The Wye Walley...er, Valley

We went out for a little drive yesterday. Well, when I say a little drive, it started as a quick trip to deliver a bicycle to my great granddaughter and then to get some chicken food and do some shopping for food for us.

An awful lot of Welsh mountains in that water

The E"R trees

We called briefly at Rory and Kerry's house - it is so good to see them so happy and the children looking so healthy and contented. Anwyn was thrilled with her bike and when we told her that her Aunty had acquired it for her she said a delighted thank you and was eager to try it out. We then drove out to Chepstow to buy the chicken food and as we came out of the car park Mr M said "right or left?" Now I confess right here that I am a compulsive left turner. If I come to a junction and I don't know which way to go I will always try to turn left. So that's what I said. We arrived at the roundabout and Mr M had decided that a... "little run up the Wye Valley" was needed after all this snow.

The Skirrid from Pandy.

I managed a couple of pictures of the River Wye in its winter colours - chocolate brown and very bad tempered.
When we got to Monmouth we drove over the Wye Bridge and turned right - Mr M prefers right turns. and headed up the A48.
"Shall we have lunch at Jo's?" I asked, feeling my tummy rumble. "That was my intention" came the reply. I like it when we think the same way. I managed to get a quick snap of the E"R trees on the end of the hill. They were planted in coronation year and will probably be felled when our good queen dies.... poignant.
After a lovely lunch of Cod and chips for me and liver and bacon for him we headed towards Hereford. We stayed on main roads because there was such a lot of snow and side roads and lanes are not important for clearing are they?
at hereford we did a sharp left and headed down the Abergavenny road. I managed a quick snap of the Skirrid as we slowed down to drive through Pandy. Oh that's something to remember in all this snapping. My photography is done at an average speed of 40mph. Mr M will slow down sometimes but he rarely stops. I am quite adept at taking pictures of hedges and fences and continually, as in the first picture on here, of getting the wing mirror as the only thing in focus. Just occasionally I manage to get something good, not often but enough for me to keep on trying.
Where was I? oh yes. We decided that we would do our shopping in the new Morrison's that has opened in Cwmbran. This was a bit of an error on our part. We had forgotten it was Saturday and Cwmbran is horrendously busy on a Saturday because the town centre has free parking so everyone for miles around goes there. It is a new Morrisons so everyone was going there for a look and this is Cwmbran.
It took 20 minutes to get into the carpark and find a space. There were people in the store who don't know how to shop - no etiquette, they left their darned trolleys just anywhere, without thought of people coming along the aisles. the stood against the shelves and chatted to people so that they blocked it for everyone else. I was continually saying "Excuse me, could I just get....." or "Sorry to interrupt but could you just pass...." By the time we got back to the car I was grumpy and fed-up! Then it took about 20 minutes to get out of the place!
The chickens love their new food - they weren't keen on the old stuff and only ate it because there was nothing else and they were on the dregs from the bottom of the food bin. We also got a huge sack of corn so they are ok for their evening treat for a long time to come.
Oh and I will explain the Wye Walley reference very soon.