Never get into a stooshie

We were staying at Portmadog, which has a very pretty harbour. You can't really go wrong with boats, water and a bit of sunshine.

Daughter 2 was with us, along with Mr Life's cousin, who - we found out relatively recently - is interested in trains.

The countryside, though lovely, was still winter-coloured: brown rather than green.

On our first day we went up the line to Beddgelert which, it must be admitted, was somewhat rainy.

Our spirits were not dampened even though I think my umbrella may have seen better days.

This is Bodnant again. The gardens are spectacular. We've been before, but in autumn, when everything was blazing with red and yellow and orange. This time, spring was springing.

I liked these frilly hellebores.

Lower down the garden is a dell, with interesting slate formations and lots of rhododendrons and azaleas.

Doesn't colour do the soul good after a long winter?

She didn't fall in.

The meaning of yesterday's words, in case anyone is interested: stocious means drunk (we weren't); perjink means neat and tidy - sometimes (but not always) too neat and tidy to the point of fussiness (you may judge from the photos how perjink we were); drookit means drenched (see bus shelter picture); shoogle means shake-and-wobble (like an old narrow-gauge train); wappit means weary, the way you feel after a long journey or after flu.

Today's words - first, as used today by (English) Son-in-Law 1 today (he's picked up a bit of the lingo) stooshie. It's quite comical hearing him say this in his rather refined English accent but as he says, it would sound silly if he affected an Edinburgh one. "No need to get into a stooshie - Mummy's just about to feed you." I'm trying to think of a translation but a single word doesn't spring to mind: it means get worked up in an unnecessary fashion.

And another couple that arose today - not that they apply to my house at all, I would like to point out. There's stour or stoor - I would spell it stour but it's pronounced stoor: dust. The adjective is stoury. And then there's oose, which is that fluffy stuff that you find under furniture you haven't moved for a while - pronounced oooosssss.