Still in Wales, now it's Friday

I woke up this morning to one of those wonderful smells: pancakes. Uncle Joseph was whipping up a batch for the whole household at Plas Colwyn. Since no one is Wales has heard of maple syrup, we adorned our pancakes with bilberry syrup (good), Nutella (always yum), and the surprise winner, lemon curd, which made the whole pancake taste like some kind of warm doughy slice of lemon meringue pie. Lemon curd is meant for scones, apparently, but our North American twist was very satisfying.

Another trip to the barn, to see how things were looking 24 hours pre-wedding. New guests had arrived (from Canada, New Zealand and the UK), and many were busy sweeping, lugging buckets, and hiding anything unsightly into the storage barn. Looking better! L-man, in little boy heaven, had another chance to help Colin steer the big backhoe - if I could attach a photo here you would see a HUGE grin behind the wheel of the "GCB". Paul, always keen on exploring, led us on a quick rainy hike around the lake, or "Llyn", as the Welsh call it.

All the brothers are here! Neil and Brad arrived on the train, and some of us headed off to Llamberis, where a steam train took us up the summit of Mount Snowdon. Breathtaking views, until we got near the top and entered a cloud covered, wickedly windy summit. (thank you, hot chocolate). By the time we were home, the groom to be was there for his last family meal as a single man, and we dug into many, many tacos, accompanied by many, many stories. Neil played his bangelele (the result of a mating between a banjo and ukelele), which we'll hear tomorrow as Sal and Darren head up the aisle.

PS. It is very hard to concentrate on blog writing while your family is listening to South Park. This is what happens when no one has cable TV at home.