It was a friend's 65th birthday yesterday so 5 of us decided to have a walk in the grounds of the Portmeirion Hotel. We met up in the Hotel car park and paid the £1.00 admission fee and went through the gates to start our walk. Going through the village we passed the place where Jools Holland stays every time he visits here, it seems rather grand compared to the village rooms I've stayed in when I've been here. The tide was flowing out very quickly as we walked along the estuary to the lighthouse and along the way there were numerous tree stumps that had money knocked into them and this seemed to happen everywhere in the gardens. What surprised us too was the fact that many shrubs were in bloom already. Camelias, Hebes, etc they were already flowering so the climate there must be quite good. By the lighthouse we could see the sand blowing across the estuary like it does on the West Shore. The wind was very strong but once we were back in the woods we were completely sheltered and carried on walking to see the Dog Cemetery and the Japanese Bridge and before long it was back to the village and our cars. We stopped at our friends house for a lovely meal on the way back home and planned our walk for next month.
