Notes made at the time seem aged already.
It will be fun to copy them out here as they appeared in the notebook, but some editing and tidying, and rambling will inevitably occur.

First arrival B* as we hoped and expected, because she's the lady that organised the whole thing! Good run in the MG avoiding the motorways and they didn't take any longer than the rest of us who all got into some delays on the lovely M6.
We headed off before the worst of it, and headed west via the M54 and then took the A5 across Wales - but it took absolutely AGES!! We left Llangollen just after 3 and it took us nearly 3 hours to travel the last 90 miles - mainly due to a big detour round the A5 being closed a few miles outside Betws-y-Coed. I then managed to get us lost so that we went a very long way round via Porthmadog and didn't get to the house until 6.
It would have been good to have dinner fairly soon as the kids were starving, but CB was only just leaving for the shop when we pulled into the drive and then spent another 2 hours buying crap in Caernafon. Ended up having dinner well after eight - but the kids were so excited they didn't really seemed to mind too much.
The house is impressive. Our ground-floor bedroom is the biggest in the house, but the kids seem a bit squeezed in with 3 sets of bunks. BA*s arrived within half an hour of us and explained that T was going to sleep on an inflatable mattress in their room rather than in with our lot.
Worked out for the best in the long run, seeing as he was up first at around 5am most days and got very annoying quite quickly!!
C*s there too when we arrived having an easy afternoon drive from Wakey. Great to see them again and to see baby Molly doing so well after her horrible experience with pneumonia just a few weeks ago. She has apparently lost a lot of weight, but looks better for it. her first birthday last week to, so we had a joint birthday party for her and TB on Monday.
The house is excellent. Four bedrooms upstairs and a lounge and bathroom, two bedrooms downstairs (for us) and a huge kitchen diner with annex leading to bathroom, utility room, store cupboard and big shed type thing. Big enclosed garden (all grass) with two tents for B**s and R**s, next to a field of sheep on the top of the cliffs overlooking Caernarfon Bay. Views of South Stack and Anglesea to the north and the village of Trefor with its distinctive pier away to the south in a big sweeping curve. There is a public footpath right next to the house on the 'landward' side, leading down a steeply wooded valley where the stream emerges onto the rocky beach only two or three minutes walk from our back door. Behind the house views of Gwyn Goch (about 600m) and the other peaks of the Lleyn peninsula.
Early house gripes?
Crappy showers in both bathrooms, horrible crinkly plastic "protective covers" on the pillows, no larder standby items (sugar, tea bags, sauce etc) We couldn't even get a brew until CB came back with the shopping! A valiant effort by here even if she did seem to by mostly rubbish. I cooked, as she looked exhausted when she got back. Pasta, with chopped up bacon and sausages. Little else of any use - the chopped tomatoes were El Cheapo and mostly water and I had to bodge a few bits together. Dessert of Swiss Roll, melon and Kit-Kat.
A sign of things to come...
What else.? A snoring vicar in the room right above ours.
Heating system full on so everywhere extremely hot and stuffy.
Windy outside - noise of the stream and the trees.
I can sleep thru anything, but Trx struggled to settle.

Everyone up too early on Sunday morning and we joined in with a chaotic breakfast around about 7am. Only one other couple with a child Stan's age here, TB, and we quickly realised how different our parenting styles are. He was given the same breakfast and the same tea every day and hardly ate any of it. At a different time to everyone else as well which seemed particularly weird. We weren't very happy with the general plan that the kids should be fed seperately from the rest of us, but it did work very well after all. Gave us 'grown-ups' (???)the chance to all be together around the table about 8.30 which led to some fun games, much alcohol and loads of laughs.
We elected not to drive anyway Sunday (or EVER again!!!) and so just walked down to the beach inthe morning. Absoutely stunning views up and down, but high tide and mostly huge pebbles and boulders. Stan's first time in this environment and he was awestruck by the sea, which was really fun to watch. I think LC was bit scared byt he whole thing at first, and couldn't really cope with the "libby lobby" stones.
Trying to remember who joined us? BAs and the vicars I think.
A few gannets drifting by against the wind and further out, between the bouys, reasonable numbers of guillemots and kittiwakes. TB and DR want to put together a bird list. First 25 in the bag already. I'll be happy to get 70 and hopefully this will at some point include the Glaslyn ospreys.
Sitting in the garden with a beer while people make lunch, listening to Nick Cave in the headphones. The Lyre of Orpheus Watching the swallows and the sea. Awesome bassline in the title track. Epic tale from the underworld of Homer. Guitar led rather than pianos, which is not something I prefer in Cave's reptoire. This is one of his darkest albums.
Blackbird. Meadow pipit.

Senseless without you
Breathless without you
Defenceless without you

My pen wants to write. I feel like Morrissey, and now my heart is full.

Everything is falling down
And everything is wrong
History is repeating itself
To the soundtrack of birdsong
Everything collapses
Relentless till its gone
And history repeats itself
To the rhythm of birdsong

Drawing me in and dragging me down.

There's no such thing as Easy Money
Pour it down the drain
Pouring down in the rain
Pour it down my neck
You how sometimes some things just aren't funny?
There's a whole life here inside me
That I may never live
So much love I cannot see
And will not ever give
You know sometimes when things suddenly stop being funny?
There's no such thing as Easy Money

Then things wake up, people eat (again). There was LOT of that this week.
Never have I eaten or drunk so much in a week.
First qulaity holiday moment, and one that I will cherish - kite-flying with my son. Took Stan and his Uncle Dave's Utterly Butterly kite out into the meadow on top of the cliffs and fly it long and high. Most inspiring.
Then to explore. A little, and locally. Common spotted orchid on the lane leading to the house - just one plant. Four flower spikes. We went out alone, and wandered along the lane to the south of the house, enjoying the sheep, the cattle and all the flowers.
Not enjoying walking back up the main A road - with no footpaths! Both Stan and LC and at times even Ali too small to see over the dry-stone walls they were walking right up against to stay safe so they couldn't really appreciate Bwlch Mawr and the other peaks in the emerging sunshine.
Still windy.
Quite a storm passed over in the night and the campers rose unsettled, but the wind did serve to clear away the rainclouds that hovvered and bring on brighter skies. the weathe rpicked up from this point on and just went on getting clearer and warmer. I think it peaked around 22°C on Friday, which is beyond the point at which I get grumpy and sullen. I HATE hot sunny weather with a passion - at least though we had a good breeze off the sea most of the time to keep things a little more sane.
______

Guthrie in Oxford tomorrow. Can you believe it? Reality is never far away!
Done a lot of catching up this Monday evening and I've spent most of it on the phone. panning the next 24 hours.
Rendezvous is the Phoenix Picturehouse in Jericho. Mike and I leave here roughly 5.30 (he insists on driving - so hurrah! for that) and planning to meet the others around 7. Wondering if the Victoria Arms is tstill any good, and hoping for at least one beer in the Eagle and Child.
27 weeks today. Suddenly even the end of August is close.
Tired tired tired. Its great being home, and it doesn't take long to get back in to the swing of things. We've shopped too - and eaten some vegetables!!