind
The hunter flew
Then we wound our way through the woods and found a secret path out onto the beach. This was where I put together my third and final snapshot which was, in some ways, a little more pre-meditated:
Meiron's Cove
And beyond the sea-shaped stone
Receding tide reveals rippled sand.
Rain touches us and passes on.
You and your camera create art and
My heart sings to see you happy.
Everything is love.
I showed it to Sari and had a beautiful moment of suspension between her reading it and pointing out that it was an acrostic. Then she said "that's nice" in an offhand sort of way and I had to point out that no, I really did mean it. Obviously her next assumption was that I was joking. Luckily I had this little guy on hand to back me up:
Because she can't wear rings but has a belly-button piercing, I commissioned this belly bar and hare charm. It is a really beautiful piece- only a couple of centimetres across and I am ever so pleased with how it was made. I'm also pleased to report that she said yes, so I walked onto the beach with a girlfriend and left with a fiancé. And not just any fiancé, the actual best one!
We made our way back from the beach through the woods on a kind of high, both full of love and joy and happy to be in one another's company.
This picture is an actual trellis, in north Wales. I only realised that just now when I was editing it. Genius.
Looking out at the textures on the estuary.
Two people who will, at some future point, be married.
So all in all it was a good day. I would definitely recommend being totally in love with the person who seems as though they were actually made for you and going through months of planning to prepare a special proposal in a very special place. It really makes for an enjoyable day out.