Lets continue our walk....

The Castle has been lived in since it was built by Edward I in order to keep the welsh in place. During the civil war the castle was ordered to be raised to the ground by Oliver Cromwell and alot of the castle was damaged. The Middleton family lived in the castle until a couple of years ago and still have apartments in the Batchelor Tower. This view was taken from the buildings previously unseen by the public.

I love this part of the garden, it is full of colour and life. The picture doesn't do it justice.

Down one of the many footpaths you stumble upon the gravestones of pets who once belonged to the Castle.

A little further on and you come to the thatched summer house.

The flowers were breathtaking! The perfume off them was devine.

No garden would be complete without a water feature!

Let me take you for a walk.......

Yesterday, my husband and I spent the afternoon in Chirk Castle which is local to us. We went there for lunch then enjoyed a peaceful walk around the gardens. I took so many photographs, way too many for one post so I will take you on a walk with me around the gardens over a few postings!

This flower caught my eye instantly because of its colour - it was so beautiful, reminding me of blue skies or blue oceans....

This little fella was sitting all on his own on the other side of the ditch! He had his head tilted at a very cheeky angle!

A little place to sit and chill tucked neatly away right at the edge of the gardens. We sat there for a while listening to nothing - no cars, no children, no dogs barking, no people...... It was devine!

Wrexham Council Selling off of School Land

I have not been blogging this week as I have been a little side tracked with an issue close to my heart! Wrexham Council want to sell off the Tennis Courts with an additional secion of land at Darland High School in order to build more luxury homes. In 2009 a survey identified that Rossett was short of recreational land and in the Lavister end of the village where the development will take place there is nowhere for the children to play. The Council are selling off the land in an attempt to pay off debts they have accrued through their mistakes. The rates from these luxury houses will go directly into Wrexham Councils coffers and nothing will be spent on the village of Rossett.

Rossett is a beautiful village, bordering on the country but Wrexham council are intent on building it up beyond recognition without developing the village infrastructure to deal with the extra inhabitants.

Chester Road is already a major problem! The A483 bypass was built to relieve our villages but because of the design Rossett still receives an influx of commuters trying to beat the bottle neck at the end of the by pass.

Darland Lane is already under consultation because of the volume and speed of traffic travelling along there and Gamford Lane.

We only have one play area in the village and that is 25 minutes walk away from my home and along the Chester Road which is too busy and at some points the footpaths are too narrow.

We are not blessed with the facilities that other villages in the area are. We don't have a library, our health centre is a tin sheet building with inadequate parking facilities, our GP's surgery is small and unable to cope with the level of inhabitants it has now.

The land at Darland School was donated to the school for recreational purposes. If the plans do go ahead then they have no plans to replace the tennis courts within the next 10 years. This means that at a time when the government is trying to promote sports for the sake of the nations health, recreational space is being taken away from us. Not only is the area used during school hours, it is used by local residents out of hours.

The selling off of school property has been a worrying trend which has gone on for the last 20 years. Indeed, Darland School lost its cricket pitches to a sale of land which brought about the building of 20 luxury homes. The cricket pitches have not been replaced!

I have set up a petition to fight these plans and fight them I will. I am contacting the Fields in Trust and Prince William who is spearheading a development of 2012 playing fields to celebrate his grandmother HM Queen Elizabeth II's 60 years on the throne.

I am not giving up without a fight!

RIP Stuart Cable

Yesterday, 7th June 2010, Stuart Cable, drummer of Killing for Company and ex member of the Stereophonics died aged just 40.

I had just received the bands first album, signed and limited edition. I saw them perform at the Alarms Gathering 2010 and in Liverpool 02 supporting the Alarm.

An amazing new band; energetic, powerful, rock and roll! The album is superb with Greg Jones depth of voice, a quality one rarely finds these days.

A sad, sad loss to those who are passionate about rock!

Ghost Hunt, Trumpet & Hart - Gobowen

What a busy weekend we have had. The sun was scorching down on us yesterday so we ended up somewhere around Chirk with the children playing in the Glyn Ceiriog river. They had so much fun but then again, children do with water. No accidents, just a few splashes and slips but no broken bones or cut skin.

I was so hot in the sun I waded across the river to sit on the other side which was the only shade available on the river bank. However, within a few hours it was back to being cloudy and chilly again so we returned to Llanarmon to pitch our tent.

Llinos and I joined our group "Abnormal Paranormal" in the Trumpet and Hart pub in Gobowen which has a bit of a reputation in the locality. The landlord is about to give up his lease in a couple of weeks time so he was more than happy to allow us to conduct an investigation.

The pub is located next to the train station and this is the view from one of the upper windows.

It was a large group which isn't always good but we did manage to pick up some energies although very strange. One of our group had to leave the premises because of the feelings of sickness she had and I must admit when I was in the cellar I felt sick and as though the ground was moving. The upper rooms were unbearably hot with temperatures evening out once we had made a connection.

An interesting night, not the best ghost hunt we have been on but I am still looking forward to the next one which is at a secret location!

Plans to Build on Our School

I was totally appalled at news in our local papers at plans to sell off land at our local high school in order to build luxury housing. I have set up a page on Facebook Opposing the selling off of the land and have written to our councellor to support his objections.

Wrexham council is in debt and they stand to gain £2.5 million by selling off the land. However a report last year revealed that the village of Rossett has a short fall of 5.4 hectres of recreational land.

Our doctors surgery is struggling to cope with the residents it has. There are no facilities for children on the Lavister side of the village and the sewage system cannot cope. They are already shipping sewage out of the village because the system just can't cope.

There have been a number of houses popping up in peoples back gardens. Funnily enough they are all luxury houses which attract non local people who contribute nothing to our community. We are situated right on the border of Wales and so Rossett attracts English into our community who then benefit from cheaper rates and free prescriptions but are still close enough to England to still consider themselves as living there.

The best part is that any money raised would not benefit our community, it would be spent elsewhere in the town. I for one am sick of this raping of our village and I will oppose this plan with all I can.

My sons are due to start at Darland High School and they will be affected by the selling off of the tennis court land and the access into the school.

Whatever next.

Rhuddlan Rocks

We have lots of castles in North Wales, most of them built by King Edward I who built them in an effort to subdue the Welsh. This was one of his castles, built in the 13th century. It is now ruins and is cared for by Cadw. I used to play here with my brothers as a child but alot of work has been done on the place to make it structurely safe.

On August 7th 2010 we are coming here for "Rhuddlan Rocks", to watch The Levellers and The Alarm play live within the castle walls. According to Mike, the stage will be set around where there are stones in the floor, probably remnants of chambers etc.

We went to the castle to have a look around for somewhere to stay overnight. We only live half an hours drive away but we have friends coming from all over the country so it will be nice to chill out with them and not have to rush home. Can you believe it that while we were there we met Mike Peters of the Alarm ourselves. He was here with the fire and safety officer to check out the venue and where they were putting the stage etc, this is how I knew where the stage was going to be placed because I had a brief chat with Mike before I let him get on with his "job".

You can just see my beautiful MINI car through the castle walls. I had to take this shot!

They have put some metal stair cases up the castle walls so you can actually get to the top now and that is where the boys went. I stayed down below because I really dont like heights!

We were only at the castle a short time but we managed to secure ourselves a place to stay literally 5 minutues from the venue. Oh what fun we are going to have.

I am really looking forward to this event! Raising money for cancer and the Love, Hope, Strength Foundation. They are walking up the mountain for Snowdon Rocks and the gig at the end will be the icing on the cake.

Watch this blog for more news of the gig!