FREEZING IN LONDON AND WALES

 December 2-6, 2022 London, United Kingdom

I arrived at Gatwick Airport and took a National Train Service train directly to Finsbury Park in London where I was due to visit friends. My friend, Ingrid, had a professional engagement, that evening, and wasn’t free to pick me up for a couple of hours. She had suggested that I wait in a large bar/restaurant near the train station. My phone wasn’t working in England, so we needed to plan where to meet ahead of time. It was raining when I came out of the station and I was glad that the bar was nearby. Unfortunately, it was Friday night at happy hour and the bar was packed with millennials celebrating the end of the week. I was barely able to get my suitcase inside the door. There was nowhere to sit and I was ignored when I tried to order a drink at the bar. I think I finally asked, out loud, “Is there something wrong with me?” before I was able to get a pint of Guinness. Juggling my suitcase, backpack, mandolin, and a pint of Guinness, I managed to find a single seat at a bar near the door. I stowed my luggage under the bar and sat there for a couple of hours until Ingrid and Andrew finally came to get me.

My friend, Ingrid, is averse to social media, so my coverage of my visit with her will be sparse. I wasn’t planning to do any sightseeing in London, anyway, being rather tired of traveling and sick of museums. London was very cold and dark and not inviting. I was happy to hang around the house, huddling under blankets and drinking tea to keep warm. Due to the war in the Ukraine, the cost of energy had gone sky high in Europe. Heating a drafty, Victorian house was impossibly costly. We curtained off the downstairs and nested down there, working on our various projects.

The Foreshore

The Thames

Saturday afternoon, we went to the Thames foreshore to see a performance art piece. It was frigid. At 16:00, it was nearly dark. The tide was low and the piece was performed on what remained of a former barge bed. It made a very atmospheric setting with river traffic passing by and kicking up wakes that splashed against the stone pilings. We ate Turkish food on the way home to warm ourselves.

Sunday, we stayed in until mid-afternoon when we went out to do some shopping. Traffic was hellish. London was like a maze, with no through roads. Once again, it was dark by the time we got home. I was feeling even more than usually grateful to be able to live in Mexico where it was warm and energy costs were extremely low. I could power my home for a month on what it cost my London friends for a single day. Likewise, I was grateful for the slower pace and open spaces. The Thames was romantic, but nowhere near as beautiful as my views of Banderas Bay.

Magpie in the Crab Apple Tree

I spent Monday morning watching the wildlife around the bird feeder in Ingrid’s back yard. Little birds enjoyed the seed until a magpie scared them away. The magpie and a squirrel had a protracted argument. Pigeons pecked the seed spilled on the ground. In the afternoon, Ingrid and I walked across Hampstead Heath to Parliament Hill, the highest point of London. It was only 16:00 when we got there, but it was already getting dark and some of the gates were locked. We had to hustle to get home before it got too dark.

Men's Bathing Pond in Hampstead Heath

Hampstead Heath in Autumn Colors

View of London from Parliament Hill

Christmas Decorations in Finchley Road

Buying shoes in Mexico has turned out to be impossible for me. High quality shoes with arch supports are almost non-existent and there are never any in my size. I learned there was a Naot (my preferred brand) shoe store in London, so I set off, alone, to take a bus across London to the store on Tuesday. All the shops were decorated for Christmas and it was very festive. I couldn’t get exactly what I wanted, but I did manage to buy a new pair of black sandals. My old ones had started to disintegrate during my travels on the ship. Days are short in London and it was dinnertime by the time I got back. We walked a few blocks to a nearby pizza restaurant for dinner.

December 7-13, 2022 Dolgellau, Wales

It took us until nearly 13:00 to organize our departure for Wales. The car was small and we had a lot of luggage, provisions, and household items to take to Wales. Andrew packed while I stayed out of the way.

We drove north from London and across the Midlands, through Birmingham and north into Wales. Unfortunately, darkness hid the mountains as we made our way through Snowdonia National Park to Dolgellau where my friends had bought a former schoolhouse as a second/retirement home.

We stopped for a few minutes in the town to check on the rental cottage that Ingrid had recently bought and not yet rented. She wanted to make sure the heat was on enough to keep the pipes from freezing. The town was incredibly quaint with winding streets twisting between 18^th century stone buildings. Parking was a nightmare as the place had not been designed for cars.

The heat had been turned on remotely in the schoolhouse, so it wasn’t impossibly cold in the house, although it was still chilly. The place was beautiful with gothic arched windows and a nice, modern kitchen. It had been substantially renovated, but the layout was impossible, with much space devoted to corridors and utility rooms and only a tiny living room. We made pasta from sauce that Ingrid had made in advance, had a nice warm meal, and lingered over port and cheese before retiring to our fluffy duvets in the icy bedrooms. Only the tiny sitting room in the center of the house ever got truly warm. The kitchen was bearable, but the ancient windows leaked heat as fast as the radiators could produce it. My hands and feet never got warm unless I was under the covers.

The Staddle Stone

Ingrid and Andrew are not early risers and the dawn came late, anyway. Even I slept until 8:00 or so before reluctantly making my way to the kitchen to put the kettle on. I was very thankful for the insulated mug I had bought on the ship that kept my tea warm for hours. I drink warm liquids very slowly. We took our time over breakfast and didn’t leave the house until after noon. Ingrid and I went into town to shop for food. Then we spent a couple of hours clearing weeds from a flower bed and installing the staddle stone that we had brought from London. A staddle stone is a vertical stone with a circular stone balanced atop it that looks like a toadstool. Hundreds of years ago, they were used as foundations for storage buildings to discourage rodents from getting into the grain.

We all went for a hike in the afternoon. We left about 14:30 and returned after dark. We started out across the neighbor’s pasture, climbing over stone walls on various types of stiles. My favorite was the wall with stone steps protruding from the side. The Welsh mountains are not particularly high, but manage to be spectacular, nonetheless. The bracken had all turned a deep, rusty, orange and the estuary wound between the mountains to the sea. A few minutes walking from my friends’ home found us in a very wild place.

Hiking Through the Neighbor's Pasture

The Mawddach Estuary

Looking Towards the Sea

Friday was a repeat of Thursday. Ingrid and I did errands in town, stopping at the butcher’s to buy faggots, a sort of cross between a meatball and meatloaf and utterly delicious. The town was decorated for Christmas and looked downright Dickensian.

Downtown Dolgellau

After shopping (no need to get the groceries into the refrigerator when it was freezing, outside,) Ingrid and I did the Torrent Walk. The path led alongside a stream as it descended a mile and a half or so down a ravine. A bridge at the bottom took you to the other side where the path led back up to the road along the opposite side of the stream.  Frost had rimed the leaves and whitened the pastures. The sheep were wooly and looked much cleaner than Californian sheep, there being no stickers in the pasture to sully their wool.

Clean Sheep

Frosty Leaves

Ingrid wanted to show me the cottage where they had stayed for years before buying their own place. It was located high on a hillside, a short walk from the nearest road. It was a steep and treacherous climb and, with all the frost about, I was a bit concerned we’d encounter ice. We made it, however, and stomped through the frost covered grass to the stone cottage. The view was incredible. I could see how they had fallen in love with the place.

View from Ingrid's Former Cottage

Highland Cattle Surrounding Our Car

The farm surrounding the house belonged to the National Trust and they had decided to re-wild it. Part of that process involved replacing the sheep with highland cattle. The cattle must have been accustomed to someone bringing them feed because, when we returned to the car, they had us surrounded and were not easily discouraged. One heifer refused to move from in front of the car. I got out and tried to shoo her away, but she wasn’t having it. She took a few steps backward, but I was reluctant to scare such a large, horned animal. Eventually, we managed to edge around her and escape.

We were chilled after our adventure, so we repaired to the local pub, the George III, for a bowl of hot chips and glasses of beer.

The George III

Front Garden Under Snow

Saturday, we awoke to a blanket of snow covering everything. Ingrid went into town to go to the hardware store and was unable to get back up the drive. It was very cold. We, however, were intent on getting some gardening done. I hacked blackberry vines off the stone wall until it started to rain. It was very cold and the bases of the vines were buried in the snow. My jacket was not waterproof, so I hunkered in the house until the rain stopped and then resumed my battle with the blackberries until it got too dark to see (about 16:30.) Working in the garden kept my core warm, but my hands were wet and half frozen. I do not recommend gardening in the snow.

A friend came for dinner and we had a jolly evening watching France defeat England in the World Cup. He left fairly early, fearing the icy roads, and then we repaired to the sitting room to watch television, drink Bailey’s, and eat chocolates.

We spent most of Sunday rooting blackberry vines out of the garden in the snow. In the afternoon, we went for a walk through snowy fields, scattering sheep as we went. We watched the light fail on the local mountain from the vantage point of the local cemetery and met our next door neighbors’ elderly guest, there. He had gone hiking in the snow in dress shoes, so we lent him a walking stick to help him get back down the icy path. Ingrid cooked chicken thighs and mashed potatoes for Sunday dinner and we finished the evening by watching Harry and Meghan with the rest of the UK.

Andrew Hiking Through Snowy Bracken

A Snowy Wall

Through the Wood

The Local Cemetery

Light Fading on the Local Peak

It dipped well below freezing on Monday morning, leaving us without running water. The pipes in the house hadn't frozen, but the intake from the stream had.  Poor Ingrid stood in the freezing stream, passing buckets of water up to us to fill a trash can with water for washing and flushing. Andrew went to the neighbor’s to fill bottles with drinking water. The temperature never rose above freezing, that day.

We spent most of the day hacking at blackberry brambles and finally installing the staddle stone on a bed of chipped slate to keep it from toppling over in the wet earth. We planted what bulbs we could and then Ingrid and I went into Dolgellau to pay the electric bill before making a quick dash to Fairbourne so I could see the Welsh coast. The sun was setting and the wind was icy. The sand on the beach was frozen. We didn’t stay long. We could see the town of Barmouth on the other side of the Mawddach estuary.

The Mawddach Estuary

Barmouth

The Frozen Beach at Sunset

Our Wash Water

We stopped at the Fairbourne village store to buy a supply of bottled water (they were out in Dolgellau) and then scurried home because we were expecting guests for drinks. The party had been organized to welcome one of the neighbors home from a visit to Germany, but she got stuck at the Frankfurt airport due to a security issue relating to the attempted terrorist takeover of the government. We had the next door neighbors and their houseguest and two other neighbors. Everybody brought snacks to share and we had such a feast that we convinced the next door neighbors not to brave the icy roads to go out to dinner in Dolgellau. Ingrid whipped up a pot of tasty soup and everyone stayed for dinner. After dinner, there was poetry reading and singing. The neighbors were surprised that I, an American, knew their folksongs. Eventually, it came out that I was a singer and I performed a couple of tunes a capella, not having a guitar with me. It was a very congenial evening and we even got the kitchen warm.

The trouble with having eight for dinner when you have no running water is the washing up. The water can was frozen over and we had to boil the ice water to wash dishes. By the time that process was complete, we were happy to retire to the sitting room for Bailey’s and chocolate before hitting the hay.

Tuesday morning was just as cold and the water was still frozen. I got up early, packed, and stripped the bed, not wanting to hold up our departure. We made toast and eggs, not eager to try to wash congealed porridge off of bowls with ice water. The ice on the water can was three quarters of an inch thick when I went to get water for washing. I did the dishes while the others prepared to depart. We had intended to temporarily plant the bulbs we hadn’t been able to get into the ground in compost, but the bag of compost was frozen solid. We had to take them back to London with us.

We couldn’t give the house a proper cleaning without water, but it still took us until 12:30 to hit the road. The roads were mostly clear, but the mountains were white with snow as we drove up the pass. At one point, the road was thick with pheasants and scavengers eating pheasant roadkill. It was snowy all the way to the Welsh border. We passed through one area where we could still see green under the frost and then entered another zone of snow. Traffic was heavy. It took us five and a half hours to get back to London.

Snowy Wales

Wintry Welsh Scene

The Pass Was Covered in Snow

Frosty Midlands

A friend of Ingrid’s was waiting for us when we returned and we all went out to Thai food for dinner. There was more singing (this time with a guitar) after dinner and then we took advantage of the running water to bathe before bed.

Snow in London

Wednesday morning, we had porridge for breakfast and then I said goodbye and Ingrid drove me to the tube station. I took the tube to Heathrow Airport. It took about an hour. The airport wasn’t too crazy and I was able to check in without incident. The trouble with Heathrow is that they don’t announce the gates until the last minute. I had about 45 minutes to kill before they announced the gate. I needed to use the restroom and had to walk about a mile to find it as there is only one (very large) facility in the cattle pen/shopping mall where people are forced to wait until their gates are posted. It can take up to twenty minutes to walk to the far gates and they only announce the gate 30 minutes before boarding. It is a stressful system.

Fortunately, my gate was only ten minutes away and the boarding process went smoothly. I was soon settled on my flight to Charlotte, NC. Time passed quickly. They fed us a hot lunch and I watched a few movies, missing the last five minutes of The Beast when they abruptly shut off the video feed for landing.

The Charlotte airport did not qualify for my list of favorite airports. Despite being all in one building, I had to go through security a second time after passing through immigration and customs. I had a four hour layover, so had time for the red tape and a $21 fast food dinner. The flight to Dallas boarded so quickly, I missed my boarding group. Just after midnight, we arrived at DFW.

DFW, despite being immense, is a very well organized airport. I was able to take a train clear to the other side of the airport without ever having to go through security a second time. When I finally got to my gate, it was cordoned off for carpet cleaning, so I proceeded to the next gate and settled in for the night.  I didn't get much sleep.  The carpet cleaners kept setting off a door alarm and, as soon as they finished, the public address announcements started again.  I grew very tired of being welcomed to DFW by the mayors of Dallas and Fort Worth.  It was a relief to finally board my flight to Puerto Vallarta and get home to balmy temperatures.

My First Dawn at Home