Wales. Railways.

We've been away to Wales, for the specific purpose of riding on heritage railways, which is Mr L's idea of a good time. He spends a lot of holidays walking round gardens with me, so it seemed only fair for him to get his fix of trains. We stayed in an immaculate bungalow in Tywyn, pronounced approximately tow-inn, which is very near the Talyllyn Railway. If you know, you know. So that was very good. There are a lot of sheep in Wales, as in Scotland, so the bungalow had lots of cute little sheepie touches, as above. 

Anyway, these photos are all in the wrong order, probably, but you get the general idea. 

This is a railway museum. 

This is Mr L on a train. 

This is the Mawddach Estuary. This part of Wales is very scenic. 

Another train. 

View of Bala Lake from a train. 

This was the main reason for the visit at this specific time - it was the 75th anniversary yesterday of the restoration of the Talyllyn railway. Lots of bearded chaps took part in a ceremony to celebrate this. Many photos were taken. 

Yesterday also happened to be Mr L's 78th birthday. This is his haul of presents in the immaculate bungalow. A lot of it consisted of railway books. (Yes, we're supposed to be decluttering, but seemingly railway books are immune from this process. Mind you, other books will be too.)

And then today we drove home. It's quite a long way. But isn't Wales lovely? 

The old chap is also rather nice. 

This week's actual decluttering didn't happen on Monday, because we were away, but there's some stuff on the spare room bed waiting to go, and also Mr L had sent away some old cameras to a company that buys such things. They only gave him £30 for them, but on the other hand they're no longer in our house. 

The trouble with the immaculate bungalow is that I came home and immediately wanted to redecorate the whole house and buy new furniture. But the feeling has now worn off.