Worldless Wednesday: Such a good holiday

Here I am digging a moat for this great castle!

Happy Holidays

Just back from two weeks away on Anglesey with hubby and Lucca the dog. What a fabulous time we've had!

Pre-dog, the OH and I have been to some amazing places around the world, but I can honestly say that this holiday has been one of the best for us.

Lucca relaxes in the garden after some swimming

Hubby is pretty dedicated to his music, so each day needs to accommodate his minimum of four hours practice a day. This gives me (and the dog!) chance to relax - for me, it's been beading and reading, for Lucca there's been sniffing round the gardens and dozing in the sun. Weather was fantastic and for the couple of cooler and damper days, we just transferred to indoors.

We had booked two very different cottages, one in a fishing village and the other a converted traditional Welsh 'long' house. Both had everything we needed and swooping half way through gave us a bit of variety.

The rest of the time we spent touring the island, walking Lucca on some spectacular beaches, lovely countryside and woodlands and consuming (too much!) food at various cafes and pubs!

The long house - originally home to the family and their cattle!

I spent some time before we left to put together a bag of tricks - some pieces I needed to finish or think about, together with some loose beads and the basic tools I thought I'd need.  Not only did I finish every piece I'd brought, I designed some new ones, decided on the ones that needed modifying and filled literally pages in my ideas book!

I think having the whole two weeks, together with the calmness of the island, the spectacular scenery and everyone being happy and content really combined to boost my creativity. It's been quite a challenging year with a variety of close family illnesses, so we were definitely ready for a break and a refresh.

You can really appreciate why so many people choose to retire to the island. Many of the things that occupy your mind with worry on a day-to-day basis just seem very far away and quite unimportant there.  There's definitely some good karma around!

Inspiring too. This beautiful heather on the mountains set off an idea for combining some deep amethyst and lush green malachite beads. Nature is so clever at colour combinations.


I guess if we were all on holiday all the time it would get boring, so I ought to be grateful to be back to the day job!  And at least we have some great memories and can start planning for next year...

Places to return to...

Travelling has been curtailed a bit this year by the arrival of Lucca, so I've been reflecting on a few of my favourite destinations. One of the most interesting, and seemingly least well known, is Kihi Island in Karelia, Northern Russia.

We were on a boat between Moscow and St Petersburg in 2003 when we pulled up at the island. In late September, the northern light was beautiful and it gave the small island a really magical appearance. It's what the tour guides describe as a 'green stop' - apart from these fabulous buildings. Apparently, the air is so pure around there that rare mosses and lichens grow on the trees. There was certainly ever shade of green you could imagine on view.



Basically, it's an open air museum of wooden architecture. The church is the most spectacular with its majestic wooden onion domes dancing against the white northern sky. There is also the farmhouse where inside you can view what life was like for those living there - anything but romantic given the harsh winters and stark conditions.



You can read more at http://www.offbeattravel.com/kizhi-island.html if you're interested.



It felt like a privilege to go somewhere so off the beaten track but so stunning and different.


Where have you been that you would like to return to?