Monday 4 July 2016

Into each life some rain must fall


Ok, but not during my measly two weeks’ holiday, right? At least, not too much of it. But then again: Wales, what did I expect? It wouldn’t be as green and lush without rain, and lots of it, would it?

It all started very promising as we arrived in glorious sunshine. Here I am posing with a view of the Teifi Estuary behind me (left) and in front of our little cottage (right).


But appearances can be deceptive, and we woke up on Sunday morning all ready to enjoy our very first day, only to be greeted by grey skies, shortly followed by showers, which later developed into, you guessed it: rain!

We had only planned a visit to nearby Cardigan, where not only there was a small car boot sale, some shops, including one charity shop, were open too. It was only raining lightly when we left, so I opted to wear a dress, which wasn't the best of choices.


Striking gold at both the car boot, where I bought the first of many brooches, and the chazza, where I found this lovely handbag, did compensate for the dismal weather a bit, though!


Rain again on Monday, but that soon improved, and we managed to go the beach, albeit wearing quite a few layers.

After a mainly dry Tuesday, rain made another appearance on Wednesday. 

In fact, it started pouring down so heavily that, after a car picnic in a nature reserve car park, we abandoned all our plans for the day, and drove to the nearest town, Lampeter, for a spot of shopping. 


By the time we got there, wouldn’t you know it, the sun had come out.

Thursday was a gorgeously sunny day, which we spent at the seaside, but it was followed by two days of such unstable weather that we ditched any plans we had for longer walks and did something else instead, including more charity shopping and a visit to an antique centre.


These are just some of our finds. Clockwise from top left: little pyrex jug, new-to-me pyjamas, books and more books and a small vinyl handbag.

At first, Sunday didn’t look too bad, but clouds starting gathering while we were having breakfast. Nevertheless, we had hopes of it staying dry enough for a local walk starting from nearby Poppit Sands. The weather gods must have been laughing as we were putting on our walking shoes in the pouring rain. Surely it would stop raining any minute, so off we went. 


But no: instead it started pelting down with a vengeance. As luck would have it, the walk, which was initially on a small tarmacked lane, soon veered off into an grassy path between banks of greenery. Needless to say, by the time we were back at Poppit Sands we were soaked through and through.







The rest of the day was spent drying our clothes and relaxing in our cosy little cottage.















We got our hopes up on Monday, waking up to some sunshine, which for once stayed with us all day, although it was a bit chilly for the time of year, especially on the coast path.

Not to mention, very windy indeed. Just look at my hair!


That night, the forecast said rainy and windy for the rest of the week, which was obviously a bit of a letdown and called for yet another change of plans.

On Tuesday, a mere 15 minutes or so after we landed in the colourful seaside town of Aberaeron, our umbrellas had to come out, so we hit the town’s one and only charity shop, British Red Cross, locally called Harrods, which we remembered from last year. 

Ever on the lookout for brooches, I was in luck as they had quite a nice selection, and I came away with six, making a sum total of 18 brooches, all found at charity shops and one car boot:


Let’s forgot about Wednesday, shall we? It must have started raining before six in the morning. Sleeping right under the eaves, we could hear it pelting down without any letup. Indeed, it did not stop raining until the late afternoon. 

So, instead of showing you yet more rainy photographs, let's crack on and show you some more of our finds instead.


This set of luggage, comprising of a Constellation weekender and a vanity case, were found at two separate locations. Unfortunately, this is not our car I am posing in front, but the one which was conveniently parked next to ours.



We also bought another old bottle, which is joining the ever growing collection on our windowsill. This one is from Tenby.








This threesome of super cute little glass deer must be my favourite find, bought at the Oxfam shop in Cardigan. The largest one is only 8 centimeter high. 

They probably date from the 1950s. We paid only £ 1,99 for them, but they seem to command much higher prices on-line.

Unfortunately, the weather only improved slightly during the last days of our holiday, but at least it stopped raining from time to time, so that we were able to squeeze in some more coast path walking.

All too soon it was time to once more say goodbye to our little cottage with its ever-changing views of the estuary, always inviting me to take one more photograph.


I'm leaving you now with a photograph taken from our car on our hellish return journey, involving queues on the M4 and M25 as well as torrential rain on our final stretch to the Channel Tunnel on the M20.



I'm promising a more sunny outlook in my next post, so please stay tuned!

30 comments:

  1. Welcome home! I can only apologise for our terrible weather, this Summer really has been a shocker!
    Loving all the chazza finds, that blue bag is gorgeous and the brooches are tremendous. That's a cracking Morris Minor you're posing by.
    The cottage you stayed in looks lovely, hope it made up for the disappointing weather. xxx

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    1. From what I've been hearing, summer hasn't been much better here in Belgium. However bad the weather, I still prefer a rainy holiday in Wales! The cottage, where we've been staying before, is very lovely indeed. I miss it already. xxx

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  2. Oh I'm so sorry you had rubbish weather and in the plus side I'm very excited with all your finds. The blue bag is gorgeous and the luggage. Your cottage really did look cosy.
    Hope you are settled back at home now
    Lynn xx

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    1. Never mind the weather, Lynn, we still had a super time, which went by much too fast. It's good to be home too, with all our finds reminding us of our holiday. xxx

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  3. Three quarters of June was a wet nightmare! Sorry it dominated your so-called walking holiday quite so much! I have to say you showed initiative and determination by making the best of it and doing what you enjoy; charity shopping. You did really well too! Amazing. Love the vanity case and the weekender. I had that little trio of deers at one point. At least I hope you had some rest and ate nice food? Xxx

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    1. We did have a relaxing time, in spite of the weather. We did a little less walking than usual, but the charity shops made up for it. I did try to buy a cardigan in Cardigan, but didn't find anything to my taste ;-) xxx

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  4. welcome back!
    so sorry for the weather! but you made the most of it by visiting the great vintage shops of wales and finding pretty treasures! love the black&gold handbag - if i still would go to "events" i would talk you into selling it to me (but no needs anymore - i´m not really sure if its good or bad...)
    that cottage looks sweet and has a stunning view! xxxxxx

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    1. Thanks Beate. I really have too many "unsuitable" (read: too small or too posh) handbags, but I simply cannot resist them, especially when they come cheap. As for the cottage's view, I simply cannot get enough of it. xxx

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  5. Welcome home, dear Ann! What a jolly, fun filled recap of your holiday. You're such a lovely writer and really did a splendid job of making me (us) feel like I (we) were there with you throughout these exciting days in the UK.

    I'm sorry that you got hit with so much rain on your travels. That is almost never fun or what one hopes for. We ran into that during our holiday to Vancouver Island in 2014, so you have my understanding and sympathies all the more.

    It's great that you were able to make the best of things still however and that the vintage powers that be were smiling down upon you guys. Your bevy of new brooches are absolutely gorgeous. An instant collection unto itself (if one didn't have a pin collection yet, I mean). I'm delighted for you regarding all of your new vintage pieces, as well as that you had a lovely holiday.

    Here's to the hope of a summer that is every bit as fun and a whole lot sunnier!

    Tons of hugs & my very heartfelt thanks for all of your awesome blog comments this weekend,

    ♥ Jessica

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    1. Thank you so much, Jessica. I'm glad you enjoyed reading the first of my holiday posts. Let's hope we still get a taste of real summer in the months to come! xxx

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  6. This is what I call a rainy holiday!! It reminds me once I went to France and and wanted to spend a week in a tent ... you can imagine how it was! Soaked to the skin, we decided to come back home after on the third day!!

    Very nice brooches but my favourite, among your picks is the black vinyl bag:it's gorgeous!

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    1. Luckily we were not in a tent, but in a comfortable cottage! I can imagine you'd want to go home earlier when you're staying in a tent, though. xxx

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  7. OMG! I went to university in Lampeter! (Five years, BA and - never finished - MPhil.) I even met my husband there. Now wonder it rained; we used to have a saying 'If you get up in the morning and it's raining, it's going to rain all day. If you get up in the morning and it's sunny, it's STILL going to rain all day.' 'Mae'en bwrw glaw' is one Welsh phrased that has been burned (or possibly soaked) into my brain.

    Still, those charity shop finds are really super, the cobalt blue bag in particular.

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    1. What a coincidence! I quite liked Lampeter, although we only stayed an hour or so. I was wondering what it would be like to be a student there ... xxx

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    2. I can't speak for what it's like now, but because it was so small you learned to mix with everyone - LGB with the Christians with the rugby club with the goths - and not to do anything you'd be ashamed of because everyone would know about it, so you either did stuff and were upfront about it, or didn't do it. And because there wasn't so much going on, you made your own fun - I was in clubs for roleplaying, anime, fencing and so on. In my mind, it's like a three-year festival with a degree at the end!

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  8. Apologies for our awful British weather - this year's has been a real stinker so far :-(
    At least you stayed in a lovely holiday cottage and parked by an even lovelier car - the Morris Minor! Great finds too - I remember my Mum having some glass deer exactly like those. Don't know where they are now though! xx

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    1. Apologies accepted! Belgium isn't much better, I'm afraid. I'd seen some of those glass deer at a vintage market before, commanding much higher prices than we we paid at Oxfam. They are rather cute, but very delicate and I guess they'd break easily. xxx

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  9. Too bad about the rain. I love all your vacation looks and the deer are fab

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    1. We did have some sunshine as well, but that will be for another post. Those little deer were a lucky find! xxx

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  10. Wow, you did so well on the brooch front- love them!!! You did well in the Chazzers!
    This IS the UK so it was always going to rain when you came!! Sorry about that!!!
    Glad you had a nice time!xx

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    1. It's not so bad when you know it's going to rain at some point. It could have been a little bit less, though. But it's the same in Belgium, so we are used to this kind of weather. xxx

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  11. We always joke that someday we'll get to see sunshine when we visit the UK.

    You made the most of your indoors time though-I love those handbags and the brooches are lovely.

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    1. Believe me or not, but we have had UK holidays with lots of sunshine too. Not very often, though ... xxx

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  12. You must have taken the weather home with you as Sunday when we were there, no rain! Windy though, I looked like Medusa by the end of the day! I heard the weather, in Swansea at least, was terrible on Saturday and I believe heavy on traffic because of the weekend airshow.

    The cottage looks absolutely adorable! And your finds are wonderful too xxx

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    1. Wasn't it nice of us to take the rain with us? That way, at least, you could take Meirionwen to her home country in dry weather! xxx

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  13. Goeiedag! My goodness that last pic of the rainy conditions was heart palpiating!! Whoever was driving must have had white knuckles!!

    Thank you for posting your lovely pics of Wales. I've never been - it looks very green and lush. Those are the cutest little suitcases I've ever seen! I love blue!! All of the vintage cases I found have been brown, mustard or avacodo green.

    Hope you manage to enjoy some sunny weather! Looking forward to reading more of your blogs.

    happy thrifting ;)

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    1. Wow, you are the first one to say "hello" to me in Flemish ;-) It was my husband who was driving, but believe me, we both had white knuckles! I am very pleased with those little suitcases. xxx

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  14. Wales is absolutely amazing for charity shops and vintage finds. I love visiting a place called Llangollen. It's very close to where I live, around an hour. I absolutely adore that dress you're wearing outside the cottage in your first picture! Xx

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    1. Thank you, that dress never fails to cheer me up. I haven't been to Llangollen, but a couple of years we almost rented a cottage not far from there, which unfortunately fell through a the last minute. How wonderful that it's only an hour from where you live. xxx

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  15. Thank you, that dress never fails to cheer me up. I haven't been to Llangollen, but a couple of years we almost rented a cottage not far from there, which unfortunately fell through a the last minute. How wonderful that it's only an hour from where you live. xxx

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