Plas Newyd... the gardens

Just some pics from a few weeks ago, during a family trip out to Plas Newydd, Anglesey.

We've been here a few times, and the gardens are just a really pleasant place to stroll around on a warm afternoon.

There's a lovely walk through the woods, with lots of ferns and boggy areas.

The wilder areas contrast nicely with the more formal gardens near the house.

A lovely splash of colour in the beds.

 

Blossom in the Spring

The recent return of the nice weather has seen us out and about a bit more. Well, we need to keep up the exercise, and it's more pleasant to have a stroll in the Spring Sunshine than it is when battened-down against the wind and the rain.

A benefit to Spring walks are the rather prettier surroundings. The blossom was particularly impressive this year, and it seemed like the months of dead trees came to an end with them all springing into life in a matter of a few days.

It would have been a shame not to snap a few pics.

 

Criccieth Beach in early May

Back in early May, I (Ben) had to go get some reference pics around the beach at Criccieth, for an upcoming model project.

This involved getting some detail shots on the shingle itself...

...including the driftwood...

...washed up rubbish...

...sea defences...

...and the promenade.

The project is a build for one of the railway mags, so I also had to get some detail shots of the railway. Not massively successfully however, as circumstances meant I was down there at sunset, and was losing the light a bit.

That said, it was quite a nice sunset.

Class 158; I really, really need to work on photographing these this year, before they get replaced by the horrible new Class 197's.

 

Sent to Coventry

Rarely have we visited anywhere which looks more like it sprang from the pages of a classic Ladybird childrens book. It's almost like a caricature of the 1960's.

Of course there's a reason why everything is a bit 60's concrete brutalism, but we wont get into the politics.

We'd got a morning for a stroll around the city following the Stoneleigh garden railway show. The weather was mice, and the city quiet on a Sunday morning,

If anything, the place was a little too quiet; nobody seemed to be in a hurry to get up and open the shops.

Again, Ladybird... looks like this ought to have a caption like "let's go to the shops with Mummy and Bill the Dog".

A bit more 70's, with the orange and grey.

Love this building; it looks almost like a film-set fake backdrop.

There's lots of nice details hidden about the place in amongst all the brutalism and concrete.

It's been a while since we'd been to Coventry, and it was nice to just go and have a stroll, followed by a sit and a drink in a cafe. Would be nice to pop back and do it again, maybe after the show next year.

 

The Vale of Rheidol Railway; April 2026

As mentioned in the last post, we also paid a visit to the Vale of Rheidol Railway whilst we were in Aberystwyth. With us being regulars now with writing for Garden Rail. we're constantly on the hunt for subject matter for articles, and where better than a fantastic, relatively-new museum?

The locomotive on the train, no.7, was looking pretty glorious in the Spring sunshine.

And inside the railway museum, with a very interesting selection of subject matter, including the rather lovely old "Fire Queen". This used to be exhibited up at Penrhyn Castle, it's nice to see it here for a while (before it moves to a new home at Llanberis).

We've a kit of this wee thing, so more of this on the model blog later in the year...

Most of the straightforward reference pics are over on the model-blog, so here's some of the more arty close-ups...

Back outside; we're planning to do a proper ride on this railway at some point later this year, so hopefully more pics to follow.

 

A trip to Aberystwyth

During Easter, we paid a little visit to Aberystwyth, researching a couple of projects we're doing for the mags. The main part of the trip was to photograph on the promenade... luckily, we had a hell of a day for it.

We needed specifically to get some pics of the shelters on the promenade...

...graffiti and all.

Again, a lovely day for a trip to the seaside.

Because this is one of our trips, part two of the visit required stopping off at Aberystwyth Station... more on which next time.